Near Normal

April 2019 Blog

Functioning? Yes – barely. Near normal? Never, ever.

Normal: A Haiku

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

Such a relative

Term. Don’t think I’ve ever been

Anywhere near it.

I’ve been sick most of March. Got that one flu that the shot didn’t cover this year. Almost over it. Almost back to…

Yeah, right. I’ve never been normal. But I’m almost back to doing what I was doing when I got sick. Still sleep a lot, though. Seems when you get this old, it takes longer to recover.

Even my audio book release has been postponed another month. Seems my narrator has been down with it, too. Doesn’t do much for the voice.

So, let’s say March didn’t happen. We just went from February to April, lost a month and an hour’s time, and here we are. Taxes are due in two weeks and my manuscripts are still piled up.

Spent a lot of time editing the first half of “The Chronicles of Acqueria: The Early Years.” Now all I have to do is write about 35,000 more words. Should crank that out in about a month, right? We’ll see about that.

Then I’m still rethinking the second Sam Rock novel. With the new ideas, it will be a much stronger, more dramatic story.

The “Global Warning” chapbook is still sitting there – waiting for me to gather, embellish and expand. Should wax magnificent in some summer’s night dream. (Can you tell I’m on medication?)

Have a lot of housework to catch up on, too. Being sick just sends everything to the back burner where it just sits and simmers and sputters out.

When I look at it as a whole, it’s just overwhelming. So I guess I’ll just have to take the wise advice I read somewhere a long time ago in a galaxy... When asked how do you eat an elephant, the reply was –  one bite at a time. Although at my advanced age, I’d probably best take bigger bites if I really want to finish the thing.

Also toying with the idea of doing  proofreading for hire (in my spare time). I’ve got a pretty good command of the English language, so I’d love to lend a hand out there to help others along their path to publication. (More on that later.)

For now,  I’ll content myself with diving back into the literal creation of Acqueria and enjoy my fantasy world for a while. The real world out there is not a friendly place anymore, and I’d love to spend much less time in it.

Hopefully, when I’m finished in Acqueria, the real world will right itself a bit and we will all be  the better for it. But I’m certainly not holding my breath until that happens.

This month’s blog may be shorter than usual, but I’ll make up for it in the pages of my manuscript, and there’s always next month.

I’m looking forward to May already.  So sad, the time goes so fast as it is.

I’ll drop more lines later. Right now I’m off to nap time and more medication. Seems like my normal routine anymore.

Nap time is over, and I’ve dreamt up nothing new to say. So, I’ll end this with my usual farewell invitation and solicitations.

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:

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.

April’s featured novel is my Young Adult fiction: “The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery”.  https://tinyurl.com/ydbhv3ae

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

Author’s Choice

March 2019 Blog

We writers are a fortunate lot. We can escape reality (if only for a little while) and create our own world – one we have some say in.

Author’s Choice: A Haiku

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

What world shall I dwell

Within today? Perhaps one

Where peace, love abide.

Time to add to the body of my work. The weather is mild (far too mild for this time of year), and I can sit outside in the fresh air and write.

The second Castleweaver chapbook has gone live on Amazon, and getting it ready was quite a chore. Poetry and artwork are always a bear to format and the page numbers wouldn’t behave, so I eliminated them. (Something Eldreth the Castleweaver would so do.)

I am not happy with the demise of Create Space (Amazon’s original paperback publishing arm. It was easy to work with. I find Kindle Direct Publishing far harder with fewer viable options. I may have to check around for other options. (I’m not looking forward to doing that, because I hate change.)

In the meantime, I will write. Both the prequel and the sequel to Acqueria are calling to me, as is Sam Rock, and Eldreth insists I complete his novel. With the weather turning fair, there’s no reason not to get them done.

Besides, I need to go dwell in another universe for a while. It’s wonderful that writers have this option. I’m not finding the current reality a pleasant place to be. I would much prefer late 1940’s  Los Angeles, a booming place after the war and exciting to be in. Although, I was in Chicago at the time. It was also a wonderful place to be. Growing up there, we had nothing but good things to look forward to, including the technology of the future. Now is not so much wonderment as head-shaking bewilderment.

Women did have limited horizons back then, but even then it was changing. It continued to improve  until we almost had equality, and now – it just seems we are backsliding .

The world of Acqueria seems almost beckoning. Although its currently a patriarchal society, that is changing, and Sentia will have her say. Even pre-Acqueria, the Forest North was run by strong women, including a shamaness. They pretty much had things under control.

I might go back to Eldreth’s world, but women seem to die around him a lot – except for the Raven Woman – she was special. Could have been a witch (at least Eldreth thought so). May need to explore that and her world further.

Come to think of it, I have a spinoff short story about a young girl (Solan) with special powers who is turned over to the good wizard Tawold in Eldreth’s tales, so she won’t be subject to Eldreth’s whims. Not sure where that one will go. I may post it online somewhere. It’s actually suitable for middle-grade readers.

So, there’s not a dearth of thing to do – just a dearth of energy to do it all. I only have about one or two more chapters of the Sam Rock sequel left to write. Unfortunately, it will then require a complete rewrite as it meanders way too much and didn’t go where I needed it to go.

Not sure how my audio book of “The Seasons of Sam Rock” is coming along.  My narrator got married and went on a honeymoon.  I’m sure he’s super busy with his new life. We’ll have to see.

Actually, I got a couple of great ideas from said narrator about where he thought the sequel should go. So, I’ll be working on incorporating some of that.

March will find me far busier than February. I also need to work on the “Global Warning” Haiku chapbook. I think about it a lot as I sit outside in fair weather that isn’t due until April.

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 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:

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 1940’s noir fiction “The Seasons of Sam Rock” https://tinyurl.com/ydftx4xq

        This month’s featured poetry chapbook is “The Castleweaver's Tales: The Madness Continues: 25th Anniversary Edition” https://tinyurl.com/y2up63fg

Push Me – Pull You

February 2019 Blog

I have been running late of late. It is time for me to not let things pile up anymore, lest I die upon the pile.

Running Behind: A Haiku

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

I would be late to

Nothing more, except to the

Time of my demise.

I have decided that what I want more than anything else for the rest of my life is “autonomy”.  I want to be self-directed.

I haven’t been accomplishing the things I really want to for quite a while.  Or, if I do accomplish something, it seems to take forever.

Last night, in the middle of the night, this quotation occurred to me: “If we are not self-directed, then we shall surely be other-directed.”  Don’t know where that’s from, but it sure does fit.

By-the-way, I have a lot of thoughts during the middle of the night. I’ve learned to keep a pen and paper handy. I’ve also learned to write decently in the dark.

Back to autonomy. There is absolutely no reason the 25^th Anniversary Edition of “The Castleweaver Tales: The Madness Continues” has not been published, except I have been dragging my feet on it.

I did have to write some new material for it, and I did have a miserable time formatting it. But it should have been done two weeks ago (let alone six years ago). Now it will be mid-February before I can hit the publish button.

I’m not offering any excuses. Naps and TV and puzzles aren’t nearly as important as getting these things published before I can’t. I’ve already lost the ability to match my cover with the first book. Create Space has been replaced by Kindle Direct Publishing and they are slightly different, especially as far as the covers go. So, there will be differences. Had I published when I should have, I would have had a neat set of books.

Well, that’s water under the bridge or over the dam or whatever.

Time to just move forward.

Which brings me to “Push Me – Pull You”. Actually, “Pushmi-Pullyu” from Doctor Doolittle is a unique animal with two front ends. Kind of hard for either end to make much progress.

There’s even a “Push Me – Pull You Syndrome” which makes a lot of sense to me.

It works like this: I know I want to do something, but I don’t because….” (You can fill in a lot of reasons and/or excuses here.) The result is the things you want to do don’t get done, and in the end you are not happy about it.

Taken to the extreme, it affects so many facets of life. Books aren’t published on time. Bills are paid late or are forgotten to be paid at all. The house doesn’t get cleaned and things pile up and soon you can’t have the plumber in because you don’t want him to see the house.

It’s called “C.H.A.O.S.” (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome) and thank goodness “The Flylady” http://flylady.net/  can help with that. That’s if you remember to use the system, instead of just saying “I’ll catch up later.” That doesn’t happen.

So, how am I going to claim and/or implement my new-found autonomy? I’m going to have to think about that. Maybe I’ll post self-directed affirmations where I can see them, especially when and where I’d rather do something less productive.

Maybe I’ll go back to making lists that I can actually use and don’t lose before I cross everything off as done.

Whatever I do, I need to do it soon. I’m not getting any younger, and the accumulation of things I need to get done is not getting any shorter.

Also, the more I avoid doing stuff, the less time I have to write, and writing is what makes me the happiest. I certainly deserve some of that at this stage of my life.

So maybe this year will be my year to get it all together and not forget where I put it. Just maybe this will be the year I finish those works-in-progress and finish off my series and triologies , so I can move on to new flights of fantasy and horror and sci-fi exploits.

Speaking of which, “The Orville”, a Seth McFarlane creation is a brilliant TV show. I have a new-found respect for the man and his body of work. This new show is what Star Trek was at the  time of its inception: cutting-edge and non-formulaic. No episode ends the way you expect it will. It ends honestly, the way life really works. (Kudos to Seth McFarlane!)

As a writer, I can only hope for such an accolade for my work, and I will strive for it with each new offering.

Now, to get back to work and actually do .

By-the-way, I had no takers on the book giveaway last month, so I think I will shelve the contest until I have a new novel coming out.

Until next month, keep the faith and keep writing (or at least reading). Hopefully, I’ll see you then with more updates from the “Garret of AnnNoE”.

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

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

https://www.amazon.com/Castleweavers-Tales-Glimpses-Medieval-Anniversary/dp/1452863326

Once More into the Breach

January 2019 Blog

Happy New Year to my faithful readers and my fellow writers. May we all be blessed with a brighter and more prosperous 2019.

Wishful Thinking: A Haiku

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

Father Time has wiped

The year’s slate clean, left new chalk

To write life anew.

If only this were true, and we did not carry life’s baggage into each New Year we are given to celebrate.

The start of a new year gives us impetus to start again and that will last for me, I hope, at least a few weeks into this new year.

This last year for me saw two new works published “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku, Volume Two: The Write Life” and “Black Oak: Vengeance Bound”. Not a lot, but something accomplished, anyway. In addition, it has ended on a great note – “The Seasons of Sam Rock” will soon be an audio book, brilliantly narrated by actor and voice-over artist Steve Hamm (@SteveHamm on Twitter). I feel he will more than do justice to Sam Rock and company.

I’m currently formatting my second Castleweaver chapbook “The Castleweaver's Tales: The Madness Continues: Anniversary Edition” It’s not easy-formatting poetry for publication. It’s not just words on a page.  It has to be visually effective also – and in all formats..

My project list for 2019 includes the second “Sam Rock” book and either a sequel or a prequel to “The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery”.

Also, I will be publishing two or three more Haiku chapbooks. The  most important of which will be “Global Warning”. If only a poet could influence the minds of the people, especially those who deny that climate change exists.

I’m also re-evaluating the purpose of my blog. Besides waxing eloquent on this writer’s life, trials and tribulations, I’m thinking of offering tips and hints to make the “Write Life” a little easier in the coming year. I understand there are many aspiring and beginning writers out there who can use a little encouragement and wisdom gleaned from years and years (okay – a lifetime) of doing things the wrong way.

In fact, in my spare time, I’m thinking of writing my memoirs just chock full of what  not to do. I may call it: “How Not To Live Your Life”. I’d have no problem filling tons and tons of pages with that advice.

Actually, I’m looking forward to a lot of things this coming year. I’m more optimistic than usual for a new start, new possibilities, and a better life. Hopefully, that feeling will last longer than the keeping of my new year’s resolutions. That usually lasts about half-way through January in a good year.

I’m also going to reach out to my faithful readers this year. Each month I will offer an autographed copy of the book I’m featuring for the month. The winner will be randomly chosen from my blog readers who leave word in the comments section by the 15^th of the month that they’d like to win a signed copy. I will contact the winner for mailing information and drop it in the mail around the end of the month. The winner will be announced in the next month’s blog.

I’m thinking of calling it “My Biggest Fan Award” in honor of my favorite tongue-in-check fan pic. Time to have some fun.

I have no complaints as the new year begins. I’m in reasonably good health and still have all my faculties about me. I’m not happy with the state of the world, but I’m hoping for changes on that front this year.

The weather this winter has not been too extreme, and I’m thankful to Mother Nature for that. I hope it holds for the rest of the year. Mild in all things is good (except pastels – I’m not a pastel person).

So all-in-all, I’m wishing and hoping for a better, brighter, more prosperous year for us all. For my friends in the etherland, know that I am grateful for each and every one of you.

Happy New Year to one and all.

Until next month, keep the faith and keep writing (or at least reading). Hopefully, I’ll see you then with more updates from the “Garret of AnnNoE”.

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.

January’s featured novel is “The Chronicles of Acqueria: Blood Moon Treachery”. It comes from a time that never was and place that could never be. It is the story of a love that shouldn’t have happened, but did. The Chronicles of Acqueria is a young adult coming-of-age story of a strong young lady growing up in a patriarchal society. See how she copes. It is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/y96zzp9u

Happy Birthday to Me

December 2018 Blog

I have lived for three-quarters of a century. I have seen some marvelous things—and some things not so marvelous. The fact that I have lived so long as to see mankind regress is mind-numbing.

Human Rights: A Haiku

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

Three-quarters of a

Century lived and yet so

Little progress made.

I don’t go back quite as far as the horse and buggy days. (Although my children used to ask me what the dinosaurs were like).  But I do remember a time before jet airplanes, and computers didn’t exist when I went to school.

I was a young wife with two little children when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.  Now I am an old, old lady and my grandchildren have children.

I remember when oleo first came on the market. It came in a plastic pouch, and it was white (so it wouldn’t be confused with butter.) It had a little blob of yellow dye in a packet that you could squeeze and make the oleo yellow yourself so it was more palatable and didn’t look like you were spreading Crisco on your bread.

When I was little, cars were big and bulky and made out of steel. They had stick shifts and most had throttles you had to pull out and pump before you turned the key to start the engine.

My mother had a wringer washer that we kept in the basement laundry room. You had to run the wet clothes from the washer through the wringer into a wash tub of hot water to rinse and then through the wringer again into another tub of hot water to make sure you got all the suds out. Then you carted the laundry basket out to the yard and actually hung the laundry up on a clothesline made of cord or wire with wooden clothespins and let Mother Nature dry them.

When the clothes were dry, you took them down and folded the socks and underwear. The rest of the clothes were sprinkled with water (we actually had a bottle with a sprinkler top on it) and put in a laundry bag until you could get out the iron (not the steam iron) and iron them.

I started learning on the pillowcases and dish towels, then graduated to sheets and then shirts. Then I could do the heavy stuff like pants and skirts. I was always proud of my creases.

I was born as World War II came to an end, so I’m even older than the baby boomers. It was a happy time. We looked forward to a bright future.

In fact, most of my school years were spent looking forward. There were advances in everything: in medicine, in technology and in the way people treated each other.

It seemed that each generation could look forward to a better life and that happiness would never end. We had integration. We had acceptance and tolerance. And we had the flower children, and free love reigned. I looked forward to getting married and raising my husband’s children. We struggled to maintain a middle class existence, but we were happy.

I’m not sure when it all changed. I think it was in the Nixon years that things went to hell. Prices sky-rocketed. Gas was practically rationed. And we learned not to trust—not in our leaders, not in our future. We learned that politicians could be dishonest, and wars and rumors of wars filled the news. And each succeeding year was not necessarily brighter than the last.

But we got through it. We adjusted, we adapted, and we survived. Always hoping for the best and better.

Now?  I’m not so sure. I guess my son saw it first. He always said he didn’t want to bring a child into this world the way things were going. Now I believe he was right. I certainly wouldn’t want to raise a child now. To guide  one through the labyrinth of drugs and violence and crime nowadays would be a gargantuan task.

And we are losing ground rapidly. The quality of life is deteriorating even as we speak. I heard just yesterday that life expectancy has declined in America for the third year in a row. Even the doomsday clock is inching ever closer to midnight and disaster.

Don’t even get me started on “Climate Change”! How can deniers deny what is in front of their faces? Perhaps I have the advantage here. I have lived long enough to actually realize there is such a thing as global warming.

I have experienced cycles and ups and downs of weather, but the overall trend over three-quarters of a century is not to the good or even a status quo.

Weather is changing. The highs are higher. The lows are lower and the storm of the century is happening every year.

We no longer have the luxury of saying “well, maybe in a thousand years or so we may have a problem.” The problem is now. The problem will affect our children’s children if we don’t  do something about it now.

But now, we are too busy lining the pockets of the oil industry and big pharma and politicians to even consider the welfare of future generations.

Our schools are failing, our children are failing, and we are failing our children.

We have become (for the most part) a world of intolerance and indifference. We would rather tune in to our own indulgences than consider the consequences of our own inactions.

In what is left of my lifetime, I would like to see some change. I would like to see the progress we have made in human dignity and acceptance (which are in jeopardy right now) cast in concrete.

I would love to see our human rights not held at the mercy of regime change, even in our own country.

I would love to see a healthy respect for science and our scientists and a healthy respect for the only world capable of sustaining our life as we know it.

I would love to spend the rest of my days thinking and writing about happy thoughts. As it stands, my next Haiku chapbook will be called “Global Warning” and I will continue to write Horror, because that is what I understand.

On the lighter side: There is no point in telling me anything is bad for me at this stage. So I’ll add this Haiku:

Benefits: A Haiku

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

I have lived so long,

I can do, say and eat as

I please. Pass the cake.

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

December’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

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