Metapost: All About Me

Content Note: Surgery Stuff

I've not updated recently on my medical stuff, so here is a random metapost.

Dad: Dad is doing much better. He's been out of chemo and radiation for two weeks now and he thinks he might be able to do a full day's work at work today instead of from home. He's really excited about that, actually, and I'm happy that he's happy. We still don't know if they "got it all", but we're hoping really hard.

Cat: Primary Cat has stopped hopping about on three legs, but still continues to favor his front left leg. We'll catch him sitting up, but with that front paw gently raised off the ground, like he doesn't want to put weight on in. The medication the vet gave him on spec didn't seem to do the trick, so we're back to agonizing over whether to take him in or not. (A complex decision involving emotional trauma, vomit, and sedation.) We're going to try to give it another month or two and then take him in for an exam. 

Meds: Yesterday was my last day on the meds that we think were responsible for the depression. Now we have to wait and see if they really were responsible for the depression and if it's gone away. I'm very excited to hopefully be on the road out of depression, however it's frustrating to note that my back pain has increased dramatically with the stoppage of these pills. I'm also still frustrated about the two new rods (which create a sensation I don't like) and also my doctor is increasingly being an asshole now that my surgery is over (there is an upcoming post on that).

Work: I will be returning to work the first week of September. I'm surprisingly happy about this; I never imagined I'd miss my work as much as I have. My bosses have very kindly agreed to move me to part-time (20 hours a week) because after long discussions with my family and medical professionals, I simply do not think I can go back to work 40 hours a week. This decision is probably permanent. I feel good about the decision in an "yay, healthy" kind of way, but a touch despondent because a year ago this would have meant more blogging/writing/reading time. Now it seems that my body is eating up the "extra" hours by being disabled and demanding. But it is what it is. (And, of course, we're worried about the corresponding cut in my salary. I'm still not at Amanda-Hocking levels of famous, ha. But we'll manage somehow.)

Blogging: I am so monstrously behind on blogging that I don't know where to start. Since I've backed off the meds, I've developed a sharp stabbing pain under my right shoulder blade that *seems* to be exacerbated by typing. Oh, frabulous day. I hope to get a Twilight post written today, but we'll see. My goal has always been to post something near-daily and to not get too far behind, but I'm really struggling. Worst comes to worse, we may have a few open threads.

Writing: The flip side is that while I haven't been able to type much, I have paradoxically been able to make a lot of headway on my next novel series "Pact". (This is because we're in the Planning/Outlining phase, not the Typing phase.) I've finished complete biographies for all four main characters, which includes everything that will happen to them over the course of the four books. From there, I've been able to work out detailed chapter outlines for the first two books (40 chapters total). Once the remaining 40 chapters are similarly outlined, I'll be ready to continue writing. (Chapters 1-7 are already written, at which point I had to step back for the outlining process.)

Self-Promotion: The audio book for Pulchritude is complete and has been uploaded to ACX for inclusion in the Audible library. The book should go up for sale some time in the next 2-3 weeks; I'll let everyone know when it does. If you've not listened to it, it's a real treat -- the narrator captured the novel perfectly and her voice is like honey and melted butter. For those who can't shell out money for the Audible / Amazon / iTunes version or can't be a part of those ecosystems for whatever reasons or etc. etc., I'm still offering a free Creative Commons share-it-with-your-friends-and-on-torrents-and-things version of the audio book to anyone who emails me for it.

Plans: Too many to list. I want to write more Disney and Hunger Games posts, but life keeps getting under my feet. (There is a post on Brave coming up in the near future, so.) I'd like to record my own self narrating the Pulchritude deconstruction to toss up as a podcast on Podiobooks for advertising purposes. I would like to bind together some deconstruction collections ("blog-to-book" type things) that I can actually list on Amazon, et. al. for people to download into their ecosystem for on-the-go reading. (I haven't done that with the Narnia collections because I'm not comfortable with listing work that contains so much quoted copyrighted content with a retailer. I try hard to keep the Narnia posts as sparse on the quotes as I can, but there's still a lot in there.) I need to keep heads-down on Pact or I'll never get done. We're about 5 stories away from a viable ghost anthology on Acacia Moon Publishing, but I'm not sure where else to market for authors. Etc. etc.

I think that's pretty much all that's on my mind these days.