How are you? Are you and your friends and loved ones well? How are you all doing during the quarantine? We're close to entering phase-three in my state. July 6th specifically. Our governor recently addressed some statistics regarding potential surges in COVID-19, despite the record turn-outs for the recent protests they found only a 2.5% out of 17,617 people tested positive. He commended everyone for wearing their masks and using proper hand washing and sanitizing techniques. It makes me really proud that I live in a state where despite the obvious challenges (i.e. a pandemic) when taking to the streets to get their voices out there, they are still making sure that everyone is safe in doing so. My best childhood friend had recently attended a protest in our town this past weekend, I was unable to attend due to my brother in law having the gender reveal for he and his amazing girlfriend. Its going to be baby girl! I was happy to be part of that experience with them, even though by hour two of a four hour event the vampire in me was starting to grow wear from the eighty degree heat. Then father's day happened Sunday, which is usually a bittersweet day for me. My father has been dead for six years this September and some years I don't think about him at all, and sometimes I just get angry when I do. Fortunately, I have my two little guys as a physical reminder of where I'm at now in life and it was cute how people kept texting me wishing me a happy father's day. I swear that's the most anyone had ever texted me and that includes my birthday. I genuinely love that that's who I am now, a dad. As a dad, I can't stress enough how important it is for me to make sure that I am raising them with a stronger moral compass than my father tried to raise me with. When I was taking my youngest for a walk around the block, I couldn't help but feel so optimistic seeing so many signs, and messages in the windows of houses close to where we live. There is a sense of community in this town that didn't exist when I was a child and a young man, I'm glad my kids will have that to look forward to. In addition to being a dad, I am also a writer and on that front? I recently touched based with the publisher of my soon to be released debut novel and our trajectory is at a bit of a standstill due to COVID-19 as a lot of printers have slowed production. I completely understand, once I get my author's copy though I can talk street date and distribution which I am excited about. I REALLY want to get as many copies as I can into the locally owned bookstores. Something that has been breaking my heart around my own town are the number of small locally owned stores that are going out of business due to their inability to stay afloat. It resonates on a personal level because prior to becoming a stay at home parent I mostly worked for locally owned businesses. A family owned furniture store, a haunted house attraction, a theatrical day-camp, a comedy club owner, and sister owned thrift store to be more specific. Without being too preachy, I hope if any of you can help it (I mean, we are still stuck in some form of quarantine) if you're reading make sure to help out the little shops in your area and if the local libraries are doing some kind of curbside pick-up option? Absolutely help them out as well.
I can't wait for the libraries to open back up, with everything going on? There is so literature I want to get my hands on. History was never one of my favorite subjects when I was a kid, but now I am finding myself so ill-informed about so much. When protesters started removing statues and monuments and starting petitions to rename certain historical areas, I found myself googling what was wrong with this statue or that one (well, except for Columbus I think its fucking deplorable we are still revering that genocidal megalomaniac) until I came across literature and literally had to pull my fucking mouth off the floor. I am finding that I am not nearly as informed as I'd like to be and ironically all the libraries are closed when I find myself in such dire need of information. That's going to be a priority once I have access to them again. Are you reading any good books? Any recommendations? Are you a history buff? Anything you've read that you think should be on the top of my list? Do you have a favorite local bookstore you want to plug? Drop me a line and I'd love to help get the word out. Stay safe, and stay healthy!
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September 2021
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