New Year’s Resolutions

Greetings readers and friends. Every year I usually post my Thankfuls during November and my New Year Resolutions on New Year’s Eve. As most of you know, this year I lost several family to non-Covid related illnesses. It was difficult to find things I was thankful for while I grieved so many losses in such a short time. It has been difficult to think of things I would resolve to do in the coming year as well.

While this is late, I wish to give my short list of Thankfuls now:

1. I am grateful that I got to see Mum as often as I had before she passed. I am grateful that we did as much as we could to make her last years better.
2. I am grateful for my family. For being able to have them close to me.
3. I am grateful for all of you who have kept following me through the years.

Now for my New Year’s resolutions:

1. To post a regular schedule of blog posts at least twice a week.
2. To finish editing my novel by December 2021
3. To post 1 vlog post a week with family this year.
4. To organize and input grades during homeschooling time every day.
5. To do at least one write-in every day.
6. Survive the pandemic.

Update: Well Crap there is a pandemic…

Greetings page followers. short update. laptop has been in shop for some time and it is difficult to write posts aside from short poems on my phone. This does not mean I am completely silent. I have posts on my Instagram and our Facebook pages!

Current events.

The shadow lair family supports Black Lives Matter movement and stand in solidarity with them in this time.

We are self isolating until a vaccine is found for corona virus

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Thanksgiving Thankfuls

By Damien Knight

This year for thanksgiving I did 30 days of writing 3 things I was thankful for. Some of these repeat but you can never be too thankful for something.

Quick Journal Update

By Damien Knight

The job of the stay at home parent. It is never done, constant cleaning, meal prep. I have had next to zero time to write and no time to study. I been catching up on the mountain of laundry I had to do. It was not fun. Almost done with the next chapter of the novel though. Hope to post it soon.

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The Shadow Self an Update

By Damien Knight

Back in 2010 I wrote a blog about my journey for a spiritual name. At the time I followed an Egyptian Pagan practice. I am still a Kemetic Pagan though I am now more of a solitary practitioner. Part of my faith is the selection of a spiritual name that would be my “magickal” name. At the time I picked Scaledshadow to honour both my faith in dragons and my fight with the concept of shadow self.

The shadow self is a spiritual belief that we have two versions of ourselves. One version is who we are based on hereditary traits and conditioning by society. It is the face we wear in public, who everyone thinks we are.

The other us is what the “shadow self” is. This self is the one we deny and suppress. The “shadow” carries all our dark desires, the things we view as sin. These can be true psychopathic thoughts or things society has told us to deny. Lust, Greed, and the other 7 deadly sins are things our shadow self might hold as values. My shadow self held something central to my identity as a value: Masculinity.

I took myself to task to find my spiritual name without realisation that I had my name long before that journey. That journey I took ScaledShadow from wolf as he slept. If I had listened to my own dreams, I would have known I was Koraki. It’s cliché to have the name Raven in pagan circles. For me though the Raven is an archetype that fits. He is the light giver and trickster in various folk traditions. He also goes through a transformation.

I will write the story I once read about the raven later for this blog. Koraki is my shadow self the darker aspects society locked away. The desire for masculinity, the hunger that burns and I see him in my dreams fighting to be acknowledged. He tells me I am stronger than I think I am. I am a fighter, a king and that I can still be a man.

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My Favourite Ways to Spend a Lazy Day

By Damien Knight

I like to spend lazy days playing video games, sleep and write. I use to play League of Angels all the time, Skyrim is still my favourite. Play MMO’s and RPG’s, they are a great way to escape reality for a few hours. You just go fight dragons, save Tamriel it’s great. Video games and story writing are methods of escape where I can be a hero, a villain or both. That’s how I spend a lazy day.

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Blog Update

By Damien Knight

For several weeks I’ve had an outpouring of muse. Today I feel I’ve run dry again. I deleted several poems for personal reasons. I am going through a cycle of depression and feel like I should just focus on my novel. After all raising two kids and taking college courses is hard enough. I’ll make sure to have at least one post a day.

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Quick Patreon Plug!

-Damien Knight

Hey guys, Damien, head blogger of Shade of Writing here. If you can’t tell by my recent poems I caught a cold or maybe flu. Not sure, Anyway this means I been busy laying jn bed bored since I got out of class. Plenty time to blog!

We at the Shade of Writing are a blogging family for those new here. That means we do have family expenses, cat food, homeschool texts, college, morgage. We would love to do more travel blogs and post fun things! That’s where you come in!

You can become a patron of ours on Patreon for only a dollar a month. These funds would go into the cost of upkeep on the website as well as cost of travel for more blog posts. Thank you all for your continued support of our blog!

– Damien Skye Knight

Our First Ask Me Anything

Answers Written By Damien Knight

Shade of Writing AMA Link

Hello, I am Damien, the head blogger of our family blog The Shade of Writing. We are a home-school family of writers that love to travel. We write on various topics such as education, philosophy, poetry and history. We also have a Twitter, an Instagram and a YouTube.

I write poetry and share drafts of my novel when I am not in classes at the local university. My kids post their writing assignments from their books and papers on topics that interest them. My spouse travels for his job and most of our travel and food reviews are from him. We all are open to questions so ask away.

Five Words That Describe Me

By Jayson Knapp

These are five words I think describe me and why I think that.

1. Crazy. I choose crazy because I think of things completely crazy and do them anyway.
2. Gamer. Well, because I play a lot of video games.
3. Map lover. My room is filled with maps.
4. Silly. I like to tell corny jokes and “eggsellent” puns.
5. Creative. I like to build, Minecraft, legos and sandbox worlds.

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