Ugly Summers

I’ve had a cold for the last several days. (Only a cold. Been paying attention to symptoms.) Haven’t gotten hardly any writing done, because there just wasn’t brain there. Decided that July was going to be a month I broke my daily average streak, just so that I didn’t have it lingering over me. Still going to make 100,000 this month, but not 120,000. That’s okay. Spent Thu/Fri looking at coming books and art books, just kinda refilling the brain with creative juices.

Another thing I’ve found is that the crap going on out there is finally starting to get me down. Angry, as opposed to depressed, but I had a chat with Fabulous Publisher Babe(tm) this morning that I might have to put the current novel aside for a bit and write other things. I’m deep into the fifth Lazarus, and getting ready to wrap this one up and head into #6, which will culminate the series.

Except that these tend to be brighter and cheerier than I feel right now. One man fighting against a corrupt system, but he’s to a point where you’re starting to see the momentum swing his way.

I don’t see that when I watch the news. I see echoes of Augusto Pinochet and his thugs taking to the streets with truncheons and tear gas. I saw a picture of a water-cannon bulldozer heading north to either hit Portland or Seattle shortly. I see a small fragment of this country that are calling for troops to just start shooting protesters in the streets. (Finally lost one of my oldest friends over this. That was his solution. I can’t help you if you have decided to actively worship evil.)

On the other hand, I have a couple of short story series I’ve been working on that do fit my mood. Dark. Ugly. Not horror, but bad. Hard-boiled Private Detective stuff, set in the mid-1950s where all the science fiction you see in the movies was real, and he has to deal with it. Just finished one with Cthulhu overtones. Got more in mind.

I can’t really write about heroes overcoming the obstacles until the world changes. 2020 was always going to be an ugly place. Anyone who knows me has heard me talking about it since the late 1980s, after studying Kondratiev and Long Cycles. Mix that in with the Boomer generation starting to die off, after dominating US culture for fifty years. They don’t want to surrender power, and many appear to be willing to burn the whole damned country down rather than admit that they are done.

So I’m writing dark stuff right now.

This blog post is for the rest of you. I understand why I’m having issues and how to solve it, but y’all need to realize that you can do the same. If you are not happy, you can’t write happy. If you are angry, maybe you need to put everything to the side for now and paint. Or knit. Or write horror. (Those of you who write horror maybe need to write something bright and cheery as a mental break.)

This whole nasty year will not be getting better for a while. Possibly for a long time, depending. People talk about civil wars, and we’re closer now than we’ve been in nearly a century.

Take care of yourself. And drink a lot of water. You’ve still got things left to say.