Category Archives: Uncategorized

I now have two friends posting QAnon memes on FB. I got curt enough to tell one of them her LARPing and posting memes wasn’t saving any children.

I also had to deal with a woman who responded to one of my posts about paranoia about Obama’s presidency (remember the FEMA concentration camps?) by claiming she’d been put in a “financial concentration camp” when the IRS targeted her for being a right-winger and billed her an outrageous amount of back taxes. She kept linking to evidence that proved absolutely nothing (yes, the IRS did subject a lot of tax-exempt right and left-wing groups to excess scrutiny but that’s not the same as “the IRS hit me with a big bous tax bill!”). So I blocked her.

And as sometimes happened, the realization how totally insane things have gotten left me completely freaked out for a bit.

On the plus side, I recommended my friend Sherry Harris’s new book, From Beer to Eternity, on Facebook, and people actually bought it! Signal successfully boosted (review to come this weekend).

Even so, this chaotic Powers cover expresses my mood this week well. #SFWApro, all rights to image remain with current holder.

So last weekend I walked Trixie and Wisp followed us the entire way. She always sounds upset when we go, but this time it sounded a little different — given how fast she tucked into her dinner I think she was hungry. But as we were going up one nearby street, she and Trixie saw a rabbit on someone’s lawn and both immediately stopped and dropped into Hunting stance.You can just make out the rabbit in this shot.Then TYG set down one of our treat containers in front of Plushie. He smelled ’em, but he couldn’t get to them so he looked up at Mommy for help.And while our dogs rarely snuggle together, they somehow wound up doing it on the couch after I got up.Hopefully all that will brighten your day and tide you over to the weekend.

#SFWApro.

As I mentioned last week, part of rewriting a story is knowing what’s essential to keep and what isn’t. Replotting Impossible Takes a Little Longer I’m thinking that some of my characters may, in fact, have become disposable. I like them, but they just don’t fit the story any more.

In the previous draft, KC’s aunt and uncle provide her with shelter when she’s framed for murder — only it turns out they’re being mind-controlled by the novel’s villain and call the cops on her. Now, although she’s still framed, she gets out of jail on a legal technicality. She doesn’t need to run and hide so she has no need to visit them. And even if she did, there’s no reason to report her to the cops. So I’ll probably establish they died some time prior to the story’s beginning.

KC’s friend Rachel played an even larger role but now she’ll be in one or two scenes at most. Her role included revealing a conspiracy; expressing a religious viewpoint opposite KC’s agnosticism (they’re both activists with similar politics but Rachel’s fueled by her faith, KC by her lack of faith); and providing some exposition near the end. The conspiracy is completely different and Rachel no longer knows anything about it; KC’s best friend Sarah has taken over the religious arguments; and another supporting character, Alyssa, is handling the exposition. And the bad guy changing KC’s personal history midway through the book will prevent Rachel from showing up (the person whose wedding they were getting together for now died years ago).

I like Rachel and I hope she’ll play a small role, but unless I see some new potential — the book’s short enough I could easily add her in if I hit on a fresh angle — that’s as far as it goes.

#SFWApro.

A friend of mine I’ve known since the 1970s passed this week. Heart attack, in case you were wondering.

I met Martin back when our families were hanging out together, due to being in the same theater group (as our mums eventually wound up becoming life partners, I imagine that was another reason). We continued in Stage Crafters together for years; we both worked in various capacities on Johnny Belinda, Fiddler on the Roof and many others. He was also in my D&D game, which I ran for about a decade. Plus we both read many of the same comics.

We haven’t spoken much in recent years — distance, plus some long-running health problems on his part means the last time we really spoke was at Mum’s funeral — I miss him. And I miss the sense of shared experience with someone else: jokes, pop-culture references, shared history, familiar quirks, all of that. Martin was only a few years younger than me so a lot of our pop-culture experience overlaps; the number of people I can say that about who I’m also still in regular touch with is smaller than it used to be (we scatter hither and yon over time). Even though we didn’t sit and discuss comics much any more, or reminisce about theater experiences, the fact that I can’t do that is … unsettling. It’s much like one of my friends who passed a few years ago; it surprised me how often I’d be thinking “I’ll have to tell him about that when I see him again … oh, crap.”

Martin was a funny guy, a smart guy and a talented actor. He’s far from the first of my friends to die, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

I’d add a photo but I couldn’t find any handy.

#SFWApro.

Due to her leg injury, we’ve been carrying Trixie downstairs in the morning. Thursday TYG did it in a laundry basket.Trixie is actually doing much better this week. She’s willing to pee and poop despite the strain it puts on her leg and she’s eagerly walking as far as we’ll let her. When TYG gets home in the evening, Trixie is excited and eager to play, though we’re careful there too about not letting her over-exert herself. I’m starting to hope surgery won’t be necessary, but we’ll see. Next appointment is in a little over two weeks. By then we’ll have some doggy PT under our belts, both at the vet and at home.

The best part is Trixie being so happy again. She’s such a lively little dog that when she was just quiet and listless the first couple of days, it felt awful.

It’s still disrupting our schedule — taking them out separately when I’m home alone takes more time (the shorter walks balance that out) and we haven’t taken her to daycare in a couple of weeks. But maybe the end is in sight. If not, and it’s surgery, so be it. Fingers crossed though.

#SFWApro. Photo is mine.

Because it can’t hurt to encourage people to buy my books, right? So here they are, with some links.

Atlas Shagged, a collection of short stories.

Atoms for Peace, set in a world where 1950s SF films (alien invasions! Pod people! Giant bugs) are everyday reality.Sex For Dinner, Death for Breakfast, my book on the James Bond films.

Cyborgs, Santa Claus and Satan, on 20th century made-for-TV specfic films.

The Wizard of Oz Catalog on the Oz books/movies/radio plays/stage plays and comic books.Screen Enemies of the American Way, my look at political paranoia in American movies and TV.

And most recently, Now And Then We Time Travel.I should have two more self-published books out next year. So don’t delay, start collecting my works today! Get the entire set! Everyone on your block will think you’re cool (this statement is for promotional purposes and cannot be treated as a binding commitment by the author).

#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holders.