The Big Mistake

I've been holding on to a story for a while now. It's time to talk about it. It's a true story, but for the protection of others, the characters have been replaced. Yeah, it's one of those stories.

So I won't give much away, but this story happened to a teacher, Mr. Drake. Today was supposed to be like any other day, but Mr. Drake was in for a surprise. He was to work with a specific student. He had just transferred into the school a while back. He had already made enemies with a few of his classmates, but all the teachers felt his pain. The student was no other than Heath. This made Mr. Drake nervous. Heath was aggressive. Too aggressive for Mr. Drake to maintain. But he had no choice. He was an assistant to the head teacher Mr. Summers He was already working with another student.

Mr. Drake decided there was no need to work hard with an aggressive student, so he did the easiest thing to do. 

Mr. Drake asked Heath to color a picture. That young boy didn't want to do that! Mr. Drake was told to stay strong, was it worth it? Heath was getting angry, annoyed, and disapproved of anything until he was to get his way.

That's when it happened, Heath watched as his innocent classmate, Omar was playing around. It was obvious Omar wanted to play with a deck of cards, but Heath wouldn't allow him.

Omar was a playful kid and had a hard time understanding social clues. This was obvious to Mr. Drake as he saw the anger in Heath's eyes. He stayed calm as he made sure both students were safe Heath was ready to attack. Mr. Drake watched as Heath reached for Omar. He had to be stopped. Mr. Drake's arm jerked to block his attack, but at that point, his life was in danger.

Mr. Drake watched in terror as Heath's nose was bleeding. Blood was running like a faucet. 

Heath blew a gasket, directly at Mr. Drake. All the blame was on him. Mr. Summers suggested to help. Heath had to go see the nurse. Meanwhile, Mr. Drake was left behind to watch over the remaining students and clean up the struck disaster.

Mr. Drake was devastated. Throughout the whole day, all Mr. Drake could think about was how everyone would treat him. He felt like a criminal. This teacher was loved by dozens of students, and one was about to ruin his career!

He stayed home for three weeks. He couldn't go back to work. He was restricted from his job. All he could think about was how those dozen students may never see him again. How the staff were going to live without his kind heart and helpful presence.

Within those three weeks, Mr. Drake talked to the school board, officers, and a few others about this mistake. He repeatedly told them his actions were just a mistake. But didn't help. 

Mr. Drake tried to call Mr. Summers. but it was like he was blocked out of existence. It made sense, Mr. Summers had accused Mr. Drake of hitting Heath with anger. But everyone knew the truth, Mr. Drake had no reason to hit a kid. Mr. Drake was kind to everyone. Some would even say his feelings for Heath were mostly fear.

But it was clear, the ones who accused Mr. Drake as a guilty assaulter didn't truly know the man like I did.

But those who knew Mr. Drake the most, continue to show him trust and love. It's unknown now what Mr. Drake will do. School is nearly over. but his love of teaching will forever follow in his next career.

Tough Butter part 2

  If you've read the blog from yesterday, then you've been informed about the hard struggle of telling people about the Author Fest event. But what is this blog about? This blog is about everything else that I am responsible for.

For one thing, I just got word that after 2 months the new audiobook has FINALLY been published. Now I have 50 codes to give away, and I have no idea how to give them away!

I also have over 100 cups, over 20 books, 50 stickers, and 5 pillows to sell. Where does a person like me get this stuff sold at? There are nearly a dozen marketers who say they wish to help make progress, but of course, they are wishing for payment. I don't have time for this!

I would give payment to someone who is willing to help grab attention, but there are no promises. I have dealt with some marketers before; they have grown my followers list on Instagram, posted me in multiple areas on Facebook, and have had interviews which are somewhere on a podcaster's list, but look where I've gotten to...

So I'm not in the mood to pay someone who can't promise me a change in public attention. Have you been messaged by someone on Instagram who states they want to present you? I've told them multiple times to go ahead and present me with no cost. I never hear from them again.

That's why I'm hoping to get some attention with my idea of publishing other young writers. They shouldn't have to go through junk like this. Someone who wants their story and get paid for it. TOTAL SHAME. Editorial service costs about $50 for every 500 characters. PLEASE! It's even more struggling when you try publishing audiobooks. Payment, payment, payment, that's the only way to get help.

Not for me. I'm willing to help young authors write stories because I'm not concerned about money. I have a job already, so why ask for more just to be helpful? I get companies, but some of these people work for Fiverr. They mostly get paid when they get a position for their work. It's like celebrities who present themselves at Cameo.

Anyway, enough complaining about this "help" that I get offered. It's hard to try to get attention to sell books, pillows, audiobooks, and stickers when there's nowhere to present yourself. I mean, a video about the cool stickers I have gets about 120 views on TikTok, 23 on Instagram, and 20 on YouTube and completely unknown on Facebook, but I can only guess 0-3. That doesn't include comments or likes. Those are around 0-7, and that's IF you combine them.

In other words, publicity is complicated!

Tough Butter

I wasn't really planning on doing a blog story today. But this had to be announced, because I can't hold this information any longer. Before I tell you what it is that's got me pacing the floors, let me tell you what's rolling through my mind first.

So this month is the author Fest at Enid Library. If you've seen any posts on social media you know I've been bringing this up for a while now. It's almost getting to the point of being annoying. But you can understand the concern when you've made an announcement about this and you end up questioning if anyone has seen it. Let me tell you, Facebook keeps no record of views, just likes and that's not much since facebook mostly presents to close related people. Let's talk about Instagram. That is a site that might get attention, but only for popular information, funny clips, and celebrity content. It seems to only reach out to those who have a relation to the topic, and (correct me if I'm wrong)  new author's don't have a place in that. Youtube does no good. Once again, it's mostly the attention for movie/ tv buffers, pointless "funny" clips, video games, and sometimes music.

Lastly there is TikTok. Now you an get away with a lot on Tik Tok. But it's mostly for good laughs. 

What is the point of all this bashing on different social medias? This all leads to the point I'm trying to make about what it takes to get attention from an audience from social media. It's the quick terms that seems to spread out the most. Those are the videos that stand for about 60 seconds or less. Hard to get full information of that. Reels seem to spread pretty far, but they only seem to spread to the best categorized audience. Which of course are for those who make pointless funny videos.

Now this is coming from experience. Because some videos reach to 200 views, others reach to 1000. What makes them different? What your audience care about more. Art, TV, and jokes.At least, that's what I tend to notice.

This all leads to the question of who is interested in the Author Fest in Enid?

Now that's half of the story. If you want more, read the next blog, coming tomorrow!