it's a sad world

2009-06-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

As children, most of us became familiar with this fable; the tireless squirrel working through the summer to store nuts and fortify his home while the grasshopper laughs and relaxes in the tall grass. Eventually, winter comes and finds the grasshopper, literally, out in the cold.

Fables always carry an undeniable grain of truth, but rarely do we see them come to life before our very eyes as this one is now doing. Our current recession is having far reaching effects, not the least of which is the seperation of the squirrels from the grasshoppers.

We had a long summer. American businesses thrived, the stock market hit ever increasing highs and the housing market boomed, resulting in many good years for everyone involved in real estate and the construction business. During that time, the grasshoppers among us lived for the day, spending their gains as soon as the checks cleared. Big screen tvs, luxury cars and fancy boats were the order of the day for many. Those with more moderate means were still lured by the siren song of affluence. They eagerly stepped up to the loan officer's desk and signed paperwork for homes on nothing but a wing and a prayer. Get it now, pay for it later became the tune on everyone's lips. Well, I'm afraid that the tab has come due.

People that lived for the day, never giving a thought to tomorrow. People who were too eager to spend each and every dime that passed through their hands. Those grasshoppers are now paying the price. Only they are not, we all are.

Although I support Barack Obama and recognize the huge effort that he has put forth during his short time in office, I think that beating the drum for more consumerism is a miscalculation. Without some kind of a savings philosophy, we will all be out in the cold once winter comes. The concept of saving is something that we should be instilling in our youth, but we cannot do that until we start practicing it ourselves. Is it really going to take another Great Depression to remind us that a little bit of money in the bank is not a bad thing?

What will it take to make us realize that living the good life on credit alone comes at a high price, too high a price for our limited coffers? The thought that we can spend and spend, as long as our plastic holds out, is a fallacy of epic proportions. It is basic Economics 101 - a house of cards (credit cards) that is destined to come crashing down on us. When that happens, it will be the squirrels who survive the devastation, as they smugly reap the rewards of their planning and foresight. Hopefully, the grasshoppers will not take us all down with them.

2009-06-14T12:38:00.000-07:00

I purchased items from two different companies last week. They were delivered two days apart. They were similar items and were shipped by the same carrier. They came packaged in roughly the same way, with one MAJOR difference. The first box was filled with those vile styrofoam peanuts that no one knows what to do with. They are a bane on the environment but, hey, we need our packages to arrive in good condition - damn the environment. The second box was also loaded with peanuts (not the edible kind) although, wait a minute, I guess you could eat them if you had a hankering for cornstarch. Well, I'll be, these little suckers are not made out of styrofoam at all.

I only suspected the difference (kudos to the responsible manufacturer, by the way) because, in appearance, these peanuts are virtually identical to their more toxic brothers. Only a slight color variation, and the fact that I had seen these once before, prompted me to bring one to the kitchen sink. In seconds, this thing was gone and on its way into my septic system.

Simply put, I hope the person who developed these little, bio-degradeable miracles is a millionaire, and then some. This person has found a cure for one of the most troubling drains on our environment. No longer will our landfills have to be packed with acres of non-decomposing styrofoam. It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest advancements in recent history and may benefit our future welfare almost as much as the discovery of penicillin.

But, one has to wonder, what has been done to encourage the use of this better, safer, far more environmentally sound solution to the use of styrofoam? Not much, from what I can see. Are styrofoam manufacturers converting their plants to start making this new, non-toxic product? Are other manufacturers clamoring for more of this environmentally sound packing material? Has the government put a ban on new styrofoam production? These are all things that should be done, IMMEDIATELY.

Often, when you find an alternative to something that is harmful, it comes at some expense. That decadent seven-layer chocolate cake is not good for you. Your choice is to eat what is harmful or choose an alternate, less appealing substitute. Gasoline omissions pollute our air. Our choice is to accept the inevitable pollution or get our biking shorts out of the closet. Here is one of the very rare instances where we can have our cake and eat it too. So, why are we not doing it?

2008-10-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks. It’s that time again, time for one of my infamous rants. You had to know it was coming.

First, my disclaimer; I am not the most politically aware individual you will ever meet, quite the contrary. I don’t read the newspaper if I can help it or watch the tv news. I don’t really subscribe to the theory of ‘what you don’t know can’t hurt you’, it is more a version of ‘The Serenity Prayer’ – give me the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to live in blissful ignorance about the rest.

Unfortunately, blissful ignorance is not an option here. Seven Hundred Billion Dollars; am I the only one who is having a hard time comprehending that number? Seven Hundred Billion Dollars – I can barely get my head around the idea of a million dollars. That’s way too many zeros for me. Seven Hundred Billion Dollars – that is not just poor money management - that is incompetence of biblical proportions.

How could things have gotten so bad that, not one but, half-a-dozen major business entities would all go belly up within the same two week period? Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Washington Mutual, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Am I the only one who smells something fishy here?

But let’s focus on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and this proposed bailout. First, I will go on record as being adamantly opposed to the bailout. I’ll explain why later. For now, I would like to examine how we got here. Let me reiterate, I am not a financial genius or a student of political science but I have been forced to become somewhat educated as to this problem. Now, if my information is correct, Fannie Mae’s purpose was to provide funds that would allow people, who would normally not be able to qualify for a home loan, to get one. What a great concept. I am all for making the option of homeownership available to anyone who deserves it. Notice I said deserves rather than wants.

Not everyone who wants a mortgage should have one. I am a single woman who purchased her first home when she was in her early twenties. No, I am not a trust fund baby. I had no silver spoon in my mouth when I was born. I have seven siblings and I watched my parents work their fingers to the bone to support us and provide us all with a college education. It was a monumental task. I was fortunate enough to adopt that work ethic and by my second year of high school, I had three part-time jobs. I continued to work multiple jobs, after I graduated from college, until I accumulated the $12K down payment for my first condo. I know what is involved in home ownership. It is not for the weak of heart. As a homeowner, you must always expect the unexpected. Just as you think you have passed the hump, appliances break, taxes go up or carpets get stained – there is always something. So, the fact that you can make an $800 rent payment is not an accurate gauge of whether you can make a similar mortgage payment work. And, might I say, SHAME on the mortgage lenders who convinced uninformed buyers that they could, just so that they could collect the commission on a new loan.

So, yes, unscrupulous lending practices are certainly part of the problem in this, not so little, financial drama. It is not, however, the sole cause or even the major contributor to this disaster. The information that I have gleaned about the workings of the Fannie Mae program are this – traditional lenders would write loans, as is their custom. They would then sell those loans to Fannie Mae. The purpose of this little exercise was to free up money to allow the traditional lenders to write even more loans. Can we all say, DUHHHH? Maybe it’s just me, but this seems to be the equivalent of writing a check and then spending that money on a truckload of snow cones. Is the concept of not being able to spend your money in two places a foreign one to the powers that be?

Accounting 101 – when you write a check, you subtract that amount from your balance and, for all intents and purposes, that money is gone. YOU CANNOT SPEND IT AGAIN! If I am misinformed as to the facts here, please let me know, PLEASE tell me that the greatest financial minds in this country did not think this was a good idea.

So, even if Fannie Mae had funds, other than the Federal Reserve, to back up these loans, they obviously overextended that budget or we would not be having this discussion. This was truly a convoluted and faulty way of achieving what was originally a very worthwhile goal. It seems to me, as an unlearned non-expert, that the more rational approach would have been for Fannie Mae to use whatever funds it had at its disposal to offer low interest loans directly to those who could not qualify for traditional loans. Ahhh, but that is water under the bridge now, which leads me to my thoughts on the bailout.

Bailing out this entity, to the tune of $700 Billion, is just a hugely magnified version of the mistake that was made by Fannie Mae. We use new dollars to cover old mistakes, freeing traditional lenders to continue on their merry way, writing bad, under qualified loans. A much better solution would be to portion out the blame to those who deserve it. I suggest that you take all of the Fannie Mae assets along with their bad loans and put them in a pool, similar to the insurance industry’s high risk pool. This should then be split proportionately among all of the lenders in the country. Each lender would get a manageable portion of debt and assets that they could then put their energy into managing.

Sadly, before I even got to post this rant, I heard that the bailout measure was passed. I think this is a HUGE error in judgment. I don’t care what bills they tacked onto this to make it pass more smoothly, it is not worth it. I believe that our legislature is setting us up for a big failure. I would like to be optimistic about this measure but, let’s face it - the government can barely run itself. Now we are going to entrust it with managing $700 Billion of debt and assets. All I can say is, buckle up your seat belt, I think we are in for a bumpy ride.

Let me just leave you with one last thought. If we had $700 Billion lying around, collecting dust, why are people starving in this country? Why are there people who cannot get the medical attention or prescriptions that they need and why is our public school system failing so miserably? If we don’t have this money just lying around, where do we propose to get it? I am not a great mathematician but, if you divide $700 Billion dollars by 250 Million people, what do you get? I think the figure might exceed our $1000 economic incentive refund, but again, I am no math whiz.

2008-07-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

They are doing it again, talking about exterminating countless animals, because they are getting in our way. Apparently the wild horse population has once again become a nuisance to our cattle farmers. So, what will we do? Well, we'll kill them. What else would a rational community do? Please stand up for these animals. As we continue to run roughshod over are environment, it amazes me that we are surprised when Mother Earth decides to fight back.

I just hope we smarten up, before it's too late. If we don't, maybe this big footprint that we are leaving in our wake will come back and step all over us.

2008-06-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

It appears that most of the schools in Connecticut will have an early dismissal today, due to the opppressive weather.

I agree that it would be barbaric to make, students and teachers alike, sit it out in a sweatbox of a classroom where there is no A/C. I can also see why New England classrooms, for the most part, do not have the luxury of air conditioning. With the school year being what it is, the assumption is that there would only be a limited number of 'problem' days. Alas, then there was global warming. Climate changes mean that all bets are off. Unfortunately, our bureaucrats/administrators just don't get it.

I guess what bothers me the most is this; these decision-makers are being reactive and not having an foresight at all.

Think about it. It was only 8:15 am, and the banner was already flashing that there would be an early dismissal. Let's look at this in real terms. The kids have not even been at their desks for an hour at this point. By the time the buses get mobilized and the bureaucrats do whatever they do, you are probably looking at a release time of about noon. Now, if you could choose, would you rather be in a sweatbox of a classroom or a tin can on wheels at the absolute most oppressive time of the day? The other thing is this - did this heat wave sneak up on the powers that be? I don't know about you, but I had almost a week's notice. So, knowing what we did, administrators still decided to pack all of the kids onto buses, sending thousands of pounds of emissions into the air, to bring these kids to their destinations, only to make the return trip a couple of hours later. It is obvious that the decision-makers are not brain surgeons, but they are really showing their ignorance here.

2008-04-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

Let me say, first, that I am not an atheist. I do however have certain issues with the traditional concept of God. Of course, there is the usual; how can he let good people be in pain, how could he let children suffer? Obviously, or maybe not so, there must be something greater than ourselves. It is pompous and highly unlikely that we are the best creation has come up with. I guess I just find the whole concept of an omnipotent being, sitting on high, orchestrating and worrying about our little lives, a bit hard to swallow. But, beyond that, I guess the thing that bothers me the most is this; how could any perfect, all-powerful being have created us, only to sit back and call it a good day? I don't mean to sound flip. I am not referring to our basic human flaws or weaknesses, or even to our rapidly declining sense of morality. I am talking about something much more basic than that. What kind of a perfect being would look at the human design and call it a job well done? For one thing, there is our mortality. Wouldn't you think that an omnipotent being could create something that wouldn't break or die? Okay, so lets say that this planned obsolescence is part of the plan. What about the rest of our design. We have bones that break, skin that is insufficient protection in almost any climate, eyes that grow weak with age, and don't get me started on what's under the surface. I mean, look at our intestines. Is a mile long tract of slimy, sausage like membrane the quickest way from point A to point B? Wouldn't a straight shot from the mouth to the butt be much more efficient? And while we're talking about it - why do we need to eat anyways? Do you think God enjoys a nice slice of pizza while watching Survivor? Why would he create something that depended on the death of something else to survive? Wouldn't you want all of your toys to play nicely together? I certainly wouldn't want my Barbie sauteeing my Gumby. If a perfect being sat down to create something wonderful, don't you think he/she could do it without the need for food or excrement? Let's face it, we have too many ports of entry and egress, we are literally leaking stuff all over the place. Is that really the definition of intelligent design? I don't know. Maybe I've gotten it wrong, it wouldn't be the first time, but I would like to think that the almighty could do better. Or, maybe he was just having a bad day.Check out my website; http://furrytails.mysite.com/index.html

2008-04-11T08:28:00.001-07:00

I admit it, I am not a very good blogger. I have been spending so much time working on my novels and the publication of my first Young Adult novel; The Secret of Bigelow Hollow, that there is not much time left for blogging. My apologies.
I am trying to do better though.
I recently got an invitation to a fundraiser for an animal shelter. I love the idea of supporting groups like these. They do such great work. Without them, who knows how many other animals would lose their lives. I, personally, have never gotten an animal from a pet store or a breeder. I have had a multitude of cats and dogs, each one of them have been orphaned in some way and found their way to me, or I have found them at a shelter or pet rescue facility.
What struck me as ironic about this invitation was that it is for a dinner function. The main course is chicken. Now first I should say, that, as much as I agree with the philosophy - I am not a vegetarian. I guess, right off the bat, that makes me a hypocrite. I have, in the last couple of years, tried to cut back on my consumption of meat, particularly red meat, but I am far from perfect.
I guess I just thought it was odd that we would be supporting the lives of numerous domestic animals while feasting over the bodies of dozens of feathered creatures.
I understand that the world is not going to revert to a vegan diet any time soon. Heck, I can't even manage to do it in my own little corner of the world. I guess I just find it a little disturbing, how we can so easily block out the anquish and torment that our food animals suffer every day.
If I ever had to hunt for my food or visit a slaughterhouse to choose my desired cut of meat, I would surely be unable to maintain my flesh eating ways. But it is so easy to walk into the bright surroundings of any local grocery store and choose just the right neatly wrapped cut of meat. A neat package that is so removed from the steer riding up the conveyor belt, awaiting a nail through the brain.
I don't know what the answer is. Maybe it should not be so easy for us to take these lives for granted.
Check out my website; http://furrytails.mysite.com/index.html

2008-04-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one who is now afraid to leave my house and yet equally fearful of staying home? What the heck is going on with these home invasions? It is getting harder and harder to feel safe in your own home.I guess I just don't understand the mentallity. 'Dum, dee dum, dum...I'm bored...I guess I'll break into that house. Gee, there's someone home...I guess I'd better kill them.'

I make it a habit to try to avoid the news whenever possible. I don't know how people can have a good day when it starts out with a laundry list of all the horrendous things that are happening in the world. So, I try to maintain my blissful ignorance, but it's not easy. No matter what I do, the horrors of the modern world creep in.

Today it was a home invasion in Connecticut. A registered sex offender, I believe he was out on parole or something. He sees a total stranger going into her house and decides to follow her in. Ultimately, he shoots one woman in their basement and takes the other to a secluded place to shoot and kill her. Yesterday it was the story of the disgruntled father who was upset that he was going to lose custody of his three children. His solution was to kill them all - three innocent children dead, because the court system did not act quickly enough to take away his rights.

I'm just wondering when it became common practice to kill people because they were inconvenient? When did murder become the solution to the problem? I have never been an advocate of the death penalty, but it becomes harder and harder to argue against it, in the face of such hideous injustices.
Check out my website.
Be patient, it is still under construction.
http://furrytails.mysite.com/index.html

2008-03-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

Just a footnote to my previous post about the water problems I was having at home. There are several aspects of human nature that I am not fond of, and the following behavior is not at the top of the list, but it is annoying nonetheless.
What does it take to get some people to treat you honestly and fairly? I surely don't know. As I mentioned, I had a plumber out to diagnose the problem with my water system. This guy charged me $55, just for the diagnosis, which was that my well needed a new foot valve. For those who don't know, as I didn't two months ago, the foot valve is deep in the well and is what keeps the water from draining back down the pipe, so that when you need it the pump does not have to work to send your water up 300 feet of pipe. This 'expert', and I use the term very loosely, had me convinced that this was a very involved procedure which would cost a lot of money, and, being that I was going to the expense of pulling the pump up, I might just as well replace the pump which was 20 some-odd years old. His final quote was upwards of $2000, depending on the depth of my well. This was depressing news for me, because that was money I had hoped to put toward the publication of my first book.
Luckily, fate was with me this time. My neighbor was over to help with another issue. I told him about the plumber's quote. Joe thought it was laughable. He lives two houses away and he put in a whole new pump two years ago. The entire job cost less than $400.
The bottom line is that this 'plumber' aka crook, thought he saw a sucker and tried to take advantage of that fact. The reality is that the process of pulling a pump out of a well is not all that involved, and certainly is not that expensive. I called the company who had serviced Joe's well, Dalmick Well Drilling Service. THEY WERE FANTASTIC. Kevin came out and, in 20 minutes, he determined that it might be the control box that was at issue. This was a much easier fix and did not involve even leaving my basement. He changed the box and followed it up by saying that if this did not solve the problem, he would come back and replace the foot valve at no charge. Because he was done so quickly, I decided to push my luck. I asked Kevin if he could pull my pump up (something I had been told might reduce the amount of sediment in my water). Kevin willingly did this, quickly and efficiently. While he was doing this, he pointed out that the water level in the pipe was right up to the top, indicating that the foot valve was, in fact, doing its job.
Kevin's entire visit cost me only $150, less than 3xs what I had paid the other plumber to do nothing but give me a price gouging, incorrect, quote and cause me a boatload of anxiety.
Check out my website.
Be patient, it is still under construction.
http://furrytails.mysite.com/index.html

2008-02-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

What is the real price of that Chicken Leg?
Today I caught some of the Opie and Andy morning show. I am not a big fan, but living in rural CT, I am limited as to what stations I can receive to wake me in the morning. They were talking about cruelty to animals. Specifically, they were talking about the killing of chickens in slaughterhouses. I only listened for a few minutes, but what they were trying to say, I think, was that the United States was in no position to cast stones at the Dominican Republic for their legalization of cock fighting.I would have to agree.They proceeded to roll some tape about some pretty horrific goings on in the places from whence our chicken dinners come from.

I think most people would agree that slaughterhouses are abhorrent, but nonetheless are necessary evils in a society that has no intention of converting to vegetarian practices any time soon.
The real problem, I suppose - if you concede that this killing is a necessity, is in the way it is being done. Apparently, although if you thought about it - predictably, these slaughterhouses attract all kinds of demented individuals. I mean really - who dreams of working in a slaughterhouse when they grow up? It seems that the people who work in these places (and of course let me qualify that to some) actually enjoy their job much too much.These tapes recorded incidents of stepping on the chickens, running over them with the truck, breaking their legs and backs and all manner of gratuitous cruelty that was not part of the normal killing process.

As with my entry about the dead horse, I have to wonder exactly how many new Ted Bundys are in the making at places like these. You might ask which came first, the chicken or the egg. I would excuse the pun and say I don't think it really matters where these perverts are created. What matters is that we are not weeding them out and getting rid of them. And yet, we continue to complain when we can't be safe walking our streets, driving in our cars or even in our homes.

In the end, I guess I am saying that the practice of slaughtering animals is necessary, the abuse is not and someone needs to step in for the animals.

2008-01-29T08:27:00.000-08:00

Bad Houseguests
There has been a lot of discussion lately about environmental issues. Are we speeding up our ultimate extinction or are we too small and insignificant to matter?
What if we are nothing more than an infestation to this planet earth? What if the world sees us as nothing more than a cancer, an Aids; infecting and threatening its very existence? Is it possible that the floods, volcanoes and tidal waves are nothing more than the planet’s attempt to vomit and purge its ecosystem of the disease that is humanity.
It is hard to disagree with the fact that we are a cancer to this place we call home. We grow and spread through every aspect of her being, destroying everything we touch. We burrow into her guts, mining her essential ores, draining her life’s blood. We tear at her skin; digging and redefining what was already perfect. We mar her beauty with this unsolicited makeover, plowing through forests, redirecting waterways and covering her epidermis with manmade blemishes.
Like rodents or termites, we cavalierly run rampant over our own habitat with the small-minded conviction that there will always be enough. But will there?
Mother earth is sick. She has a fever, an infection, and it’s serious. Seventy degrees in New England in early January; she is sweating her polar ice caps away. Is the next stage the big chill, or will the fever just continue, unabated?
We blindly look on, refusing to acknowledge our part in all of this. We naively continue on our path of destruction, unremorseful and uncompromising. We want what we want, when we want it. End of story.
Maybe this is where the story ends. Technological advances and financial prosperity will not stave off the inevitable. We have wreaked more havoc than even we could have imagined. Changes that we had not anticipated for several generations are upon us. Yet we still refuse to waiver from our path of destruction.
We may want to blame this on the large conglomerates, the oil magnates, the big developers, but we are all complicit. Every time we throw away an aluminum can, leave a light on or drive around the corner, we are sealing our own fate.
Every time we choose fossil fuels over wind or sun, because it is more convenient, we put another nail in our own coffin.
When will we realize that our affluence won’t save us? We will not be able to heat our homes with gold ingots or drink diamond dust, and we certainly will not be able to stave off the floodwaters with our stacks of dollar bills.
We have failed to shift our priorities on our own. Mother Nature may now do it for us. We cannot blame her for fighting back. We drew first blood.
We have made our bed, dug our own grave, poked the bear; now we must suffer the consequences.
And still, we continue, making our mistakes and living our lives; oblivious to the destiny that may be waiting right around the corner.
Check out my website; http://furrytails.mysite.com/index.html

2008-01-25T08:47:00.000-08:00

My Journey to Publication
It appears that my journey to publication may have stalled before it got started. It seems that my house is depressed or trying to kill me. I am not sure which.
Two years ago, I treated myself to all new replacement windows. This past year, knowing that my roof was on its last legs, I splurged for the environmentally sound but infitely more expensive metal roof. I love the roof and the fact that it is warranted for life, but now I have to get gutters; not a big expense but I can't seem to find anyone who carries the color I want. I also installed some solar heating panels that work beautifully when it is sunny. Unfortunately, this winter has been a pretty dark one, at least according to my new panels which are going to have to work a lot harder in the future if they hope to justify their expense. After I had arranged to do all of these 'planned' projects, my front yard decided to cave in. One day, as I navigated my riding mower around my 'lawn', I narrowly escaped a five foot drop into what I like to refer to as The Caverns of Sterling. The hole was deceivingly small on the surface. Below, it could easily accommodate a family of four and my riding mower. So..........$8K worth of excavation later, I thought that I could finally commit some of my limited finances to my writing. Sadly, my house seems to have other ideas. First it was the electrical. One day, after using the microwave, I discovered that half of the outlets in my kitchen were no longer functional. My temporary fix was to run extension cords and move appliances to utilize my four remaining outlets. I got lucky that time. Thanks to a very handy neighbor and two attempts, he was able to fix the problem for under $200. Thank you Joe. In the middle of that little debacle, my pipes started acting up. I have a well and, I am told, very high maganese levels in my water for which I have not one but two whole house filtration systems. The first indication that there was a problem was when I flushed the toilet and ended up with a bowl full of rust colored water. I quickly discovered that every pipe in the house was affected. Although I have very limited handy skills, I did not want to incur a large plumbing bill so I played with the water filters until I thought the problem was resolved. Surprise...two days later it was worse than ever and the pipes were apparently sucking a lot of air. The racket that ensued when I flushed the toilet was (is) unbelievable. So I broke down and called a plumber. On the morning he was scheduled to come out (predictably), my water was running clear and there was no air in the pipes. I cancelled the service call. Two days later, the problem was back. Now I know that the house is really screwing with me. So I made another appointment. This time the plumber actually came out. Although the pipes would not reproduce any of their bad behavior for the plumber he said that he could diagnose the problem. I bet you can see where this is going. You guessed it. It seems that I need a new pump - to the tune of $2000 (if my well is not too deep - Ha!).
Long story short (I know - it's too late for that, right?). Anyways, I will have to now earmark the money I had planned to use to publish my first book to service my water problems instead. C'est la vie. I just hope that my home sweet home has no other nasty surprises for me.
Check out my website.
Be patient, it is still under construction.
http://furrytails.mysite.com/index.html

2008-01-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

I love this little guy.
It cracks me up
every time I look at this pic.

Check out my website.
Be patient, it is still under construction.
http://furrytails.mysite.com/index.html
On my website, you will find a list and a brief synopsis of my stories; both completed and not.
I also plan to chronicle my journey to publication.
I have been writing pretty aggressively for the past five years. I have made sporadic efforts over the last three years to find a publisher or agent. I feel as though I am getting closer. In September, I went to Maui for a Writer's Conference. It was great and I was able to generate enough interest to keep me motivated. One thing I learned was that cold queries are not the way to go. Conferences may be the more expensive route, but who knows, when you add up the lost time, printing cost, postage and frustration of the cold query...
Anyways, I met some great editors who actually read what I submitted. So they didn't love it and offer me a seven figure contract - it's still a step in the right direction.
Now that I am settled back in my cozy nest for the winter, I have been writing like a madwoman. I am also trying to devote a considerable amount of time to reading books on publication and marketing strategies. I hate to take the time away from my creative pursuits, but it is necessary, because...I have made a decision. I am going to venture into the world of publication on my own. I have looked into self-publication before but was always turned off by the high price and minimal offering.
Fortune led me to Outskirts Press; http://www.outskirtspress.com/
I believe that this may be the answer to my prayers. So far, I have not found any skeletons in their closets but only time will tell.
I have so many completed stories now; 2 adult, 4 YA and the 5 children's stories. I plan to test the waters with one of my YA novels, then I can still pursue traditional publishing with my other stories. I will keep you posted on what's happening. I hope you will join me for this journey

2008-01-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

ANIMAL CRUELTY

The Monsters Among Us

We know it is there, we hear evidence of it whenever it is a quiet news day. But we tune it out, we don’t have to look at it - stare it in the face - take some action. We put blinders on; push it to the back of our minds - ‘there are so many more important things to think about’. Then, one day, there is something we cannot ignore. A story, an image that confirms, unequivocally, that yes, there are truly monsters walking among us. For what, besides pedophilia or child abuse, is more distressing, more unjustifiable, more horrendous than abuse of innocent animals.

I am not talking here about the garden variety slaughter of animals by the millions/nay billions and the deplorable conditions these animals exist in - all in the name of putting a prime cut of meat on our tables. As horrible as this is, it is of a different nature and is a discussion for another day. Today, I am talking only of the nightmarish cruelty and criminal neglect of the animals we call our pets.

For me, it came in the form of an image, an internet picture of a blinding truth. It was something that could not be ignored. Come upon quite by accident, it seared itself onto my retinas. This image, once branded into my brain, could not be forgotten.

We hear all the tragic stories - owner dies - dogs found starving, or elderly woman with a heart bigger than her wallet is found with 150 cats in appalling conditions. Then there are the stories of ignorance. ‘I didn’t know you had to trim a pony’s feet - I thought he was just getting taller’, or ‘who knew that if I tied my dog on the deck he might fall off and hang himself’. This image did not fall into either of these categories; rather, this was a picture not of ignorance or unfortunate circumstances, but of pure evil. The evidence within its borders depicted an unspeakably malicious intent.

What had once been a beautiful, majestic horse lay bloated and torn in a pile of debris and filth. She lay there on her side, with a death grip on the 4x4 post that had become the instrument of her destruction. We can only guess at how many days this proud animal stood, hobbled front and back, innocently trusting that someone would eventually come and care for her. How many days before, mad with hunger and thirst, she began to challenge her restraints, and still no one came. Death is never a pretty sight, but this snapshot of time is literally too painful to look upon. It clearly portrays the work of evil.

Whether dog, cat, horse or other domestic animal, we have bred them over many centuries to be one thing above all else - subservient. The dog, lying curled at our feet, does not want or expect its masters kick, yet when it comes he will return with head down and tail between his legs, questioning what he has done to displease. The cat, purring in our lap, wants nothing more than food, water and an occasional stroke of its fur. Yet for some, that is still too much to ask. The horse, large and powerful as he is, bends his will to humans 1/5 his size. One thousand pounds of muscle and bone, properly directed, with the proper intent, could crush the life out of most humans. And yet, they give themselves over to us completely - ‘tell me where to stand, what to eat, when to work or sleep’. And how do we repay this gift - this complete trust, this greatest of gifts, given with no higher price tag than that of care and affection?

Most people understand and respect this unspoken pact. Then what can be said about the monster that committed this atrocity and others like it? Would any person with the barest ounce of humanity be able to commit such an act? It is common practice to label those who commit heinous acts as animals. If animals were capable of acting in such a way, none of us would be safe. What kind of a malignancy allows one to torture another living being in such a slow, methodical and calculating way, day after day, turning a deaf ear to an animals tormented cries as death approaches? One can only hope that these travesties, masquerading as human beings, will find a special place in hell reserved just for them.

Equally incomprehensible to me, is the fact that this all took place in our own back yard. This did not happen in some 3rd world country, but in one of the wealthiest and most educated states in the country, Connecticut. As this tragic struggle ensued between animal and starvation, did we pass this poor animal’s tormentor on the highway, stand behind it at the grocery checkout, or have it servicing our new car. Sadly, they wear no signs like ‘monster within’ or ‘evil lurking inside’.

What motivates such evil? First, we have to ask; why get the animal in the first place? In most instances, there is at least some initial expenditure, especially in acquiring a horse. So why? Owning animals is not a requirement, a societal imperative or even an expectation. Although there are many who feel the pressure to have both spouse and children to achieve respectability, there is no such expectation with animals. The answer is horrific but inescapable. For some, it may be a sick need to have something weaker around on which they can vent their rage or perversions. But, everyone has bad days; a fight with a spouse, a lay-off notice at work or 3 hours in traffic. We all have them, days when we come home with the urge to break a few dishes or kick the crap out of our furniture. The fact that most of us have learned to manage our anger in more appropriate ways aside, is this what happened here? What kind of dementia would have to take control of a mind to move it to an act of such cruelty? And even if we could comprehend it, this was no single act of rage; this was an extended period of torture. The resulting conclusion is frightening in its potential accuracy - these are Ted Bundys and Jeffrey Dahlmers in the making; sick, demented creatures working their way toward human torture.

So if we won’t do something for the animals, maybe we will do something for ourselves. But, how can we see the monsters within? How can we pick them from the crowd, avoid them, castrate them, stop them? Are we just not aware enough? Do we have to look deeper - read more into our co-worker’s covert smile, our neighbor’s secretive nature? Should every reclusive loner be suspect? For now, maybe just being more aware, inquisitive and pro-active may be our best course. But, for the future, we need to advocate for tighter restrictions and much more severe penalties for animal abuse. That can only happen when we recognize the full value of each life, no matter how small. That means a change in our priorities.

We pursue years of school and training for our jobs. We require licenses to drive a car or enter into a marriage with another consenting adult, yet any idiot that can draw a breath or write a check can have a child or be entrusted with the care of an animal, no training required. And thus, our victims are created; a bottomless pool for any pervert, abuser or pedophile to dunk into as deeply or as often as they like, without restriction or repercussion. It is our job as a society to take their ladles away, once and for all.
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2006-06-19T00:30:00.000-07:00

Shark finning

Yet another appalling example of man's inhumanity, stupidity and wastefulness.

It was just a few moments of a 60 Minutes documentary, caught accidentally, while rushing out the door.
The story was on sharks; the increasing popularity of shark watches, contrasted by the intense fear of shark attacks. They spoke of the unlikelihood of such an attack; a fraction of the chance you run making toast in the morning. (Apparently, large numbers of people are being electrocuted by their toasters)
A psychologist spoke of the visceral paranoia we have about sharks, stemming from our fear of being eaten. Legitimate though it may be, in this day and age it is not a common occurrence.
Now don't get me wrong. I am not terribly fond of sharks. On my list of favorites, they rank only slightly higher than snakes and creepy crawly things. I am also fond of my anatomy the way it is and would rather not have it altered by some marauding shark looking for a snack.
The issue I have is what comes next. It seems that, predictably so, it is the sharks who have much more to fear from us than we of them.
Apparently, in China I believe it was, someone decided that shark fin soup was a delicacy. Mmmmmm, yummy, you say. Well, be that as it may. Sharks are not the first species we have killed for food, and I am sure they will not be the last. Do I have some basic objection to slaughtering these creatures for food? No more than the cow or chicken. I have, sadly, not yet dealt with my own hypocrisy on that front.
What I take issue with is the way it is being done.
Because these fishermen are only interested in the fins, they drag this writhing beast onto the boat, chop off its fins and drop it back into the ocean where it will sink like a stone to the bottom and die. Maybe it's just me, but I find this to be simply horrifying, barbaric and tragically wasteful. When will we stop treating animals as if they are tree stumps. We harpoon them, shoot them and knock them over the head as if they feel and understand nothing.
It is a reality that we feed much of the world's population with living creatures farmed from the ocean. That is not going to change overnight, but how can we justify dumping 80-90% of a carcass into the ocean to rot when there are so many starving people in the world. Once again, the justification is the almighty buck. Why waste cargo space on shark meat that could feed a multitude of starving families, when you can better use that space to store a larger quantity of high-priced fins. We are truly an insane and heartless group, not to mention hypocritical. When one of our own gets attacked by a shark, we immediately mobilize. Vigilante groups are formed and the search begins for the creature that perpetuated the attack.
HOW DARE IT!!! we cry. Yet, without a second thought, we continue with a daily slaughter of thousands of animals, not to appease our hunger, but our pocketbooks and our vanity.
One can only hope that the perpetrators of these atrocities will suffer similar fates one day at the hand of their maker.
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2006-06-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

HUMANITY'S SHAME
HURRICANE KATRINA

A BILLION dollars!

What does it say about us as a society? The thought that thousands of people could, simultaneously, get it into their head, that it would be a good idea to steal resources so desperately needed by victims of hurricane Katrina?
A BILLION dollars!
How many people does that translate to? How many people sat down and consciously made a decision to go out and take advantage of; the government, the taxpayers and the unfortunate victims of this terrible natural disaster?
A BILLION dollars!!!!
Is it possible that we have become such a heartless society that profiting off the misfortune of others is now an option for the masses.
Sure, we have always had a percentage of bent nails, bad apples, deviants. When did such outrageously criminal behavior become the norm?
A BILLION dollars!
What kind of person could look at a devastated family, clinging to the roof of their submerged home and think, 'gee, there's an opportunity for a quick buck'?
I am all for surprises, I just hope that society will stop surpising me with new evidence of just how low we have fallen.
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