I joined the Good Trouble rally today in Franklin, Tennessee. Rep. John Lewis: "Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America." Stand up, march against authoritarianism.

GOOD TROUBLE MARCHES ON!

Be honest with yourself: If the crisis happening right NOW is not dealt with swiftly, assertively, and with every Goddamn resource and option our representatives have to use....do you, in your gut, genuinely believe that we would have a free and fair Mid-term election? Stop. No, you don't.

The rising oligarchy slips into position. The eagle weeps. (Image: Doug Marlette)

Good morning.

AI will obliterate genre fiction in the next few years as corporate publishing will get into bed with AI and fall out of love with writers.

Agents and writers will become redundant.

If you want great new writing with a soul, always choose indies.

@thebookseller.bsky.social

Heidi Deering, festive in lights, bells, and bows. Her groomer was having fun for the sake of a picture. Cocker spaniels are the best!

This is the way it works.

Here it is: my viral Bluesky thread significantly expanded into a full essay. Hope you will share it with anyone you think might be interested.

give me coffee for the things i can change and a flamethrower for the things i cannot. amen.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do;
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too.
Imagine all the people
Livin' life in peace.
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one.

John Lennon, 10/9/40-12/8/80

Is there not a floor anymore? No bottom from which one refuses to sink any lower? Is humanity destined to keep digging deeper and deeper into depravity and vulgarity? Accepting every wickedness that comes down the pike? How low will people go?

See first comment...

"You can keep green beans for north of ten days if you give them room to breathe after placing them in your fridge unwashed."

My green beans always get mushy, slimy, rotty, but that's not the point. The point is:

"North of ten days." What a choice of words! It doesn't get much better than that.

“Man can turn into an animal in no time. All he needs is permission. As soon as permission is given from higher-up, from government, it accelerates. Even a hint of permission that it’s okay to attack this group or exclude this group or shame that group…” Irene Weiss, Holocaust survivor, 60 Minutes

Vouchers: government giving taxpayer money to children to attend selected schools. Some people want this giveaway. Student loan debt relief: government giving taxpayer money to college students to forgive some interest debt on school loans. Voucher people loathe and bemoan this. The difference?

It's a wonder I haven't dropped all my ideals because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. I can't build hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery, death. I see the world being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, I feel the sufferings of millions… ~ Anne Frank

As deep dark winter approaches, there’s a sense of finality about. Closing in. Too easily, quietly, powerlessly, we are giving up the old. Once we succumb, purge, annihilate, it is lost. We will not get it back. Maybe not even a semblance of it.

SERENITY PRAYER, Revised

Grant me the ability to discern the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time…
in this world as it is,
not as I would have it…
Holding fast, unruffled to the person I am raised to be.