So there is this thing going on around twitter that says that what is sinking Disney is not wokness, it’s bad story telling.

Of course, my immediate reaction was:

But yeah. Indeed, it’s the storytelling. Or it’s mostly the storytelling.

Look, partly it’s that they used to have much better story telling skills, which means that we’d swallow more.

As some of you know, I’ve been re-reading a series, which I just realized must have been published in the eighties. I read other stuff in between, but go back to the next book when I’m depressed or out of it. It’s been that type of week. The series is great, if you ignore the initial dubious premise for how the war started/is set up. It’s not — quite — mil sf, in that while in the military, it’s a small detachment given special missions, outside the hierarchy. I.e. the kind of “mil sf” I could write myself. And there’s righteous fights, an evil villain, misguided support stuff, etc. etc. etc. Just… fun.

Except on book 9 I came across a long long long screed on how both the US and the USSR wanted the best for their peoples and maybe the ‘true way’ lay between their approaches. There was much handwaving about Unions and evil capitalists and “just as bad.”

Now, what’s miraculous? I didn’t remember this AT ALL. And it’s one of the books I read before, because I came across it while unpacking the fiction library. But I had no memory of that.

I also had no memory of several pages and pages and pages talking about how terrible global warming was, and hydro carbons and — stomp stomp, panic panic — nuclear power, because of Chernobyl.

No memory of any of that either. Though if we’re going to consider which one is more outrageous is my forgetting the “The USSR and the US are trying to do the same” which I call the “both sides” fallacy. I’ve always despised that with such a white-hot rage that I once almost punched a close friend (and he was a close and true friend) for casually saying that.

But I’d read that at one time, and completely forgot it. What this tells me is two things: it was so pervasive in everything that I just ignored it/skipped over it, like graphic sex in romance novels. (Not because I’m prudish but because most of it is unnecessary and tedious.) And that the series was still good enough to be fondly remembered.

This combination worked. See my friend, not a stupid person, parroting that line at me of all people. Because it was so pervasive you assimilated it, even if you only read it a couple of times per year. And you repeated it either because you believed it or because you assumed everyone else did.

This way was the overtton window moved.

It had help. Unless you really trusted someone, you didn’t talk about your real beliefs/politics. Because thing is, with the media, and art and everything controlled by them, you (we) thought you (we) were alone. Or a very tiny minority. A lot of people on the right who are more respectable than us (coff) and rely on the MSM still believe this. It’s part of the reason for so many RINOS. They think they’re fighting a rear guard.

But the left knows they aren’t. In fact, as reality came out to smack the left again and again, starting with the fall of the USSR and moving on to the internet giving us a forum and us realizing we were far from alone, and might be (are, trust me) the overwhelming majority, they’ve grown more hysterical and desperate.

Part of that desperation has translated into more and more esoteric involvement in things like Gramscian ideas about races that are natural communists, and therefore attempts to create a for-real racist class system in the US. Just reversed from what the democrats supported 100 years ago, but just as evil, made up, and dividing people in “what now?” categories then treating those as absolutes.

The other part has been how rapidly their focus on “what must be said/done” today shifts.

I told here before that when I first broke in, early oughts, I believed staying quiet was enough not to be blacklisted/cancelled. Turned out either it already wasn’t, or ten years later, you needed to be VOCAL in your support for the VERY LATEST crazy, or you’d be at best sidelined, at worst suspected of being the enemy and driven off.

The problem with demanding “affirmative support” is that it does something to the creative brain. No, seriously.

I started hitting editors asking me what the “thesis” of my novel was. This would shut me down hard. Even when it was from a friendly on-my-side editor, it shut me down hard. Because that’s not how my brain works. Sure, my beliefs and ideas come through — mumbles again in “I wanted to write a space regency, WTF it’s all about individual liberty, suddenly?” — but the story is the story. Sometimes I figure out what it’s about half way through — cough A Few Good Men — and sometimes I figure what it’s about as people start emailing me to tell me they loved x. Because to me the story is about the story, and making the story satisfying and GOOD.

I think the pressures of “you must affirm all our principles, and the story must be shaped by our” — increasingly crazy — “ideas” is shutting down the true creatives.

All they have left are the people who can write to the last yota to speck. Now, mind you some of those are competent. But when you demand they cram in a whole bale of insane, even the competent ones will buckle.

I bailed from everyone but Baen 21 year ago, and so am not sure how bad it is, but the tearful comment from a young writer on a panel saying this had hurt her novel that “You’re not allowed to have women have defects or weaknesses. It makes them so boring as characters” is a clue to how far the crazy has gotten. She worked for a big house. Rhymes with bore. So, you know….

I think it’s literally impossible to tell good stories in those circumstances.

Fortunately we have indie and reissued old stuff. And the reissued old stuff is not going to sell “both sides” crap to most of us now. And the global warming… well, those with memories aren’t going to panic, either. (I think right now, where I type this, I’m supposed to be under a mile of ice or so, if you go by the 70s established science.) And that I know — I only follow a few authors — most of Baen is still quite readable.

And I have gone indie and freed myself to write what I need to write. Even the stuff that’s a wee bit nuts. Because hey, someone has to and I can.

Anyway, the good news is that the more crap they produce the more people find the alternatives. And the harder it becomes to sell their communist week-old-fish.

Movies… well, my husband has been playing with AI. Yes, I know, but honestly, if I had the time, I’d do it myself. (No, he doesn’t have the time either, but we’re trying to work at finding him time.)

We are actually and for real winning the culture war. Because they thought it was a top down thing. And it was for a while. However, the table is about to flip if it hasn’t already.

Which means in the end we win, because culture goes before politics.

Much better than 40 years ago when we assumed only the left could create and therefore swallowed the sewage with the wine by default.

Be not afraid. We got this.

This was going to be a completely different post. I’ve been reading about the culture war and how the preponderance of bad movies, books, comics, etc. etc. etc. is due to bad story telling, not wokeness.

This is not wrong, because we used to swallow a lot more preaching when the story was better. It’s just that I think both the preaching has got thicker and the story telling worse.

Let that idea rest. I’ll do it tomorrow. But as I was planning the post, while painting the new portion of the deck, I thought of the series I’m re-reading which must have been originally published in the eighties — I have part of it in paper. I’m just being lazy about going to the guest room (where the fiction is) and checking. And the author doesn’t get the concept of “re-issue” so it’s not in the electronic version — because the USSR hadn’t fallen.

In the middle of book eight, I found myself reading a three page thing about how the USSR and the US both wanted the best for their people, and perhaps the right way was in the middle of our systems. (I’ll have more to say about this tomorrow.)

And like that I thought that you know, fraud was probably already massive then. But with all the preaching and stuff, they made the lefty wins seem plausible. This linked to Nikki Haley in my head, and I saw with startling clarity why she’s staying in the race, heavily financed by the left and still saying she will trust the American people to reject her if they want to reject her.

This also made perfect sense of their running the corpse again and being fairly certain he’ll “win.”

It should have occurred to me before, because they have basically one playbook and run it obsessively. If it fails they double down with a surer thing.

I was right about the DeSantis campaign, though I’m relieved to say probably not right about DeSantis.

What do I mean by that? Well, the reasons I didn’t throw in behind DeSantis as all the commenters online were hailing him as the second coming of Trump but with less uncouth were three fold.

Number 1 and the most important was that I didn’t think it would do any good. Right-of-Lenin commenters online are its own little micro-cosmos and they can turn into a bit of an echo chamber. To them/us DeSantis looked good, because they/we were diving down on politics and looking at what he’d done, etc.

But that’s not how the average person votes. Not even those who aren’t LIVs. They vote on gut, sympathy, being swept up. But MOSTLY and this is mostly the LIVs, but also those who simply don’t care enough for politics but want to change things, they vote on name recognition. And name recognition is a huge, powerful factor. I bet you — not now. My cohort is diminishing rapidly — 20 years ago a GOP contender named Reagan would have a huge leg up, provided he could breathe and had a face in the shape of a face.

Trump not only has name recognition — I think The Apprentice is why he won in 16 and the left are morons not to have seen it coming — but he was president before, and people remember until the Covidiocy they were better off. This gives him an enormous advantage, should he choose to run (this was before he said he would. BTW I suspect he wouldn’t have if they’d let him alone. But the lawfare made it clear to him that if he let himself sink into anonymity neither him nor his family would survive.)

Also we’ve driven a lot. A lot a lot. Since 2020 road trips have become our main form of travel. There are various reasons, some of them personal, but well… we’ve driven a lot. In the highways and byways of America, you saw Trump signs still everywhere. You still do. Some have been up since 2020. Speaking to our handymen and plumbers and people who came by to trim trees and dig whatever up (this house had almost no maintenance for 20 years and we’re now paying for it) Trump got a smile, DeSantis got a “Dewho?” Or for the more informed “Isn’t he the Florida guy?” Yes, that could change with time, but it was a hell of a lot to come back from behind on.

Number 2 while everyone online on the right-ish was screaming about how Trump was attacking DeSantis for no reason whatsoever, I could see the ah prods being extended by DeSantis surrogates to make Trump scream.

While I realize that’s politics and whatever, I grew up in rough playgrounds and people who did that — the underhanded poking and prodding to make the person scream or pound so the other person would be in trouble — were the ones I sought out after school to give a good beating to, until they mended their ways. I held it against no one if they came at you wanting to smack you, but the underhanded sneaks who looked like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths while trying to get other people in trouble were the worst kind of bullies and frankly outright evil.

Now even then I wasn’t sure if this was DeSantis or his campaign, but in either case, well… call me infantile, but lessons from the playground stuck. I’d rather back the guy who was brash and outspoken than the underhanded hitter.

I also noticed as the campaign went on that the campaign, and the scripted stuff for DeSantis was more about hitting Trump than the left. Now, while that is understandable in the primary, it really was almost exclusive and… well, you have to sell yourself to the right, so it seemed odd.

Number Three – His “but he doesn’t have the Trump negatives” was a bullshit sales pitch. Trump has negatives because he’s been under steady attack for… almost eight years now. I saw the left make Romney “I tried to hire women over men” into a misogynistic “binders full of women” thing, which never made any sense, but they sold it as a negative, anyway.

I’ve seen Trump’s “Women are hypergamic” saying that if you’re rich women let you grab them however into “He did this.”

And boy, howdy, I knew they’d already done that to DeSantis IN FLORIDA WHERE HE WAS KNOWN. Half the people there are convinced he’s DeDevil.

So once the mass media got going? Yeah. Devil.

Now, I don’t want those points jumped on in the comments before you read the rest, okay. Because what you say is probably moot, considering what I came to realize.

Anyway, given all that, the crazy enthusiasm for DeSantis in the talking heads made me suspect we were being played.

Now, I will grant you I’m paranoid as all get out. But that’s what made me see through Covidiocy. And long before that, it kept me alive a number of times.

So I thought “Uh. Given all that, why is DeSantis running NOW?” And “Why are a lot of people who are — ahem — at best RINOS throwing money at him.” And “Why his campaign messaging mainly aiming to destroy Trump’s image.”

And the smell I got was “Why indeedy, he’s Ross Perot.” (I’m going to say right now, I don’t know if Ross Perot was manipulated into running, etc. But we all know the result of his run.)

I thought that the left realized a straight up repeat of 2020 is impossible. People WILL notice, and the herd is restive.

On the other hand, drum up the “no one really likes Trump” (note they’re still doing that) and run DeSantis as the plausible candidate people like. Then when Trump barely won the primary (the left are such elitists. They counted on the online commenters to pull that off) DeSantis would refuse to concede and run as an independent. And then, split three ways, with a little fraud (yes I think fraud would still be needed) the Biden-corpse could squeak a victory, and anyone saying there was fraud would be stomped with “idiot” and “irrational” because obviously, Trump’s negatives were just so great, it split the vote.

Well, I might have been — still think I am — right about DeSantis campaign, but I wasn’t right (I’ll admit it) about Ron DeSantis.

Whatever made him run (and I understand it can be heady, also when he started the first moves, Trump hadn’t announced) he saw the writing on the wall, and probably figured out it smelled, eventually. So he conceded early. Because he’s an honorable man. And yes, there are ways to work around the same state thing, and if Trump chooses him as VP I’ll vote for that ticket with no qualms and — a miracle happening — I’ll vote for DeSantis in 2028 when he steps into the prime slot with no problems. (Note that this would be best for him, too, as Trump will take the hits for straightening the mess he’ll inherit, and DeSantis will have a much less fierce battle. And can be more of a uniter.)

I’ll note when DeSantis threw in the towel there followed a very amusing spate of panic on the left, but the panic now seems to have calmed down. Weirdly. Or is it?

Well, the left really only has one play. So there’s Nikki Haley. Second to None Nikki. Who is being financed with the big bucks, and who will not give up. No way no how.

So, Nikki….

You guys say she’s hoping Trump gets killed. And note, it’s not even needed to be an assassination. The man is taking hits from friends and people he thought were his friends, and the place he called home and loved most of his life, his homeland, has turned on him. I know — TRUST ME I KNOW — what that does to a person. And I’m much, much younger. I’ve seen what it did to my friends, too. It’s dangerous from a health POV. Or you guys say she’s hoping his legal troubles will take him out, and that’s possible too.

But… But… If none of those happen, the ultimate plan is to have Nikki run as an independent.

And then to say she took votes away from Trump. Trump is so unlikable, you know, that Second to NONE Nikki will steal votes from him.

She will too. Those Venezuelan-designed machines can do wonderful arithmetic, I tell you.

I’d like to tell you — boy would I — that the American people won’t fall for it. That they’ll know the fraud is there and dancing naked in our faces.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I’d like to believe the people as one will say “Second to None Nikki took half of Trump’s vote? Pull the other one, it plays jingle bells and lights up.”

Oh, maybe it will happen. I give it maybe 25% of chance, just on gut feel.

The problem though? If you say that and see it, you have to do something, even if it’s just a general strike or something equally strange.

… And people really, really, really want things to be normal. Hence the chorus of people on our side saying the fraud is small and it wasn’t the deciding factor. (They’re also worse at math than I and that hurts, particularly when I know they aren’t, or their profession calls for them not to be.)

I’m very afraid the Nikki play will have people upset, but shrugging and thinking “Yeah, it was a three way split, and that’s why we have the corpse again and he’s going to kill us” and not being able to say there was fraud or hound the fraudsters from office.

And that–

That means it will be the hard landing and the blood on the streets when it comes. And the breaking of everything at once, before we can rebuild.

I think that’s the play being run. And I wish to G-d I could tell you it will not work.

The posts are actually in the porch Sarah is building, with proper assistance, which she missunderestimated how long would take. Therefore, no posts for you for now, unless you install them yourself in the comments. See you later! (I expect all y’all have at least a dozen post memes.)

I’m not going to tell me there will not be a post. I know your ways and am wise to your rebukes. You will tell me this is a post.

Instead I’m going to tell you why the post is this late.

Yes, there was another death in close friends, which I learned of in a phone call from mom. I have talked about it in a post on Sarah’s Diner on facebook, so some people would know I’d be unusually weird for a little while, but I’m not ready to discuss it in public.

Instead I’m going to talk about the part of my troubles that amuses you fiends. There’s no use denying it. I know it does. Though I’ll maintain the reason it amuses you is that you don’t have to live with it, yourselves.

This. This right here is the shape of our problem. Though their buff Siam-Musey sister might contribute. If she does it’s as a mastermind.

She’s silent and a hooman “influencer.”

All three of them seem to have the intelligence of a bright, pre-verbal toddler. Indy is a little more…. experienced with things is all. But I’ve observed them all three in “let’s pretend” play, where they hide a toy, they pretend to look for it before “finding” it with “Surprise” something that I’ve never seen in other cats. The girls also…. throw toys for each other. Don’t ask.

This morning we woke up to the house upside down. There were curtains down in the dining room, which I didn’t notice till I’d had my coffee in my nightgown, in front of the neighborhood and passerby. Now my nightgown is huge and covers me from shoulders to ankles, so I’m more likely to be thought of as a ghost. I’ll grant you that, but it’s the principle of the thing.

Someone, probably Valeria had thrown up all over the house, but that’s not so much being bad as poor girl is sick and getting thinner and thinner. Well, that’s life, I guess? We treated the UTI and the peeing everywhere has stopped, but she’s not gaining weight. There are more tests in her future.

Meanwhile, as Dan got up, we not only found that the water fountain downstairs had been taken apart again, but we caught CIRCE taking the one upstairs apart under the supervision of her older brother. And arranging the pieces by size and type, of course. The fountain was unplugged, the cord carefully wrapped around it, as Indy does to keep his sisters safe.

So, it’s official. The Engineer Cat now has an apprentice.

Fortunately I was ready. I’ve bought ceramic fountains, the components just too heavy for them to move. Unless Indy discovers levers. Something I’m not putting past him.

I’ve now installed the ceramic one downstairs and will probably do the upstairs one tonight or tomorrow morning.

They were much disgusted with my wrecking their fun downstairs. They are now on the sofa being despondent.

I told them “It didn’t have to be this way. But every morning Indy gets up and chooses engineering. And now he’s made your apprentice. I had no choice.”

Both of them are upset with me.

*This post had a lot more pictures, but wordpress is being a pain. If I can I’ll post more pictures of the feline delinquents later.

Book promo

If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM JAMES TOTTEN: MICLICs and Big Bears (Breaching Ain’t Easy! Book 1)

When the nukes dropped, the draft happened and America recovers on a total war economy. Opportunities dry up and the factories retool for war. Out of opportunities and money, Lisa Brown looses a full ride at Cornell and enlist as a Sapper in the Army. Now a Company Commander, CPT Brown’s 14 Grizzly assault breachers are leading the way back to Kiev. The Russians covering the obstacle belts have some issues with this. “Sappers Lead the Way”.

https://amzn.to/4bKSzppFROM SEAN FENIAN: Bearing Gifts (The Stardock Series Book 1)

When the over-driven hyperdrive on their mobile shipyard burned out, the Chhrt’ktk’t abandoned it in an inhabited system along their path, hoping it would work as a decoy to buy them more time to escape the Khreetan fleet pursuing them. They didn’t anticipate how far the pre-spacefaring species they turned over their broken-down maintenance facility to would subvert their plan.

Alex Holder, a retired engineer, just happened to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right mindset, to find himself chosen by the Chhrt’ktk’t to hand over control of their shipyard to, simply because he was the first person they found able to interface with it. The Chhrt’ktk’t could not possibly anticipate what he would do with it. And neither would anyone else.

https://amzn.to/3UJxFBaFROM CELIA HAYES: Adelsverein – The Sowing

Adelsverein: The Sowing is Volume 2 of the Adelsverein Trilogy, following the fortunes of German settlers who came to Texas seeking land and political freedom in the 19th century through the auspices of the Mainzer Adelsverein – a consortium of German nobles who formed a corporation and took up a land grant in the Republic of Texas.

In the fifteen years which have passed since “Vati” Steinmetz and his children came from Germany to Texas, they have prospered. His older daughter Magda has married former Texas Ranger Carl Becker, born him children and helped him build a happy life as a cattle rancher in the beautiful valley of the Guadalupe River. Vati’s son-in-law Hansi Richter prospers as a farmer, and his son Johann has returned from years of study in Germany to become a doctor. But his beautiful adopted daughter Rosalie is in love … with a man who intends to serve in the Confederate Army! Texas has voted for secession and to join with the Confederacy. The German settlers in the Texas Hill Country are opposed to slavery, and to secession; what will happen to them now that they will be seen as enemies in their new homeland?

Ideals, friendship and cruel circumstance clash with the coming of civil war to the Hill Country, bringing Carl Becker and Hansi Richter into mortal danger from the ‘hanging band’ – a pro-Confederate lynch mob, while Johann and his twin brother Friedrich are drawn into fighting on opposite sides; Johann with the Union Army, Friedrich with the Frontier Regiment.

Adelsverein: The Sowing continues the epic story of how one family became American, through the brutal tragedy of the Civil War!

FROM SEAN FENIAN: For Love Of Caitlîn: A short tale of mortals and Fae.

When Domnall mac Caiomhin accepted an ill-advised wager to spend a night atop the barrow at Dun Gol, and his fiery bride Caitlîn failed to talk him out of it, he shouldn’t have been surprised that she insisted upon going along with him. But the Sidhe took her spirit underhill, and now her body is wasting away.

It falls to the wits and courage of her father Ceallach mac Seaghda to win her back — if he can. The stakes are high … but Ceallach mac Seaghda is a man who will give everything for his beloved daughter.

For Love of Caitlîn is a short standalone novella set in a medieval Ireland a little different than our own.

FROM MICHAEL A. HOOTEN: Cricket’s Song

Cricket just wanted to learn how to play the harp. Instead he became the only true Bard of Glencairck.

In the green land of Glencairck, Bards are the musical, magical, and responsible for rendering judgment in any dispute. But the bards have grown soft and corrupt, ignoring the basic tenants of the Bardic Code, and abusing their power and authority.

Cricket is born on a small farm in the hinterlands, and knows nothing of the wide world. But he learns music and harping from an old man known simply as Harper, who also teaches him the basics of the Bardic Code. When Harper disappears, Cricket enters the world he knows only through stories and finds that not everyone knows the old rules, or follows them, and he has to decide for himself what is right—and how far he is willing to go to defend his beliefs.

This edition contains the ebooks The Cricket Learns to Sing, A Cricket at Court, and The Cricket That Roared.

https://amzn.to/3wokjjGFROM PAM UPHOFF: Twist of Fate (Chronicles of the Fall Book 4

Yuri Egorov is a Intel agent on a distant World. His main problem? He inherited the family home–a serious wreck–from the uncle who disliked him. The solution? In the Troystvennyy Soyuz–the Three Part Alliance–a brutal form of slavery, enforced through mandatory brain chips. So, however unsavory to Yuri, buying a worker should be no problem.

But this worker is . . . not standard.

Then a cross dimensional invasion puts his own problems in perspective . . .

FROM DALE COZORT: New Galveston Book 1: Operation Croatoan

In February 1939, with World War II looming, the US Navy held a massive naval exercise in the Caribbean, involving almost fifty thousand sailors and marines. President Franklin Roosevelt personally attended.

In this alternate history novel, the US of 1939 disappears at the peak of the exercise, along with the rest of the New World. In its place is a New World still inhabited only by Indians.

While the US remnants try to make a new home for themselves, Nazis, Fascists and Japanese Imperialists scheme with Aztecs and other Indian powers to take over the resource-rich and now nearly defenseless New World.

Nazi Germany pours resources into it’s navy and into an advanced new generation of cargo planes. By summer 1941, the Nazis are ready to move. A mysterious “Operation Croatoan” is at the core of their schemes. Milo Gentry and a handful of other Americans race to figure out what the Axis powers are up to and stop them.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: The Schrödinger Paradox: Heisenberg’s Point of Observation

To save the future, sometimes you have to reach to the past.
Thomas Sutton was not your average fourteen year old, not even in an Ark City. Born in one of the three refuges of the last remnants of life on earth, deep underground, he knows his history. A century after an asteroid shattered and struck the earth, they have been trapped below by volcanic eruptions, toxic gasses, and radioactive dust. But what if he could…change things? What if he could reach the past, to prevent the asteroid’s impact?

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: The Shadow of a Dead God

What secrets lie beneath an alien world?

A routine archeological dig on a world once ruled by the mysterious Star Tyrants. For Moon-born Liu Shang, working on a planetary surface might be unsettling, but she could manage — until the dreams started.

Unwilling to drag others into a harebrained search, she headed out alone, contrary to mission rules. Just as she was about to give up, she found an unlikely artifact.

Handling it connects her to the mind of a long-ago rebel against the Star Tyrants’ rule. Nothing will ever be the same.

A short story.

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: CHALLENGE

We have two Emergencies going and one “I’ll do in all our names, okay?”

I really could use this another month, considering that right now we’re up to 10k for the main water pipe and 2k for Valeria, treating her so maybe the pissing on everything stops. Maybe. BUT some months are like this and these are real emergencies. Also, we’re okay. (In case you worry. We won’t hurt ourselves. Don’t hurt yourselves either.)

So, Julie Pascal, our very own Synova (Who makes those delightful drawings I sometimes feature, at least when they’re not by Caitlin Walsh) moved to tiny town TX a few months ago. The idea was they’d have a paid off house, and she’d get a job, and her husband could finally write his science fiction series. Makes sense. They’re younger than us.

Well, about two weeks ago her husband got sick and was hospitalized. Turns out that due to a genetic issue his viral illness killed his liver and he was too weak for a transplant. (This is what I understood. Julie has not been very clear for obvious reasons.) They’re on COBRA, the same service that cost us 28k for delivering son 33 years ago. And she is staying in a hotel until he passes which is estimated a week, give or take. Her kids are away from jobs they might lose before they can go back. If you can’t help (AND LORD I GET THAT RIGHT NOW) please pray for the whole family. Anyway, our Holly has started a Give Send Go for them: If you can give, go here.

Second, and almost as urgent: Sean Gartlan, some of you know him as Wolfie from the old Baen Bar. Kate Paulk played havoc with him when she tuckerized him in the con series.

For some years now, he’s been caretaker first to his dad, then his sister. Meanwhile his mom was the sole bread earner in the house. She passed this week. His family is renting. They need to pay cremation costs. And he needs to find a job. I think he’s in his forties, his resume is a shambles, and you all know what it’s like out there right now. Also, if he doesn’t find a work from home job, he’ll have to find someone to caretake his sister. I honestly have no clue what he can do, but if you can help on the job front, get in touch with him. He has a Go Fund Me. (Yes, I know but it’s still the go-to for a lot of people.)

Earlier this year, Peter DaDalt died suddenly of a heart attack (no, not OF suddenly, he had a heart condition.) I never met him in person, but he was a fan who became a friend anyway, and his death hit me very hard. Here is his obituary. The obituary asks for donations for golfforekids, which was important to him. They fund research in childhood cancer. (He lost his oldest son to childhood cancer.) Obviously it’s not a right now emergency to donate to them, but maybe add it to your donations when you have money.

I have made a donation, in the name of Sarah’s Diner our non-political facebook group, where he was a frequent poster. Not as much as I’d like to. See this horrible month. But I’ll try to write and donate more a month that’s not quite so crazy.

Jacques hands were trembling, as he reached for the can of tuna. His French accent was back full strength though he’d lost most of it over the eight months of living in the Schrodinger experimental interstellar colony in Alpha Centauri with all Americans and British colonists.

“Eh bien,” he said. “This is our last can of tuna. If this doesn’t work…”

Mike, aka Michaela Smith, who was American, redheaded and a full head taller than him but had kind feelings for the lone Frenchman put her hand on his shoulder. “It will work Jacques. Let it rip.”

Still his hands shook and he took hold of the ring on the can, then let it go, “But what if… We remember…”

“Okay, yes,” Mike said. “We all know what Ausra did. It was a stupid idea. And we all remember how it worked.”

The people standing around in a ring shuddered, remembering Ausra’s idea for opening ten cans at once, and the mechanism she’d rigged. It had caused a reality entanglement event which had killed ten cats. And incidentally Ausra.

“Courage,” John said. “Or do you want me to open the can?” He reached for it.

“Non, no, I’ll do it.” Jacques pulled the ring back, then the lid of the can, with a barely audible sound as the metal parted along the scored portion.

For a long moment nothing happened. Long enough to wonder if all the cats in the Schrodinger program had died. Or perhaps the researchers. In which case it would be a long, slow starvation for the colony….

Then from very far off came a meow. Mike pressed the button of the remote viewer focused on the dock. The supply ship had materialized.

There was another muffled meow, this one indignant. And then the cat door between the supply ship and the station opened, and an orange tabby came running out and towards them along a long tunnel.

When the cat erupted into their room, Jacques had put the can of cat food down for him.

John had made it through the human airlock into the supply ship and now commed “We have supplies for 6 months ladies and gentlemen. And enough tuna for year. Also, starter kit for hydroponics.”

Fifty colonists dissolved into hugs and tears. The little cat ate his tuna on the floor, undisturbed by their effusions.

Who knew, through mankind’s long struggle for the stars, the key would be cat’s ability to teleport at the sound of a tuna can and human ability to create a cage from which the cat could not escape or teleport until the entire ship teleported and attached to a station in the new world?

Sure, the first tuna can and structure — a tiny dome, just large enough for the cat — had to be sent by drone. But after that? After that humans could conquer the stars.

Thanks to cats.

And tuna.

*Yes, I know it’s silly. Yes, I could make it longer and better and just as silly. Yes, I might do it later. But right now you just get this, you gonzo geeks. JUST TO GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD. And into yours. – SAH*