The ornery ramblings and occasional fiction of a former political science professor turned author
Holidays are stressful. In a normal year we’d be traveling to California, and parceling out our visit among essentially three families. My cousins and their families (usually all in one spot for a day or two), and then my in-laws who are now two separate households not counting my husband’s siblings. So, yes, stressful. But this year, the lovely 2020, we are NOT traveling to California…but things are even more stressful than if we were.
Continue reading “Stress”
Collectivism is, or should be, anathema to those who truly and honestly love freedom and liberty. Collectivism speaks in terms of sacrifices for “us” by “you”. There is no talk of what “you” should or could do for you. Collectivism is the cornerstone of socialism and its follow-on, communism. I know that many will read this and scoff. “Oh, you are just fear-mongering, Communism is just society looking out for all its members and making sure that nobody is left out.” This goes with “socialism is roads and public schools…do you mean you don’t like those?”
Continue reading “We are multitudes”
It’s hard to believe that over at More Odds Than Ends we are at Week 50. Seems like just last month that we started down this road. In the last year of responding to and thinking up these prompts I’ve grown as a writer more than I could have imagined at the beginning of the year. This has been an absolute blast and I hope to keep doing it into next year. My prompt thie week came from ‘nother Mike: Five faeries, like Tinkerbelle, but all different pastel shades, danced down the dragon’s arm and spun around in a circle in its paw… My prompt went to Leigh Kimmel.
Continue reading “Dancing Lights”
UPDATE: I posted this right before I found out that SCOTUS said Texas had no standing to file its lawsuit. I still stand by the idea that this lawsuit is a silver lining if for no other reason it brought things out in public.
Today was a beautiful day. Temperature was mid-50s and the sun was out. I was walking home from a hair appointment when it struck me. There are silver linings to this craptastic year of 2020. Wait, wait. Hear me out. This is not just an illusion caused by the sun on my face and enjoying a beautiful day. Okay…so, why the hell do I think there are silver linings to be found for 2020? I mean aside from the obvious personal ones for some people, like babies and weddings, or adopting a pet?
Continue reading “Silver Linings”
A few days ago, Sarah Hoyt wrote a post called “Operation Swamp Fox.” In it she talked about tactics to push back, fight back, against the gaslighting and propaganda coming from the left; the media, Democrat Party, and their followers/supporters (which includes those who are going along in the hopes of being left alone, and Never Trumpers who are delusional they’re going to come out on top). I agree with Sarah’s sentiment and I resolved to start engaging in my own Swamp Fox tactics (go read her post for ideas).
Continue reading “Avoiding the subject”
Since before the election I’ve been seeing a lot of articles, blog posts, and comments from friends regarding the “inevitability” of Trump losing this election. Those types of articles have greatly increased in the days since. People on both sides of the political divide are in the inevitability camp. The big question is why are Republicans and conservatives following this line? Of course all the strong Democrat supporters want to believe their guy won. I’d wager that those Democrats who voted for Trump (oh, yes, there were some) are in the inevitability camp. And, the Never Trumpers strongly want him to lose…not because they like Biden, but because they’re willing to cut their noses off to spite their faces.
Continue reading “Inevitability”
Another week at More Odds Than Ends and another stand-alone prompt for me. I’m working on getting book 2 fit for my beta readers, so I’ve been focusing on that. I plan on returning to Cursebreaker as soon as I send that out. Meanwhile, please enjoy this response to a prompt from ‘nother Mike: The Amazon delivery box didn’t have a book in it. Instead, when they opened it, a small elf jumped out. I did modify it a little bitMy prompt went to Leigh Kimmel.
Continue reading “Odd Prompts: Week 48”
Sarah Hoyt posted a blast from the past “I Feel The Ground Shifting” in her current post. The ground is shifting under our feet, but that does not mean we are losing nor are we lost. I grew up in earthquake country. It’s all in how we navigate those changes and shifts. Go read the rest.
Image by Marcello Migliosi from Pixabay
The wonderful Hans Schantz is hosting a Black Friday/Cyber Monday book sale! Now until Dec. 2! Head on over and check it out! Almost every genre you can think of and everything is $0.99 or free! My book is listed there as well (just a small plug!).
Wow. Week 47.at More Odds Than Ends. An auspicious number for us Pomona types. 47 is our number. It carries a mysterious significance for us all. Hence the rah after the number (as in cheering for the number. Yeah, we’re weird. Deal.) So, anyway. I didn’t get a prompt sent in for this week so I stole one of the other prompts. I looked through the spare prompts but none of them really spoke to me. I ended up stealing ‘nother Mike’s prompt even though it was assigned to Leigh Kimmel. I’m pretty sure Leigh will go in an entirely different direction with it than I did. This is also another stand-alone prompt, not connected to any of my current works-in-progress. I did manage to send in a prompt for next week, so I’ve got that going for me this week. I’m surprised at how unproductive I’ve been this week. The only reason I can come up with right now is that the lack of a semester with all its rhythms is finally catching up with me. This is usually a slower week for me. The semester is winding down, by now, Tuesday evening, most students have left campus even though there are classes on Wednesday, and I’m in no mood to be hanging out on campus either.
Continue reading “Week 47 (rah!) Odd Prompt”