Deborah J. Ross's Blog, page 62

A Prayer Against Detaining Children​

A Prayer Against Detaining Children​by Alden Solovy
God of the captive,
God of the imprisoned and detained,
The voice of heartbreak echoes across the land,
Children rejected at our sunset gates,
The Mother of Exiles weeps for the innocent,
Their journey to Liberty bringing detention, deprivation and death.
Has compassion fled our borders?
Has the lamp at our door been extinguished?
Has Justice abandoned her post?Source of comfort and hope,
You call upon us to stand in the name of the children,
To witness against mistreatment and neglect,
To fight a government that separates parents from minors
At the border of our nation,
Flaunting power,
Ignoring decency and law,
Allowing the innocent to die.Bless those who dedicate their lives to human rescue.
Grant them the fortitude to battle in the name
Of the unknown, the unseen,
Those who cannot be forgotten.
May the work of their hands never falter,
Nor despair deter them from their holy calling.Bless those in human bondage with hope and courage.
Grant them the strength and the fortitude
To face the indignities and privation forced upon them.
Hasten their release.
Grant them lives of health and prosperity,
Joy and peace.Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who releases the captive.
Baruch ata Adonai Eloheynu melech ha-olam, matir asurim.
From the blog ReformJudaism.org

Cover Reveal: Sword and Sorceress 34

This last volume includes my novelette, "Many Teeth."

Short Book Reviews: Indiana Jones in Contemporary Israel, with Insight

Alpha and Omega, by Harry Turtledove (Del Rey)
Harry Turtledove has written a lot of books. Really, a lot. Alternate history, pure science fiction, whimsical fantasy, humor, historical fiction, and more. I haven’t come across a single one that wasn’t a fast, smooth read with plenty of action and a ton of nifty ideas. Every once in a while, though, he so completely nails a story, concept and prose and thematic resonances, that it stays with me and I find myself blabbing about it like a fangirl to all my friends. The Guns of the South (time-traveling racists arm the Confederacy with automatic weapons) was one such. Also Ruled Brittanica (the Spanish Armada prevails and William Shakespeare writes insurrectionist plays) and In the Presence of Mind Enemies (Jews survive in the shadow of victorious Nazi Germany). Now I can add Alpha and Omegato that list.
The elevator pitch for this book might run, “Indiana Jonesin 21st Century Israel, complete with American evangelicals, ultra Orthodox Jewish settlers, Muslim terrorists, and journalists on the lookout for a good story, with an occasional miracle.” But it’s much more. It begins in a perfectly ordinary thriller-ish way with a dirty bomb detonated in Tel Aviv and team of Israeli archaeologists (Jewish and Arab, with a nonobservant Jewish American and a dewy-eyed Christian student thrown in for good measure) excavate under the Temple Mount and find (of course, Indiana Jones style) the Ark of the Covenant . . . floating inches above the floor. And the skeptical journalist who unwisely lays hands on it is summarily carbonized.
What to make of this miracle?
Everyone with an ax to grind about the fate of the Middle East has an opinion, and Turtledove minces no words in depicting the sincerity, fervor, and insanity of the different viewpoints. Muslims, Jews, and Christians are all convinced the End Times are nigh and that their version of who wins and who loses is the correct one. The only thing they can agree on is that the Ark floats “because God wants it to.”
It would be all too easy for a story such as this to devolve into proselytizing, taking sides, playing religious favorites, or turning the various proponents into caricatures. Turtledove avoids all these pitfalls, forging ahead at pager-turner speed while subtly weaving in threads that reflect not only our human prejudices but also our shared human experiences. To say that the ending transcends the current political polemic is an understatement.
Go out and buy this book, and then use it as the context for discussing the difficult issues of today with people you don’t agree with . . . yet.
The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to praise it. Although chocolates and fine imported tea are always welcome.

Today's Moment of Art

Twilight in the Tropics, 1874 | Frederic Edwin Church

[rant] In Troubled Times: Still Here, Still Holding on to Hope

Following the 2016 election, I posted a series of essays called “In Troubled Times.” I wrote about despair, fear, anger, powerlessness, and determination. Then the initial fervor faded. Exhaustion set in for me as well as for so many others. Emotional exhaustion. Spiritual exhaustion. But the constant, increasingly vitriolic litany of hate and fear, as well as the assaults on democratic norms and civil liberties not only continued, it escalated.
What is to be done in the face of such viciousness, such disregard for human rights and dignity? Such an assault upon clean and air water, endangered species, and the climate of planet we depend on for our lives? How do we preserve what we value, so that in resisting we do not become the enemy?
I don’t know what the most effective strategy of resistance is. Social media abounds in calls to action. I do know that there are many possible paths forward and that not every one way is right for every person. Not everyone can organize a protest march (think of five million protesters in front of the White House; think of a national strike that brings the nation’s businesses to a halt). I find myself remembering activist times in my own past.
I came of age during the Civil Rights Movement and the Viet Nam war resistance (and, later, the women’s rights movement of the 1970s). I wore my hair long, donned love beads, and marched in a gazillion rallies. Those memories frequently rise to my mind now. In particular, I remember how frustrated I got about ending the Viet Nam war. In 1967, I joined the crowd of 100,000 protesters in San Francisco. I wrote letters, painted posters, and so forth. And for a time, it seemed nothing we did made any difference. My friends still got drafted and not all of them made it home, and those that did were wounded in ways I couldn’t understand. Others ended up as Canadians. I gave up hope that the senseless carnage would ever end.
But it did. And in retrospect, all that marching and chanting and singing and letter-writing turned out to be important. The enduring lesson for me is that I must do what I feel called to do at the moment, over and over again, different things at different times, never attempt to second-guess history, and especially never give in to despair. Enough tiny pebbles rolling down a slope create a landslide.
My first political memories date back to the 1950s, when I saw my union-organizer father marching in a picket line. The 1950s were a terrifying time for a lot of folks. For my family, it was because my parents were active in their respective unions, and both had been members of “the Party” in the 1930s. My father was fired from his job on a pretext and soon became the target of a formal Federal investigation. (He’d been under FBI surveillance since 1947.) The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to take away his naturalized citizenship. It was a time of incredible fear: people committed suicide or “went underground” (now we call it “off the grid”) by living in safe houses and using only cash. Some of our relatives did that, and our home became one of those havens. The DoJ suit was dismissed in 1961, although the FBI continued secretly watching my father until his death in 1974. I should add that it is so odd to me to regard that bureau as protecting democracy in current times, after their 1984-like behavior in the 1950s and beyond.

The point of all this is not that my family had a hard time. Lots of families had a hard time. Lots more are having an unbelievably hard, terrifying, horrific time today. The point is that we got through it. Not unscarred -- it’s still excruciatingly difficult for me to call attention to myself by political activism. My parents never stopped working for a better, more just and loving world. They never lost hope.
In college I used to have a hand-written quote from the mid-60s by Carl Oglesby on my door. I searched for it on the internet and couldn’t find it, but it said something along the lines of this not being a time to give in to fear but to drink lots of orange juice, to love one another, and to bring all our joy and gusto to creating a world of peace, justice, and equality. The same holds true today. Since we live in a time when fear, selfishness, racism, and violence are proclaimed from the very highest levels of government, then we need our own turbo-charged, heavy-duty, loud and joyous commitment to the values we hold. And drinking your orange juice isn’t a bad thing either: we of the people’s resistance need to take good care of ourselves.
This is what I tell young people today. I remember what my parents told me when I was wigging out about some minor incident or another during the Cold War:
Keep your eye on what you would like to bring about, not just what new outrage is filling the news. Persevere with unstoppable steadfastness. Nourish yourself as an antidote to exhaustion. Pace your efforts. Keep balance in your life. Make music. Dance. Drink orange juice. Love fiercely.

Short Book Reviews: Paranormal Romance Reads Like Failed Thriller, or Vice Versa

American Witch (American Witch: Book 1), by Thea Harrison (Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op)
I read a little romance and a lot of fantasy, so I tend to prefer stories that are heavy on magic/plot/dramatic tension and tender love stories, and light on heaving bosoms and overwhelming lust for inappropriate partners. So now you know my prejudices.
American Witch begins promisingly enough with forty-something Molly Sullivan discovering that her attorney husband has been unfaithful to her . . . again. She wigs out, confronts him before the senior partner of his firm, the newly elected District Attorney, and all the guests at their elegant party, throws the contents of their safe into her suitcase, and decamps. From there, matters spin utterly out of control as she discovers banking records for an account in the Seychelles and her soon-to-be-ex comes after her in a near-lethal attack. She fights back, using magical Powers she had no idea she possessed. Soon she’s entangled with Josiah Mason, the above-mentioned DA, who is an ancient, powerful witch himself, and has gathered a coven to track down and eliminate an even older and very wicked witch (one of whose past lives will be immediately recognizable). In other words, the story hits the ground running.
Alas, all that action comes to a near halt as Molly and Josiah become increasingly mired in their mutual lust and repulsion. Finally they tumble into bed together, drenched in overwhelming sexual need, with tons of pretty nicely described sexual acts. There’s even a brief discussion about birth control, for which the author would get a gold star from me except it’s not about responsible, mutually respectful sex, it’s a set-up for the inevitable contraceptive failure and resulting pregnancy.
At this point, the thriller-type action comes to a screeching halt, ditto the story of how Molly learns to control and value her magical Power. Instead we have scene after scene of graphically depicted obsessive sex punctuated by statements of distrust and rejection, with only an occasional nod to Molly being a strong, independent woman. I felt as if I’d signed up for one reading experience – an urban fantasy thriller with a touch of romance – and gotten dropped into a not-so-soft porn romance.
Eventually the chain of events that opened the book catch up with the lovers, but not before Molly discovers she is pregnant, decides that as long as Josiah is bent on tracking down this ancient and very bad witch he’s too dangerous to be around her and the baby, then reconnects with him, then decamps to a witches’ commune on the California coast, then reconnects, and so forth.
Molly’s magical education, upon which the climax of the story ultimately relies, comes way too late in the book. Josiah gives her a few bits of advice early on, and she practices but gains facility way too easily, then she learns magical herbology and a few other nifty tricks, then all of a sudden, she is in tune with “her” elements and skilled in wiccan-esque invocations. In fact, when she calls upon her various Power-skills, it seemed to me they were drawn out of a hat. This is a shame, because there was great potential in the Western coven, its lore, techniques, and characters. Molly-coming-into-her-own and Molly-finding-her-magical-family take a back seat to the sex scenes and the merry-go-round relationship.
As a reader and as a writer, I prefer eroticism to be evoked or suggested within the context of a fascinating relationship. I like characters who are comfortable with their sexuality but not incapacitated by it. So I had a problem with Molly and Josiah’s love life on several counts, as described above. The result is an imbalance in pacing and dramatic structure, with thriller-urban fantasy acting as book ends (beginning and end) to spicy romance.
The opening of a book is a contract between the author and the reader. The author shows the reader what kind of experience lies within the pages, but then must deliver; it doesn’t work to switch genres in mid-book, and as much as I liked the opening of American Witch, that was my experience of the overall book. I wished the author had made up her mind what kind of story she was telling.
On a more minor note, I found Molly’s pregnancy unbelievable. Certainly, pregnant women can be physically and dramatically active (with my first pregnancy, I worked full-time and trained in kung fu until my 8th month), especially during those months when she feels exceptionally well with a rush of hormone-fueled energy. Most women, however, feel different, whether it’s nauseated from morning sickness, aware of physical changes (breast size/texture/soreness, elevated heart rate, elevated body temperature, changes in joint/skin elasticity and center of gravity, and so forth). Molly never seemed pregnant to me, except for talking about it. Surely a witch in tune with moon phases and the ocean and so forth would be more aware of the significant transformation of her own body.
The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to say anything in particular about it, one way or the other.

I'm in the "A Matter of Time" StoryBundle!

THE SFWA TIME TRAVEL BUNDLEA Matter of Time Bundle - Curated by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of AmericaWhat better way to forget about the present than by exploring the past and future? Ever since Jules Verne turned the dials on his famous machine, time travel has been a staple of science fiction, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's A Matter of Time StoryBundle continues this rich tradition by presenting fourteen temporally vibrant novels by both bestselling authors and rising stars.SFWA is an organization dedicated to promoting and supporting science fiction and fantasy writers in the United States and elsewhere. The A Matter of Timebundle was curated by SFWA members to showcase the incredible range of thought-provoking stories that can be explored through the conceit of time travel, from adventures in the distant past to the far future.And the bundle also includes Blue Apocalypse, the first book in a new series by New York Times bestselling author Craig Martelle, Time Trap by USA Today Bestselling author Jill Cooper, and Nairobi Jack by Monique Martin, among many others. The A Matter of Time bundle will run for three weeks only. This is a terrific way to sample a wide variety of stories and discover great new writers!For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you're feeling generous), you'll get the basic bundle of five books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.             Jurassic Jail - Time Wars Book 1 by William Alan Webb            Einstein's Secret by Irving Belateche            Jaydium by Deborah J. Ross            Blue Apocalypse - End Days Book 1 by E.E. Isherwood and Craig Martelle            Marking Time - Immortal Descendants Book 1 by April WhiteIf you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all five of the regular books, plus NINE more!             The Continuum by Wendy Nikel            The Syndicate - Timewaves Series Book 1 by Sophie Davis            The Redemption of Michael Hollister by Shawn Inmon            The Lights of Time by Paul Ian Cross            Nairobi Jack by Monique Martin            Imposter Messiah by M.W. Davis            Time Trap by Jill Cooper            Supernova - The Commons Book 1 by Jessica Marting            Millennium Crash by James Litherland This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub and .mobi) for all books!It's also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.            Get quality reads: We've chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.            Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth. If you can only spare a little, that's fine! You'll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.            Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there's nothing wrong with ditching DRM.            Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America!            Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you'll get the bonus books!StoryBundle was created to give a platform for independent authors to showcase their work, and a source of quality titles for thirsty readers. StoryBundle works with authors to create bundles of ebooks that can be purchased by readers at their desired price. Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com.For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, tweet us at @storybundle and like us on Facebook .

Today's Moment of Art

Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860 | Frederic Edwin Church

[personal] My Mother Was Murdered, and That's Why I Oppose the Death Penalty

The Department of Justice recently announced its intention to resume executions. I am appalled by this decision, and this is why:
In 1986, my 70-year-old mother was asleep in her own bed when a teenage neighbor broke into her home, raped her, and then beat her to near death and left her face down in a partially filled bathtub. It was a spectacularly brutal, banner headline crime, called by the District Attorney one of the most heinous in the history of the county.
Even in light of what happened, I am opposed to capital punishment, and I'd like to tell you why. I want to emphasize that I do not speak for anyone else. We all have different experiences, different histories, different internal and external resources. If there is one thing I'd like you to take away from my story, it is that not all the families of murder victims want the perpetrators to be executed.
I believe that capital punishment harms the survivors by interfering with the natural recovery process. In other words, when we focus on revenge instead of healing, we never heal.
A number of years ago, when I was being interviewed about my mother's death, the interviewer said to me, “You seem like such a sweet person. Most of us just aren't that spiritual.” What she meant was, “How could you not want revenge?” What I thought was, You have no idea how angry I was and how much I wanted to hurt the man who did this.
The rage I felt and that I've heard expressed by other murder survivors is so overwhelming, it's hard to find words to describe it. You feel as if your skin is going to crack open and out will pour enough molten hatred to incinerate the entire world. For years after my mother's murder, I obsessed over exactly how I would kill the perpetrator with my bare hands and how much I wanted him to suffer for every moment of terror and pain he'd caused her. The images were so vivid, I couldn't tell if I was awake or dreaming.
Adrenaline-fueled anger enables us to get through those early days and weeks. It sharpens our senses and focuses our thoughts. Our hearts pump faster. Biologically, we are primed to do whatever is necessary to meet the threat. We don't feel our own injuries, either of body or of mind or spirit. All our resources are devoted to our immediate survival. In some circumstances, this lasts only a short period of time. I know people who have lost loved ones to murder, but in that same incident, the murderer was also killed. At the other extreme are instances where the perpetrator is never discovered and the survivors must cope with the nightmare of walking down the street, suspecting every passer-by or wondering if the murderer has taken another life. I know people in that situation, too.
Anger and the craving for revenge are normal reactions when someone you love has been viciously attacked, their dignity as well as their lives stripped from them.  At the same time, these feelings fuel the illusion that retribution erases pain, and popular media constantly reinforce this illusion.
We human beings aren't meant to stay in this hyper-alert, super-reactive, primed-for-battle state indefinitely. Mental health suffers as well as physical health. Most of all, we lose our selves. When we re-organize our thoughts and our lives around the goal of retaliation, we have nothing left over for the difficult work of healing. Even the process of grieving becomes distorted. We become focused on one single goal: making the perpetrator suffer.
This is what happens when someone – the District Attorney, for example – says to us when we are at our most vulnerable, when we’re in so much pain we can’t think straight: “When the person who did this is dead, you will have closure. It will all be over. You will feel better and get your life back again.”
Please understand: This is a cruel lie. We can never go back to the way things were before the murder. But the death of another human being cannot ease our agony. All such a promise does is keep us locked -- incarcerated -- in a permanent state of bitterness and hatred.
So what’s the alternative? On hearing my story, many people ask me, “How did you survive?” But I don't think survival is the question. Although numb with shock and drenched in grief, we get up in the morning. We brush our teeth. We go back to work. I had two daughters to care for, one almost seven and the other three months old; their need couldn’t wait. We take on the trappings of an ordinary life, carrying on in the blind faith that our insides will someday match the artificial normality of our outsides. In other words, we do what seems best to us in order to survive.
I was fortunate enough – and desperate enough – to seek out skilled professional care with a therapist experienced in treating PTSD. Because the kid who killed my mother was an alcoholic/addict, I attended Alanon meetings for over 20 years to work on those issues.
We can never go back to who we were before the murder, but we can go forward, re-engaging with positive, meaningful aspects of life, fully experiencing our feelings, and understanding what we have lost and what can never be replaced, but what can be created.  By acknowledging and experiencing our painful emotions, we allow fresh air and sunlight into our wounds. That’s how healing takes place. The more we stop looking to an external event -- the execution of the murderer -- to somehow make us feel better or to "achieve closure," and instead concentrate on taking care of ourselves -- our health, our hearts, our families, our spirits -- the better we will fare.
Almost every family member of a murder victim has lost not only a loved one but our belief in the decency of our fellow humans and our sense of safety in the world. Over the years, I found comfort, understanding, and strength in sharing my story with others who have endured similar losses. In listening with an open heart with families of those who have been executed, I recognize their loss because it is the same as my own. I can tell you unequivocally that I never, ever want anyone to suffer as I have. The life of their loved one has been taken not in a moment of anger or passion but with cold, deliberate malice on the part of the government. I refuse to allow my personal tragedy to be used as justification for state-sanctioned murder.
“No killing in my name.”

Short Book Reviews: Hearne and Dawson Pervert The Lord of the Rings

No Country for Old Gnomes (The Tales of Pell), by Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson (Del Rey)
This whimsical anti-fairytale continues loosely after Kill the Farm Boy. If Kill the Farm Boy was an approximate, sort-of take-off of The Princess Bride, No Country for Old Gnomes owes much to The Lord of the Rings. At the core of the book is a quest, although not to destroy a ring. Here the halflings are the bad guys, bent on ethnic cleansing of gnomes, with whom they theoretically co-govern according to an ancient treaty. A fellowship – again, of sorts – sets out to retrieve the original documents and restore justice to the realm. They include not only a pair of gnomes (male and female, equally bearded), a dwarf on his coming-of-age Meadschpringå quest, a halfling attorney who believes in the rule of law, a saltshaker-stealing ovitaur (like a centaur, only sheep and woman) with her heirloom automaton, and a telepathic gryphon.
Besides an occasional comment like: “an ancient dwarf named Sir Gimlet, who was involved with the Fellowship of the String,”or “in a hole in the ground there lived a family of gnomes,” a brief encounter with Tommy Bombastic, and fanciful names like “a gnome whose gname tag read Hippi Pott,” there is a hilarious take on a classic passage:

   Everyone looked to Faucon [the legalistic halfling] as he stepped forward and solemnly knelt before Agape [the ovitaur].
   “I will protect you as we journey to the Great Library. You have my sword.”
   Kirsi [one of the gnomes, a sorceress] stepped forward to kneel, plucking a hir and tying it into an intricate design. “And my cursed bows.”
   Båggi [the dwarf] trotted up and knelt, offering his picnic basket. “And my snacks!”

Several characters from the previous book make guest appearances, both living and ghostly, notably King Gustave who was formerly a goat and hasn’t quite mastered the nuances of being human but makes a decent monarch anyway. As with Kill the Farm Boy, I found the book overlong and unevenly paced, but quite entertaining. No Country for Old Gnomes has more depth and occasional poignancy, which bodes well for the forthcoming The Princess Beard.
The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to say anything in particular about it. Although chocolates and fine imported tea are always welcome.