If Not Now, When?

November 2018 Blog

Time flies – then stops abruptly. It’s a fact of life… and death. All things draw to a close – including this year.

Time Tunnel: A Haiku

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

Later is now a

Less viable option than

Now, before never.

When I was young and had my whole life ahead of me, I was always in a hurry. “Now” was my favorite time to do things, and I wanted to grow up fast.

Well, my life has sped by and now there is not enough time left to do what I need to do, let alone want to do. Yet now “I’ll do it later” seems to be my standard mode of operation. It is also an attitude I need to overcome – or run the risk of leaving this life mostly unfinished.

What would I have been able to accomplish had I retained the “Now” attitude? Perhaps I would be sitting on a dais somewhere next to Stephen King, discussing our next horrific joint-venture for Simon & Schuster. Maybe tweeting to my millions of adoring fans about the release of my next movie based on my newest bestseller.

Surely, I would be sharing a gif of my top ranking on the New York Times bestseller list.

Those dreams should have been fulfilled long ago. That time has long since passed. Those things will not happen.

I must look to my limited future and plod as I can toward what goals I can yet accomplish. I am still able to write and edit and publish. Perhaps I would be a lot more successful if I knew how to promote, but sales have never been my strong-suit and that is a different story.

This year has only seen one book publisher – “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume Two: The Write Life” and now it’s NaNoWriMo time again. If I heed that call (which I have for more than 10 years straight), then other projects must take a backseat – again.

So here I sit, once again, with too much to do and not enough time to do it. Seems like I was in this position and state last year, too.  All I can do is smile and soldier on. Perhaps take better stock of my available assets and employ them more judiciously.

This blog is important in the grand scheme of things, because it causes me (at least once a month) to take a good hard look at my accomplishments or (as is the usual), my non-accomplishments.

I would prefer this blog be more of a success story than it has been, so I guess it’s time to alter the plot to be more about me doing than thinking about doing. That reminds me of my favorite Yoda saying: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” It was a great admonition then, and it still is. Look where George Lucas is now. He certainly heeded his own character’s advice.

Maybe I need some more ambitious characters. No, wait—they do do things, don’t they? Within their confines, they are successful. Sometimes in a headlong rush that leaves the faithful reader breathless at the end.

Now, that’s a great feeling – for the reader, the characters and the author. That makes me smile. I need to do more of that – smiling.

I need to happily pursue my day writing, keeping house and taking care of business. Perhaps even tally my accomplishments at the end of the day and fall asleep with a sense of fulfillment.

Okay, even the thought of all that makes me want to take a nap. No! Not  now, I have to finish this so I can post it on the first. (Yeah, it’s tomorrow) Left it to the last minute again.

Did I mention I’m the world’s greatest procrastinator? I am, you know, and I’m also distracted by shiny things. Actually, I think I purposely look for shiny things to be distracted by.

There’s the TV, there’s the internet, and this great jigsaw puzzle program on my computer. That’s why I love mild sunny days when I can sit outside and write—only distracted by an occasional bird or squirrel or siren or howling dog.

I guess no place is really free of attention getters. That’s why I love to be deeply immersed in my characters’ worlds, where nothing can pull me out and I can wreak havoc and engage in mayhem to my heart’s content.

Then I am happy. “Happy” is highly underrated. “Happy” should be more of a goal than we allow it to be. If we could achieve a state of happiness, our endeavors would seem less like chores and more like the road to our bliss.

Okay, sidetracked—shiny things again. I guess “happiness” is one of those shiny things that for the most part lies just out of reach for me.

So, I’ll head back to my drawing board and plot a path for my November NaNoWriMo project and add it to my other projects and see where the month will take me.

“Black Oak: Vengeance Bound” will be finished about the same time. I guess “Global Warning” will take a little longer than planned. But that’s not new news, is it?

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:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

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

I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003SH6HIQ

All of my books are available on Amazon.

November’s featured novel is my 1890’s Old West Shapeshifters novella "Black Oak: Town of Joy" https://tinyurl.com/yaw5roju

This month’s featured poetry chapbook is “The Castleweaver's Tales: A Dozen Glimpses of Medieval Madness: 25th Anniversary Edition” https://tinyurl.com/y9d8czj4

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 30^th 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 1^st. 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:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

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

I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003SH6HIQ

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

Determination

September 2018 Blog

At today’s funeral for Senator John McCain, President Barack Obama quoted from one of McCain’s favorite books, Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls: “Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.”

Determination: A Haiku

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

Do that thing today

That all of your tomorrows

Will depend upon.

It is so true. That which we do or not do today surely determines what our tomorrow (and maybe all of our tomorrows) will be like.

Hard to think of that, though, in the heat of the moment.  Life’s “dids” and “didn’ts” have consequences. A thing “procrastinated” is often a thing left undone until the damage is irreparable.

“Shoulda, woulda, coulda” can be the regrets of a lifetime. “I coulda been a contender” is the cry of  so many postponed winners, myself among them.

Not sure I will ever recover, even going on full-tilt from here. We shall certainly see.

I had a lot of help writing my blog this month. My wiener Chuck laid his head in my lap while I wrote. My wiener Bruce had his head on my shoulder. I still almost didn’t get done in time.

So happy that “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume Two: The Write Life” is out and doing well, that I’ve set myself an impossible publishing schedule for the rest of the year. I’m planning on releasing “Black Oak: Vengeance Bound” by the end of September.

Then I’ll go full out on “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: Global Warning, Volume Three: A Collection of Haiku” for October. Following that with the sequel to “Sam Rock” sometime in November/December. Then re-releasing “The Castleweaver: The Madness Continues” as a 30^th Anniversary edition.

That all should keep me busy and out of trouble – along with writing my daily Haiku and monthly Blogs.

That’s assuming life doesn’t intrude. Yeah, I know, not much chance of that happening. Life is there every day and must be dealt with. If it’s not one of us humans sick of out of sorts, it’s one of the puppies hurt of under the weather, or something vital has broken down and needs to be fixed or replaced.

It’s hard, really (even though I’m retired) to find the time or even the energy to do everything that needs to be done, so I do the best I can.

The quote from Ernest Hemingway and my Haiku should help. I’ll need to refer to it constantly-especially when I’m tired and out of sorts.

“Stay the course,” is another good one, as are many other platitudes.

OMG! I’ve written a platitude. My Haiku is a platitude! Never liked them before. Liking them more now. I guess I’m mellowing with age.

Learned something new this month. Had to take our Senior wiener Barnabas to the vet’s. He fell and we thought he hurt his back (Dachshunds are notorious for having bad backs). Turns out he may have fallen because he has something called Old Dog Vestibular Disease. It’s like vertigo. He can’t walk a straight line, frequently stumbles and rolls over and holds his head at an odd angle.

Scared us near to death. Turns out, he will recover on his own within one or two weeks, but we’ll have to make sure he eats and drinks water. He’s really not interested in either at this moment. But he is getting better. He can go up and down stairs and ramps, although he’s still wobbly. He will stop by the water dish in passing and drink, but won’t take any if you offer it to him. He’ll also lick cream cheese off a cracker, but won’t eat the cracker or his dog food or treats.

He’ll sit in my lap and lay his head on my chest. He looks at me like he has no clue what’s happening to him, and he wants me to make it go away. I wish I could. But I’m encouraged with each small step he takes on his way to recovery.

This is just one of the many things I have to worry about, that can take my mind off my writing.

So, you see, life intrudes in the Garret of AnnNoE, even though I’d love to just shut it out and write. In fact, after this, I need to sit down and pay bills – my absolute least favorite thing to do, but another intrusion that has to be taken care of.

Tomorrow, I will get back to my publishing schedule. I would do it tonight, but I am just too bone-tired,  I know, “Determination” says I should do it tonight, but I didn’t get much sleep last night. Went down to our local ER about midnight to rescue my neighbor, who is suffering from a bout of colitis, to make sure she got home all right. I didn’t get a lot of sleep.

Looks like we’re going to have a downpour any minute, so I guess I’ll take this inside. My dear husband will type it for me, and then I can edit it and post it (before midnight).

Until next month – keep the faith and keep writing (or at least reading). Hopefully, I’ll see you then with more updates form the garret.

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:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

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

I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003SH6HIQ

All of my books are available on Amazon.

This month’s featured novel is my contemporary paranormal “The Cottage” https://www.amazon.com/Cottage-Ann-Wilmer-Lasky/dp/1514293870 I still have the cast iron toy fire truck that appears in the book.

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

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:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

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

I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003SH6HIQ

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

Momentary Madness

July 2018 Blog

Momentary Madness

I am not above being human. As a writer, I always celebrate another writer’s success. Sometimes, I have a momentary bout of greenness more commonly known as jealousy. It serves no one, and I get over it quickly. I would not begrudge anyone their deserved success.

Only Human: A Haiku

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

Green not becoming,

I’ll toast my fellow author

With the sweetest wine.

While watching “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Friday, June 29th, I momentarily turned green with envy.

There Jimmy was – announcing the winning book for the Tonight Show’s first ever summer reading club. #TonightShowSummerReads

It sounds like a great book, and I’m anxious to read it. It’s titled “Children of Blood and  Bone”  by a very young, new author, Tomi  Adeyemi, published by Macmillan.

The book is sure to hit the top of every bestseller list. I was elated for the book and the author. Then that little green man popped up on my shoulder (not a space alien – they are gray), and for just a moment, I matched his hue.

I was green with envy. Then I started the whole woe-is-me ritual: I will never, ever reach that pinnacle. She is so lucky. I wish I had her luck. I wish that was me. No matter how I struggle, that will never, ever be me.

I was about to ruin a good night’s sleep that was sorely needed. I wanted to finish formatting my new Haiku chapbook the next day so I can keep my publication target date of July 15^th.

Thinking about my own plans changed my thinking. Okay, she’s really lucky. I’m sure she’s also talented to be published by McMillan. I (and all the other #FalPals) will enjoy reading her book this summer along with Jimmy.

A smile crossed my face. (Okay, it didn’t, but it sounds good) I did get to thinking.  I’ve done the best I could with what I had. Now I know better, I can do better. (Thanks, Oprah!)

I am a published author, and nobody can take that away from me.  So I haven’t gotten the breaks and now I’m too old to go the traditional publishing route. (I could die in the two years it takes to get a book out.) But – I am published, (repeating myself here) and with a little more and better promotion, I’m sure I can become more widely known. I have no reason to covet someone else’s fame and fortune. (Well maybe J.K. Rowling, but I’m sure the Queen would even like some of that.)

I know I am but a minor poet and an even more minor novelist. I also know I’m the product of an age where women didn’t “do” and weren’t expected to.

Things are so different now. You can grab hold of a dream (even at a young age) and make it come true. You don’t have to “wait your turn”, “wait for the kids to grow up” or (the old classic) “pay your dues” before you can pursue your passion, expect to succeed or gain any sort of recognition.

Now you can do it all with the internet and the click of a mouse or your fingers and a smart phone. (Mine isn’t that smart.) And you can hold your head up high among the traditionalists. Self-publishing (now called Indie Publishing) is an acceptable route and the product does have a chance out there to vie for wide readership.

I’m still sticking to my publishing schedule for “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: The Write Life.” It will still go live on July 15^th. Also, the sequel to “Black Oak” will go live by August 31^st.  So, I’m busy and happy. In my spare time, I will read “Children of Blood and Bone” and clean house.

I would like to take a moment to say “Congratulations!” to Tomi Adeyemi on her very first novel and on it being selected as the first ever official #TonightShowSummerReads selection. I promise I will join my fellow #FalPals and Jimmy Fallon in reading it.

I promise I will also keep writing and publishing as long as I can. It is something I must do as the characters in my mind are wanting their release and I owe them that.

I will also continue to encourage others to write and follow their dreams as well. Creative writing cannot die. There must always be someone out there to take up the torch and put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). Literacy must not die. We must write and we must read. We must also teach our children to read and to love reading as we do. Only in this way can we retain (or regain) the best of  our humanity.

On the Macular Degeneration front – it’s a slow progressing condition. I will never regain the clarity I have already lost, but I will probably die from my heart condition before I go blind. (I consider that a blessing.)

So here’s to a summer of reading and writing and publishing. It’s all to the good. Enjoy!

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:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

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

I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003SH6HIQ

All of my books are available on Amazon.

This month I am featuring Tomi Adeyemi’s “Children of Blood and Bone” available on Amazon. In fact, I’ve heard it’s their #1 Best Seller at the moment. Also you can join the #FalPals and Jimmy Fallon for the summer: #TonightShowSummerReads

Stardust

June 2018 Blog

The following poem in free verse form was started sometime after January 24, 2012. I have no recollection of starting it. It is now finished and will be part of an upcoming poetry chapbook entitled “Metamorph”.

Singularity (Free Verse)

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

I will write as I will write

And dream against a dream

Until such time as I shall sleep –

Silent,

Ashes drifting on the solar wind.

From birth to death –

My life between but spotted –

Ink and tears mingled, inseparable;

My oh so faint scribbling yet

Unerasable,

indelible.

Whether I am noted or a footnote

Or but a shadow in someone’s fading memory,

My thoughts will join the stars

To burst among the fiery suns

Or find space bent

And fall

Into the blackness of the void.

     Regardless of what I do or do not accomplish in this lifetime, I will rejoin  the Universe as stardust. To me, that is a comforting thought. Whether or not I rejoin the human race is of no consequence.  I will have returned to whence I came.

     There is little to report this month on any front. I have begun formatting my next Haiku chapbook, “The Write Life”. This one is for writers or readers who want to understand writers. I plan it to be inspirational, motivational and commiseratory in tone. I go through what every writer goes through, I’m sure. Perhaps I can encourage or even just amuse (or bemuse) others.

 It will be followed hard upon by the one I’m planning on climate change entitled “Global Warning”. That should be out midsummer, when it will be hotter than the depths of Hades and stormier than a Martian…

Climate change deniers are moving us closer to Doomsday than all the saber rattling in the world. I would hope to change some minds with this one.

My novels are stalled. There’s another death in the “Sam Rock” sequel. Everyone is rushing to see the body, but I don’t know who’s dead or who the killer is. I’m my own cliffhanger. Think I’ll jump in feet-first after I get this posted.

The “Black Oak” sequel is still screaming “final edit” before formatting. It contains even more amazing deaths perpetrated by my eclectic band of shapeshifters.  Best get at that, too, before they invade my dreams.

On the home front, my “retina specialist” says if I take my A REDS 2 supplement, wear sunglasses outside, use extra light and magnification, and see him every six months, I should die before my eyes give out. Okay, he said I should be able to see for the next ten years. (if with some difficulty).  I personally don’t plan on living that long, but it would be nice.

In the meantime, the computer screen is getting harder and harder to read, especially when the type and the boxes are blue or green. Those are rapidly fading against the white background. Even black print looks gray unless I make it larger and bold. But at least I can still see.

I’ve also noticed that magazines are getting harder to read. I swear the type is getting smaller. (I may not be wrong about that) . And have you noticed the “fine print” lately? For me, it’s even finer. It also seems package designers think it’s really clever to put yellow type on white backgrounds – that’s hard on two good eyes, let alone those with compromised vision.

I may start advocating on social media for the vision impaired. I don’t think they are giving much consideration by the powers that be – all over the internet and across all media platforms.

Twitter is the worst. They have so many color schemes that just disappear into oblivion. So clever – NOT. And finding the “color adjust” settings on most browsers is nearly impossible. It seems when you do find them and try to employ them, they change other screen settings, making it difficult to adjust to a screen you can live with across the board.

So, this month, I’ve pretty much played it by ear and done what I could, making small adjustments here and there. Not sure what the future may bring, but I’ll soldier on and do what I can to clear out my “Works In Progress” projects before whichever expiration date comes first.

 I’d like to leave you with this thought; None of my problems is any excuse for not making far more progress than I have. I’d like to think that my writer readers will see this and determine to do far better than I have. At least I will have inspired someone.

In next month’s blog, I will continue to journal my progress, both on the writing front and the vision front. 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:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

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

I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003SH6HIQ

All of my books are available on Amazon.

June’s featured novel is my paranormal Western “Black Oak: Town of Joy” http://tinyurl.com/hohuhce 

June’s featured poetry chapbook is “The Castleweaver's Tales: A Dozen Glimpses of Medieval Madness: 25th Anniversary Edition”  https://tinyurl.com/ybllonvw

The Darkening

May 2018 Blog

While I can see, I must be about finishing my manuscripts and publishing them. I can no longer look to the future.

The Darkening: A Haiku

Against ensuing

Blackness, I would enjoy what

Light I am allowed.

Life Sucks and then you die - and life still sucks - so says George in the series "Dead Like Me" and she knows.

The time to do my “to do” list has just been shortened considerably.

I’ve been wondering why everything seems so dark all the time.  Then I closed my right eye one day and saw only clouded images in my left. So I go to the doctor (after a few months). I have cataracts, right? Yep,  in both eyes actually. But that’s not the real problem. They are not worth operating on.

What the real problem is, is inoperable. I have Macular Degeneration. Something I thought only other people got. I didn’t realize it was an insidious, creeping condition that takes you unaware. The only thing that might halt or slow it down, seems to be a vitamin/mineral supplement concoction called A REDS-2, which I started taking on April 11^th, the day after my startling diagnosis. But it’s not a cure-all and I am going blind.

How soon? Don’t know.  Hopefully the retina specialist I’ve been referred to can tell me,  but he won’t be in town until May 24^th. (We have very limited resources here in the “UFO Capitol of the World”.)

In the meantime, while I can see (especially to format), I need to publish everything I can. Guess it’s also time to get those audio-books started. I’m going to be depending on those soon. My guess is, a lot of others enjoy them for the same reason.

I guess “through a glass, darkly,” will have different meaning for me now, as I assume everything will fade away to darkness.

I have added an additional task – that of studying Macular Degeneration to see what I can expect. I may even write about – if only to warn others out there that it does exist and you must do everything you can to protect yourself.

So far, I understand that one really does need to wear sunglasses, taking an A-Reds 2 supplement for the last few years (could) have helped, and the heavy doses of diuretics I take for my congestive heart failure condition probably hasn’t done my eyes any good.  I need to learn more.

On the writing front (after spending some time on self-pity) I have gotten back to writing. I’ll be finishing my Seasons of Sam Rock sequel soon.  I’ve also started formatting my next poetry chapbook, “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku: Volume Two: The Write Life”. Getting a good start on that should help with my subsequent releases, as I’ll only have to plug into the template. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

My next novel release will be the sequel to Black Oak. I just have to polish the manuscript, format and publish as well. Okay, I have to find the files first. I swear they are here somewhere. Really, I have a hard copy in a file box somewhere, and I have computer files saved from my old dead computer. Honestly, all I have to do is track them down. They are somewhere on my new half-Terrabyte hard drive and one or the other of my one-Terrabyte external hard drives. My computer guys did so much copying and saving, I may have multiple copies.

Guess I really should straighten all that out. My Norton security scans says I have over 1 million files on each drive. But, it’s really hard for me to stare at the screen much anymore.

By-the way, computer people, do you know that those of us with compromised eyesight can’t see all your fancy color concoctions? Your clever pale blues and pinks and light greens and (especially) yellow just fade into the white background. Those fill-in boxes are getting harder and harder to see. And the browser geniuses don’t seem to offer a display option that would benefit such impairment.

So, now, I muddle along, enjoying the visions before me less and less. But, while I can see, I need (more than ever) to get my last month’s ducks in some kind of order.

I also need to teach my husband how to pay the bills. He hasn’t paid a bill in over 31 years of marriage. He’s definitely going to have to learn to compromise and juggle, as I have done all the years – managing, somehow, to keep a roof over our heads and the lights, heat and water on. Oh, joy, won’t that be fun?

In next month’s blog, I will journal my progress, both on the writing front and the vision front. As I end this month’s blog, let me share another Haiku – appropriate to the way I feel right now.

It is this: Some days it doesn’t pay to think; other days, it’s just too painful.

Timeout: A Haiku

I’ll not be thinking

Today; my brain is tired,

And it needs to rest.

Until next month, 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

This month, I’m including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003SH6HIQ

All of my books are available on Amazon.

May’s featured novel is my Middle Grade sci-fi offering: “The Aurora UFO Incident - A Novel” https://tinyurl.com/yb875xw4

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