Category Archives: CHALLENGES & MISHAPS

What Sally McBurgerflipper Deserves:
Rebuttal To Splenetic Diatribe Against Low Wage Workers

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This was originally on a Facebook post in 2014. I thought it needed to be shared on my blog. First, let me say that I am a veteran. I have a lifetime disability compensation due to injuries I suffered while enlisted, and trauma afterward. I joined the Army because I wanted an education, so that I wouldn’t be stuck flipping burgers the rest of my life. I worked at nearly every fast food chain you can name, and in most other service industry segments. I was only able to get an education because of my military disability and being helped … Continue reading →

Protein entrée, per USA

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Beef, chicken, pork. Why are there only three meat choices? Okay four, if you count fish. I don’t eat much fish, though, so for me, it probably doesn’t count. I like seafood, especially crab, lobster, shrimp and scallops, but not fresh water fish, except for the occasional pollock. Most fresh fish, ironically, doesn’t taste fresh to me, it tastes…fishy. Anyway. Meat is actually defined as “the flesh of mammals used as food, as distinguished from that of birds and fish” which means that poultry and fish shouldn’t be on that list anyway. That leaves two meat, poultry, fish. So. Still … Continue reading →

Furiously Happy:
My brain hungered for humor. Was absolutely famished for fun.

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I am very picky about the books I read, and it’s hard to find anything that doesn’t either piss me off or bore me. That might just be a product of having been an Indie Author, honing her craft for 30 years, or maybe it’s just me being too damn critical. But I never had problems in my younger years. Like say, my twenties and before. But then, I didn’t write my first book until I was 26. So maybe it really is that being an author affects my ability to enjoy reading other authors that aren’t top-notch. Garbage in, … Continue reading →

No Such Thing As a Protest Vote:
In which I dare to question a non-voting professor

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I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being a snowflake. It’s well and truly time for Democrats to stop whining and being precious, and Board the Blue Choo Choo. We have many changes to make, and by now, we should all agree that those changes will never be made with a corrupted party in charge. My skin may not be black, but I know what it’s like to be a minority, and to be punished for it. I’m an Indie author. A disabled veteran. I’m not just a woman, but a gay woman, married to a woman. I’m … Continue reading →

“Defund the Police” is Misleading:
and an unfortunate choice of phrase

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Let’s be clear. The perhaps well-meaning “Defund the Police” movement (most notably on Twitter) is NOT a Democratic movement, nor WISE. It’s an extreme, and extremes are terrible choices. The most extreme among the Defunders want to eliminate cops. If there are no cops at all, what happens when your daughter or grandmother calls for help when a man is following her on a dark street? When someone is trying to break in? What happens when there’s an active shooter at a grade school? We need to maintain law and order, but that phrase has also been both usurped and … Continue reading →

Two 2020 Mantras:
Adapt or die, Vote or die

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ADAPT OR DIE. That’s the new mantra. Our world has changed, and don’t you believe for a hot minute the fairy tale that things will go back to “normal.” First, they haven’t been “normal” for the last three-plus years. Second, there is no way they ever will, because too much has changed, and there are things that SHOULD CHANGE. This is a flashpoint. A pivotal point in our history. We can take the opportunity now to implement all those things that got bogged down in various sociopolitical quicksands, and create a brighter future for us all. Or we can fuck … Continue reading →

This-Close:
another bitch of a ditch

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Change is good, they said. I believe that’s true, most days. Especially since I feel I’ve been in a bitch of a ditch for the last 7 years. Well, not the same ditch. Different ditches. But ditches, just the same. Trenches, maybe. Foxholes. Caves? Anyway, I was ready for those changes we were finally able to make. My wife was about to get a small inheritance. Just enough to get us where we needed to go, if we were lucky. But the inheritance was delayed by various machinations, a few of them due to some abject assholery perpetrated by other … Continue reading →

Bad Knees & Deliveries

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Okay, so my day so far: Because the VA again dropped the ball on my healthcare, I had to order my own crutches, knee braces, and Kinesiotape to treat my MCL/ACL issues. I saw that they were to be delivered on Friday, not Wednesday. So I get on chat with Amazon (which I really hard to find. They bury it very well) and asked why I pay for Prime membership to get 2-day shipping, when the shipping always seems to take 5-days. They explained about warehouses and that it’s really counted from when it leaves, not when I order it, … Continue reading →

An electrical meltdown looms: how can we avert disaster?:
Keith Harary

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by Keith Harary You might find your car dying on the freeway while other vehicles around you lose control and crash. You might see the lights going out in your city, or glimpse an airplane falling out of the sky. You’ve been in a blackout before but this one is different. In critical facilities across the country, experts predict that it is only a matter of time before the electrical infrastructure holding society together undergoes catastrophic failure. According to the most recent report of the United States Congressional Commission appointed to assess the risk, published July 2017, we face the … Continue reading →

Bitch-Slapping Google Docs:
Indie Authors Beware of editing in Google Docs

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here’s a warning to all other Indie authors. Be aware that Google Docs might create this issue with your manuscript as well. I won’t be using that again.

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Rocking the Boat

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Don’t say anything. Don’t make a comment. It will make you look bad. That’s the usual advice in the publishing industry when someone posts a caustic review of your book, under the assumption that this is about some type of insecurity on the part of a writer. This is not insecurity. It is frustration, and in this case, it’s also outrage. In fact, historically, authors are expected to keep their mouth shut about these things, but I am a proponent of the adage Silence equals Death. This advice to stay mum strikes me as the same mentality that got that Orange Nightmare in the Oval … Continue reading →

Is it Goodreads or Badreaders?

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I’ve always believed that every ill in our society falls under one or more of three categories: Greed, Ignorance or Zealotry. I was faced with an example of one or more of these while updating my author page on Goodreads. I came across a negative review, quite by accident, of one of my earlier books. Against my better judgment, I read it, and was horrified. The reviewer, obviously, did not like my book, and that’s fine, in and of itself, but this reviewer made statements that were patently false. She claimed the character in my book was “helping a pedophile.” … Continue reading →

What Happened & What’s Happening

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Melissa and I did our first Facebook Live Stream on the 16th. Here it is. SUBJECTS: Hillary’s new book, my new releases, Melissa’s book projects, calling the cops last night because someone shot at our house.

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Workspaces & Tentacle Sex

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Since my surgery at the end of May, I have had to accommodate my recovery, while still getting my work done. The whole thing has made me feel old and decrepit. Our bedroom is now in the living room because it was just easier to put everything in one room. Especially after we realized the landlords weren’t going to cut down the dead trees and falling limbs just outside our wall of windows in the bedroom. We didn’t feel safe there, so the living room became our new bedroom. Only recently, could I sit in a desk chair as I … Continue reading →