Artist, Writer & Wild West Woman
Monday, 17 February 2025
JO. B. CREATIVE!: A FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER APPROACH TO MY MENTAL HEALTH!
JO. B. CREATIVE!: A FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER APPROACH TO MY MENTAL HEALTH!: A FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER APPROACH! FLOW NEUROSCIENCE HEADSET I have to admit that it looks really potty wearing this thing and one feels a lo...
A FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER APPROACH TO MY MENTAL HEALTH!
A FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER APPROACH!
I have to admit that it looks really potty wearing this thing and one feels a lot like Frankenstein's monster in his lab. You clean and clear your forehead and then, using a blue tooth app on your phone which has to remain nearby, you place saline soaked pads against your forehead. Then your phone goes to selfie mode in order to check the placement of the pads. You scream because you look like your mum/dad and that's scary. Hubby has taken to looking at my phone and seeing himself and screaming so I don't have to (I've got used to attaching it in the right place). This home based treatment lasts for half an hour every day for the first three weeks. After that it's every weekend.
You're warned that it may feel itchy, or even burn a little, but most patients adjust to it pretty quickly. I certainly did. There was a definite slightly burning sensation, then an itch, and on the second night, it itched like bonkers. I couldn't wait for it to finish, then I scratched my forehead like mad, but that hasn't happened again. Now it's a mild fizzy sensation and it's helping my mental help enormously.
To start at the beginning, where I should have started anyway...
I've suffered depression for well over forty years, on and off, ever since the births of my two kids. I wasn't made for motherhood, and they've survived despite me. I'm a creative artist, writer and adventurous minded bod who's fascinated by the wild west and the paranormal among many other subjects (I'm a renaissance soul in other words - Leonardo Di Vinci is my hero).
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I've self-published the first two novels of my epic western trilogy, Alias Jeannie Delaney - Book 1 - Go West, Girl! & Book 2 - The Outlaw's Return. I wanted to write it - I had to write it - I had no choice. I didn't know it at the time but I was writing about who I wanted to be to prove myself to my emotionally neglectful parents and siblings. But it literally did my head in. I've been on anti-depressants ever since, and most of them really helped.
Recently, however, in my desperation to 'get Jeannie (my protagonist) out there', wherever 'out there' is, most days in recent times I was pretty tearful. I wanted her 'out there' to show readers that women could be the hero in traditional westerns too, since my fascination for the wild west evolved when I was young, particularly the roles played by the wilder, cheroot chompin', gun totin' gals.
Going back two years ago I came across the Flow Neuroscience Headset, but at the time we passed it over as possible quackery. This time, however, I saw it again last autumn. It had been backed by the NHS, and the patient recovery rate was 77%. I was impressed and showed it to science-minded husband. This time, although the NHS no longer prescribed it here in Hampshire, but will do so in five years (too long to wait), we decided it was worth a try. It costs £400 but that's nothing if you can afford it and it gives you improved mental health.
The headset works by sending a gentle electrical charge through the pads into your mood-controlling Hippocampus, which sits at the front of your brain. A gentle stimulation helps to restore healthy brain activity. The headset is backed by over 30 years of research and clinical evidence to show it is safe and effective.
It won't work immediately - these things take time, and it won't work for everybody, but I can honestly say that I feel better and calmer than I've felt for a very long time. Hubby says I don't shout at him so much. I jolly well hope not! So yes, it does work. The great thing about it is that there are no drugs involved, nothing taken internally, nothing injected, no nasty side effects. Just a simple, gentle electrical charge. I would say it's a game-changer for those who suffer depression. Let's hope so.
ME!
Facebook Jo Ballantyne
ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY -
AN EPIC WESTERN TRILOGY
Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan was born in New Orleans and grows up in Wyoming. She's tomboy beautiful and notorious as the fastest gun west of the Mississippi - her snake strike speed and aim are legendary. To make matters even more intriguing her extraordinary sexuality - a shocking revelation - is as fluid as a miner's whiskey. Men and women alike enjoy the magnificence of her love making.
Will her powerful persona, her tomboy beauty and her lethal gun ultimately be the death of her?
IF YOU ENJOYED SHARON STONE STARRING IN THE QUICK & THE DEAD OR ANG LEE'S BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, YOU MIGHT LIKE ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY BOOKS 1 & 2!
IF YOU ENJOY MY BOOKS, I'D BE GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
OF JEANNIE
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SAMPLE BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL! |
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SAMPLES BOOK 2 - THE OUTLAW'S RETURN |
Tuesday, 11 February 2025
JO. B. CREATIVE!: 1000 READERS!
JO. B. CREATIVE!: 1000 READERS!: I'm absolutely delighted to have reached a readership number of one thousand! Wow! I'm delighted to have had features on a Readers...
1000 READERS!
I'm absolutely delighted to have reached a readership number of one thousand! Wow!
I'm delighted to have had features on a Readers Magnet spotlight video and two blogger acquaintances who featured Book 1 - Go West, Girl! and Book 2 - The Outlaw's Return
https://www.thefestivalofstorytellers.com/main-stage/author-of-the-hour-russell-j-rucker/
www.thefestivalofstorytellers.com
Books 1 & 2 featured in Smorgasbord Spotlight - a blog run by writer Sally Cronin:
https://jo-b-creative.blogspot.com/2024/01/smorgasbord-new-book-spotlight-western.html
https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2024/07/25/smorgasbord-new-book-spotlight-western-womens-adventure-the-outlaws-return-alias-jeannie-delaney-book-2-by-kit-mackenzie/
I was also featured in TET.LIFE (The Extraordinary Tourist
Blog).
https://www.tet.life/2023/09/guest-post-new-novel-alias-jeannie.html
https://www.tet.life/2024/06/guest-post-new-novel-alias-jeannie.html
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THE AUTHOR |
Facebook Jo Ballantyne
ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - AN EPIC WESTERN TRILOGY
Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan was born in New Orleans and grows up in Wyoming. She's tomboy beautiful and notorious as the fastest gun west of the Mississippi - her snake strike speed and aim are legendary. To make matters even more intriguing her extraordinary sexuality - a shocking revelation - is as fluid as a miner's whiskey. Men and women alike enjoy the magnificence of her love making.
IF YOU ENJOYED SHARON STONE STARRING IN THE QUICK & THE DEAD OR ANG LEE'S BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, YOU MIGHT LIKE ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY BOOKS 1 & 2! IF YOU ENJOY MY BOOKS, I'D BE GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
OF JEANNIE
|
SAMPLE BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL! |
|
SAMPLES BOOK 2 - THE OUTLAW'S RETURN |
Saturday, 1 February 2025
JO. B. CREATIVE!: MATILDA & ROB ZOMBIE DRAGULA
JO. B. CREATIVE!: MATILDA & ROB ZOMBIE DRAGULA: This is as off-piste as far as you can imagine from my usual posts about my epic western trilogy , (details below). I love this post for t...
MATILDA & ROB ZOMBIE DRAGULA
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This is as off-piste as far as you can imagine from my usual posts about my epic western trilogy, (details below). I love this post for two reasons: One, because it takes me away from the old/wild west and westerns and working on the story, and two, because son Tom came upon this YouTube clip quite by accident and loved it! He said: 'Mum and Dad are going to love it too.' He was right - it's brilliant! (No guarantee that you'll love it too, but give it a go).
Here it is:
God knows what it's about, but what the heck! It's a mix of Matilda the musical and Rob Zombie. Those kids' dancing is incredible - all in sync and their energy is brilliant. Oh that I could dance like that! I can't dance for toffee. 😄
My taste in music is vast and wide - mostly. I grew up with pop during the sixties and seventies - I loved 10CC, The Beach Boys, The Monkees..., Mike Oldfield, Michael Jackson, which was all fine.
I was brought up on sixties musicals that my parents loved and I tolerated, but I enjoyed tremendously certain classical music composers and pieces. Classics that make me shiver - Holst Planets, Sibelius, Elgar, Thomas Tallis... I enjoy listening to The Three Tenors and there are very occasional operatic pieces I like. I liked big band music from thirties and forties films, but as maturity has descended, my - and hubby's - tastes have expanded. He grew up on alternative music and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Fleetwood Mac.
I loved a lot of our adult kids' teenage music - the Chilli Peppers, Green Day, Metallica, and our son's thrash metal music passion. I can do without the lead singers throwing up down the mike, but the instrumental beat, drive and energy of the bands are fab and I enjoy listening to music he's just discovered.
I don't listen to classics much now because I'd much rather listen to up to date music. Is it, I asked myself, the principal of the thing because I've reached my seventies, or, in fact, is it because I actually love Dance, electronic, techno, and even some rap? No, I do love it! It makes me feel alive and energetic (although I'm a lazy sod) and that's the way it should/could be. It certainly is for us.
Facebook Jo Ballantyne
ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - AN EPIC WESTERN TRILOGY
Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan was born in New Orleans and grows up in Wyoming. She's tomboy beautiful and notorious as the fastest gun west of the Mississippi - her snake strike speed and aim are legendary. To make matters even more intriguing her extraordinary sexuality - a shocking revelation - is as fluid as a miner's whiskey. Men and women alike enjoy the magnificence of her love making.
IF YOU ENJOYED SHARON STONE STARRING IN THE QUICK & THE DEAD OR ANG LEE'S BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, YOU MIGHT LIKE ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY BOOKS 1 & 2! IF YOU ENJOY MY BOOKS, I'D BE GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
OF JEANNIE
|
SAMPLE BOOK 1 - GO WEST, GIRL! |
|
SAMPLES BOOK 2 - THE OUTLAW'S RETURN |
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