Not much to say—just wanting to add a little beauty to your day!

But first, before our trip to the museum, author and creative writing professor David Sandner spoke at our California Writers Club this Saturday. He specializes in weird – a word popularized from Shakespeare’s Weird sisters, taken from the Anglo-Saxon wyrd meaning fate or destiny – and has written several historical fantasy and sci-fi books. His talk about adding weirdness and fantastical elements to our writing was interesting but he was much more animated during the Q&A session, especially when he discussed the historical aspects of his book, His Unburned Heart, based on the true story of Mary Shelley’s determination to retrieve her husband, Percy Shelley’s, heart from his publisher after his cremation. Speaking of historical accuracy and understanding, he also talked about the fact that, until a few hundred years ago when capitalism and democracy collided to challenge humanity, people did not have any discernable control over their lives. Capitalism allowed people to break out of their predestined roles and caste systems to become entrepreneurs and move up the ladder of wealth and respect, and democracy gave them the freedom to have a say in the way their leaders governed over their everyday lives.