Amy Wachspress's Blog

Friends and Readers,

I am delighted to announce the publication of my novel Penelope’s Odyssey. The book is available from all the usual sources in paperback and hardcover editions. You should be able to order it from your local bookstore and if not let me know and I’ll help you get a copy. This is the last of the large, full-length novels I have spent decades writing during my life. While I have some other book projects in the works, I doubt I will ever write another large novel. I hope you hav...

I had occasion to reread a blog post from 2018 about demonstrating to support refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers. It made me want to put it out there again so here it is for anyone who still gets notifications when I post on this blog. (There's now a paywall at the Chronicle so the link at the end doesn't work unless you have a subscription.)

Refugees Again
I wore my vintage bright pink New El Salvador Today (NEST) T-shirt from the 1980s to the Families Belong Together demo at the ICE Detention ...

 

Tomy family and friends who live around the world in other countries: 

I’msending you these words from inside the belly of the beast. Please know that millionsof us continue to resist. You must wonder about us; how our country could havecrashed this fast. But think for a moment about our history. This country isbuilt on white supremacy, slavery, genocide of indigenous people, greed, lies, andexploitation for profit. This country was formed by landowning white men, whowere at that time t...

I sent our tax information to our accountant this week so I have taxes on my mind. The thought of paying taxes to our criminal government is more than I can stand at the moment. I remembered a blog post of mine from 2019 and went back to reread it. I talked about being a war tax resister back in the day. Here is the last paragraph from it. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Not long after the 2016 election, I reread Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience,” which is his reflection o...

I am pleasedto announce the publication of my new novel Guardians of Water. The book isavailable from all the usual sources. The paperback is $18 and the hardcover is$35. I suggestordering it through your local bookstore. Tell them it’s available throughIngram. Please help me getthe word out about this book. If you like it, tell some friends about it. Thanksfor supporting me as a creative writer 

Here's a little bit about Guardians of Water:

Sixdiverse women friends meet for the weeken...

For those following along, this is the last chapter of Changing the Prophecy, serialized hereon the blog. Changing the Prophecy canbe purchased online or at your local bookstore. If you want to read it forfree, start at the beginning by searching back to the first chapter, firstepisode. You can do this by typing “Chapter 1 Episode 1” in the search box inthe upper left corner of the landing page for The View from Amy’s World. Forthose of you who followed along here on the blog, here is how ...

 

Chapter 26 Muffins for Hyacinth

The Four and their traveling companions would have returnedto Big House City in unbounded celebration and triumph had Crumpet andButtercup not lost their lives to the struggle. The death of the two enchantersweighed heavily on everyone’s heart. Doshmisi felt bone-weary as she rodeDagobaz, who insisted on taking the lead, always out in front of the tigers.She could not hold him back nor did she have the desire to do so. The air hadcontinued to clear steadily ...

 

Chapter 25 Singing Home the Algae

Sonjay ran to Doshmisi’s side and fell to his knees. Heshouted, “No, no, no, you stupid book! Give them back. Figure it out. You haveto give them back!” Kneeling beside him, Doshmisi put her arms around him andtogether they sobbed for their lost friends, while everyone else, who hadremained on the crest of the rise at the edge of the beach, made their way acrossthe sand to join them. Maia had her arm around Cardamom, who wept silently. Manyof the others ...

 

Chapter 24 The Work of the Herbal

Doshmisi rode off toward the ocean through the open gate. Elena(with Guhblorin clinging to her) and Maia followed Doshmisi out the gate andtoward the water, but Dagobaz swiftly left them trailing behind. By this time,the air had grown thick and oily. Doshmisi had never had asthma, so she didn’tknow what an asthma attack actually felt like, but she imagined it felt liketrying to breathe the thick, oily air that surrounded her. She had to force theoxygen int...

Chapter 23 Crumpet's Transformation

By the time Doshmisi, Denzel, and Sonjay returned to theoutdoor cage, night had fallen. Their father rushed to greet them, relieved tosee them unharmed. They filled him in on what they had learned from Aldus Shrub.Guhblorin, Iris, Mole, the intuits, and the royal couple had bedded down andfallen asleep. Even in his sleep, Guhblorin clung to the little comb that wasCrumpet. All three of the Goodacres felt tired, trapped, and out of ideas. Theyhad set out o...