Love bombing is a term widely used within the context of a romantic relationship. It’s essentially a form of manipulation that attempts to artificially create intimacy. When someone love bombs you, it means they lavish you with intense affection, attention, and praise in an attempt to win your trust and affection early in the relationship. Like, too early. In the first few days or weeks.

If you or a loved one has experienced a terrible event or significant loss, it’s possible to manage the resulting PTSD, if not recover from it. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) are two effective methods that target problematic thinking patterns such as racing thoughts, logical fallacies, and painful memories. I particularly like DBT.

Radical acceptance was probably the most valuable tool in my mental health toolbox while in the worst part of my recovery, and it works still to this day. The point is to accept reality how it is right now rather than hoping things will get better or wishing it was somehow different. This might first sound strange, as everyone loves to say “there’s always hope,” and sometimes there is hope, but in this moment, it’s irrelevant.

Did you know that one in four women will experience domestic violence at some point in their lifetime? It’s a shocking statistic, and what’s worse is that many people are living in controlling, abusive relationships without even realizing it. You might be thinking “if I was in an abusive relationship, I would know it.” But the truth is, it’s not that simple. When most people think of domestic violence, they imagine a physically abusive partner. However, domestic violence is not limited to phys

Over the past decade, I’ve been amazed at how the conversation around mental health has evolved. I remember back in 2011 after a colleague assaulted me, another colleague-turned-friend called Jaymee was very supportive. Through conversations with her, I was able to call the encounter what it was: sexual assault. Jaymee also openly talked about her mental illness, and I remember feeling shocked when she first used the words “mental illness” to describe her experience.

Ten years ago I wrote a post called “PTSD from Emotional Abuse” on O. M. Grey’s blog, a name under which I published Steampunk romance. At that time, I was writing prolifically about matters of mental health, psychiatric injury, and the effects of trauma, mostly to process and understand my own experience.

Contrary to Rep. Lauren Boebart’s tweet on the morning of January 6, 2021, it is not 1776, the year of our Declaration of Independence during the American Revolutionary War. Rebels are not fighting for freedom from an oppressive foreign regime. It is not even 1861, the year that the American Civil War started. Soldiers are not fighting to end slavery. It is 2021, the year that a group of domestic terrorists stormed the US Capitol in a deadly attempted coup.

Words shape public opinion and even define our perception of reality, so the language we choose to represent people and events matters. The terrifying assault on our Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been described as protests that turned into riots, an insurrection, an armed standoff, and an attempted coup. Good choice of words. That’s exactly what it was.

In the months following George Floyd’s murder and subsequent nationwide movement for Black Lives to finally Matter in this nation, there’s been a call to remove Confederate flags and statues, rename stadiums, schools, and sports teams, and pressure to also remove statues of our Founding Fathers because they were slavers. The political right cried out, “They’re trying to erase our history!” Quite loudly and repeatedly. To which I say: bullshit US History has been whitewashed for far too long.

Over the past couple of months, as tempers rise and depression deepens in the midst of this global pandemic and political unrest, I’ve seen an increase of calls citing “Freedom of Speech.” The infamous Harper’s Letter called for open debate, speaking specifically about cancel culture, but there’s also a cry for “Freedom of Speech” regarding political opinions throughout social media and even published articles. I’d like to address this too-oft call for “Freedom of Speech” to justify and even excuse bad behavior, privilege, and hate speech.

The news is getting to me, and I have felt a range of emotions from anger to depression to helplessness to rage to utter futility. I’ve shed many tears over the past week, watching the police respond to protests against police brutality with more police brutality, while the world watches in utter horror. Trump threatened violence and then a police state through military action, then he gassed protesters to clear a path for a photo op. Police are driving into protesters. Gassing them directly in the face. Shooting them with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at point-blank range, some blinded for life.

Today is Day 50 of Quarantine for me. It’s been a long 6 weeks, and things are getting to me. I’m lucky I get to still work, as I normally work remotely, so I don’t have it nearly as bad as so many. The entire pandemic, especially around our disturbing political situation, is taking a toll. I’m stress eating and gaining weight. My body hurts from sitting so much, although I do go out for a walk a few times a week and have the Nintendo Ring Fit at my house. I’m also not alone, as I live with my partner, Brian, and 4 cats. Life it pretty good, considering. Still, I’ve been binge-watching a lot of Netflix, and when I start a series, I obsessively watch until the end. Last week, I watched all 5 seasons of Bates Motel in 10 days.

This is our view from the Beyond the Castle Archaeological Dig Site in Lancaster, England, led by archaeologist Jason Wood. I’m one of the volunteers than came to help with this exciting dig. Based on some geographical tests, recorded history, and nearby discoveries, they suspect the remains of a Roman Fort, dating back to the 4th c. and even possibly to the 1st c., lay beneath the earth waiting to be rediscovered, and they were right!

Last week, I had the absolute pleasure of seeing Hamlet at the Barbican Center, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. This show has been sold out for over a year. People fly in from all over the world just to see this performance because they are huge fans of Benedict Cumberbatch, mostly from his work in Sherlock. Me? I’m a bigger fan of Hamlet. After all, my degrees are in British Literature with a focus on the Renaissance Era, and Hamlet is my all-time favorite play. I know it inside and out. I’ve s

The internet recently exploded in debate over the film Love Actually….again. Since it is one of my favorite films of all time and since I watch it every year as a holiday tradition, I know the film quite well. I have watched it at least once a year (with one exception) since I walked out of the cinema floating on a cloud of joy in 2003. Although there several articles about Love Actually have been published in the past few years, and regurgitated every Christmas, I’ll mostly be responding to Or

When I was first asked to review these three books from Running Press, I was under the impression that they were Steampunk retellings of classic tales by Poe, Shelley, and Wells, similar to the Steampunk Shakespeare released last year (The Omnibus of Doctor Bill Shakes and the Magnificent Ionic Pentatetrameter), for which my Steampunk take on Sonnet 18 didn’t make the cut. However, I was wrong. These are not Steampunk retellings. The stories contained with these gorgeous tomes are the words of t

Here we journey through a heart fraught with darkness, spurred by a rude awakening in the Kingdom, and an evocation of the Bard. Our guide is OM Grey: Last week I had dinner with Julie Mollins, the awesome reporter that did a story on me for Reuters During that dinner, she spoke of my novels, relationship blog posts, and podcasts, and she did something I thought no one would ever do. She compared me to Shakespeare. I’ll forever remember that moment as I sat across the small table from her at

“At first, I thought ‘How dare you say that about my America,’ she said looking at me through squinted eyes, “but then I saw it, our arrogance will be the end of us.” She explained to me how she and her husband voted for Bush. She said they were conservative and watched Fox News regularly; however, something touched her in seeing and hearing everyday people from around the world talk about her beloved country as a bully; a hypocrite. Something touched her when faced with the sobering charge of War Crimes and the images of torture at the hands of Americans under orders from the US Government. Something touched her that day that made her think about what she thought she knew.