Starting Out on 2026

 The worst thing about a colonoscopy is the prep. Disgusting stuff to drink, and reactions that good taste says not to mention.

The procedure took up most of December 31. It certainly left me without much energy for anything else. I did go to Amazing Joes for a cheeseburger and to Big Red Liquors for cigarettes.

I watched some movies on Tubi. Finished with the Michael York Three Musketeers and The Clouds of Sils Maria. 

I stayed up too late, got up at 6, went back to sleep and woke up again at 10:30. 

I walked down to the convenience store for Coke. Now, I need to fix something that went wrong with the research project and maybe do something that justifies my existence.

11:31 am

 I spent the rest of the day submitting stories, doing some revisions on a few stories, and doing a little reading.

Justifying Bigotry (Sheila Kennedy) 

In the societies they want to emulate, dissent from the preferred ideology of the regime isn’t tolerated. But of course, they seem convinced that the autocracy they favor would be founded on their preferred beliefs…

These “intellectuals” are trying to provide philosophical coherence and theoretical grounding for what is actually an emotional and irrational MAGA movement founded on revulsion for modernism and the social changes that they believe are eroding the dominance of White Christian males–hence their efforts to provide “principled” defenses of racism and misogyny, and the necessity of White Christian control.

The Old West End as a Model for Housing Redevelopment  (Muncie Journal)

In less than a decade since its founding, the Muncie Land Bank has become a statewide—and increasingly national—model for tackling vacancy and abandonment. Its work includes acquiring vacant and abandoned properties, stabilizing them, and returning them to productive use. With support from Ball Brothers Foundation, the Land Bank acquired the first 12 properties in the development site, an investment that proved pivotal in later being awarded 22 additional tax-delinquent properties from the Delaware County Commissioners in the target area.

The Muncie Land Bank’s approach starts by listening to and understanding resident priorities before taking on properties that have often sat vacant for years. Their work is rarely glamorous. It requires patience, detailed property research, careful acquisition, and the long process of stabilizing lots one by one. But this is exactly the kind of foundational work that allows large-scale, thoughtful redevelopment—like the Old West End effort—to take shape. That momentum has been strengthened by the collaborative efforts of the Old West Development Alliance, a coalition of nonprofits and neighborhood leaders working to keep redevelopment coordinated, transparent, and aligned with community priorities.

The Land Bank’s progress has been made possible by residents who speak honestly about what they envision for their neighborhood and by city and county partners who champion this work. Over many years, this process has paved the way for the major investments we’re seeing today.

Indiana Man Reveals How Easy it is to Get MAGA Angry Over a Flag, ‘They never know why they voted for Trump’ (NerdStash) - goes to show what goes down in Evansville.

The Tranquil Gaze of Benito Pérez Galdós by Mario Vargas Llosa (Liberties Magazine) - kind of behind a paywall, but you can read this under their free system. A great writer giving his views on an earlier writer. It was Llosa, so I read it. I now know more about Spanish literature, and a short tutorial on narration, that I did not have before.

The syllabus for John Pistelli's THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE. This I may need to spend money on.

When Story Loses the Plot: Hannah H. Kim ponders the plotless narrative as a tool for meaning-making. (LARB) Unsettles me in a way - that narratives may be coming to an end. It also makes me want to see if I have the skills to do something more.

Much of our storytelling today is individualized and limited in form—therapeutic, gamified, or organized around role-giving character archetypes. At other times, a prevailing mood of irony ridicules the very desire for narrative coherence. These tendencies can be read both as symptoms of distraction or commercialization and as an evolution of the form itself—an aesthetic and epistemic experiment in finding what still works when older narrative forms feel exhausted.

Such shifts are neither unprecedented nor necessarily impoverished; every era reshapes its dominant forms to match its conditions. But in tracing how plot has ceded ground to mood, character, identity, and game-like structures, we begin to see the contours of our present moment. We are wary of resolution and quick to protect against vulnerability while still needing a way to make sense of our experience. If the early 21st century considered storytelling the answer to every problem, the current moment asks what comes after. Whether our new forms can offer the same depth of connection and understanding—or whether they signal a long-term narrowing of the role narrative plays in our collective lives—is a cultural narrative that’s still unfolding. 

 Joyce Carol Oates in Conversation with Mark Jay Mirsky (Full Interview):

A rather lengthy evaluation of Susan Sontag, who I did get to read in prison, and who I found a kick in the head: Susan Sontag: A Critic at the Crossroads of Culture. Give it a read,

 Issue 1: Louder than Noise (Nov 2025) is something I have been nibbling on for a few days. Stuff here that I liked - check it out.

And a rejection:

Hello,


I'm so sorry to let you know that our editors have decided to pass on publishing "Coming Home" in our next issue. We enjoyed the unique approach of this piece, but don't feel like it quite fits with our vision for the upcoming issue.


I'm sorry to not be writing with better news, but we thank you so much for giving us the chance to consider your work. We wish you all the best in the future!


Best,

Sarah E.

EIC, For Page & Screen Magazine 

 sch 8:15 PM