The Dillon Empire divides sheep from goats in this month’s round-up of hallowed highlights. — Once again, the Dillon Empire has assigned me, Reginald the Rigorous, Secretary to His Imperial Majesty Emperor Simon Dillon, to compile and present this month’s selection of Medium articles deemed worthy for inclusion within the hallowed columns of Dillon Picks. I am pleased to report my efforts last month found…

And coming out a stronger person — What do you do if you have a history of trauma from your childhood? I love Aimée Gramblin’s perspective — you scribble your way of pain and suffering. Her poem, “Scribbling My Way Out of Purgatory,” ends this way: “I am worthy We are worthy to scribble our way out of this…

Bruh, it’s satire — Greetings and salutations readers and writers alike. I am HT Yeets, your editor-in-chief and owner of Age of Anything. The third largest multilingual, poetry, satire, short form, fiction, non-fiction, fan fiction, non binary, anti-pronoun pub on Medium. This is the Age of Anything’s 5th edition of our weekly once a…

An interview with November’s RA Featured Author, Aimée Gramblin — Aimée is currently a Top Writer in Fiction, Poetry, Food, Satire, and Parenting, who writes about dogs, relationships, mental health, food, and more! We at Random Awesome are honored to name her our Featured Author for November 2020, and she kindly agreed to answer a few questions.

Interview with Aimée Gramblin — Nature Connector and Author — This article is part of an interview series, where I ask fellow sensitive healers, coaches, artists, writers, and spiritual teachers how they embody Gentleness in their businesses and personal lives. I call them Gentleness Ambassadors :) Aimée Gramblin and I first connected through the world of Medium. I first spotted…

I fell for a Medium swindler and so have you — Oops!… I Did It Again. And I’m damn pissed. Only this morning, I came across an In-Case-You-Missed-It article in my feed informing me someone named, Michael Joseph, made $50 a Day Without Writing for Big Publications. Hmm…I thought and clicked to open it. I don’t know what to tell you…

Looking for new tunes? Look here! — If you aren’t reading music pubs, you are missing out! Don’t worry if you don’t know where to start, I’ve got some recommendations coming at you now. Check out these 3 fun pubs and see what strikes your fancy. Cuepoint Looking for the music pub on Medium? Well, then Cuepoint is…

This is how shy Aimée Gramblin is. She didn’t even mention that she was the second runner-up in the Inspired Writer Mini-Challenge: a 100-word, micro-fiction writer’s challenge. — I’m not sure what is going on with the Inspired Writer because every time I tried to publish or share this good news, I got that damn spam message. Let’s hope this works. This Is Everyone’s Angel, Aimée Gramblin’s Entry:

Try this five-minute hack for views — There are two major metrics you should be tracking for engagement in your content, social media or writing: views and read-throughs. On Medium, one of the surefire ways to increase views (which subsequently will also increase read-throughs) is to write killer amazing headlines. All this time, before Aimée Gramblin pointed…

So much to do, so little time — They say change is good for you. Whoever they are — I disagree. Big changes on Medium equate to smaller change in my pocket. How is that good for me? Three days in, I’ve become accustomed to your face, but I won’t embrace everything I see. Such as ….. Followers Anonymous I’ve…

A beginning of a new journey — Picture Description: Colourful Canadian money featuring brown $100, red $50, green $20, purple $10 and blue $5, amongst coins. (Aside: I know others make fun of Canadian money as Monopoly money but I’ve ever accidentally given away a $50 thinking it was a $5 so who’s winning there?) I’m embarking…

Some fine reads for your holiday break — Though it doesn’t seem possible, it’s time again for my monthly roundup of some of my favorite stories from the past 30-ish days. I am proud to say that I reached the arbitrary goal of getting my list out before the more erudite Simon Dillon issues his monthly “Dillon’s Picks”…

Writers supporting writers — A few days ago, Vocal Media announced 1025 finalists in their Vocal+Fiction Awards. That number represents approximately 7% of the total entries received according to various sources. This is a big deal. All members in this group receive one free Vocal+ annual membership, AND they are in the running for…

A special collection of meditations to enjoy as you move through the seasons, accepting nurturance from nature. — On warmer winter days, I love to sneak over to the woods and meander around. This year I’ve been scouting for mushrooms. It means going a little deeper into the trees. And there I find the air fresher. It’s where I like to sit and lose myself in thought. I…

In the best kinda way. But please, someone push the brakes already — I’m sorry guys, I can’t do this anymore. I’ve never written about Medium before this, but when One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, many soon followed, until I was utterly Lost. I can’t live life and get through my backlog of stories fast enough. I can bare-my-soul about my Confessions…

How I imagine an afternoon at the local would go if I didn’t live a world away from my writing pals — I often wonder what it would be like if, instead of a group of internet friends, my writing friends all lived within a stone’s throw of each other. I imagine everyone’s busy lives would only allow for semi-frequent physical catch-ups, but it would be like no time had passed at…

Who’s good, who sucks, and who’s not even worth mentioning. — I was dicking around on Twitter yesterday when I saw the words rap report card. I had heard of the report card. It warranted a line in Beastie Boys song Sabotage. (Got an A from Moe Dee for sticking to themes.) Kool Moe Dee declared himself the authority on rap…

We’ve all got our stories we love, but that get major views. What gives? — Sometimes you write something so profound, so original, so funny and fascinating, your fingers practically itch to click “publish.” “Surely, this one will be a hit,” you say. “It’s gonna make $500 before the end of the month.” It gets a dozen views the first day, with a solid 50%+…

Here’s how it rearranged my head — and writing goals — for the better — 8 days ago, I started writing out my morning pages into Medium stories and self-publishing them. I wanted to share the parts of me I usually edit down to a fine disguise when going about writing on here. The truth is, I’m terrified of people to know the real me. …

New Year Ninja Apprentice, aka Smillew, answers his master — I’m the new year ninja apprentice. I hide in the dark corners of Medium’s app, waiting for an article to tickle my ninja senses. And then, I steal it. I was sipping on my green tea earlier this morning when I saw an article from my master, New Year Ninja…