Year in Review

by on December 30, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I grew up in the 1980s. Me and my friends lived in a post-JFK and post-Martin Luther King world. The pill and easy abortions had reduced the birth rate greatly. Increased immigration rates meant that kids with non-American parents were common. Desegregation of schools had already happened, and we had no clue our mixing of races was unprecedented in America. It was normal to us to grow up with kids of different colors and English proficiencies. And it was normal for us to distrust politics in general. JFK was a womanizer, Nixon was a crook, and Ted Kennedy left a woman to drown in his car. Politics was a dirty business, and everyone had their own ideas and beliefs. Those beliefs were real, sincerely held, and important to each person. We learned to find agreement on SOME things and then work together on that to move forward. That is the world I grew up in. This year, we saw a completely different world in politics. One where people scream to the sky in frustration that a man they think is unfit for duty was elected. One where they call anyone who supports him in any way deplorable and unworthy of being American at all. One were women where pussycat hat and talk about blowing up the White House. One where to RESIST is the one and only acceptable response to the election of a politician. This has been a very interesting year in politics. I’m rather hoping we don’t see another like it in my lifetime.

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San Lucas Cats

by on December 29, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The Uaithni Empire ruled San Lucas’ western continent for thousands of years without rival. The jaguar-derived cats who ruled it became decadent in time, and sold their empire off to the southern Gangani a piece at a time. A few warned their leaders against the policy, arguing that no matter how much money they had, they would never have enough if they couldn’t defend it. So their leaders hired more Gangani to protect the Uaithni riches. Then the day came that the Gangani started a bloody coop and killed the entire Uaithni ruling clan. Some of the ruling clan survived to hide out in the northern highlands and plan their eventual return to power, but the Uaithni became servants in their own lands for hundreds of years. Then we arrived, our spaceships blazing fire across their night skies, and they took it as a sign that it was their time to rise again.

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Year in Review

by on December 28, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I’ve had a good year when it comes to my writing. I did another editing pass on my first novel, and released it in dead tree format. And I’ve gone over my other stories as well. I also was involved in a multi-author science fiction anthology that went to print, writing a short story for that. It is placed some seventy years after The War, and will be the genesis for a story I intend to get to in the future. And I recently wrote another short story for the next planned anthology, placed a mere five years after The War began. It showcases a more mature Jack, on his first meeting with a certain alien species. And of course, I’ve begun major work on Wolfenheim again. It is shaping up to be a fun story to write, and to read I hope. The characters are certainly keeping me busy with their points of view on what they should do next. Which for me, is a good clue that I’m stuck with them and wanting to let my fingers fly with their words. Writer’s block? I no. I have no issue with that right now. 😉

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Year in Review

by on December 27, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

This has been a good year for me in what many people like to call our real lives. Better in many ways than last year. No appendix blowing up on me. No motorcycle accident breaking five ribs. Though I did get the joy of dealing with Obamacare. Going from a 100 dollar a month plan before Obamacare to a 700 dollar a month plan was a serious adjustment to make for one. And the fact that it denies paying for a rather large amount of “covered” expenses was another shocker. I’m left paying several thousand dollars beyond the monthly payments, to the point that I’m rather thinking I might have just been better off if I’d not gotten the plan at all and just paid off my visits as I went to them. On the plus side, I’ll be on a company plan next month that is just over 100 bucks a month. With better coverage than the State Obamacare I have now. So, things are looking up for me going into the New Year.

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San Lucas Cats

by on December 26, 2017 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

The jaguar-descended cats of San Lucas originally came from the northern highlands of their western continent. They built a powerful civilization called the Uaithni Empire to rule their lands and crossed the mountain range to the south. They conquered the barbarian panther-derived cats, and held control for thousands of years. But as with all great empires of history, they became decadent and slow to respond to threats. What could threaten them after all? First they began to hire local Gangani to secure the southern lands for the empire, and then to supplement their northern troops. In time the Uaithni made up a distinct minority of their own military, though they jealously guarded the command ranks. That imbalance would prove fatal to them.

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