Storytime: Rift Park

From my 500 Writing Prompts bookWhile at the beach you decide to write a message in a bottle. What would it say? Who would you like to find it?

“It’s just over this hill.”

“How can you be sure, Michael? It looks like the last eighteen hills that we passed.”

“It’s only been three.”

“Felt like eighteen.”

“There! Jeff – do you see it? Oh, Jeff, we’ve really found it this time!”

“Well hell, Michael. We could have found it a heck of a lot sooner if we’d taken the map at the entrance. The ranger said it showed walking paths and a parking lot just a half mile from here.”

“Whatever. This was more fun. An adventure for an adventure!”

“You’d think speaking to people on the other side of the world by bottle would be adventure enough.”

Continue reading “Storytime: Rift Park”

Storytime: Rift Park
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Speaking at MVUUF this Sunday

I – along with my partner in abortion advocacy, Niki – have been invited to speak at the Minnesota Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship church this Sunday. According to their website, we’re actually doing a sermon!

Sermon

Well I’ll be.

As the sermon description implies, we’ll be talking about our experiences as clinic escorts and how to support access to abortion (although what happens on the sidewalk is not a picket line, and we escort for Whole Women’s Health, not Planned Parenthood…but close enough!) This is the second time that we’ll be doing this talk together; the first was for Minnesota Atheists and it appeared to be well received.

So I guess this weekend I’ll be putting on some Sunday finery and heading down to church to spread the good word. Whodathunk?

Speaking at MVUUF this Sunday

Writing for Fun

Tonight I went to Barnes and Noble and brought home quite the diverse haul: a collection of Lovecraft stories, a SparkChart on the Bible, a book of origami paper, one of them trendy “adult” coloring books, Carl Zimmer’s Science Ink. And this:

A simple red book entitled "500 WRITING PROMPTS"

I’ve recently attended several fiction-focused conventions and have been talking about writing and thinking about writing and social media-ing about writing. And so maybe I’ll do some writing.

Continue reading “Writing for Fun”

Writing for Fun

Book Review: Suicide is for Mortals

Suicide is for Mortals is a recently published book written by Alyson Miers, an author who you might recognize as a commenter on some of the FtB sites, and a participant in the atheosphere. When I learned that she had a new book out, I decided to give it a read.

Book Cover for Suicide is for Mortals. Subtext "Do not take death for granted." Alyson Myers.  Cover art is a nebulous pink, blue and white shape
The story weaves together the lives of three beings: the ghost of an ex-US President, a talented human artist who can see her, and an undead journalist who spent much of his mortal life exposing the links between vampires and organized crime. They live in a country that has magic and a complicated relationship between the magical and the mundane.

Let’s get the worst out of the way: I picked up Suicide is for Mortals (After Rezata Book 1) about two weeks ago, and it took me about that long to chug through the first half of the book. The story started out slow and I set it down many times over that period. Miers takes a long time to set up her world. With that said, it is a unique world, and I do think that it will pay off in future books in the series. The story picked up in the later half; I was glued to the pages and found time to finish it in two evenings (and one of those evenings involved a UHaul and moving out of my old place into a new house in Minneapolis!). Continue reading “Book Review: Suicide is for Mortals”

Book Review: Suicide is for Mortals

No You Can't Refuse Service

Hey everybodyyyyyy!

I was jumping online to do a blog post about this convention that I’m attending this weekend, but it has to wait because I have to tell you about This Other Thing That Is Really Awesome!

H/T to Niki for pointing me in the direction of Michael Stone’s article Appeals Court Rules Pharmacies Cannot Cite Religion To Deny Medication

In Washington state it is no longer legal for pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception based on the justification that to do so would violate their deeply held religious belief that slutty women should literally bear the consequences of their sluttiness. Well, a clarification: These pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions… as long as they are on duty with a coworker who acknowledges that women are sentient life forms capable of making medical decisions about their own bodies, and who will fill the prescriptions.

This is huge! Not just for reproductive rights, but for putting a slight damper on the creep (tidal wave) of religion into public life and government.

Stone cites a statement by The Washington, D.C.-based Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty: “The government has no business punishing citizens solely because of their religious beliefs.”

No. If you refuse to provide professional assistance to someone because they don’t share your political beliefs, then you are the one who is doing the punishing.

And thanks to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this kind of petty-minded punishment is not going to be tolerated. Pharmacists no longer get to decide that they know better than the doctors who prescribe emergency contraception and the people who are choosing to take it. They no longer get to use their professional status as an opportunity to prostelytize and pass moral judgments that have very real consequences to their clients. They no longer get to be the gatekeepers of this type of medical care.

You know, at least in Washington state.

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No You Can't Refuse Service

No You Can’t Refuse Service

Hey everybodyyyyyy!

I was jumping online to do a blog post about this convention that I’m attending this weekend, but it has to wait because I have to tell you about This Other Thing That Is Really Awesome!

H/T to Niki for pointing me in the direction of Michael Stone’s article Appeals Court Rules Pharmacies Cannot Cite Religion To Deny Medication

In Washington state it is no longer legal for pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception based on the justification that to do so would violate their deeply held religious belief that slutty women should literally bear the consequences of their sluttiness. Well, a clarification: These pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions… as long as they are on duty with a coworker who acknowledges that women are sentient life forms capable of making medical decisions about their own bodies, and who will fill the prescriptions.

This is huge! Not just for reproductive rights, but for putting a slight damper on the creep (tidal wave) of religion into public life and government.

Stone cites a statement by The Washington, D.C.-based Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty: “The government has no business punishing citizens solely because of their religious beliefs.”

No. If you refuse to provide professional assistance to someone because they don’t share your political beliefs, then you are the one who is doing the punishing.

And thanks to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this kind of petty-minded punishment is not going to be tolerated. Pharmacists no longer get to decide that they know better than the doctors who prescribe emergency contraception and the people who are choosing to take it. They no longer get to use their professional status as an opportunity to prostelytize and pass moral judgments that have very real consequences to their clients. They no longer get to be the gatekeepers of this type of medical care.

You know, at least in Washington state.

No You Can’t Refuse Service

It's CONvergence Time!

CONvergence is an annual sci-fi/fantasy convention that takes place here in the Twin Cities. The 2015 theme is dystopian futures.

Banner from CONvergence 2015: DoublePlusGood

People have been hard at work all week to get the hotels up and in CONvergence shape! The Hubby and I will be checking in tomorrow morning to join the badge line and then start attending panels and cosplay watching.

Continue reading “It's CONvergence Time!”

It's CONvergence Time!

It’s CONvergence Time!

CONvergence is an annual sci-fi/fantasy convention that takes place here in the Twin Cities. The 2015 theme is dystopian futures.

Banner from CONvergence 2015: DoublePlusGood

People have been hard at work all week to get the hotels up and in CONvergence shape! The Hubby and I will be checking in tomorrow morning to join the badge line and then start attending panels and cosplay watching.

Continue reading “It’s CONvergence Time!”

It’s CONvergence Time!