157 Extracted Words – The Tease

September 2021

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a work in progress.

No one remembered the last sunny day, the last blue sky day. It could have been two years previous, maybe more, since they had experienced a real blue sky day.

And not just a day with the sun coming up, giving of it’s heat, in fact, that was the problem. The sun’s heat, scorching the earth into a dusty, smoky, often tropical, gray globe. It started with burning tundra and boreal forests across the northern hemisphere. The fires started earlier and ended later, year after year. The skies would grow dark for weeks at a time, and then for months and finally, entire seasons. And then came 2039, the first entire calendar year without a single blue sky day.

And now, ten years later, no one could remember the last sunny day. Crops failed, water was rationed and migraines became more common than the common cold. And still, no one could remember the last sunny day.

My Theme Retired Before I Did.

You might notice a change in the look of EBM.

Mt. Rainier

The theme utilized by my blog over the last several years was Piano Black. That theme has been retired by the WordPress theme gods, so I have switched to Ryu. I apologize in advance for any glitches that may arise. Right now I am struggling with the widgets. You might notice some are in dire need of updates. Please be patient with the changes.

Thank you.

67 Extracted Words – The Tease

August 2021

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a thought rediscovered for a work in progress.

There was a hint in the air today, like an eyelash out of alignment on Mother Nature’s face. Perhaps just a trick of the light that divided the shadows, shadows that stretched just a bit longer than they did the day before.

However subtle, the change marks that turn many of us look for, especially after a summer as hot and devastating as this one.

[Author’s note: The Tease normally appears on the 26th of each month, see why here, but due to technical difficulties (I messed up my publication selections) this instsallment is a few days late. Apologies]

107 Extracted Words – The Tease

July 2021

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a work in progress.

The rich are the new nobility, wealth the new bloodline. No longer do we bow to the sovereign because their ancient family has passed on to them the tongs of power and torture. Now, any commoner need only to earn, inherit or steal wealth for the reverence to gush forth. (He’s rich so I figured he would make a good president. Sound familiar?) No longer does royalty need to be bestowed upon us by the gods, dropped to Earth like golden rays of divine sunshine. They only need to have a jet that flys just high enough to touch space and, of course, a really fat wallet.

Mt. Spokane – Trail 120

Green, green ,green in the heat of summer.

79 Extracted Words – The Tease June 2021

June 2021

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a rant in progress.

Nothing going on here. No global warming. No ice shields melting. No record heat. No … reality. It’s 107 degrees in Washington. Not Death Valley, not Las Vegas, but in green wet Washington. The debate is over. We are torching the planet.

79 Extracted Words – The Tease May 2021

May 2021

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a thought in progress.

Volunteers of America … volunteers of America. A sixties protest song, or a clarion call to this generation? We all know this world is not what we would hope for our kids. But can’t we change that? And isn’t the first step local? What can we do, in our own personal way to make things better, even if its just for one person. Because, if we do, in that person’s eye , we’ve changed the world. Let’s start changing worlds.

119 Extracted Words – The Tease April 2021

April 2021

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

What is wrong with the human animal. We are at the top of the heap. No animal has access to the resources we do, and yet, it just isn’t enough. We are literally burning up our planet with desire, the pursuit of happiness. But we’ll never have it. We push pill after pill down our throats and up our a**** and we’re no more satisfied for the effort. One out of six of us are on antidepressants, and four of the other five are on depressants (alcohol). I’m not passing judgment on the use of these substances, doing so would make me a gigantic hypocrite. But I am posing the question, to myself as well as others, why is it we have so much and enjoy it so little?

101 Extracted Words – The Tease March 2021

March 2021

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a work in progress.

Ancient humans didn’t have Amazon, but they did have clay, natural dyes and creativity. They produced cave paintings and petroglyphs to explain their processes across the millenia. We think we know what some of them mean, others we do our best to interpret and yet others are simply baffling, leaving room for us to project our own meaning onto their images.

How does Amazon contribute to this discussion?

Furniture assembly.

Try putting together that new entertainment center that just arrived (in a much smaller box than it should have) and you’ll understand.

When future visitors see the instructions from this box, exactly how will they categorize these ambiguous, often contradictory pictures? Primitive? Mysterious?Perhaps they will simply cry out as I did entering my fourth hour of frustration.

Aaaahhhh!

That expression should be understood no matter what galaxy you are from.

A Blue-tiful day on Mt. Spokane.

A sunny late winter day provides a spectacular snowshoeing adventure.