Obamanation

The reverie has ended, or at least mutated in something concrete, some longer-term objective to look forward to. We will roll up our collective sleeves; get to work to fix the awful mess created during the last 25 years of free market fundamentalism, and the last 8 of futile warmongering. Or so we hope.

For now, the best way to celebrate for me is to go back doing what I love: write some more. For the time being, that means immersing myself once more in the parallel universe of Nino and Bruno, two dead guys roaming the beautiful Santa Teresa surroundings.

The battle, imagined or not, will restart soon enough.

Distractions abound…

… and reality as usual surpasses fantasy.

Today a man in a ski mask blocked a bridge over the 101, brandishing a gun. The swat team intervened, and the man was finally subdued and arrested, but not before two adjoining cities came to a halt in traffic and, presumably, business.

Tomorrow we are possibly staging one of the most important US Elections in many years. The entire world is on the edge of its seat.

With all this going on, how can one find time to write? Well, that’s what lunchtimes are for, if one is able to find one of those rare, disconnected places where people are forced to stop blabbering on their cells. I’ll talk more about my favorite place in future posts, but let me just say that the view is simply awesome, and in spite of the unordinary folly of this world, the first chapter of Fire Season is done!

Things not to do on the first two NaNo days

Well, for one, don't spend the whole weekend editing another story! But it's done now, and posted at:

http://www.redroom.com/articlestory/merry-christmas-mr-yao

The story is a part of the Spec the Halls contest for speculative winter holiday-themed fiction, artwork, and poetry. Forguidelines and links to other entries go to

http://www.aswiebe.com/specthehalls.html

As for Fire Season, well, two days gone, zero words. Great start!