A Trip with Stunning Views- Our Beautiful Kenyan Landscapes

Mt. Kenya from a Distance – a beautiful National treasure.

Mt. Kenya landscape

It’s Hard to Look Away from the rolling hills.

Kenya's rolling hills
Riders, where d’you go?

colorful abundance!

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I Once Had A Son by Felicita Churie

I Once Had A son

I Once Had A Son

by Felicita Churie

A Note

First and foremost, I have written this story as a way of seeking healing and keeping my son’s memory alive. I also hope that parents who have lost their children will find some comfort in knowing they are not alone in their grief.
And to the kidney patients, may they be informed that there is hope in medicine and in the development of the newest methods of treatment. Donating a kidney may seem a big deal but to me, it was the solution and the best I could do.
To all doctors that take care of our patients, I extend my heartfelt gratitude for their priceless sacrifice in working long hours to see that their patients get back their good health.

Kindle | Print Copy

Thoughts

These past two weeks I have had the privilege of working on an extraordinary book called, I Once Had A Son by Felicita Churie. She reached out to me on this blog and asked for assistance to get this book ready to publish on Amazon’s KDP. After we agreed on deadlines, I got to work on the story and fell into quite a unique experience.

You see, there is a profound sense of awe and inspiration in discovering a story about a mother’s unconditional love for her family, in particular, her son.
new book alert banner

In I Once Had A Son, Mrs. Churie lays out the very personal journey she took with her son, Tobiko. She and Tobiko spent thirty-three inspiring years in a medical battle that would stun most. She describes the joyful nature of Tobiko’s birth, the joy of his growing up years, and the dreaded discovery of a struggle with kidney failure. Mrs. Churie and her family then embark on a long journey filled with love, camaraderie, a strong community that holds them down during the worst of storms, and a family bond forged like no other. She opens up and highlights the experience of donating a kidney to Tobiko. In the hope that her surgery experience will give others in similar situations courage and strength to get to the other side.

This book is an emotional rollercoaster. I learned from Mrs. Churie and Tobiko that strength can be found even when it seems like there is none left to find. There is no love more profound than a mother’s love. Truly!

I Once Had A Son is now available on Amazon’s Kindle| e-book and print.

Look out for Print Copies in Kenyan Bookshops soon, or simply message Mrs. Felicita Churie to get a copy at email: felicitachurie@yahoo.com.

Deeply Grateful! – This Blog Featured on The Dailies

the blog review

Yay!! The blog made it into the Daily Paper!

It’s not every day I get a message with a picture of a blog review. I got one, and there was the blog name in the heading, and for a whole minute I thought it was a mistake! ^_^ After the surprise, a happy dance ensued, and I went out and bought the paper to make a clipping. I’m very grateful to Abigail Arunga for giving this blog a review, and mentioning it on such a huge platform. It’s absolutely made my month. Thank you so much.

Copy Paste vs Authenticity – Did You Know Intellectual Property is Gaining Importance in Kenya?

This post is going to explore the threat of plagiarism faced by most writers, bloggers, content creators, and others. Since the world is online, and content has become a means to earn, copy-paste is more prevalent than authenticity.

I recently received a message from a reader about content that might have been copy-pasted from my blog and posted elsewhere. Since the information in question is in the public domain, I was not overly concerned.

I am eternally grateful to the lady who found the content and was happy to message me about the suspected infringement. I think that is the best and more awesome thing to happen. I love all my readers, but she is amazing for telling me.

Now, the truth is we all post content online with the knowledge that after a time, someone somewhere is going to find it interesting enough to copy-paste it. It happens. It is not okay, but it does. Instead of getting worried, scared, or angry. It is better to arm yourself with the tools to face this threat. Empower yourself with the means to protect your creative content.

So, I have two stories to share with you.

The first story is about an author who got their work plagiarized on a site called Inkitt by a second party. The plagiarism incident consisted of this second party taking the author’s work (novel), changing the title and the names of the characters, but keeping everything else similar down to the spelling and grammar. The second party got a couple of readers and comments complimenting them on the work. Of course, one of these readers happened to know the story belonged to someone else. And so, the author received a message on Instagram from a fan who wrote, ‘Someone tried to copy your book on inkitt’, included was the link to the copied work and the account of this second party.
Now, after the initial shock, this author friend of mine started a search for what to do. The first and most direct thing she did was to contact inkitt.com and see if they can help.
Inkitt.com wasted no time in dealing with the matter. They do not tolerate plagiarism, and the second party was penalized the moment the complaint was verified. The incident lasted less than twenty-four hours. The plagiarized story was taken down.

In this story, the author learned about the case of plagiarism because of a fan. This is the first line of defense an author has and should cultivate. If your work is good and authentic, and it engages your readers, your readers will be the first people to tell you if your content is published elsewhere without your consent.

Now, if it happens to you, and you find your creative content plagiarized online, you are empowered and there is no need to feel as though you can’t publish again.

  1. The first line of defense is to approach the site you found the content and make a simple request. Claim the work as yours, and ask that it be removed. A ‘cease and desist’ request. Five out of ten times, the person who has plagiarized will bring it down without reaching out to you and you won’t have to worry about it.
  2. If no response happens, discover the FAQs about the website. If the person who has plagiarized the work does not own the site. If the site is owned by an organization like Inkitt, you can reach out to the organization and ask them to pull the work down. They will do it if you can prove ownership of the work. If the site is owned privately, and the author has refused to respond, then move on to the third option.
  3. Search engines like Google offer tools like Content Removal if an incident of copyright infringement occurs. They slap a DCMA complaint on the site and the content is no longer crawled on the search engine. The burden of origination and verification is on the original author, but if you are confident and have the information needed, Google is quite efficient in removing copyright infringement articles and content. You will find the instructions on how to do this here. Bing also offers you the same tools. If you’re running a wordpress.com site, Automattic offers you the means to file a complaint of copyright infringement. This brings me to my second story.

The second story is about a Kenyan-based business name owner and an international organization that registered the same name as a trademark. In November 2022, the international organization used Automattic to file a complaint of copyright infringement on their trademark against the Kenyan-based business name owner. The complaint was written as follows:

A clear and detailed explanation of how the above content is in violation of the trademark in question, thus creating consumer confusion: We are contacting you on behalf of the French company “xxxxx”, whose head office is “xxxx, PARIS”.
We have noticed (see below) that you are using the mark "XXXXXX” without the consent of the owner of the trademark and are therefore violating their intellectual property rights.
By this letter, we request that you cease all disputed use of the trademark and/or take all appropriate measures to ensure that the infringing uses are removed.
I have a good faith belief that use of the trademark as described above is an infringement of the rights granted under United States and/or foreign trademark law.: Yes
I understand that a copy of this notice, including any contact information I provided above, will be forwarded to the blog owner.: Yes
Signed on this date of (today's date, MM/DD/YYYY): 10/11/2022
Signature (your digital signature is legally binding): XXXXX

Obviously, the Kenyan-based business name owner started a frantic search for how to handle this complaint. Why was dealing with this complaint so important?

  1. The blog in question is over ten years old, with great traffic, and an enormous amount of content.
  2. The business name represented a physical business in Nairobi, Kenya.
  3. Kenya has signed these treaties that help international companies protect their copyright.

At first glance, there is the thought that this person making the complaint is located in another country, France to be exact, which is on another continent. How could they present this big a problem to a business in Kenya?

A second glance brought out all the weaknesses. The business name owner in Kenya may have started out not intending to infringe on the France-based organization. However, as time continued, the blog grew, and the physical business grew, it drew more attention. The legal standing of the business name owner in Kenya came into question.

Now, if the business name is not registered with the company’s registrar or trademark office in Kenya, they have no legal standing to fight the complaint. At the time of this complaint, they had no legal right to fight the complaint.

So, the right answer was to comply with the complaint. The blog is also under Automattic’s jurisdiction. If Automattic wanted to stop hosting the blog, then they would, of course after a conversation with both parties.

After painful deliberations, the Kenyan-based business name owner decided to approach KIPI with a different variation of their business name and complete the necessary registrations in order to stop this from happening again.

The reason I tell you this story now is that it is 2023 and our dear country has grown up. Intellectual Property is becoming more important. There are more court cases settling matters of trademark infringement, copyright infringement, and copyrights. The copyright office is making a larger effort to document and offer authors, creators, companies, musicians, artists, and artisans the means to claim their copyrights.

In this same case, it is getting easier for international companies to log copyright infringement cases against Kenyans.

Why? We start our websites on wordpress.com, make content for Youtube, and want to crawl our sites on Google. These sites have to comply with various copyright laws, and so should we.

So, I’ll end my blog post on copy-paste and authenticity on this note.

As you create your blog, website, social media account, start a business and write your novels, work on making your content authentic. Cite your sources where you need to, and most of all, don’t claim other people’s work as your own. It is also important to note that search engines penalize copy-pasted content. It is much harder to rank on the first page if you have simply taken information from someone’s site, and pasted it on your own.

Work on Authenticity

If you practice copy-paste, learn how to cite the original content. Know that it might cost you.

happy February 2023.

January 2023 Updates

Happy New Year 2023!

Book Reviews this January!

I Made A Place For You is Damien White’s debut poetry book.

This short compilation of poems speaks on spirituality, inner thoughts, and their power on our souls. Each poem is matched to a colorful, thought-evoking illustration done by Francesco Orazzini.

It’s a beautiful, colorful book that I loved reading.


Are you thinking of trying your hand at writing a story this year? Check out this free guide for some free tips and information and get started. Make 2023 your magical year!

I Made A Place For You – Book Review

I Made A Place for You

Written by Damian White / Illustrated by Francesco Orazzini

Description:

What if I told you the golden rule of speech is to speak when spoken through?

This poetry collection explores a number of themes, ranging from spirituality and religion to perseverance and humility. The poems in Damian White’s debut book dwell less in the realm of imagistic and narrative impulses and more so strive for a “higher order statement.”

In I Made A Place For You, we experience the turmoil unearthed from daring to make a place for our inmost curiosities.

Book Review

I Made Place For You is Damien White’s debut poetry book. This short compilation of poems speaks on spirituality, inner thoughts, and their power on our souls. Each poem is matched to a colorful, thought-evoking illustration done by Francesco Orazzini.

I Made A Place For You starts with a poem named ‘Post Mortem’ in which White discusses the consequences of the human need to tell white lies. We hide flaws at the detriment of losing our true selves or decaying inside. White hopes in the distant future, his headstone shall read ‘…here lies a man who never died inside’.

I especially loved the poem I Am Innocent, in which White says, ‘…we build a fortress/of validation/and guillotine/our most precious birthright: Innocence’ A phrase filled with impact, and perhaps a eulogy to the innocence that is often stripped from us when we’re too young.

In Good Mourning, White alludes to our human existence, arguing ‘…we are soil/…vital and better suited/ for sunshine’. Regardless of where we are, who we are, and what we wish to be, we are creatures that need nurturing. A moment of sun, vitalizing food, and especially good information to cultivate our thoughts. We are not a lump of ash.

White spends a few words discussing spirituality and the importance of looking to a higher power. In Playing God, he says, ‘…to be Godly/ is not to be God’. I found this poem to be the most powerful in terms of exploring our spiritual relationship with God. No matter what we do, how godly we are, we shall always answer to the one who made us.

The illustrated pictures had me going back to read the poem they represent. There is this moment that plays out as you read a poem, looking at the illustration to see if it matches your interpretation. Then, looking at the poem again to make it work with the art. This back-and-forth is such an important part of engagement with the words.

My favorite, the one that worked perfectly for me, illustration and poem, is called ‘Written in Blood’. In this poem, White says, ‘…As Ink bleeds/ I bleed‘. Francesco Orazzini captures the essence of turning ink into words, and the masochist nature of a writer, with absolute precision. I love it.

I Made A Place For You is a debut poetry book filled with amazing little gems of words.

2 Book Series that are Surprisingly Interesting

The worlds brought to life by a book series can be epically amazing (LOTR), hard to forget (HP), or a bit hard to imagine (Twilight). The one thing they all have in common is the adventures and characters that live through a number of books. I have always been a LOTR and HP fan. Because I’m a fan of these two, I confess to falling into a continuous search for that feeling of discovering a new amazing and hard-to-forget series. So, this year I fell into two worlds that almost came close, each with its own unique charm.


1. The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness.

This series follows the story of Diana Bishop, who is a historian and a reluctant witch. She works to solve the mystery of Ashmole 782, falls in love with a very mysterious vampire named Mathew Clairmont, and learns how powerful one can be after accepting who one truly is.

A Discovery of Witches
A Discovery of Witches Book cover

Book 1

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Shadow of Night
Shadow of Night

Book 2

Picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night takes Diana and Matthew on a trip through time to Elizabethan London, where they are plunged into a world of spies, magic, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the School of Night.

As the search for Ashmole 782 deepens and Diana seeks out a witch to tutor her in magic, the net of Matthew’s past tightens around them, and they embark on a very different—and vastly more dangerous—journey.

The Book of Life
The Book of Life Book Cover

Book 3

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies.

At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.

I enjoyed reading these three books. The story is solid, and the adventures Diana goes through are quite entertaining. There is a lot of descriptive prose to get through, but once you get over the start, the flow is good. All three books are complete and available. If you prefer not to read, there is a TV Series called ‘A Discovery of Witches’ with 3 seasons.


2. The Shadow and Bone Trilogy

The Shadow and Bone Trilogy is the story of Alina Starkov, a soldier in the kingdom of Ravka who discovers she possesses magical abilities. Training with the Grisha, her country’s magical military elite, Alina falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes she is the only one with the power to defeat the forces threatening the kingdom–forces that will test old alliances and challenge the very limits of magic, one that will forge a leader from a frightened girl.

Shadow and Bone- Book 1
Shadow and Bone Book Cover

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near-impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Siege and Storm – Book 2
Siege and Storm Book Cover

Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her—or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

Ruin and Rising – Book 3
Ruin and Rising Book Cover

The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

The Grishaverse was interesting to get into and is a fun read. I have various complaints about the darkling and Alina. Lots of complaints, however, if you can get over these two or don’t mind them at all, the grishaverse is very fun to explore. Once again, if reading is not your thing and you prefer watching, check out Netflix’s Shadow and Bone series. It only has one season at the moment, but rumor has it another season is on the way.


With this list of six books, my Goodreads 2022 Reading Challenge ends at 53 books. To be honest, a few of the books I read on the list did not give me the review-it-now vibes, it happens. However, I’m excited to have gotten through the challenge and to get through all these books. It was nice having this one constant easy goal to get done through the year. The fun part comes with finding books to put on the list, hahaha. I had a few that I really could not finish and had to replace with others. It turns out I am a huge series fan. I’m quite sure 2023 will have quite a few of these series books too. Here’s looking forward to 2023.

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2022

Manga Mania!

October is here! My favorite month. I’m also over excited because the creators of Bleach are blessing fans with a new final arc called BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War on October 10th, 2022. This blog post is going to take a minute to celebrate VIZ Media by taking a moment to gush over the awesome manga titles I’ve read from them as a rabid manga fan.

Bleach!

Here is a look at the new trailer, premiering on October 10, 2022. Ichigo Kurosaki coming your way with some Bankai! Don’t miss out. This show was really fun to watch. The characters going through multiple levels of growth, and the visuals only improved with each arc. Check out the full series if you can before you find the new arc.

VIZ has had some great releases. Here are a few of my fave preferences


1. Moriarty the Patriot

Moriarty the Patriot volume 2 cover

In the late 19th century, Great Britain rules over a quarter of the world. Nobles sit in their fancy homes in comfort and luxury, while the working class slaves away at their jobs. When young Albert James Moriarty’s upper-class family adopts two lower-class orphans, the cruelty the boys experience at his family’s hands cements Albert’s hatred of the nobility he was born into. He asks the older of the two boys—who has a genius mind and a killer instinct—to help him rid the world of evil, starting with Albert’s own family!

Storyboards by Ryosuke Takeuchi, Art by Hikaru Miyoshi

Based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Imprint SHONEN JUMP


Demon Slayer Final Volume cover

2. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Learning to destroy demons won’t be easy, and Tanjiro barely knows where to start. The surprise appearance of another boy named Giyu, who seems to know what’s going on, might provide some answers—but only if Tanjiro can stop Giyu from killing his sister first!

Story and Art by Koyoharu Gotouge | Imprint SHONEN JUMP

Demon Slayer is complete. The final volume is No. 23. You can also check out the anime on Netflix.

Demon Slayer art

3. Platinum End

Platinum end volume 1 cover

As his classmates celebrate their middle school graduation, troubled Mirai is mired in darkness. But his battle is just beginning when he receives some salvation from above in the form of an angel. Now Mirai is pitted against 12 other chosen humans in a battle in which the winner becomes the next god of the world. Mirai has an angel in his corner, but he may need to become a devil to survive.

Story by Tsugumi Ohba, Art by Takeshi Obata | Imprint SHONEN JUMP | Platinum End is complete at Volume 14


4. Levius /est

levius est volume 1 cover

Having fought his way into the top grade of Mechanical Martial Arts, Levius faces an ever-changing world that grows more threatening by the day. The shadowy megacorporation Amethyst wields its military might across the world through advancements in the arena. Can Levius be the fighter who changes the course of the world’s fate?

Story and Art by Haruhisa Nakata | Imprint VIZ Signature

Levius /Est is complete at Volume 10.


More titles:

Fullmetal Alchemist

Bakuman

Blue Exorcist

Call Us What We Carry – A Beautiful Poetry Collection

Call Us What We Carry book cover

Call Us What We Carry

Amanda Gorman

Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning. Call Us What We Carry reveals that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future.


Thoughts

I fell into this poetry book on a Saturday afternoon. I love so many poems in this book. I wish I could share them all, but that would spoil the fun of you discovering them for yourself…hahaha. So, I can only share the little gems I found between the many pages filled with Miss Gorman’s poetry.

In There’s No Power Like Home, she says:

 ‘…we were sick of home/Home sick. / That mask around our ear/ hung itself into the year.

The pandemic year so aptly described and our time at home certainly felt like forever. We became homebodies.


What we Carry banner

In Good Grief, she says,

‘…All that is grave need not be a burden, an anguish/ Call it, instead, an anchor…/ What we carry means we survive/It is what survives us

There are many grave experiences that touch our lives, the most profound one being the loss of those we love. In the storm that follows, the grief we carry makes us, defines who we are, who we become…Ms. Gorman argues it can be called good grief. Something that anchors us to what matters.


In the poem, Call Us, she says,

‘…at times over half of our bodies are not our own/…we are, a boat of a being/ A country/ A continent/ A planet / A Human/ We are we/ Call us/ What we carry

We are never the one thing, no matter how much one thinks so. If not from the country’s viewpoint, even at home we are a child/siblings/parents/aunts and uncles/friends/coworkers…so many parts of us. I love this poem.


In the Lighthouse, Miss Gorman quotes Terrence’s Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto. (I’m human, I consider nothing that is human is alien to me.) Then writes of a year lived in isolation mode.

 ‘…this year was no year/ when next generations ask, we will say/ it went something like this: / the empty/ creaking playing grounds/…gatherings and people, gone to rust/’.

Describing the endless months of not meeting loved ones, coworkers, friends, and family. This poem ends with a bucket of hope that our harsh memories from that year will pass.

‘…hope is no silent harbor, no haven still/ it is the roaring thing that tugs us away/ from the very shores we clutch/…

We move forward despite the hard patch. We meet others now, pushing the fear of the pandemic away, after all, nothing human is alien to us.


In What We Carry, she says,

‘…children understand/ even grime is a gift/ what is mired is miraculous/ what is marred is still marvelous/

This poem reminds us of our childhood days, of running around with no care in the world. Playing in the dirt and lying on the grass staring at the clouds for hours. How we saw beauty before we grew up and our opinions and perception hardened. She speaks of emerging from the pandemic era.

‘…we have recalled how to touch each other/ and how to trust all that is good and all right/’.

How we must look beyond. Carry our hopes forward.

What We Have Left banner
'…We have learned our true names—/ not what we are called/ but what we are called to carry forth from here/ what do we carry, if not/ what and who we care most for/…’

Ms. Gorman ends this poem with a call to let go, to discard, ‘…our rage, our wreckage/ our hubris/ our hate/ our ghosts/ our greed/ our wrath/ our wars/ on the beating shore.’ She hopes we find a haven in what we have left after the ravaging storms we have faced.

‘…what we have left/ is all we need/ we are enough /armed only/ with our hands/ open but unemptied/ just like a blooming thing / we walk into tomorrow/ carrying nothing/ but the world.’