The Golden Age of Dystopias
So Brexit has happened. Now if the Donald can win the Presidential election in the US, he and Boris Johnson, two tow-headed examples of humanity's future, can unite to form the core of Oceania. Then if Vladimir Putin (another tow-head?) can use his military might to force the Europeans to replace Britain with Russia in the European Union, we will be two-thirds of the way to Nineteen Eighty-Four.
A glorious example, it will be, not of history repeating itself, but of the world striving to live up to the imaginings of authors of dystopian fiction. The golden age of dystopias could be upon us.

Short story I was actually paid for!

Yesterday, I received a huge double digit payment for short story I submitted to teen suspense/horror anthology to be published by a nanoscopic publisher (nanoscopic is a thousand times smaller than microscopic, but, hey, everyone knows smaller is better). It's the first time I've been paid for a story. I've received free copies of the books before, but never cold hard cash.
The story is titled Bearing Witness and will be appear in Out of the Cave in a month or two. The publisher is MacKenzie Publishing, a local NS publishing venture. Their website is mackenziepublishing.wordpress.com for anyone who is interested.
I'll post another message when the book is finished and shows up for sale on Amazon, etc.

Evergreen Writers Group renewed webpage

As I mentioned in a post I made last summer, the writing group I belong to, the Evergreen Writers Group in Halifax Nova Scotia, joined the modern world and produced a web page. We are a bunch of volunteers with too much too do and too litttle money to devote to this writing group. As a result of time constaints and other considerations responsibility for the website has moved from one member to another. It has now been resurected at a new location. The link for it is now evergreenwritersgroup.wordpress.com  One benefit of our revised site is we now have a blog page for posting short short stories and poems by our members.  The link for the writings blog is evergreenwritersgroup.wordpress.com/ramblings/  and I posted a flash fiction story on it yesterday.  It's a story prepared for a flash fiction contest I did not win. For those too busy to visit our website I will repost it here.

The Saddest Day of the Year

Christmas was the saddest day of the year, the only time he regretted not having a family.

The orphanage taught him about frugality and hard work, but not about love.  Through university, an interesting career as a computer specialist, and three years volunteering for charities, Kevin Anderson worked hard and saved his pennies.  He didn’t lack friends, but after a drink or two, always went home alone.  It had been his choice, what he was comfortable with.  He’d never been on a date or visited the home of a colleague.

Staying alone and aloof from social interaction hadn’t been difficult.  He didn’t have a psychological need to be with others, and the structure of his workplace made it easy to maintain his distance.

After retirement, everything except his work with Meals on Wheels continued as before.  Spending three hours a day, two days a week, delivering meals with fellow volunteer Pamela Barlow led to a closer friendship.

He’d maintained his distance until she invited him to Christmas dinner with her family.  He accepted Pamela’s invitation and ventured forth to buy wine for dinner, and presents for her family.  He discovered that he enjoyed buying things for others.

On Christmas Day, a terrified Kevin Anderson climbed the steps to her modest house, a sixty-four-year-old man on his first date with no idea what to expect.  The door opened and Pamela’s welcoming smile bewitched him.  The joyous noises and warmth from within quelled his fears.  A warm fire, mistletoe and the traditional turkey dinner beckoned.