Ever since the opening of 2020, I teeter between hope and caution with the welcoming of a new year. After all, my intro blog to 2020 was about my hope and anticipation that 2020 would be my year of focus, since the best vision is ranked as 20/20. Hastily, I jumped the gun. Perhaps, my optimism was premature, but I looked forward to book signings, setting up vendor tables at sci-fi convos, and lecturing at different libraries about the publishing process and so forth. All of those events were suspended. My gym closed. Instead of keeping my focus sharp, my life as well as everyone else’s was derailed.
My ambition to write was buried beneath all the uncertainty of what was happening around us. In one sense, I had all the extra time in the world to write, but sadly, I could not. My focus was gone.
This wasn’t what we writers call, “Writer’s block”; no, it was much, much worse.
I earned an MFA in Creative Writing, but my B.S. is in biology. I’m a scientist. I constantly research and probably even more so since 2020. The reason I couldn’t focus on my writing was because I was stunned beyond understanding at how easily people accepted information from the media without researching for themselves.
When I taught at Daymar College, my students grew concerned about the Ebola outbreak in 2014, and it occurred to me that the last pandemic had occurred in 1918. Was Ebola the next one? As it turned out, thankfully, it wasn’t. But, I kept digging and researching. Oddly, the news stopped reporting Ebola, even though the outbreak and death toll continued nearly two years longer. Yet, I continued researching and looking. I asked critical thinking questions and discovered documented evidence of medical and scientific atrocities, which would blow your mind (a subject for another day).
I’m not going into details about what I found in late 2019 into January 2020 before everything was shut down, because it’s a tangent not necessary for this blog and would take several chapters of space to write. But, I should say that I tried sharing some of this information on social media to warn people. Around this time, hundreds of people were having their Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts banned. Some of these people were scientists and medical doctors; experts in their fields. “Fact-checkers” became an acceptable way of censorship, and the majority of the time, the fact-checkers were wrong. Each and every one of us should check the facts for ourselves.
Use critical thinking methods, which is something I’ve done most all of my life. Question everything. Research for yourself through scientific investigation in the journals with proper citations. You cannot safely take what you’re told as truth. Both of my parents were pathological liars, so I evolved into a skeptic. I couldn’t take what they said at face value. It’s an inner need for me to seek the facts and the truth.
What does all of this have to do with my inability to write from 2020 until mid 2022? My greatest problem was having scientific proof and knowledge but I couldn’t post it. Several key scientific terms had their definitions changed to suit the narrative, which still bothers me. As someone who loves to research and learn, it was disheartening and alarming and apparently a violation of some hierarchy code to share it without suffering repercussions. Science is established, in part, through discussion, evaluation, theories, questions, tests, and re-testing. Research is built off other scientists’ research; thus, the reason for the citations in the journal.
Some folks dear to me on social media chatted with me about various aspects, and either argued the facts, unfriended me, and a few even blocked me for discussing issues with them, which they had brought up. At no point did I ever dismiss their views or use ad hominem. I simply asked for them to read cited information.
Those of you who know me and have followed me over the years know that I never post about religion and/or politics because a dear teacher of mine in high school, Ms. Tommie, said that the best way to lose friends is to discuss religion or politics. I dare say that we could add the discussion of college football teams to the list, too. I took her advice to heart and have successfully chosen not to partake in such approaches in my blogs and posts. After all, why alienate half my potential audience?
But science? Since I’m a biologist, science is one of my passions. I love discovery and always have. And in light of the cited information I found, I wanted to share this to benefit others, but everything surrounding the mandates and lockdowns became political, everyone was an ‘expert’, even when they weren’t. For some, their views became strict and almost fanatically religious. Some mantras were ridiculous.
After such lines were drawn, I ceased posting information from reputable scientists and doctors. Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped but once it became politicized and people chose to attack others, regardless of the views or facts, I bowed out. I delved my time into building D&D dungeon terrain, but my mind wouldn’t allow me to write, probably due to my frustrations in what I knew and what I was witnessing. Chaos became the norm.
In fiction, especially my Predators of Darkness Series, I write about conspiracies. In research, I have found actual conspiracies (NOT theories) where diseases were used to eliminate or greatly harm a population. In 1932, the Tuskegee Experiment occurred in Alabama until 1972, when a reporter exposed the horrible atrocity. Small pox blankets (some report it a myth, while others don’t) were used for genocide. Experiments have been done on twins, quintuplets, and the poisoning of wells, just to determine results for some twisted minds. So, when questionable things arise and people are silenced, it makes me speculate and seek answers, and hopefully, find the truth.
I cannot believe nearly two years lapsed before my drive to write returned to me. It’s my hope that 2023 will become my most prolific year for writing. We are applying to have a booth at the Rathacon in Athens, Ohio, again and several other conventions this year. I guess I’m three years behind schedule.
The fourth book in my Nocturnal Trinity Series will be released in 2023, so I am back on track.
With my sincerest wishes, I hope you all receive the greatest blessings of your life in 2023! The fact that you checked out my blog and website is appreciated!
