Year End Wrap-up

 Work: I kept driving a school bus.

Marriage: still with Mudd, still with Gabriel. Separated from Cat as I do not like the person I become when around her for extended periods.

Kids: Bun is Assistant manager at a Chinese restaurant. Chris is in grad school. Ollie is finishing her associates, and has to have a second major to keep her scholarship, because her bachelor program doesn't start until fall. Jon is still trying for the Army. He has a couple of health issues that are holding him up. His scoliosis is within tolerances, but they ware waiting to hear about the cholesteatoma removal.

Grandkids: Hunter is a big six year old first grader. Alexander turned 2. Alexander discovered how to walk this year, and took off. He also opened his first soda by bashing it on the corner of the table and shotgunning it.

Church: Kithaka Dun went off brilliantly. Chris made a great leader for the Wild Hunt and my eldering was lovely. Festival of Souls went very well, even if we walked a broken labyrinth this year. I am veiling for the dark season. And maybe year round. Hecate laid her claim to me, as crone and witch. I did a reading of one of Mama Dragon's stories at community Yule

We got the heat and air repaired and a new water heater and the front bath remodeled.
That makes a world of difference.
I started a TikTok and an OnlyFans.

Cats: We lost Tribble (age 15) this year. Buttercup (also gone) gave us 5 kittens in May, 3 orange boys and 2 calico girls. When she moved out only Luke (missing a paw) and Squish stayed. Leia the dark calico (my brave girl: first to walk, first to open her eyes, first to escape the kitten box, first to litter train) treats us like a bed and breakfast. She will sleep on our bed, but not allow us to pet her.

I read 38 books, 24 of them new to me. American Gods was a rambly beast, but worth it. I enjoyed 11 books of John Hartness' Quincy Harker Demon Hunter series

I saw 56 movies, 20 of them new to me. I think The Invisible Man was the best of them, with Looper a close second. 

I performed in 4 drag shows and had a blast doing it.

Writing: We finished Master Anton. I wrote a short story and a cookbooklet.

Crafting: I made at least 2 dozen hats this year, 15 pouches and almost finished a lotus duster for me. I made a couple of shawls, and an afghan for Hunter.

Health:
I was diagnosed with diabetes and am on medication for it and my cholesterol.
I lost 40 lbs and finished the year at 288.

[Pagan] Three Queens

  The Night of November 16th is Hekate's night

And I was born at midnight on it, under a full moon.

At this point, any self-respecting editor says "Oh no you did NOT write that," and sends the special snowflake character back for some edits. But life is never so neat as fiction.

Tonight, I had a chat with Hekate. And sacrificed some garlic to her.

She becomes the third Queen of my practice.

Hera claimed me over a decade ago.

The Morrigan kicked me in the head a few years back.

And tonight Hekate gave me "About time, witchling."

I have studying to do.

Where to buy stuff

 Go to Paypal.com
Send the money to valarltd@yahoo.com
OR
Go to Venmo, @NicholasRowanSp

Tell me what you want in the notes section.

Novels and collections, $2: https://nicksfreedisneytrip.blogspot.com/2021/10/book-title-back-list.html

Short stories 50cents or 3/$1: https://nicholasrowansp.blogspot.com/2021/10/book-sale.html

Gift cards, 10% off face value: 

$10 Chipotle giftcard for $9

$5 gift card of your choice for $4.50

$5 Captain D giftcard for $4.50

$16 Red Robin gift card for $14.

$25 Disney gift card for 22.50

Crafts:

Event planning, variable, based on the event. Begins at $50

Dr Who scarf (w/shipping) 150

Bat Shawl (w/shipping) $100

Skull Shawl (w/shipping) $100

Baby Blankets (blanket yarn) $100

Peacock shawl (w/shipping) $75

Baby Blankets (basic acrylic) $50

Skull beaded snood $50

Beaded Snoods (pearls or other beads) $40

Homespun (by Lion Brand) scarf (w/shipping) $20

Tarot reading $20

Custom crochet hats (w/shipping) $15

Random Crochet hat (w/shipping) $10 (made from my stash)

custom masks (w/shipping) $10

Taking suggestions, and will have a reasonable price for them.

BOOK SALE!

 https://nicksfreedisneytrip.blogspot.com/2021/10/book-title-back-list.html has the list of novel length books for $2

Short stories are 50 cents each or 3/$1
Paypal valarltd@yahoo.com and leave the titles in the comments

Eight Thrones Universe:
One Gift At a Time
Breakers
Orion Rising
Gourmet Etude
A Visit from Nikolai
Fannish Activity (fanfic of a sort)

Trucker stories
Ain't No Easy Run
Hot Load
Rewriting Old Songs (f/f)
Change of Plans (f/f)
Still Rolling (f/f)

SF:
Breathe Deep
Welcome Winter
For Love of Etarin
Eight Days ablaze (m/f)
Cyber'verse, connects to Hard Reboot
Pushing the boundaries of reality (m/f)
Chained to the Wheel
Swimming Through the Net
Double Dealing

Fantasy/Paranormal
Color of Magic/Color of Money
Crossroads
Riding the Edge
Hunger for the Edge
Five Time Loser
Sweet Persuasion
Burdens Lightened
Between Despair and Ecstasy
Prey
Serpents
Fruits of Thine (m/f)
Outfoxed
Tuition Fees
Worth the Woe (f/f)
Under the Skirts of Sherwood

Steampunk/Dieselpunk
Skyway Robbery (mmf)
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch (f/f)
Moved to Action (no romance)
Sky Rat
Five to One
Cherry Tart (m/f)
Experiments(m/f/m)
Songs for Guitar and French Harp
Stolen by Slaves of the Monkey god

Historicals
Waterwheel
Man hunt
Racing the Past
Showdown at Yellowstone River
Blood Rubies

Dark Carnival, part of Alive on the Inside
His Wicked Way
Sideshow Roses

Cliff Cody:
Plumbing the Depths
Pride of the Rangers

Gay Christmas Werewolves
Cake under the Mistletoe
Howl at the Mistletoe
Blue Mistletoe
Miskatonic Mistletoe
Siul a ruhn

DJ Admire (same Universe)
S is for Succubus
That's How We Roll
By the Fire With Care
Illusions of Safety

Kinky Cosplayers
Imperial Entanglements
Captain's Orders
How not to host an Engagement party

Contemporary:
Tiocfaidh Ar la
Chain-Male
Master Bear
Stolen Chocolate Tastes the Sweetest
Collared Hearts
Frosted Hearts
Out of Options
Long Term
Drive
Raising the Dead
Talk like a Pirate Day
Dangerous Game (m/f)

Kinky Gamers
Paying Forfeits
Thigh to Thigh

Reality is supposed to be Less Evil Than My Dystopia

 Gods, I hate being prescient.

I caught a host talking about this on the radio yesterday and went looking. https://www.businessinsider.com/majority-of-trump-voters-believe-its-time-to-secede-survey-finds-2021-10 The money quote: "More than half of the surveyed Trump voters — approximately 52% — said the "situation is such that I would favor [Blue/Red] states seceding from the union to form their own separate country." Approximately 41% of Biden-voting respondents answered similarly." Irony that those most in favor of making kids say the Pledge of Allegiance are the ones who don't believe in the Indivisible part. It's the 41% of Biden voters that is new and kind of scary in this poll. I can't say they are wrong. Let the half that want to move into the future go do so, and let those who want a libertarian theocracy have it. (FTR: I dropped the word "indivisible" when saying the Pledge of Allegiance decades ago.)

Money Troubles and How to help

Right now, our house needs more work than we can afford. We spavined our small home equity loan getting the roof done last year.

Total Home Repairs: 50K.

First goal Exterminator, re-wiring and climate control: $15,000

I am side hustling for it.
Here are affiliate links if you wish to help. It costs you nothing, gets you cash back on things you buy and I get a kickback. Win, win, win. I make about 15cents  per receipt I bring home, even without buying anything earmarked for kickbacks. Which isn't much but it's something and it mounts up

Of course you can just buy my books. Straight up goods. https://nicholasrowansp.blogspot.com/2021/08/buy-my-books.html

Or subscribe to Patreon https://www.patreon.com/NickRowan
or OnlyFans (it's free, but there will be pay per view posts) https://onlyfans.com/u147698720

The side hustles:
These are all done on your phone. I've made hundreds of dollars doing them, 900 on Swagbucks alone. That and Shopkick are my big earners

Swagbucks: So many ways to earn. Surveys, games, random codes, coupons, and grocery kickbacks. I make about $25 a month but if you buy namebrands, you may earn more.
https://www.swagbucks.com/profile/AngeliaSparrow

Fetch Rewards: referral code BV9VC scan your receipts for points, certain brands earn you extra. Very easy.  

NCP: Referral code 135A92A. Scan your groceries and take surveys. A little more complicated but pays well.

Ibotta: referral: mcpiwnp Scan your grocery recipts. Mostly useful for brand-name but sometimes good for general stuff. Easy.

Receipt Hog: code:  buk46797 Scan your receipts, play the slot machine on the side. It's slow but easy.

Shopkick referral code: MALL751055: A few ways to earn. you can get points for walking into stores, for scanning stuff in the stores and for buying the stuff. Oh and watch videos. Easy, fun, and very profitable.

Where to find my books

 The books I currently have available

Temple Secrets of the Cult of Cheesecake is the cookbook I wrote last summer. All proceeds go to The Polestari.

Curse of the Pharaoh's Manicurists has been rewritten and reissued. Roaring 20s adventure.

Wild Hunt is a DJ Admire adventure. Alcoholic PI on the nightside of Memphis.

As Angelia:

Busy Nights. A slow-cooker, freezer and make-ahead cook booklet. It's 99cents

Dangerous Game. Spicy little heterosexual short story. Part RPF. Part Cosplay. All hot. Also 99 cents

EIGHT THRONES

 

Anthony Reprobate. Book 1
In which the Ligatos group turns a Reprobate into a preacher, to stop a war.

Nikolai Revenant Book 2

In which the Ligatos group must turn a street rat into a diplomat.

 Glad Hands. Book 3

In which a trucker finds danger and true love as he crosses the DisUnited States. (Rewritten and expanded)

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

Adventuresses. Lesbian Short stories of fantasy, science fiction and other genres.

Into Dark Waters is a variety of gay short stories. Includes "Tuition Fees"

Riding the Nightmare. 18 gay dreams and nightmares. Includes the Gay Christmas Werewolves

Semi-annual Where To Find Me

 A guy's gotta have a social media presence.

Here's where to find me as Nick. Nick is the primary face, and writes most of the new stuff.

This is the primary blog.
https://nicholasrowansp.blogspot.com/

Website:
https://nicholaswrowan.wixsite.com/mysite

email: nicholasrowansp@gmail.com


Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NickRowan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nick.rowan.9678

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NickRowan16
I usually schedule the posts for this

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/nicholasrowan
A mixed bag of politics, crafting and geekery

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nick.w.rowan/
Cat pictures and drag

Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/valarltd/

Youtube, with Drag videos under videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRY6DbSZBTN42bLPxDGCgmA

The Disney Trip Saving and plan
https://nicksfreedisneytrip.blogspot.com/

Venmo
@nicholasrowansp

If you still need Angelia, who is writing heterosexual smut and the Eight Thrones 'verse:

Email:
angeliasparrow@gmail.com
valarltd@yahoo.com

Blog:

https://angelsparrow.blogspot.com/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/valarltd/

Livejournal: valarltd.livejournal.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/angelia.sparrow/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/asparrow16

And the newest one to watch is Valentina

email: ValentinaVioletta16@yahoo.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070125221521

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VVioletta16

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wickedvalentina/

OnlyFans (it's free) https://onlyfans.com/u147698720

Reality is supposed to be less evil than my dystopia

 I've had a lot of thinking moments this week.

Demon-rat and Democrap got slung at me.
These are common enough slurs, but this time they got me thinking harder.

Demon rat. Democrap

We are not even human.
We are demons to be banished.
We are rats to be killed.
We are shit to be scraped off the shoes of True White Christian Americans.
This is RTLM all over again, calling the Tutsis cockroaches and snakes.
Vermin to be exterminated 

I was tempted to post a picture of my family and demand to know which one they thought they should kill first? The pansexual school teacher? The trans school teacher? The bisexual medical coder? The asexual youtuber? The interracially married disabled vet? The queer and trans driver?

I did not.

Now, Tennessee has passed a law. This sign must be displayed by stores that have potty parity

A warning sign. That there are transfolks in the store. That they might use the restroom.

We are so dangerous we merit a warning sign
And laws to let medical personnel not treat us

And laws to keep us out of sports.

Things are getting ugly, and will only get worse. This state level stuff is retaliation. And the mindset that non-conservatives are vermin is just getting stronger.

We had a dress rehearsal for fascism. Now, we either pull ourselves out of it, and work on that more perfect union with liberty and justice for all, or we plunge headlong in.

I'm not sure which way we're going. But I'm taking big breaths, just in case.

Fear and frustration

 I have watched the events of the last week/month/four years/forty years closely. I've seen it all unfurl like a big rancid picnic. I am embarrassed by the small corner I helped spread years ago.

And while I see where we are going, and have a general notion how this will all play out, I am simultaneously enough of a sociopath to be frustrated that the Fascists Are Doing It Stupidly.

The Republicans are too old for the most part to learn the "Learn the language of your enemy and turn it against him" technique that is becoming popular in Pick-up artist circles.

Let's take the big ones:

Climate change.
A republican candidate comes out saying "Climate changer is real. It is happening. I have answers!" These answers are of course structured to increase profits for solar and certain auto makers. Cities are redlined and solar comes with subsidies and assistance in certain neighborhoods (read that white and middle class or higher), while older generating plants are put on austerity measures, and only deliver electricity 4-5 days a week.
The electric cars and hybrids are given subsidies and made popular, while older gas-burning cars are taxed more heavily, as is gasoline. "After all, transportation is one of our largest polluters." Public transportation is not improved, and may in fact be eliminated. Work will become an impossibility for millions of people, freeing up jobs.

 Nothing is ever done about the companies who cause infinitely more waste than individuals, deforestation continues, the oceans keep heating up and the growing zones keep moving. And the poor people who can't afford solar or an electric car are shamed and blamed. 

Water starts to come under austerity measures. There's plenty for fountains and golf courses but city water is limited to a trickle. Lawns are ticketed for being brown when people have barely enough to drink and wash with. Bottled water companies make record profits. Since not having water and electricity is considered environmental neglect, children can be removed from homes and quietly distributed to work as domestics to wealthy households.

Profit all around, and a reduction in poor people, especially people of color.

Abortion:

"I can reduce abortion by 40%! Let's not ban it, women will always need it for emergency situations. But I can reduce the unwed pregnancy by 50% and abortions by 40% It's been tested and proven."

Long term contraceptives: implants and IUDs, even sterilization are made easier to get, free of charge on the state's dime. IUDs are especially encouraged.

Since work is becoming impossible and water and electric are unpredictable, many people opt for the IUD. Many opt for tubals, since they are no longer forced to be 30+ and have spousal permission.
The abortion rate drops as promised.

But, while there is money for inserting IUDs, there was never money allocated for removal 5 years down the road...

Fewer abortions. And a reduction in poor people especially people of color.

There are other social issues where a republican could stand up and say "Hey, let's BE fiscally conservative, try this in a way that has been shown to save money, and oh yeah, we can make it hurt the right people too."

My theories on the Capitol

 On January 6, armed protestors stormed the US capitol. There is some evidence they were let in deliberately. And more that they had maps (see visiting hard to find private offices instead of labeled public offices)

And I am with Slate on the idea that there are three groups of people in this scenario.
1) The ones on a data mission who stole laptops
2) The ones on a tactical mission to take (and possibly execute) hostages https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/was-there-a-plan-for-hostages-or-killings-at-the-capitol.html 
3) The cosplatriot/Weekend warriors trying to bring down The Storm, the day Trump would rise up and execute all the traitors. https://www.businessinsider.com/qanon-trump-capitol-attack-belief-precursor-the-storm-2021-1 They are probably the ones who erected the gallows, but whether for the mannequins or actual people is hard to say

Let's talk about 3, because these are the ones getting all the press time.

It's easy to laugh at them in their special T shirts, and their lack of masking and their general clumsiness. After all, don't these idiots know that feces contains DNA? And tracking it leaves shoe prints? Both of these are evidence as any even casual watcher of police procedurals knows.
Don't they know about surveillance and covering their faces?

So here are these barefaced people, some in highly identifiable clothing. How do they think they will get away with this?

The answer of course is that they thought they were going to win. Like their predecessors, they thought they could "lick the yankees with corn stalks." And just like the old confederates, these new one found that the yankees didn't fight that way.

But they were never the real operation.

Two laptops,  those of Pelosi and Merkley, and Clyburn's Ipad were all stolen. Many of the senators had electronics stolen and much concern has been raised about data security.

That may have been the real operation.

But these guys, once you start seeing them,. you can't stop. These are the pros.

compare him to the guy behind him. He's fitter. He's climbing that rail like it's nothing. The zipties in his hands are handcuff style. He's armed, and knows to keep his face down and covered. He's got a bulletproof vest on.

This is not a weekend warrior. He knows what he is doing.
They all came armed. One guy had 11 molotov cocktails on him. They were the first ones in. They went straight for the offices. https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1347350333819912192 has more

.

Compare here to the other guy trying to get over the rail.

These came to take hostages. Whether to negotiate or execute, we may not know.

But there are handcuffs, a pro to use them and a gallows outside.

Q Shaman and the Civil War 2 guys were the distraction. The laptops and the hostages were the objectives. Only one was successful. But I suspect we'll see fallout from it.