Anthropomorphizing a cluster of cells

Like many people, I was appalled at the decision of a state in which I will never again be a tourist to ban abortion after six weeks, even in cases of rape and threat to the mother’s life or health. I, too, think it is terrible to contemplate that a woman would be forced to carry her rapist’s baby to term and that she could be punished more severely for aborting than he for raping her.

But that’s not the point.

NO WOMAN should be forced to carry an unwanted baby to term. NO LAW should ever attempt to enforce the religious beliefs of any group or individual on anyone else. Every single unwanted pregnancy WAS CAUSED BY A MAN EJACULATING IN A VAGINA. No exceptions. Deal with that problem.

The so-called ‘heartbeat law’ has no basis in actual science. An embryo that doesn't have a heart can’t have a heartbeat. It is just a vibrating cluster of cells, the equivalent of a cancer attached to the fertile environment of a woman’s womb. Even in advanced medicine, a being isn’t considered ‘living’ just because it has a heartbeat. The most fundamental of all determinants, going back to ancient times, was whether it was breathing. In more modern times we have looked for brain activity. You can easily pull the plug on a loved one if it is shown that he can’t breathe on his own and has flatlined as far as brain activity goes.

These laws attempt to anthropomorphize a zygote (not even considered a fetus yet) with the feeling, emotions, and life of a middle-aged white man. Most teens don’t even have the self-awareness being presumed upon a zygote.

Next, the old white men will be requiring the naming of tumors and religious burial for them. At least those that grow in women. We wouldn’t think of regulating men’s bodies like that.

I try to live my life without shame, but of everything that I have done, the one thing I am ashamed of I can’t do anything about. I’m an old white man. I continue living because perhaps my votes will counterbalance the radical Christian terrorist relatives who are so consumed by their religious values, they have ceased to be human beings. Perhaps my vote will offset the high school classmates who have come to believe that Facebook memes are the same as ‘just common sense.’ Perhaps my voice in my fiction, will awaken even a reader of erotica to the stupidity of their blindly held binary beliefs and determination to force everyone in the world to adhere to them. Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Wiccan… Your religious beliefs ONLY apply to you! Live your life according to your so-called values. Don’t try to legislate them on the rest of us.

Friends and Family

Serene. Serenity. Visiting Michele, Jason, and Quinne is always an incredibly peaceful time. No matter which side of my face I sleep on!

Lake Serene is placid. The deck is a place to spend hours. And I have. In the meantime, I’ve been continuing to write a chapter a day in one book and am carefully proofreading another. Wow! What a bunch of errors!

Serene. Serenity.

The dogs are always willing to help keep the peace. Just reach over and pet Apollo and Lucy. Instant calm. And they can’t be happier than with the estate they have to play on these days.

Of course, all that water means the adults need to play a bit as well. Jason got a couple of kayaks and we went shopping for life jackets. Then it was all about Jason and Michele learning how to paddle and control the little boats.

For a while, I thought they’d invented a game of bumper boats, but they eventually got straightened out. Next task is to learn to use the fishing gear!

Remember back in December when Quinne and I had our big wilderness adventure in Prieta Cabeza Nature Reserve? We had quite the experience squeezing the big truck through roads that weren’t made for a big truck.

I’m afraid the truck came out pretty scratched up, but as my friend Colleen said, ‘It’s engraved with happy memories.’ Nonetheless, Quinne promised that when I came up for my visit this spring, she would buff out the scratches. True to her word, she started in on Friday and has now completed three of four steps in the process.

This is with just step one completed on the back panels. What a difference! So, some of the smile lines on the truck have been botoxed and smoothed out. The memories are still there and we’ve been reliving some of them as we chat this week.

I’ve decided to stay here another couple of days and Quinne will take a day off so we can find something fun to do. Hopefully, that won’t require the whole buffing process to be completed again! I’ll head back to Sun Meadow on Thursday.

Stay tuned next week for information on the release party for Wild Woods, Municipal Blondes, and Double Time at Chandler Reach Winery in Woodinville WA. Some fun times will be happening! Especially if I get all these proofreading errors in Municipal Blondes corrected!

We Have Term Limits!

As candidate after candidate throws his or her hat in the ring for the next election, I’ve started seeing this meme floating around more and more:

Well, I am happy to inform everyone that we do, in fact, have term limits. They are called “Elections.” Here is how they work in a nutshell. When a politician has exceeded a certain term in office, you vote for his or her opponent.

It’s easy. Let’s say the term is fifteen years. Treat everyone equally. Congress, Senate, mayors, governors… Anyone who has served fifteen years in that office has to be voted out. Which means, you must be willing to vote for the incumbent’s opponent, regardless of party affiliation, race, sex, orientation, religion, or creed. If the incumbent has been in office for fifteen years, you vote for the opponent. Period.

If you are not willing to commit to this, you aren’t really interested in term limits. You are only interested in limiting your opponents. In other words, you’re for politics as usual.

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Now important stuff about my travels. It’s been difficult to post and get connected for the past two weeks as I moved north toward home. I won’t try to cover everything in this post, but suffice it to say that I made it to Sun Meadow in Idaho and my camp is looking good. Sunday, 5/5, I drove across Washington State to visit family in Lynnwood, WA. I’ll be here for a week and will post more from this location later.

First, though, let me tell you about one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring parks I’ve visited. Cathedral Gorge in Nevada is about 100 miles north of Las Vegas. It starts off with a beautiful campground that includes electric for $25/night. Believe me, I’ve had a lot less for a lot more in many places and this campground would be worth spending the entire allotted two weeks in instead of the two nights I was there.

But it’s not only the campground that inspired me. In October, when I was headed south, I stopped to view the gorge from the upper observation level. I was determined to return. So, this time I explored from the lower end and walked into the gorge.

I know this barren terrain isn’t to everyone’s taste but I found the mile walk out into the gorge and back to be peaceful and inspiring. The nature trails are complete with signs pointing out what to look for. The paths are well marked without being obnoxious about it and the vistas are incredible.

Mark this on you list of places to visit the next time you are headed for Vegas!

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On the next front, I’ve completed the layout and sent three books to print for proofing. All three will be released on June 23 and there will be a party at Chandler Reach Winery in Woodinville from 2-5 that day. More details as we get closer. So, I sent both Wild Woods and Municipal Blondes off to KDP (Amazon) for proofing.

The proofs arrived yesterday. In what I’ve come to expect as typical of them, Amazon had to piss on what they think is theirs and automatically banded each book with a “Not for Resale” banner because God knows a cheating author might turn around and sell a proof copy and Amazon wouldn’t get its pound of flesh from it. Makes it really easy to proof the text on the back, let me tell you!

In general, though, the books are beautiful and I can’t wait to show them to everyone at their coming out party on the 23rd. There’s a lot of work to be done yet. Municipal Blondes, especially, is rife with proofreading errors and I’ll be spending a good bit of the next week with a highlighter and sticky notes.

The other new book is Devon Layne’s Double Time. This is book two in “The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins.” It will be coming to me from Barnes and Noble Press and is/will be available only by direct purchase from me. The book is huge (540 pages) and therefore expensive. But the paperback is one of the benefits my $25/month patrons receive. A limited signed edition. I expect it will get to me when I’m back at Sun Meadow next week.

I just like showing off the covers! The eBook will be released on June 23.

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About patronage. My Patreon patrons receive specific benefits from throwing a little money my way each month. I have two Patreon accounts, one for Nathan Everett and one for Devon Layne. I keep them separate because many Nathan Everett patrons prefer not to get posts about Devon’s erotica.

Patrons of either of my multiple personalities get access to material for both if they wish. The only difference is that at the $25/month level, Nathan Everett patrons get only Nathan Everett paperbacks while Devon Layne patrons get paperbacks from both prodigious authors.

You can subscribe for as little as a dollar a month just to show your support or at the $5, $10, or $25 reward tiers for advance release benefits. Check out the descriptions at

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Patronage serves two purposes. First, it funds my extravagant lifestyle and enables me to eat when Social Security runs out each month. Second, it enables me to provide free online reading versions of all my books. I hope you’ll join me!