Brappalled, yet Braughing as Often as I Bran

What I love about British comedy is how dark it is.  I'm not Britain's biggest fan right now.  I was born Canadian and have been a joint citizen of the UK for many years, and I'm basically now staying in the UK because my girlfriend is here.  And regardless of political opinions, one must admit that the cartoon above is well observed. 
My opinions on the matter are strong, and my social science background helps the ones involving pure economics be, frankly, closer to facts--in spite of Britain being, apparently, "tired of experts" (easily the stupidest argument ever made, the existence of experts being arguably the crowning achievement of civilisation).
But what was an economic tragedy for Britain, and another fine example of the old screwing over the young with outdated economic theories and even more outdated social ideologies, was also a great moment for comedy.  Seriously, towns with a good comedy scenes like Cambridge, Manchester, Stratford-upon-Avon, Newcastle--the list goes on--were rammed with people quelling their anger with laughter.

Twitter lit up.

I could go on all day.  To cap it off:

And one from America:

But my favourite of all has to be this:

So screw you in your kidney pie hole, Britain. Yes, it's still topical. It will always be topical. Euro-sceptics bitched for 41 years. People who would like the UK to continue to exist, and for the economy not to tank, will bitch for however long we want.

I'm Back... Again...

I've decided I'd better start posting on ye olde blog again.

Sorry dudes and dudettes. Should I ever get that dream book deal I'll be able to quit teaching and have more time to spend. Presently, I write until around 4pm, then teach from 5-8pm, then eat, sleep, repeat.

Anyways, I FINISHED A FIRST DRAFT OF MY NEXT BOOK!!!

!!!

If that sounds good to you, then GOOD!

Naturally, that only means I'm about 2/3 finished. With some writers it's a lot less than 2/3, but I find my first drafts are usually pretty decent. Now I'm giving it a once-over, then sending it to test readers, then giving it a twice over, then sending it to my agent, then giving it a thrice over, then crossing my fingers.

Living the life...

I'm not giving anything away about the book, but if you're thinking "congrats", then the congrats are appreciated.  Let's just hope it's not a fiasco like last time.

For those of you who missed it, last time I got told I'd written a really good book, but that tragedies don't sell, especially not in YA. I think that's bullshit. (Think emos and goths, for crying out loud.) But regardless, it's what I had to live with.

Writing this book was very hard. Getting back on track after the steel-toed boot-slam in the balls that was my last book took some time. My productivity was cut in half for many, many months. This book felt, for a long time, like a work of labour rather than a work of art.

Then there was the American Democalypse, and Brexit. Politics have been very distracting, too.

But the socks were pulled up and I worked through the suck, and in the last month or so I've found writing this book to be a joy.

I've decided to share more of what I think is important or just plain nifty on my blog. I think part of what drove me away is the idea that every post has to be some earth-shattering, fascinating, original idea. (Not that I've ever really managed that, but still, I always put a lot of thought and time into them.)

For today's pointless picture for pinterest, I decided just to hit the nose: