happiness and joy

In January, I published The Heartbreaking Story of Matthew Shepard. The story of a young student who was tortured and then murdered for being gay in America.

The brutal murder of Matthew Shepard gained international news coverage at the time. I was reminded of his story because of Donald Trump’s targeting the LGBT community with his rhetoric.

In February, I published my Z-VIRUS Powers: Map of Anglesey. This post is about my Z-Virus Powers novel, a story about a zombie apocalypse where some kids develop supernatural powers.

The wonderful array of young characters (some with powers and some without) decide to go on a quest for the cure, after their powers that once aided survival are now becoming destructive.

In February, I also published my Health & Future Plans Update: A Dramatic Reduction in HbA1c thanks to Medtronic Insulin Pump. I shared my dramatic reduction in my HbA1c blood test result due to starting the Medtronic Insulin Pump. It really has been life changing.

I shared my future plans for the year, most of which I am proud to say happened.

This included my plans with family and friends. It also included my plans to release Z-Virus Monsters, the next novel/installment of my Z-Virus Series.

In March, I published my FREE article, Influential UK Gay Men. This was an article all about UK Gay Men I find to be influential in society.

Just some of the men included in this list were: Mark Ashton, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Everett, Paul O’Grady, Alan Turing.

There were many others, with the article dividing the gay men into categories.

I concluded by writing that there probably wouldn’t be a gay man who became Prime Minister of the UK in my lifetime, which I found sad.

In April, I published a post titled: How Would You Survive A Zombie Apocalypse? It was a short blog post about the essential requirements for survival in a zombie apocalypse and was used to promote my two books: Z-Virus Powers and Z-Virus Monsters.

I also published a short blog post about the 10 Books I’ve Read That Have Stayed With Me. Each of these books has a special place in my heart. I linked previous reviews of these books in this post. Some of the books on this list include: Mum Can You Lend Me Twenty Quid? By Elizabeth Burton-Phillips, In His Secret Life by Mel Bossa, The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind by Barbara K. Lipska and Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

In May, I rebranded My Royal Navy Friend book with a new title (Funny Emails To My Friend) and with a new book cover. I published a post about why I rebranded this book here.

The decision to rebrand the book was driven by feedback, suggesting that people assumed that My Royal Navy Friend was about the Royal Navy. The book was never about the Royal Navy.

My Royal Navy Friend was about maintaining a friendship with a friend who followed their life long dream of joining the Royal Navy through funny, entertaining and occasionally serious emails. So I rebranded, to better reflect what the book is about.

In June, I attended Leigh Book Fest, which was a huge success. I also attended an event a Middleton Library, where I donated some signed copies of my books to the library.

I published blog posts about the importance of Finding Joy and my new old car.

July seemed to be all about animals, in some form or other.

My bengal cat, Dylan, sadly had to be put to sleep.

I had a fantastic time visiting Blackpool Zoo, sharing plenty of photos in a blog post I published.

You can see other recent photos on my regularly updated Photos page here.

In August, I published a post sharing the incredible story of Jonas Salk. In The Story of Jonas Salk and The Polio Vaccine, I shared Salk’s story of the development of the Polio Vaccine.

What is inspirational about this man, is not just that he developed the polio vaccine. But that he chose not to patent it. This meant that anyone could reproduce the polio vaccine without any payment to Salk.

If Salk had patented his polio vaccine, it would have made him several billionaire dollars. But he chose not to and in doing so, helped it become more widely available to the whole of humanity.

In August, I posted a blog post titled: Unsafe Places to be a Gay Man, detailing the places it isn’t safe to be an out gay man in the world.

To balance the above blog post, I later published a blog post titled: Safer Places to Live for Gay Men. In this post, I focused on places that are safer, more accepting and with better legal rights and protections for gay men in the world.

Safer Places to Live for Gay Men is a blog post I am really proud of publishing. I hope gay men looking for places where they are safer and more accepted in the world find this post. I hope they find this well researched blog post useful.

In September, I shared photos and essential information related to two castles in South Wales, in my published blog post: South Wales Castles – Raglan Castle & White Castle.

I also published a blog post explaining that despite on-going treatment for Vasculitis, I am the happiest I have ever been.

In September, I published a post titled: The Power of the Subconscious Mind.

In this blog post, I explain what the subconscious mind is, how it operates, how it communicates with our conscious mind and how to heal a troubled, disturbed or traumatised subconscious.

I give ways to help heal the subconscious mind and explain that it takes both work and time.

But that the hard work is totally worth the benefits of healing the subconscious mind.

In October, I published a blog post about the dangers associated with Emotional Support from an AI (Artificial Intelligence) App.

Dangers included: No Empathy, False Connection, Emotional Dependence, Bad Advice, Can Reinforce Negative Thoughts/Feelings/Behaviours, No Safeguarding, Lack of Emotional Growth & Data Privacy Breeches.

Given the dangers, as a minimum this apps should be regulated, if not banned.

In October, I also published this blog post: Zack Polanski, The New Leader of The Green Party Is Someone I Would Like Add To My Influential Gay Men Article.

Zack has seemingly appeared from nowhere to become the leader of the Green Party. In this blog post, I state that I wish I’d have known about him when doing research for my Influential UK Gay Men article, so that he could have been included in it.

In the post, I discuss Zack’s appeal, share his story (as available online) and state that I may have been wrong about there not being an out gay man as Prime Minister of the UK in my lifetime. In fact, I hope that I am wrong.