Wednesday, August 1, 2018

It’s Alive!


August 2018 Blog
It’s Alive!

 “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume Two: The Write Life” has been published and is available on Amazon. I am very happy and very proud of this book. I hope it will inspire writers to write, and help them realize that all writers go through ups and downs in pursuit of their craft. I also hope thry realize that persistence pays off in the long run.
It has taken me too long to get this done, but now I can pursue my other projects. Black Oak’s sequel only requires editing and it will be ready to publish. Then I can concentrate full time on my third Haiku collection “Global Warning” while also finishing the first draft of my Sam Rock sequel.
 “Global Warning”, I feel is an important undertaking in the current atmosphere where science, once again, is not taken seriously enough. I state here and now that I believe global warming (or climate change – for those who believe snow means global warming isn’t real) is real and serious and is currently affecting the quality of life all over the world.
I have lived nigh unto seventy-five years, and I have noticed the trend – not just the cycles (which are real) but the trend toward greater warmth, more violent storms and greater cold is real.
I also “tweet” with followers from all over the world and they are telling me the same. They are more miserable than they have ever been and for a longer period of time.
Although there have always been disasters, we now have instances of multiple and varied disasters on a daily basis and they are occurring globally. Note: here I am referring to “natural disasters”, not the man-made terrorist events that are also escalating. They will be the focus of another book.
I do not intend to debate global warming of climate change in this blog. That is for people with (hopefully) more intelligence than I have to do and (hopefully) come to an agreement on how best to keep us on this side of the tipping point – that point which we cannot recover, no matter what we do.
I do, however, intend that my Haiku chapbook “Global Warning” be enough (or heartfelt enough) to change some minds or at least strengthen the convictions of the minds that do agree with me.
I am also considering donating a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the book to further the cause. I am searching for a group to support to the extent my sales permit.
I’m not worried about the Earth dying in what’s left of my lifetime or my children’s or even my grandchildren’s. I am worried about our quality of life in the meantime. I am more miserable this summer than I have ever been before, and I can’t chalk it all up to age. I have seen the weather maps. I have seen the forecasts reporting temperatures above 100 F in places it has never been before and for many more days than usual in places it’s more common.
   Obviously, I feel strongly about this matter. Most especially, I feel it is not being taken seriously by enough people and certainly not by the people with the power to do anything about it.
So I will offer my words in hopes of fostering change as poets have done for centuries. The following, an extended Haiku, “Wet Sheets” was written over a several day period starting with a night during which I got very little sleep. It continued as more and more examples of weather related excesses continued the nightmare. In its entirety it will be the keynote of the collection.

I will also continue work on my novels, although I find it difficult this summer to write outside in my usual spot. Writing inside just is not as much fun and the distractions are far greater than taking time to watch the occasional bird at the feeder or a squirrel build its nest. I never knew they built nests in trees, but they do. I hope we can keep this world safe for them. They have no idea we are destroying the Earth out from under them. Guess I should write a Haiku about that too.
By next month, I intend to have the Black Oak sequel edited and well on its way to publishing. Also to have most of the Haiku gathered for “Global Warning”. Both will be a good month’s work.
Until that time, I welcome your reactions and responses to any of my blogs. I love to hear from my readers. Also, here are links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, if you care to share your thoughts with me there:
I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

All of my books are available on Amazon.

August features my YA novel, “The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery”, still available from Amazon. It’s a coming of age story in a very dysfunctional family and society and an attempt at making things better. https://tinyurl.com/y96zzp9u



This month’s featured poetry chapbook is, of course, my new “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume Two: The Write Life” also available from Amazon. https://tinyurl.com/ycqtq3mt