7.18.2015: Good grief, over two years! I just posted chapter 36 of And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well, & chapter 79 of The Waters of Lethe. So, what have I been doing for the past 2 years? Well, reading. A lot of books that were on the New York Times best seller list, a lot of classic novels that were free Kindle titles on Amazon (I just finished Of Human Bondage, & have started on Tess Of The D'Urbervilles). Other books read were Dead Wake: The Last Voyage of the Lusitania, The Orphanmaster (a murder mystery set in 17th century New Amsterdam), The River Of No Return, & Emma (both the Austen work, and a sort of updated version by Alexander McKay Smith).

Most of 2014 was taken up with medical issues. In late June, I suffered an attack of gallstone pancreatitis (you won't like your pancreas when it's angry, so DON'T make it angry). I was to FOUR separate hospitals; one didn't have a G1 guy, the other two couldn't get the stones out of the bile duct. Neither could the fourth, but they immediately decided that there had been enough messing around, and they simply admitted me, and removed the gall bladder. That was right before Thanksgiving, so I spent the holiday in a hospital room with a lovely view of a street, and an office building. I was pretty much recovered from the surgery by the end of January, but I waited until April to get into heavy work outs again. Now that it's summer, I've actually added RUNNING to my exercise repertoire. Think of that, me, someone who said she only ran when chased.

6.6.2013: Holy crap. I've been away from here for almost a year. I'd better do something about that.

Been reading a lot, a family member who upgraded gave me her old Kindle and I've immersed myself in all sorts of worlds. Lately, that's been classic novels Les Miserables by Victor Hugo; and I'm into The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Waiting in the wings is A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and a bunch of assorted books that I downloaded for free from the Kindle Store on Amazon.

Besides the classics, I've been reading some trash, like The Meowmorphosis, a take off of the existential classic The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Sorry, no zombies in that one. Another book I enjoyed was Pay Me In Flesh, the first book in a new series about Mallory Caine, Zombie-At-Law. Another book in the same vein is My Life As A White Trash Zombie (sorry, I cannot recall the author's name). It's a new way of looking at zombies, they look like, walk like, & talk like living humans, only they need to consume human brains to live.

I also have been catching up on some of the Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire books. I'm on the waiting list for the final book in the series, both the physical book, & the digital version. It's a toss up as to which one I will get first.

Speaking of physical books, I'd found this list on a Daily Kos book diary (Bookflurries: Bookchat), and I've been steadily working my way through it. I can recommend any of these books for your reading pleasure:

Underworld by Don DeLillo. The prose is thick and steamy, no, not in a sensual way, as in more like a rainforest. I often felt I needed a machete while wading hip deep through this behemoth. The opening sequence about the baseball game and the Shot Heard Round The World is glorious.

Montana, 1948 by Larry Watson. Plainsong by Kent Haruf, Charming Billy by Alice McDermott.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham. The Industry of Souls by Martin Booth. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ichiguro Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (actually, track down any of her books)

The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor (a book any foodie would love)

The Distant Land of My Father by Bo Caldwell (some things are more important than money)

and of course, my favorite author Haruki Murakami. I read IQ84, A Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark, Sputnik Sweatheart, & any titles I might have forgotten. What a writer he is:

"She smiled, a slow, intimate smile. Like a treasured old possession found at the back of a drawer."

Anyway, I've contacted a possible beta reader, and I'll see if she has the time to look at my work. Chapter 79 of The Waters of Lethe still isn't finished because I ran out of inspiration and motivation. The latest chapter of And All Manners of Things Shall Be Well is mostly in a notebook. I hadn't typed it up yet because I have to go down to the basement, where my compute lives. And until last month, the basement was freezing cold.

General laziness is part of it, but I think an even larger reason for my malaise is being unemployed. The area I live in is based on industry - metal fabrication, and as such, there isn't much work available. Working formed a large part of my self image, I didn't have much of a job, but I was able to buy things with money I earned myself. But, my position was eliminated in June 2011, and since then, I feel rudderless, with a broken mast.

So, I drift.

I also had some minor health issues due to peri-menopause starting last year. Fortunately, they all turned out to be less than I had feared. I had imagined all sorts of horrible things, but now I understand what my condition is actually quite common. Perhaps now that I've got all this tedious shit out of my way, I can get back to writing fan fiction as it's one of the joys in my life (besides taking photographs in cemeteries, & fantasy horse racing).

I need to stop avoiding it because writing has always made me feel just a bit better.