hope

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Point of View: What Do We Owe Our Readers?

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thoughtful writer - deposit photos

i’ve just received a wonderful review from a friend for Down the River, the second book in the River City Chronicles. In it, the reviewer talks about how the story provided such a great escape from all the awful things going on today. It made me think once again about the responsibility that we, as authors – and especially those of us who write speculative fiction – have to our readers and to the world at large. On the one hand, as a purveyor of science fiction, part of what I try to do is to reflect on what’s happening … Read more

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Point of View: My World Has Gotten Smaller (And That’s Okay)

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tiny house - deposit photos

My world has gotten smaller these last few weeks, as I’ve turned off news notifications, pulled the curtains closed, and endeavored to focus on those things that are real and true. I’ve made no secret of my personal beliefs on this blog. I’m an unabashed liberal who thinks we should be doing all we can to make the world a better place – for minorities, for the poor, for the middle class, and for just about everyone else except for the billionaires. This last week unleashed a flood-tide of horrible news for people like me, as rights were rolled back, … Read more

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Point of View: Loss, Hope, and Life Journeys

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lighted path - deposit photos

It won’t be long now. A dear friend of ours is in hospice care, on the final steps of her life journey. It came on suddenly, and her decline has been shocking and heartbreaking. Yesterday, we saw her for probably the last time. While I wouldn’t have missed it, I couldn’t help thinking that the person we used to know was already gone. A few days ago, I had a phone conversation with my Mom, who had just lost one of her beloved dogs, Jake. She talked about loss, not just of the people and fur babies in her life, … Read more

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Point of View: Living In the In-Between

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Inbetween - Deposit Photos

Everything feels… suspended. For nine years, Mark and I have lived in a rental that we planned to inhabit for one, planning to buy a house – something we’ve never been able to manage. For two years, we’ve been in a state of political suspension, broken only when President Biden stepped down and Kamala Harris jumped into the race. For more than a year, we’ve watched as friend after friend battled cancer, some of them succumbing to this horrid disease. For eleven months, I’ve been searching for a job, poring over thousands and thousands of job listings – often hundreds … Read more

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Point of View: The Unsettling Pace of Change

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Wayfarer's Chapel - Rancho Palos Verdes

We live in one of those interesting times that the old (purported) Chinese curse speaks of. Change is happening all around us, epitomized by that greatest one of all, climate change, but also evident in our technology, politics, and society. In just twenty years, the idea that a man like me could marry another man went from patently absurd to an accepted reality. In just eight years, we went from the end of the term of our first black president to this churning reality we find ourselves in now, holding our collective breath while seemingly suspended over the abyss. And … Read more

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Point of View: Bring me Something Good

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Good - deposit photos

In the last ten years, life has rained down a crap-ton of shit on our lives. Politics, Covid-19, income inequality, rising prices, and the endless drumbeat of climate change doom. I’m a naturally optimistic person. Sure, life sometimes gets me down, but usually I bounce back up like an inflatable ball plunged underwater in the pool, shooting toward the sky with unlikely exuberance. But lately, even I have a hard time finding my buoyancy. So when that happens, I find it helpful to seek out happy things, hopeful things, joyous things to regain my balance. I’ll share three of my … Read more

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Point of View: Everyone Hurts

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Depression - deposit photos

Everyone I know is hurting. There are still flashes of beauty and love and triumph all around me, even moments of great joy. But the whiff of depression, the sense of things having moved beyond our control, hangs over everything like a sulfurous smog. Many of our friends and family are facing health issues right now – some short-term, others more dire and in some cases life-threatening. Other friends are facing imminent eviction, or just can’t seem to find a steady place to stand. Friends who find that what was once a dream-come-true is now proving to be more of … Read more

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Point of View: Writing and A Flicker of Hope

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Joy in Writing - Deposit Photos

I’m writing again. OK, so not anything new yet. But I’m back into book one edits in preparation for getting it off to my new publisher – Water Dragon Publishing – around week’s end. And I have release dates (at least tentative ones) for all three books: March 2023, September 2023, and March 2024. More importantly, I can see a path forward, both for publication of these books and for writing something new. 🙂 Recovery-wise, I am typing with both hands again – yay! And in a week and a half, I will enter my next phase of physical therapy. … Read more

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New Release/Giveaway: Save the World Anthology

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Save the World

Other Worlds Ink has a new book out in the hopepunk cli-fi Writers Save the World anthology series: Save the World. And there’s a giveaway. Climate change is no longer a vague future threat. Forests are burning, currents are shifting, and massive storms dump staggering amounts of water in less than 24 hours Sometimes it’s hard to look ahead and see a hopeful future. We asked sci-fi writers to send us stories about ways to save the world from climate change. From the myriad of stories we received, we chose the twenty most amazing (and hopefully prescient) tales. Dive in … Read more

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Point of View: Shit City

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shit city bricks - deposit photos

I’m feeling a bit shaky this morning. I’m not sure if it’s my never-ending pile of work that I just can’t seem to get through, or coming down off a day of being “on” for book sales at Davis Pride yesterday. Maybe it’s all my worries about the world, as the Dow plunges into bear market territory, the January 6th hearings churn on, and inflation keeps inflating. Most likely it’s a combination of all three. Some days, I forget how to hope. Still, I have a freakishly optimistic spirit, and worries rarely keep me down for long. I’m like one … Read more