This week: why I won’t be covering the horrors of Trump every week; an update on my writing; The Spike-related links; and TV-show-that-feels-like-a-novel Bosch.
silence_not_compliance
For once, Donald Trump is staying true to his word as he carries out a lot of the actions he threatened to do when campaigning for president.
So far in his second week (at time of writing, it isn’t over yet) his administration has:
- Halted with immediate effect all federal grants and loans, impacting school meals, home heating assistance, housing assistance, food stamps, child care, healthcare for the disabled/elderly, meals on wheels, suicide hotlines, child abuse investigations, and more. This was quickly frozen by the courts, and withdrawn, but the White House press secretary confirmed they still intend to carry these actions through.
- Imposed a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, increasing consumer prices.
- Ordered construction of a migrant detention facility at the notorious US Navy base in Guantanamo Bay.
- Restricted gender care for people under the age of 19.
- Offered more than 2 million federal employees the option to resign and receive pay for eight months, in an effort to gut the US government.
- Blamed a plane crash on diversity appointments with no evidence.
- Denied federal funding for schools that teach about racism and discrimination.
- Penalised schools that don’t teach patriotic content.
- Signed an order to deport international students who protested the war in Gaza.
- Made moves to fire all the prosecutors and FBI employees who were involved in any of the cases involving Trump, and in the prosecutions related to the January 6 insurrection. They are also intending to release the names of those people, so Trump’s MAGA militia can potentially threaten/harass/attack them.
Those are some of the headlines. Many will be challenged in court and perhaps blocked or overturned, but that doesn’t mean they will stop trying to harm everyone in their orbit.
Each of those are worthy of an essay of its own, but I don’t have the time, will, patience, or fortitude to go through them in detail. This is, of course, part of their plan. They flood the arena with stories that would individually be analysed and criticized for days; they don’t give any time before the next outrage.
But this isn’t a politics blog. So if I don’t comment on some horrifying action by Trump or his cronies, don’t take my silence as implicit acceptance or agreement.
Instead, I will point you to a few outlets that I believe will hold Trump’s administration to account. Please follow and share.
progress_report
Despite the day job still taking too much time and energy, I made a concerted effort to write more this week, and finally completed a long and dramatic scene split over two chapters.
I’ve changed my target to finish this draft. The end of February was too optimistic.
I’ll be disappointed if I don’t meet the new target of the end of March, particularly as I have two weeks off from my day job in that period and will be able to dedicate more time to it.
I can’t wait.
status.vol2
The Spike Volume 2 will contain three separate books from the perspective of seven characters.
Part 1 – draft 2 complete; further chapters to add.
Part 2 – draft 2 complete!
Part 3 – draft 2 written up to chapter 22; forty-four chapters to go.
The intention is to complete draft 2 of part 3 by the end of March.
Part 1 is currently much shorter than the others, and I want them to be closer in length, so I will need to decide how to tighten parts 2 and 3 slightly, and add more to part 1 – I have some exciting ideas to expand it.
Then a readthrough of all parts will determine how much revision is required.
The ultimate aim is to have Volume 2 finished by the end of 2025 for publication early 2026.
connecting_links
The Spike is set in our world, incorporating real events; the links below are relevant to the themes and overarching storyline, and may or may not provide clues to the direction of the series.
I do not necessarily agree with or endorse any of the views within.
5 years after Britain left the EU, the full impact of Brexit is still emerging
Biden pushed back on Big Tech’s power, and Trump found a few new friends
China’s DeepSeek AI shakes industry and dents America’s swagger
We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan
weekly_inspiration
Every week I share something that’s inspired my creativity.
This week, I’ve been enjoying the Amazon Prime TV drama Bosch: Legacy, a spin-off from the original Bosch TV show. Telling you about the newer show would be a spoiler for the original, and I highly recommend watching the seven seasons of Bosch first.
Bosch is based on the best-selling series of novels by Michael Connelly, and follows an LA homicide detective. I’ve never watched a TV drama that feels so much like a novel – it moves at a slower tempo than many shows without ever being boring, and is really effective at building mystery and tension over the 10 episodes of each season. It’s got a tone all of it’s own which I really appreciate.
It hooked me enough to buy the first book in the series, although that remains in my too-long to be read list for now!
What’s inspired you this week? Please share in the comments.
See you next week.
Arrowmaker Books 