I feel conflicted telling people just how great the cruise was, because while I was on the cruise I would check the news and see the stock market plummeting and politics being awful, and I was just like "Hey! Another virgin Mojito, please!"

Anyway, the cruise was with my brother, Dan Wells. Dan is a writer, like me (he actually got me into way back 25 years ago) but he's also a big time gamer (I am not). So he and a couple other people organized a gaming cruise, where you go on a cruise and do all the cruise stuff, but while you're not eating you're in the lower decks' conference room playing RPGs…

Let's face it, folks: the world is a mess right now. To some extent the world is always a mess, but here in America it seems like it's raging. I don't love that. But at the same time, I don't know what to do about it. I was a poli-sci major, history minor, and I wish that gave me some insight into how change the world for the better, but in the past sixteen years of being on social media, I doubt I've changed any minds about anything.

So I'm trying something new.

I am stunned that I even have to talk about this, but it's 2025, and here we are.

I don't pretend to be an expert in Ukraine, but I am pretty well-educated about things adjacent to Ukraine. As I've mentioned elsewhere, my undergrad degree was in political science with an emphasis in international relations, and my minor was in history. I also was raised by a dad who, like all good Boomer dads, was obsessed with World War Two, and I inherited much of his passion. And, most important of all, I grew up during the Cold War.

For starters, I haven't read the book yet. Well, I guess for starters I should say what the book is.

Everything is Tuberculosis is a new non-fiction book by John Green (the John Green of The Fault in Our Stars and The Anthropocene Reviewed) that is about his new obsession: Tuberculosis.

I, like many of you, have been upset about the conditions of the world right now. Things aren't great. EVEN IF you're a fan of the current administration and think that some of the wild things they're doing are good, you will agree that the world is in a lot of turmoil. (I am NOT a fan of the current administration and I'm rather upset.)

Let me get this out of the way, because people don't seem to understand it: I may be a New York Times Bestselling novelist, but I ain't rich. We, like the majority of Americans, live paycheck to paycheck. (Being an author in real life is not like being an author in the movies--and being an author who hasn't published anything in six years doesn't really mean a lot of book money is rolling in.) Besides that, as I've mentioned here, I am SUPER mentally ill--and I have passed those genes down to my children.

All of which to say: life ain't easy.