Feels Like It's Been 15 Years

     If it feels like I've been around for 15 years, it's because I have been. Yep, the Jurassic One wrote his first blog post about John Kerry and the 2004 election 15 years ago yesterday, the first of about 5000 total posts covering three administrations, including eight sessions of Congress, and the lunacy in each one of them. So, in internet years I guess that makes me the Helen Thomas or IF Stone of political bloggers.

     For the first four years, I'd given it away. I'd just begun flexing my muscles in another arena of internet punditry and it was a sheer rush. Back then, as I've said often, I wouldn't have recognized Karl Rove if I'd shared an elevator with him. And, while the learning curve of political science is, like any other worthy discipline, a steep one, I felt as I was up to the challenge. I'd like to think I was correct in my assumption.

     But in 2009, I had to set up a Paypal account to supplement my income after I lost my home and family of 15+ years and especially after I lost my job of six years a month later. In the last ensuing 15 years, political blogging and my fiction have been the only two constants in my life. In the 10 years since I've been living in Casa de Gotham City (née Pottersville), I've churned out just over 3000 posts totaling perhaps between 2-3,000,000 words. This, obviously, plus the tremendous research involved subtracts time and energy from my fiction writing but I've still found time this past decade to write eight novels plus a couple of dozen unfinished projects.

     But my rent's gone up $150 from $600 to $750 over the last decade and since our lease is up at the end of next month, there's nothing to stop our landlord from jacking up the rent again before the next lease is signed. Earlier this month, I'd had to put back in the bank $500 I'd had earmarked for next month's rent which is due in three days (leaving us with just $250). Our monthly disbursement won't keep us solvent even with the shorter month coming up, especially as my auto insurance premiums doubled since my car accident in June 2018. We're going underwater and I have a girlfriend and a cat to provide for (We just had a medical emergency earlier this month that apparently MassHealth, our insurer, isn't totally prepared to cover since she was hospitalized for three days with pneumonia).

     So if you can help us out in any way possible, please do so. I hate writing these letters but I must if we're to keep living indoors during this winter and beyond. I don't write these posts out of greed. If you haven't been keeping up with my dispatches, then there's lots of new material to read by my alter ego Mike Flannigan and me including a goodie posted just this morning about Bolton's likely testimony before the Senate.

     On the literary front, my novel, TATTERDEMALION, is featured in the current issue of PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY so check it out and get a copy, if you haven't already. It's gotten a 4.5 average rating for some good reasons.