Our team periodically reviews the relevance of HubPages features that have been used throughout the years, and all of our decisions are made to benefit the community and maintain the health of our sites. After careful consideration, our team has decided to retire the Q&A feature on 6/10. No new questions will be accepted at this time, but all current Q&A content will remain. While it might be difficult to say goodbye to this feature that authors have grown accustomed to, there is a lot to look forward to in the upcoming weeks. Please continue to check back in on our forums as we announce these exciting new changes.

General Recommendations

1. Take everything one day at a time.
2. Be kind to yourself and others.
3. It’s ok to be scared, bored, angry, sad—just don’t let those feelings isolate you. Share them with others as a way of fostering connection and deepening relationships.
4. Look at this experience as an opportunity to slow down and identify what is most important to you.
5. Limit exposure to news coverage.
6. Seek connection and support.

Resources

• ” Practicing Self-Care During Stressful Times“
• ” A Psychologist’s Science-Based Tips for Emotional Resilience During the Coronavirus Crisis“

Photo by JD Mason on Unsplash

Thank you all for voting in this year’s Hubbie Awards! Without further ado, here are the results:  

1. Best All-Around Article: “15 Ways to Keep an Old Dog From Slipping on the Floor“
2. Best All-Around Hubber: @billybuc
3. Forums Guru:  @theraggededge 
4. Newbie of the Year: @brendaarledge
5. Funniest Hubber: @paradigmsearch
6. Most Bizzare Article: “7 Hilarious Talent Show Ideas“
7. Most Inspiring Article: “Luna the Savannah Cat’s Remarkable Recovery From Deadly FIP With GS-441524 (or EVO984)“
8. Most Versatile Hubber: @aliciac
9. Most Active Hubber: @kennethavery and @pamela99
10. HubPages Lifetime Achievement (Staff Picked): @ericdockett

If you’re on this list, congrats! Please email contests@hubpages.com within the next two weeks with your full name and shipping information so that we may send you your prizes. Winners will receive a custom tote bag and journal. 

Art by Ken Gascon (sparkelstroke) via Canva.com

1. Best All-Around Article
2. Best All-Around Hubber
3. Forums Guru
4. Newbie of the Year
5. Funniest Hubber
6. Most Bizzare Article
7. Most Inspiring Article
8. Most Versatile Hubber
9. Most Active Hubber
10. HubPages Lifetime Achievement (Staff Picked) 

The Prizes

Winners in each category will receive some official HubPages swag. (To be determined!) 

The Rules

Before you cast your vote, there are a few ground rules to keep in mind. Each Hubber may only vote once, so make sure that you’ve got your list of nominees ready to go. Nominations submitted after Friday, January 24th at midnight will not be counted. If you do not have a Hubber or article to nominate for every category, it’s ok to leave spaces blank. 

Get Voting!

Be sure to show your support and cast your votes for your favorites. You have until the 24th! If you’re ready, proceed to the Official Hubbie Voting form. Remember, you can only vote once, so take your time figuring out which articles and Hubbers you’d like to nominate.

Happy voting!

We want to get to know you. Can you provide us with a brief “about me” paragraph?

In my day-to-day job as an author, instructional designer, and eLearning developer, I continue to discover new things to share with others. My goal is to make people’s lives easier by providing simple instructions and educational content to help everyone accomplish their goals. I have always loved writing for as long as I remember. I have self-published three educational books on Amazon, three children’s books, and I’m working on more. I also love creating training videos and I currently have 90 videos and counting on my easylearningweb YouTube channel. I also love writing short stories and rhyming poems. You can search for me on Amazon to see all of my published books.

As far as my background, I have a Bachelor of Business Administration with a Major in Computer Science and a Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology. My interests and talents are in computers, education, e-learning, health, finance, parenting, cooking, exercise, fitness, of course, writing! 

Why did you decide to join HubPages? 

Approximately nine years ago, I was looking for a way to self-publish articles online, as well as be part of a community of writers and authors. When I came across the HubPages website, it seemed to be a perfect fit. I envisioned it as a gateway to share my knowledge and help others, be a part of a growing online community, and learn from others as well.

What made you want to stick around for all of these years?

It began as a wonderful networking experience, and truly helped me become better and more confident as a writer. Once I started writing articles on HubPages, I received a lot of feedback and replies from other writers on HubPages. We helped each other as we improved as writers and shared our knowledge with each other and the world. It helped me take baby steps as a writer and grow each and every day. It was a fun experience when I started, and it has been a sweet ride ever since! It was the springboard that got me interested in self-publishing books.

When you first started writing on the site, what inspired you to partake in a 30-day writing challenge?

After writing articles on HubPages for 5 years, I had a little over 60 articles, but my goal was to write 100 articles. I wanted to come up with a challenge for myself to increase the number of articles I could write in a short amount of time and go a step further. Although I did see other members of the HubPages community embark on a 30-day challenge, there wasn’t a current challenge at that time for me to join. So, I created my own 30-day challenge to write 30 articles in 30 days. I knew it would take a lot of planning, researching, writing and time, but I was ready for the challenge. I kept picturing this analogy: I imagined myself swimming lots of laps—like a swimmer might do before he or she enters the Olympics. I figured if I could write 30 articles in 30 days, then I could write books too and learn how to self-publish as well. It worked and I just self-published my 6th book!

During those 30 days, which article did you have the most fun writing?

Wow, that’s a hard question to answer, because I had fun writing so many! The ones focusing on food and technology were some of my favorites. I would have to say the one I enjoyed the most was the one I wrote after I was finished my challenge, because I truly felt like I climbed a small but steep mountain. It is called “30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge Results” and it contains a list of what I learned, statistics, and most of all, what other challenges I wanted to consider moving forward, including the challenge proposed in the “The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale.” Two of his many quotes that stuck with me are: “Life should be an exciting adventure.” and “Every person should be glad to get out of bed in the morning and do a job because you like to do it.” Those are words to live by and inspired me to continue pursuing my dreams of writing a book.

What does your creative process look like?

I believe all of us possess the ability to create anything we set our minds to. My formal process is to start with an outline and work from there. There are varying degrees of my formal process that I use, depending on what I am creating. For example, I use storyboarding, sketching, scripting and various tools to design and develop whatever I am creating. However, before the formal process can start, you need an idea. Creative ideas come to me randomly all the time, so I have different types of journals, big ones and small ones, in various rooms throughout the house, ready and waiting for more ideas to be jotted down. You never know when the next big idea will come to mind. Write it down right away so it doesn’t fly out of your head. Write it down somewhere, preferably in a special notebook, journal, or electronic document. If you write it down, you have a better chance at remembering it tomorrow, next week or a year from now.

What led you down the self-publishing path?

I have always loved writing. Even as a child, I love writing stories and drawing pictures. In addition to writing, I loved reading poems, especially ones that contained rhymes. I even saved stories that I wrote as a child, hoping that I could turn them into books someday. After writing on HubPages for years, I started writing short stories and entering writing contests for fun. After two of my short stories won 1^st and 2^nd prizes, in a monthly contest, they were published in a real book. After that, I became interested in the self-publishing process. The reason I decided to pursue self-publishing was because of the faster turnaround time to self-publish vs. using traditional publishing. Self-publishing also gives me a lot of flexibility with book formats, including eBooks, paperback, hardcover, and audiobooks.

What are you working on now?

I just recently resigned from my corporate position to return to freelance. I’m currently self-employed as a freelance instructional designer, eLearning developer, and author. This allows me to have a more flexible schedule for family/work balance, and devote more time to writing, self-publishing, marketing, and of course, writing more on HubPages!

Any advice for new or aspiring writers?

Write because you love it, not because you have to. If you write from the heart, it will show in your writing. And don’t be discouraged if your 27^th draft comes back from an editor with more revisions. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, remember: “Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end, you are sure to succeed.”

As you go about, pursuing your writing dreams, remember to reach for the stars. It does not matter how little or far you reach, just reach! Earl Nightingale puts it best when he said:

·         “See yourself reaching your goal.”

·         “You are guided by your mind.”

·         “To be successful, you must work hard.”

·         “In order to control your life, control your mind.”

·         “The architect of the universe did not build a stairway leading to nowhere.”

·         “Refuse to believe that there are any circumstances that will prevent you from reaching your goal.”

Finally, I would like to share the six steps to being successful, as stated in “The Strangest Secret” video, according to Dr. David Harold Fink:

1.  Set yourself a definite goal.
2. Quit running yourself down.
3. Stop thinking of all the reasons why you cannot be successful, and instead, think of all the reasons why you can.
4. Trace your attitudes back to your childhood and try to discover where you first got the idea that you couldn’t be successful if that is the way you have been thinking.
5. Change the image you have of yourself by writing a description of the person you would like to be.
6. Act the part of the successful person you would like to become.

To learn more, follow me on social media or check out my HubPages profile here: @easylearningweb!

All the Best to You!

Amelia 

Have you parents ever made you play “the quiet game”? If so, imagine playing that game indefinitely, and if you make a sound, you’re dead. That’s basically the premise of A Quiet Place.

Gore fiends might be a little upset that there isn’t more claret spilt on screen, given the ruthless efficiency that people get butchered by the creatures. But A Quiet Place isn’t that kind of horror film – yes, it has plenty of jump scares which are enlivened by the amplified sound effects as well as moments of dread when something slowly crawls into shot behind characters. But the film works because it has an insidious ability to get under your skin and stay there.

– Benjamin Cox

This author breaks down the pros and cons, and addresses the common questions that potential viewers may ask, so you can get the full picture before seeing the picture.

So if you’re looking for a creative horror film with plenty of jump shares and just the right amount of gore, this is the film for you! But don’t take my word for it. Check out the article yourself!

1st: “ How to Knit a Halloween Mummy Doll (With Pattern)” by @screffy

2nd: “ 10 Awesome Video Game Character Duo Halloween Costumes for Couples” by @poppyr

3rd: “ The History of Halloween Costumes” by @larryslawson

Congratulations, everyone! Winners, be sure to reply to the email we sent you ASAP if you want your treats by Halloween! 

Thanks again, and stay tuned for the next HubPages contest.

1. Your article must be under three years old.
2. You must submit said article’s URL to contests@hubpages.com. (Articles that are copy/pasted will not be accepted.)
3. The deadline is midnight on Monday, October 21st. Any submissions sent after the deadline will not be considered.

We will be selecting three fabulous winners to receive equally fabulous prizes. Here’s what they’ll get: 

• 1st Place: A spooky, inflatable lawn decoration
• 2nd Place: A horrifyingly cute Halloween plush
• 3rd Place: An assortment of creepy crawlies 

All winners will receive some treats too, of course! 

Results will be announced on Wednesday, October 23rd. Good luck, everyone!