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.