September 25, 2026 · 4:30 pm

This time I didn’t duck the axe-man

If you imagine distracting events as the axe-men Luke Cage is busting on this cover —

— then unlike last week, the third axe-man did me in. Almost nothing got done this week.

I knew it wouldn’t be a stellar week because TYG had an out-of-town trip which left me with all the dog care (not a criticism of her — she does the same when I go out of town). Still it wouldn’t have been too bad, except early Sunday morning Trixie’s UTI returned. Peeing on the bed does tend to rob one of sleep. Monday I had to take her in; the vet confirmed it’s a different bacterial soup inside her from last time. This could mean some bacteria got antibiotic resistance or that her equipment is looser and weaker., leading to incontinence. Either way it’s treatable.

Happily the UTI doesn’t seem to affect anything else. She’s lively, up for walks, eats, snuggles. No small thing.

In the short term, however, I got minimal sleep Saturday and Sunday night (she got up early Monday morning too). Then Monday night I was too stressed with worry to sleep well and felt half-dead Tuesday. Need I say I didn’t get much done? Wednesday was better but not much better. TYG returned and I got more sleep Wednesday night. However Thursday I was still tired and we had a recheck for Trixie to go to.

Result? Almost nothing done. Some work on Savage Adventures and a final review of my two stories for Become the Sky. We’re shooting to get it done next month so that has to be a priority.

However, as I’ve blogged about several times over the years, some bad weeks are inevitable. Sooner or later you hit a week where everything goes wrong. This ain’t the first. Won’t be the last. The solution is to do better next week. This will be a little challenging — three different medical appointments for various things — but I shall do my best to rise to the challenge.

To end on a plus note, I sold several copies of various books so as always, thank you buyers! Hope you enjoyed them.

Cover by Billy Graham. All rights to image remain with current holders.

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September 25, 2026 · 5:15 am

I love finding a hidden mustache in my wine!

I know I blogged about wine labels Wednesday but I figured I’d save these three matching labels for today.

As with so many labels, I’m not sure the mustache and glasses scream Drink Me. But then we get this one—

Here we do indeed have the mustache hidden. But then there’s the third photograph—

Am I right the woman’s glasses are the hidden mustache? Or is it so hidden we can’t see it? Also this is the first time I noticed the label catchphrase, “I mustache you a question.”

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September 24, 2026 · 5:12 am

What we’re seeing now was completely predictable

As I wrote Monday, the chainsaw RFK Jr. has taken to America’s medical and health systems was completely predictable before his confirmation. That’s also true of everything else the Toddler Administration has done.

“Sensible centrists” have pushed back against that idea. The Toddler wouldn’t be so bad. The system’s guardrails would constrain him. His cabinet would be the “adults in the room” — let’s just ignore the question of whether the president needing adults in the room is a bad thing. There were constant first-term stories about how this or that decision or statement showed him becoming presidential, at last. And there was always the image of the imaginary Republicans buoying him up: as a Republican, the Toddler will naturally balance the budget, support the troops, be a good steward, etc.

As Paul Campos says, “Donald Trump was impeached twice during his first term. He was at the end of those four years responsible for exactly half of the presidential impeachments in the nation’s history. The second impeachment featured the first senatorial votes ever from a president’s own party to remove him by conviction. Correction: Mij455 points out that Mitt Romney voted to convict on one of the two counts in the 2019 (first) impeachment. (2) Trump spent two months after the 2020 election trying to overthrow the government. This was done largely in public at the time, with many more details emerging over the next three years. (3) In between the 2020 and 2024 elections, Trump was convicted of 36 felonies, unrelated to his sedition.” Plus a jury confirmed that he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll.

Yet America still voted for him over the far more qualified, competent, sane Kamala Harris. It didn’t hurt that the media made Biden’s age an issue while ignoring the Toddler’s incompetence, stupidity and unfitness (at the link, a quote from someone at the NYT says if Biden dropped out then they’d focus on the Toddler’s unfitness. But they didn’t). And that the Toddler’s greatest edge is that people kept projecting on him what they wanted to hear. He talks of mass deportations, they hear “not honest, hard-working immigrants like me.” He denies any connection to Project 2025, lots of people believe him. He appointed enough anti-abortion judges to kill Roe yet he’s not going to be virulently anti-abortion.

Nothing in the Toddler’s second term is a surprise. Massive red ink. Possibly unsafe construction in his precious ballroom. The appointment of unqualified toadies like Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel and Todd Blanche. That the self-confessed “grab them by the pussy” guy was close friends with Jeffrey Epstein and his attorneys general are covering up the files. That the whiny cry-baby in the Oval Office is lashing out and seeking revenge on anyone who ever hurt his snowflake fee-fees — my god, some people actually thought the Toddler should suffer consequences! He never has to suffer consequences! SecDef Pete Hegseth’s incompetence was obvious a year ago (the linked article was optimistic he was going down). We saw Nazis flock to the Toddler in his first term; it’s no surprise they’re a bigger problem now (more here). And the conservative POC and gays who thought they were One Of The Good Ones learns how conditional MAGA approval is. Hell, Texas Republicans are perfectly happy with Bo French, a political candidate who openly says we should be Rhodesia.

And yet a year ago, the NYT was lecturing Toddler opponents to remember he won the election, that much of what he was doing was legal (they hand-wave that much of it was not) and that Americans widely supported less immigration. Isn’t it possible concerns about the Toddler will turn out overwrought? That he’ll do more good than harm? That his policies will be effective?

Which sounds like a lecture they could have given civil rights marchers or early feminists: lots of American support Jim Crow and patriarchy, don’t sound so confrontational! Things aren’t that bad! The sensible centrist position Martin Luther King excoriated. Just as it was obvious nothing but direct action would change segregation, it was obvious a year ago what a nightmare the Toddler was creating. And as his popularity spirals down, he may create worse.

As Campos puts it (quoting a commenter), “I can’t think of a single prominent political position which has been more thoroughly refuted by ensuing events than the notion that liberals were overreacting about Donald Trump. Occasionally people wonder why advocates of the Iraq War are not held in lower esteem for being wrong about its disastrous consequences. By my count this is worse.”

If we make it through the Toddler area and back to normalcy (and the Republicans definitely do not want a return to normal democracy), the “no problem” people will insist they were right. Which is like arguing our victory in WW II proved Hitler wasn’t a threat. The people hand-waving the Republican threat are utterly wrong and deserve low esteem. We shouldn’t let them off the hook.

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September 23, 2026 · 5:15 am

I will blog about no wine before it’s time`

Title riffs on Orson Welles’ commercials for Paul Masson wine. Because yes, it’s another wine label photography post.

I’m puzzled how that image suggests “Bodyguard” or for that matter wine. Though it is pretty.

This one looks very vineyard though it’s also less memorable.

This one is more memorable but again, what’s the connection between storm spirits and wine?

My favorite of this week’s labels, though I’m not sure “Rabble” really screams Drink Me. Nor do I see the kind of mob scene I’d associate with Rabble on the label.

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September 22, 2026 · 12:21 pm

Mamdani, Manchin, Epstein: quick notes

There are parts of NYC that have a shortage of public restrooms. Mayor Zohram Mamdani’s solution: high-tech port-a-potties with a 10-minute limit. He’s also working on a tech policy to make city services run smoother: “Every confusing step and every dead-end portal makes it more difficult for government to deliver for New Yorkers, and for New Yorkers to trust that government is working to deliver for them. Every straightforward experience New Yorkers have on city platforms rebuilds that trust and our PIT crews will help us do exactly that.”

Former West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin recently announced he’s forming a new political grift — er, group — to push politicians towards the center. At the link, my assumption was that this means pushing Dems rightwards, not pushing Republicans leftwards. Sure enough, he’s supporting Sen. Susan Collins against her Democratic challenger on the ground she always does the right thing. Yeah, like supporting RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth for cabinet posts. And wringing her hands in concern over the Toddler Administration’s policies, then voting to support them anyway. I called it on Manchin.

Then we have new AG Todd “I’m so over the Epstein Files” Blanche refusing to turn over more files despite a judge’s order. Rep. Thomas Massie has been pushing for the release of the files as well as the impeachment of Hegseth. By a strange coincidence, Speaker Mike Johnson has recessed the House early …

Speaking of Jeffrey Epstein, “Two women whose images as girls ‌were found in pornography seized from Jeffrey Epstein filed a class action lawsuit on Wednesday seeking damages from the late sex offender’s estate for individuals featured in his collection of thousands of pictures and videos of child sexual abuse material.

The lawsuit seeks ​at least $6 million on behalf of more than 40 people, some of whom were in Epstein’s ​so-called “modeling book,” a collection of sexualized images of children seized by federal investigators in ⁠2019 from his New York home, according to the filing, opens new tab in Manhattan federal district court.” Obviously getting money from his estate won’t make things worse for Epstein, but it still feels like a little bit of justice.

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September 22, 2026 · 5:23 am

Let No Man Put Asunder: the character arcs

As I’ve mentioned before, Let No Man Put Asunder is a rewrite of my second novel. I rewrote it in the 1990s and improved it with no better result getting publisher or agent attention. I tried a third rewrite which never got a finished draft, and now this version, which is much stronger. Maybe not stronger yet than version two — that one was really good — but I think it will be by the time I finish.

Last week I discussed one of the changes from the previous versions: a much larger cast. Going over the manuscript this week and thinking about Paul and Mandy’s character arcs, I saw another problem. To wit, that I’ve given them similar character arcs to their earlier incarnations, Neil and Adrienne, and they’re not the same people.

Neil and Adrienne were in a good place when their adventures began. Adrienne, an archeology/history buff, daydreams of uncovering lost cities; Neil fantasizes about being a hardboiled PI. That’s as far as their discomfort goes. I wanted to make them ordinary people, happy in their lives, when they’re dragged into a crazy world of adventure against their will.

Paul and Mandy aren’t in a good place. Paul’s dispute with his parents over his academic future has ended with them cutting off support; he’s now busing tables at a greasy spoon to support himself. Mandy, after years caring for her invalid father and raising her five siblings (Mom decided Dad’s terminal illness was too much to deal with so she split). Now her dad is dead, her brothers and sisters are out of the house, she’s ready to start living her own life … and yet she has no idea what to do next (there are reasons).

I have a rough idea of their emotional state when the book starts but going over it made me see I need a much stronger grasp. Paul in particular. Mandy could keep going the way she is for a while; Paul’s feeling a lot more stress. Does he want to resume his academic life? Make a clean break? Reconcile with his parents? Build a life without them?

As I’ve blogged about several times, Orson Scott Card breaks down four types of stories. They can center on the milieu, a question, the character arc or the plot. Maria in Southern Discomfort starts in crisis and ends with the crisis resolved. Her experiences in Pharisee Ga. stem partly out of her own decisions. Paul and Mandy, on the other hand, didn’t do anything. Other hands pulled strings and brought on the crisis in which they find themselves, hunted by mercenaries through the streets of Bluestone, Pa. It’s more plot-driven than character driven

Nevertheless, the first chapter is heavily focused on their personal problems and their discomfort with their lives. The ending chapter, at least in the second draft deals with them wrapping up their personal conflicts or at any rate making a start on fixing them. Their character arc is just as important as the plot arc. I have to know where they are at the start and how the adventure changes them. Unlike Neil, Paul doesn’t fantasize about being Sam Spade or Mike Hammer and he’s not getting a thrill off being plunged into danger. And the revelations about how he got involved in this will be way more unsettling than what Neil discovered.

Neil’s arc also involved him meeting his dream woman — not necessarily eternal love, but way more than the casual affairs he’s experienced. As I wrote in the previous post, Cordelia/Paul doesn’t seem to work the same way, so maybe not. For Mandy, I have a clearer idea of her ending arc and ideally sex is part of it — but again, the guy she sleeps with doesn’t seem to fit the book at all. Different lover? Change the arc? I’m not sure.

While there’s clearly a lot of work ahead, all of this is fixable. Hopefully without taking as long as I usually do.

Cover image by Sam Collins, all rights are mine.

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September 21, 2026 · 5:15 am

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., bringer of plague and death

“Make America healthy again you say? So open up thousands more hospitals around the country especially in rural areas or towns where private equity is buying them up and stripping them for parts? Make healthcare free for all? Invest in a big push to train and hire more doctors and healthcare workers? Is that what they want to do?” — Luke O’Neil, who points out the answer is no.

Neither RFK nor anyone in the Toddler Administration wants to make us healthier. Rather than help people they’d sooner see the poor and uninsured die and decrease the surplus population. After all, they have money and world-class healthcare — they’ll never have to worry about being part of the surplus. Whatever hellish effect RFK is about to have on preventive medicine, he’ll make out fine.

Minorities, though? “The Health Department’s office to improve the health of minorities has abruptly terminated more than half its existing grants, saying they didn’t focus on the Trump administration’s new priorities of addressing infertility and encouraging exercise. Some grantees provided cancer screenings or postpartum home visits. Others worked to reduce first-responder suicide or decrease obesity among Native American youth. All of the funds came from the Office of Minority Health, which the administration tried to shutter last year.”

Kennedy, of course, is an anti-vax zealot. Measles is killing Americans again, probably way more than we know of, but the response from Kennedy’s department and the anti-vax movement is deny, deny, deny — measles didn’t kill them, total coincidence they had it when they died. Kennedy says that of course he cares about the dead children but “They get headlines. We should care about the children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries.” Never mind that measles is a serious threat and vaccines are not, Kennedy’s got a crackpot conspiracy theory to push! Speaking of which, his department’s also investigating the non-existent threat of chemtrails.

As Scott Lemieux says, “The strategy that RFK Jr. is using to try to deny responsibility for the effects of his measles outbreak is the same one Bari Weiss tried to use to diminish the impact of the food blockade in Gaza — since the people who face the worst consequences are often those with other health problems, pretend that it’s really only the other health problems that matter, The cynicism and amorality in both cases is readily apparent. There are people dead who would still be alive in Pennsylvania if not for RFK Jr.’s tireless anti-vaccine activism, and many many more who have become seriously ill.” I’ll go out on a limb and say RFK won’t be so careful about causes of death when he investigates whether covid vaccines killed members of the military.

By contrast, Kennedy talks a good game about environmental poisons and eating healthy but the reality? Fruit-flavored vapes are back on the market. Plus “The FDA recently hit a record 19 simultaneous outbreak investigations, covering everything from infant formula to jalapeños” while cutting inspection staffing. Cattle ranchers will be free to inspect their own meat under a rule to “allow some smaller ranches to bypass USDA-inspected processing facilities” But the Toddler doesn’t care about them: he’s happy to undercut meat prices by shipping in mystery meat bought from a friend of Melania’s. Oh, and at least one Toddler judge has ruled there’s no obligation on government utilities to provide clean drinking water.

As Lemieux says, every Republican Senator except Mitch McConnell voted for Kennedy, even though they knew perfectly well what his policies were. Senator Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) is expressing great concern for the damage RFK Jr. is doing but he voted him in. So did my senators, Thom Tillis and Ted Budd; Tillis said he voted yes because Kennedy would be a disruptor in healthcare. As I say at the link, I don’t want my healthcare disrupted — I doubt Budd or Tillis would want that, but theirs isn’t at risk.

But they’re fine with the rest of us dying.

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September 20, 2026 · 12:14 pm

Shall we go over the rainbow? Yes we shall!

The Genre Book Club’s topic for September was “banned classics.” As I didn’t feel like reading anything heavy, I went with THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ because yes, it has been banned occasionally — most notably in the 1950s, on the grounds Ozma making sure no-one in her country goes hungry was communist propaganda! And I love the Oz series, so why not?

I’m guessing nobody reading this needs me to explain the story. Suffice to say, the book remains charming, both Baum’s story and W.W. Denslow’s delightful art (below) — though disagreements with Baum led to John R. Neill taking over as illustrator of Oz for most of the series.

What’s most remarkable is that Baum makes me believe in Oz. There’s no world-building, no magic system, yet everything works. When Dorothy and her friends wander into a country of living China dolls late in the book, there’s no set up, nothing that explains why this exists in Oz, but I don’t doubt that it does. That is way harder than it looks.

As a fan of the series as a whole, it’s also interesting to see how the beginning differed from what followed. The implication here is that Oz is an isolated area in the American wilderness, something not implausible in 1900 (Ozma of Oz establishes Oz is its own continent). The deadly desert that surrounds Oz is simply a desert here; later books establish it’s lethal to touch it. Oz appears to be the name of the wizard, not the country. But regardless of such Oz-nerdery, this is a wonderful book.

THE WIZARD OF OZ CATALOG: L. Frank Baum’s Novel, It’s Sequels, and Their Adaptations for Stage, Television, Movies, Radios, Music Videos, Comic Books, Commercials and More was my second book for McFarland (it’s still available) and my best seller: as I guessed when I proposed it, interest in Oz drew a lot of attention.

Rereading it now, it suffers from the fact so many of the adaptations have the same basic plot (something I handled better in Watching Jekyll and Hyde, I think). However it’s still an impressive, exhaustive job. And it’s fascinating to be reminded of the Oz legend’s global reach with Australian, English, Turkish, Russian, Brazilian and Japanese adaptations and spinoffs; of the nerdy enthusiasm of fanfic authors for giving even the most obscure characters their own stories; and the many strange takes out there such as Ken Kesey’s Twister, described as “the single weirdest production in this book, and that’s saying something.”

It’s also amazing how flexible the Oz story is. Take one person who’s stupid (or thinks they are), one person who’s heartless and a third whose cowardly and people know what’s going down. I’ve seen that adapted to sales videos, How To Use The Library training films, and a Fantasy Island episode.

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September 19, 2026 · 5:19 am

Dead Templars, a bouncer and a virgin: mediocre movies and TV

The Spanish film THE BLIND DEAD (1972), AKA Tombs of the Blind Dead, didn’t do much for me but it was popular enough to spawn three sequels. After an argument with her traveling companions, a young woman gets off the train she’s riding and takes shelter for the night in an old castle. This unfortunately stirs up the inhabitants: Templars hung in medieval times for their Satanic practices after which crows pecked out their eyes. The blind Templars rise out of their tombs and go on a killing spree, hunting their prey by sound (so The Quiet Place would be a good double bill). It’s a competently executed film, but it didn’t do much for me. “Black masses are a thing of the past, doctor.”

I watched ROAD HOUSE (1989) because TYG had it streaming last weekend; I’ve never seen it before and can’t say I missed anything. Patrick Swayze plays Dalton, a bouncer — sorry, a “cooler” which is apparently a head bouncer — who takes a job bringing order to Tombstone — er, to a wild, rowdy road house which is also under threat from local extortionist Ben Gazzara (I assume he took the gig for the money but he makes his villain far better than the film deserves). This is predictable — I figured out the fate of Swayze’s mentor (Sam Elliott) as soon as he showed up — but adequate to fill some time with. “It seems everywhere I go, I hear that same joke.”

VIRGIN OF THE SECRET SERVICE (1968) pits dauntless Captain Robert Virgin (Clinton Greyn), his aide Doublett (John Cater) and adventurer/photographer Mrs. Cortez (Veronica Strong) against German schemes to bring down the empire. In the first, the bad guys are working with an Afghan ruler to weaken British control of the area; in the second, they’re sponsoring a Chinese conspiracy. Teaming Cortez and Virgin makes me think they’re shooting for a Steed and Mrs. Peel vibe but despite some tongue-in-cheek moments they don’t come anywhere near close. Nor do lines about “Chinks” and the Yellow Peril go over well. I gave up on this after a couple of episodes. “Did you know French girls sit around in their birthday suits?”

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September 18, 2026 · 4:39 pm

So far I’m one step ahead of the axe-men

You know, these axemen. I’ve posted this Billy Graham cover before because it sums up the way life keeps bushwhacking us just when we think we’re out from under. There were more axemen this week than expected but like the first week of September, the work got done.

A lot of the distractions were paperwork, like submitting for our dogs various recent vet visits, ordering fresh dog drugs, etc. There was also tiredness due to Trixie’s drug regimen keeping up up late to get the last ones in. Her UTI and her GI issues have resolved themselves, though, and the drugs are done. However she developed a slightly shaky left rear leg so we have an appointment this Saturday. It’s nothing serious but it’s definitely not normal — I don’t want to wait for serious discomfort like we did with the GI bleed.

Despite the leg, she’s 100 percent better from last weekend. Hungry, bouncy, eager to play, willing to walk and just more her usual self. Dudley too is in good shape. We had his rehab recheck Monday and the vet gushed over the great shape he’s in for nearly 16. Yay Dudders, yay vet, yay us for taking good care.

Overall life was nowhere near as intense as last week. However it was intense enough I didn’t really get to draw breath, either.

So, walk. As one of my October articles for The Local Reporter is a listicle of Carrboro nonprofits I spent Monday researching them. There’s quite a lot for a small town so it’s a good thing I started. I imagine I’ll break them down into different groupings (kid-related, sports, arts, charity, etc.) when I write it next week.

I’ve proofed The Savage Adventures through 1937 which is about 45 percent of the book done. Having reread the second draft of Let No Man Put Asunder last week, I began planning Draft Three. That meant reading a lot of articles about rewriting, developing character arcs, etc., then starting work on Paul and Mandy’s character arcs (details next week). That was very productive; hopefully the work will translate into a smooth, faster-than-usual draft.

My two stories for the Become the Sky anthology have gotten two rounds of editing so I made changes Thursday. This took longer than expected so I didn’t write anything further. However the critiques were really good and the stories are stronger for it. So yay. If all goes well we’ll have this out before year’s end so you can decide for yourself.

Oh, and my sensitive teeth appear to be getting back to normal so maybe a crown won’t be necessary. Hurray! Second hurray, I sold another copy of Southern Discomfort. Whoever you were, thank you — I hope you enjoy it.

After I wrote the first draft of this post, I realized something else about this week: I’m waaaaay more focused than I have been in a while. I’m having no trouble concentrating on my work and only wandering off to check BlueSky (or whatever) occasionally. That hasn’t been the case in … a while? I’m not sure what changed but hopefully I can keep it up next week (much chaotic stuff to deal with, details next Friday). Because it feels good.

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