Written by Yawatta Hosby⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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Along with my review of her latest publication, Urban Legends, today I am delighted to welcome author Yawatta Hosby to my blog with her guest post I Stood Alone...And Still Remained Strong.
The blurb:
Urban LegendsGruesome murders, resembling urban legends, take place in a small college town.
Wilk, Elena, and Wayne grow suspicious of their Urban Legends professor when their best friend, Savannah, is found dead in her dorm room with 'Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Lights?' written in blood on the mirror.
Is Professor Stevens a deranged serial killer? Or just a creepy dude?
They must find out the truth before they become the next victims.
Recently, I read and reviewed Perfect Little Murder which I found to be scary enough to cause concern, but not so much as to traumatise me. My review said I thought it was Ms Hosby's best work to date. And with that in mind I was eager to read her latest novella, Urban Legends.
Urban Legends is set in small college, where students attending Professor Steven's writing classes, currently working on writing horror stories using ideas derived from murders which have found their way into modern-day folklore, come across a series of murders bearing close resemblance to murders discussed in class.
The various murder methods have been thoroughly researched and used to good effect in this story, and had me wondering who would do such a thing? It is obviously the work of a writer because he is noting what he can see, and how the murder makes him feel as he executes it - pun intended! However, as all the students are aspiring writers, and the professor is also a published author, there are lots of suspects for the completely inept detectives assigned to the cases to filter.
I thought the plot worked, and that it was an entertaining and not-too-scary read, with a few red herrings to keep the reader off balance. For me though, I would have liked to have known more about the killer's motivations beyond 'research', and understood any satisfaction derived from the killings, something which I think would have added to the tension in this story.
Hey, everyone. I want to thank Deborah Miles for allowing me to be a guest on her blog today. In the spirit of the world fighting injustices and inequalities, I wanted to share something that happened in my workplace years ago and what it taught me of peoples’ reactions to the Black Lives Matter movement.
I worked in an office with all white bosses and all white people in every department, except me and two other black coworkers, one male and one female. The day this incident happened my two black coworkers were off.
I worked a six-hour shift, and the majority of the day I had to hear awful, disgusting, vile insults being thrown around about a Middle Eastern family hanging outside the office building. Our office was right beside the federal courthouse. It was obvious the family was parked along the street, celebrating something. I assumed they were celebrating becoming US citizens, and I was happy for them. So like any normal person would I kept defending the family outside. They weren’t hurting anyone. They were minding their own business. They weren’t even being loud. I could tell they were happy because of all the smiles and hugging going on.
A manager plus some coworkers kept saying they hoped the terrorists outside wouldn’t blow us up; the terrorists were scaring our customers away; the Middle Easterns outside the building, in their cars, shouldn’t be a reflection of what our company was about.
No matter how many times I stood up for the family outside, I was met with “But...but...but…” Beyond frustrated hearing their racial bullshit for hours straight, I mumbled under my breath, “No one would have a problem if any other people were outside.”
The manager whose desk was beside mine glared at me and yelled at the top of his lungs, “I’m tired of your mouth! If you don’t like working here, then quit! I’m tired of people pulling out the race card! How dare you say we wouldn’t complain if it was white people outside!”
At that point, I was shocked, so were all the coworkers staring at us. The manager stormed off and went upstairs to HR. I knew he was complaining about me. We were all quiet after his outburst. I guess a good thing is that I didn’t have to hear anyone dissing the family outside anymore…
When the other manager came back from lunch, I tried to talk to her with my side of the story, but she wouldn’t even look in my direction. She said an incident report was written up and the circulation director would be having a discussion with me. By this time, I was upset and hurt. No one, not even HR, was letting me defend myself. People in management acted like I was gum underneath their shoes.
I finally was called into the circulation director’s office. He was also white. He let me tell my side of the story, even down to what I had actually said—“if any other people were outside there wouldn’t be a problem.” The director said that the manager had heard me say “white people,” trying to imply I was calling everyone racist. Then he had the nerve to lecture me on reverse racism, and proceeded to tell me that if a conversation makes me uncomfortable then it’s my responsibility to get up and walk away. He ended the conversation by saying that I needed to understand that white people don’t like coming out of their comfort zones. That they don’t want to hear about injustices or that they’re wrong because it offends them. They want to stay in their happy bubble and ignore the wrongs that don’t affect them. That I don’t have to agree with what’s being said, but I need to stay quiet or I’ll end up making everyone in the office uncomfortable.
No one talked to me the rest of the day. When my two black coworkers joined me the next morning, of course, I filled them in. The coworkers who had been there that day and witnessed everything apologized to me and said it was disgusting how the manager had acted.
Peoples’ reactions to Black Lives Matter makes me remember this incident:
—When a person’s immediate reaction to Black Lives Matter is to say “If you’re not happy here, then go back to Africa;” “This is reverse racism. Black people are racist. I can’t support them;” “Protestors deserve to get shot or beaten up! They’re spreading covid-19 because they can’t keep their ass home,” they remind me of the manager who flew off the handle and tried to gaslight and lie, instead of reflect on the real situation.
—When a person complains about BLM support on someone else’s social media, tv show, or radio station—“Ew, I don’t want to hear anything political. This is my time to escape the real world,” they remind me of what the circulation director said—it’s better to stay in their white privilege. Why bother caring if it doesn’t affect them?
—When someone slides into my DMs to apologize for the hurt I’m feeling but can’t even like or post anything about injustices in this world, they remind me of the coworkers who sat there and let me get mistreated because I was trying to do the right thing. The silent “ally” that perhaps isn’t an ally at all. It’s really easy to diss the manager when he’s not there. Just like it’s easy to diss me to everyone when I’m not there.
—The politicians and lawmakers ignoring the issue at hand remind me of the circulation director who could have taken a stand for what’s right but instead chose to ignore because it’s just “easier for everyone.”
If your gut reaction is to say “you got what you deserved that day,” then ask yourself why…if your gut reaction is to say “you must have provoked them to get that reaction,” then ask yourself why...if your gut reaction is to say “so what? It doesn’t sound that bad; you’re just sensitive,” then ask yourself why...
⮚Yawatta, thank you so much for sharing with us your personal experience through your thought-provoking guest post today. I know there is much work still to be done, but I hope and pray every day for a fair and equal society for everyone.
For more thought-provoking comment on #BLM see Stephanie Evelyn's interview with Yawatta, Black Lives Still Matter, and Will Always Matter and Jane Elliott’s address.⮘
| Author Bio – Yawatta Hosby |
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 Hello, I’m Yawatta Hosby. I reside in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. I enjoy connecting with other writers through blogging. With a desire to escape every day life, I create short stories, novellas, and novels. I’ve always had a fascination with psychology, so I like to focus on the inner-struggles within my characters. I’m an avid reader, favorite genres: mystery, suspense, horror, and women’s fiction. My short stories have been featured in The Write Place At the Write Time online journal (2013), When the Lights Go Out anthology (2015), and Don’t Open the Door anthology (2019). |
| Social Media Links – | |
| Web site | http://yawattahosbysbooks.wordpress.com |
| Goodreads | Yawatta Hosby |
| Facebook Author Page | http://Facebook.com/Yawatta |
| X | http://twitter.com/Yawatta_Hosby |
| Blog | http://yawattahosby.wordpress.com |
Thanks for letting me be a guest on your blog, Deborah. And thanks for giving Urban Legends a chance.
ReplyDeleteKeep smiling,
Yawatta
Ugh, Yawatta, what a terrible experience. One can only hope that your old manager (and the not-as-vocal people) have become more open-eyed and empathetic and, well, smarter.
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