Half a book is better than no book at all…

What does this mean? I haven’t a clue but I am here to tell you I reached the official halfway point in my new novel today. Yep. Fifty large – 50,000 words!

Now, that was originally going to be the halfway point but, as of today, there’s no telling. It could go longer or shorter than a hundred thou – there’s just no telling. This thing has assumed a life of its own; it went off the rails the minute the polar bear started putting teacups on the laps of unconscious people… it’s a long story.

Anyway… where was I? Oh, right! Halfway.

Now, you’re probably wondering how I’m going to finish this in the next month, with school starting a month from now.

Well, here’s your answer… I won’t. It’s just not going to happen. So, I’ll just have to keep working on it as the semester begins. Let’s see how well that works…

But I am very pleased to be halfway done because that means I’m halfway closer to finishing it than I was when I started. It’s a good book and I hope some publishers think so, as well.

And how can a publisher resist a polar bear named Peanut. I ask you!

…

… oh, and I think I’m figuring out the problem with having a hopeful ending.

We live in a world where our need for survival and our attempts at ethical behavior have become warped by the masses of people fighting every day for life on our planet. Think about this for a moment. In order to drive your car to work, you are forced to kill a great number of people. You don’t do it directly, of course. You do it through wars for oil, and industrial pollution, and good old global warming. But this is the choice you are forced to make. In order to feed your child, other children must starve.

In any sane world, one of similarly limited resources, we would not admire those who squandered resources or killed for a buck but here, on planet Earth, we do.

So, we need to create a system of ethics that makes ethical behavior admirable and preferable, because our present systems do NOT. In fact, to behave in an ethical manner, many of us are cast as weirdos and misfits: those who recycle, re-use, reduce, drive hybrids, ultra-low emission vehicles, ride bikes, purchase with a conscience. We are mocked because, for some reason, our system tells us that we are suckers.

Granted, it’s only a beginning. The system needs to be changed, which will be a breeze, of course. And, we’re going to need a lot fewer people, which can be done peacefully and non-violently, I assure you.

There. Is that enough of a tease?