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I have a new novelette in the latest issue of “Space and Time” Magazine. It is entitled “Franklinstein,” and features the hitherto untold story of a dark incident during the lifetime of our founding father, Ben Franklin, and how it served to partly inspire Mary Shelley’s subsequent immortal tale.

However the original story was originally a bit longer than the printed version. There was a lengthy intro that helped set up the background, but it made the story too long for “Space and Time,” so we had to trim the introduction.

But I really liked it, and so I am presenting it to you here. If you like it, then go out and get the magazine at your local bookstore or order it online. And since it came out in 2016, well, when it comes to award nominations for the year, kindly keep it in mind if you consider it worthy of recognition.

Ladies and gentlemen: “Franklinstein.”

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You stood there in front of a packed audience and you stammered and stuttered and held your hands in a palsied fashion. The “what” of what you said is beside the point. You could have tried to refute his article by simply addressing the facts. Instead you chose to mock, not his words, but his disability.

It was foul. It was evil. It was mean. And it was not remotely presidential.

And your response is to deny it and try to trash Meryl Streep in the process.

How in the name of all that’s holy is anyone supposed to believe anything you say when you deny that you did things WE ALL SAW? When you stand there in less than two weeks and claim that you are going to defend the constitution–a document I would wager you have never read and know nothing of its contents–why are we supposed to think that you mean it?

This goes beyond the fact that you are (at least now) a Republican. This goes to the core of the man you are. A man stands up for what he believes and a man takes responsibility for what he does. You do neither. We do not know what you believe because it changes depending on who you talk to. We do know you refuse to own up to the things you say.

You are seventy years old and remain a cypher, and that makes you possibly the most dangerous individual ever to have high office.

For God’s sake: Grow the hell up.

PAD

It’s been quite some time since I did a movie overview, so let’s round up the horses around the campfire and talk about as many of the films that I’ve seen in recent months that I can remember off the top of my head. I’ll try to keep them relatively spoiler free.

In no particular order:

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I do not believe for a moment that Trump will make it through his entire four years. So the only question is, what will cause him to depart the presidency? I’ve decided to start a pool right here. The pool consists of two questions: 1) The date of his departure, and 2) the reason.

Here are the rules of the pool:

1) Your entry must be submitted here at peterdavid.net. I don’t care if you read about it on Twitter or Facebook. If it doesn’t show up here, it doesn’t count, because I’m not going to be bothered to review entries all over the place when the time comes.

2) If you say it’s through assassination on a particular date and then you kill him, you have voided your entry and forfeit the prize.

What’s the prize? Glad you asked: the winner (well, broadly speaking, we all win) will receive a copy of “Altered States of the Union,” the short story anthology which features, among other stories, my tale of an alternative Alaska in which Governor Sarah Palin of North Alaska is locked in a combat to the death across a savage Alaskan battlefield with Governor Donald Drumpf of South Alaska. It will be autographed by myself and as many authors as I can dragoon into it.

So everybody enter.

PAD

ADDENDUM: DATES, people. Reason isn’t enough. There has to be be a date, down to the month, date and year.

This is the second time in four years that my body has rebelled against me. The first time was nearly four years ago when I had a stroke in Florida that shut down the right half of my body, an event that has residual effects to this day.

This time around, even a week later, I am still a bit uncertain as to what happened. First my left ankle was wracked with pain, and then my right, and then I could no longer stand up. It was as if I was going dead from the waist down, but this time the work of some virus rather than my brain turning against me. Seven days and a buttload of antibiotics later, I am now able to stand up and walk with the aid of a walker that I’ve nicknamed Imperial because really what else are you going to call a walker?

I would like to thank all of you for your well wishes and support for Kathleen and Caroline during these trying times, and my legs are getting stronger every day, so that’s improvement. I’m hoping to be back to normal within another week.

In the meantime, keep buying my books because the hospital bills are going to start flooding in and we could use the help.

PAD

Kath here-

He’s home. He was released from the hospital yesterday and is very happy to be back home.

It was basically a massive infection that he needed hospital grade antibiotics to kick.

His legs are feeling stronger each day. He said he felt no pain this morning while walking around the house so what they did worked.

Now he has to work on getting his legs back into good order. Right now he is good to go around the house. He is working up to getting to a convention in mid January.

Thank you one and all for your words of support and encouragement. We appreciate each and every one of you.

For Caroline and me, the best gift this morning was having Peter home. Although I got a pretty kicking Dr. Strange statue and my parents gave me a copy of the new Labyrinth game.

Hugs your friends and family. Tell people you love that you do love them. Life can change so quickly and regret leaves a bitter taste.

Merry Christmas-
Kathleen O David

I saw Peter yesterday and he was able to stand and take a few steps. This is monumental to getting him home. He is still in pain but nothing compared to that he was even the day before. We know this because he hasn’t taken any painkillers since Wednesday so again a good sign.

So the nebulous might be date is rapidly turning into Saturday, which will mean that he will be home for Chrismas/Hanukkah.

Once we get him home, there will be things that still need to be dealt with but he won’t be in a hospital. And since he has been in the hospital since Monday, he is so looking forward to getting home and back to his routine.

So thank you all for your positive thoughts, prayers, and good wishes. It does help in ways we cannot even imagine.

In other news about the house, the first issue of Artful the comic adaptation by Action Labs is in your local comic book stores this. And Peter has a story entitled Franklinstein in the current issue (Winter2016) of Space and Time magazine.

Caroline and I know we have some more questions to answer in the Ask Us entry and we will be getting to them after we get things sorted out here so probably this weekend.

I can’t tell you how much it means to know that we are working our way back to normal around here. Hug your loved ones a little extra this holiday season because life can change in an instant.