amwriting – Denise Tapscott

A Thankful Nod in November

A Thankful nod in November 2018

As a grown up (on paper anyways, as I pride myself on the youthful glow I inherited from my parents) it seems that celebrating holidays takes a lot more effort than it used to. A part of that effort comes from adult responsibilities like working and paying bills when we are bombarded with ads to spend more. However, a part of the effort to celebrate holidays also comes from the fact that as an adult you have more freedom to make choices. You don’t have to have to cook Turkey on Thanksgiving if you don’t want to. You can choose to order Pizza or anything else you crave. You don’t have to be social. You can choose to go anywhere you want, and do anything you want to do, or nothing at all. You can partake of crazy holiday sales or boycott them. You can even choose to not celebrate Thanksgiving at all, especially because to some people it represents oppression and the obliteration of several cultures.

For me personally, I choose to celebrate Thanksgiving by reflecting on who and what I’m thankful for in my life. Above you will find photos of me and people that I’m blessed to have in my life.

I’m grateful for my awesome parents and beautiful sister who encourage me to follow my dreams.

I’m grateful for close friends and extended family that although I don’t see them everyday, I love them very much. I’m fortunate to have an agreement that we are just a text or phone call away, any time.

I’m grateful for my tribe of writers, fancy dancy friends and fellow actors in The Vamps Next Door. We get to be playful, creative and weird and best of all, we celebrate each other for it. I especially want to give a shout out to my unofficial mentors Blaze McRob @wyomingBob, his lovely wife Terri Del Campo @TerriDelCampo and Linda Addison @nyebird. They inspire to me keep moving and they remind me that writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

I’m grateful for new friends I met over the past year or two, some I met while travelling or being out solo. My adventures (and wine dinners) were more fun because of them.

I’m grateful for my day job and the people I have worked with throughout the years (this includes my favorite supervisor who I torture from time to time about how awesome my New Orleans Saints are, compared to his dallas cowboys are this season.) Every day is a treat, regardless of if the workload is hard or easy.

I’m grateful for internet friends. Although we haven’t met in person, they have been supportive and caring. If ever there’s a way I can support them, I’m happy to do so too. I definitely have to give a shout out to Papa Lou and The Broken Army www.thebrokenones.org. When researching different religions, beliefs and magic for my stories, I came across the handsome “alcohol fueled, southern born national treasure” Papa Lou. His insights in the world of Hoodoo and life in general are interesting and entertaining. I love his stories and his southern charm! What also keeps me tuning into his YouTube channel is his passion to help out other people, especially those in need. He doesn’t brag about it too often, (although he swears he is the King Of Christmas) but he’s made it known that he feeds homeless people in his area, and made it a mission to help out a few families for Thanksgiving and Christmas. If/when I make to to Atlanta (for more research for my next book Enlightening of the Damned) I’m gonna find him, buy him a beer (or two) and ask for more stories.

I’m grateful too, for the friends and loved ones who wouldn’t want to be mentioned on social media. I’ve told them in person and I’ll say it again; I appreciate you being in my life.

Lastly, I’m grateful to YOU, the person reading this blog right now. Thank you for letting me share silly and serious parts of my life with you. I hope you are entertained and inspired for things in your own life.

Strength in October 2018

October is one of my favorite months of the year. The nights are finally a bit cooler here in Los Angeles. We don’t have many seasons here, but it kinda feels like Fall. Halloween is a huge holiday for me. Lots of old scary movies, and a few new ones are shown just about everywhere. There are tons of yummy candies and sweets for trick or treaters. It’s also a great time to dress up as whatever or whoever I want to be.

This year I’m struggling with my Halloween costume. I already have some great ones: Tiana from Princess and the Frog, Michonne from the Walking Dead, Flight attendant from Snakes on a plane, and as always, a Pirate (I’d dress like a pirate every day if I could). But what about this time? Maybe I could be a superhero. They have great strength. I did many google searches for costume ideas, but nothing inspired me. I temporarily abandoned my quest and decided to research Voodoo vs Hoodoo for my second novel Enlightening of the Damned.

I came across You Tube videos of an interesting Conjure Doctor/Root Worker named Papa Lou. Check him out on YouTube, and his website is www.brokenones.org His old school southern charm and devilish grin will lure you in. His passion for what he believes and his sincerity to help others will hold your attention and inspire you. One of his many videos really resonated with me. He spoke about ancestors and the strength they had to endure slavery. Consider this: when the slavery ships came to the United States, some of the captive people chose to drown themselves rather than live in their new world. Other enslaved people pushed on and did their best to live under treacherous circumstances. If these people didn’t have strength to survive, I wouldn’t be here today. I’m quite sure that people who have relatives that survived the holocaust and other unspeakable, horrible circumstances could say the same thing. Those people before us, our ancestors, had a special silent strength that I am grateful for. Listening to Papa Lou with his Georgia accent gave me more to be thankful for in my life.

It also gave me more appreciation for the Mexican tradition of remembering deceased relatives during Dia de los Muertos which occurs October 31 through November 2 this year. During this holiday, families gather and offer the deceased their favorite food, drink and music they enjoyed when they were alive. Families create altars and decorate graves for their loved ones. Supposedly the dead return to be with their loved ones. The movie Coco does an amazing job bringing this tradition to the big screen for all of us to experience.

When considering what strength means to me, other people came across my mind. It’s sort of a silent strength. To me, my dad is a hero. He’s my mother’s caretaker. Day in and day out he watches over, feeds and protects the love of his life without ever complaining. That in itself takes physical and mental strength, 24 hours a day. Anyone who is battling cancer, depression or any life threatening situation and is still here to talk about it has strength and is a hero in my mind. This also applies to anyone who is a caregiver for someone else.

So, what am I going to be for Halloween this year? Sorry kids, I still don’t know 100 percent. I do know it won’t be Wonder Woman (who I still love, just saying). I also know, however, that I appreciate the people in my universe with silent strength, and I should pay more attention to Dia de los Muertos.

September and a mindful Harvest moon 2018

Thanks to to my handy dandy Supernatural 2018 calendar (Hello Dean Winchester), I know there will be a full moon on September 24. According to the spiritual people on the internet, this “Harvest Moon” will be mentally challenging as it opposes the Sun. There will be a lot of “out with the old and in with the new” happening in people’s lives. We say goodbye to summer and hello to fall.

Regardless if it’s hocus pocus, tom foolery to some people or a hard truth to others, for me personally, I’ve been working harder to raise my vibrations. The negative thoughts, those pesky mental zombies that try to get me to worry about things beyond my control, have me meditating, praying or just sitting in silence and listening to my heart beat a lot more than normal. I have been busy writing, editing and submitting my work and I do love the idea that soon we will see the fruits of our labor. I have two great short stories that I adore, The Price of Salvation and Diane’s Flower. I hope to self publish them soon. Is there some truth to the positions of the sun and moon in the sky above and how they affect us? I’d like to think so.

So far in September, there are two things I’ve found very challenging to my peace of mind. While not earth shattering, these things have been quite bothersome. The first being the film The Nun. The movie trailers were foreboding and scary. I love horror films and I could hardly wait to be frightened by this ominous character! The creepy nun character definitely scared me with her appearances in other films in the Conjuring universe. If you’ve seen any of them you know what I mean. Holy Moly!

The actual challenge? The movie didn’t scare me. It was just okay. Without revealing too much, in the first few minutes of the film we the viewers have a great idea of who/what the Nun is. The rest of the movie had some spine-chilling and hair-raising moments but overall, this movie would not give me silly nightmares. I even saw it alone in a theater at 11:00pm!

Why am I so disappointed that it didn’t scare me? Why is there even a need to be frightened? For me the idea of something supposedly, possibly challenging my mortality in a make believe world is thrilling, especially if it’s supernatural or paranormal. I attended a writing seminar taught by Tim Waggoner : http://www.timwaggoner.com about fear in books, television and film. One of the many points that I keep in mind that he mentioned is that some of the things that scare us the most are situations where no one, for example not even your parents, can save you from” the monster”. Watch at Jaws or Poltergeist, read Cujo or The Shining and see what mean. I love it!

The Nun is creepy, but in her stand alone movie she doesn’t challenge my mortality in a make believe world.

The second thing in September that challenges me mentally is that one of my favorite holidays, Halloween, is around the corner. What on God’s green earth will I dress up as? I have a charming/saucy pirate costume (I love love love pirates). I have a sexy/spicy witch costume and last year I dressed up as an enchanting Goth Vampire ala Anne Rice Interview with a Vampire style. People that know me joke that on Halloween I simply dress in my natural form. Well now it’s 2018. Do I dress a superhero? One year I dressed as a devil in a blue dress and one year I dressed as Michonne from the Walking Dead. Both costumes were clever but not everyone understood them. I could dress as the Nun, but I bet a dollar I’d have to explain who she is, which is no fun. One should never have to explain too much who they are on Halloween. I’ll just have to see what the Universe thinks I should dress up as.

This harvest moon is got me spinning my mental wheels. I’m giving thanks for my blessings and looking forward to what I will personally Harvest in the near future.

Dear friend, is there something that is challenging you mentally silly or serious in nature? Do you have any costume recommendations for me? Feel free to hit me up on social media.

I hope all is well with you.

Butterflies in June 2018

On my walk around the neighborhood park, my sister and I noticed black and red caterpillars slinking across the sidewalk. We weren’t sure what kind they were until we overheard a dad say to his daughter “Look sweetie, that’s gonna be a Monarch Butterfly someday”. How impressive! Based on the little spikey critters that were out, it looked like there would be lots of Monarchs in the near future.

After some sleuthing on Google, it turns out that no, the little guys I saw on the sidewalk weren’t Monarch caterpillars. We might have an interesting group of moths or Mourning Cloak butterflies in a few months? I also found out that the regal Monarch butterflies are possibly an endangered species. I did spot a few Monarch butterflies that day, but it was a challenge to take a photo of one. At any rate, it was cool to see nature at work.

It’s always a treat for me to watch butterflies dance in a blue sky on a nice sunny day. Observing the caterpillars struggle across cement made me wonder how something so small (and menacing to some) could end up so light and colorful, floating off to exotic lands. The answer is metamorphosis, a change that takes time and energy. There’s a bit of a struggle and hard work too. I don’t want to impress on anyone that life always have to be rough. However, sometimes we have to push a little more, do a little extra to grow, and soar toward our goals and dreams.

So friend, I encourage you to keep pushing toward your goals. Do a little extra whenever you can, to grow into the person you want to be. When life gets busy or hard please keep going. We all get tired. We all need a break from time to time. If you fall, that’s okay. The important part though is to get back up. Pick up that pen! Get on your feet! Dust off that goal! If you need help, reach out. Ask questions! Butterflies don’t just pop out of their cocoons by pushing a button. The struggle is real. Floating off to new adventures and turning your dreams into reality is real too, if you put in the work.

Thinking outside of the Box March 2018

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to Roosevelt the Blue Crab. At my day job, we ship lots of the cranky crustaceans every morning. Roosevelt caught my attention because A) when the crabs do escape, they are very, very angry, and freak me out (I will chat about irrational fear in next month’s blog), and B) he reminded me to appreciate freedom and to acknowledge one’s life path.

Lucky little Roosevelt managed to get free from his brothers and sisters. Whenever challenged, he wielded his sharp claws. I was too scared to put him back in his box so I asked one of my co-workers to help me. Jokingly, my coworker gingerly picked him up and instead of Roosevelt being returned back with the others, he found himself perched on a yellow, 10 inch wide pole. He got to see life as I do, my view of an open space with fresh air, instead of his view in a dark, cramped, smelly box.

Eventually he was put back in his box, safe and sound (no animals were harmed!).

The moment he sat on the pole made me think about how lucky I am. Instead of being stuck with wherever life finds me at the moment, I have the freedom to challenge myself and I can encourage other people to do the same. I can change my view. There’s no way to escape the end of our path (poor Roosevelt couldn’t change his fate that he was going to be someone’s meal), but we can try to enjoy our path while we’re here. We can appreciate moments like enjoying great conversation with a friend over a steamy cup of coffee. We can be brave and push ourselves to learn new things instead of sitting on the couch watching negative news. Chasing our dreams and working towards our goals, while still remembering to hug loved ones, makes our paths more interesting. Instead of daily grumbling about punching a time clock, I’m inspired to create stories for Grandmother Zenobia and the characters of Carrefour County. I savor the times I get to binge watch Supernatural or something on Netflix, rather than feel guilty that I’m not “doing” anything. I no longer complain about being bored; I get out and walk, appreciating the sun on my face and the birds that fly in the sky.

Our paths are not easy; I’m pretty sure the Universe does that on purpose. Delightful things, heartbreaking things, sweet things, and horrible things pop up all the time. I think it’s okay to be happy or sad, angry or fearful, as long as we experience those emotions and then move through them. Life is meant to be experienced and savored, not disregarded or ignored.

So friend, I ask what will YOU do on your path? I’d love to hear about it! When you are freed from your box, like Roosevelt the crab, I hope you have the time of your life.