A Twelfth of Carrabis – September 2025 Newsletter

• Musings
• Aiden Ryan Wins Last Month’s Little Game
• RoundTable 360° The First Word
• That Think You Do Volume 2 publication is this coming Friday, 26 Sept 2025. AND WE’RE HAVING A PARTY!
• Writers’ Workshop
• Greg Hickey’s Murder in Retrograde is available!
• Talk with the Editors
• Zen Citizen Makes the News!
• A Little Game

Last month I wrote of unseasonal heat, this month Autumn has arrived with chilly nights and bright, warm days. The seasons and cycles of life continue, and our job – mine, anyway – is to appreciate and rejoice in them, both chill and warmth.

Human beings are the only species (that I know of) which actively modifies its environment to suit its physiologic need. There are fascinating (to me) reasons for this.

We, as a species, migrate faster than we evolve. Other species invade new territories (hence the term “invasive species”) as evolution and climate allow, not us. We invade territories beyond our biologic thresholds, meaning we require protection from the environment because we’re not designed for a given environment and aren’t willing to evolve to that new environment.

I mean, wooly mammoths didn’t simply show up in high temperate and tundral regions. They moved there over generations. They were caught in an energy-environment trap; not enough food here, food there, too cold to survive there. What to do?

A small percentage of the entire pre-wooly mammoth population had the genetic flexibility to adapt, aka “evolve,” to the new environment and moved there step by step, inch by inch.

(more likely steppe by steppe) (budda boom)

Back to our unwillingness to evolve. Richard Dawkins said, “…our genes have provided us not with fixed responses to specific events (because these cannot be anticipated with any degree of accuracy), but with general tendencies that are adaptive across local variations.” The highlighted text is significant because it is an ability humans are losing over generations, meaning our lack of adaptability is causing us to genetically stagnate as a species. We’ve stopped evolving generationally. Evolving technologically doesn’t cut it because modifying ourselves technologically calls into question “What does it mean to be human?” Modern societies already live much of their lives in the 3rd person – experiencing the world through a device or avator rather than directly – perhaps we’ve already become homo technocalis and not realized it.

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. Humans change their environment to suit their biology. They do so via an unnatural consumption of resources, and all things exist in balance. Take from here and something fills here to restore balance.

Enter waste, trash, refuse, … All the byproducts humans throw away because they no longer serve a purpose, and not a biologic purpose, simply an avaritical purpose.

Danger, that. Balance requires something to fill voids humans create when they “take.” Humans are currently seeing that balance restored in ways which – typical to such systems – are evolving faster than we can technologically evolve to them.

Remember, “balance” doesn’t mean a restoration to what was, it means a modification to what is so that what is is in balance. Increase the level of greenhouse gases, the ocean warms. Melt glaciers and polar icecaps to increase sea levels so the warmth is dispersed planetarily, not locally, and balance is restored. Shift climate and species invade new territories but because the climate is shifting in technologic time species don’t need to evolve to the new territories, meaning existing territory-based species go extinct because the new species evolved for the new climatory requirements, meaning they’re ready, the existing species are not, and so it goes.

Modern humans as a species have developed some dangerous yet fascinating tendencies to deal with their inability to adapt biologically to what their technologically imposed balance: ignore what they don’t want to acknowledge, isolate from uncomfortable information, change history to suit current ideologies.

Prof in Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress said, “A society adapts to facts or doesn’t survive.” Match that with the Calculus of Indications First Rule, “No system can evolve unless it is in direct contact with other systems it can adopt from and adapt to.” and Abby Smith Rumsey’s The most readily adaptable animal is the one with the largest repertoire of stored experience to call upon. The smaller our repertoire of experience, the more vulnerable we are.” in When We Are No More, and it causes me to wonder how many more newsletters there will be – from me, from others – and what they will contain, what information will be relevant, useful, and balanced.

Aiden Ryan won last month’s Little Game using a tool most often used by stage magicians and mathematicians – he worked the problem backwards (and did so quite nicely). Mathematicians often need to develop equations to explain some natural phenomena, magicians know what they want the result of an illusion to be. In both cases, they’ll start with the result – the phenomena or final illusion – and ask “What happened right before this?” They’ll repeat that process until the math is developed or illusion finalized, and such did Aiden with last month’s offering.

RoundTable 360° – Our 25 Sept 2025 RoundTable 360° session is The First Word -A group was recently asked “Who would you bring back from the past? What would you want to know from them?” Answers ranged from “Julia Child” to “Kurt Vonnegut.” Learning who someone would bring back from the past etc. is only interesting if I find the person bringing and/or the person brung interesting. My first thought was “I want to meet the first creature to decide “Oomph” meant “go left” and “Aarff” meant “go right.” I want to know how that creature convinced the creature beside it to agree “Oomph” meant “go left” and “Aarff” meant “go right” because thus began language. It was the start of novels, fiction, journalism, debate, plays, theater. From that moment foreword, every time one individual uttered a sound and one other individual responded based on mutually agreed-to meaning, we became us. The First Word could have been an image on a cave wall or the first note from a carved flute and the evolution holds. At what point did everyone agree a curve made with charcoal was a bison in the field? When did everyone agree these notes together made them happy or sad? How and when did “we became us” turn into “us-them” and “we-they”? What have we done with The First Word? Reserve your place at the RoundTable for Thursday, 25 September 2025, 7:30pmET (NOTE NEW TIME! please check local times).

That Think You Do Volume 2 Romance and Relationships – will be published this coming Friday, 26 Sept 2025, and I’m holding an online party to celebrate. First reader comments are strong: “Carrabis shares some astute insights into the human condition and differences between the sexes based on solid research and personal observations. He offers these up with a pinch of humor, making reading this book feel like chatting with an old friend.” “Approaching male/female relationships from refreshingly unique directions, Carrabis educates us in such an engaging, comprehensive way that you’ll be tempted to write a thank-you note.” “I’ll be sending a copy to a relative who’s studying to become a counselor.” “I wish my therapist had the sensitivity and understanding Carrabis has.” The online party will be Friday, 26 Sept 2025, 6-7pmET via Zoom, and give away signed ePub copies to the first five people who show up and a signed print copy to the winner of a meeting contest. Sign up here. You can also get signed copies at a 25% discount here using code TTYDv2R&R

Writers’ Month Long Workshop – October 2025’s writers’ workshop covers many if not all phases of craft and storytelling. The workshop is on Wednesdays, 1-29 Oct 2025, morning and evening openings available. Sign up here. You can an idea of what craziness (and learning!) will ensue on my Experiments in Writing posts.

Greg Hickey’s Murder in Retrograde – Greg writes “I’m thrilled to announce that my new sci-fi crime novel Murder in Retrograde is now available! Join cynical, wise-cracking Marcus Carver on his first case as a private detective as he navigates a divided, near-future America. Battling cyberpunk gangsters, cultish environmentalists and crooked cops, can Carver catch a ruthless killer before the next body drops? Get your copy of Murder in Retrograde here: Amazon Barnes & Noble Signed paperback Or use ISBN 978-1-7330937-5-0 to have your neighborhood bookstore order Murder in Retrograde.

Talk with the Editors – Wilderness House Literary Review EIC Steve Glines and I (Senior Fiction Editor) hold monthly open chats with authors interested in a) writing for us, b) improving their craft in general, and/or c) increasing their chances of being accepted by other markets. Meetings are held via Zoom on the last Friday of each month from 9-10amET. So, want to know how to write for us? Want to know what gets our attention? Want to know how to write better for whatever market you’re interested in? Join us for our next “Meet the Editors” Zoom session on 26 Sept 2025, 9-10amET. Seats limited! Sign up and talk with us. We’re relatively easy going and fun to be with.

Zen Citizen – Sister Vineeta Kommineni‘ Zen Citizen makes the news! – Big Congrats to Sister Vineeta Kommineni’s Zen Citizen for being covered by a leading newspaper! Detangling the knots of e-governance for Karnataka citizens, one click at a time Zen Citizen offers guides that cover the entire journey of applying for government services, explaining how to plan ahead, prepare the required documents and handle issues after the application is submitted WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!

A Little Game – On my drive into work I pass what looks like a warehouse with this sign What do I read driving home when I’m coming from the opposite direction? The first five people to get back to me with a solution get a signed That Th!nk You Do Volume 2: Romance and Relationships ebook. The first person to get back to me with a solution which makes me laugh gets a signed print copy of That Th!nk You Do Volume 2: Romance and Relationships (and no looking it up on the internet, folks!).

That’s it for September. See you next month!

Enjoy!