Summing Up and Forging On

I think they may have the kidney disease under control. He lives in OK, so I don't get any full reports. His posts have been upbeat. Thanks for responding.

Where EndEarthers ranks on Amazon:
Best Sellers Rank: #2,648,680 in Books
#13,456 in Dystopian Fiction (Books)
#1,099,145 in Literature & Fiction (Books)

Got my first Goodreads review:
"DNF (did not finish). I am so sorry."
No star(s)
No problem. I expected a lot more negative feedback than there has been. It's a blunt presentation from the perspective of an 80 year-old 60s activist in what he believes to be the end days of humanity. That's story one. She likely didn't examine the remaining five. It's okay. I wish I had a quarter for every book I DNF.

My radicalization likely started when my own family taught me how it feels to be gaslighted and bullied. By the time I saw through LBJ and his Vietnam policy I had already witnessed the way Cuba got blacklisted after the rich Americans lost their tax haven/playground. The Beat literature and Bob Dylan spiced up the mix. Barry McGuire, whom I saw in photos in the LA Free Press hauled off by the hair during a demonstration in an LA park. Phil Ochs saw it more clearly than most and I followed him avidly. The Fugs sang River of ****, about voting the "lesser of two evils." No matter which party held the reins, protestors always were and are brutalized. The Black Panthers destroyed for organizing among the poor. A building in Philadelphia blown up without regard for the innocents therein. Nixon expanding the war and not giving it up until he was defeated. The murder of the Kennedies, Malcolm and MLK. Kent state. By the time Reagan came along I had gone beyond the line of no return.

Going to the zoo this morning. Hope I don't see any of y'all in the cages.

The Houston Zoo is a marvel. Staff loves their jobs and the animals have been given nicer areas to live in. Of course, no matter how you decorate a jail, the prisoners can never be free. Given that poachers and greedy society has made all of these creatures marked for extinction, perhaps the better zoos can keep many of them going for a while.

I was allowed to feed lettuce to a giraffe. Its wet tongue brushed my thumb.

This comment fits in with “end of the world” thinking. Some of us are quite concerned about multiple species extinctions and such tragedies: man is doing little to prevent its own extinction. Humanity is bound and moving headlong at breakneck speed to its inevitable end. Earth will survive minus the presence of mankind.

And that's what my book is about, in six stories. I frankly no longer support humanity, but I am mightily concerned for the poor animals and plants.

Amazing discovery about giraffe 🦒 … they have very long purple tongues.

The giraffes I saw were darker colors than I expected. I guess I am too influenced by illustrations

Fortunately, I’ve had a chance to travel and see them in the wild. Truly amazing sight. Their pattern of spots are as different as fingerprints. I’ve taken some amazing photo images. When they bend down and splay their legs so they can reach the water below is an acrobatic feat. Needless to say, that can make them vulnerable to attack.

I'm thinking the necks must not be as heavy as they look, else they would lose their balance.

Unusually with their long necks…they have a smaller sized heart as compared to other animals….has a very thick and elastic left ventricle wall that allows the blood to reach up to their brain.

I borrowed Gregor for my character's name, based on the fact he was born an insect. An intelligent oversized insect. Gregor appears in the fourth story of my six-story collection.

For now the famous writer is about to mop the floor.

It's terrible to publish what I know is a good book and have few resources for getting it noticed. I will leave it out there. No give-aways. Meanwhile I have a few new ones in the works.

Shortly after I brought my 2015 Nissan home from the dealership, the check engine light came on. I took it to a Nissan dealership and they told me they found nothing wrong. They had reset the system and the light stayed off and the car ran normally. About three months later the same thing happened. I knew by this time it was an air sensor. I disconnected the battery and reconnected it and the car was back to normal. This happened another time. But yesterday the car didn't want to run. The engine was loud and without a foot feed of the gas pedal the engine wanted to die. But the check engine light did not come on. But I disconnected the battery, reconnected it, and now the car runs great. I'm a firkin genius mechanic.

I read a little book called "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones" a number of times over the years. It is a collection of stories concerning the quest for enlightenment. The monks who practice Zen have always seemed to me to be trying to live like flowers, without attachment to objects. They meditate and they speak of listening to the sound of one hand clapping. They preach that when you perform tasks perform only the tasks; don't let your mind dwell on other things. Don't dwell on the future or on death and after death. These things, they say, will take care of themselves; you just want to live in the "now." I never tried to practice Zen because it requires a living situation, such as in a monastery, and because I lack the mettle to last in such an arrangement.

I knew my book was subversive, but I tried to tone it down enough to avoid censorship. But Amazon must have flagged it. A would be reader told me she ordered a copy in September and has been assured twice that it will be coming. They are wearing down her resolve, likely awaiting a signal to refund her money. I'm going to test Barnes and Noble when I get my next check. Hoping Amazon will be the only one.

My choice of Cornel West was made before Stein entered the race. West is the nearest thing we have to a Eugene Debs. I won't say much about the ones who abandoned him for not being Green. It's all a personal choice. Four years ago I wrote in Native American Mark Charles. Nader before that,

Turns out there was no problem with my book. Amazon got their wires twisted. It had messages that the book (a) was delivered 9/1, (b) had not shipped, (c) was confronting some obstacle preventing shipping, simultaneously. Now they assure us the book will be delivered on Wednesday. So it is safe to buy through Amazon after all.