Daily Creativity Prompt – We Are Not Okay

In honor of its 5th anniversary, Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless are teaming up this November to sponsor a series of 30 daily creativity prompts, comprised of the titles of our 25 published books and four upcoming titles, along with a couple fun phrases to round it out. We think our book titles are pretty damn cool and we hope they spark your creativity. You are welcome to respond to as many that inspire you.

There is only one rule to the prompt challenge: the book title or phrase should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the title should be integrated into your piece somehow.   

Note: Some of IB books have fabulous subtitles. Want an extra challenge? Try integrating the subtitle into your response

It is our honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless . We welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompts.

How to Submit

  • Email your submission to indieblucollective@gmail.com
  • Writing can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDF
  • If you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of our favorite sites for royalty-free images.
  • Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless, a short biography, and any links you want shared.

Christian Livermore grew up a shy little girl in a turbulent family sunk in poverty, violence, substance abuse and mental illness. She ate government cheese, suffered from malnutrition and struggled to defend her body against threats both outside the house and within it. And even though she made it out, she has suffered a lifetime of consequences since: excruciating health problems, fear and shame. Especially shame. In We Are Not Okay, Livermore’s deeply personal and moving essays explore what it means to grow up poor in America and ask whether it is possible to outrun the shame it grinds into your bones. She excoriates the inhumanity in how the United States treats its poor and asks the nation to confront how growing up poor in America brutalizes us and warps our perspective on ourselves, on other people and on the world. She concludes with a rather startling suggestion: the dissolution of the United States.

“A moving meditation on American precarity. If, as Baldwin has written, home is an irrevocable condition, We Are Not Okay argues that the same might be said for poverty. Livermore is sensitive, insightful and provocative and her book is not to be missed.”

– Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“If you’re born white trash, do you ever stop feeling that’s who and what you are? Christian Livermore’s unadorned reflections on ‘class-passing’ are real and raw and nervy. In reading this book, you will see what Americans try to ignore: the damage being done by our class system, which distorts everything it touches. We Are Not Okay tells a far more powerful story than J.D. Vance did, in a truly honest voice – which is what’s been missing from most modern memoirs.”

 – Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash

“We are the beneficiaries of Livermore’s lack of fucks, of her rejecting the luxury of a rhetoric that presupposes an inherently disordered subject can be treated with writerly order, of her relentless and courageous and entertaining and upsetting display of the effects of poverty. To us, Christian Livermore is saying, “Let me explain something to you,” and we need to listen.”

—Robert Fromberg, LA Review of Books

“We Are Not Okay, is not fiction, nor indulgent biography, but a polemic against the tyranny of deprivation. Livermore viscerally illustrates at a granular level, why the poor stay poor and how choice plays no significant part in this perpetuation.”

—Belinda Roman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Economics at St. Mary’s University

“The teetering house on the stark cover of Livermore’s book is home for many of us. If I had a house, it might have been my own. This is We Are Not Okay’s appeal: it is a book that sends a familiar vibration in all of us (except the wealthy 5%), “us” meaning the lower, working, striving-to-be-middle-class end gamers. I think Livermore (and I) are accurate in our assumption that there are more of us in this category, more of “us” than we want to admit to. It’s taken me decades to shrug off my mother’s middle class aspirations and acknowledge that we’ve balanced on that razor edge for generations, a paycheck, a job, a single recession, a whiff of luck and one good friend away from being not okay.”

—JoAnn LoSavio, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, Washington State University, Vancouver 

To purchase We Are Not Okay, click here.

Publication Date: October 1, 2022

Print ISBN: 978-1-951724-16-0    

eBook ISBN: 978-1-951724-20-7

Christian’s debut novel, The Very Special Dead, was published by Meat for Tea Press on October 1, 2023, and her memoir in essays, We Are Not Okay, was published by Indie Blu(e) on October 1, 2022. The Los Angeles Review of Books called We Are Not Okay ‘ineffably important… relentless and courageous and entertaining and upsetting.’ Christian is also the author of a short story collection, Girl, Lost and Found (Alien Buddha Press, 2021), and her stories and essays have appeared in anthologies and literary journals including Longreads, Santa Fe Writers Project, Salt Hill Journal, The Texas Review, Meat for Tea, and Witch-Pricker. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of St Andrews with an academic focus on medieval English literature and has taught creative writing at Newcastle University and medieval literature at the University of St Andrews.

Follow Christian on Facebook, Bluesky Social, Twitter/X, and Threads.

Who Taught Me That Sex Was A Dirty Word? – Karen Ann Loeper

The word sex, 

somehow less palatable than making love.

Was it the boys I hung out with beyond the playground,

my mother’s sensitive sensibilities,

my father’s cheap dime store paperbacks,

my brother’s Penthouse,

the Catholic Church?

Nowhere in my world, a half a century ago,

was sex sacred. 



My girlfriend’s ex screaming, across the parking lot,

into the night,

“You fucking dyke!”.

One lesbian to another. 

Words meant to shame.

Far from the sacred. 

Wrapped in lesbian-phobia.

Words meant to wound, and cloaked in darkness.



Stained and smeared,

I felt myself immerging out of the dirt,

shaking loose the clinging soil,

liberated, 

to touch and be touched.



Yes, sometimes I still cringe,

feel the blood flush my cheeks,

am at a loss 

when I hear certain words uttered together.

What connotations appear in descriptors…

luscious, longing, smooth and moist, wet and dripping.

Anatomy of love making or raw sex? 

Life giving or life taking? 

Who wrestles with the results?

Intentions versus thoughtless actions. 

What to some are dirty words,

others, rising from the ashes, find freeing, sensual, and sacred.

I am a traveler, writer, and photographer. Since retiring from being a clinical social worker and a surgical nurse, I travel as often as possible, and think deeply about life and human kind. My observations from the road become my poems and short stories.

Image from Aaron Burden on Unsplash

As The World Burns – Annette Kalandros

The world burns away

beneath a star filled sky

yet contains not the magic

light of stars or the hope

glistening like joyous delight

in the eyes of children

looking into a night sky

filled with the wonderous glow

of dreams yet to be. 

No, no dreams to be

for children grown whose

fear filled eyes 

can never see dreams

can never see what should be—

their eyes overflowing

with fear of scarcity--

this flint of fear 

igniting 

the kindling of greed

and the world—

The world burns away 

within hate,

becoming dusty ash,

for some God 

to mold again.

Annette Kalandros, a retired teacher, living in New Mexico, is honored to have work featured in the following collections: As the World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone Mad. Through The Looking Glass: Reflecting on Madness and Chaos Within. The Pinecone Review: Be Proud with Pride Edition and Survival Edition. Women Speak: The Women of Appalachia Project. SETU International Magazine and Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women. Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology. My debut collection is The Gift of Mercy. You can read more of her write at https://aikalandros.com/

Hospital Poems – Candice L. Daquin

you’d never know it 
a nesting doll composed within herself
but discover 10 layers down
that’s a different matter
secrets scold molten in seething center
multi-universe of reprisals, regrets, memories
washing machine on scald spin cycle
the phoenix of her soul remains folded, like flag given to widow
tucked in bed, for night terrors, for the undertaker
she runs like a yellow wallpapered woman through corridors
long hair trailing behind, bare feet damp on hospital floor
screaming somewhere in her mind;
there’s a woman! She’s falling apart seam by seam
somewhere within the memory palace of her soul
she’s cracked, a fissure running the length of indigo calm
a knife wound without respite, it digs in and splits deeper
all the pain did this, all the unknowing did this, all the indifference cemented it
like a loose spring coiled ready to burst from the heart
of ten wooden dolls absorbed into one
she falls apart in ways that resemble madness but are not madness 
they are the disarticulated parts of a human being at their most terrified
sickness can do this; it can beckon and pull and cajole you to the very edge
where nothing, nobody, seems safe, and you witness with waking terror
the abseil of your life, collapsing in on itself, grinding to dust
a preview of death? The crystal ball has no answer, few are prepared
when the bombs drop, houses constructed to keep wolves out, explode
and raining from the very sky, debris and horror like kites with teeth
you’d never know it
assessing her motionless hands clasped loosely
or the sharp ways her eyes follow conversation 
you can’t know her toes feel the very chill of the ledge
and hook themselves in one final attempt to stave off the inevitable
before she lets go and falling without weight
legs overhead, white hospital gown, faulty parachute
she’s absorbed into the next day and the next
till one morning she’s released and told she’s well
something absurd and inaccurate and foreign
tucked behind her ear like a Turkish cigarette
she signs the release papers, applies lipstick and hails a cab
just like anyone else wearing good boots and a navy winter coat
just like anyone else who arranges their dolls inside the next
each one capable of holding a myriad of screams
unheard by the rest of the world
who, sensing rain, reach for their umbrellas.

Photo by Iza Gawrych on Unsplash

Born in Europe, Candice Louisa Daquin is of Sephardi French/ Egyptian descent. Daquin was the Publishing Director at the U.S. Embassy (London) before becoming a Psychotherapist. Daquin is Senior Editor at Indie Blu(e) Publishing, a feminist micro-press and Editorial Partner with Raw Earth Ink. She’s also Writer-in-Residence for Borderless Journal, Editor of Poetry & Art for The Pine Cone Review and Poetry Editor for Parcham Literary Magazine. Daquin’s own poetic work takes its form from the confessional women poets of the 20th century as well as queer authors writing from the 1950’s onward. Her career(s) teaching critical thinking and practicing as a psychotherapist have heavily influenced her writing. As a queer woman of mixed ethnicity and passionate feminist beliefs concerning equality, Daquin’s poetry is her body of evidence.

Daily Creativity Prompt – Hospital Poems

In honor of its 5th anniversary, Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless are teaming up this November to sponsor a series of 30 daily creativity prompts, comprised of the titles of our 25 published books and four upcoming titles, along with a couple fun phrases to round it out. We think our book titles are pretty damn cool and we hope they spark your creativity. You are welcome to respond to as many that inspire you.

There is only one rule to the prompt challenge: the book title or phrase should serve as the title of your piece OR all the words in the title should be integrated into your piece somehow.   

Note: Some of IB books have fabulous subtitles. Want an extra challenge? Try integrating the subtitle into your response

It is our honor and pleasure to publish your prompt responses on Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless . We welcome poetry, prose, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, and high-res original art inspired by the prompts.

How to Submit

  • Email your submission to indieblucollective@gmail.com
  • Writing can be submitted in the body of the email or as a separate Word document or PDF
  • If you are submitting writing, please include a suggested image to accompany your work. Unsplash and Pixabay are two of our favorite sites for royalty-free images.
  • Your email should include your name EXACTLY as you want it to appear on Indie Blu(e) Publishing and Brave & Reckless, a short biography, and any links you want shared.

“Inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care exists within the hermetically sealed white space pressing in on the poems in Nancy Dunlop’s deeply moving chapbook, Hospital Poems. The impact? No extraneous words, no lines that edge out too far, no stanzas that speak a little too long. Any persona between you and the author is stripped away as well, no games, no antics, no masks, only the author speaking directly from somewhere close to the bone. After reading a few poems, you’ll realize you’ve been holding your breath, the poems are this taut.”

—Suzette Marie Bishop, Jaguar’s Book of the Dead

“Harrowing and comforting, this riveting collection is therapeutic by design. As both an inpatient and outpatient of mental hospitals, poet Nancy Dunlop becomes a keen observer: “What we did, mostly/ was watch each other.” One patient is “sad. Slumped and furtive.” One doctor is “like a job title . . . a perfect/ brochure.” In swift, visceral portraits, the poet gives glimpses of the agitated mind’s carnival as well as the medicated body’s shudder, quiver, spasm. Hospital Poems opens with agitation and an apparition as a newcomer enacts a seemingly endless loop. The book ends with patience: Two souls in a waiting room offer solace by their shared presence. We watch as each body “holds on for dear life.” Readers are entrusted with stories of those who “had already/ suffered, already knew/ how to be compassionate.” Dunlop’s humanity teaches us to build relationships. Her violent concision cultivates a clarity that helps us navigate trauma with empathy.”

-Lori Anderson Moseman, Okay?

To purchase Hospital Poems, click here.  

Publication Date: August 25, 2022

ISBN-13: 978-1951724177

Nancy Dunlop is a poet and essayist whose chapbook, Hospital Poems, was published by Indie Blu(e) in 2022.  A finalist in the AWP Intro Journal Award and the 2023 Northwind Writing Award, Dunlop has been published in a number of print and digital journals, including Swank, Truck, Green Kill Broadsheet, The Little Magazine, Writing on the Edge, 13th Moon, Writers Resist: The Anthology, and Through the Looking Glass: Reflections on Madness and Chaos Within.  Her work has also been heard on NPR.  She received her Ph.D. in English from SUNY Albany, where she taught for 25 years.  She resides in Upstate New York with one husband and two cats.