Curie Author Showcase (May 1st, 2018)

• In spirit of Curie's mission to promote undiscovered but exceptional content, we wish to use this twice weekly section to provide an author showcase for some of the outstanding authors who received Curie upvotes in past week. Curie curators and reviewers nominate authors for inclusion in this showcase and author approval is sought and attained.

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Featured Author: @moderndayjester
Steemit Open Mic Week #82 | original piece | "Lost @ C# "| MDJ

Image used with the permissions of @moderndayjester

Our first of two Open Mic performances in this week's Author Showcase is an amazing instrumental piece from @moderndayjester . I love watching him perform. It is almost as if the music, and in this case some 1850's spirit possesses his body and what it releases is just so moving and inspirational. Normally when I listen to Open Mic's here on the Steem Blockchain I put my earbuds in turn up the volume and close my eyes so that I can judge how good the song is. For MDJ videos that never works. I have to watch the first time I listen to it, and perhaps even the second time, only then can I just close my eyes and get swept away by the music itself.

Being creative is something that flows through my veins and I truly am so grateful to be able to express via such amazing instruments. I found this platform through street performing, someone started filming me while I was playing then we ended up having a little chat @troilo told me about this new exciting platform called "Steemit". I opened an account and have been posting pretty regularly for the last 2 months or so.

It's been an interesting journey and the amount of amazing content on here is so inspiring. Before i go I'd like to say one more thing that I think will be of interest. I'm trying my best to help others through trying to create my own festival and also to set up workshops for children with autism as well in the future (as I have Asperger's syndrome + ADHD).

However I am desperate for as much help and support with this to make it a reality as it's basically mainly me doing this by myself with very little resources. The festival is called "Harmonics" and I have uploaded a post on the steemit platform. Thank you once again for your support, I'm really happy that I've managed to reach out to people who really do appreciate what I create. Much love to you all - MDJ

Be sure to check out @moderndayjester blog page as well as the link above for information on his Harmonics Festival in July.

Featured Author: @sue-stevenson
The Biscuit Shrub - a Short Story
Sndbox Summer Camp Writing - Task 2

Image used with the permissions of @sue-stevenson

Many things can trigger a memory from childhood - a song, a certain television rerun, and often times a smell can be one of the strongest things to unlock those memories from your youth. This story touches on that sensory memory trigger, friends, great neighbors, and much more.

My fellow Curie Curator @misterakpan thought so highly of it that he gave it this high praise,

I must say this ranks among the best things I have read on Steem since coming on board... or anywhere on the internet as a whole. Really awesome and compelling read.

I do have to concur it is a great read. Here is a nice intro to the story from its author @sue-stevenson

There really is a shrub or tree that smells like Iced Vo Vo biscuits. I have illustrated my story with a picture of a red boronia but to be honest, I don't know if that's it. Next time I come across it when I'm out and about (which doesn't happen much these days as I'm a house hermit) I shall have to climb into someone's front yard and shove my face in their shrubs until I can identify it. I've been writing short stories for a few decades now and being in the middle of a story is the best of all the best places. It's like being God while at the same time not having a damn clue where your world is going and whether you'll be able to get your characters up and walking about in it. I have many unfinished worlds sitting in stasis on my Dropbox account :)

For those that do not know what Icy VoVo Biscuits are I would like to share this from Wikipedia

An Iced VoVo is a wheat flour biscuit topped with a strip of pink fondant on either side of a strip of raspberry jam and sprinkled with coconut.

Featured Author: @vtravels
A walk along the beaches on the West Coast of Scotland!

Image used with the permissions of @vtravels

This next post from @vtravels takes us on a journey to the beaches on the West Coast of Scotland. It includes some of the most incredible rock formations and other landscape photos. The different lava/rock formations and colors are breathtaking. Many of them truly do look like they are made from wood. The mountains across the sea are framed perfectly by the rocky shore in the foreground. I do believe my favorite however is the shipwreck photo. Each photo in this wonderful travel post tells a small bit of the story, from the lava formations to the headstones in the chapel. So much Scottish history to see.

While this post has recently paid out @vtravels has many more adventures to offer us from the Fairy Bridge in Scotland to her guide on how she edits her black and white photos.

I am so grateful to have a platform to share my travels. Steemit has revived my passion for photography and being able to share my posts with you all is really amazing. I will keep sharing my trips to Scotland and other amazing places and look forward to seeing what you all think! - @vtravels

Featured Author: @gentle.ben
Steemit Open Mic Week 82- Thinkin' of You // Gentle Ben Atkins (Original Song)

Image used with the permissions of @gentle.ben

Here is our second Open Mic post for the Author Showcase. It was just impossible to choose one of the two. Meet Gentle Ben Atkins and his incredible voice. I have been trying for days to decide who I think it is he sounds likes, and I have finally realized the answer is NO ONE. He is so unique. This is of course just his second post here on the Steem Blockchain, but I am certain it is just the first of many performances where you will just want to hit repeat and listen to it again and again.

It may be hard to believe but he has only really been playing music and writing songs for about four years now. He went from writing stories to writing songs and followed that with teaching himself to play the ukulele. He then moved onto learning the guitar about two years ago. Truly amazing!

I did notice that @gentle.ben and our other featured Open Mic artist @moderndayjester talked a bit in the comment section of this post. If I could plant a tiny seed of awesomeness here - Just imagine if these guys could get together and collaborate on some sort of performance.

Check out Gentle Ben's introduction post for another unreal performance that I know for a fact came close to being submitted for a Curie upvote even though it was his first ever post which is way outside our guidelines.

Featured Author: @calluna
The Last Ones (Short Horror Story)

Image used with the permissions of @calluna

In some ways there is comfort in loss, something you can always rely on, so in this sense, horror can be reassuring. Although I have been writing in one form or another since I could hold a pencil, horror is a genre which I am only just really getting in to. I love exploring the darkest depths of human imagination, the true terror lies in our minds, and I am having a lot of fun finding out what lurks in mine.

A story is not words on a page, it exists in our minds. You are invited to come with me on an adventure to the darkest depths of imagination. Together, we can trip the rift between realities until our subjective worlds collide. Bridging the gaps between our individual experience to let whole new stories blossom in that endless void. A story is not the words written on the page, but a moment of connect between author and reader, one I am honoured to share with you.

@calluna's above statement reminded me of a quote from the Master of Horror, John Carpenter that I used in my own book -

What scares me is what scares you. We’re all afraid of the same things. That’s why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and you’ll know what frightens me.

That truly is the great thing about horror it is in our imaginations, in the deep recesses of our minds. @calluna does a wonderful job of helping us imagine the horror that her main character is experiencing. The horror that she was now used to of those around her being devoured by the alien invaders, the horror of the stench attached to the alien invaders, and lastly the torturous horror inflicted upon her by a merciful alien invader.

I won't go into any more detail about the story so as not to ruin it for you. I just think it is told in an amazing way that kept me guessing how it would turn out right until the end. Back to John Carpenter again, Halloween is terrifying due to the psychological terror of the chase, the fact that once you let your guard down Michael Myers will get you. In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre the terror is for the most part implied. They are two of the greatest horror stories ever told, and Calluna does a wonderful job of using those types of psychological and implied horrors in her story.

I do hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did!

This story was written for a contest being run by previous Author Showcase author @dirge . You can check out the details of his contest in his newest post 7 Days Left: Halloween In Spring - Horror Fiction Contest! Win 6.66 SBD and More!. Thank you dirge for encouraging many to create these amazing stories here on Steem.

We have decided to add one #mycuriestory post to each Author Showcase.

Featured #mycuriestory Author: @seesladen
My Curie Story | How Curie's Vote Helped Me Serve My Nation

This week's #mycuriestory comes to use from @seesladen . He shares his story of how the Nigerian government doesn't pay to cover travel expenses for young men to get to the positions they are posted in during their mandatory one year of service. I will leave it to him to explain just what happened, but it is another great outcome from a Curie upvote.

Stay safe, good luck, and we can't wait to have you back on Steem full-time after your service @seesladen .

This Curie Author Showcase was written by Curie Curator @randomwanderings (Gene) with input from other Curie curators and reviewers. Author permission was sought and obtained from all authors featured in this showcase. All works are the copyright of their respective authors and used with permission.