In a blink, we are at the close of February in a world that is changing faster than tech. I am astounded that the new world order is letting so much slime climb from beneath dark and dank rocks under which they mutter their conspiracies and spew their hatred at everyone who isn’t as hateful and bigoted as themselves. I am even more amazed at how individuals with openly unethical characters can rise to power with the blind if not self-interested support of so many idiots. History, of course, is littered with these people and the destruction and tragedy they wrought upon humanity and the earth, but in what ought to be an enlightened age they still thrive among us, buoyed by their insane wealth and the greedy self-serving sycophants who cling to their coattails.
 
Can you imagine anyone writing a novel or play, or creating a film with such unbelievable characters as we are currently witnessing on the daily news? Oh wait. Writers do. So many writers have created works portraying the horror we currently face on a world scale.
 
Anyway, I’ll do the only thing I can and write about the rise and prevalence of evil and the never-ending if often futile effort of people with good hearts to thwart evil’s plans. Yay for fantasy and scifi.
 
Wow! I must be really angry to forego blog space for a petty political rant. Believe me. I have barely started on what I dislike and I would change if, by some cataclysmic miracle, I could assert political power. But there is no cataclysmic miracle looming for me and I have absolutely no power at all. Can’t even win the lottery.
 
However, if you want some not-so-light reading on what we face around the world in current politics and potential and actual outcomes, here’s some books you could/should read:

because his interest lies in future investments and mine lies in SciFi writing and how AI will evolve. I’ve accepted a new writing mentee with Spectrum Writing. Writers SA have offered me the opportunity to lead once-a-month think tank sessions for writers to discuss concepts, progress and any other writing matters, and I’m excited by this. More details later.

I continued to develop the third book in a fantasy series which has grown to a healthy 50,000 words with a 120,000 word target to finish. Yesterday I fed a minor character I named Dutton to a dragon. Satisfying. I will make that writing project my key focus while I convalesce. In all honesty, watching the rise of right-wing politics with the billionaire oligarchs in the USA and the wanna-be oligarchs in Australia gives me awesome characters and motives to write into my stories. The two greatest sins in all religious and atheist worlds are greed and tribalism. Greed accounts for all the other sins combined because it is all about ‘what I want’ and hate is the root of all ‘us not them’ creeds and actions. If we can ever educate those two selfish ideologies out of humans we might just create a peaceful, harmonised and productive world, but so long as we encourage/allow individuals to acquire ludicrous amounts of money and applaud them for it, and demonise anyone who isn’t exactly like us, we are doomed to violence and endlessly repeating the history loop. Sermon over.
 
I completed a second edit of my friend Richard’s project based on stories from the South Australian Police Mounted Cadre Unit and it’s ready to be offered to publishers. Richard is organising approaches to prospective publishers. We also will go through the selection process for relevant pictures to add to each chapter. Richard’s book is a fascinating read and a worthy historical project.
 
I sketched the plot key points for a new teenage novel based on a girls’ volleyball team which I’ve been meaning to write for a very long time.
 
The other plans for 2025 listed in my previous blog remain in place, just shifted back in time while I wrestle with the skin matters. The mice are currently preoccupied.