Adding to the sum of light

I grew up thinking our world was on its way to being like the original Star Trek series, with everyone trying to do the right thing and make the galaxy a better place. That show wasn’t perfect, of course. I remember being maybe 8 and firmly saying “boldly go where no one has gone before,” since even at that age I recognized some of the flaws in the show. You could certainly argue, however, that for a television series that launched in 1966, it was ahead of its time. Gene Roddenberry, the producer, certainly did his best to incorporate themes of sexism, racism, and even the Vietnam war (here’s an article from 1968 where he mentions this). My bringing this up is not to focus on what the show didn’t do, but what it did do. Sure, Kirk would occasionally violate the prime directive, especially if an attractive woman was involved. 🙂 But an underlying theme of ethics, and doing the right thing, carried through the show.

I’ve since learned that the world is not barreling toward utopia after all. Being a determined optimist, however, I still have hope that we’ll someday get to a world where we all do our darnedest to do the right thing all the time. The recent world excitement has been horrifying, depressing, and, at the same time, heartening. I would much, much rather see people peacefully protest because they care about the issues, not because they care about the issues and got fired up by the catalyst of the brutal and cruel murder of George Floyd. But while this event was horrific, it was amazing to watch how people across the U.S. and around the world joined together. It’s been even more moving to see how many people feel compelled to protest, even though they know this puts them at higher risk of exposure to COVID-19, because standing up is the right thing to do.

I am grateful that the two writing projects I’ve been promoting recently both contribute to charity. The proceeds from The Golden Door all go to the ACLU and Doctors Without Borders. The idea for this collection came from watching what was going on at the southern border of the U.S. While the awful way some of the people seeking asylum has been less in the news lately, it’s still happening. Some of the children who were separated from their families at the border will almost certainly never see their parents again, and the fact that this happened at all is so incredibly wrong. This anthology has a broader focus than just U.S. immigration, as I wanted people to think about the topic of immigration in a larger sense. It includes stories like Tonya D. Price’s “Spy in the Sky,” which is set during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, “Ke’s Symphony,” by Lesley L. Smith, which is about beings from one planet who seek refuge on another, as well as stories like Hedi Framm-Anton’s “La Despedida,” which is about a woman from Honduras who goes to the U.S. because she can’t make enough money at home to pay the fees the local gang demands.

The other charity project I’m involved with right now is the Young Adult Charity MegaBundle, which is only available for a few more days. Half of all the proceeds for this bundle of 28 books (yes, there are really 28 books!) go to Mighty Writers, a non-profit organization which offers free writing workshops to children to help them learn to think and write with clarity. As part of Mighty Writers’ efforts curing the pandemic, they are also delivering food to families in need.

There’s a line from the movie The Year of Living Dangerously that I think of quite often: Add your light to the sum of light. It’s paraphrased from something Tolstoy wrote. In the movie, it goes like this:

Well, I support the view that you just don’t think about the major issues. You do whatever you can about the misery that’s in front of you. Add your light to the sum of light.

The two charity projects I’m involved with won’t change the world. One person attending one protest won’t either. But everything adds up, as we’ve seen with the recent protests about racial justice, both in the U.S. and across the world. Let’s all work together to make the world a better place.

I’m on holiday! In my own house…

I’m on holiday! Sort of… 🙂

At this point a four-day weekend feels super exciting, even though I’m spending it in my own house⁠—and much of my time will be spent at the same desk in the same small office I sit in every day while I work on the day job. 🙂 I had four days off in a row a couple of weeks ago, and was surprised to see how much of a difference that small break made. I’m not sure exactly why it was so helpful, but it was oddly rejuvenating to have a long weekend after being in lockdown for ages, even though I didn’t go anywhere. Hopefully this weekend will be the same!

So far I’ve moved bags of dirt around, started to clean my garage, ordered six big clay pots for my patio, and placed an order for plants with a local nursery. I’m waiting for the nursery to call back and confirm exactly what they have, but they did say they have my favorite pepper in stock: Big Jims! I originally planted this pepper a couple of years ago because my dad’s name is Jim. 🙂 It’s now my favorite pepper. It’s not super spicy, but I really like the flavor. It also freezes really well. Last summer I froze a bunch of peppers, and we used the last of that batch in March or April.

Jasper trying to stay still while Rosie taunted him with from outside of the frame.

Right now my garden has a few herbs that came back: two kinds of thyme, chamomile, chives, Italian oregano (which I like much more than Greek oregano), hyssop, and salad burnet. And borage, which reseeded itself, and which is also growing in the rocks outside of the garden (at least until I pull all that up). Everything else I planted from seed: Swiss chard (2 kinds), kale, endive, lettuce, carrots, beets, radishes, tomatoes (from seeds I harvested myself last year!), and marigolds (also from seeds I harvested, although they were much easier to harvest). I may have a volunteer tomato plant as well.

Writing-wise, I have a novel that’s due by June 12th (ack!!!), a couple of short stories due, and I also want to put together a collection of my own short stories this summer and I’m considering writing a new story or two for that. I’m working on edits for a couple of anthologies, and have a few more anthologies in the works. And there are a couple of other projects I’m involved in that require articles, setting up a website, and other fun things.

Another thing on my list is to start up my newsletter again. It’s been almost 3 years since I stopped sending it out because I “temporarily” got too busy 🙂 and it’s high time I got it going again. Sign up! It’ll be fun! Exciting! And I’m going to include something for free for everyone who signs up! (If you’re already signed up, you will get the free thing too⁠!)

Since I have a four-day weekend, I’m going to make a huge dent in all of this work!

Okay, maybe a little dent… 🙂

Zombie Apocalypse: Day 32

I didn’t realize the zombie apocalypse would involve me spending day after day in my own house…

My days now consist of entertaining the dogs, cleaning and organizing the house, and washing my hands. Okay, I don’t actually wash my hands that much because I spend 90% of my waking hours in my office where I am, as far as I’m aware, safe from both viruses and mosquitoes. (I know you’re thinking: It’s April, there aren’t any mosquitoes in Colorado yet. But just like every other year of my life, they are coming for me. I just don’t know exactly when. I do, however, know that they will find me well before they find any of you.)

Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has impacted my writing. For a while it was really hard to focus on anything at all. I still remember fretfully looking at the Johns Hopkins map when the total worldwide numbers were around 30k. 🙁 Things got really exciting when my sisters and I helped accelerate our high risk parents’ move to an independent living community two months ahead of schedule. Fortunately we got them moved a few days before the state stay-at-home order, and now they’re as close to bubble wrapped as we can make them.

Once I was able to (mostly) focus again, I did what anyone would do, and published an anthology! 😀

Note that this is a charity anthology – all proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders and the ACLU.

The Golden Door has been in the works for a long, long time. It went through many strange hurdles, and holds the record for the most time it’s taken me to put together a collection from start to finish. (My goal is to never let any other anthology break this record.) The title comes from “The New Colossus,” a sonnet written in 1883 by Emma Lazarus to raise money for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. Here’s the full text:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

The Golden Door was inspired by events at the southern border of the U.S., but I asked the authors to think more broadly. Here’s part of the text from the call for submissions:

Show the impact on individuals—and/or the world—when a country turns away immigrants, or changes the rules so that people who immigrated to a country become forced to return to where they came from—even if they were small children at the time.

Think about events throughout history, like during WWII when the U.S. turned away a ship carrying roughly 900 Jews during WWII—254 of whom died in the Holocaust. Or the U.S. Congress rejecting a bill which would have allowed 20,000 Jewish refugee children to enter the U.S. Or Italy blocking a ship carrying immigrants from all Italian ports.

Ancient Rome welcomed a number of immigrants, but didn’t do as well with the Goths, who were instrumental in the defeat of the Roman Empire.

Other options include writing about the contributions immigrants make to a country, or how the culture changes (whether for better or worse) when migrants are allowed in a country.

My story in this collection is set in 1910 in the Pennsylvanian town that my parents grew up in, and is loosely based on both my Irish/Scottish and my Slovakian great-grandparents.

I’m hoping to use my time in lockdown to get a lot of writing done. We’ll see how that goes!

Jasper and Rosie were initially confused about why we’re home all day every day, but they quickly adapted and are taking advantage of our availability, as any good border collie would. 🙂