Be Your Own Advocate Challenge Apology and Update

Hey, quick question for all reading this - who's the guy who good-heartedly said he'd read three pieces by everyone who provided links in the comments, pieces they wanted to advocate for themselves? This guy. That's right.

And who screwed the pooch and only finished getting around all the submissions at the time of writing, January 7th, 2025. This fella. Yep. L.C. called it; others said I was setting myself up for a challenging task. And boy, were they right. I mean, I did get 33 people submitting up to 3 pieces. That's a lot of reading, but still.

The Apology

This is the part where I eat humble pie. Oh, how I know the taste so well. I am sorry to everyone who submitted pieces and then waited months and months and months before hearing anything back from me. Last year, as I have discussed elsewhere, was not the best year in many ways. So, that derailed things. Then, attempts to get back on track felt mountainous. With my new challenge thing in full swing, which you can read about here, I wanted to make good on my promises before moving on to that.

Now that the humble pie has been swallowed and is flaring up my acid reflux, it's time for something good.

The Update - The Advocates

Here is a rather long, but worth checking out, list of one piece by each of the fantastic creators who bothered to share something. These are the people who answered the call and stood up as advocates for their writing.

In the interest of impartiality, I will provide the links in the order they were submitted. I was surprised, impressed, bowled over, cried a few times, laughed a lot, smiled, got a bit scared and had my mind spun around like a washing machine.

Lina by Mother Combs

My Writing Routine by Kendall Defoe

The Wolves by Matthew Fromm

Checkpoint by Randy Baker

Untimely Eyes by D.J. Reddall

Slipping by Belle

The First Step by Anna

A Fair Exchange by John Cox

The Harpy's Treasure by Heather Zieffle

Come to See My When I Die by Judey Kalchik

Mementos by Christy Munson

The Planned Pregnancy by Dharrsheena Raja Segarran

Panic by Grz Colm

Generational Forgiveness by Shirley Belk

Beautifully Tedious by Kelli Sheckler-Amsden

The Girl by Rene Peters

A Lesson in Latin by D.K. Shepard

The Legend of the Tree of Life by Donna Fox (HKB)

Freezing by Hannah Moore

Starlight Manor by Angela Hepworth

The Power of the Pussies by The Dani Writer

Darkwood Manor by Alyssa Nicole

Witches of the waterfront by Raymond G. Taylor

Scarlett by Poppy

Trepidation's Stage by Hayley M.T.

Think Regional Not Local by Jamal Green

Flat Tire Amongst The Hyenas by Andrea Corwin

Sun Dance by Angie The Archivist

Descent by Amanda Starks

Migraine by L.C. Schäfer

The Inheritance Part One by Margaret Brennan

Perfect Little Pirate by M.A Mehan

Stuck On The Elevator by Josh Morgan

Please take some time to read through these amazing pieces by exceptional writers, if you haven't done so already. I would have written a little spiel for each submission, but as there are 33, I didn't want to make this too long. You can read what I thought of each noted above in the comments section of the pieces.

Thank you very much, for taking part and making me feel proud on behalf of you all!