I just realized....

...that I should blog.  An entry is overdue.  Why this is so hard, I don't know, but I usually think I have nothing to say.  I could babble sociological buzz theory about growing up a female of my generation and what that did to my self-confidence blather blather, but even I don't care.  There are much more important issues.

Spring has finally arrived.  I have a window and the screen door open.  The scent of lilacs floods in on the breeze.  My little cat is drowsing by the screen door, where she can keep an eye on the birds outside.  I need  to deal with some stuff for a print edition and I need to get to work on the sequel to "Tiger Lily".  And then there is the scent of lilacs and the purr of a cat.

Marathon

People from all over the world enter the Boston marathon.  They just want to run.  Yes, I'm sure they would all like to win, but mostly they just want to run.  That's why they are there.  I am trying to imagine why anyone would want to blow them up.  I can't.  I'm not accustomed to a failure of imagination but I'm stuck; I can't get my head around this.  Is it supposed to be a statement?  Of what?  I am sad and I am also angry.

Book launch!

It's out!  After a slight delay, it's finally out.  "It" is my new book, "A Changed World".  Right now it's available in e-formats only, through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  It has adventure, romance, suspense, and paranormal goings-on.  It also has an intelligent big cat (who is far more intelligent than a lot of humans).  Check it out:
http://tinyurl.com/coqr9nu (that's Amazon)  or http://tinyurl.com/c3qgvm9 (Barnes and Noble).



Oh and here's the cover!

New novel soon!

Just a quick post: a new novel is on the way, with the title "A Changed World".  It should be out in e-format within a couple of weeks.  Here's the blurb:

It is after the Change, a drastic alteration of climate and environment brought about by global warming and chemical buildup in the environment.  Sage has lived in the mountains and plains of North America all her life.  She grew up in a poor village family, and would have been given as a concubine to the sons of a wealthy family when she turned fourteen.  Rather than accept this fate, she ran away, and lived a hard a life on the plains until she was accepted by an all woman Wander Band.  When her apprentice is stolen she is drawn into a journey that takes her across a changed world.  In the process she saves a village girl, partners with a mountain lion and meets Thomas, a man from the eastern coast who has far too many secrets.  Together this odd group must brave dangers to right some terrible wrongs and to save the world from a threat it does not realize exists.

Climate Change, Anyone?

We had about 30 inches of snow. That's quite pretty at first and then rather less attractive when you have to shovel it. And when you realize there are several layers of ice hidden in it from the times when it decided to sleet instead of snow. 

We lost power only intermittently but we lost internet, phone and tv for two days. I was in severe internet withdrawal and just about to head out to find the internet cafe (yes, we freed up a car!) when the connections returned. We still have huge blobs of ice on the lines. I've got my fingers crossed that they melt without taking anything down. 

We lost two trees, big pines, from on top of our stone wall, which runs along the sidewalk. Poor trees, so sad! Then the town decided to push the downed trees into our front steps, effectively blocking our front door, and then have the plows push all the heavy snow from the road into the trees.  This makes a fortification of which any medieval monarch would be proud.  Sharp pine branches poke through the thick, high wall of compacted snow.  No one's getting in and we ain't gettin' out. Not that way.

And now we have freezing rain glazing everything.  That's okay.  Temps are forecast to rise into the forties.  Then tonight it will all refreeze.  Supposedly, climate change brings with it weird extremes and raging storms. Are we having fun yet?

New Year

It's now 2013 (which to people in, say, Australia, is old news).  It's time for a new start, if such a thing is possible.  Let's try to preserve what needs preserving, improve what needs improving and create what needs creating.  And let's try to understand one another, for a change. Happy New Year!

Sandy Hook School

I had thought to write a blog entry about the season, the celebration of light in darkness.  Or maybe about the Geminid meteor shower.  I actually saw some!  But then I heard about the killings in Sandy Hook.

When I heard about another school shooting I thought, oh no, here we go again.  Then I heard who the victims were, just little children.  Could it get any worse?  We have seen mass shootings all too often in America but seeing these little children - well, it broke my heart.

Some of my friends said that these shootings are all due to the prevalence of assault weapons in America and that strict gun control is necessary.  Others said that a crazy man will always find a way, laws or not, to get a gun and kill.  Another said that there is too little access to mental health for people who need it.  Several blogged or posted that violence in the media is responsible.  A good friend wrote that children are not being taught coping skills for dealing with their problems, a very good point.  All of them are partially right. 

I decided to look into the history of school shootings in the US.  I was startled to see that they go back to before the nation's founding, although they have become more numerous recently.  In every case but one the shooter has been male. 

I am not the first person to notice this.  The demands made on American men (to be emotional rocks, tough guys, always number one) are hard enough on the ordinary guy, let alone someone with serious emotional problems and no coping skills. Men are supposed to be capable of violence, although only in a good cause, as a last resort.  Easy access to firearms can make this a deadly mix but the problems are far more deeply rooted.

It's easy to see how our society hurts women.  I get that.  I'm a woman. What is not so easy to see is how that same society hurts men.  And that hurts all of us.  We need to  think about this, to do something, to change our demands, as a society, on boys and men.  Maybe then we will read about mass shootings in history books, and only there.

Writing about the season of light will have to wait.  My heart breaks for those little murdered children and their families.