Upcoming Surgeries and Nerves

One of my favorite spring flowers

Spring is in the air, even though the present temperature is cool at 51 degrees Fahrenheit and there have been snow flurries in the air the past few days here in Northeast PA.

I have to admit, I think I'm more nervous about my husband's upcoming surgery than my own.  Granted, I've had surgery before and know some of what to expect.  And I've sat through more than a few procedures of my mother's that required anesthesia, so it's not like I haven't been through this before.  But I get just as nervous each time with  my mother, so maybe that's just the kind of worrywart I am!

Mr. Janney's shoulder surgery is just over a week away.  I've already taken the day off of work, as well as the next just in case he needs me an extra day.  Like any procedure needing anesthesia, he's not to be left alone for 24 hours afterwards.  Depending on what time his surgery is (we don't have an arrival time yet) I may go to work the next day, especially since it's my last available vacation day until next October.  But since finances are pretty slim at the moment, I may just take it for the extra pay.

An MRI showed that Mr. Janney has a vertical tear in his upper bicep tendon.  We don't really know how it happened, there was no sudden explosion of pain but rather a gradual onset of pain.  It's one of those situations which we think it was caused by his work, but can't prove it because anything could have caused this.  It could have happened before he started his job, but didn't start hurting until he actually used those muscles more.  He does tend to be an inactive gamer.

I finally got the approval for my own surgery from my foot doctor.  The earliest opening he had at the time was ... the day after hubby's surgery!  Since hubby will be coming out of surgery with a sling for at least 4 weeks, and I'll be coming out of my surgery with a cast on my foot and unable to put any weight on it...I told the doctor that back to back surgeries weren't going to work!  So I am loosely scheduled for some time at the end of May - I say loosely because I haven't had confirmation from the doctor's office yet.

In other news:

My friend C.P. Stringham has finished her latest work, "Overcoming Sarah".  No word on a release date, but just to hear that it is finished and in the hands of her proofers and critiquers is exciting news!  She has shared bits and pieces of the work on Facebook as she's been working and it looks like it's going to be a great read.

I will share links and more details as she shared them.

She and her oldest daughter recently helped me with a research trip of my own.  Something I shared about here on Broads of a Feather.  It was a good day all the way around!

As I plug away at work, trying to make at least enough money for our car payment and gas money (and not much else - which is why I haven't taken down the GoFundMe link yet) I find that the routine work is routine enough to allow my mind to work on my own stories. I've had some great breakthroughs for my third novel, as well as an idea for short stories set in the same town but focusing on the supporting characters instead.  For example, in Farmer's Daughter (which will be free for Kindle Sunday and Monday) I find that at Christmas Eve a character named Nora was addressed by Craig as "Mrs. Thompson" but by the time he eloped with Angela, they were on friendly enough terms that he referred to her as Nora and had asked her to watch his and Angela's dog while they were away.  I realize that a lot happened to Craig's character in that time period, but I'm kind of wondering why Nora was chosen to watch Princess.

I also have an unrelated short story idea floating around in the back of my mind.  I need to get it written down and started before it slips away. There are never enough hours in the day for me to write everything in my head, do all my chores and communicate with family and friends.

But I keep trying.

Speaking of family, I have to get this proofed and published so I can get ready to go out to dinner with  my mother.  I hope you all have a great weekend!

Bits and Pieces

I got this....

One of my goals at the beginning of the year was to tighten up my blogging.  To get a posting schedule written down with topic ideas.  About that...haven't gotten that far yet.  Obviously.  So far, when it comes to social media, the one goal I've managed to keep has been posting to Twitter more frequently!  It might not be the best medium to sell books, but it's fun!

Not that I haven't been thinking about blogging.  But my mind is filled with clutter and it doesn't seem to want to settle down on any one subject.  So for this post I'm just going to write until something comes together and will probably delete these first few paragraphs and rewrite the beginning.  If they are still here, and you are reading them, please accept my apology!!

So many things.

And the thing is, it's not all bad stuff.

My mother-in-law had a change of heart about my first novel.  She had previously dubbed it boring.  It hurt a little, but I knew from the get-go that it's not going to be a novel for everyone.  In fact, it was originally intended to be "Christian fiction" and you can tell.  But after having it set so long in my email, I wasn't in the mood for a massive rewrite and just went through and tweaked a few things, turned up the sexual heat from what it had been and changed the ending.  I changed the ending a lot.  But she sent me a text the other morning saying she'd hit the part where the character's had gotten married and Angela, the female lead, had been kidnapped.  That's when she was hooked I guess.  I'll agree the first book does get off to a slow start.  I decided to leave it as it was because I intend to show how their beliefs change through different life events in following novels.  The sequel has a completely different feel, I think, and it's because of my own personal growth as well as the changes wrought in them because of the kidnapping.

Harper Lee is going to have another book published.  You know her, she's the author of To Kill A Mockingbird.  Seriously, how cool is this?  I did just read an article addressing the fact that there are some people concerned that she's being taken advantage of (she's in her 80's).  But I don't think that's a worry, I hope I'm not wrong.  From the first article I read, this second novel predates Mockingbird and she wanted it published but the publishers of that day told her to focus more on Scout's flashbacks and Mockingbird was born.  I think this is marvelous find and wish it had come about sooner!  I'm sure Ms. Lee had her reasons for not publishing another book, but as with all women, she's allowed a change of mind.  Especially since it's already a number 1 best selling book!  I'm not surprised she thought the manuscript lost, I was cleaning out some old computer disks before our computer changed and discovered all sort of neat things I'd forgotten about!  I know I'll never find my old Star Wars fanfiction novel; that was destroyed a long time ago and a subject for another day.  I'm glad Ms. Lee's manuscript was found.

And now, it's Saturday, the 7th, just after 6pm and this post is far from done.

I should have been writing early this morning when my husband was still asleep, but since he's not a Trekkie, I decided to watch the last Star Trek movie, Into Darkness.  I know, I know, I should have written first and then watched, but as it was he woke up and I stole off to have some real life romance.

Winter is getting to me.  The cold and the snow and the threat of even more snow (and ice).  I know it's a necessary part of the cycle of nature and seasons, but my God I am tired of it.  I'm cold, and not just because I work in a refrigerator!

And now, it's Monday morning, just after 6am.  Usually I am at work at this time, but the icy conditions made me rethink work and I stayed home instead.  I've seen a few reports on Facebook how some people have been told to stay home by state road workers, so I kind of feel validated about my decision to call off.

Instead of going back to bed, I've been up on the internet.  Facebook, Twitter, reading different articles, looking for pics to slap quotes on, playing Clash of Clans, working on this post.  I've already started my next post for Broads of a Feather.  My recent posts there have just not been very good recently, so I'm giving myself a head start in the hopes that it'll give me the extra push I need.  This way there's no rush.  Granted, I'll be sharing my own personal struggle with writer's block, but since I know I'm not alone in this struggle it won't be too hard.  All one has to do is Google the term to find a plethora of links about it.  I've already read some interesting articles about it, and bookmarked more for later.

I also managed to get some work done on my third novel.  I was a little frustrated with my husband, as he began to play chess and Halo Wars in the evening...right about the time I go to bed.  While I can't write for the life of me while he's playing GTA, I can when he's playing Wars.  But he had a good reason I guess, his playing partner doesn't get on until the late afternoon and evening because of work.  I laughingly told him that we needed to get our schedules synced.  It all worked out.

I moved an entire scene to earlier in the novel, which will change the entire dynamics of the antagonists.  I'm still working on showing the ending of Ring of Fire from other characters' perspectives, mainly Kevin and the demon called Beast (whose "real" name we get to learn in the new book).  So I'm bopping back and forth to make sure I'm sticking to what's already written.  I did find another typo I hadn't caught yet, the bane of every writer lacking an editor!  From my one friend's report, I did a better job this second time around so there's that much.  If only it didn't cost so much to hire an editor.  I know one girl I could hire, but if memory serves she charges $4 a page...which adds up when you write a 400+ page novel!  I haven't gotten to the point where I even make that much off of sales.  Yet.

On that note, I'm going to slap some images in this post and change gears.  I'm going to find a second cup of coffee and get back to novel writing.

Week's End

My brain is blank.

I can't even come up with a decent working title for this post.

This happens occasionally.

Well, to be honest.  I'm not sure if it's that my mind is actually going blank, or if there is an overload of ideas and my brain just can't process them into words yet.

That happens occasionally too.

Spiders belong outdoors!

One thing I plan on doing some time soon, maybe tonight or tomorrow, is attempt to write a short story involving spiders.  This came about from last nights conversation about the spider that built its web in my doorway.  Now, spiders and I have an agreement...they stay out of my territory and out of my reach and they can live, they wander too close and they will die.

The spider in the doorway was on the border of this agreement.  He was close to being in my territory and he was definitely within my reach.  And it was raining, so I could understand his location.  But I have to walk through that area, and I don't like the thought of him accidentally falling on my head as I walk under.

So, I compromised.

I got the broom and pushed him out into the rain.  Just in case he survived the wet fall, I told him that if he came back I would finish the job.  I had to stress that to him because the last time I tossed a spider out onto the steps, he came back and rebuilt his web in the doorway.

Crazy talking to a spider, I know.  What is even crazier was voicing to my husband that they band together and share locations with each other in an attempt to irritate me.  But it did spark a cute little story idea.  I'll post it once it's written.  If it's halfway decent.  I tend to struggle with short stories.

I did get some writing done this week.  Not quite as much as I had hoped, but since my husband stayed home this week as well there was a lot of distractions.  A lot of gaming.  A lot of Netflix marathons - CSI NY, House.  Our finances will suck, but I can't argue the quality time was nice.

My favorite spring flower!

Two more days and I am back to work.  I'm not looking forward to it because my foot still hurts.  I should have called the doctor's office and let him know, but I can't afford anymore time off.  I'll wait and see how Monday goes and see how bad the pain gets.  Maybe it won't get too bad.  Hey, a girl can hope!

Hope all of you have a great weekend!  Anybody got anything exciting planned?  It's still very wet here in my corner of Pennsylvania, but the lilacs are blooming and smell heavenly!

2014 ~ Is almost halfway over!