Last one before the election edition

With Mr. Trump having entered the emotional full monty meltdown phase of the campaign, I’m feeling suddenly optimistic about the results of next month’s voting. There’s no way Americans could make that guy president, right? 

“Here’s the deal folks.” He hates paying overtime, autoworkers could be replaced by children, the Wall Street Journal has been “wrong about everything” the “enemy within” will have to be taken out by the military.  Every outrage is followed by a more outrageous attempt at deflecting attention from the last outrage, like a death spiral. 

The only people he seems not to have alienated are the guys flying the swastika flags in the boat parade. And Putin. And, oh, white guys. 

“I don’t know,” Judy says. “His supporters….”

She’s got a point, but really? That guy? 

I hope you heard my last Michiana Chronicle ( https://www.wvpe.org/wvpe/2024-10-10/michiana-chronicles-making-the-best-of-a-bad-situation ), the one with Dan Shead, who was trapped for awhile with his wife Sue at her sister’s house by Hurricane Helene.

Headed home on the open roads today, Dan and Sue are “zig zagging across western Carolina,” he texted me, “to Knoxville, then north through Great Smoky Mountains Park. Slow going but very scenic.”

The process of publishing When Once Destroyed continues. I’ve finished my review and response to a meticulous second edit, with one more to go, and I’ve started sharing ideas with my Wise Ink-assigned book designer, Emily Mahon, a Senior Art Director at Doubleday Books. Her impressive work you can see here ( https://www.emilymahon.com/ ). I was floored when I saw it. “Sandra Cisneros!!” April Lidinsky said. “Fancy company!” 

Judy and I created When Once Destroyed bookmarks to share for our trip to “Proof: A Midwest Lit Fest” at the Harrison Center for the Arts in Indianapolis October 5. The best part of that was speaking to other Indiana writers, including Susan Neville, author of Indiana Winter. Fifty years in, Judy is still showing me how to mingle.  

Relax. We got this.