More Updates, and Approaching Autumn Age…
I figure it is about time I updated you on everything. Sometimes, I just don’t feel like doing it, and I’ve considered the quaintness of blogging. I’ve been reminded that no one blogs anymore.
Well, at least they don’t for free. I do. This will cost you nothing. I have not gotten the knack of Substack, and I honestly couldn't care less. I don’t like the idea of taking your money, knowing that I have to produce and churn out widgets in word form, hoping to keep you hooked on things that really don’t mean that much.
Anyway, the good news begins: on Friday, I had a follow-up with a member of the surgical team that removed my Stone Machine, aka my gallbladder. Apparently that organ was pretty inflamed, but I got no pictures of it, nor did I wish to see them. The five entry/exit wounds of my body are enough for me to know what the “easy way” was like.
I got a clean bill of health. I am no longer in pain, and I didn’t have that much of it. Just feelings now and then that my body was missing something, and yet its absence doesn’t seem to be a problem.
The final step is removal of a stent, and then I’m out of it entirely, no more gallstones, no more of that harrowing little adventure. Also, the earlier examination of me for cancer found nothing. So all good.
Another thing: this was a weight cut that I would not wish on my worst enemy. I lost 25 pounds, approximately, and if you see some photos of me on here, you will notice that I do not particularly like some of them. They are good pictures, and well made, but I feel so unflattering in them.
Well, my weight is now a manageable one, and only a few pounds above BMI standards, so maybe I get those off in the coming weeks. I have to maintain it now. My diet hasn’t changed much, and I’m not too terribly bothered, but it bears watching. I’d never had to watch my weight except in my teenage years, but I’ve been given the incentive to behave myself.
I also have a meetup with a general surgeon, but this will be more for an elective procedure down the road. I do not need to do it right this second.
Now, other things have happened. I’m awaiting an answer from one of the Sunbury Press Books editors about a new collection of works by fiction imprint authors. Brown Posey Press is our fiction imprint, which I am on, and I host the podcast connected to it. The new collection is being edited, and we should have a nice little anthology in the future. It includes unreleased chapters, poems, outtakes, and related materials from several BPP authors, myself included. I think it will be a nice reflection of the level and diversity of talent we have. Again, I don’t have a date, but I hope soon.
We have also embarked on a series of appearances around the region. Seattle-based author Guy Morris created the AEN, a network of local/regional authors out in the Pacific Northwest, and Sunbury Press has started its own chapter here. We are appearing at local, largely non-book events to showcase what we have and to see if we can stimulate a market.
Also, the plan is to cut the costs authors face. Table prices are wickedly high, but they correspond to the halls being rented. Today was the annual Books Books Books event in Lancaster; I did the first one, but will not do them again because of the cost of the table, and being in big rooms full of authors makes it a competition not unlike the Royal Rumble.
Some of those are fun, but I’m doing fewer of those because I cannot compete there. Further, I make this website/business a side hustle that breaks even, at least. My varied activities pay the bills and allow me to follow this literary pursuit, among other such things.
That said, check my News/Events tab, and you will see where to find me.
My brother David and I had a talk today; he turned 70. That was the age our late brother Mark passed, and honestly, he got so many extra years out of his life! Our sibling rivalries were no different than any other set of brothers, but David and I can talk, which is good. He updated me on the family and his intriguing business of dealing on eBay. He’s making it work, and he seems to enjoy it.
He understands what I do—all of it’s art, in some strange way.
What of my writing? Well—I’m preparing for the next novel, which is written but now being vetted by a close friend. Once done, I’ll know how it works, and then I can engage the editor for next year.
The collection I’ve spoken of, while I have future releases ready for years. I am writing a new one, and trying a new “voice.” I can’t begin to explain it, but I’m borrowing a deeper, more deliberate, even urbane one, to see if this new story can get told. I think it might.
This is what I do. I’ll move on now and get back to some reading. My stack of potential podcast guests has diminished, and I’m reading that, plus an author I knew almost nothing of. Bill Nighy read part of a work by Sylvia Townsend Warner, and I had to get it. Too soon to tell right now, but intriguing it is.
I shall leave it there, and it is a matter entirely for you to pursue on these pages.
Peace, Out.