It’s still early on a Friday. I’m sitting outside at the Santa Clara Marriott. Baycon is about to begin. As of today, The Repossessed Ghost, my first novel, has been out for 2 years.

The beginning of last year, we published One For the Road, which I wrote for Melissa in 2017. At Baycon 2024, one year ago, we published The Psychic on the Jury, a Mel Walker novelette finished early last year.

I have Scrivener open right now, near the end of another chapter of The Psychic Out of Time, and I’m having a hard time focusing on the story.

There’s too much going on in the world right now, and submerging into the story feels like escapism. It feels like privilege.

As I’m sitting outside in comfort, the first group of detainees are experiencing a new reality in America’s newest concentration camp in Florida. Last night, the Republicans in The House passed the big, terrible bill which increases ICE’s budget while at the same time decimating Medicaid.

It’s all happening in real time, and it’s happening fast. America is falling. Trump brags (lies) about the economy doing great, while the facts show that the GDP shrank half a percentage last quarter. The dollar is weak. Our global alliances are in shambles.

And people are smiling. They’re going to let off fireworks tonight, as if millions of Americans hadn’t just been given a death sentence last night.

People are going to work, keeping their heads down, doing their jobs, because most people in this country can’t afford to take a break . Their rent is too damn high, their school debt is crippling, and they are one bad accident from medical bills destroying what little they may have saved.

I’ve been extremely fortunate. I’m lucky enough that I can afford to stop, look around, and see where things are going. It makes it that much harder to bury my head in my book — my fiction — and ignore the suffering of others and the destruction of American ideals.

It’s time for me to head to the dealer’s room. I will put a smile on my face, talk to people about books and nerdy shit, and try to help them have a good time. I’m not sure how much writing I’m going to get done this weekend, though.

Wherever you are, whatever you’re up to, I hope you get the July 4th you need and deserve.