Not a Blog

Dark Days

January 29, 2024 at 9:37 am
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In years past, I would often do a Not A Blog post on or about New Year’s, looking back over the year that was ending and ahead to the year to come.   This year, though, as I reflected on the year we had just lived through, I found I had no appetite for living through any of that again.   2023 was a nightmare of a year, for the world and the nation and for me and mine, both professionally and personally.   I am very glad that it is over.

Unfortunately, so far 2024 looks to be even worse.

There is war everywhere.   Ukraine and Gaza dominate the news, but there is a war in Myanmar as well that our western media just ignores, things are heating up in Yemen and the Red Sea, North Korea has nukes and is testing missiles and rattling sabres, Venezuela is threatening to annex three quarters of neighboring Guyana.

Meanwhile the US grows more polarized every day.   Hate is rising, democracy is under threat, millions of Americans have swallowed the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.  Newspeak has taken over political discourse, cancel culture is destroying lives and careers, and we have a disgraced, indicted, venomous ex-president winning primaries despite openly declaring that he will be a dictator on day one and will govern on a platform of “retribution,” when he is not busy grabbing women by the pussy.   His last attempt to overthrow the government failed on January 6, but some of his more ardent supporters are now saying that “next time” they will bring more guns.   There are actually folks out there wanting civil war.

It is hard to escape the feeling that we are living in the Weimar Republic.

I am famous and I am wealthy and, supposedly, I have a “big platform.”  Whatever that is.  But I have grown more and more cynical about this supposed “power” that people keep telling me I have.   Has anything I have ever written here ever changed a single mind, a single vote?  I see no evidence of that.  The era of rational discourse seems to have ended.

And death is everywhere.   Howard Waldrop was the latest, and his passing has hit me very very hard, but before him we lost Michael Bishop, Terry Bisson, David Drake… from my Wild Cards team, Victor Milan, John Jos. Miller, Edward Bryant, Steve Perrin… I still miss Gardner Dozois and Phyllis Eisenstein and my amazing agent Kay McCauley… Len Wein is gone, Vonda McIntyre, and Harlan Ellison… Greg Bear too, and… oh, I could go on.    I look around, and it seems as though my entire generation of SF and fantasy writers is gone or going.  Only a handful of us remain… and for how long, I wonder?  I know I have forgotten people in the list above, and maybe that is the destiny that awaits all of us… to be forgotten.

For that matter, the entire human race may be forgotten.   If climate change does not get us, war will.  Too many countries have nukes.

Sigh.

Well, I take solace where I can.   In chocolate thrones, if nowhere else.   In books.   In films and television shows… though even there, toxicity is growing.  It used to be fun talking about our favorite books and films, and having spirited debates with fans who saw things different… but somehow in this age of social media, it is no longer enough to say “I did not like book X or film Y, and here’s why.”  Now social media is ruled by anti-fans who would rather talk about the stuff they hate than the stuff they love, and delight in dancing on the graves of anyone whose film has flopped.

And don’t get me started on immigration.   We are a nation of immigrants, yet millions of us have now decided we hate immigrants… refugees dreaming of a better life who are no better or worse or different than our own ancestors.

It is all so sad.

Now that I have made you all as depressed and angry as I am, let me close with something nice.   When word of Howard’s death got out, I got a lot of texts and emails of condolence from mutual friends and fans.  One of them was from Steven Paul Judd, the amazingly talented screenwriter and director who worked with us on the adaptation of MARY-MARGARET ROAD GRADER that will be going out on the film festival circuit Real Soon Now (more on that in a later blog post).

Steve wrote:

“Oh, no.  I’m so sorry.  My heart is heavy for your loss…  In my tribe (Kiowa) in the old beliefs, they said we would go ‘west’ when we walked on into the spirit world.  Who knows if that’s true, but if it is, then Howard is on his journey west now, going to the place where the fields are filled with buffalo and the grass is green even in winter — and when he gets there he can tell all his wonderful stories to those around the campfire.”

Howard would like nothing better, I think.

Current Mood: depressed depressed

Words for Our Times

October 25, 2023 at 8:35 am
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Words for All Times…

August 31, 2023 at 10:24 am
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… but especially these times we are living in, when free speech is under attack as seldom before.  Book banning has become pandemic, and now some are even threatening arrest for teachers and librarians who give students the “wrong” books to read.

 

Words For Our Times

September 14, 2022 at 9:30 am
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Words For Our Times

July 5, 2022 at 10:50 am
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CAN we keep it?

I am not so sure any more.

 

Current Mood: scared scared

Words For Our Times

April 23, 2022 at 9:48 am
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Current Mood: contemplative contemplative

Words For Our Times

May 5, 2021 at 6:49 pm
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Current Mood: contemplative contemplative

Violence in Turkey

March 28, 2021 at 3:45 pm
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My dear friend Sibel Kekilli — Shae, for all you fans of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES — emailed me recently to alert me to some distressing news out of Turkey.   (Sibel is German, born and raised in Germany, but of Turkish descent).    Turkey, under the Erdogan regime, has officially withdrawn from the Istanbul convention that combats violence against women.

Here are the details:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/20/europe/turkey-convention-violence-women-intl/index.html

Sibel herself has first hand knowledge of what it means to experience violence, and she has long been an advocate fighting violence against women all around the world.   She is not only an amazing actress (she gave Shae a depth the character never had in my books), but a very brave woman, and a true hero.   I admire her immensely for all she has done, and continues to do.

And I would like to echo her message to the women and girls of Turkey:   Selam Ve Sevgiler.

Stay strong.

 

 

Current Mood: determined determined

Words for Our Times

January 13, 2021 at 10:02 am
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Current Mood: anxious anxious

The Republic Under Attack

January 6, 2021 at 2:25 pm
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What is happening in Washington right now is shocking and dismaying… but I can’t say I find it entirely unexpected.

There have been all too many days, these past couple of years, when I feared that the United States was going the way of the Weimar Republic.

And now the moment of coup is at hand.   Rioters breaking into the Capitol, even the floor of the House and Senate.   One of them trying to haul down the American flag and replace it with a Trump flag.  Congressmen and senators being forced to recess and seek safety.

Sickening.

This is an attempted coup.  Make no mistake.   I am still hopeful that it will end as a failed coup, a Beer Hall Putsch, but we shall see.   The inaction of law enforcement thusfar has been shocking.

Make no mistake, these are not protestors, these are not patriots, these are rioters attempting to destroy our democracy.

They are traitors.

And the traitor in chief is Donald J. Trump.

He should be arrested, removed from office, tried for treason, convicted, and imprisoned.   And Rudy with him.   This is their work.

Current Mood: angry angry

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