As some of you have probably noticed, I haven't posted much of late. I've been trying to digest, rationally, the disastrous results of the US elections. My first reaction was profound depression. These last four years have been a nightmare for the rest of the world, and with a mandate this time around, there seems little to stop Bush and his neo-con cabal accelerating their project.

My next reaction was to try to understand why this happened. Why did people vote for this man with his extremist policies? Polls taken around the time of the election appeared to show that a large number of Bush's voters were ignorant as to what he was proposing for his second term, many believing he stood for exactly the opposite of what he did. How could this happen? Are people really so disconnected? There also appears to have been a large "values" vote, or "morals" as those who put this as their primary concern might have it. Indeed, these values appear to have been spun as Christian values. This is, by itself, even more depressing, that a whole great religion, with its vast history, complex theology, culture, contradictions and hope should have been reduced to a debate about who other people chose to sleep with and whether abortions should be allowed. Helping the poor? Love your enemy? Forgiveness? The deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in wars? Nope, none of that, just sex and its results.

Then, of course, there is the fear. Bush and co seem to have done a great job in making people afraid. Of course, politicians using fear to manipulate people is nothing new, but as a political tool, terrorism trumps such things as crime with ease. Bin Laden's intervention at the last minute must have been delicious for the Bush campaign.

But all of this is simply an attempt to rationalise what happened. As George RR Martin says on his website, " this was a victory for bigotry and fear, a mandate bought with lies". Rationalisation will do nothing now. Over the next four years the rest of the world will have to deal with new wars, severe assaults on the environment at a critical time, and a belligerent, aggressive, paranoid superpower. We don't have any choice in this.

My next reaction was to think "sod this", and consider severing all links with America. Should I stay a member of SFWA, for example? Should I send stories to American magazines? Should I buy American products? During apartheid, I was very careful in boycotting everything from South Africa. I've boycotted products from Burma, too, for human rights reasons. Is that the correct response to the current US regime?

Finally, I think I've passed by all of these reactions. None of them help. None of them can turn back the clock to November 2 and change the vote. None of them can put a reasonable government in the US. As a foreigner, I will never have a say in that. I do have a say over here, though. If George Bush is to remain, there is no reason why his chief ally and cheerleader, Tony Blair, should. We have an election next year. I've rather ignored that. I can't make a difference in the US but I can in the UK. At the very least, a good leader over here might calm Bush's most raving excesses. Depression and reflection, I think, are natural reactions, but we need to put them behind us and move to something positive.

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I'm working fairly hard now on rewriting The Winter of the Earth for the agent. I'm pretty optimistic that I can do what she wants, or at least come up with something that produces the effect she wants, even if the details aren't quite the same. I've given myself a month, which isn't long to add maybe another 10,000 words and revise, but on the plus side, I know the characters and the story, and the voice is natural to me after writing the damned thing in the first place, so it shouldn't be too difficult. I'm excited by the novel all over again.

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We're going down to Bristol to visit my mum in a few hours. We haven't been down for quite a long time, and it'll be a nice break. We've both been tired and depressed this week and we need to get away from it all. No internet down there, so we'll be out of touch with the world too.