October Surprise!
I’ve joked with friends that 2015-2020 will be an entire course in colleges several years from now, with the next generation calling “bullshit” on our claims of what was happening during what felt like a decade of misery. I think of my niece Violet, and wonder if she’ll remember any of it: the masks, the isolation, the ongoing fear of catching a virus that could have infected anyone, including the President. I’m foolishly optimistic that things will be better in 2021, that we’ll beat the virus by taking more extreme measures, including a reliable vaccine of some kind.
That is, if Biden is elected President. Incoming political rant!
Trump and Republicans are starting to see the writing on the wall, and aren’t even pretending to be sneaky with voter suppression anymore. I mean, they haven’t cared about all the election tampering by the Russians that was discovered in recent years, but now that people are getting energized to vote Trump out, they’re getting even more emboldened to make November 3rd their final stand. Already in states that are participating with early voting, massive turnouts have been reported all over the country. Some people have been standing in lines for hours to vote, and while the news might paint that as a feel-good story, in reality it’s still the Dark Ages for voting. No one should have to wait hours to vote! Polling stations should be as abundant as Starbucks, one on every corner! Mail-in ballots should be available to every single American, and the USPS should be given more money for more sorting machines!
Here in California, the California Republicans have gone so far as to install their own ballot drop boxes, which is incredibly illegal. Republicans love to shout “Voter fraud!” from the rooftops, but the only reason there’s any cases of voter fraud at all is because they’re the ones continuing to perpetuate it. It’s disgusting that a small percentage of Americans want to dismantle democracy because they know they’re not destined to win it. The Republicans are the minority in this country, but continue to rule by decades of cheating. If the Electoral College is ever abolished, they would never win an election again. So instead of updating their principals and party platform for the 21st century to appeal to voters, they would rather take their ball and go home, put their fingers in their ears, and pretend it’s still the good ol’ 1950s.
If Biden doesn’t win, Amanda and I will continue our visa applications for France. Not even joking. We can’t take another 4-years of this shit, and things will no doubt get incredibly worse. I’d rather not be hunted for sport this time next year, thanks.
On to more uplifting news, the second draft of The Patch is complete! 325 pages, 98,000 words, 4-years of my life. It’s currently being edited before I make the final adjustments and start shopping it around to publishers. I felt a second wind of sorts when I was finishing the ending last month, and then spent the next few weeks rewriting and going through two drafts. I’m definitely feeling proud, and hopeful. It will be quite some time before I write about glowing gourds and seas of cornstalks again! Now onto more short stories to cleanse my palate, but more importantly, the next book: a ghost story set at the Hotel del Coronado. Amanda has been wanting me to write it for years (she’s obsessed with the Del), and I always promised her I’d start it after The Patch was finished. I have big plans for the book, and the ones that follow it for that particular series. Ghost stories! Time travel! Coronado! Murder!
We visited San Diego recently to see my niece Violet, but also attempted to relax a bit. Downtown San Diego was a ghost town, with the Convention Center looking particularly eerie. We were first in line for Comic-Con next year! I also was able to “capture” one of the last remaining Invader pieces while we were there. It was pretty degraded, but still flashed for the app. It’s such a shame that Invader visited once back in 2010, and out of the original 21 pieces he installed, only 4 remain. At least I have plenty to hunt here in Los Angeles.
The first issue of Clusterfux Comix is coming along nicely, and I’ve received back 30+ pages of content from contributors. I’m just waiting on a few stragglers before I can start the process of putting it in order and making sure it’s the bees knees of underground comix. So many talented people in this first issue! I can’t wait to share it with you. I’m also tinkering with the idea of stickers featuring the cross-skull design I created. What do you think? Whether it was skateboarding or comics, I’ve always loved stickers. And T-shirts?! Don’t get me started! If it was affordable, I’d design and create every T-shirt I wear. Unfortunately, I never had access to a silkscreen press growing up. I coulda been a contender!
That just about does it for this post. Dinah’s surgery went fine, but unfortunately they had to remove all her fangs. She has a condition where her body eats away at her teeth, so they all had to come out. She still has her other teeth for chewing food, but every time she meows all you see are her gums. It’s both sad and cute. While it sucks she had the surgery, she’s gotten a lot more energetic and playful. I think her stupid teeth were hurting her, and now she feels like her old self now that the pain has been removed. She still loves bunny-kicking me while chomping on my hand, but now all I feel are gummy gums trying to gnaw me. She’s a fierce apex predator, after all.
Voici notre petit croissant brûlé.
