Carmen Epona Lake 📚

Guess what? You can now sign up for my newsletter from my bio (linktree link) or my website!
Since this is the only social media app on which I’m active, I thought I’d create another way to connect.
This is an *infrequent* newsletter for anyone who wants to keep up with my life and stories.

I’ve been struggling to fight my demons this week, and they’re winning because they’ve taken form as a new WIP.

Tax cuts for giant corporations and the super rich.

Paid for by cuts to the social safety net for everyone else.

Trickle-up economics.

I completed My Time at Sandrock’s main storyline the other day, and it is truly the greatest video game I’ve ever played. WOW. I’m counting down the days until My Time at Evershine comes out.

This isn’t immigration policy. It’s a business model.

ICE keeps growing, not because it makes America safer, but because corporations are raking in billions off cages, bodies, and suffering. ICE’s existence is a massive revenue stream.

A Black man was killed by ICE (off duty) in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve. And like Renée Good, he was an American citizen. But most people have not heard about Keith Porter.

I need y’all to realize this. Black people experience this lack of visibility all the time when it comes to being victims.

No way Drumpf would EVER understand this.

-A living wage
-Guaranteed healthcare
-The right to join a union
-The right to vote
-The right to choose when, how, and with whom you start a family
-The right for you and your family to live free from gun violence

These are the foundations of real freedom.

Poverty is a policy choice. Concentrated wealth is a policy choice. Inequality is a policy choice. None of it is natural or inevitable. Remember: We have the power to build a system that serves the many, not the powerful few.

Via NPR ~ Hundreds of celebrities have relaunched a committee to defend free speech that was first formed during the post-World War II Red Scare. It’s spearheaded Jane Fonda, whose father, Henry Fonda, stood against the Hollywood blacklists of the McCarthy era.⁠
⁠

Casual reminder that the myth of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is a cruel hoax designed to convince poor people from all walks of life that the injustices they face are a result of their own actions, rather than an oppressive system rigged against them.

Happy EPSTEIN Files Release Day Eve for all those who celebrate!!! 👍

Don’t forget to get your digital copy of Merrick Academy: Making the Team for free on Smashwords before the sale is over! Oh, and the other two books are heavily discounted too.

I’ve put 115 hours into My Time at Sandrock already, and I’m still not emotionally prepared for the end of the storyline.

Currently dealing with a social situation that’s causing me to be frustrated and upset, but I’m not in the circumstances to resolve it. 😩

This is why I prefer to sit at home with my pets instead of going places with “friends” even though I crave socialization.

The Smashwords sale is on, and all three Merrick Academy books are part of it!

P.S.: the first book is FREE

I’ve had the Wicked/Wicked For Good soundtracks on repeat all day but No Place Like Home is my favorite.

December came far too fast. I got very little writing done last week, but I completed a chapter for Merrick Academy, and I’m at the tail end of a chapter I added to KAR that wasn’t on my outline. It’s time to get to work.

My western saddle made its way out of storage for the first time in several years.

I’m the only vegan and liberal in my family so obviously today is my favorite day of the year 🙃

But in all seriousness, I have lots to be thankful for, and I wish you all a happy thanksgiving.

My collection of ebooks is available as part of the Smashwords 2025 End of Year Sale! Find your next favorite book this month at smashwords.com/sale and follow @smashwords for more promos like this! #EOYSale25 #ebook #sale #books2read #indiebooks

I thought I was dressed up all cute today for work and then I picked up my kid from school and she said I looked like Bobby from Kpop Demon Hunters.

Terrific

😬

Where do you purchase ebooks? I’ve been trying to avoid Amazon for a while now but I haven’t settled on a go-to store for ebooks yet. (I have several favorite stores for physical copies.)

AOC: "It is unconscionable that what we are debating right now is legislation that will give 8 senators over $1 million a piece & we're robbing people of their food assistance & healthcare to pay for it. How can we vote to enrich ourselves by stealing from the American people?"

In case you were wondering why the government was shut down:

Beshear: Let me be clear. The president has both the funding and the authority to fund snap during a shutdown. In fact, every other president in every other shutdown has done so. People going hungry in this instance is a choice that this president has made.

If I was a Republican member of Congress watching the results tonight, I’d ask myself if I really wanted my legacy to be: Guy who helped an aging pedophile suspend the constitution so he could enrich himself and his friends.