Sunday, December 1, 2019

What’s Up?


December 2019 Blog


There are myriad answers to this simple question – endless even.

What’s Up? A Haiku
Simple question – so
Many answers, from “All’s good!”
To the worst: “Nothing”.
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

Today is December 1, 2019 – the first day of the last month of this year.  The most obvious answer to “What’s Up?” is the year. For all intents and purposes, it’s pretty much over.
Since my birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, I am doubly thankful. First, that I survived another year on this earth, and second that I still have all my faculties (well, reasonably so).
I am not happy with my lack of progress this year. Just figured out there’s a couple of ways I can handle that. I can bemoan the fact and be miserable, or I can look forward to doing better next year.
For sanity’s sake (mine and that of my dear husband who types all this and my novels), I’ve chosen the latter path. I’m going to spend December wrapping up the year and actually making a plan for next year (in which I accomplish amazing things).
Hey, at my age, it’s better to look forward than to look back. Although my horizons may be limited, I still have horizons, and I intend to pursue them.
My biggest accomplishment this year was getting the #audiobook version of “The Cottage out there for all to hear and appreciate. There’s a link in my “featured” section. I also have a few codes left for free promos for my friends and readers out there who would like to hear the brilliant job that Christine Brewer does on the narration. Just let me know.
I have a lot more to look forward to. I’m just finishing up my “Chronicles of Acqueria: The Early Years” and should have it ready for publication by spring.
Eldreth is bugging me to finish his novel, and Sam Rock would really like his sequel published.  He really wants to put an end to his nemesis Marie Delacroix (or maybe not).
I’m also way behind on my Haiku chapbook and am currently reviving my interest in some longer, rhyming works that have languished over the years.
Then there’s the Chronicles of Acqueria sequel “Homecoming” and the stand alone Forest-North epic “Shadra’s Song”.
All are waiting for me to put pen to paper. (Plus my DH needs to keep his typing skills up.)
I’m writing this outside while the sun is shining, therefore I’m in a good mood. Although  Winter has barely started, I’m already suffering from S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder). The grayness of the cloudy and stormy days really gets me down – even more so with my Macular Degeneration affecting how much light I can see. As it progresses, things are getting darker and darker. But I can still see and I’m grateful for that.
So here I sit and write. I am in my glory. Happy as a clam or whatever is happy in a warm hooded jacket, wrapped in a blanket, sitting on a lawn chair, smiling.
I really don’t want to quit and go inside, but duty and household chores beckon, and I must oblige. So here’s to the happiest of holidays and the greatest of New Years to you and yours – and world peace and harmony while I’m at it. (I might as well think big.)
This month, in honor of its #audiobook debut, I’m featuring The Cottage”. It is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/ybobdpuy. Also, if you’d like a code for a free listen, contact me. I’ve got a few promo codes left. And here’s the link to the #audiobook itself: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0816RWMXY/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-171456&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_171456_rh_us



At Eldreth’s request, my featured poetry for December will be both Castleweaver Chapbooks:  “The Castleweaver's Tales: A Dozen Glimpses of Medieval Madness: 25th Anniv. Ed” – available from Amazon at: https://tinyurl.com/y9d8czj4  and “The Castleweaver’s Tales: The Madness Continues”  https://tinyurl.com/y2up63fg



Until next time, keep the faith. Keep writing and keep reading. Enjoy what makes you happy. There is far too little happiness in this world these days.
As always, 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:
As all of my books are available on Amazon, I’m also including a link to my Amazon Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:



Friday, November 1, 2019

Write On


November 2019 Blog

Today is the first day of the rest of my writing life, again.
Write Away: A Haiku
NaNoWriMo reigns
Supreme, demands I fulfill
Declared prophesy.
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky



Today is November 1, 2019 – the first day of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month – https://nanowrimo.org) for this year and their 20th Anniversary, I have been participating for most of those years, if not all. It seems their records only go back to 2011. I have penned at least 50,000 words each of those years.
50,000 words are not enough for a full-length novel, so I always tried to finish in December with NaNoFiMo (National Novel Finishing Month), but I’m not sure they still exist. Haven't seen a NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) for a while either.
This year will be no different, except I’ll do my 1,667-2,000 words with more determination this year, since I really need to complete all my projects. One never knows when one won’t be able to do it anymore.
Once again, I’ll try to finish by November 28th, which is my birthday – a lovely little present to myself.
It still takes about 2 ½ hours a day to accomplish the writing goal. Haven’t figured out a way yet to write any faster, and it’s about the fastest my little fingers can fly. I still write with pen and paper and my dear husband still types everything into the computer for me. I am so lucky.
Hopefully, I will be able to sit out in my backyard and write (my absolute favorite place to avoid the distractions of the world).  However, the weather is finally turning bitter cold after a long, hot, hot summer, so I may have to retreat inside and take to my bed with classical music playing in the background and only my puppies to sit on my lap and help me. I can’t tolerate hearing words or lyrics to songs, as it breaks my train of thought and prevents my characters from talking to me and telling me where they think they should go. Sometimes we argue about it. Sometimes I say no.  But usually we agree that they know best what they are doing. Probably the only time when I allow that the little voices in my head exist.
This year I’m again working on The Chronicles of Acqueria series and should have a new book ready to publish the first of the year. I’ll also be publishing a new edition of the first book, “Blood Moon Treachery” so all my prequels and sequels will match up. Noticed some definite conflicts with hair color and family trees have cropped up, so I will be solving them.
As always, I look forward to NaNoWriMo and NaNoFiMo more than I do Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I’m just strange that way. After all, I am a writer. (That explains a lot.)
As I head into 2020, I hope my new-found momentum gathers speed. I plan on accomplishing a lot this next year. Who knows how many more years I will be able to. I’m getting the feeling I’m definitely pushing the envelope. I surely don’t want to have to stop with so many of my stories untold, so many of my heroes (literary) unsung.
I will be posting daily results on Twitter and Facebook this year – maybe even post a tantalizing excerpt or two. That will be along with my daily Haiku. I can’t give that up. It’s part of my daily routine.
My computer is bearing up well, so I shouldn’t  have any technical problems this year. And I will endeavor to back everything up. I also always print a hard copy of my files, so if anything catastrophic happens, we can always retype it into the computer. Thankfully, that has not happened too often.
I’m resurrecting my “Rhimo” for the month. Got his picture framed and hung.  If nothing else, he will keep me motivated.

This month, in honor of NaNoWriMo, I’m featuring The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery” so my faithful readers can get involved in Sentia’s story before you learn of its origins. It is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/y96zzp9u.





Also in honor of NaNoWriMo, my featured poetry for October is the second of my two Haiku chapbooks, celebrating the #WritingCommunity: “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume Two: The Write Life”, now available in print from Amazon at: https://tinyurl.com/ycqtq3mt



Until next time, keep the faith. Keep writing and keep reading. Enjoy what makes you happy. There is far too little happiness in this world these days.

As always, 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:


As all of my books are available on Amazon, I’m also including a link to my Amazon Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:






Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Tempus Fugit


October 2019 Blog

Boy howdy! Time sure does fly! Okay, three-fourths of the year is gone! Where did it go? The same place the other years of my 75 year-old life have gone. They’re just gone – into oblivion!

Time Passages: A Haiku
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky
Life rarely moves on
A schedule of our choosing,
Else it would not end.

Were  time a commodity, I assume it would be the most wasted one of all. It is an unquantifiable resource whose worth is virtually not realized until it has expired.

Procrastination would appear to be the most grievous sin possible against time. It is something I have been guilty of most of my life. My favorite pastime seems to be putting “it” off until tomorrow – or the next day – or the next.

Instead of counting off the things I have accomplished this year, I can list the things I haven’t. (It’s a much longer list.) Even my audible book projects, through no fault of my own, have languished and may not be completed this year.

I’m even thinking that maybe if I throw more irons into the fire, I might accomplish more. (Not that that trick has ever worked.)

Maybe it’s time to take a deep breath and plunge back into my original pool of projects.

So, I have three months to publish “Global Warning”, “The Chronicles of Acqueria: The Early Years”, and whatever else was on that project list that I started and misplaced before I could check anything off of it.

Besides editing the already written (a long time ago) first twenty-eight chapters Of “The Chronicles of Acqueria: The Early Years”, I still have ten more chapters to write to complete the novel. It is a prequel to “The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery” and seeks to chronicle the founding of Acqueria and the young lives of the central patriarchal figures in Sentia’a story.

All of the Haiku for “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: Global Warning” have been written. I simply need to gather them in some cohesive order and develop filler material to assure a smooth flow. That will be extremely time consuming, considering it will be the most critical and careful of this most important offering.

As each month passes, we are getting closer and closer to the tipping point – beyond which no matter what we do, it will not change the inevitable. I would like to publish while we still have a chance. Perhaps even sway a few more thinking individuals or ignite a spark in a Climate Emergency advocate who can actually make a difference in the future of the world. (Okay, I can dream, can’t I?)

Also, it would be nice to get this pending stuff done before I can no longer do it.  Like this month’s Haiku says – time is not endless, nor is it finite until it ends.

So, I’ll take a deep breath after I post this month’s blog (been doing a lot of deep breathing lately) and plunge into a publishing frenzy.

Perhaps I can even help save the world. Hey, at my age, I’m entitled to some delusions of grandeur.
This month I’m featuring The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery” so my faithful readers can get involved in Sentia’s story before you learn of its origins. It is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/y96zzp9u.



My featured poetry for October is the first of my two dark, medieval poetry chapbooks, “The Castleweaver's Tales: A Dozen Glimpses of Medieval Madness: 25th Anniversary Edition” – available from Amazon at: https://tinyurl.com/y9d8czj4  Eldreth insisted.



Until next time, keep the faith. Keep writing and keep reading. Enjoy what makes you happy. There is far too little happiness in this world these days.

As always, 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:



As all of my books are available on Amazon, I’m also including a link to my Amazon Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:



Sunday, September 1, 2019

Once Written


September 2019 Blog

I know I should always, always keep a working pen and pad of paper by my bedside. Maybe a pen light, too. But....
The Un-Recalled: A Haiku
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky
The brilliance of the
Night before lies faint scribble
In the morning light.

Can’t believe the year is two-thirds over, or what yet dies undone. But that is another story for maybe next month when the year will be three-fourths over.

This month, I choose to bemoan all the brilliance lost over the years simply because I didn’t have a pen and paper ready. (Okay, maybe some of it wasn’t brilliant, but at the time it popped into my mind, it seemed like it was.)

The latest incidence of lost words occurred about a week ago. This month’s blog was going to be on mortality, and I had an idea (in the middle of the night) for a profound Haiku of monumental importance (again, middle-of-the-night-thinking).

My usual  pen and pad of paper was missing from its usual place next to my bed. Probably left wherever after the last time I jotted down an idea that came to me in the middle of the night. So, I grabbed a folded up section of newspaper and an odd pen from the  holder above my bed. What could possibly go wrong?

I carefully selected to write along the edge of the paper (in the margins) and confidently began to write down my innermost thoughts. (Did I mention I didn’t turn on a light so I wouldn’t wake my husband or the puppies?)

Several thoughts later, I carefully set pen and paper aside and returned to my night’s slumber, confident that I could retrieve my thoughts in the morning. (Please note that however much I try to memorize or recall what I’ve thought of in the night, by morning it is gone.)

Next morning, I grabbed the section of folded newspaper and searched for my prize-worthy jottings. What I discovered was that I had grabbed an old, almost dry red pen from the pile, and the writing trailed off the edge of the paper, faint and unintelligible. (My penmanship in the dark middle of the night isn’t the greatest either.)

Only a few words were visible and intelligible, and I couldn’t for the life of me remember the rest. I had jotted an entire Haiku and notes for the gist of the blog about a writer’s gift to eternity.

Okay, there seemed to be impressions – maybe all was not lost. I decided to try making a rubbing with a graphite pencil. I managed to find one – just one – actual number two pencil. (I use a mechanical pencil when I use a pencil at all.) Of course, it didn’t have a point, so I had to track down a pencil sharpener. Which is not so easy when you haven’t sharpened a pencil in years.

Those tasks completed, I proceeded to bring my writing back to life. Such a great idea – just rub the pencil lead over the grooves and voila!

Not so fast. Seems I didn’t press real hard the night before, and my brilliance did not pop  off the paper. I even had my husband try rubbing it again. Virtually nothing – I did retrieve the first line of the Haiku and the word “posthumously”, along with a few indecipherable words, but that’s about it. I am now looking for an art gum eraser so I can lightly rub over everything and try driving some graphite into the not-so-deep impressions. (A soft eraser is scarcer than the pencil and sharpener in my house.)

In the meantime, I’m tracking down a dedicated pad of paper and a good black pen to stow safely by my bedside. I used to have a pen that lit up when I used it, but I haven’t seen that in years. I did find a tiny book light, but I haven’t figured out how to open it up to put a new battery in it.

Lesson learned, at least for the moment: A writer needs to be able to write anywhere, anytime the muse strikes. If you can’t jot it down, chances are you won’t recall it later. You may remember the gist of it, but (especially if its poetry) you will lose the beauty of the word during the time lost until you can get it down on paper.

When I was driving a lot, I used to have a mini-tapey in my car to talk into – my only distraction before cell phones. It did the job. I hardly ever lost anything I thought of when I was driving. But that is not practical in the middle of the night. So, pen and paper it is.

This month I’m featuring The Cottage” again. It is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/ybobdpuy. The audio book has been delayed due to “technical diff”culties" – not the least of which is the cover art. The audio book people have very stringent requirements. Nevertheless, it will be done soon.



My featured poetry for August is My 2nd Haiku chapbook “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume Two: The Write Life”.  It is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/ycnu2kvt . This one celebrates writing and the trials and tribulations that go with it.



Until next time, keep the faith. Keep writing and keep reading. Enjoy what makes you happy. There is far too little happiness in this world these days.

As always, 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:


As all of my books are available on Amazon, I’m also including a link to my Amazon Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:




Thursday, August 1, 2019

Null Effect


August 2019 Blog

This has haunted me for a long, long time.

Null Effect: A Haiku
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky
For all the ripples
I have made upon life’s seas,
I but came and went.


Some time (in my Sophomore  year, I believe) in high school I heard my very unhappy Phys-Ed teacher tell us exactly what we all meant in this life: To paraphrase her (hard to remember exactly what she said over 60 years ago): “Put your hand in a bucket of water and take it out. The impression that is left is what your life will mean.”

Now that is a horrible thing to tell impressionable young people, but things like that didn’t seem important back then. (We now know better.) I never forgot.

Apparently neither did Saxon White Kessinger who wrote a marvelous poem called “The Indispensable  Man” that has an upbeat ending. You can Google it. It’s fantastic, but she’s not the originator of the concept. Couldn’t find out who was.

My ending to the concept is far more dystopic and perhaps more realistic. At least it is to me when I’m feeling old and miserable and inconsequential.

I did a lot of busywork in July. None of it has come to much. I’m hoping for a lot of results in August. (One can always hope, or so I’ve heard.)

My contemporary paranormal novel, “The Cottage”, should be an audio book by the end of the month.

“The Seasons of Sam Rock” may join it, if my narrator can get his technical problems solved.

“Global Warning” (a Life’s Lemons and Lemonade Haiku chapbook) should be well on its way to publication.

And “The Chronicles of Acqueria: The Early Years” should be finished.

Perhaps this month will again be a whole lot of shoulda, woulda, coulda, but I hope not. I guess there’s nothing concrete in that sentence. Kind of difficult to make hard, fast, definite promises anymore. It seems that something is always popping up. There always seems to be a wrench ready to drop into the works. There’s always that “other shoe” waiting to drop.

But a writer does what a writer does and writes – occasionally happy, hopeful things. Or, if you’re me (a glass half-empty person who writes horror) you write of  Dystopia  and man’s inhumanity to man and throw in a laugh or two to break the tension.

I guess I should be happy to have that outlet – like a frog who gets to eat what bugs him. (saw that in a cartoon some time ago.) If I didn’t or couldn’t write, I’d be a psychotic mess or even more psychotic than I am. (There’s that levity.)

Gonna cut this short this month. I still have a lot of other things to do on my to-do list. It is month end/month beginning and a lot of things are due (or overdue).

There’s bills to pay and things to decide, things to hide from and things to face, and a whole lot of waffling and fence-sitting to contend with. Everything has consequences and it’s hard to weigh them all before you make a decision (or not). Even with the internet providing so much information these days (some of it to hackers, but that’s another story) it’s hard to know everything. Or, just maybe, there’s too much information and one becomes overwhelmed and stuck in neutral trying to digest it.

Or maybe a diversion will pop up (as diversions often do) and I’ll trail off to follow some shiny object or bunny – there’s a bunny. Gotta follow it.

Before I go hopping off, here are this month’s novel and poetry selections. If you read them or have read them in the past, please leave a review on Amazon. Every “I liked that” helps.  Thank you.

This month I’m featuring The Cottage” available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/ybobdpuy in honor of its coming audio book.



My featured poetry for August is My 1st Haiku chapbook. It features comments from my cyber friends. “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume One: One For The Book” is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/ycnu2kvt 




Until next time, keep the faith. Keep writing and keep reading. Enjoy what makes you happy. There is far too little happiness in this world these days.

As always, 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:


As all of my books are available on Amazon, I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:




Monday, July 1, 2019

Doors


July 2019 Blog

There is a finality to the closing of a door that opening it again cannot erase.

Simply Idiom: A Haiku
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky
That one door closes
Does not mean another will
Open suddenly.

Yet, I face another door. Or, I face yet another door.  Different ways to say basically the same thing. I stand in front of another door that I feel I simply  must open, even though I’ve little time to explore the doors I’ve already opened.

In order to continue to live this life as best I can (tenuous as it is), I’ve decided to build upon my literary resume and add “proofreader” to my list of talents. Writing is a blast, but the books are few and far between, and the royalties cannot sustain me.

Proofreading on a freelance basis should afford me the ability to have a night out once in a while and not worry about paying the piper later.

So I have begun studying the ins and outs of being a proofreader. It seems I already have the most basic of qualifications – a rather facile command of the English language.

I guess reading the dictionary way back when was not all that stupid or strange for people like me. And all those English tests I aced and the classes I took will serve me well as my prerequisites.
There are many online resources to help anyone along in this endeavor, including some that cost you an arm and a leg (almost literally) to learn what you can learn from the all-inclusive, reasonably priced “Copyediting & Proofreading for Dummies”.

By this time next month, I should actually have some paying gigs under my belt and be well on my way to solvency. (Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?) In any case, it’s a good thing I love to read, because I’ll be doing a lot of it.

On a totally different note, the door has closed on half a year already. Six months under the bridge and washed out to sea. The most I have to show for it is that I’m six months older (not much wiser, just older).

I still have my plans, but they are still that – plans.

I am closer to having an audio book released. It will be “The Cottage”, my only contemporary novel – a paranormal (or not) tale of ghosts (or not) with lots of blood and casualties (for real).

The audio version of “The Seasons of Sam Rock” is still on hold.  Hopefully, the technical difficulties will be resolved soon.

I’m still working on “The Chronicles of Acqueria: The Early Years”, and I’m aiming for it to be published early Fall.

My Haiku chapbook on climate change (Global Warning) is now becoming more relevant  than ever. I’m still deciding what charity will get a portion of the proceeds: there are so many good ones out there. If my faithful readers have any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

I know a lot of the country is having constant rains and flooding. Here in Roswell, NM we are suffering drought conditions. We no longer have a lawn and the almost constant winds are blowing the dust-like dirt everywhere.

Hopefully, the USA will come to its collective senses and take the reins once again in leading the world to save this Earth we would like our children and their children to continue to live on in relative comfort.

I suppose that will have to wait until our political turmoil has settled down. That probably won’t happen for another couple of years.

Hopefully, the “doomsday clock” and/or “tipping point” of no return will wait for us to get our priorities straight.

While we’re on the subject of opening doors, let’s consider the totally “open door”  no privacy allowed policy of the internet. Actually, I believe there is no privacy anywhere anymore.

Lately, on trips to the doctor (in fact, a new doctor), I have been met with a list of medications and even flu shots from varied venues and over several years. It would appear everybody feeds everything into a central source that is accessible to who knows whom.

And since there is virtually no internet security anymore, we are faced with this new reality: there is, in fact, nothing private anymore. We are all of us public property.

I for one no longer do anything I need to keep private anymore, so I am not worried. But I am beginning to think that George Orwell was a genius with precognitive abilities.  “1984” is alive and well. “Big Brother” is everywhere. Even Ray Bradbury got it right in “Fahrenheit 451” with the interactive screens and the total control of thought by burning books and controlling information dissemination.

In protest of all of the above, I will continue to write and disseminate hopefully thought-provoking works for the next generations to enjoy.

This month I’m featuring The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery” available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/y96zzp9u in honor of its coming prequel : “The Early Years”.



My featured poetry for July (Eldreth insisted on it) is The Castleweaver's Tales: A Dozen Glimpses of Medieval Madness, 25th Anniversary Edition” in print from Amazon at: https://tinyurl.com/y9d8czj4



Until next time, keep the faith. Keep writing and keep reading. Enjoy what other universes may make you happy. Perhaps someday, even this one will match up to our ideals, but I’m still not holding my breath.

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:



As all of my books are available on Amazon, I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:






Saturday, June 1, 2019

Unhappy Medium


June 2019 Blog

We (as in me, myself and I) are marching to Dysphoria.

Central Casting: A Haiku
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky
As a dysphoric
Living in a dystopic
World, I am well cast.

Yet, I am also type-cast. Life runs in cycles. I wrote the following sometime earlier this year. Not sure when. I don’t always date things. I guess I should.
Banner: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here
Welcome to Dysphonia-wherein my deepest, darkest thoughts lie. Please do not read if you are looking for hope.  There is none here. No cute puppy pictures here or uplifting slogans. Only dark matter fueled by the emptiness of space and the darkness of spirit not born of evil, but of gloom.

Seems I’ve cycled back to that time. Nothing bad has happened. Nothing good, either, except that I am older and closer to finality.

It would appear my “Seasons of Sam Rock” audio book will not be done anytime soon, but I am pursuing other avenues to get some of my other novels produced for audio. So the avenue is not totally closed to me.

My writing on “Chronicles of Acqueria: The Early Years” has ground to a halt, as has the gathering of Haiku for my “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: Global Warning”.

I need to get working on both of them again as I am happiest when I am creating, however happy that may be.

I’ve pretty much given up on any change of political climate any time soon (hence, the “Marching to Dysphoria”). I would like to think we deserve better than we have gotten lately, but have to admit that we have done this to ourselves (even if we had a little help from our enemies).

I don’t see anything better happening in my lifetime, and that in itself is depressing. It would appear we are heading for that Dystopia that so many sci-fi authors have warned us of in countless sci-fi novels over seemingly countless years.

In general, we are an unhappy lot living in a disparaging and discouraging time. We seem to have abandoned the concept that we are our brother’s keeper and embraced the concept of might (and money) makes right.

Perhaps if we read more, and what we read was more uplifting, we would have a better outlook or at least some hope for a better world to leave for our children.

As it stands, perhaps we should apologize to them for bungling their futures. At least the futures of those who cannot blast off from this earth and live  on a newly terra-formed planet until such time as we figure out how to screw that one up, too.

Well, writing this has certainly not improved my mood, nor am I now tempted to write something uplifting. Time for some more horror. I can really get into that when I’m in this mood. Time to go dive into a good axe murder like in “Black Oak: Town of Joy” (one of my favorites).

Killing something always seems to bring out the best in me. Being a horror writer has its advantages.
Hopefully, my mood will swing around this month, and my thoughts and words will be of accomplishments and triumphs. One can always hope. As Spock said, “There are always possibilities”. Thank you, Gene Roddenberry. Your genius lives on.

This month I’m feature "Black Oak: Town of Joy" with that woman on woman axe murder in it. https://tinyurl.com/yaw5roju



My featured poetry for June is my Haiku chapbook for the writing community, “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume Two: The Write Life”, https://tinyurl.com/ycqtq3mt



Until next time, keep the faith. Keep writing and keep reading. Enjoy what other universes may make you happy. Perhaps someday, even this one will match up to our ideals, but I’m still not holding my breath.

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:



As all of my books are available on Amazon, I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:




Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Fleeting Opportunity


May 2019 Blog

Not a good idea to leave until tomorrow that which should have been done yesterday.
Fleeting Opportunity: A Haiku
by Ann Wilmer-Lasky
Do it now – ‘ere a
Thing happens to prevent its
Doing – as it will.
Don’t ask me how I know, I just know.

Life always seems to get in the way of the best laid plans of mice and men. On the writing front, the audio book for “The Seasons of Sam Rock” has been postponed again due to unforeseen circumstances. The new launch date is May 31, 2019.

My newest Haiku chapbook: “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade, Volume Three: Global Warning” will be published on or about August 27th (National “Just Because” Day) Why? Just because I didn’t get it done by Earth Day (April 22, 2019) and I can’t find another really appropriate day for the release. Seems there is no “Climate Change Is Real” day.


Life itself has taken a back seat to the intrusion of life. No details important enough to share. Just a bunch of little things and advancing age (although the latter doesn’t seem to be the excuse to end all excuses like I thought it would be).

I’m actually getting to the point of declaring “Now, before it’s Never!” and really know the meaning of it.

I’m also becoming fond of the expressions “No time like the present” and “Don’t put off until tomorrow, what you can do today”. Then there’s the biblical, “Sufficient unto the day are the problems thereof”.

Another thing that’s given me impetus to get things done lately is the new HBO limited series: “Gentleman Jack.” (The adaptation of the real life diaries of the Anne Lister starring Suranne Jones)




Don’t know if it’s her “take charge attitude” or her “decisiveness” or even just the great music they play when she walks. I love it all, including the theme song done by “O'Hooley & Tidow”.




It doesn’t hurt that Anne Lister also wrote coded diaries of over four million words during her lifetime. Had I faithfully kept journals the last “hundred” or so years that is my lifetime, what a rich history I might have left for posterity.

We don’t even have to get into Anne Lister’s unconventional lifestyle for back then (although it will be mentioned in future blogs), we only need to know that she went against the grain and survived. She was “true to her nature” and lived her “authentic life”. I admire her for that.
I’m grateful to playwright and producer Sally Wainwright for bringing this to all of us on HBO and I’ll be the  first in line to buy the DVD when it comes out.


I’ll be doing more research on Sally Wainwright for future blogs as well as a previous video on Ann Lister and books concerning her life and diaries. I’m also grateful to her descendants who found and decoded her writings, and who didn’t throw them away.

This month, I’ll be working on “The Chronicles of Acqueria: The Early Years” in addition to all my other projects. (I have way too many “Works-In-Progress”.)

 So my featured book this month is the one that started it all, my first published novel “The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery”.



(Insert pic and link) https://tinyurl.com/y96zzp9u



My featured poetry is both of “The Castleweaver’s Tales” chapbooks. Eldreth insisted, as he is insisting on me completing his novel. (Yep, one of those W.I.P.’s)


https://tinyurl.com/y9d8czj4 







Until next time, keep the faith. Keep writing and keep reading. Enjoy what other universes may make you happy. Perhaps someday, even this one will match up to our ideals, but I’m still not holding my breath.

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:



As all of my books are available on Amazon, I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also: