Sharing...Sundays! 5/25/14

So I couldn't...post on Friday because I was on vacation, but I took some lovely pictures I'll be putting up on my portfolio on Devinart.

Music and Media

• Here's a wonderful Ted Talk about domestic violence. 

And while we're talking about domestic violence, I saw this video on Buzzfeed about domestic violence in public and how people react, when its guy-on-girl/girl-on-guy. 

The video is presented by the Mankind Initiative which aims to help men in domestic violence situations. 

• To hear the kind of music I've been listening to for my story, Those Crazy Years, check out these Spotify playlists.  In Full Swing & Electro Swing. Also, some classic 1920s,  Flapper Jazz Dinner Party.
• I created a "research template" for writers. Here's the PDF version. I can also send it to anyone who thinks it might be useful. Let me know what you think and if I can improve it! 

Articles From Around the Web

• Check out my friend, Rae Slater's blog! Here's some of her articles on commercialism and on what to do after you finish a draft.
• Check out this post on how to know if you're a book nerd.
• This NY Times article on putting warning labels on classic literature for students. 
• This post detailing more of the battle between Amazon and Hachette. In short, Amazon is basically trying to gain more control of the publishing industry (despite already owning a large portion of e-book sales) and is punishing publishers, authors, and customers in its quest for dominance and money. 
• How to support an author's new book.
• This Contently post- Is Beacon the Netflix and future of freelancers and journalists? 
• Another Contently post on how freelance designers are using social media to fight plagiarism.  
• New York Times' interactive calculator on whether its better to buy or rent a home.

Websites to Look At

• Who Pays Writers? tries to figure out how much writers make and offers tips and suggestions to writers. They also have a magazine aimed at helping writers as well. 
• Old Magazine Articles- They have tons of free old magazine articles available online. Writing historical fiction and trying to find out something from a particular time or era? Or just curious? Well look no further! 
• Crisis Textline- is a free crisis hotline aimed at teens with help and support available 24/7. 
• Perdue Owl offers lots of hints and suggestions not only for research papers, but for researching as well for fiction writers (well you can take it that way). 

Sincerely,

Sareh

Support the Kidnapped Girls in Nigeria!

Hey everyone!

So I don't know if you've heard about the kidnapped girls over in Nigeria, but my professors at my school are calling for letters of support and encouragement to the families of the kidnapped girls. It doesn't have to be long or anything overly done. In fact, you can just write a short email/letter and send it to me through the contact page and I'll make sure to forward it on to my professors to send to the families in Nigeria!

It doesn't cost you anything and will only take a few minutes of your time. All letters are due by May 30th.

 I know it doesn't seem like the most helpful thing we can do, but for the majority of those who can't fly over there and help look for ourselves or whatever else would be helpful, I think this is pretty good. Those families would really appreciate knowing that we care, even if we can't help them indirectly. None of us would like it if that happened to us!

What exactly are you talking about Sareh? Well here's some news articles to catch you up!

Image Link

Basically what happened is that there's an extremist terrorist group in Africa called Boko Haram. And this group kidnapped nearly 300 girls from a school and is hiding them somewhere in jungle and is planning to sell them as slaves.

You can get a full breakdown at this post: Your Vital Questions Answered.

Thanks everyone!


Edit: Some extra sources
Five Lessons from Chibok
Boko Haram: Who they are and what they want
Nigerian Girls Shed Light on Human Trafficking.
What's so Scary about Smart Girls?
11 facts about Human Trafficking.

Some Organizations to get involved with if you want to help stop Human Trafficking. 
Courtney's House
Polaris Project
Shared Hope
End Slavery Now