Still Hanging!

 April 2022 Blog

Delayed Reaction: A Haiku

I’d put off musing

About the day until it

Improves somewhat, but...

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

(3/30/22)

...it may not. And the war and the virus continue. And I’ve come to a conclusion: I am that which is...  and the only one who can “make it so”, as Captain Jean Luc Picard used to say. All is my responsibility (at least in my immediate family), and I do not have the right to consider it onerous. Nor do I have to be happy about it. It is what it is.

“Somewhat Improved” is not something, it seems, I’m going to hear about anything, anytime soon. The virus tapers off, but it continues. The war continues. The Earth’s tipping point looms. And doctors’ diagnoses (at least in my husband’s case) are still “best guess”, and not one of them has found a solution in the last three or four years.

Yet we continue to plod on. And plodding it is. There has been little forward progress in quite a while, and the year is one-fourth gone already. Spring has barely come upon us, and I am little refreshed.

So, we push things back. We wait...  for what, I’m not sure. The end of the pandemic? There is no end in sight. The end of the war? Not on the horizon anytime soon. A breath of fresh air? That would be lovely, but so far only ill-winds are blowing everywhere.

So, I have decided to just do what I can – remembering Yoda’s famous words: “Do! There is no try.” And the old Nike slogan: “Just Do It!” (when that was not mired in controversy)

So, I will go about my daily chores, pay my bills, and write my chapters. But there is little joy in any of it, except maybe in writing my chapters. I will nap as I am able and expend what energy I can garner to improve my little corner of the world.

I am so happy to have you, my loyal friends, in my little corner of the world that I will do my best to make is a brighter corner. Even if that means more murder and mayhem from Marie Delacroix’s ravens (my Sam Rock sequel) and exposing Dhavin’s true origins in my Acqueria prequel.

Those will be still brighter than what’s happening out there in reality.

By the way, it’s a sad thing when the news of war is overshadowed (but for the briefest moment) by the slap seen ‘round the world. And I stand with Will Smith. Okay, he shouldn’t have done that, but I understand why he did it.

And so, I leave you now with this shortest of blogs to delve into another world where I can actually make things happen just by scratching my pen across the page (until the ink runs out and there are no more legible scratchings).

If you need some sweet relief from the the realities that confront us daily, check out my selection on Amazon. There may be something there you have not read yet.

Until next time, read and write to your heart’s content. My eclectic collection of reading matter may take your mind off things. Enjoy.

https://www.amazon.com/author/annwilmerlasky

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 or look for my publication announcements:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky

Hopefully, this month we can really recover from the woes that plague us, and the following month will find us enjoying a more beautiful, peaceful Spring in anticipation of a stunningly brilliant Summer.

 

 

Cheers To A Happier New Year!

 

January 2022 Blog

Season’s Supplication: A Haiku

I would not only

Pray for world peace, but health for

All this time of year.

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

 

Hopefully, we have rung in a happier New Year. We are certainly celebrating the world over. Hopefully, that will not come back to bite us in the end.

We deserve an end to the pain and suffering and dying of the last two years. And I am so tired of the isolation. I would love to hug somebody, see the smile on an unmasked face. At the moment, it seems like only a far flung dreams, and we are mired in an unending nightmare.

I should have written tons on my manuscripts in the year just past, but the inspiration has been little and more than a long time coming. Yet I persist and I will publish what I can this year.

When I do write, I love it because for the time I’m writing I am wrapped in a world where I have the control. I determine who is happy and who is miserable. I decide who lives and who dies and when and how. Even the weather is at my command. Oh, the power! I can feel it even just writing this. It’s wonderful feeling.

But, then I put the pen down and I’m back in the real world, wearing a mask and trying not to touch too many surfaces anywhere.

I haven’t been to a movie theater in two years. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been to a restaurant in that time also. My shopping is limited to Walmart, the local grocery store, and Office Depot. The rest of my shopping is on line. Amazing how much you can spend with one click of the finger – and what you can find on Amazon.

We have not had a winter here yet. I’m sure we will have some bad weather in the next few months. We certainly could use the moisture. We’re already considered in drought conditions for the year ahead. Sounds like we are in for another grassless, flowerless summer. More hot and dry times ahead.

Actually, I’ve not heard much encouraging news about the upcoming months of the year we just embarked upon. All my hope is based on the belief that we’ve had enough, and we deserve better – much better.

I guess that makes me somewhat optimistic, which is not a trait I have an over-abundance of. “What could possibly go wrong?” is one of my favorite questions, which serves me well as a writer. It’s amazing what problems I can dream up. Unfortunately, life has thrown in its own answers, and they have not been pleasant.

I’m planning on spending more time with my pen and paper this year. Hope I have enough of life’s memories left that I can keep my writing interesting. I’m certainly not planning on making many new memories anytime soon.

I guess I’ll just hunker down and keep a low profile in the real world. I thank the internet gods for the ability to connect with people all over the world at anytime of the day or night as long as the power doesn’t go down – there’s that “What could possibly go wrong?” again.

Guess I’ll post this and get on with finding dastardly situations to embroil my heroes and heroines in. Smiling at that thought. Writing horror is good.

Here’s hoping again for a brighter and better New Year. Maybe I better light a few candles and say a few prayers.

Happy New Year to one and all!

Until next time, read and write to your heart’s content. My eclectic collection of reading matter may take your mind off things. Enjoy.

https://www.amazon.com/author/annwilmerlasky

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 or look for my publication announcements:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky

Hopefully, this month we can recover from the holidays and next month will find us looking forward to a less restrictive spring.

 

 

 

 

 

What A Difference A Month Makes

April 2020 Blog

Got a head start on this month’s edition. Who knows what will befall us in even the next few days?

Wipeout: A Haiku

Life but laughs at lines

Drawn in sand; obliterates

Them at will or whim.

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

Wow! All of a sudden last month’s goals don’t seem to matter much anymore. The world has been set on its ear and the “Climate Crisis” set on the back burner for who knows how long. So my “Diary of a #Madwoman on #Deadline has bit the dust, so to speak. At least its launch will not be the “earth-shaking event” I planned it to be.

Don’t get me wrong, it will still be published, if not on time, then close to it. But it will not be heralded as the “balm that salved the Universe.”.

For, at the moment, we have a more immediate problem – how to survive the “plague of the century” both physically and economically. And that with or without appropriate leadership.

COVID19 (to be politically correct) has taken over our lives, literally. We think of nothing else. And now, when we need each other’s support like no other time, we are told to stay away from one another. Not to hold, not to touch, not to be even within six feet of one another. The average person can do little more than obey the directives and hope the powers-that-be can get this pandemic under control.

So far, that hope is tentative at best. Few world leaders have shown marked ability to get a decent handle on the situation. And the problem and its dire consequences continue to escalate.

Day-after-day, the numbers go up and up. We hold our collective breath that it doesn’t come too close, but it does. First cases in the state, first cases in the county, and still waiting for the first case in the city, although the first man in our state has died from it, and could have caught it in our city.

We sit and watch the news and wait, like waiting for “the other shoe to fall”, certain that it will, but not knowing when. We try to fill our hours with meaningful things to do, but they don’t get done. It seems when you have all the time in the world to do something, there are no priorities and (procrastinator that I am) I can put anything off.

Okay, taking a deep breath now. All are well here, and I am thankful for that. All our puppies are happy to have us home. The think we are there for them. That’s okay, it keeps them happy.

All projects are still moving along, if not more slowly than I had planned. I finally gathered all my Universe, Earth, world, nature and weather Haiku from the last six years together. That number was close to 500. Peeling some off for another book on the personal side of writing, I still have about 350. Now comes the fun of putting them together in a cohesive way to present them to a totally pre-occupied world.

At least it gives me something to occupy my thoughts with other than gloom and doom. Oh, wait, that’s what I usually write about, isn’t it?

As I sit here and write this, I’m also thinking of thing to put on my list of places to go when this pandemic is over. One of the first places will be my favorite restaurant (assuming they survive and are able to reopen). Then maybe a few day trips. We live in Roswell and have never made it to the debris field for the 1947 UFO crash here, nor have we made it to Carlsbad to see the caverns. Both are now on the list. Heck, I’d be happy to take a ride without wondering if the guy in the next car is wondering if I’m essential like I’d be wondering if he is.

For the moment, I am sitting in my backyard, enjoying the coolness of spring and watching the clouds wander from west to east as is their wont. I may or may not come back to you in May with the announcement that “Global Warning” has been published, but I am working on it.

I am also working on staying well. I hope you are all well and survive this current madness we have been thrown into. And I  hope to see us all back next month with smiles on our faces.

Until then, sit back relax and enjoy a good book.  I have several to offer here on my Amazon Author Page: https://twitter.com/awlasky/status/1081402168207278080

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:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky

As I post this, it has become apparent that we will be on lockdown at least until the end of April. I should be a stark-raving loony by then, or I will have published “Global Warning”.