Monday, December 16, 2019

Short Fiction: Time Travel

My 101 Word Flash Fiction, Compression, is one of the stories featured in the December Time Travel Issue of 101 Fiction 
Visit the website for more. 
Enjoy the escape! 



Friday, December 13, 2019

Happy Holidays!



TO YOU!  and Yours!  Wishing you a Holiday that is Merry and Bright! 

May Democracy Ring through the World and Crumble Oppressive Structures left by the Patriarchy! 

May our planet return to that Paradise is it! Offering all we need to flourish without exploitation, without decimating every animal, tree, or indigenous person and their land! 

Keep our water clean! 

Our air breathable -- the animals are counting on us! We must protect those without voices who cannot SHOUT! 

Peace to YOU! Peace to All. 



Thursday, September 19, 2019

Climate Strike. We're All in This Together!


"LISTEN TO THE SCIENTISTS!"  ~ Greta Thunberg.


I've been an environmental activist since the days I hoarded glass bottles under the sink in my Williamsburg apartment in 1989-90s, to the chagrin of my roommate who constantly teased me about my "collection" of bottles.

But I couldn't throw them in the garbage! and no one was even talking about recycling in New York City in those days. Well, I was talking ...but there were few answers. So I basically hoarded a huge collection of glass bottles under my sink. Not sure what became of those bottles, it's likely my roommate issued an ultimatum to get rid of them. And then came the plastic bags ... the bane of humanity and the rest of our plastics hanging in our trees in the City. (I also have a certificate as a "green medicine" herbalist. During the Bush years, there was a concern the war-loving administration would take our supplements and access to medicinal plants and herbs. )

This is actually a post, for the Climate Strike! I'd say in SOLIDARITY but we're all in this TOGETHER. We have one BEAUTIFUL paradise of a planet. We're the stewards and we've done terribly.

Sharing a few photos from the 2014 "People's Climate March".  My #ClimatePact   "I swear in all my power to help this planet and its creatures thrive and return this planet to the PARADISE it is!  #ClimatePact   I will STOP abuses when I see them. I will STEP IN. Help find solutions.


 For my #ClimateStrike #ClimatePact I will:

*Ride my bike every day -- even through the snow. (so much fun!)

*Compost!

*Wear repurposed clothing! (eBay!)

* Mend and repair the things I have. (also kind of fun.)

* Plant trees.

* Return to being a vegan.   ~ While I had two vegan births, I'm now a vegetarian but also lactose intolerant. So, I must heed the warnings of my gut.  ;) My body is much smarter than I am.

(I'll return to add more to this list.)

What are a few things you've done that helped our planet, please share so we can do more! 

Here are a few photos from 2014. New York City's People's Climate March, to rev you up for the rally at Foley Square tomorrow 12PM. No matter where you are if you can't attend a rally or march in your town -- start cleaning up! Walk around with signs. Post the photos on Social Media. Share anything you've done that helps clean up our environment and tag #ClimateStrike.






Don't forget the little guys that make a HUGE impact on our planet. 

photo by me! 

Monday, September 9, 2019

When Billie Holiday Addressed Our Health Care System and Opiates.

This country sure is Slooooow to change.  

I'm busy revising my YA historical fantasy, though the story only has one supernatural element. It's set in 1935 at the cusp of the Swing Era and the build-up to WW2.  Believe, me, there're too many similarities to the persecution of Jewish people, to what the current administration is doing to black and brown people in the U.S.A. TODAY! 

A dear friend and jazz singer gave me Lady Sings the Blues last week for my birthday. Hearing Billie Holiday's voice, her words and her mind has been profound, learning about her life and struggles and jazz music, and then reading this near the end of the book ...




" American used to make fun of the British health system, where sick people could go to doctors and hospitals for free and the government picked up the tab. We laughed about them handing out false teeth and wooden legs for free. We hollered about this being government interference with the practice of medicine."
"Well, let me tell you, in America if they haven't got government interference in medicine I don't know what it is. If you're on and you get a doctor for help, he can't help you because the government has passed out regulations saying, in effect, that if he does he will go to jail along with you. If you go to the doctor, he's liable to slam the door in your face and call the cops."

"Most countries in Europe are civilized about it and they have no "narcotics problem" at all. One day America is going to smarten up and do the same thing.  Not as long as the US has systematic racism! Imagine how far we'd be if bigots and cheaters didn't get their way. I'm sure we'd have advanced beyond our current realities. 


"It may not even happen in my lifetime. Whether it does or not is no skin off mine, because I can't possibly be hurt any more than I have been. But for the sake of other people who've got to suffer until the country wakes up, for the sake of young kids whose whle life will be ruined because they are sent to jail instead of a hospital, I pray to God we wake up soon over here. " 



"If you think you need to suffer to play music or sing, you're crazy.  It can fix you so you can't play nothing or sing nothing. The only thing that can happen to you sooner than later you'll get busted, and once that happens you'll never live it down. Just look at me."
"I don't want to preach to nobody. I never have and I don't want to begin now. But I do hope some kids will read this book an not miss the point of it. Maybe because I have no kids of my own--not yet--I still think you can help kids by talking straight to them."


"On a recent Sunday, Judge Jonah Goldstein talked about the narcotics problem on TV from New York. He told the people the same thing I've been trying to tell them; that narcotics has to be taken out of the hands of the police and turned over to the doctors! He said that in all his years on the bench he'd never seen anybody but poor people brought in for violation of the dope laws."

"He also said a man had come to him for advice recently because his twenty-year-old son had been hooked on dope. What did the judge advise him to do? Send the boy to England o school where doctors could treat him legally, cure him if they could, and if not, give him treatment legally just as if he had diabetes or something, so he could live a useful normal life."

"That's a hell of a recommendation for a judge to have to make in a civilized country; to admit that the only help a sick person hooked on drugs can get is outside the country,..." 



This is from the 1950s from Billie Holiday's autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues.  

My heart. <3 and="" brilliant="" day="" in="" lady="" many="" nbsp="" p="" profound="" so="" was="" ways.="">
Her voice lives on! 
In the YA I'm revising the MC is also dealing with barbiturate use. Commonly prescribed for sleeping pills during this time.  


We must make good change happen Faster!   

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Audio of the Mueller Report!

Our country is under attack!  The POTUS is illegitimate!  
Tax march in March of 2017. 


Here is an audio of The Mueller Report ... 

"Delivering the Mueller Report, in an audiobook-style format, without political commentary." There's a link to donate if you're able to.  


"On April 18, 2019, the Department of Justice released the "Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election." This section covers some background behind the creation of this audio podcast and the "Introduction to Volume 1" from pages 1 to 3 of the report.  Introduction to Volume 1... (link) 
Or if you prefer reading the report and reviewing the summaries, the link. 

We need to get this mobster-grifter-family of nepotists (white supremacists) out of OUR House! Then work on the air we breathe and the water we drink! And listen to scientists!  
We have little time left! 
And there's nowhere to hide from the roll-backs and destruction the GOP and the House Leader, #MoscowMitch McConnell have unleashed. They've enabled this demagogue in the White House. The narcissist has rolled back ALL of Obama's protections. Things we've fought hard for over the years!! 
Gear up, my friends. The battle is for the TRUTH! 

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

"This deserves the attention of every American." ~ Mueller.


Robert Mueller Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified before the House Judiciary and House Intelligence Committees on the Russia investigation and the published report released by his office.



All work is on hold! 

Friday, July 12, 2019

Beneath the Layers.


 Death of the mind,  body, and spirit, how much will cease to be? Forever? The Egyptian God, Ra, ruled death with Horus and the sky, the earth, and the underworld.


I watch the sunrise beam through the fog of sulfuric clouds on the horizon. Bowing silhouettes ascend into the orb. I don’t think the mushrooms have worn off. My roommate has crashed on the couch with her boyfriend and I can’t sleep.
Reading my palm once again, I push past the financial reports, the hyper-content I’m not interested in and search for a message from Outer-Spector.
Their messages hide in the code. My roommate Clara and I both ate the mushrooms, but I’m the one who’s awake. Suppose if I had warm arms to wrap in, I’d be asleep too. But it’s better this way.  Up and at ‘em.
Stimulating the gray mushroom-glyph that appears on my palm, and the resonance shield surrounds me; the hum growing louder until the shield becomes an opaque semi-circle.
“What is your report?” the Vector-bot commands.
The mushrooms I ate, enabled Spector Vision, which allows the initiate to see where the death riders cling to the earth. Creating havoc as they work to complete unfinished business before disappearing for good.
It wasn’t like this before. People used to pass on. Not many do anymore and I witnessed a handful this morning returning to the sun.
The food has been laced with radioactivity and chemicals from fertilizers far too long and part of the reason for the disconnect.
My job is redirection.
But first, I have to convince the specters their work on earth is finished. Many are too angry to reason with. They’re lost and confused. I use alternate scene-boards to manipulate what the specters witness, it shows their work is finished and it’s time to move on.
If I can send them into the Matrika, they will not return to Earth, for their continuous cycle of destruction.
“What’s your response?” the VB insists.
“I need another round.” I glance at Clara, asleep on the couch. “Alone.”

                                                        *
The laser beams over my eyes. This activates the molecules of the mushroom serum still in my pineal gland or third eye, and I become smaller and smaller until I’m walking hidden passages that line the planet.
My mind travels alongside the specters wispy translations I’ve created to define what I’m seeing or sensing, really.
The specters swirl around me, many  appear to walk, two by two, others with children, or entire families, complete with grandparents, and dogs leading the packs. Disguised, they pretend to be human apparitions. As if, we didn’t know.
I am concealed as a Vector-bot encased in a light that distorts my cosmic outline. Not one of them makes a noise, they’re no conversations, the dogs aren’t barking.
Steaming in one direction, I follow their trek toward the Matrika layer. The layer beneath the passages.
A green and blue aurora borealis form; I’ve arrived. While I'm an apparition, I’m safe from Matrika, the serum percolates within my cells. If we can’t clear the specters, humans will stop being born on Earth. Sure, other planets in the system have clearer channels, but this is Earth, land of green and blue, ha, we do keep the fantasy alive. Those in need of children believe they can and pay the highest price for those hopes. —If you wonder who pays the tab for this little journey.
When Matrika takes the souls, none return. It’s a distorted magnet and a trap. Not exactly, the depths of hell the mainliners joke about. Most believe Matrika is the underworld. That’s where I’ll send them.
After death, humans pass through the Sun so we can return. Once our designated tasks on Earth are finished, we move on to the next phase of matter. But this Matrika hole disregards all that seeking out all bioplasmic entities that have electromagnetic fields.
Aligning my motivations, I coalesce into a one-thought form, the specters will understand.
The Vector-bots are controlled by the human majority, there’re no hierarchies, my work helps everyone. Just the way I like it. But there’s always the risk of being sucked into Matrika for eternity, and no one has the answers to that; we can’t see anything after zero-point.
Waving my right arm into a circle, blue energy swirls up like a current, a torrent of pressure. It’ll knock the specters to attention and hopefully, they’ll understand my directions to the Matrika. The Blue Wave is a code, the original Vector-bots gave the human race. But they warned us what would happen if we continued using radioactive ingredients in our daily lives. Crimson tides of woe.
Fissures like Matrika opened up in the ethereal layers. I’m just glad the scientists won. Now we can do something.
My left arm sends another coded beam; it pierces the pressure around the vicinity. The Matrika advances, deep magenta, edged in crimson; she’s alive, and it’s beautiful, so much I’m falling into its endless pit. I pull back.
At its center is the black hole.
Vector Command reels me back, but the pulse of alternative frequencies skip past and misses me. I’m the anchor that shows the VB’s where the Matrika is.
I can’t lose contact and refocus. The light I’ve brought with me bends toward the circling scarlet pool.
I might be able to close the well, but then we’ll no longer be able to send the specters this way. And so far, it’s the only way to corner them and stop their destructive reign over the material world.
When the droves wind up here, my beam will send the scepters into the swirling the endless night at the center of Matrika. It’s the only way. At least that’s what the animation proved.
Something’s wrong, a spattering of crinkling noise and a distorted static I’ve never heard before. It scrambles my directive. The crimson spreads wider and wider, becoming darker. I signal to VB, no answer. 
The Matrika has me. The specters are gone. I’m being pulled apart, but it’s not my body, because my body is still in my living room behind the shield.
No, this is real, but I’m safe. Vector Bots have a back-up in place if anything goes wrong.
I can’t be safe. I’ve lost contact.
Hello!
Pulled and stretched, an arc of light moves farther in the opposite direction, I appear to be traveling, trying to catch up to the light, and I enter the black hole known as Matrika.

.
.
.
How long has it been?
Hello?
I had an assignment. I’m sure I’m still alive, but I’m not really that sure? What if I’m stuck in this warped plane of existence forever?
.
.
.
What am I’m looking at, the world around me solidifies into pictures, then into cubes and triangles? Triangle trees and pyramid shaped rocks. Hexagon clouds?
A sharp stab rips through me. An alert system shrieks, and an orb of light lands nearby. Two cubed-footed fluffy beings pick me up and throw me into a shoot, from what I understand it’s for refuse or waste—or recycling.
And I land in a fluid. Is it water? I can’t taste or smell anything to be sure.
Only my mind has traveled here, the Vector-Bots will find me. I have to finish my assignment.
I’m flowing in a current.
There’s pressure, and a hell of a lot of pain, and it’s so very dark. But then suddenly there’s light.
It’s soft and warm here.
I had a mission once, but I can’t remember. I’m comfortably wrapped into a warm blanket, and open my eyes. Familiar eyes stare back, smiling.
 “Congratulations, Clara, the doctor says, "Yours is the first rebirth we’ve had in almost a century.”  


                                          ~  The End ~



Thursday, July 4, 2019

Unplug this Fourth of July! Boycott the Fascism.

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It’s hard to celebrate being free from tyrannical rule when this POTUS of has tanks rolling up to the White House. What an FU to the American people!  Using 80+ millions of our tax dollars to inflate his dictator-wannabe ego. And taking 2.5 million away from National Park Services!  

Not to mention the reserved section for his republican enablers! Tanks and hail Dear Leader, are reserved for fascists. My grandfather, who flew over the Mississippi during WW2, keeping Nazi subs from entering the river – WANTS me to write this! And to fight back against this regime EVERY DAY. The Russian assisted, illegitimate POTUS is DESTROYING (trying to) what the American people have fought tooth and nail for.

The USA is kidnapping children! We have stolen children from their parents/caretakers and made profits off this!!!!  I've never had more nightmares and been so thoroughly absorbed with disgust and utter SHAME! and ready to FIGHT for those babies!  Those girls, the teen mothers dripping in breastmilk unable to wash! Babies using the same diaper for DAYS! Betsy Devos PROFITING off this! "Migrant Children Given to Adoption Agency "linked" to Devos" 

Aside from this post that’s appeasing my mounting anger, I’ll be offline. I won’t be leaving the city this year, but it’s so quiet in New York City I think I’m going to enjoy this. Until the fireworks later tonight wake me up!  

Stay safe this fourth! Enjoy life & Family. Get outside. Turn off the TV. Unplug! Rest up, because out fight to REMOVE this treasonous agent isn’t over yet.
Why it's Called Independence Day.  << If you'd like a reminder. 




Photos from the #ClosetheCamps rally on July 2, 2019, on E. 7th Street at Middle Collegiate Church in NYC.