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…

Anecdote | Wildlife

I was a young girl growing up in Nigeria, West Africa, when I had my first chance encounter with a baboon.

At the time, my family and I were visiting a game reserve (or wildlife park) called the Yankari Game Reserve in Nigeria. It was my birthday and we had decided to make it a family event celebrating at the reserve.

Yankari Game Reserve is one of the few areas in West Africa where wild animals are protected and get to live in their natural habitat without much interference from humans. Tourists may visit the park but there are no…

The LaLaurie Mansion is one of the most famous houses in New Orleans. It is notorious for its dark history.

On April 10, 1834, a fire at the LaLaurie mansion led to the discovery of a torture chamber in the mansion. Rescuers found several slaves, bloodied, chained, and tied up with spiked iron collars in the attic.

One of the slaves, a 70-year-old woman had purposefully started a fire to escape being tortured by her slave-owner mistress, Delphine LaLaurie.

The slaves were so badly mistreated that the rescuers themselves were shocked at the extent of their condition. The injuries sustained…

On September 11, 2001, America was changed forever. However, for weeks before the terrorist attacks occurred on that fateful day, all the media could talk about was the mysterious disappearance of a 24-year-old woman called Chandra Ann Levy.

Levy had been an intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and was also linked to an older, married Congressman Gary Condit. They were reportedly having an affair before her disappearance and there was a cloud of suspicion over him. Could he have been involved?

This is their story.

The intern

Chandra Ann Levy was born on April 14, 1977, to Robert and Susan…

When I was working at my 9–5 job, I used to get my hair done at a blow-dry bar. About once every 2 weeks or so, I would drive over to a blow-dry bar.

A blow-dry hair treatment involves drying the hair after washing so that the hair obtains a sleek and smooth look. It’s all about styling one’s hair so that it looks extra neat and presentable. Some people get blow-dries for special events such as weddings and parties. I got mine done simply because it made me feel happy to have my hair looking beautiful.

Don’t even get…