I have been on Medium for exactly one month now and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I have made enough money to pay the $5 Medium membership fee and I even have a little bit left over for a fancy cup of coffee and a treat.

When I first started out, I was really clueless about Medium but then I started reading all the articles about publishing, writing, gaining followers, and earning money on the site. I also picked up new terminology like the word ‘listicle’ and I learned the difference between self-publishing and writing for other publications.

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Some years ago, I was a budding PhD scientist in Chemistry trying to make it into the big leagues of academia. I never did make it but that’s another story. Anyway, what I needed most at that time was a recommendation letter. Whether you are applying for a research grant, a travel award, or some other academic benefit, the recommendation letter is an important footnote in the life of a young scientist. In my case, the letter would also carry more weight if it was written by a professor of the highest rank and order.

With this in mind, I…

I am either old or out of the loop because I had never heard of the word listicle until I started writing on Medium a few weeks ago. When I first heard of the word, I thought it was a joke. Why would you call something a listicle when it clearly rhymes with testicle?

Anyway, I found out soon enough that listicle is commonly used in the blogging world to mean an article made up of lists. On Medium, there seems to be two camps of people— those who are in favor of listicles and those who aren’t. It doesn’t…

There is nothing more terrifying to me than the pounding of my heart as the stories of ghosts, spirits, and demons come alive through the pages of a book. There is also nothing more offensive to me than the gruesome depictions of blood and gore that are becoming a staple of the horror genre these days.

In my opinion, the best horror books don’t have to resort to the cheap thrills of violence to instill fear in their readers. In fact, I notice that my fear is more pronounced when the horror is unknown and takes on the form of…

I read my first true horror novel when I was 11 years old. Granted, it was a children's book but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it any less.

That particular book is a little-known novel by Andre Norton and Phyllis Miller called House of Shadows. The book might be dated now but it had all the classic elements of a horror mystery including ghosts, a haunted house, scared children, and a creepy old woman.

I loved the story because it gave me goosebumps and chills and that was how I became a fan of the horror genre.

Unfortunately, the…

One of my previous jobs had me living in Newport, Kentucky, for more than a year.

Newport is a small city that was first established in 1795. It is located in Northern Kentucky and borders Cincinnati in Ohio. It is actually a part of the Cincinnati Metropolitan Area.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this small city was that they had a history of the mafia rivaling even that of the Chicago mafia of the 20th Century.

Media reports have even termed Newport as the original “Sin City.” Between the 1930s and the 1960s, Newport was a gambling mecca…

In 2002, Holly Boisvert was only 15 years old. She was best friends with 17-year-old Stacy DeGrandchamp in high school.

On August 15, 2002, Holly stabbed Stacy over a fight they had in the backyard of a home in Fort Wayne, Indiana. When police arrived, Stacy was lying in the driveway and was mortally wounded. She later died at a hospital.

There were eyewitness accounts that placed the blame for Stacy’s death on Holly’s shoulders. Despite the witnesses and Holly herself admitting that she fought with Stacy, no arrests were made.

The case went cold for 18 years before Holly…

In February 2018, Keisha Williams, age 43, was arrested for scamming several investors out of more than $5 million. She pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison.

When the FBI searched Keisha’s home, they found a shopaholic’s paradise of unworn designer shoes, clothing, and bags. Some of the items still had their original price tags on them.

Keisha would buy the expensive items, come home, and then throw them on the floor. She was extremely greedy and had no compunction about spending the money on luxury trips, five-star hotels, and designer goods.

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