...Sits In Western Parts

John Balance, one of the founding members of Coil and a sometime contributor to Current 93, died over the weekend.

Thanks to Andy for sending me the story. As he said, "The world certainly doesn't need any fewer interesting musicians."

"Hell is paved, despite the Balance, with tedium and loss":

(Yet the stars and the moon and the sun and the comets and the little birds and the little lights and the little animals that sing to God God bless the little animals and the little animals that scream to God please O Lord bless the little animals that weep and weep and weep they are approaching the Greatbluegate of Death itself oh Lord hear me when I shout and shout and shout my heart is almost empty)

...I fall to my knees and weep. And goodbye to You all.

Update: David Tibet pays heartbreaking tribute on the Durtro site.

There will undoubtedly be more.

Omnia mutantur, Neil interit

It's Neil Gaiman's birthday today. Happy 44th, dream-weaver; Murphy watch over you, and many happy returns.

I can think of no better way to mark this than to renew my overlong-expired membership to the CBLDF - which you should join, too, if you haven't already. Now more than ever, defenders of free speech are going to need all the help they can get, so get a membership, donate, buy some of their swag. They're seasoned champions in the war against fuckwittage, and we need them, and they need the support of Readers Like You. (And, dude, they have Barry Ween stuff. How goddamn cool is that?) As they used to say in the funnybooks: 'nuff said.

My own writing isn't quite going like gangbusters so far this week; I'm at an even-keeled 15,652 words, which isn't where I'd like to be but is respectable enough. NaNoFounder Chris Baty recommends a hearty breakfast, so maybe that'll make the difference tonight. In any case, a day that starts with a bacon, egg and cheese bagel (no doubt my first of many violations of Leviticus before bedtime) can only be so bad.

There's a Wall of Words Around My Heart

I am, I'm pleased to report, right on schedule for Week One with a wordcount of 12,297. This is good, and gives me hope.

I'm not following my original plan of working from an outline, mostly because I kicked it off at the top a week ago and it just sort of kept going. This may yet change, of course. For now, pace and progress are both good, though I've been positively Benedictine about not rereading, so for all I know it's twenty-five single-spaced pages of complete crap. So it goes; ask me again come winter, when I'm gnashing my teeth over the rewrite.

I apologize if I haven't been up to jumping into last post's excellent political discussion, though all y'all are doing such a fine job of it that I can't bring myself to feel much guilty about it. My energies, at least for now, are largely elsewhere, and I figure if the Chimp's keeping me away from my novel then the goddamn bad guys have already won. But do carry on, and I'll try and contribute when I feel I've something constructive to add.

It's been a gorgeous autumn weekend up here in Edgewood, and it's weird as anything to think that we've had nearly a whole year in our house. Strange turns of fortune. I'm lucky as hell, and don't think for a minute I don't know it.

Now I'm going to treat myself to a shower and some pleasure reading. I'm pretty confident I've earned it. Good night, and be kind to each other. Now more than ever, it's what the world needs.

"Where is the horse and the rider?"

Take the day, if you must, to grieve.

Get it out of your system, because tomorrow we're getting back up.

Be angry. Be frustrated. Be furiously, fiercely,righteously pissed off, because we're going to need it. There's work to be done.

What we don't need is defeatism and hopelessness. And we don't need any fucking despair. It's a luxury we're done with, now. Remember that half of the nation stood with you last night. I'm not ready to do them the dishonor of curling up and going quietly. Are you?

And shame, shame on you if you start talking about Canada now. This is the country that needs you, more than ever. It's still ours. We're not giving it up without a hard, bitter fight. (What, you thought this was going to be easy?)

This is not a tragedy; this is a setback. The battles that were there on Monday are still there this morning. I plan to keep fighting them while I can still draw breath. If I lose - if we lose - it won't be because I lost heart when the tide of it turned against me. The one sure way our enemies can prevail is if we give up and let them.

Are you with me?

For Wrath, for Ruin--

Re-Defeat Wishworld

Final thoughts on why we should oust the Smirk today:

Anyanka. You trusting fool! How do you know the other world is any better than this?

Giles. Because it has to be.

Break the demonic power. Vote.