I am so much more than meets the eye
Well, all you guys on Illumination-Curated know me as Liam Ireland, writer and editor at Illumination. Just like the rest of you I write articles, short stories and poetry, which I submit to this wonderful writers platform.
I must admit that even as a professional writer in a previous life I struggled a bit when I started out on my Illumination journey. I was used to pen and paper, not a keyboard and digital interface.
As a result I got it all wrong. So I set about getting it all right. I just stuck at it every single day. Head…
A collection of my best short stories
Since joining Illumination I have written quite a wide variety of articles, short stories and poems. However, like my life in general, it all became a bit of a clutter. So I have finally decided to try to impose some sort of order, starting with a collection of nine short stories.
My first attempt at the short story form on Illumination began with a series of three short pieces for children centred around a character called Katie. …
Editorial Perspectives
Illuminating What It Takes To Succeed As A Writer On Illumination
As you read through this article, bear one thing in mind; myself and Tree Langdon, CPA, CGA, are fellow writers and co-editors of this article and we began our Illumination,Illumination-Curated,Technology Hits and Illumination Mirror journey just like you. Indeed, almost all who are involved in Illumination up to today, are relatively new to the project.
Nine months ago the Illumination publications didn't even exist!
They were created because of the visionary dreams and revolutionary determination of one man, Dr Mehmet Yildiz. Now they are positively flourishing and exponentially growing at an amazing rate every single day.
We now have over…
In the Autumn of my life
It was a stunningly beautiful Autumn day, the azure blue sky acting like a blank canvas on which nature had decided to paint a masterpiece full of vibrant natural colours. A mosaic, leaf-confetti littered pathway led off to a vanishing point far off in the distance. On both sides, lines of skeleton trees, devoid of their summer foliage, stood like sentinels guarding the pathway to heaven. To each side mid-life evergreens acted as a natural bulwark to protect the open parkland behind.
An old man sat on a park bench just off to the right. He was dressed in a…
Curation
In search of the Holy Grail
After almost a year of writing on Medium I finally got hold of the Holy Grail of writing for all writers, Curation. To be honest, I never really expected that to happen. I guess that's the way things always go, things happen when you least expect them to.
For me, the interesting part of all this is how it came to be. I had long since stopped asking myself why my writings were not being curated. But I am as curious as hell to discover why suddenly and unexpectedly Curation came my way. …
A Wealthy Retirement
It's not all about the money
Stephen King is seventy three years old and reportedly worth some 400 million dollars, and still he writes. Paul McCartney is seventy eight years old and said to be worth an eye-watering1.2 billion. yet still he performs. Bill Gates is sixty five years old and worth an astounding 130 billion dollars, and yet he still makes time to write code. So what is it with these guys that they will not retire? Is what they have still not enough? And if that is the case, then exactly how much is enough?
Paul McCartney once asked Willy Nelson (net worth a…
How to create wealth
Some things are better than money in the bank
Have you have ever wondered why the super rich spend a lot of their money on exotic cars, super yachts, grandiose mansions and expensive art collections? Is it simply because they are avariciously materialistic? Well no it isn't, they are not quite so superficial as you might imagine.
Let's deal with that bank question first off. The majority of banks will only guarantee up to 250,000 dollars, or pounds or euros, or whatever. So if you have fifty million in the bank and the bank goes bump, all you will recover is that quarter of a million.
A very good…
The future of publishing is to be found in the duality of purpose being demonstrated by the pioneering spirit of both Ev Williams and Dr Mehmet Yildiz.
In the case of Ev Williams we have already seen how he has made two very inspirational moves. One is the buying into of Glose, an ebook publisher based in Paris. Two, is his recent stating that Medium is now going to focus on writers rather than publications, which I personally take to mean Medium's own publications rather than pubs like Illumination.
In the case of Dr Mehmet Yildiz, almost in parallel with…
A short story
Chapter 3
“What we would like Marcus is that you fulfill the role of harbinger of important news to your planetary kith and kin. Your fellow mankind. We feel that now is the most opportune time for all to be made clear to everybody before it is too late.
Your civilisation is now sufficiently advanced to understand the concepts involved and our intentions, which of course are nothing less than altruistic.
We come out in peace Marcus. We have no desire to hurt any of you, nor can you hurt us.”
I was in a daze to say the least. I started…
A short story
Chapter 3
2104 looking back to 2015
Eventually, I settled in the south of Spain where I spent the best part of twenty-five years. By this time I had been married and divorced twice over. After the second divorce, I made the decision to just live the rest of my life out alone.
I had all the female company and intellectual stimulus I needed with a few close neighbours, Tree, Agnes, Britni, Geetika, who all kinda looked out for me. A bit further down the street lived the Doc as we used to call him. We all looked up to…
Liam Ireland
Author, writer, Illumination Editor, Top Writer in short stories and poetry.
