Monday, October 1, 2018

Hostile Environment!


October 2018 Blog

We live in such an angry world lately. A lot of it has been brought about by the political upheaval we are forced to abide day in and day out in this country and so many others. We scarcely notice that Mother Nature is staging a soon to be irreversible upheaval herself.


Hostile Environment: A Haiku
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky
We all live in such
An angry world, even the
Weather knows no bounds.

I am reminded of the story so well told by Pierce Brosnan’s character in the movie “Dante’s Peak” (one of my favorite movies): “A frog put in boiling water will jump out, but one put in cold water will stay as the water is heating up and be boiled to death.”
It seems we are the frogs – in both the environmental world and the political boiling pot. As a whole, we are sitting in the kettle doing nothing, while it simmers- ever closer to the boil.
I usually stay away from the political arena for the same reason I shy away from contemporary fiction. I am more comfortable with the way things were than the way they are.
But I’ve lived so many years, I cannot help but make some telling observations. We (the United States) and the world are going backwards even as we make such great technological advances.
We have lost ground in civil rights and women’s rights – even to prominent women in Iraq being executed ostensibly for being prominent.
Certain factions are doing their darnedest to roll back the rights gained by women (Roe vs. Wade) and the LGBTQ community (not sure where baking a cake ranks on the religious scale) as well as minorities being systematically denied access to voting.
I s it any wonder these narrow-minded individuals also deny that Mother Nature is having a go at us? Their blinders do not allow insight into science. Their explanation for denying climate change is that weather always fluctuates (we have seasons, don’t we?). Therefore there cannot be global warming if we still have winters.
Arguing that science is fake, they claim that the creators of the Earth would not allow it (or us) to be destroyed.
Hello! It has happened before to this and other planets, and it will happen again. A sentient creator has nothing to do with it. It is the way of the Universe and has been for far longer than these same people will allow the Universe has existed.
Back to our anger. I believe it is fomented by our discontent. We are no longer blissfully ignorant enough to accept what our “betters” are telling us. We are resentful that they seem to be dragging us kicking and screaming down the path they want us to follow.
As for a solution? I see none and that is frustrating. If the tables or the tides turn, the anger will simply erupt on the other side. Tolerance and acceptance seem to have gone by the wayside. And religions once thought to be all-embracing and accepting have retreated behind a wall of exclusivity and exclusion.
So what does that have to do with my writing? I’m having a hard time getting past these life concerns. I am little able to concentrate on my writing, my editing or my publishing.
It doesn’t help that I’ve run into a major snag on editing my Black Oak sequel: “Vengeance Bound”. It seems it’s taken so long to write, that some of the sections have lost their continuity. I also discovered a lost chapter that I wrote, that was typed into the computer, printed and then promptly lost. When I started back up writing again, I knew I had written something, but could not find it, and it apparently was not saved in the computer file. So, I rewrote what I thought I had written. Now, having found the original, it seems I have the posse arriving in Laramie both before and after the brotherhood of shapeshifters left on the stage and/or train before heading further west.
As soon as I get my timeline and continuity straightened out, I’ll get the sequel published and get to “Global Warning”, my Haiku chapbook about climate change.
I want to get those and my Sam Rock sequel published before year’s end. However, I also need to get the second Castleweaver chapbook published before year’s end, or it’s not going to be the 30th Anniversary of its first publishing.
Where has the year gone? (that question from the person who calls herself the world’s best (worst?) procrastinator. Oh, yes, NaNoWriMo starts November 1st. Guess I have the rest of the year cut out for me.
Until next 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.

October’s featured novel is my 1940’s noir fiction “The Seasons of Sam Rock” https://tinyurl.com/ydftx4xq


This month’s featured poetry chapbook is “Life's Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku: Volume One: One for the Book” http://tinyurl.com/zuayqu8