Photos from the Pride March in Fayetteville

I've seen estimates that 40,000 people attended this year. I was not one of them, because heat and noise and people are all my specific triggers.

Photos here!

Shamus Update

He is still very bitey at times. The tactics given to us by the dog trainers really don't work.

In other regards, he is coming along. He will fetch the ball and bring it and drop it; he will occasionally come when he's called. He sits and he has one premium trick, in which he does a spin.

Housebreaking is about 75/25, so long as I watch him and take him outside when he starts doing the I-gotta-pee pace.

I am still taking him on walks twice a day, which I guess will be as good for me as it is for him -- I've essentially doubled the amount of exercise I'm getting.

He is not a good watchdog. He loves everybody. He would tackle a burglar and give him many kisses. 

He still really wants to play with the cats, but they are still having none of it.

He's maybe 22 pounds now, and getting bigger every day.

Sleepy Guy

Shamus not biting me for once

Earlier Shamus for comparison

Buy My Kid's Art

ETA: Sold out of the limited edition! He might do another run later!

The kid is releasing a limited edition series of print comics, three for $5.00 -- you should all buy a copy!

Go here for more.

Heat Index Calculator

I'm not sure what use this Heat Index Calculator is, except to let me know exactly how miserable it is outside rn.

High on 90 today, humidity of 75, heat index is 109.5. UGH.

ETA: Just took the dog for his morning walk. CHRIST is it hot outside.

Fault Lines Featured on The Fussy Librarian

I'm currently working on the third novel in the Velocity series, working title Down the Core, and in service of that my publisher and editor (Melissa Scott) has arranged for e-copies of the first book in the series, Fault Lines, to be on sale for 99 cents for the next week.

Also, it's being featured on The Fussy Librarian today (you'll have to scroll down with that link).

Walking in the Park

We are taking the dog to dog training/puppy class edition, and they suggest that we get him out among other people and dogs, to socialize him a bit. So I've been doing that this week, despite the killing heat. (I do it before 7:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m. when the heat is less killing.)

Yesterday evening I took him to Wilson Park, which was where I used to walk my dog when I was a graduate student here. It's much more developed now than it was then, with a lot of flowers and gardens, a huge play area for kids, and an extensive walking trail which hooks up to the Razorback Greenway, a biking/walking trail that runs through the city.

There is also a public pool, and at 7:00 p.m. lots of parents with small children were there. Lots of splashing and shrieking. Also a lot of people playing tennis on the tennis courts, and some sort of religious ceremony going on in one pavilion. Skull Creek runs through the park, and lots of young adults and adolescents were sitting down by the water, talking or reading on their phones. Some young guys were playing catch in the baseball field.

This is the way life in small cities is supposed to be. This is the sort of community human want to live in.

There's a house for sale on one corner facing the park: 1.1 million dollars. Honestly, if I had it, I'd pay it.

Anyway, all the racket in the park made the dog nervous, plus there were other dogs, and people walking the trail who wanted to pet him. All very socializing. By the time we headed back to the car, he had calmed down a lot.

MAGAs Are Astonished

I mean, who could have predicted Trump would start a war to boost his plummeting approval ratings? Besides anyone who was paying attention, of course.

"How could Trump do this?" some MAGAs are saying. Others, of course, are cheering him on. And a few are going with "We must support the president in this time of crisis."

I'd be laughing if this attack on Iran wasn't just a replay of Bush with Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians died, and more than four thousand American soldiers. For what? For lies and corruption.

But as with the appeal to bigotry, "conservative" politicians know what works with their base, and they'll just keep fucking that chicken.

Heat Dome

It's not really that hot here yet, if we're looking at the temperature scale -- low 90s as the highs, seventies as the lows. But the humidity is smothering.

I walk the dog at dawn, when the day is still cool, but even then the humidity is a killer. Also, it soaks the grass at the dog park so that my shoes are wet all the time. (Yes, I only have one pair of shoes. I do have Birkenstock sandals also, but I don't like to wear those to, say, the library, because they make me trip on the stairs.) I suppose I could buy a second pair of shoes.

The dog is still not sure about the dog park. This was only our second day, since he just finished his immunization schedule on Monday. At dawn there are no other dogs there, so it's not that he's overwhelmed by other dogs. Just the new place. He was a little braver today.

Anyway, the weather site says a HEAT DOME, with high heat and humidity, is going to lay down on the SE half of the US for the next ten days, and Arkansas is in the region being DOMED. Ugh.

Thirteen more weeks of summer.

Shamus News

(1) Having a puppy is much like having a toddler. I love him to pieces and I am so happy when he's asleep.

(2) He does a lot of nipping, especially of me, chases my elderly Jasper cat, and widdles in the house. We are taking him to a dog trainer, which is helping.

(3) He weighs 19 pounds as of this morning. That's up from seven pounds when we got him about six weeks ago.

(4) He's a very smart dog, which means we have to work hard at his training, or he will train us. The dog trainer is helping with this, a lot.

(5) At about six o'clock, until about eight o'clock, he is a demon dog, running non-stop and biting me and assaulting the cats. Witching hour, r/puppy101 calls this. I've taken to taking him on a walk around 7:00, which helps a little.

(6) He is crate trained, so if it gets too bad, I shut him in the crate for a little while. He calms down and goes to sleep. Too bad crate-training isn't available for toddlers. (THAT WAS A JOKE.)

No Kings Protests

We had thousands show up for the No Kings protest here in Fayetteville, and according to a local new company, there were 200 people at the protest in Harrison, Arkansas (our most notoriously conservative and bigoted town). 

Around the country, the marches were peaceful, (gift link) except for isolated acts of violence from "conservatives," as when a man in an SUV drove into a crowd of protestors. 

Of course, before the marches began, a man shot two Democratic politicians and their spouses in Minnesota, killing two of them. Police found a long list of other targets, including abortion providers, in his car. He also planned to shoot people at a No Kings march, apparently. I saw "conservatives" claiming he was a "liberal operative." You have to wonder if even they believe their bullshit sometimes. (Just kidding. Of course they don't believe it.)(Just so we're clear, the shooter was apparently an Evangelical Christian and a Trump supporter, as well as a transphobe.)

The Florida governor encouraged people to run over protestors. Similar threats appeared in the comment sections of FB posts about the march -- threats to run over or shoot protestors, promises to murder people who speak against Trump. 

"What king are you talking about?" some said. "What king are you protesting?" Then they threaten to murder people for saying something critical about Trump.

Here in Arkansas, the Evangelical crowd have found a reply that they clearly think is a winner: "Jesus is my King!" they say, and post a little picture of a cross. They'd never put any god before him. Except if it's politically expedient, of course, or it makes them feel better about their bigotry.

("Conservative" in scare quotes throughout because of course they aren't actually conservatives. They're reactionary bigots desperate to hold onto their delusions of supremacy.)

Don't Forget, MAGA Lies about Everything

Over on FB, people (or maybe bots, who knows) are earnestly imploring us not to burn cities down as a form of protest. One meme explained that violence doesn't work against the state, which will always be more powerful than we are. Another said that the state can't handle non-violence, so it is trying to provoke people into violence. Another gave instructions for how to be non-violent in protests.

And so on.

It's not that I disagree with any of this (though of course LA is not on fire), but as someone who browses MAGA blogs and Extremist RW blogs from time to time, I want to remind you that MAGA doesn't care what we do. They simply will lie, bearing false witness against those they see as their enemies. 

If Trump wants to attack the protestors, he will just say the protestors did this or that violent act. Fox News and MAGA activists will cheerfully spread those lies, manufacturing evidence as necessary. 

Your attempts to fact-check those lies are entirely useless. MAGA will ignore facts, or change the subject, or claim that your fact-checking is a lie (they know it isn't; they don't care).

Non-violence only works when your opponent can be shamed. MAGA is shameless. 

The use of evidence only works when your opponent cares about the facts, or truth. MAGA thrives on lies and bigotry. They want to feel good about hating people, and they will (pretend to) believe anything that lets them do that.

An example: the governor of our state claimed violent protest would never work in Arkansas because our citizens value law and order.  The governor of California responded by pointing out that the violent crime rate here in Arkansas was twice that in California, per capita. How do our local MAGAs respond? 

(1) They ignore the fact-checked claim (they don't care about evidence)

(2) They say our high murder and violent crime rate is "only" in places where black citizens live (bigotry)

(3) They cheer Sanders on, saying what a great job she's doing (pretending to believe anything that supports their hate)

(4) They threaten violence to any protests that happen in Arkansas (pretending to believe protests are violent, even though there have been no violent protests here in Arkansas)

I'm all for non-violence as a form of protest. But we shouldn't shut our eyes to the nature and character of MAGA, or what they're capable of doing.

What I'm Reading Now

I've been writing a lot and reading a lot of books to review for Asimov's and Interzone. But among the non-SF books I've been reading, here are my reviews for the good/not-terrible ones:

Alison Bechdel, Spent

Bechdel is probably most famous for her graphic novel Fun Home, which is about her relationship with her closeted gay father, who eventually is arrested for having sex with a 16 year old boy, and who adamantly opposed Bechdel's expressions of her own sexuality -- she's a butch lesbian, and he wanted her to be (or at least act like) a frilly girlish girl.

My favorite book by Bechdel is the one she wrote about her relationship with her mother, Are You My Mother? That one is heavy on psychology, but it also gives a picture of the fraught and yet deeply loving relationship between mother and daughter, as well as how they both dealt with Bechdel's father.

This book, Spent, is an AU-version of Bechdel's life. In this one, she has a sister instead of two brothers, and her father is a taxidermist, not a mortician, and he's arrested for trafficking in endangered butterflies, not molesting a teenager.  Bechdel is still a cartoonist, but her graphic novels are about entirely different things. This novel looks at our current world, with MAGA supporters and sky-rocketing food costs, as well as poking gentle fun at a certain type of leftist; the Bechdel in the book is writing a graphic non-fiction explanation of economics, or is sort of intending to. She spends most of the book reading about economics, from Marx onward.

I liked reading this one, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it, or what exactly Bechdel was trying to do. I suspect I need to read it a couple more times.

Anna Quindlen, One True Thing

I have a vague memory of having read Anna Quindlen's non-fiction, or maybe her columns in some newspaper? I'm not sure. Anyway, this is the first novel I've read by her, and it's a good one. The subject matter is a bit depressing, as it's about a young woman who leaves a successful career in New York to take care of her dying mother -- guilted into it by her emotionally barricaded father.

The whole dying-of-cancer thing isn't what makes this book good, though. The good part is the character of the mother, who has been a homemaker for thirty years, something her daughter has scorned her for. The novel makes us admire this woman, shows us the beauty of that kind of life. (Mind you, it's a life very few could have -- you need real wealth to afford a life like this one.) Making the home, raising the children, cooking elaborate meals, serving on town committees -- Quindlen shows us how this is a life worth living, even beautiful.

Good writing here too. Spoilers: the mother does die. And there's some ancillary filler about the daughter being accused of murdering her mother that honestly the book did not need. Nevertheless, a very good read.

Anna Quindlen, After Annie

Here, Quindlen gives us another dead mother. This one dies at the start of the book -- she's the Annie in the title -- and the book concerns how her husband and three children, the oldest being a 13 year old girl, deal with the loss of their parent and that parent's income stream. This is definitely a working class family.

Wonderful character development here, and despite the mother's death not depressing. There's grief about the mother, obviously, but the main story is the family learning to cope without Annie, who did most of the heavy lifting in the family.  Again, a very good read.

Kevin Wilson, Run for the Hills

I've liked Wilson's other books, so when I saw this in the new fiction at my library, I checked it out. It's not bad. Four siblings who share the same father but different mothers and very different lives (the father takes up with a different sort of woman each time) go on a road trip, determined to find and confront their father. 

The road trip is fun, and the siblings are well done. The conclusion here, once they find the father (who has taken up with yet another kind of woman (women) and slotted himself into their life, falls flat. The conclusion the oldest son makes, which is that the father is mentally ill, isn't wrong, precisely, but it doesn't really feel like an ending to this quest they've all been on. Though maybe that's the point. Why expect a parent to provide meaning for our lives? Maybe they should have been questing for something else entirely?

Very readable, though.

Stephen King, Never Flinch

This is a Holly novel, in which Holly deals with not one but two obsessed murderers. That's probably the biggest flaw in this novel. Having two bad guys means the novel lacks coherence. It was an okay read, but definitely not one of his best novels. If you like Holly and her plucky detective agency, you might want to check this one out of the library. I wouldn't buy it.

Ugh, It Is Summer

I know it's not officially summer until June 21, but in Arkansas it is summer already. I take the dog on his walkies at 7:00 in the morning and at 8:00 at night and it is so hot and damp even at those hours. (He is a very high energy dog and needs at least two walks a day.)

Sixteen more weeks of summer.

My Kid Does Comics

 My kid draws a comic about Shamus. It is vile calumny, however. Shamus smells like roses.