Hi Dad, I’m in Jail. No, I’m Not.

A quiet weekend, the last one of spring, so I was happy to attend the “No Kings” protest in Milwaukee. An enormous, peaceful, intelligent gathering—it made me feel hopeful about people. There were speakers, followed by a march through downtown streets. I am impressed with the folks who are able to organize something like this, and the individuals who speak in front of the crowd. The streets—full of people expressing their opinions—rather than cars and day-drinking maniacs—makes the town look its best. I thought I’d walk around during the event and find some people I know, but the crowd was so dense, there was no chance. I did see one friend!

It's Father’s Day today so I avoided the breakfast spots—which I’ve been avoiding anyway, due to money. I suppose even when I was younger and things were dirt-cheap, I didn’t go to breakfast every weekend—so I guess it’s okay for it to feel special when I do go out. If I had kids, they might have taken me to brunch, today. Or they might be living in another town. One of them might have been speaking at this rally. Or they might be Republicans. My parents said, “Don’t disgrace the family,” and I suppose that’s what I’d have said to my kids, too.

Something just occurred to me that I’ve never thought about before. I could write a story about a character who has kids—just make it up. Sometimes I think it’s really interesting for a writer to approach fairly commonplace situations, but those for which they have no real-life experience, and get everything “wrong”—but in doing that, have a unique or strange take on it. I don’t know if I’ll do that or not, but it’s fun to think about.

Last week was the official release date of my new novel, which is called Around Desire. Follow that link to read about it, if you want to—it might be up your alley! I’m very happy with it. I have a hard time doing much in the way of promotion—whatever that would be—so I just want to make people aware of it. If I don’t sound excited—well, I am—but by the time you finish something—it’s been so long in coming and has taken so much work—it’s time to move on. I’m excited about what I’m working on now, of course. Every day is a little bit of an adventure.

Randy Russell 6.15.25