Work in Progress #29: Progress Report, March 2025

Hey, you guys!

How’ve you all been?  I’ve been away for a little bit from the digital space, largely for reasons of personal peace.  It’s been really gross out there for the last six or seven weeks.  I hope you’re all doing well.

I’ll rip the band-aid off of this and start by saying that the next paragraph or so is going to be passively-aggressively liberal, and if that’s not your cup of tea, you’re free to leave.  No harm, no foul, peace be the journey.  For those that are still reading, well, it seems like we’re in the “find out” part of the show.  We’ve alienated allies, backed up dictators and longtime nemeses, and eggs are still absurdly expensive.  Meanwhile, a degree of smug apocalyptic cynicism has taken root in the halls of power.  Or as the man says it, we in the middle of a hostile government takeover.

We’re really showing what this country is, maybe what it’s always been, in our actions over the last month and a half.  After all, it’s not like the dude led a military coup.  We voted for this nonsense.  And yes, even if you didn’t vote for him personally (I know I didn’t), you are still part of “we.”  (Unless you have a private island somewhere that you can go to wait all this out.  If so, take me with you.)   Collectively, this is our mess, and as much as I want to sit back and eat popcorn while the house burns itself down, I remember that I still live here.  That’s not really an option.  The good news is that we’re all in this together, and there are more of us than there are of them.  And that’s what they’re forgetting.  The fight isn’t left vs. right, red vs. blue, not even black vs. white, or anything like that.  It’s up vs. down, and 99% of the people are down here.

I know that for me, it’s been hard to write.  It seems like serious things are happening all around us.  I question the purpose of doing this: writing, reading, talking about story and art.  And the thing I came up with is that art—be it painting, music, or storytelling—is a significant beacon about where we are, like rings in a tree.  Once we get some time and distance from where we are now, we’ll be able to look back at this time without the anxiety that comes with living it.  And that is, of course, with the optimism that things will get better; that we will come to our collective senses and start the climb out of this ugly moral and political hole we’re in.  We need art and artists now, as much as ever.  Art in and

With that in mind, here’s what I’m up to this month:

-       Edits on Empire Towers continue, and I’m pushing through it more every day.  I figured out an idea that won’t work, and that’s every bit as important as finding the ones that do.

-       I’ve scrapped what I have for my short story-in-progress, Sundown Town.  There are elements in it that didn’t make sense, especially with the potential of what the story could be.  Some of what I have is salvageable, and I’ll use that to build a new version of that story.  Hopefully, I can get it done this month.

-       I’ve read a few books, and I’m eager to talk about them.  After all, I just got through saying storytelling could save us all.

-       And unrelated to anything, Spring Training has begun.  The New York Yankees seem to be in a great place considering the departure of a generational talent like Juan Soto.  I’m hoping this is the season we get back to the top of the mountain.

And there we are.  I won’t lie; things are still hard.  I’m hoping against hope that this month is better than the last.  Let’s make it so.