I’m so excited this is blog number THIRTY! I’m getting so good at following through on things. Not everything of course, my anti-authority and anti-establishment traits still keep me from finishing some things, or at least that’s the story I’m sticking with. My husband thinks I avoid doing certain things solely to annoy him. I swear it’s not that, in my conscious mind.
I realized I’ve been on antibiotics for five weeks. I think my blood is more medication than cells and plasma at this point. I’m a little nervous about my appointment with the specialist this week. They’ve already said I don’t have a tumor, but that doesn’t completely rule out cancer. The anniversary of my father’s passing being the same day as my visit to the specialist isn’t helping my nerves. He died from esophageal cancer. I don’t have that, but who knows if I have another type. Hopefully I don’t have any type of cancer and I can continue on my current path. I’m really enjoying being an author.
June will be one year of writing for me. Well, I’ve always written, but one year since I decided to be an author for real. Last Mother's Day my daughter gave me a journal that we're both supposed to write in and share stories of our lives and memories we share. Last year, I picked it up in June and started writing the story of how I met my husband. I think it’s a great story. I met him in sixth grade, tenth grade, and again later in tenth grade. Do you remember how long it took for time to pass back when you were in school? A week took forever, now they fly by and blur into each other way too often. Anyway, writing that story sparked something in me and the stories I’ve been dying to write demanded freedom from my brain. My hand is no longer capable of much writing, so I typed up my personal love story. Next, I wrote Haunted Hunting Camp and Force of Corruption simultaneously. I went right on to Force Majeure and VioleNt from there. I quickly realized Force Majeure needed all of my attention so I set aside VioleNt until it was finished.
Force Majeure is my longest book, and I’ve debated making it into two books. But with some marketing research, I’ve decided to keep it as one long book. Apparently, readers enjoy a longer book sometimes. My beta readers did fine with it, their only suggestion was to possibly cut the prologue way down because it’s also long. I’ve decided to make the prologue into the first few chapters and forego the prologue. My editor agrees with that idea and doesn’t want me to cut out the prologue for the same reason I don’t want to cut it out. I can’t tell you why though, because it’s a spoiler for Force of Corruption.
My author friend Louise is impressed by my ability to write more than one thing at a time, I think it may be some form of ADD. I wrote above about writing my books, but during that time I also entered multiple story competitions, so I wrote lots of stories all at once. Yeah, I definitely think there’s something wrong with me and ADD makes the most sense. I have a hard time staying focused on things until they’re finished. Which is ironic, maybe that’s not the right word, it’s peculiar, because it feels great to accomplish something I set out to complete. I have no idea why I struggle so much with finishing things. My husband would talk your ear off about all of the unfinished projects cluttering our home. Okay, they aren’t actually cluttering anything, they’re neatly stored in a cabinet or closet. He has a different acronym, OCD, and if my projects literally clutter the house, he freaks out. Our compromise is that I have to keep them neatly out of sight. But honestly that just adds to the unlikelihood I'll complete the project. You know, out of sight out of mind.
Maybe you can tell I have ADD by how much my mind wanders in my blogs. I can’t help it; my train of thought is fast and gets derailed easily. Before I forget, I’d like to say that my blog from a few weeks ago, that explains all the writing acronyms is going to come in handy as we go on. It may benefit you to download the chart I included for easy reference. I also prefer to refer to my books as FOC, HHC, FM, and VioleNt.
I’m hoping to hear about my short story for the anthology any day now. I think they said they would reveal which stories they chose by April twenty-something. I don’t mind if they don't choose The Devil's Affair, because I'll just publish it on its own or maybe make my own anthology with all of my short stories. But once again, that’ll be a distraction, I can’t seem to avoid them.
I’ve been dealing with the ultimate distraction with whatever this strange illness might be. I’ve stumped everyone. I’ve heard phrases like, “I’m not sure what to do with you”, “that’s unusual”, “I've never seen this before”. These are supposed to be experts. I've seen my primary, three different internal medicine doctors, two infectious diseases doctors, an oncology surgeon, a couple radiologists, and a rheumatologist. They don’t know what to do with me, so they keep doing tests and throwing antibiotics at me. I’ve had two ultrasounds, a mammogram, cat scan, and every blood test known to mankind. They’re trying to figure out if I can have an MRI with the plate in my neck. I tried to look it up, but all I found was the terrifying information that the magnets in an MRI can cause medical implants to shift location. Since this particular plate is screwed into my SPINE that’s a very scary thought. Hopefully it’ll be safe, and they can get some answers. I’m getting my PICC line removed tomorrow, that freaks me out a little. I don’t think it will hurt, but it might feel really creepy. It’s a tiny tube that goes through my arm and into an artery in my chest. Yuck!
Sorry to get into so much detail about my current situation but it’s hard not to when it’s all I’ve done tor the last five weeks. Hospital, doctor, doctor, test, doctor, hospital, test, doctor, nurse, nurse, nurse, nurse, doctor, test…
The good news is, at the moment, I’m slightly improved. If it doesn’t flare up again now that I finished the antibiotics, they will call me cured. I’ve been trying to write a little and I did get a few pages down. I’m hoping I can do more now that the antibiotic brain fog should be lifting. My stomach is a mess. Antibiotics this strong for this long are damaging to all kinds of organs and GI tract is a big one. Writing helps me forget my real world and submerges me into the world I create, I’m thinking it will help me forget my troubles and if I can concentrate maybe I can make some real progress and finish this one. I have my next three projects already decided. A third book for the Forces of Nature Series. I think this one will be called Force of Attraction. It’s another couple from the Savage family, you’ll have to read Force of Corruption to meet them all. However, they can be read as standalones, each book in the series is the story of a different couple. Then I’m going to work on a new series, it'll be an MC series, (remember your acronyms, this one is Motorcycle Club). I have another horror short story planned as well. That one will be kind of like an urban/steampunk/fantasy. I know that sounds weird, but that’s how the idea came to me and it may need to be redefined into an existing category of tropes. I'll see what my beta readers and editor think once it’s written. It may have some paranormal aspects but not like witches or werewolves. It’s hard to classify. I’m going to try very hard to avoid writing competitions while I work on these stories so I can finish them in a reasonable amount of time. Of course, I say that and I’m on my third book in less than a year. Some authors take twenty years to write one book. I don’t know if my idea of fast or slow writing is accurate.
As far as I know I’m still doing the author takeover on April 24th. I'll have details posted on Facebook, my other socials, and my website. I don’t know if author of Dream Lover, Louise Glass will be joining me, she’s not sure it’s her audience. I completely respect her decision either way. But I think author of Soren, Miranda Page is still doing it with me, so you’ll have at least the two of us offering commentary and giveaways. I loved the last one I did so I know if nothing else, it'll be fun. I'll add the details to the corresponding blog as well.
As always, thanks so much for reading!
visit my website https://www.enchantingauthor.com and my Facebook group, ENChanting Reads