This past week was calmer than most, so I completed several projects around the house and prepped for the Month of Writing. I also indulged in some retail therapy and am now the proud owner of several more books of poetry.
Reading
I have had more time to read lately, though that time has come in small, intermittent chunks rather than large, dedicated blocks. To match this, I have been reading through my back issues of genre magazines Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, New Edge Sword & Sorcery, and Dreamforge. When I have slightly larger blocks of time I dip my toes in the wonderful Invisible Work: Borges and Translation, by Efraín Kristal.
Writing
Today is the first day of The Month of Writing (formerly NaNoWriMo), and I am undoubtedly writing something at this very moment, as this post goes live.
October was a fantastic month both for reading and for acquiring new books. I had more quiet time than I have in any other month this year, and I also know that November will be exceptionally busy, due to it being the Month of Writing (formerly NaNoWriMo).
And this year has been very stressful, so I indulged in some retail therapy.
This was another exceptionally busy week, but relief is on the horizon. And no, I don’t mean the inevitable heat death of the universe or the more imminent fascist takeover and destruction of the United States. I have some breathing room, and I intend to spend that time breathing, and also reading and writing.
Reading
I pulled the first issue of New Edge Sword & Sorcery off the shelf and am reading my fill of, well, sword and sorcery stories. They are quite good! Widely varied in tone and voice, and all are fun. I found a couple of editing issues, but no more than in any other first issue of a magazine.
In more in-depth reading, I am a few pages into Efraín Kristal’s Invisible Work: Borges and Translation, which I picked up on a whim after reading a Metafilter thread about, well, Borges and translation. I loves me some Borges, and I love reading works in translation, so this book is my catnip.
But John, I can hear you thinking, What about all the other books you were reading a few weeks ago?
I am still reading them. They are still on the “currently reading” pile. They just are not currently at the top of the pile.
Writing
For That November Thing, I have settled on a repeat of what I did a couple of years ago, being a pile of flash fictions and short story fragments. This format seems to work for me in times of uncertainty.
“ICE Raids Are Only Half The Story” (Farm to Taber, YouTube) – Brief overview of how MAGA farmers are using the H2A visa as a legal form of slavery. This is an open secret among MAGA, and is so endemic that the basic assumption must be at any farmer who voted for Trump did so because they want slaves to work their farms.
This past week was quiet, locally, though the rest of the country is in deliberately-induced chaos as incontinent President Trump is in the late stages of dementia. It is safe to say that his cheese has slid almost entirely off its cracker.
Reading
I am working my way through a pile of old literary journals and other such magazines. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet has been at the top of the stack, but I grabbed issue 1.1 of New Edge Sword and Sorcery magazine for a change of pace. Both publications are excellent, and differ enough in their offerings that I can switch back and forth to keep both fresh in my mind.
Writing
Still planning my November writing project. Stay tuned for updates.
[A road crew preparing our street for a new layer of asphalt.]
This was another chaotic week. I put in a couple of long work days which left me too exhausted to participate in the fun things.
Reading
With dedicated reading time in short supply I am browsing through my large stack of unread literary and SFF magazines and journals. I have enough there to keep me occupied for at least a year.
“Trump’s Imminent War(s) and Economic Damage as His Legitimacy Crumbles” (Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism) – Everything President Donald Trump does is an attempt to distract from the fact that he was a close personal friend of Jeffrey Epstein and frequently partook of Epstein’s wares.
Hello all, and welcome to October 2025, which feels an awful lot like June 2025 here in West Michigan, with daytime temperatures staying in the mid- to upper 70s through the middle of next week. So it goes.
The Grand River Poetry Collective is spinning up and online literary journal called The River. I am assisting in this endeavor which means that after six years of down-time (Caffeinated Press and The 3288 Review closed down at the end of 2019) I am again in the publishing business. So far? Feels pretty good. When the project goes live we will post the link and shout it to the world.
In other literary news, I just re-upped my membership to the Poetry Society of Michigan after several years absent. Involvement in one literary project does seem to act as an attractor for other literary projects.
Magical ConFusion, the 2026 iteration of the ConFusion Science Fiction Convention, will take place from January 30 to February 1, 2026 at the Sheraton hotel in Novi, Michigan. Once again I am the Head of Operations, which means I have about four months of quiet time, followed by four days of chaos. The “magic” in Magical ConFusion, references the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, so if you have the opportunity to attend, bring your decks! We are accepting applications for panelists, as well as ideas for panel topics. We also have plenty of room for volunteers and staff members. ConFusion is a very writerly convention, and just about my favorite event of the year.
The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for October 2025 is: What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?
I think my favorite written work is the unpublished novel I wrote back in 2018, called Neighbors: A Malediction. It was a lightly fictionalized account of my interactions with an obnoxious neighbor over several years. It was my favorite, because the words seemed to flow frictionlessly and I never felt a moment of writer’s block or hesitation. I think this was because, being in the middle of this frustrating, maddening situation, the writing process felt more like memoir or Gonzo journalism than like writing a work of fiction.
And the first draft (which so far is the only draft) is pretty good! Certainly better than any of the other first drafts gathering dust in my hard drive. If I had three months of dedicated time I could whip it into shape to send off to beta readers. Times being what they are, if I dedicated myself to the task in my free moments I could probably reach that point by next summer.
With the Month of Writing (formerly known as NaNoWriMo) on the horizon I have thought about editing Neighbors during that time, but instead I will probably do what I did a couple of years ago, and use my Story Prompt Generator to come up with an idea a day to whip my writing muscles back into shape.
[The interior of the west wall of the old church at Hermitage and Diamond, the late afternoon sun shining through the stained glass window.]
This was another intense week at work, doing the final round of bug fixes before the next big push. My brain was already fried from (gestures at everything), but now it is breaded, deep-fried, and slathered with ranch dressing.
Impotent and incontinent president Donald Trump has made a feeble attempt to name ANTIFA a terrorist organization. Being a coward, Trump will undoubtedly declare anyone who doesn’t have a MAGA hat in their profile pictures to be ANTIFA. Trump is a fine example of why presidents should be tested for late-stage syphilis before being allowed to hold office.
And to anyone who thinks “ANTIFA” is more of a threat to this country than is MAGA, I point out that MAGA is in fact the American fascist party, and therefore anything “ANTIFA” does in response to the existence of MAGA is de facto self-defense.
Reading
I am still working my way through Baudrillard’s Simulation and Simulacra. It is a slow process. Not because of the difficulty of the text, though it is challenging. My problem is a lack of dedicated time in which I can focus on learning what he has to teach. This is not a book for browsing between laying down and falling asleep.
I ordered Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, and it should arrive in a couple of days. The excerpts I have read indicate that the information contained therein (as well as The Origins of Totalitarianism) will be especially pertinent in the days and years to come. Actually, they have been pertinent since 2016, and really since about 1980. And REALLY really, since about 1969.
Writing
With the writing event calendar filling up, I am reviewing old poems and short stories with an eye toward assembling a chapbook or two. For new writing, maybe something during November, if I can focus long enough to get my thoughts together.
The last few months have been exceptionally chaotic, even by the standards of this already-chaotic year. I don’t recall the last time I had extended periods of so little time to myself. I don’t remember the last time my brain was so full of static.
I don’t like it.
However, with my partner out of town for a few days I found myself with some solitude and free time. I celebrated by watching Hannah Arendt, which I recommend to everyone. I have read some of Arendt‘s work, though not in at least a couple of decades. The Origins of Totalitarianism sits in my nonfiction bookcase, and I am pretty sure I have Eichmann in Jerusalem around here somewhere.
The political landscape here in the USA, particularly in the days following the death of the popular anti-intellectual influencer out in Utah, is becoming dangerous. Studying up on the banality of evil seems a good thing to do when the 47 administration seems to be following the exact same playbook used in Germany in the late 1930s.
Arendt points out that the many cogs in the machinery of evil may not be themselves malevolent, but the fact that they allow themselves to become cogs, to subsume their humanity in the larger whole of the destructive force, is an important point to recognize. This does not absolve the cogs of the responsibility of their actions, but it explains how easy it is to become a cog in the first place.
I recently read The Unaccountability Machine, which explores the ways that systems (corporations, governments, etc.) can make it impossible for the participants in those systems to act against the rules of the system. We can learn some things about authoritarian and totalitarian governments from the study of cybernetics.
Reading
I finished Notes on the Assemblage, and am now casting about for the next thing. Probably Eichmann in Jerusalem.
[Found in a stairwell in a downtown Grand Rapids parking garage.]
This past week was crazy. Both not enough and too much work. And the world took a decided turn for the chaotic a couple of days ago.
Master Yen Hoa Lee, my instructor of tai chi and kung fu for the past 35 years, passed away on September 1. His obituary is here. I will write more about him when I have the emotional energy to do so.
Reading
I am re-reading Jim Harrison’s Returning to Earth, which I tend to do when someone close to me dies.
Writing
Nothing new to report. Thinking about what I will do in November.
