I hear an author blog is s'posed to be an Authentic but Also Curated Internet Presence, topical, focused, even in tone and always showcasing the author's brand.

I...uh...problem is, authentic me is a bit flaky on the outside, thick and juicy once I get going, sometimes salty, sometimes sweet, relentless and omnivorous in my research & reading interests but unfocused in same, opinionated and cranky. It's impossible to tell whether I'll feel like writing a until I dig into it. And some posts are both. Hm. I think my brand is "pie."

2. True story: my brain is weird,

The weirdnesses run in my family, so because of that, I didn't know I wasn't "normal" until I went out & about in the world in my teens and later. Some examples:

From the time I could tell time & read, I was given a reading light, lots of books, and tacit permission to do whatever I wanted all night long as I stayed in my room and was quiet enough not to get caught. Quelle surprise to me that other people slept all night EVERY night, not just some nights.

It turns out most people's parents did not read bedtime stories backwards as well as forwards. Or make games out of recognizing full words and phrase rather than alphabet letters. Or encourage little kids to memorize long passages of text. My dyslexic dad did all those things.

Things I learned from classmates: other people did not go outside and play (read: burn off energy running around) BEFORE doing homework. or again afterwards, after dinner, as a reward for sitting still. The concept of napping after a meal remains alien to me to this day.

I was taught from forever how to set up my personal spaces and daily routines to counteract an innate inability to find anything stored inside another thing. Dressers and desks are like magic disappearing devices. I have solid "put it where it goes" habits, EVERYTHING I OWN has a specific home, and all important items are stored in full view. Wall hooks, open shelves, and nothing layered inside shelves.

3. this week's grouchy voting rant.

I do not care if you hate the system or hate Joe Biden because he's a rapist or too moderate or too progressive OR you feel your vote doesn't matter OR you want things to change some other way. I don't care.

Look. I don't do hyperbole here. I wrote a whole scifi series set in a United States that collapsed like a socio-political soufflé, deflating into death one crisis after another, and I did a LOT of research into trends and danger signs and what makes good countries go bad...

and I gotta say I am pretty pissed off to be watching it happen in real time. I keep hoping we will step back from the precipice, but we are already witnessing--and too many of us are enduring--civil warfare at the local & state level while our national leaders publicly flout the rule of law, gloat about it, and bring down the full force of those same laws on everyone they dislike, guilty or no. Oh, and then there's the climate collapse & the virus disaster and-and-and UGH.

If you think not voting means you don't have skin in the game, you are so, so very wrong. That isn't how civics works. SOMEONE gets into every office. Not voting only guarantees that you're stuck with someone else's choice. And the fewer people who vote, the more likely an extremist will get in and do things you don't like. At. Every. Level. This is how Home Owners Associations go bad. This is how bad people become mayors who give their buddies big pensions. This is how creeps voted up through the ranks into the Senate.

"IT DOESN'T MATTER/IT DOESN'T AFFECT ME" IS HOW WE GOT HERE, careening through history into a future I have really, really fought hard to prevent.

4. Once more thing.

Not to end on a brooding grouch, here's a recipe for fresh pickling solution that works with a wide variety of veggies. I went to a lot of trouble to make sure if was reproducible using measuring tools I've been winging it for literal decades without any, basically doing it to taste to fit whatever size receptacle I had. The below proportions work.

• 1 c vinegar
• 1 c hot water
• 1/2 c sugar or sweetener
• 1 tbsp salt
• dealers choice of aromatics. I like to slice in a yellow onion, maybe some fresh seeded jalapenos, a few peppercorns. Garlic clove & dill leaf or seed are a popular choices, but I don't like it. YMMV, whatevs.

That's it. Mix up until everything dissolvable has dissolved, then pour over sliced or small veggies in a container you can refrigerate. If you use plastic, be warned it will take on the scent of the vinegar & veggies inside.

And that is that all there is to read from me until later. Unless you want to go out & buy my books, insist all your friends buy them too so you can enthuse about them together, and then write reviews all over the internet. In which case, you have lots more fun ahead of you.

No? Okay, then. Until next blog!