I really don’t have much to update today. My only writing has been to this blog and my two newsletters. I hope to get back to regular writing, especially to Generation Zee, soon.

Though I will tell you something new, I will be working with a marketing expert starting next week. She will be helping me re-market all of my short stories, change the pricing (key, I think), plus updating descriptions and key words on Amazon, so that people who might be interested in my stories can find them. Right now, I think they are all hidden in the Amazon algorithms. I also think I will be putting all of my stories together in one anthology (I might have mentioned this before) and will either use the marketing person’s services or use what I learn from her to do it on my own, to get that book listed correctly on Amazon. Of course, I will be doing all of the work to get the stories together under one cover. Luckily the system I have been using (Atticus) formats everything very easily, it’ll just be a case of getting all the stories together in one place.

The other question is what to name the anthology. Using AI as a search tool (the only thing I ever use AI for), it recommends choosing one title and adding Other Stories. So it could possibly be Fun City and Other Stories. Or whatever story I want to showcase as the primary story. (I like The Case of the Lethal Liqueur, or The Legend of the the Silver Doe but both of those would make very long titles after adding and Other Stories.) But the first project is to update all the short stories.

At the same time, I will be working on getting Generation Zee finished. I have lost a lot of time with not feeling well, surgery and now recovery and I hope I get back to normal soon.

I have my six week post-op visit tomorrow so while that is an all day event, I hope my restrictions will be lifted and a I can start getting back to normal. Fingers crossed!

I am now driving myself around again, I didn’t feel comfortable driving for a few weeks until my neck felt less stiff. But that feels pretty normal now, so I am driving myself to doctor appointments (but not tomorrow – that’s 5 hours of driving total!) and to Brews and Mews.

I actually went in the cat room this week, played with the cats, and got some pictures. The first cat, Jake, just got adopted. Yay! Tamlyn is the second cat, he’s still waiting for a home and he has the softest fur! Plus two front garden pictures – Snapdragons and Irises.

That’s it for now. Hopefully, I’ll have more to report mid-May!

I’m super behind on all of my writing projects. Both newsletters, this blog, and let’s not even talk about Generation Zee. The surgery just took more out of me than I anticipated. Right now I am almost exactly 4 weeks post surgery and I still want to take a nap every afternoon. I’m going to bed earlier, but also getting up earlier to keep the various meds I’m taking on schedule. Right now I’m on an antibiotic and the muscle relaxer (which is awesome, by the way – I was never given one in the past that did anything for me, but this one works!). The pain meds, except Tylenol, have gone away, thankfully they’re really not needed.

I still get tired very easily and if I do too much, my back and neck muscles, even with the muscle relaxer, definitely let me know. Yesterday, instead of writing, I went shopping with a friend, I had a blast, bought a lot of clothes that I might or might not need, not to mention an new purse (my addiction), and finished off by going for frozen yogurt at the local TCBY. It was great. But I am feeling it today. I don’t know if it was the trying things on, pushing the basket, struggling with getting clothes out of the racks, or maybe all of it added together, but I am paying the price today. My back and neck are super stiff. I’m not in true pain, just sore/achy and tired.

So I am just writing this short blog post and then going to rest (of course I’ve already gone to Lowe’s with the hubs, washed the new clothes-hanging them on the drying rack so there is no shrinkage, made the bed and I don’t know what else). But I am tired. Again.

I had hoped to go to Brews and Mews again, but that didn’t happen, so I have no new cat pictures. I’ll include one or two that I might not have posted before. Or better yet, here is one of my daughter’s cats, Gizmo – who loves the radiator in the winter months and another cat who lives at her house, a handsome fella named Finn, who has the softest fur I have ever felt on an animal, he is also the biggest scaredy cat, ever.

I hope to have made some progress with my writing by the end of the month update. Typing is getting easier, but I guess I hold my head at a strange angle when I hand write, which hurts, so for now everything will be typed.

Just a quick update. I’m home recovering from my surgery. (Though right now I am actually in Massachusetts for Easter) I can do almost anything I want though I still have a lift limit of 10 pounds. And I get tired super easy. The last time I napped as much was when I had Covid. I am not a napper. And I’m not on an opioid pain killer, so I can’t blame that. It’s just that healing is exhausting. And otherwise I feel pretty good, so then I do too many things and am exhausted the next day.

The type of surgery I had (cervical spine fusion) leaves you with a lot of muscle pain, but surprisingly not too much neck pain. Which is a good thing. But I’m still surprised by the muscle pain, which has left me without much desire to sit at my desk to write on the computer – I’m writing this on the iPad, which is problematic and not a good work around long term. The posting takes place on the computer, so I don’t know if I’ll get this posted in time for the end of the month. We’ll see.

I also haven’t been much of anywhere – after the collar came off the hubs drove me (I’m still not feeling up to driving) to Brews and Mews and then we went to the grocery store. All I did was talk to people, look through the window at the the cats and walked slowly around the grocery store. Then the next day, I was exhausted! I had to rest the whole day, practically.

I don’t have many photos to show off. I did manage to get a couple cat photos and here is a silly one of the new granddaughter.

Surgery Prep and Other Preoccupations

Well, tomorrow is my surgery. And I’ll be honest, I’ve gotten absolutely no writing done. I finished my research for the Secrets in Slacksville book, which was mostly reading, so it was easy to do while relaxing in the evenings. I’ve taken a lot of notes, so will be well versed in Wicca and witchcraft when it comes to writing it into the story. If I decide to do that in the end. Who knows, I might pitch that whole story aspect and go back to writing it as a straight cozy mystery. It is probably not a good time for me to make any decisions.

Did I mention my new interest in rocks and crystals (which came about because of my witchcraft research, though I have always likes rocks)? Anyway, I got a whole bunch from my own yard, cleaned them: soap, water, vinegar, and finally an oxalic acid wash to get all the clay off. (The hubs didn’t want me doing anything with the oxalic acid, because acid, so he handled that part.) But they are all cleaned, identified, and organized. Most people would say this wasn’t a good use of my time, hubs included, but I found it relaxing. And interesting how rocks that look so different can be the same type – especially quartz, so many different kinds. But I did find it calming, I like nothing better than sorting and organizing. One of my many little quirks. LOL!

But most of my time over the past couple weeks has been getting ready for my surgery. Making sure the house is in good order to not put any more burdens on the hubs than I have to. Taking care of my plants, because he won’t do that, well not unless I specifically ask him to, and again adding to the burden on his shoulders. I made a list of my regular chores and scheduled one to two things to do each day, prep-wise. And I’ve done well keeping to that schedule. And at this point anything undone will remain undone.

I’m ending with a few pictures of a cat that I’m slightly obsessed with (very inappropriately named Terriyaki Chicken, she is much too elegant for that!) and some random turkeys in our yard. Look at that Tom, spreading his wings! LOL

Anyway, that’s it for now. I hope to be up to giving an update on my writing at the end of the month, but no promises. Talk to you again in 2 or maybe 4 weeks.

Wow! It feels like I just posted my mid-February update and here it is time to do another. Because now, it’s March first!

Last night we tried to photograph the celestial alignment with very limited success. But it was a beautiful night even without good photos.

As expected, I’m sure, no writing in Generation Zee has happened. I have been writing in my blog and newsletters, though. And I have been trying to get myself ready for my surgery. That date is coming up quick – March 16. I hope to get my mid-March update submitted prior to the surgery, but that might be it until mid or late April. I will play that by ear.

I also am unsure about traveling north to meet my new granddaughter (born Feb 14!). The husband is against it, as it will be cutting things very close to my surgery date and what if there is a weather incident or air traffic controller strike, or something similar – then we would be stuck in New England, and what if I get exposed to some disease before surgery? He is a pessimist, and while his concerns are valid, I am an optimist and go through life believing everything will work out in the end. Hence the quandary. So I am still unsure at this point whether I am traveling or not.

I have a lot on my plate right now, not to mention my brain, so I am kind of amazed I am even writing this.

Here are a couple more photos: some random turkeys that visited – see the Tom, wings out, asserting himself, and another evening sky photo from last night, before the sun set, the sky all sky-blue-pink (as my father used to say). No cat photos this time. Sorry!

I’ve been busy with things related to my Secrets in Slacksville research, but not as much with Generation Zee. Which is where I should be concentrating. Also a couple medical things. Next month there will likely be fewer posts as I will be having surgery and will be laid up for a few weeks (up to 6 weeks possibly, depending on how I feel post-surgery). I will try to write my blog posts and newsletters in advance so I can just hit a button to post them, but I can’t make any promises on that. Hopefully I will be back to normal in April.

Right now I am trying to get as much done personally as I can in preparation for being out of commission. Plus prepping these posts and newsletters – that’s difficult though because this blog and one of the newsletters is usually written off the cuff with current things going on right before I post. My gluten free newsletter is easy to write in advance because it usually entails recipes for things I’ve already baked or cooked. The Writing Whispers newsletter is a little more in the minute – whatever is in my head when I sit down to write it, except for the excerpts from Water Earth: Rhia – those are already written. Maybe I can add an extra excerpt? How does that sound? Good idea or not?

One thing I have done recently, like yesterday – LOL, is add a sign up to my Writing Whispers Substack on this website. It should show on this post, at least I hope so. I know it shows on the Home Page. Like most technical computer things that I try to do, it was more labor intensive than I anticipated. Both Substack and WordPress gave me trouble. Just the story of my life….

Now I usually post a picture of the Carolina sunset, but today I have sunrise pictures – full disclosure, I did not take them. The hubs took them. I haven’t seen a sunrise in ages, if ever. Sunrise, while beautiful, is not my time of day.

I also usually include a cat picture. After the orange tiger I fell in love with (I was actually figuring out names for him!) got adopted by someone else, I wasn’t inclined to take any cat pictures. At least not many. But I have a new obsession. She is a female Siamese, bigger than the other Siamese kittens they have had at Brews and Mews – I wonder if she’s the mother of the kittens? I will ask when I go in there this week. Her markings are beautiful. My plan is to visit specifically with her, if she allows it; I have heard that she is haughty and I love a haughty cat that knows her value. LOL

Update: When I went to Brews and Mews I found she had been adopted, she’s still there but the adoption is a go. Good for her, if sad for me. But me being me, there will always be another cat to fall in love with. I plan on going more often in the weeks until my surgery – I won’t be able to go for a couple weeks at the least.