Let's meet Katarinne and Oriana

Here's the opening scene for the 'other half' of the story in Stain of Corruption. It starts with Oriana and Katarinne during an incredibly pivotal point in the Mage War, 40 some years before the start of Ghosts in the Snow. :)

(scene below the cut)

An update and a glimpse

I'm not a good blogger, I know. It's been an incredibly crazy autumn for me and I have a gazillion distractions dragging me this way and that, but I've been working on my fiction, even if I haven't been blabbering here on the blog.

SPORE is done and out the door, and hopefully it'll be acceptable. I think it's a quirky, twisty kick ass book. While not as overtly violent and depraved as the Dubric novels, it has its moments of dark surprises, and I'm pretty enamored with Ghoulie, especially. Not sure why - a vengeful ghoul isn't exactly an intriguing, multi-faceted character - but I do like him gobs. And Sean. And Mare and Mindy and, well, pretty much all of the characters. I am very happy with the book. Other than one sex scene that I'd intended but couldn't find a way to squeeze in, it's pretty much exactly how I envisioned it. Yay!!

Anyway, as news occurs I will blog about it, so stay tuned for SPORE's journey to a bookstore near you.  Go SPORE!! ;)

Tonight, though, I've delved back into the Dubric universe with my current incarnation of Stain of Corruption. Dubric and his burdens have never been easy for me to write, but here I am, looking at where the story stands, where I want it to go, and how I need it to get there.

Oh, wow. It's been a while. (oops!)

Let me start off by saying I did not get arrested. Was a very interesting day, though. Made a couple of new friends and actively participated in both civil disobedience as well as the intricate political process of getting a candidate to the ballot. All in all, it was a good day.

And... for the very first time in my entire life I have political signs in my front yard! How weird is that?!? (Go Gary Johnson 2012!! Live Free!)

Ahem.

SPORE is almost done. I am about to finish up chapter 24, every major character is in a very bad, very terrifying place (all different bad, terrifying places to boot, even tho they're currently split into pairs) and it's only going to get worse as they're pulled further apart and plunged deeper into the story's climax. Yay!! Still have to do the chapter graphics for chapter 23, but I'm really digging the book. Double yay! ;)

Overall, things here are pretty darn good other than I'm usually exhausted after taking care of my granddaughter all day and writing all night. After SPORE's out the door I'll - hopefully - have time to sew since I've barely turned on my machine in about 6 months. I have two baby quilts to finish (and start!! Have fabric for one but not the other! Aaak!) by Christmas, plus various presenty things to make.

After SPORE. I can sew after SPORE. Right?

Anyway, I'm good. I hope you're all good.

Anyone have interesting news to report?

{{huggs}}

I may be getting arrested Monday fighting for my civil rights.

I will be in Des Moines, Iowa on Monday afternoon protesting the GOPs attempt to strip third party candidates off the November Ballot. They are targeting Libertarian Gary Johnson specifically (no word yet if they're also going after Jill Stein or anyone else as well) because he DARED to get on the ballot in every state, DARED to talk about the issues and solutions, and DARED to be inclusive instead of campaigning by creating fear. As a concerned citizen and registered voter *I will not stand aside* and let political big shots lie and cheat their way to no dissension or no alternatives, especially after those alternatives played by the rules (sometimes rigged against them re: Pennsylvania) and did every thing they were supposed to do to be included as a legitimate candidate. It's just plain WRONG and I will be there to fight for my rights.

Whether you like Gary or Jill or any other candidate (including Romney or Obama) or not, we all need to decide where we're willing to stand and fight for fairness, freedom, and justice.

If you can and will join me and others to stop this madness, let me know. We can meet up and work together.

Sorry to have missed you. Oppressive heat will be back soon.

It's been incredibly hot and dry here, and Iowa is not known for either of those things. Sure, we get hot, a few days each summer around a hundred degrees, but along with the heat comes about 90+% humidity. Usually, in late July, you can see the air - it's whitish - because it's so crammed full of moisture. Many nights, there's a thunderstorm which will, temporarily, cut the heat and force some of the humidity to precipitate, instead of floating forever in the air. There's a relief, usually a short day or two, then it's hot and humid again.

Not this year.

We've had about a month at or around 100˚F. We've had about a month with humidity around 25%, which we don't usually hit except in the coldest parts of winter. We have rivers that have dried up, or are little more than a trickle. The corn is already turning brown with teeny, skinny cobs about the size of my thumb. The beans haven't grown tall or fluffed and just sit there slowly turning yellow. Instead of perfect growing conditions for grass, grains, and trees, everything is becoming crispy. Trees are shedding leaves, lawns are brown, and, frankly, wildlife, which is usually plentiful even in town, has all but disappeared. My bet is the deer, raccoons, possums and whatnot are staying near what few water sources remain, but I can't be sure. Even the birds are trimmed back, the mornings silent instead of filled with birdsong.

For someone used to sticky humid summers where we have to mow the lawn every other day, this is really distressing. There's a lot of worry that if we don't get a lot of rain this fall, before freeze, what fish remain in the rivers and lakes won't survive the winter. And neither will the trees. And who knows what the crap crops will do to our already faltering local economy.

Scary stuff.

Long term forecasts indicate the hot dry slow bake of the midwest will continue until mid September. Or maybe October. And once it starts raining, it won't stop. Maybe. If it starts raining at all. They think.

I just know that farmers here are selling their cattle because, with hay reaching $1500 a large bale, and grain at all time highs, they can't afford to feed them. The corn is so crappy it's not even useful as silage (mowed down to be used, leaves, stalks and all, for animal feed). Living in an Agricultural state, I see the fields, the pastures, the spindly weeds growing in hay fields and ditches, and it worries me because food prices are currently awful, and this heat wave and drought will only make them worse. A LOT worse.

I sure don't see it getting any better.

We're careening toward an economic cliff running hand in hand with climate change, yet our politicians bicker over gaffes, imagined affronts, and skewed data, telling us nothing about how they will actually repair our ailing economy, how they'll make it easier for folks to find and keep jobs, or how they'll deal with the coming food/water crises and lifestyle modifications that'll have to be used as the weather changes. Nothing they're saying really matters, it's all sound bites and bickering over the same damn crap, little different from the crap four years ago, or eight, or twelve, or twenty or any time I can remember.

Frankly, bail outs mean shit when people can't afford groceries. Taxes mean shit when people don't have income to tax. Gaffes mean shit when the national and global economies take a nose dive.

Sooner or later, the weather will change, we will get rain, and Iowa will be green again. Politicians, though, will continue to screech lies and half-truths at each other from their pedestals. Until they stop being so divisive and nasty, and instead start offering real solutions to real problems, nothing's ever going to get better.

Ready to fly! Maybe.

Here I am again with yet another meandering through random topics.

The generator tells me I must talk about Airline Failures. Another fabulous topic for yours truly since one of my absolute least favorite activities is flying.

I'm taking a guess here to assume the topic means not 'failure' but bankruptcy. Airlines go bankrupt and they, as a business, fail. I don't want to talk about that, though. I want to talk about the failure of airlines to consider their passengers.

Charging for carry-on bags? Fail.
No leg room? Fail.
No snack on a long flight, other than *maybe* a skimpy pack of peanuts or a cracker (both of which are so cheap and crappy I'd be embarrassed to give to trick or treaters for fear they'd egg my house)? Fail.
Crampy, crampy, crampy spaces where passengers' shoulders have to layer over one another. Fail
Too narrow seats? Fail.
Crappy 'canned air' smell (I usually feel I'm almost suffocating)? Fail.
Losing luggage? Fail.
Lack of assurance your belongings are safe? Fail.
Stuff that doesn't work, whether fans, lights, or call buttons (and, I assume, emergency oxygen masks)? Fail
People who have more right to put their head in my lap than I have to read, work on my book, or simply sit there without a head in my lap? Fail.
Crappy restrooms? Fail
Uncomfortable seats while we're stuck waiting to board flights? Fail.
Over-booking so passengers get bumped? Fail.
Price gouging rates, especially to 'non vacation' destinations? Fail.
Intrusive security measures? Fail.

I could go on, but that list is already plenty long. I truly despise flying. I'm a bit claustrophobic anyway but to be crammed into a seat with little to no wiggle room and my knees crammed into the seat ahead of me (oh, the utter JOY of when that person leans back and tries to snap off my kneecaps to give their leisure more room!) is, for me, worse than enduring dental surgery. At least with dental surgery I get a pain killer and some happy gas. I endure the security crap because it supposedly keeps us safe (frankly I have my doubts) but getting on and remaining on a plain is AWFUL. Just awful.

Airlines make seats and spaces smaller and smaller to cram in more people, raise overall prices, yet do nothing to improve service and overall enjoyment. I can see why they keep failing, I can. Sure there's a captive audience - some people need to fly for jobs and emergencies - but instead of doing their part to make travel enjoyable, or at least not crap-tastic, airlines seem to pride themselves on increasing the shittiness of the experience. With that business model, failure is pretty much assured.

I don't fly unless I have to. I'm sure I'm not the only one with that sentiment.

Holy Moly

Back again, (Happy Saturday, by the way) with another random post. each entry prompted by a random topic generator my friend Jean suggested. (Jean's blogging all month too, so check her out!)

Yay. Today's topic is Religion Definition Debate. Someone want to remind me again why I agreed to do this. Whee.

Let's start with something concrete. In this case, I'm consulting my personal, very battered copy of Webster's Handy College Dictionary that I bought around the time I graduated high school so I'd have a dictionary for college. Yes, it's copyrighted 1981, is surely dated, and it lost its cover years ago, but it's also the dictionary I use whenever I need to look something up. Like this. Don't like it, get your own dictionary.

Anyway, my dictionary's definition of Religion is:
n 1, a system of faith in and worship of a deity. 2, devoutness; dedication to a holy life. 3, a doctrine or custom accepted on faith.

Frankly, I see a lot of wiggle room there, and maybe that's the problem. Yeah, definition one pretty much insists that a deity must be part of the equation, but when you get to definitions two and three, things get fuzzy. Can someone be a devout, dedicated vegetarian who views their clean lifestyle as holy? Sure they can, but does that make it a religion? How about those troublesome investment banking practices that got the rest of us into a lot of trouble. Don't they follow doctrines and customs accepted on faith in financial markets? Doesn't mean they were good, or right, only indoctrinated. Could a greedy, self serving bastard use religious persecution as a defense for tricking people out of their savings? They probably could use it, but I don't know if it'd fly.

I think people need to realize that religion isn't something concrete. It's one of those 'I know it when I see it' issues, but everyone knows and sees different things. Who's to say one person's devotion to the rising of the sun every morning granting life to the earth is less a religion than another person believing a Roman era prophet is the son of God, or that believing it's all a bunch of hooey is just as vital, and correct, as any other faith?

I tend to follow 'to each their own' view, unless one persons faith impacts, impedes, or otherwise restricts someone else. If you're belief system insists you must sacrifice a human life every solstice and you're killing people, then I believe there's a problem. If you believe that smoking peyote brings you closer to the great maker and you're doing it in the privacy of your own home, then I really don't mind. What I find alarming is when one group decides that their brand of fervor is THE brand and everyone else must get in line with it or suffer. That bugs me a LOT. 

I saw an article recently where a state congress person was all for using public money to fund religious schools until a Muslim school was slated to receive part of the money. Then she did a complete about face and wanted to end the program because - gasp! - they're eeeeevil and not Evangelical Christian, omg! Imho, it shouldn't matter if they're christian, muslim, jewish, atheist, pagan, hindu, buddhist, sun worshippers, scientologists, or whatever. All should be treated the same under the law (and the separation of church and state, to me at least, says the law shouldn't fund them, but what do I know). 

Don't even get me started on the birth control mess. Boy oh boy oh boy.

Anyway. I think that we will continue to have debates on religion and its definition mostly because it's a vague, nebulous concept that tries to embrace too many dissimilar ideas. With my dictionary's definition, almost ANYTHING could be considered a religion. Until that's fixed, we'll be arguing the same points a century from now.