Joyous Yule—Happy Solstice

I’ve been having a good time in Oklahoma this winter. Of course, I’ve only been here a few weeks and the weather has been colder than, say, Arizona, but it’s pleasant anyway. It was made especially pleasant with my Solstice dinner last night with Amy and her children Zack and Taryn. Of course, the rituals had to be modified a little and I enjoyed having the four of us piled into the little dining nook in the trailer.

I fixed a “Redneck Baked Brie” as an appetizer, recommended to me by an editor working on my upcoming American Royalty 1: Coming of Age novel. He suggested I get a small round of brie, spread pesto on it, and top it with pine nuts. When prepared, pop it in the microwave for 45-60 seconds and serve with toast points. Believe me, we did serious damage to the brie. I coupled part one of the ritual with the baked brie with the question of “What are you leaving behind this year?” I was pleasantly surprised by the lively interchange. The kids (14 and 19) really got into as well as Amy and I did.

For me, I’m leaving behind heart problems. I am so through with that shit!

Main course was pot roast with potatoes and carrots. I’m happy to say it turned out fantastic! In the past, I’ve had mixed success with my slow cook pot roast. I did some extra research this year. A slow cooker brings the temperature up to a simmer at 209 degrees. The difference between the low setting and the high setting is how long it takes to reach that temperature. Low, eight hours. High, four hours. That was the problem I was having. My stainless steel cooker will go from cold to 200 degrees in twenty minutes and then stay there for as long as you let it cook. This time, I manually controlled the speed at which it reached a simmer. An hour at 155, an hour at 160, an hour at 165, etc. After seven hours and ten minutes, the cooker reached 205 degrees and held there until I served dinner. Perfect!

We accompanied the entrée with the question, “What do you want remembered from this past year?” My own memories of the past year were sadly damaged by the time I was ill. But the one I want remembered most was the development of my relationship with Amy. She was sitting right beside me.

Dessert was an assortment of cheesecake wedges. Nothing phenomenal about that. We enjoyed the food and I made coffee to have with it. Darn good and I asked the question, “What do you hope for the coming year?”

There were some good things expressed. For me, I hope to become more involved in the relationships I have. That’s not just with Amy. I’ve been spending summers at Sun Meadow for four or five years now. I knew I had friends there. There are friends I meet on weekends for a martini and cigar, a crab boil, or just to hang out and watch whatever is on the big screen. There are friends I play cards with. There are friends I eat dinner with at our weekly carry-ins. There are friends I play pickleball with. I knew I had all those friends.

I didn’t realize how special those friendships were until I got sick this summer. Friends volunteered to take me to the clinic. Friends drove me to the airport or even all the way to Seattle. Friends invited me to their wedding. Friends took me grocery shopping when I couldn’t trust my own driving. Friends fixed soup for me when I couldn’t face cooking for myself. Friends packed my trailer. Loving messages from friends gave me a will to live. My family in Seattle, Quinne, Michele, and Jason, gave me a place to stay and fed me when I was there for my procedures. They took me to doctor’s appointments, sat with me in the offices and took notes, held me when I was throwing up, and called the doctor when I couldn’t breathe. Without those three people in my life, I would have died. My sister in Texas opened her home and family to me for Thanksgiving. In this coming year, I want to do more to acknowledge and participate in those relationships.

So, that was my Solstice celebration this year. I hope yours was as warm and meaningful as mine.

This morning, I’m looking at the pile of dirty cookware and silverware thinking I need to get some water heating up so I can wash it all! No plates or glasses, though. We ate off paper. That’s the current downside in my trailer. I don’t have water. I step outside to the hydrant next to the trailer and fill gallon jugs with water for washing dishes and flushing the toilet. I shower at the lodge. Before we could get to winterizing my trailer, we had a hard freeze in Idaho and I burst a pipe at the toilet. Then when I was traveling to warmer weather, I failed to secure one of my cabinets well enough and a bottle of bourbon fell out and broke the handle on my kitchen faucet. Thankfully, the bourbon was okay. It’s a couple of the things I need to get repaired before warm weather, either by summer or by the time I give up on the cold in Oklahoma and move farther south. Whichever. It’s not like I wash dishes every day anyway.

I expect to have American Royalty 1: Coming of Age ready to post a pre-release version for Patrons in January while I do some serious rewriting in order to release the eBook and paperback commercially in June. This week, I’ll be releasing the paperback and eBook of Stocks & Blondes, the fourth in my series of cyber-detective mysteries and sequel to Municipal Blondes, released last summer.

Stocks & Blondes features detective Deb Riley, master of disguise, as she goes undercover to investigate the mysterious death and computers of a fifty-year-old web entertainer. Patrons have already read the book and comments are positive.

Whatever winter holidays you celebrate, I hope your time is as joyful as can be. May the best day you had in the past year be equal to the worst day you have in the coming year. Blessings!

Traveling to My Destination

Hard to believe I’ve been on the road for almost a month. But I’ve landed now and will be in one place for at least a month, so it’s time to catch up the blog and tell you about my trip.

Quinne still wasn’t completely convinced that I could drive two or three hundred miles without needing help, so I gladly accepted her suggestion that she ride with me to Spokane when I left on November 15th. We had a good time and talked a lot as we drove across the state, even though the fog for the last fifty miles was pretty intense.

Colleen and Doug welcomed me to their house with a glass of wine and a special shopping trip to Cabela’s, then went with me out to camp to get my trailer ready to roll. Don’t know what I’d do without friends like these.

And after greeting many friends at Sun Meadow, I was finally ready to leave late Sunday morning the 17th. It was the first time the trailer had been hitched up in over six months! And yes, I remembered to put the handrail in and didn’t drive off with it sticking out.

Five days later, I beat the storm front to Mt. Shasta and made my way down into the California valley where it stayed nice and warm and sunny for the duration of my time in California.

I guess this is what I missed a few days later. I-5 was closed due to snow on the pass into Oregon. I was snug and warm in a camp near Arizona.

The trip across the mountain passes on I-40 was no problem as the weather hadn’t hit there yet. I understand that it’s difficult to maintain roads, but seeing a sign that said “Rough road next 50 miles” really made me think they’d just given up. That was west of Flagstaff. East of Flagstaff was no big problem. I had to stop in Winslow, AZ to take it easy for a bit. I sailed right on into New Mexico. Leaving Gallup, NM after the least satisfactory breakfast I’ve ever had at a Cracker Barrel, I was hit by a gust of wind so strong that I thought I’d blown a tire. The wind stayed gusty all the way across the state and on the 26th when I got to Clovis, I just hunkered down in the trailer and waited.

The next day was bright and clear and I sailed the last 60 miles into Littlefield to spend Thanksgiving with sister Sharon and family. Of course, that night we got hit by an ice storm and three days of fog, so we were careful driving into Lubbock. That Julia can sure bake a pie! Got this snap of Sharon with her daughters Julia and Kara. Too bad Jamie lives so far away.

Monday December 2nd, I was packed up and ready for the last segment of this journey. I got into Amarillo and had a burger at the Big Texan, then spent a couple of days at Oaklake Trails Resort in Depew, Oklahoma before I pulled into Claremore on the 6th. Got here in good time to get a spot at the KOA for a month and make it to the Holiday Book Fair at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center in Tulsa on Saturday.

Of course, selling a book at the fair wasn’t what made the 3,000-mile journey worthwhile. It was wrapping my arms around Amy that brought a smile to my face. We’ll be celebrating the holiday together and that’s good news. I’m ready for winter now!

I won’t go into a progress report on writing and editing. Suffice it to say that I finished the first draft of American Royalty 1: Coming of Age and am expecting a big edit and design job coming in tomorrow. I’ll have a lot more to say about these projects next time. For today…

“That’s all folks!”

Ready, Set, Go!

That could apply to so much this week. I’m ready to go. My ablation procedure went well last Monday and I’m feeling healthier than the proverbial horse. Tomorrow, I expect to receive flight clearance from my cardiologist and will be back on the road by next Sunday! It’s time to move south for the winter.

We’ve been having some spectacular sunsets. This one was on Halloween. Later that night, I joined about a hundred other writers at the Shoreline Community College Library for the NaNoWriMo kickoff at midnight. I got a couple thousand words in on my newest work, American Royalty 1: Coming of Age. Since then, I’ve managed to get to 33,650 words and six and a half chapters! It’s going well and I should easily finish the 50,000-word NaNo requirement. Whether the book gets finished in November remains to be seen. I’m guessing I’ll be writing well into December with an anticipated release date in June. My $10/month patrons are already reading the first six chapters and will get first look at everything I write each week. American Royalty is expected to include three books, Coming of Age, Coming to Power, and Coming to Grips. It is an alternate universe story in which America has a well-defined class structure complete with its perks and conflicts.

Join my Patreon and follow the story as I write it.

In an American society based on class distinctions, someone still needs to teach the heir apparent how to behave like royalty.

I’m having a good time writing it and I think you’ll enjoy reading!

ADVENTURE OF THE WEEK

I was invited out to lunch Thursday by a fan of my stories and fellow author, Les Bagley. The catch this time was that Les wanted me to come to Kingston and be his guest at the Farm Café. It was the first time I’ve been on a Ferry in several years. And was great fun!

The trip was great. The food was incredible. I spent a lot of money on bread and cookies to go. And meeting Les’s wife tossed into the bargain made it an extremely pleasant afternoon. I even drank a cup of ferry coffee, which I learned years ago was not worth the effort but was part of the experience.

Friday, I had lunch with my editor and proofreader, Denny Wheeler. Mostly, we talked about the work I'm doing now on American Royalty. He's started reading and among the things that we all agreed on was a change to the name of the lead character. These are things you need to figure out!

That evening, I joined my dear friends, Jason and Terina Black. Jason has edited many of my books and I designed a good number of his. In addition to fabulous chicken and chickpea tacos, Terina baked an unbelievably good chocolate fudge bundt cake. Jason and I spent some time going over the new covers for his upcoming re-release of his novels. Believe me, I'll be announcing them here when they are out! Fabulous artwork.

THE PLAN FOR NOW

I have a last doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning. Tuesday, my truck goes into the shop for a major tune-up. If the hospital doesn’t get a bill for me sometime soon, Harris Ford will get paid first! There is a recall notice on my truck that I want to get taken care of before I start towing the trailer. I had a recall during the winter for the same problem and had it fixed before I headed north in April. Here’s the text of the notice:

What is the issue? Our records indicate that you previously had Ford Safety Recall 19S07 performed on your vehicle; however, the correct software was not installed at that time. Ford Motor Company wants to ensure the software in your vehicle is updated to the correct software. Your vehicle without the correct software remains at risk for unintended transmission downshift due to an intermittent output speed sensor (OSS) failure.

In other words, they are recalling the recall because it could kill me.

Quinne is planning to drive out to Spokane with me on Friday because she still doesn’t trust that I’m capable of driving myself. I’m happy for the company and will put her on a plane back to Everett from Spokane. Then I need to get the trailer ready to travel. Make sure black and gray tanks are empty. Put ten gallons of fresh water in, if it’s running, fill the propane tanks, and restock the shelves and fridge with food. Then Sunday morning, I’ll pull out of camp and head south, planning to stop the first night in Pendleton, Oregon. The second night, south of Portland. The third night in California. From there I’m headed to So Cal and then east across Arizona and New Mexico, which have easier pass crossings over the continental divide. I hope to get to my sister’s place in Texas for Thanksgiving and then on up to Oklahoma to see Amy before a book fair in Tulsa on the 7th of December. All plans are written in sand.

I’ve been here in Lynnwood since September 28th. I would undoubtedly have died if not for the care that Quinne, Michele, and Jason took of me. I can never thank them enough and love each of them to the depths of my soul.

And with another spectacular sunset viewed from their deck, I’m just about ready to mount my truck and head out!

I’m NaNoing

This is a short update because I have other things to write. Most notably, my new novel, American Royalty 1: Coming of Age. I might have mentioned this project before. Maybe. I’m sort of excited.

First of all, I’m excited to have the energy and the clarity of mind to launch a new project like this. I might have some delay or downtime on Monday when I go to the hospital for an ablation, but I’m confident in the cardiologist and expect to be out and on the road again in a week or so.

Second, now that I’m actually writing it, I’m pretty excited about the story. It has so much to be considered. Here is the logline and detailed blurb.

In an American society based on class distinctions, someone still needs to teach the heir apparent how to behave like royalty.

Long description. This alternate reality story begins on John Cyning’s sixteenth birthday at which he is told the truth about his heritage, America’s underlying class structure, and why he has been denied the pleasure of any woman’s company in the past eight years. He is then introduced to Meredith Sauvage, an eighteen-year-old of the servant class who is enlisted to teach John what he needs to know and how he needs to behave as royalty. The two become very close and support each other through the difficult years of school as they discover what a tricky role each has to play. In the end, however, nothing will alter the fact that John is royalty and his closest advisor and lover is a servant.

So, NaNoWriMo is two days old. How am I doing?

I’ve got 12,200 words written and haven’t begun today’s writing yet. No, I don’t expect to write 6,000 words a day all month. The initial stages of writing are always the easiest because I’ve been thinking about them the longest. I’m halfway through chapter three and expect to finish it and chapter four today—maybe more.

As I mentioned, I anticipate that I won’t be as productive Monday and Tuesday. And I still don’t know when I’ll be ready to travel again. But I’m very excited about it.

I will also mention that I’m not sure whether I’ll be releasing this book under the author name of Nathan Everett or Devon Layne. It depends largely on where I think the market is when I finish. I expect it to have what SOL calls “Minimal Sex” in it. It could be rather hard to avoid all sexual situations as it is a coming of age story and that is such a significant part of growing up. How detailed that mention is defines which author it will be released under.

For now, I have established a works in progress page on which $10 patrons of either Nathan Everett or Devon Layne can read as I develop the story. I’ve already posted Chapters 1 and 2 on the site, as well as a detailed outline of the first ten chapters and my development notes describing the world and characters. I post updated chapters on the site every Sunday. If you join my Patreon site (www.patreon.com/nathaneverett) linked here and at the top of this blog, you will have access to all of this, BUT I highly advise you do not read the chapter outlines unless you don’t mind spoilers and are just interested in seeing the development process and how close I come to following my outline. I had a full 13-chapter outline of City Limits when I wrote it and was off target by the third chapter and in a completely different direction by the fifth. It remains to be seen.

So, join me for this fun NaNoWriMo month and the writing of American Royalty 1: Coming of Age. I’d love to have your comments as I write.

Now back to the words!

Finally Able to Breathe and Focus

I always get a little excited around this time of year. It isn’t specifically Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas that starts my jets. It’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November.

This year will be my sixteenth consecutive year of doing NaNoWriMo with a successful completion every year. A win in this game means that I wrote 50,000 words in each NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo or Script Frenzy. What doesn’t show in this graphic are the multiple times I wrote more than one project in a given event. It only counts one project per event. Nor does it show that I've written nearly as many books between events as during! Under the names Nathan Everett and Devon Layne, I now have over 30 titles available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and may have a dozen more only available through my websites or online serialization.

I’m excited about my new project that I’ll start on November 1—probably a few minutes after midnight. My difficulty at the moment is that I haven’t decided whether this book will be published under the name Nathan Everett or if it will be under the name Devon Layne. It could go either way!

The project is titled American Royalty 1: Coming of Age. I’ve conceived this as the first of a trilogy that will include Coming to Power and Coming to Grips. I’ve been doing some planning and here is what I’ve come up with as a logline:

In an American society based on class distinctions, someone still needs to teach the heir apparent how to behave like royalty.

I’m currently classifying this as literary fiction: character driven, exposing a world slightly different than our own, but not beyond our imagining. So far, preparing for the November 1 start date, I’ve written about 2400 words in my planning document. The rough draft will be exposed to my $10/month patrons for either author. The Nathan Everett Patreon page is at https://www.patreon.com/NathanEverett.

I anticipate that development of this project will continue through at least December and that I will then begin immediately on book 2.

You might have noticed I’m a little more upbeat and am back to talking about writing with some enthusiasm. I want to thank you all for your good wishes and encouragement as I went through a low-point in my health this summer and early fall. My health has returned to something approaching normal. I’m sleeping well, eating well, and am able to focus on projects again. My cardioversion on October 1 was successful and I then went on a two-week intensive program for eliminating all the water that had settled in my ankles and lungs. Once I’d dropped twenty pounds of water weight in those two weeks, I stopped coughing and began sleeping again.

I still have a procedure to go through on November 4 when my cardiologist will perform an ablation, stabilizing my heart back in its normal rhythm. With luck, I plan to be back on the road by mid-November! I have two tentative routes planned out as I head south. Some of it will depend on how severe the weather has been in the mountains. I’ll be watching several factors that will affect this.

So, that is why I am now able to focus on a new writing project and will be going for my next ‘win’ in NaNoWriMo!

Take a deep breath. Appreciate it.

Hi all!

Wanted to get an update out to everyone who has been so kind and concerned about my condition this summer/fall. Let me start by saying I’m much better today, thank you!

I returned to the Seattle area on Saturday 9/28 to await my cardioversion on 10/9. First, thank you to Barbara, William, and Blake for coming over Friday night and packing up my patio and all my food for transport to Seattle. A big thank you to Sue for driving my truck for me! Michele, Jason, and Quinne were incredibly kind in opening their home to me during a time when it was difficult for me to even eat. And thank you for Colleen and Doug for stopping by my trailer over the weekend to make sure it was buttoned up securely and ready for the cold snap.

My sister Kim came to visit Sunday afternoon and found me drifting in and out of sleep in the recliner. And not only was I feeling sick, Michele had gotten food poisoning a couple days early and was completely out of it for several days, including her own trip by ambulance to the emergency room!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait ten days for the appointment. I was suffering by Monday to such an extent that Quinne called my doctor and took me to the emergency room. After they got me settled enough to breathe more easily for the night, they admitted me and performed the Transesophageal Echocardiogram Monday morning and proceeded directly to the cardioversion. I was sent home that afternoon. The next few days were filled with appointments with various doctors to check my progress and all get in sync on my treatment.

They were also days of uncertainty. Sometimes I felt fine and at other times it was as if nothing had improved. The worst was Sunday but there was a marked improvement on Monday.

Tuesday, Michele drove me to an appointment for a pulmonary function test and consultation. Dr. Miele was very attentive and said that even though my lungs were showing only 37% of capacity, she felt getting the water out of my tissues and drying up my sinuses would reveal that in two weeks I was breathing normally. However, I’ll need to be back in two weeks for a CT scan and evaluation. As she said, “I hope it’s only your heart.” I also managed to eat an actual meal at the hospital, the first I’ve had an appetite for food in a long time. BLT and a chopped salad. Delicious. I had already had a strip of bacon and a scrambled egg for breakfast, compliments of Jason. I had another meal of leftover Chinese food when we finally got home, and a few bites of dinner.

Wednesday, at what Michele called “The butt crack of dawn,” Quinne took me back in for my follow-up consultation with Dr. Fellows and Dr. Longo. Both concurred with everyone else that I need to shed the water weight I gained. I’ve lost 8 pounds in the past three days and will probably lose at least that in the next week. What I didn’t know, however, was that I need an ablation now to stabilize the heart. The alternative to that is long-term drugs which can be as harmful as the a-fib in the first place. Scheduling has said I need to stick around until November 4 to have that procedure. Then probably a two-week check-up after to make sure everything is ticking correctly and steadily. Wednesday is the first day I’ve felt completely clear-headed and had a good appetite, as well.

So, I’m here in Lynnwood WA for another month before I can consider moving my trailer and going south. At that time, it will all depend on how the weather is and how safe it is to travel. I’ll just have to wait and see.

That brings me up to date. Since I’ll be in the Seattle area now for at least another month, I’m hoping to see some of my friends here. If you’re in the area and want to get together, let me know. If I continue to improve as I have the past three days, I’ll need to get out of the house occasionally. And figure out how I am ever going to repay Jason, Michele, and Quinne for having abused their welcome and hospitality so thoroughly.

Septuagenarian

It appears that I have made it to another milestone anniversary of making my first appearance on the stage of earth. My performance is at a slow spot in the script at the moment, but is still running. So traditionally, this would be the time when I pontificate on my sage wisdom, acquired through the trials of life and miraculously revealed on my birthday.

I’m counting down the days to my cardioversion, hoping to see the constant exhaustion, difficulty breathing, and coughing dissipate soon thereafter. I’ll be headed to the Seattle area tomorrow to await the procedure under the watchful care of Quinne and Michele and Jason. Sometimes, you just have to admit that you need help and they have stepped up to embrace me, for which I am so thankful.

I’ll be leaving Sun Meadow behind for the season, but don’t know what I’ll be doing after the procedure. I’m sure the doctors will have something to say about follow-up. If I’m feeling able to travel and live independently again, Amy will fly up from Oklahoma and we’ll drive down there to spend the bulk of the winter. There are other options I might consider as well, including leaving the trailer stored for the winter here.

Yes, it is possible that I did not age past my expiration date and that angel has become a very important person in my life.

I was on a record writing pace until July this year, set to top 1 million words. It is still possible that I might make that mark, but it will depend on whether I really get my energy and focus back after the procedure. Currently, I can only write a couple hundred words without needing a nap. I’ve already had one in the midst of writing this blog post. Being unable to focus and be productive has been one of the worst parts of the past two months plus. I feel like I have left behind important tasks unfinished and don’t even know where to find them.

The year had several notable events. I was in Arizona from October until the middle of April.

I even decorated for Christmas a little (strand of red lights) and Quinne came to visit and to have an adventure over Solstice. We went to the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness Area for a day of solitary exploration and scene gathering. We had a great time negotiating paths with the truck that were rugged.

In January, I released a new Devon Layne serial titled Double Take, Book 1 in “The Transmogrification of Jacob Hopkins.” It was so successful in getting new patrons that revenue from patronage soon tripled what I make in royalties. Those people have been extremely loyal and supportive all year!

I managed a very pleasant trip north back to Sun Meadow for the summer and arrived the first of May. I’ve made a trip to the Seattle area every month all summer long—mostly for doctors. However, on June 23, I released Wild Woods (sequel to City Limits), Municipal Blondes (sequel to For Blood or Money), and Double Time (sequel to Devon Layne’s Double Take). A very successful event at the Chandler Reach Winery Tasting Room in Woodinville, WA. I hoped to release Stocks & Blondes this fall but that is another of the projects delayed. Perhaps by the end of the year.

The writing is complete on three more Devon Layne sequels, but production and release have once again been delayed significantly. Hopefully at least one will be out this fall.

I have a hopper full of new book ideas, but it seems to be jammed when it comes to letting it feed the pen.

May was also the time when it dawned on Amy and me that our long-time friendship and writing companionship might actually lead to something else. We explored this through the time during the summer when we were each too sick to do anything about it, but in September, she visited me here at Sun Meadow and we discovered we are just as good face-to-face as we are online. And that has been the highpoint of my summer.

And through this year, what have I learned?

First and foremost, that I have many friends here at Sun Meadow who will go the extra mile to help me. The shortness of breath and A-fib came on me very suddenly this summer and I discovered there were three respiratory nurses in the community. A friend took me to the airport when I couldn’t face driving across Washington to Seattle. Friends have looked after my trailer, brought me food, and driven me to the grocery store or pharmacy. Margie, at the lodge, made me soup and made sure I had extra to heat up for quick meals. There has been no end to the support of my friends here at Sun Meadow and that is one of the main reasons I still call this home.

I learned that family is also strong. Michele, Jason, and Quinne have extended their home to me and watched over me during my various doctor appointments. I simply wouldn’t be on the road to recovery without them. I’ve come to value good people. The world would be a better place if there were more good people.

And that brings me to my major lesson of the year. If something I say or do doesn’t make me a better person, it doesn’t make the world a better place.

It only took me seven decades to figure that out.

Update: No real news

I’ve had a few really good days this week and a couple that really sucked. First off, my friends here at camp have just been incredible and check in on me often, so I never feel abandoned. Margie has made me soup. Pam has taken me to the pharmacy. Doug and Colleen have stepped up to help winterize my trailer, and Mike and Sue are helping to get me to Seattle next weekend. Unbelievable assistance at a time I really need it.

I’m headed to Seattle on Saturday so I’m with family as I get ready for the procedures the following week. I’ll have a pulmonary function test and consultation, then will have the cardio work done the next day. Have received some confusing information indicating that I’m scheduled for ablation on Wednesday the 9th when I was told in the doctor’s office that it would be cardioversion. That means a few phone calls tomorrow and you know how I love getting on the phone.

I guess I should be asking about my swollen ankles as well. Michele says that could signify congestive heart failure. She is concerned enough that they are going to drive out to Snoqualmie Saturday so I’m not making the last fifty miles of the drive to their place alone. I broke down crying when I read that. I hate being sick.

And it is interfering with my time with Amy. She arrived on Thursday and we’ve had a wonderful time getting to know each other better and having each other for company. She loves it up here at Sun Meadow almost as much as I do. The day she got here, I was feeling great. Since then, not so much. Last night, I hardly slept at all. Makes it very difficult to do anything fun. I am amazed, though, at her capacity for caring and to care for me. Little touches mean so much to me.

My writing has slowed to the couple hundred words a day that I can get down before falling asleep. Nonetheless, that meant today I finished the last of the Double Take books and am sending them off to editors. I know I have other projects sitting here I should be doing, but I’m not sure when I’ll have the endurance to focus on them.

So, as I face turning 70 on Friday, I do so with a little trepidation and a lot of hope that I'll be on the road to recovery in a couple of weeks. Just hanging in there.

Well, that is the extent of my update for now.

Self-worth and Productivity

The journey to better health is a slow one if you ask me. Every morning I wake up and ask, “Are we there yet?” Of course, the answer is always, “Not quite. Just be patient.” For once in my life, I want to hear the driver say, “We’ve arrived!”

This morning feels like a very good day, but not an arrival. Usually, by this time when I’m writing, I’d be asleep on a normal day over the past week. About a hundred words, followed by a two-hour nap.

Getting enough sleep is certainly an issue. Not just sleep, but restful sleep. It doesn’t help when I’m exhausted by arguing with characters in one of my books about what comes next in the story. Last night, it was Stocks & Blondes. After my initial deep sleep of an hour or two, I spent the next three hours trying to remember exactly where I’d left off in the writing and what should come next. You can say I was dreaming, but this was not deep REM sleep. I was peripherally aware of things like the furnace turning on, what position I should be sleeping in, and my breathing patterns. It was exhausting.

And I haven’t actually written anything on Stocks & Blondes, the next Deb Riley mystery, in a month. I was in the middle of a chapter when I could no longer maintain writing two stories at once. Only a week later, I couldn’t maintain writing one story and my daily productivity was represented by a series of 0s. The week ending August 31, I wrote less than 2,000 words. The week ending September 7, 4,800 words. This week, 6,700 words. Well, things are improving, right?

I guess the toughest thing is that somewhere along the line I began to equate my self-worth with my writing productivity. This year has been a record year for my books being read, for fans contacting me, for writing-related revenue, and for generally feeling good about myself as an author. And then suddenly that was kicked out from under me by a physical problem I had no business having. I’ve never had anything like this in my life and have very little family history of it. My drug costs have flown from $20 a month to over $700 a month, wiping out the gains I made this year from my writing. My long-anticipated trip around the world is indefinitely postponed. And my feeling of self-worth has plummeted.

I know that when I am productive (writing 40,000 words a week in April, May, and June) I let other things go. My house is crying to be cleaned—a task I will complete before my girlfriend visits later this week. Dishes pile up in the sink until I need to wash them or starve. Even the patio needs to be swept. I guess I wouldn’t feel so bad about my self-worth if having my productivity drop off meant I was getting these other tasks done. But I’m not.

I finally removed Solitaire from my computer this week when I realized I was spending hours mindlessly clicking on cards and then dreaming about the games at night. I’ve watched more Netflix in the past month than ever. And I have, I’m sure, set a new lifetime record for hours spent sitting in my chair. This is not the life I want.

Bitch and moan. Life ain’t fair.

Well, productivity is not the same as mindless rambling. I currently plan to head back to Seattle the 28th of September to be near doctors and family while I get this resolved. Please let there be a resolution!

You Live and Learn. At Any Rate, You Live

That, by the way, is a quote from Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless. But, it’s also a lot about the way I’ve felt these past two weeks. At least I’m living. There have been really good days and some pretty unpleasant ones. I’m still not near up to par with writing, but I’m getting some done. Have elected to do a lot of formatting of files, which is easier to focus on and not as creative. Also, some editing.

One day this week, I did my laundry. But looking at it in the basket at the foot of the bed, I elected to just sleep in my recliner rather than go through the work of folding and putting away the clothes and then making the bed. I was too tired to make anything for dinner and just went to sleep. The next day, I folded clothes, put them away, made the bed, did dishes, and had a great night’s sleep. The next day I was drained all day.

Overall, I’d say things are improving gradually. Nothing will really be resolved until after the procedure on October 9.

That isn’t stopping my girlfriend from visiting in ten days. We’ve decided we’ve waited long enough with various illnesses delaying our get together all summer. Now it’s time to find out if we have that special something that clicks when we’re face to face instead of keyboard to keyboard!

* * *

I ran across an article in my Facebook feed that the old Bourbon Community Center gym is looking for a rescuer.

According to https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2019/08/historic-bourbon-gym-needs-a-champion/ the gym was built in 1928 to meet new state requirements for physical education. When the 1918 school building (from which I graduated in 1968) was demolished in the 70s, the gym was left standing. Now, Triton High School has a new facility and doesn’t know what to do with the landmark in Bourbon.

I looked into the gym the last time I drove through Bourbon, Indiana and a bunch of guys my age were reliving their glory days on the court. This was where we played ball, had PE, sat through convocations, had plays and concerts, and graduated. Most of my memories of the old Triton High School are set in this gym. It looks small, but even when I graduated, the school had fewer than 250 students. And that was a consolidation of three townships!

It looks like the stage went goodbye with the demolition of the school. It was behind the yellow wall.

A little nostalgia has kept me from a diatribe on fiscal conservatives and social moderates for another week. One more reason to thank the old gym in Bourbon.

I just stopped in to see what condition my condition was in

First of all, I want to express my thanks for the many well wishes I received after I indicated I was ill last week.  This stuff really kicked my ass and I'm anxious to have it behind me. I looked at my stats this week and was shocked to see that I'd written less than 2,000 words. 

At over 900,000 words written so far this year, a week like this means I've been really sick.

It turns out, after multiple doctor appointments this past week, that the problem may not be focused on my lungs. An EKG revealed I was in AFib, an arrhythmia of the heart that was causing it to race up to 150-160 bpm. An echocardiogram showed that I have a leaky heart valve. I'm on some good drugs to thin the blood and slow the heart so I can go in early in October to have a cardioversion, in which they shock my heart back to a normal pace. I'm feeling much better now, but still on the mend and looking forward to getting past this little episode.

I am delaying my travel plans for this fall indefinitely. That was a tough decision as I've been planning for this trip since January. I might feel up to traveling internationally by January, but no promises to you or to myself.  I was hoping to spend November and December in Australia and New Zealand but I'll put those on a list for later. My current plan is to hitch the trailer and head south in mid-October, after the cardioversion procedure. Maybe head to Oklahoma for a while and then south into Texas. Of course, all plans are now written in sand and could be erased by the next big wave or gust of wind.

I hope to be back to full writing productivity by mid-October. Thank you again for the positive energy you have sent my way!

author Nathan Everett