First, Kill Well is finally revised and ingested in all the proper platforms. Amazon now provides the revised Kill Well: same ISBN because it is the same book, except for some corrections and a bit of word tweaking I couldn’t not do as I went through the book to conform Kill Well to reality, which is to say the ascension of Trump, since I had figured—incorrectly, regrettably—that the Democrats would prevail on November 5, at least for the Office of President, thus ensuring the remarkable progress on climate accomplished in the Biden Administration.
Well, alas, this hadn’t gone the way I’d wanted it to go, and, frankly, there are plenty of reasons for the failure on the part of the Democrats, but lately—and as the statistical analysis of voter turnout presents—the biggest reason for Trump winning in 2024 is that too many would-be non-Trump voters didn’t get excited enough about the Democratic candidate and stayed home. Ballotpedia reports that, “The overall turnout of eligible voters in the 2024 general election was 63.7%. This was lower than the 2020 record of 66.6% but higher than every other election year since at least 2004.” Count-wise, 155 million voted in the November 5, 2024 election, when Trump received 4.8% of the votes. The difference was a bit more than 3 million more participating voters in 2020 over that of 2024, and those stay-at-homes coulda, shoulda made the difference with having Trump lose. One might conclude that we’re having to deal with the chaos and craziness that has marked Trumps first few weeks in office—not to mention the ferocious pro-fossil fuels and anti-renewables shift—because too many people couldn’t rouse themselves.
But, as usual, I’ve buried the lede, which is that Dear Josephine is well along in its proverbial ninth month and birth is imminent. I’ve just finished up the production version of the cover, as you can see, placed in this post for your viewing pleasure.
While the inconvenience and extra work and anxiety that Trump’s victory has caused me with The Step Climes Quartet isn’t on the same level of critical importance as the awful consequences of the delay, denial, and reversal of Biden’s impressive climate bills, it did mean that I needed to revise the already published Kill Well. This contributed to the delay in the planned publication date of December 2024 for the second book in the series, Dear Josephine; the other delay was the revision and rewriting of Dear Josephine’s finished manuscript to also conform to the political reality of Trump.
Well, it isn’t like I was unaware of the dangers and challenges of writing near future novels, and the revision work got Kill Well, which takes place in 2026, very near future indeed. Dear Josephine takes place in 2029, when the consequences of Trump’s climate denial and fossil fuel boosterism would still be felt, although I have had the mid-term election in 2026 shift some power in Congress away from the sycophantically-inclined cowardly Republicans, and then the 2028 national elections result in a full switch to Democratic Party control of the Executive and Legislative branches. Come 2028, if a shift to the Democrats does not occur, or if, indeed, there is no election to inconvenience our would-be monarch, then no new revisions will be forthcoming, mainly because I’d be running silent in my bunker of despair or trying to join the sort of climate terrorism groups I’ve included in Dear Josephine, with plenty more presence of such already in place within the book notes for the third and fourth books of the series.
But, as usual, I’ve buried the lede, which is that Dear Josephine is well along in its proverbial ninth month and birth is imminent. I’ve just finished up the production version of the cover, as you can see, placed in this post for your viewing pleasure.
Sign up to be notified for new posts from this site. It’s about to get busy. Again.