Trying to write today but there are lots of distractions. Golf at 5Iron with the grandsons. Lunch at the Gralehouse with my brothers. A phone call with K. A trip to the bookstore.

Thoughts of the Inauguration, the tragic Inauguration. More like a coronation. Those thoughts are tempered by the one of the books I decided to buy and read – Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler, deceased genius sci-fi writer. I read Parable when it came out long ago, 1998, and decided today would be a good day to re-read it. It is weirdly, weirdly prescient.

Parable takes place in 2032, in a world where climate disasters have transformed the world. Los Angeles has burned in a great fire. Wars and a pandemic have reduced most people to poverty. The US has elected a religious dictator as President, and his campaign slogan is “Make America Great Again”. Any non-white persons are persecuted by the government and his thugs. (No kidding, the parallels are seriously weird. It’s as if she saw the future.)

Butler is a superb writer. My excuse for reading her book instead of working on my own novel is that it inspires me. So I’m switching back and forth. Read a little, write a little. Stay away from the news. That’s the way I want to spend the whole week. Minimize distractions, maximize word count.