Published Works

About the Author

Heya!

I'm Jonathan Laidley, creator of both KindChicken.com and RudeChicken.com. Today, I'm a writer and RN, but my yesterday runs a whole gamut of uniforms. From delivering pizzas and dragging pallets of boxes through warehouses, to wearing ACU's and sitting at glass tables in a shirt n' tie. For the past thirteen years I've been an RN, most recently working between Psych and Corrections, before that detox, med surg, home care, MR/IDD, Sub-acute/LTC—wherever my dopamine needs could get their fill. Across it all I've had the (mostly) happy experience of meeting A LOT of people. Different people, from different places, doing different things, in vastly different situations, all just tryin' to make sense of all... this. *Gestures vaguely about*

So, what am I doing here?

Give me a min, I'll explain.

Look around. Like, really take a minute to *Look* around, at yourself, your life, and then your friends, and even non-friends lives, at least from what you can see. For nearly everyone, it's tough out there. Working more for paychecks that only go a fraction as far, being nickle and dimed by damn near everything, and the stresses of life finding their way through our families and relationships. We've been normalizing irrational coping mechanisms like crazy, and through it all, we've also been normalizing the subtle loss of ourselves, and what we see in the mirror.

You can't pour from an empty cup.

And the world is increasingly thirsty.

So the idea behind Kind Chicken was to create a...maybe different kind of motivational place. Where instead of saccharine, "zero calorie" content like, "You got this!" You'd find more real, lived in pieces, that help some of us feel seen. Those of us down in the trenches, the salt mines, both literal and metaphorical, often with a real focus on mental health and the promotion of self care. I try to cover a broad swath of topics and flavors, so between it all, there should be something for everyone, regardless of your taste.

I write stories that focus on nostalgia, to bring you back to when things might not have been better, but they definitely were simpler, and more pure. When you had less on your plate, and had room to truly feel excitement and wonder again. Some of my stories are think pieces, to help you shift frame a bit, offer some perspective, imagination, maybe a bit of the shine or magic back into things. I want to remind some of us that in life you'll be a hundred different versions of yourself, and every day you stare into that bathroom mirror you can choose which one you want to be.

Least I hope to.

As for Rude Chicken? Oh lord. I work night shift for a reason. I'm a Boston boy, where love is a 4 letter word commonly and fully interchangable with other choice 4 letter words. My humor is dark, my sensibilities are even darker. A duality of poultry if you will... or won't. RC is a different flavor of writing altogether. Insults and roasts ranging from the stupid and petty to the severe and "omfg." Newsletters and videos that span from unhinged rants and disintegrating streams of consciousness to random series that appealed to me at the time. All of which may or may not come with a side of social commentary between the lines, or it might be a side of ranch, I'm not usually sure until much later. Rude Chicken is for those with a coarser sense of humor, and if I can make you laugh, I'm happy. Laughter is indiscriminately cathartic, and these days we need more of it.

Sometimes I'll find myself in a different head space that finds me writing something that doesn't fit in KC or RC. These I'll submit to literary journals and various publications. Once in awhile someone will like them enough to publish them. You can check those pieces out here. This side of my work includes various forms of prose, lyrical essays, hybrids, some poetry and experimental "I got no idea what this actually is." that come from a place in my head where emotions and words blend in unusual ways. I'll update the list as they come, and of course you're welcome to check back any time you'd like.

Ultimately, I'm here to do what I can and help out. We know life ain't fair, and tomorrow ain't promised to any of us. So let's try to have some fun with it. KC will bring the cookies, RC will spike the punch, and somewhere at the end of it all, we'll break bread somewhere between the two.

Thanks for stopping by,
— Jon