I know, it's Thursday and I don't post on Thursday. However, I've something important I want to say.

This is not business as usual, y'all. The Republicans, if we do nothing, will have control of all three branches of our government at the exact moment that they have elected an uncontrollable, emotional, Fascist. I hope I don't need to highlight how dire a situation that is. That said, there is something we can do about it. Obama can appoint a judge to the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Here's the link to the .gov site where you can sign a petition. Make your voice heard at the most important time in our country's recent history. Please. Please. Please do this. It'll take 5 seconds.

Appoint Garland Now.

First, this is me coping. Do not feel bad if you need to grieve. Well--adjusted people grieve. I just can't right now. That isn't a good thing, y'all. That said, I'm funneling this shit into some positive actions...starting with volunteering opportunities. My plan is to start with re-establishing the Voting Rights Act. Yes, I know any change is going to be difficult given the future of the Supreme Court, but here's the thing:

We've been in this place before, legally. We know what is wrong and what needs to be changed. We had the deck stacked against us before these laws were put into place. (Not just the VRA but all laws protecting the common person.) It wasn't easy to get them established and they won't be easy to replace. But the number one thing we have in our favor? Systemic Oppression isn't even remotely creative. It merely re-spins the same old shit. We can recognize this shit and end it because we know what to do. We've done it to get as far as we have. We can do this.

And now...the list so far. These organizations need our money (if you can donate) and our time (if you have it.) This list will change. It is not mine. I'm cobbling it together from other sources with permission. Share it far and wide. If you have a suggestion, please add it in comments, and I'll credit you.

- Sothern Poverty Law Center (Thanks to Natalie Luhrs)
- Lambda Legal and GLAD
- ACLU
- CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations)
- Good journalism is vital. Subscribe to your preferred source. NPR, the New York Times, and the Washington Post have done good work at various times this year. Not everyone can pay for content; if you can, why not buy someone else a subscription?
- Planned Parenthood.
- Showing Up For Racial Justice
- Are you a writer? WRITE A LETTER! Have a template for letters about VRA. (Many thanks to Beth Wodzinsky.)
- Jezebel has a magnificent list that is more thorough than mine too. (Thanks, Karen Meschke.)

I feel exactly two ways about this election. Exactly two things happened.

First, this is what systematic oppression looks like, y'all. Stop telling me that shit doesn't exist--that we elected a black president twice and it's all over and done. Bullshit. This is what it looks like. Voter suppression is the reason we're facing this situation. High incarceration rates are to blame too. This is the first big election after the Voting Rights Act was gutted. Did you know that? The first. I worked the polls as an election clerk. There was a great deal of confusion. We did our fucking best, but there was an awful lot of problems. We turned people away because they hadn't registered to vote. Straight up. They were excluded. We gave out a lot of provisional ballots, y'all--far more than I thought I'd see. Systematic racism is real.  We are not post-racial. This is not about the poor, ignorant bastards out in the boondocks either. Stop blaming the poor. Just stop it. This is white straight men and women racists straight up lying to our faces and secretly doing what they've always done behind closed doors: uphold the system of oppression. Is it because they've no idea that it's squatting inside their skulls? (All they know is, they're afraid and feel lost.) Or maybe they don't even give a shit. Either way, the result is the same. Women of color, other ethnic minorities, gender non-binary groups, non-hereosexual persons, religious minorities...all have been the canary in the coal mine, y'all. They've been screaming their heads off, and not enough of us listened. And the reason the media polls were wrong? It's because of people secretly voting for racism and misogyny while denying it publicly. They know what they did. They know the truth.

If you've wondered what pre WW2 Germany looked like? If you've wondered how the fuck Hitler could've come into power? THIS IS IT, y'all. My husband has been telling me not to worry this whole time. "You're over-reacting." He apologized last night.

I wasn't mother fucking over-reacting, damn it. A large number of assholes would rather vote for a moldy orange baboon than a woman. They'd rather throw a spoiled hissy fit and vote 3rd party. They knew they were wrong when they did it, and did it anyway.

Second, I feel the same way about this election that I did about the Hugo Awards a few years ago. This is one of those instances where the popular vote actually would've elected Hillary. A vocal, hate-filled minority has gamed the system in order to maintain power while claiming the system is gamed against them and using that for an excuse for cheating. Yes, they've also swayed people who were "on the fence" about it--people who will bow to power no matter how ugly a face it wears. But ultimately, Democrats in Texas struggle because we've been gerrymandered to hell and back. That's no fucking joke. It absolutely isn't. And it's going to be very, very fucking hard to crank this country back from that fucking cliff because of it. More people are going to die. More cops are going to kill people. Roe v. Wade is very much in danger of toppling. Our health care system is going to collapse. Our recovering economy is going to tank--frankly, it already has tanked. When I said that people going on about starting over because it's all too broken had no fucking clue what they were saying re: wanting to start the fuck over--this is what I meant. "Starting over" isn't clean and easy. It's hitting the fucking bottom in a great big pile of chaos and then working your ass off for decades to get out of that hole you fell into. THAT is starting over, assholes.

I'm one of those people who displays anger instead of fear. It's how I cope and protect myself and others. I wish I could grieve. It'd be useful. I just...can't. 

I just keep thinking of the woman I read about in late 1930s Austria or Poland. (I wish I could find the story.) Her first hand account of doing the laundry while the German Army was marching in. Her turning to her neighbor as the echoes of bootheels slammed the pavement and buildings. "I thought everything was fine. That everything would go on as always. Yesterday, I thought the laundry and the mending were important. Everything was going to be okay." She watched the soldiers pour into her city. "I don't know what I was thinking."

Just in case there was any doubt...and I'm certain there wasn't. Because...well...the other candidate is the living, walking, talking embodiment of Rape Culture painted in orange. (Orange was never my favorite color anyway.)

Welcome back to Feminist Monday. It's been a while, I know. It's good to take a break from one's passions from time to time to prevent burnout. And October is that month where that online vacation occurs. Of course, this didn't stop me from continuing to collect those links. Sooo, there's a lot to go through. Shall we?

First, the video round:

Quick note: Youtube is a fucking sinkhole of misogyny. I can't search for anything remoting Feminist without wading through a zillion sexist search returns. When it's clear you're searching for pro-Feminism links, there's no filter for the misogyny. Women don't feel welcome. Shocker.

One more video...because...damn it.

I never fucking thought I'd say this...I CAN'T WAIT. THIS LOOKS AMAZING.

And now...those links.

Welcome to the Friday before the American election. I'm hoping for taco trucks on every corner and Pride Parades and bathroom facilities for everyone and everything that allows Americans to be the wonderful, beautiful human beings they are so that they can enrich our country and each other with their talents, intelligence, and labor. Yes, I'm a damned peacenik hippy--a goth-peacenik-hippy to be specific.

And...I'm stressed out of my damned mind.

So are most of my friends. I desperately want to believe in humanity. I want so badly to believe we've no need to repeat this horrendous mistake. But the truth is I'm depressed. Even if HRC wins, we'll be dealing with the fallout for years. The amount of damage done to the American political system over the past few weeks, let alone years, is appalling. And no, I don't blame "both sides." Fuck that. The instant your 'side' has committed to doing anything to win, including voter fraud (only Trump supporters have been arrested for this,) voter intimidation, lying, cheating, closing polling places early, passing restrictive ID laws...and the list goes on...you've absolutely lost the moral high ground. How can you do all this shit and call yourself a 'patriot' with a straight face? FFS.
​
To deal with all this stress, I've given Nate Silver a rest. I needed something soothing and funny. So, I did something I've never done before. I cranked up Netflix and put on a show that my agent and several other fun authors I know (Hello, Dan Poblocki!) recommended. It's The Gilmore Girls.

I wasn't going to post today because it's Thursday and all...but I can't wait until then. So, I'll just drop this here and run away.

The pre-order link is up and running for Blackthorne, y'all. Here you go. Sorry about all the self-promo, but...it's exciting to see this novel go live. It's exciting to see any creative feat requiring extensive labor go live. 

And see what I have to share! It's the new cover for Blackthorne. [add silly happy dance here] I'm extra excited. He actually looks mixed race, doesn't he? (Maybe even a little bit like Lin-Manuel Miranda. You'd have thought so if you'd seen the shorter hair version. Heh.) How about that? Anyway, I decided to take all sorts of chances in this novel. Hopefully, those choices will pay off. Strangely, I tend to feel better about what I'm doing when I say, "Fuck it! I'm going to rattle some cages, damn it!" Ultimately, it's how I feel, and holding back doesn't really work for me. Polite art doesn't really do much more than match the couch, after all. The fun thing about an Epic Fantasy with a mosaic plot structure is that I get to play with a diverse cast. The tough thing about an Epic Fantasy with a mosaic plot structure is...working with a diverse cast. LOL. Anyway, we'll see how this goes. I hope you enjoy it. I very much enjoyed this last round of re-writes. In truth, this is the most re-written novel since...well...The Lord of the Rings, I suspect. It's fifteen years in the making, this one. It's been trunked multiple times, and it barely resembles its original form. (Am I allowed to say it's my first-ever novel?) Seriously, I gutted the crap out of that sucker. It needed it. I really can't wait for this one to be out there.