Changes

You know, readers, that I've been studious about avoiding any commentary on contemporary issues. It's not that I don't care, and if you look at my Facebook page you'll get an idea of the kind of things that concern me. I'm breaking with that to announce that I'm taking "Are You Okay?" and Other Stories off the Amazon market. It will be available only from Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardcover and as an e-book.

I was moved to do this when I learned that Mark Zuckerberg and company (or companies, if you prefer) have decided to block any posts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads that denigrate, question, or perhaps even report on the activities of ICE and their ongoing campaign to whiten America and purge the others from our midst. I know that Zuckerberg's empire doesn't include Amazon, but they're hand-in-glove, it seems to me, in monopolizing and politicizing their respective industries at the expense of us common people who have lost their voice. It's happened before over the course of history. Americans, sadly, are as passive as the Germans were in the 1930s. A few of them saw it coming, but too few tried to do anything about it. Too many were afraid. Too many were disbelieving. And when it was done, people asked themselves and each other, "How did we ever get to this place?" The answer is, "Step by step."

I know that taking my collection off of the Amazon market isn't going to make any difference in the direction of the country. But I do feel a little better about myself, in that I am no longer complicit. And I'll try to find other ways to reinforce my flaccid conscience. Already, I patronize River Bend Books instead of buying my reading material online. I support my local hardware store instead of the warehouses. I buy my veggies from the roadside stand. Well, not recently, of course, but you get the idea.

The picture above symbolizes the completion of the rough draft of "Chicken," the story I've been working on fitfully for the past six weeks or so. Longer, probably. I'm still at work on it, reconsidering the point of view and the narrator's voice, but I believe that it'll turn out pretty good. I'll let you all know when it's done, and of course when and where it gets published.

Stay warm.