Happy Celtic Heritage Month

Visit my Art Show!

This March is about to close on another year's celebration of Celtic Heritage. 

If you are Irish or Scottish, or a little in between, there is a sense of history, culture, and community with the Celtic people. As an American, I would have loved to have visited the Emerald Island before I had become disabled. The jaunt was on my bucket list. 

Lucky for me, there is the internet! So I can travel the world without a passport or airplane ticket. The globe's best destinations are a search engine away! 

That is how a writer should view the world and its many fascinating cultures: with a child's enthusiasm. 

As for the rest of March, we can eat, drink, and be merry for everyone in their heart is a little Celtic, if they know it or not!

Have a great and wonderful day.

Confessions in the Cold: A Writer's Thoughts for the Culmination of Another Year Past

It is December 31, 2018. 

I never in my wildest imagination believed I would still be alive. There are so many challenges to my disabling illness that one misstep and I would suffer a gruesome fate. This year I have escaped it.

My art and writing get me through some terrible times. I have been betrayed at every level one can ever feel, but a handful of people have shown me the rewards of friendship. 2018 has been the year of tremendous losses and inches of gains. The kitties help me with some of the emotional rough spots. That is why the postings have been so sporadic. 

If I don't know where my next meal is coming from, then I am unable to do much creative work. I will put together some digital art in order to keep the worry and hunger pains at bay. Yet, here I sit without a working washer and dryer as well as the heater went out at 29 degrees this morning. 

You think you have problems? 

That is why I do the support, donate campaigns. I have shirts, mugs, journals, books, chapbooks, but it seems that creativity is not enough to cover even one bill in a year. With the lowest internet service I can get without sacrificing my needs, I am out over $1000 per annum. That does not count my three domain names and GoDaddy overcharging me. 

So I sit here in the dark. All night actually. It's me and the laptop. The kitties come when they get a chill, warm up, and then go play bug hunters! That is a job the cats can keep. I don't want it! I can only afford to turn lights on when I am up and around. Well, when I can. When the joints get cold, there is no walking around. That is with the heating pad. 

I need a miracle. I need a Fairy God Mother/Father. Just send a gazillion dollar check every month. Thank you. 

But, that is not how the world works. When I teach people how the world works in my articles and research on the VDP Gazette, let's just say that I don't have many friends after that. I don't buy into the Social Justice Warrior act, so that pretty much leaves me without confidantes. 

Sorry, I just won't lie to people. 

You will see my stances here too on Undawnted because I believe in justice. Not Just Us. Not Social Justice Warrior. Justice. The justice that takes a wide lense to a situation sees all the nuts and bolts, weighs the facts and figures, and examines the human aspects. You know what we used to call: Truth, Justice, and the American way... Thanks, Superman. 

America has gotten away from Justice. Instead we have people having tantrums over topics, there is no research, no logic. Only name calling and divisiveness if you do not agree with this rose colored glasses world view. 

Half the time I read these explosive posts calling me hater, bigot, and other colorful metaphors, I am hungry in the food sense. I do not need the emotional force feeding of ego based mind control victims. Let me double over in pain in peace already. I am never going to agree with two year olds trapped in an adult body. 

It is never going to happen. 

I am a JFK/Reagan Democrat. In today's post-modern apocalypse, it means that I have been erroneously skewed into the fake news alternative right category of politics. Just put my image on a milk carton already. Missing: Liberal Democrat who believes in the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. Or is that put me right next to an artist's rendition of the elusive Big Foot? 

I am MIA and mythical all at the same time. 

Well good. I am a student of Joseph Campbell anyway. I might as well live up to his expectations that we are all on our own version of the heroic journey. Where's my light sword again? 

But I feel more like: Hello, my name is Galahad, may I take your order?

So my stories are not about the next societal fad. No SJW tantrums here. Someone wrote of me that I am a disabled woman without any illusions. Yet, I write fiction. I guess I have the best of both worlds...

Now if I could only get my cats to open their own cans of cat food, I would be getting somewhere!

If you would like to see more of my writings in the forms of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, then please write a comment or two on my Facebook or Minds pages, Tweet me, or Gab at me. 

Best of all, purchase something on Lulu or Zazzle regularly. If you can spare it, then a donation to my Paypal (dlmullan AT yahoo DOT com) would go a long way in helping me stay focused with a full belly or paid internet service on a monthly basis. 

People don't believe how difficult it is living on the austerity measure called Disability until you are faced with a lifetime of it.  

In the light of everything that I have been through over the last year, I am still a grateful person. I am grateful for all of my readers. I am grateful I have survived one more year. 

Help me make it through 2019... you won't be disappointed!  

Thank you so very, very much!

Remember, your generosity keeps Undawnted Advertisement Free!

Happy Bday to Undawnted

Happy Birthday to the author of Undawnted, DL Mullan!

Controversial but always entertaining, DL Mullan has built Undawnted from the dream of becoming an author. She has published fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a few short years. Many of her selections are free including home and food recipes. 

Her community service does not stop there. Through her publishing house: Sonoran Dawn Studios, DL Mullan has created book and cd cover art for free. She hosts online book events and holiday parties. She lives her ideals. 

Now she needs your help. 

Disabled on a fixed income, DL Mullan could sure use donations to cover some unexpected bills that have happened. If she get enough, she may be able to repair her needed washer and dryer as well. 

Donate to her Paypal account: dlmullan@yahoo.com. All proceeds go to bills, food, and supplements (her medicine). None of your generosity is ever wasted on anything less. 

So THANK YOU in advance. 

DL Mullan truly appreciates the assistance this holiday season. Her goal is a thousand dollars. Let's see who can put her over the top!

So far DL Mullan has raised: $0.00. 

Won't you help keep the dream alive? 

On behalf of our friend, DL Mullan, Thank you so very much!

Move Over Recipes!

Nonfiction was getting crowded. 

With the help of Sonoran Dawn Studios, publishing company, I revised the Lulu Author Spotlight to accommodate another section. So the Nonfiction essays are listed together. Food and home recipes are now in the section labeled: Recipes! 

That is much better. Less clutter means more fun.

Welcome to Winter

It is officially the last season of the year. 

Have a Safe and Wonderful Holiday Season! 

Melted Chocolate Dreams

Chocolate, how could you do it?

You broke my heart. I loved you. I worshiped you. I enjoyed you. 

How did you repay me? You repaid me with GMO crappy, store bought cocoa. How could you? 

So in my efforts to make sure my diet is clean and healthy, I am switching anything I find that is not healthy over to the better quality version. Chocolate is no different.

GMO free chocolate that I buy is through an online source. So of course, I had to have some shipped with my regular items on one of the hottest weeks of the summer. By the time I opened my package, the chocolate was liquid. 

I could swish the chocolate back and forth in its little baggie. I laid the bag flat on the highest shelf in the refrigerator to see if I could make a chocolate bar out of the melted chips. A few hours later and I have a candy bar. Yay, me! 

Even though you broke my heart with your corrupted DNA, I still love you, chocolate. I am hooked. Now I have a new version to love you by. A version that will not lead to illness or inflammation.

Love me, leave me... or just buy GMO free!

Have a great and wonderful day!!!

Chronic Illness and the Apathetic Sect

When people do not understand chronic, disabling illnesses, they tend to say the stupidest phrases.

"If you take a shower and exercise, you'll feel better."

That sentence is one that was thrown at me several times. If you have chronic fatigue, neither one of those suggestions are going to work very well, now are they?  So my family forced me to exercise by cooking my own food and doing chores. God forbid I was disabled by a terrible illness. I should get up and do for the household since I no longer could bring in a wage. 

That is the most irresponsible, immature attitude ever. 

I do not know how people justify this type of behavior on people who are ill. I have lived through some horrific experiences that I will not soon forget. How can I when the nightmares wake me? 

People believe that if you do not strike a person that no abuse has been committed.  That is not true. Some people believe what you have endured, you should just get over it. Stop throwing yourself a pity party. 

Yet, these same people will be upset if someone does them wrong. In cases like mine, my life was threatened and placed in danger on a continual basis. It is quite different then a perceived slight.

I may never be well and never "get over" my traumatic experiences with apathetic caregivers, but the drive to find well being will always be in my mind. For the best revenge is living well. I still have years to go before I reach that apex, but I have hope and determination to reach that goal.

What I like to do to diffuse the negative impacts of the past is to help others, educate others about how not to behave toward the chronically ill. I also like to take those emotions and dedicate them to writing, not the pity party people would like to foment.

After a nightmare or situation that manifests those terrible memories, I like to create digital art, write the back story to some evil foe, or write an emotive and engaging poem. 

Just because I have been abused and left for dead does not mean I have to carry the burden. Yes, I have low times and I do not trust others as I once did, but I do not run around with a pity party sign either. As a human, I have to touch the world a few times a month for food and supplies. I have had to learn to deal with others as compatriots and not combatants. 

I may have survived the battles, but does anyone truly win the war? 

Be kind to those people with a disability or illness if you understand or not. Sometimes the best support you can give someone is being present of mind and body. Would it harm you to have a board game night with your home bound neighbor? 

Have a wonderful but thoughtful night.

'Twas the Night Before Xmas... Zombie Style

I discovered this rendition of "Twas the Night Before Christmas, but this one is a bit creepy.

Here take a listen: Happy Creepy Christmas.

Enjoy!

Lazy Saturdays and Kitty Cat Dreams

The kittens as well as Ivanka and Ray have decided that if I am not up after my second alarm then it's time to bomb me out of bed.

We'll see about that.

The kittens and Ivanka began playing with one of my vitamin c packet wrappers underneath my bed. There's mostly cement there so the noise echoes. Ray was somewhere else at the time. I told them to get out. The noise would stop. Two minutes later, the playing began again. So this time armed with a flashlight and squirt bottle... hehehe!

Revenge was mine!

I had a headache from all the aerial spraying of toxic heavy metals and I just wanted to sleep it off. Too much to ask apparently as the kitties I came to realize a few hours later were almost out of hard food in their play room. 

Oh poor babies! They're going to starve to death... NOT! 

Right now as I type, my Lynx Colorpoint Shorthair is all stretched out on the desk by the keyboard. His kitty cat dream was fulfilled. I was out of bed and did my human duty to make them happy kitties.

One day... one day, the tables will be turned. I'm still waiting for that day to happen. When the kitties will have to bring me breakfast in bed. Although seeing how scant the bug population is in my house, I can say with some certainty that I will not be grossed out of bed any time soon.

Well, my Bombay likes to bring me her toy. Freshly soaked in her water bowl, which is gross by the way, for me to throw to her. 

I guess the skies are clear enough, although not blue enough, for me to venture outside for a few minutes. I hope the air is clean enough of most chemical particulates so I won't get a sinus headache again every time I return from the outside. It's getting outrageous. I guess it's time Americans started complaining about this toxic fallout. 

Be safe!

A Voice for Your Generation

I've been writing for my local newspaper and my own blog for a little while now. 

I have learned to balance the needs of the community with my own. What I cannot cover, I make sure to link to independent news episodes in order to keep everyone current. Or, if I need some time off because my brain is fried or I am: a video it is!

On a personal blog, it's not that easy. I have to write something, right? Something!

I got to thinking: where are the voices of my generation? Where the hell are all the Gen Xers anyway? Did they all succumb to corporate and family life? What happened to our rebellious spirit?

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one out here. That thought led me to the epiphany: I have become the voice I've been searching for. An odd statement for sure, but a true one.

It's not an ego statement. I am doing that job here and with the Gazette. I finally found my voice. 

It shouldn't be a voice for a generation; it should be voices. Where is your voice on the current state of affairs in politics, government, medicine, health, food/water/air safety? Where are you?

You don't have to be Generation X to get a blog, website, youtube channel or the like. 

Just start saying something. Anything. Be the voice you have been waiting for. It feels good to make a difference in the world.

So what topic makes you verbal? Speak out. Live out loud. It's not too late to become that person your teenage self always wanted you to be. An idealist. A commentator. A rebel. 

A role model.

Be the change you want to see in the world and the world will change to meet you. I've had it happen to me. Stories gravitate to me. When you are on your right path, everything falls into place.

Now to finish my fiction and nonfiction books... then we'll be getting somewhere there too!

Sick, well, or in between, you can make this world a better place. Trust me. The universe is on your side when your heart is pure and you love what you're doing. 

So go out and be: A Voice for Your Generation.

Have a great and wonderful weekend!

Awake and Determined

I got up late this morning... hehehe! 

I'm not used to being able to sleep past my expiration date. When others used to live with me, They were determined to "bomb" me out of bed. Hey, I pay the bills, then let me sleep in. 

As for the feline compatriots, I make sure I fill up the food dishes before heading off to sleep. If I forget to do so, when my alarm goes off for my medication in the morning is when a pile of cats ends up on my bed. Luckily, I have a squirt bottle near my bed so there is rarely any ruckus but it's hard to sleep until my last alarm with eyes staring at me.

"Wake up, human! Our bowls are almost empty!" Emphasis on the almost. What a bunch of brats! 

So now I am going to get out of bed, I've already had my cocoa mocha, and do a load of laundry and dishes. I like cleaning up before I have to do a grocery run because I like a clean kitchen and refrigerator to put my produce and other food stuffs in and away.

I'm trying to buy only food in the outer isles of the grocery. No more boxed or poisoned foods. I've had my fun in the last year, now it's time to reintegrate into the synergistic diet I like being on. It's a combination Chinese medicine and eating for your blood type, which serves me well. I'm not saying there won't be a cake mix or PF Chang's, I'm saying I am making the switch over to a better diet. 

I feel better with meats, veggies, and fruits. I try to stay away from GMO's and artificial anything. Bodies need nutrition, not chemical soups! No wonder America is so ill. Switch your diet and be amazed how you will start feeling better in the coming years.

It's not an overnight fix. You have to clean out your pipes first so go see a Naturopath or Homeopath for a diet that cleans, rejuvenates, and adds quality to your life. Trust me, junk food and sodas mean nothing if you're too sick in bed to do anything at all.

So I am awake and determined to be healthier than I have been in the past several years, maybe even the last forty, as long as I stay away from chemicals in the food, air, and water as well as mold and fungi everywhere else! 

... and I am awake ;) 

Cat People and the Hunger Games

The new cat that adopted me outside and lives in my yard/garage, well, I named her Abreen.

We had a cold front move through yesterday and we have had cooler temperatures. This morning, Abreen begged for food and rubbed against my leg. which is a first. I petted her without getting hissed at, another first, and felt how emaciated she was.

Underneath her long and matted coat is skin and bones, it's so terrible. I hate kitties that are starving to death. No wonder she sticks around my yard. She probably doesn't have the energy to roam that far.

How horrible.

I guess from her behavior this morning she now considers me a friend. The rest of the hoard still stay back probably from her hissing and growling during dinner time in the past. Again, I don't blame her. Although, I am still guessing about her gender. Time will tell.

I picked a unisex name for her: Breen. Then I added the A prefix because I do believe she is a she. If not, she responds to Breen, so not harm done. 

I began calling her Abreen a few days ago. I guess she thought that if I am calling her a name then that means she is welcome and safe. Cats are strange and wonderful creatures. If you send out the right energy, then you have a friend for life. If you don't, well, I guess you are not a cat person. 

I like dogs too but I'm allergic to the ones that shed and dogs are too much for me right now. I can't devote walking time or fetch time outside. So cats are better than dogs at this juncture. 

I do hate finding animals that are hungry. I surmise that if Abreen had not come to my home when she did; she would be dead somewhere right now. Just makes me sick. 

No one, human or animal, should play a real life hunger games. There is enough food in the world to go around, no matter what the television or government says. [Clean and safe] Food like water and air are rights. 

It's just too bad corporations and some people don't see it that way. If you refuse someone any of those three necessities, then people die. Isn't that considered murder? Don't we as a species have a moral obligation to others of our kind and to this planet?

Food for thought...