May 3, 2025
First volume / Final volume
of Jeff Wheeler’s Harbinger series for the french translation by Editions Rivka.
seen from Italy
seen from France
seen from Italy
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Denmark
seen from Italy
seen from Spain
seen from Jordan
seen from Azerbaijan
seen from Germany
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Georgia
seen from Bulgaria
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
First volume / Final volume
of Jeff Wheeler’s Harbinger series for the french translation by Editions Rivka.
Photo: Jeff Wheeler for the Minneapolis Star Tribune
* * * *
Broccoli
We are not crazy. Things really are catastrophically bad. Jesus lies down daily with a cool compress on His head. My friends and I await the rain of frogs. Of course we experience hopelessness in the face of the murder in Minneapolis, the oil for blood in Venezuela, ICE and the National Guard, the possible military takeover of Greenland and the ensuing dissolution of NATO, and all the ways Trump is trying to avoid the full release of the Epstein files.
What gives me hope most days is We, the people, and the huge peaceful rallies.
PS, the Epstein files will be released. Think J.Edgar Hoover and Clyde. On Easter, we remember that you can bury the truth in the ground, but you can’t keep it there. My deepest hope is that the files will be released before Mr. Trump dispatches a nuclear bomb, and that he gives up—and gives himself an award for stopping nuclear war.
What is happening is beyond most of our ability to capture in words, but I had an event this week that fell on my tiny acre that offered a microcosm of what we are experiencing as a nation—pain, terror, grief.
The backstory begins three weeks ago when Neal and I were at the movies and I realized I had an unpopped kernel in my mouth. Everything in me said to spit it out—they are basically buttery salty ball bearings—but I ignored my inner voice and bit into it.
No one better expressed listening to one’s intuition than Mel Brooks in the 2000 Year Old Man, when he said, “Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it.” I wrote a whole chapter on this in my first writing book, Bird by Bird, and mentioned it in my upcoming writing book with Neal, Good Writing. When you are stuck in your work, listen to your broccoli. Your intuition can be trusted.
Ignoring my broccoli, I bit into the kernel, and split my bridge, a bridge that was only two and a half years old. A bridge is three crowns, so costs about $6000. In other words, not ideal.
I made an appointment with the new dentist who has taken over my dental practice, where I have felt safe and even secure for thirty-one years. And this is what happened with the first shot of my first visit with the new dentist: She hit the nerve with her needle.
Did any of you see the movie Marathon Man?
I’m pretty sure I experienced a full body electrocution, beginning in my gum and traveling the length of my body. I screamed, thrashed, whacking both the dentist and the assistant with my fists, and I cried out, “What have you done?” The dentist and her assistant proceeded to do everything calming and compassionate they could think of, while I cried. I mommied myself, loved on me, and told terrified me that whatever we needed to do was fine. We could stay or go. I listened to my broccoli. It said that I was there, partially numb, and needed the crown. So I stayed, and let the dentist proceed.
Two hours later, when I told Neal, he was flooded with grief, with rage and despair that this had been done to me. He couldn’t shake his sorrow for me. After stating his plan for revenge, along the lines of Trump’s threat to Minnesota of reckoning and revenge, he did what was possible: Advil, tea, my blanket and the cat. He held me.
This was all, as I said at the beginning of this little piece, microscopic, but between the betrayal, the shock of electrocution, the tears, and Neal’s pain at what had been done to me, I saw America.
I saw how more than half of us feel half the time under the reign of Stephen Miller—hurting, terrified, gobsmacked, standing by helplessly as we watch our brothers and sisters being crushed.
But we have a plan filled with calm and compassion, and that plan is America. The plan is the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation. That plan is peaceful civil disobedience—we start with joining Minnesota’s General Strike this coming Friday, by not spending a cent anywhere but at our local, family-owed stores. Those of us who can stand meet at intersections with our No Kings signs, and ones that say, “ICE melts under resistance.”
Our nation, our family, is suffering, and we need to meet that with peace and compassion. My brilliant priest friend, the late Father Terry Richie, always told us, when we felt beyond hope, “Do the next sensible thing for a person in your shape.” That’s the plan. That’s all I need to remember.
Anne Lamont
Alif the Unseen (2012) by G. Willow Wilson Fiction | Young Adult | Fantasy, Cyberpunk, Science Fiction
In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients—dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups—from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif—the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and a convenient handle to hide behind. The aristocratic woman Alif loves has jilted him for a prince chosen by her parents, and his computer has just been breached by the state’s electronic security force, putting his clients and his own neck on the line. Then it turns out his lover’s new fiancé is the "Hand of God," as they call the head of state security, and his henchmen come after Alif, driving him underground. When Alif discovers The Thousand and One Days, the secret book of the jinn, which both he and the Hand suspect may unleash a new level of information technology, the stakes are raised and Alif must struggle for life or death, aided by forces seen and unseen.
The Queen's Poisoner (2016) by Jeff Wheeler Fiction | Young Adult | Fantasy, Historical
King Severn Argentine’s fearsome reputation precedes him: usurper of the throne, killer of rightful heirs, ruthless punisher of traitors. Attempting to depose him, the Duke of Kiskaddon gambles… and loses. Now the duke must atone by handing over his young son, Owen, as the king’s hostage. And should his loyalty falter again, the boy will pay with his life. Seeking allies and eluding Severn’s spies, Owen learns to survive in the court of Kingfountain. But when new evidence of his father’s betrayal threatens to seal his fate, Owen must win the vengeful king’s favor by proving his worth—through extraordinary means. And only one person can aid his desperate cause: a mysterious woman, dwelling in secrecy, who truly wields power over life, death, and destiny.
Which would you read?
Alif the Unseen
The Queen's Poisoner
Does the fool man know I've already chosen him? Maybe I should have written a confession of feeling on a note, bound it to an arrow, and shot him in the heart from the palace walls. He may not understand anything more subtle.
— Jeff Wheeler, Knight's Ransom
The Queen's Poisoner || Jeff Wheeler || Kingfountain #1 || 334 pages Top 3 Genres: Fantasy / Young Adult / Magic
Synopsis: King Severn Argentine’s fearsome reputation precedes him: usurper of the throne, killer of rightful heirs, ruthless punisher of traitors. Attempting to depose him, the Duke of Kiskaddon gambles…and loses. Now the duke must atone by handing over his young son, Owen, as the king’s hostage. And should his loyalty falter again, the boy will pay with his life.
Seeking allies and eluding Severn’s spies, Owen learns to survive in the court of Kingfountain. But when new evidence of his father’s betrayal threatens to seal his fate, Owen must win the vengeful king’s favor by proving his worth—through extraordinary means. And only one person can aid his desperate cause: a mysterious woman, dwelling in secrecy, who truly wields power over life, death, and destiny.
Publication Date: April 2016. / Average Rating: 4.11. / Number of Ratings: ~34,440.
About Me Tag Game
thank you so much for tagging me, @midnightseance!
last song: Come Along, by Cosmo Sheldrake. It’s a vibe
last movie: Promising Young Woman. Carey Mulligan is fantastic.
currently watching: I’ve been watching A Series of Unfortunate Events with my mom and my sister, Lovecraft Country with my brother, and American Horror Story: Roanoke with a couple of my friends (distanced). I also just started watching The Queen’s Gambit. which is... kind of a lot now that I write it out, lol.
currently reading: The Queen’s Poisoner, by Jeff Wheeler. I’ve been enjoying it a lot so far!
currently craving: Tomato basil soup, but like, from a specific place near where I live 😂
tagging (if you want!): @the-bi-sokka-club, @ordinaryfruitpunch, @eleusis, @thewhiteviolesbian, and anyone else who wants to!
History repeats itself
I'm never going to shut up about the kingfountain series