I'm Calling for an Invasion

Take me to your leader.
("Alien Soap Close-up" by soapylovedeb)

The world is a scary place. I don't know if it's scarier now than it was in the past (depending on how far past you go), but right now there's a lot of terrifying stuff going around. Radicals bombing events you would never dream would be bombed. (Who wakes up one day and decides to take out a bunch of runners? Well... we know who now, don't we?) A school shooting seemingly every time you turn on the news. Fertilizer plants blowing sky-high, taking out human life and whole houses. Crazy weather and ice caps melting from climate change in a downward slide that seems so big and so out of control  you can hardly breathe for the crushing enormity of it all.

Yeah.

Things are scary.

You know what this world needs? An alien invasion. That would just be the icing on the cake. It seems there isn't a single thing we fear that isn't happening somewhere in some way. Droughts. Famine. Pandemics.  Self destruction through war and treachery and pure human fuckery. 

This would all be a lot easier if we could blame it on the aliens. And, no, I don't mean the "illegal aliens" on whom so many uber conservatives are so eager to blame all our troubles. I mean serious aliens. Green men from Mars (though, more likely, they'd be from somewhere much further away). Flying saucers. The Mother Ship. I might ask to hitch a ride.

And it would make me very happy if they looked like
the Yip Yip aliens from Sesame Street.  For the record.
("Yip-yip alien" by Dvortygirl)

I'm going to go write (fiction... presumably...) about aliens.  I leave you with this song.  It always makes me feel better.  Yip yip yip.  

Everything To Be Done Ever

Here's to new beginnings,
and watching out for looming cliffs in my path.
... I'm just sayin'.

I'm going into Crazy Time, where everything everywhere must be done, all of it NOW NOW NOW!  To say this is a time of change and transitions, of new life and new beginnings, is putting it mildly.  Apparently I've taken the season way too literally, and have decided now is the time to take on anything I've ever wanted to do all at once.  Okay, well maybe not everything.  Lots of my life "to-dos" require funds which I currently do not have.  But I think it's safe to say that I'm tackling almost everything which doesn't, at least immediately, require my becoming indebted to a large financial entity or winning the lottery.

On my list of Everything To Be Done Ever, these are the ones I'm most excited to tell you about.

First is the fiction.  I've started a new piece.  It's a little more sci-fi than my usual fare (because, you know, aliens), but I'm in the early swooning stages of new love in which my story concept can do no wrong.  At the moment, I believe this is going to be a serial piece.  I don't know how long the finished story will be, parts and all.  I don't know how many parts there will be.  I don't know if I will try for traditional publishing first, or go the self-published ebook route.  All I do know is that I'm excited about it.  And I'll keep you updated as things develop.

The second thing is... deep breath... I am creating a local ezine for eco-conscious living in Northeast Oklahoma.  It's called The Green Country Guardian.  I have some help.  A friend of mine and her girlfriend are building the website and providing me with artwork.  Others have promised to contribute writing and help me with info-gathering.  I keep threatening to do a kickstarter for it, so people can get paid something. I've got my eye on a local print shop who might do the swag for kickstarter rewards. I've started a facebook page to generate interest and keep people informed while we get this all together.  This is a big project and it's intimidating, but it's also something I've been working on in my head for years now.  So, seeing as how I've contracted some kind of spring crazy bug, I didn't want to put it off any longer.

These projects of mine are getting smooshed like putty to fill any available cracks in between my home life (this includes dragging my son kicking and screaming through high school, nurturing and thoroughly enjoying every minute of my relationship with Mr. V, watching things grown on my fire escape [I've got sugar snap peas coming up!], caring for cats, and the never ending struggle to maintain house), writing small articles for extra money, and the day job.  

Is spring like this for everyone?  Is it just me?

And why must the start of every new journey always begin with The Fool?  Wish me luck and clear vision, will you?