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this election matters

Sometimes, I feel like I’m just coasting, letting the tide move me without even putting my oars in the water. I do my day job, take care of the animals, eat, sleep, and then start over the next day.

Other times, I get to do wonderful things or make myself do difficult things. Last week, I went to a conference. In a few weeks, I’ll go to LA for music and spend a couple of days at Disney by myself. After that, I need to go to Tucson to help my stepmother with a few things.

Difficult. Fun. Difficult.

In the middle of all that, I have a day job to do, and we have a national election coming up. I’ve never been more adamant about an election before this one. If we are to survive as a democratic republic, we must vote blue up and down the ticket.

I am a passionate proponent of women’s healthcare and reproductive choices, the LGBTQIA+ community, BIPOC equality, and taxing the rich. I want to elect the first woman president, and give her a blue senate and house so that we can make progress.

So, that said, please get out and vote. Our lives depend on it.

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the mirror

On January 6, 2021 the United States of America came under attack. This attack did not come from some foreign enemy. This attack did not come from radical Islam. This attack did not come from “antifa”.

This attack was perpetrated by our own homegrown, right-wing, “Christian” radicals.

This attack was enabled by law enforcement.

This attack was an attempt to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States in order to seat a dictator, an attempt directed by that would-be-dictator. This man stood at a podium and told this mob of devotees to march on the capitol and fight.

There was no widespread voter fraud. No ballets were “dumped”. No machines changed votes. The few cases of fraud that have been found were people voting for the would-be-dictator for their dead relatives.

The only reason people believe that there was fraud, that this election was irregular, is because the would-be-dictator told them there was.

This was not a protest asking the government to “please stop killing us for no reason” or to demand justice for vigilantes with badges to be held accountable. This was a base of people who have been continually lied to, regularly riled up in an “us against them” mentality and launched at an institution of the United States because one man wants to be king.

Like all cults, this may have started out as a fringe group of mostly harmless whackos, but the time has come for us to intervene. It’s time to bring in the deprogrammers and rip out the core of this cult before any more Americans are injured or killed.

I am reminded of this poem I wrote all the way back in 1992:

The Mirror

in the maddening chaos
of a wicked, walled-in world
where bigots rule the masses
their hate like flags unfurled
a generation’s genocide
comes off without a hitch
as the hatred born of pain and doubt
climbs to a fevered pitch
building through the centuries
of prejudice and fear
growing in the decades
of trials and treasured tears
the madness swirls and eddies
like the ocean’s tides and waves
feeding like a cancer
on the terror it creates
it seethes beneath the surface
just barely out of sight
waiting for the moment
it can slip into the light
a cold, dark hand, like death itself
slinks slowly from the dark
to reach into the shaded spot
found at a nation’s heart
as daylight dawns, the aftermath
finds a country on its knees
gazing into its history
bared for all the world to see
we sit in utter silence
star in shock at what we see
for the horror in that silence
is the mirror in front of me

As always, I hope you are staying safe and sane, Readers. I love you.

Cover Photo by ElevenPhotographs on Unsplash

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all I want for Christmas

I live a pretty charmed life. I have everything I need. I have most things I want. Like everyone, I struggle a little from time to time, but it always works itself out. Even in this year of darkness.

I won’t lie, things are pretty dark in this country right now. We have an administration refusing to believe reality and a virus just decimating our population. We have yet to see the full fallout of Thanksgiving gatherings, and Christmas is just around the corner. There will no doubt be yet another surge two weeks after that, because people will gather and we’re all tired of not having people we can touch and hug and be with.

Despite all that, I can’t complain about much.

I always have trouble answering the question, “What do you want for Christmas?”

Sure, there are material things I want: I need a new office chair, I’d like an air fryer…here lately more pajama/sweat pants are a good option.

Those are just things though. What I really want for Christmas are not things that anyone can buy online. I want you and your loved ones to be safe and healthy. I want a peaceful transition in the White House. I want the corona virus vaccine to be as effective as they are telling us it is and for it to be available to all. I want people to stop being assholes and care enough about others to wear masks, and stay home. I want the new year to bring with it good things.

Oh, yeah, and a book contract would be nice too.

Cover Photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash

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new beginnings

While Samhain ends the Celtic year and the new one begins, it doesn’t always feel like anything particularly new is happening as November dawns, particularly here in a modern world, where life no longer revolves around the growing seasons. This year, however…this year feels different.

I’m not just talking about an election, which to be fair I am quite happy about. The year 2020 began with me wrapping up work on my next book, and starting the arduous process of finding an agent/publisher.

Writing the book is the easy part.

I suck at self promotion and suffer some serious imposter syndrome at times. But I took the chance and started querying agents. And here, I stress started. I created a list of agents/agencies. I wrote my synopsis. I wrote my blurb. I sent a query. One.

And then I chickened out.

Instead of continuing that work, I started working on the next book. Like I said, writing is the easy part. But Friday morning, while I was working and refreshing election results, that agency sent me an email requesting my manuscript and synopsis. On top of the election results, I really felt like this weekend was the dawn of the new year.

Do we have a lot of work to do (on both counts), yes, we do. We have had four years where progress has been torn down and our nation cut open to display it’s rotten innards, and heavens know that getting an agent to read your book is only the beginning of seeing that book come to be.

We’ve taken a step into a new us, but the work is still to come.

Cover Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash