TGRF's Writing Updates - November

It's been a bit since my last update, and with November coming to a close, I feel like it's time to let you all know where I'm at, and what's happening.

Firstly, I can't really continue to call these updates 'Fan Fiction Chronicles' when they aren't really about fan fiction. So I've created a new category, 'Writing Updates', which will focus primarily on novels and writing in general. Functionally they'll be identical to my FFCs.

Fan Fiction
I want to mention Fan Fiction first. There is currently nothing in the works, and I currently still have no plan to release another major story.

The need to stay in 'writing shape' remains, and I would like to find something short I can write every now and then. What form that will take remains unknown, but I'd like to find something soon.

This could be contest entries, personal challenge stories, or simply some sort of Valhalla...

TGRF

Well met!

I recently posted some of my opinions in Politics, Religion, and Morality. Superfrog posted this in reply: "Bro this thread has been dormant for a decade, I’m not sure what your point of necro-ing it is." The implication is clear: That expressing one's opinion on "Politics, Religion, and Morality" is on its face trolling.

I reject that idea totally. Rather, I ask what it says about our Community that, given the awful political environment, including the very real threat to democracy itself in this country, there has been no discussion about it. From Religious Debate for or against HS: "Where to begin . . . the following is in no way to be viewed, read, or interpreted as an attack on anyone regardless of how guilty it may make one's conscience." Maybe this disclaimer would have made a difference to Superfrog. In any event, discussions of morality/politics within a religious/Christian context have not been characterized...

kolakoski

Well met!

Even more important, given the current environment:

In Defense of Freedom at a Time of Crisis

1. On September 11, 2001 thousands of people lost their lives in a brutal assault on the American people and the American form of government. We mourn the loss of these innocent lives and insist that those who perpetrated these acts be held accountable.

2. This tragedy requires all Americans to examine carefully the steps our country may now take to reduce the risk of future terrorist attacks.

3. We need to consider proposals calmly and deliberately with a determination not to erode the liberties and freedoms that are at the core of the American way of life.

4. We need to ensure that actions by our government uphold the principles of a democratic society, accountable government and international law, and that all decisions are taken in a manner consistent with the Constitution.
...

kolakoski

Well met!

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."

Given the current attempts to undermine the fundamentals of Democracy in the United States, Lincoln's address could not be more timely.

Gettysburg Address

Delivered at Gettysburg, Pa.

Nov. 19th 1863.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should...

kolakoski

Gosh time is flying.

I'm 30 years old now. Married. A dog, some cats. A mortgage, cars. Happy. For a very long time, I wasn't sure if I could be happy, at least not in the way that I am today. I still recall pouring myself into the my creative works, drinking perhaps a little too much, and indulging in hours and hours of video games several years ago.

Yesterday though, I was happy to lounge around the house with my wife. Without realizing it, I felt alive. I've had a few other days like that over the course of 2023, but each one only felt like a fever dream. Not real. And even the summer days would evaporate too quickly to latch on enough to realize this was real.

I'd say throughout my early 20s, and certainly before that, I had battled through depression. I quite literally remember telling myself to keep pushing on, it'll be worth it eventually. There were many many years it wasn't worth it. Now, I look to many years where it is. Now, when...

flameslayer93