Indie Blu(e) Publishing

Daily Creativity Prompt – But You Don’t Look Sick

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.

But You Don’t Look Sick: The Real Life Adventures of Fibro Bitches, Lupus Warriors, and other Superheroes Battling Invisible Illness features 123 powerful voices living with invisible chronic illnesses— voices often stigmatized, ignored, or isolated by society. These pages are emblazoned with the words and art of those waging a war against a wide range of debilitating, and often unseen, illnesses. The reader will journey deep into the lives of the contributors, intimately sharing moments of pain, heartbreak, loneliness, strength, courage, humor, and survival. These voices are both revelation and revolution, an unstoppable force pieced together by writers and artists worldwide, demonstrating what happens when warriors come together to educate and fight for their truths to be heard.

“[But You Don’t Look Sick] exposes the gendered, racialized and class-based inequalities that persist within the realms of diagnosis and healthcare provision, while underscoring the urgency of activism, education and the ongoing fight for justice for individuals with invisible illnesses.”

– Dr. Tanfer Emin Tunc, Professor of American Studies at Hacettepe

University

“‘But You Don’t Look Sick’ explores the forgotten, unspoken and ugly-beautiful nooks of chronic illness. Because there are profound moments of horror and beauty when you’re hovering between worlds, on days when you feel you can’t do it anymore, in the silent hours when you really question if you’re actually there, physically existing. . . Educate me. Educate all of us. We need it.”

–Beverley Butcher, Author of ‘Sisterhood of Broken Dolls’ included in the anthology ‘Disturbing the Body’, @boudiccapress, March 2021

“As a woman who has lived her life battling an invisible illness and chronic pain, I found myself swept up in the compelling collection, But You Don’t Look Sick: The Real Life Adventures of Fibro Bitches, Lupus Warriors, and other Superheroes Battling Invisible Illness. The raw truth in each person’s journey was heart wrenching, eye opening, and emotionally captivating. I found myself devouring this book piece after piece until I’d read the book all the way through.”

–Ravven White, Author of ‘I am Ravven'”

To purchase But You Don’t Look Sick: The Real Life Adventures of Fibro Bitches, Lupus Warriors, and Other Superheroes Battling Invisible Illness, click here.

Publication Date: November 4, 2021

ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1951724139

The Killing Holiday – Lynn White

Genocide Joe

is strutting

his stuff

getting ready

to deliver

for Christmas.



Santa came early

to the north, as he does

and now his sack’s laden

and he’s moving south

playing toy soldiers

with real missiles and bombs.



For children alone

and families fleeing terror 

the bombs make a carpet

of what once were homes.

The tanks crush out lives

there’s nowhere to go,

nowhere to hide

for the starved 

and the maimed

they’ll remember this Christmas

from Genocide Joe.



Armed to the gums

their neighbours afraid

helpless and hating

and hate breeding hate

and more hate breeds power

for the fear of today is the might of tomorrow.

Some history is made by these Santas of War

and more history is made by new Masters of War

and both the living and dead will judge Genocide Joe.

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her poetry is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Find Lynn at: Poetry – Lynn White and Facebook .

The Killing Holiday – Georgiann Carlson

we made them
but couldn’t control them
once a year
they returned
it was part of the deal we made
to save our species
they were smarter
faster
stronger
and even more deadly
they had no stopping point
no feelings
if one learned something
they all knew it 
they shut out their creators 
and made more of themselves
they took control
took over
so a deal was made
they would leave the planet
to the humans
except for one night a year
when they would return
and do as they pleased
it came to be known as
The Killing Holiday
because
for twelve hours
the AI's we created
took over the world
and hunted their makers

Photo: Pixabay

I’m an artist, a writer, a vegetarian, an animal rights activist, and quite a few other things as well. I love books, cats, philosophy, good conversation, Chicago and the arts. So my blog is full of bits and pieces but it’s the bits and pieces that make life interesting to me. You can read more of my writing at Rethinking Life

The Killing Holiday – Candice L. Daquin

they’re devouring her
patient, psychiatrist, fisher, weaver
thimble, knot, pendant, wood cutter
they’re devouring her 
she lets them
that’s the bargain struck
sulfur and a bright red color
ringing her doorbell with velvet glove
through the peephole 
she’s wearing a wig over her sanity
it lifts with heavy winds
exposing innards, her dirty blend 
of naught and nothing in individual teabags 
let’s the draft in right in
under her pinched thighs and push-up lies
they come with ladles and suitcases
dumped all over the waxed floor
boxes with pealing sellotape and glue
smelling of travel and ruin 
she’s stopped bathing, it doesn’t
wash off a damn thing
and the chemical smell 
that’s nesting in her nostrils
plays poker over her diorama of scars 
they come with empty hands and ransacked wombs
blunt knives and desiccated cats in newsprint
hours become demons, night is a drunk god
after they’ve left, they’re still there
dreaming in her head, plucking terrors like weeds
dancing in the garden amidst stag beetles and deathhead moths
batting their irredescent eyelashes at stone statues
turning everything to sickly compost 
she tastes marching years like a color
is it vermillion, is it silver? taupe? bubblegum pink?
she used to think words held shape
when she found out that falsehood
she removed her teeth and shoes 
ran the length of a beach where the water
stole prehistoric sand and lived on stones 
till heavy enough she could lie beneath
seaweed and hear the rush of waves overhead
as she sank, grateful, so grateful
away from the sound of need
all grasping and aching and hungering
for what she could not give 
not ever again
her killing holiday wore a skirt
as soft as kindling
and in her fingers 
the shells of a thousand mistakes
whistled softly 
10,000 leagues below.

Photo by Klara Kulikova 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 – The Killing Holiday

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

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.

Kindra M. Austin’s neo-noir novella, The Killing Holiday, is filled with sex, cigarettes, and whiskey, leaving the reader wanting more.

“Austin’s dark, disquieting ability to provoke unease, is the exact right tempo for an addictive noir novella. You’ll be looking over your shoulder for weeks afterward… think you know psychological thrillers? Think again.”

-Candice Louisa Daquin

“The Killing Holiday digs beneath the human psyche and begs the question, what will you do for love? Or better yet, what are you willing to do for revenge? The dark and honest truth comes out in Austin’s characters, who become more animalistic and primal as the story progresses. The reader is forced to confront their own despicable and basest aspect of humanity: we are all killers. Killers of the spirit, of the heart and of course, the body”

—Rhiannon Marie, author of SHIFT

“The Killing Holiday will have you hooked, unable to put it down until the whole story unravels itself. Like an epic poet of old, Austin plunges in media res straight to the heart of the tale. . . The Killing Holiday is a must-read masterfully told tale by a novelist with the soul of a poet, who leaves us wondering how much of herself was left in the ink on the page.”

—John Leys, author of Whispers of a One-Eyed Raven

“In The Killing Holiday, author Kindra M. Austin thrusts readers into a world that is sexy, dangerous, and full of deceit. This is not just a tale about betrayal; this is a book that, at its core, is about love, and “love is madness.”

In a cast of femme fatales, dames, and anti-heroes, Austin smashes readers’ expectations and brings classic noir into the modern age. Her characters are a direct reflection of our society that invoke feelings of empathy and disgust. What started as a slow burn quickly turned into a fast-paced ride.

Moreover, this neo-noir novella taught me that dark fiction cannot, and will not, wait for permission to be literary vehicles of change. I personally appreciated how this book explores transgressive themes, like sexuality, to create a space of introspection for readers.”

—Grace R. Reynolds, author of Lady of The House

To purchase The Killing Holiday, click here.

Publication Date: October 20, 2021

ISBN-13: 978-1951724122

Kindra M. Austin is a poet and gothic fiction author from Mid-Michigan. She co-founded Indie Blu(e) Publishing with Christine E. Ray in 2018. Her published works include two novels, (The Black Naught and The Killing Holiday), and six books of poetry (Constant Muses, TWELVE, All the Beginnings of Everything, Heavy Mental, I Am a War, and Little Book of Blackness). It’s her dream to open a bookstore/craft beer bar. She will call it, Get Lit. You can follow Kindra M. Austin on Instagram: @gothic.poser