The last few weeks have been a blur of dizzy spells, hospital stays (had another 3 days in the hospital last week--fun fun), doctor visits (another this afternoon, too), and getting back to work.
Another week and maybe things will feel back to normal.
Throughout it all, I didn't have much time for rereading and editing, which is where I'm at now with the book, which does put me behind schedule. Or it would if I was on a real schedule.
I am on enough of a self-imposed schedule that I do feel a bit behind. So now I need to buckle down and go through the manuscript again and get into a final "I'm willing to let people see this again" state.
Sometimes it feels like a great big spinning wheel, and that I'm coming back to someplace I've already been. At least it is something I enjoy doing. That makes the work worth it.
Hope everyone is in good health and keeping on task with their own projects, writing or not.
Wes
has also been gardening, and the fruits of that labor are ripening. And delicious!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Different Strokes For Different Folks
Ah vacation.
It was a lovely plan: a few days in Yosemite for a wedding, a couple days in San Francisco with some friends who live there, a day in Sonoma, a day in Monterey, and then back to San Fran to fly home. My wife and I were really looking forward to it.
But it was not to be. The wedding was Friday--we made that--held at the top of Glacial Point in Yosemite park. Gorgeous!
The next day on the way back to San Fran, I had a stroke. I spent Saturday in ERs getting tested, and Sunday and Monday in the hospital getting tests and results and recovering.
Yeah, a stroke. I'm 31. Over an entire week I usually run about 10-12 miles (6-8 in one run, a few smaller ones during the week), and lift weights 3-4 times. One of the nurses noted I had the best cholesterol profile in the hospital. My resting heart rate was so low (from being in good shape) that nurses were worried when I went to sleep.
And I had a stroke.
Spent nearly two days not being able to walk because the damage ruined my sense of balance--though I can now walk again, so it has been a very speedy recovery. And 3 days of a 7-day vacation were spent in a hospital in Fresno.
I was released Monday evening, and we made it to San Fran that night. Had a great day Tuesday with our friends--good way to end the vacation--and spent all day yesterday coming back home (that 3 hour time shift really does make it a full day of travel!).
And now I get to make some more doctor appointments and try to get in to see a cardiologist and a neurologist sometime this week or next and see where I go from here.
So that was my week.
How was yours?
Wes
is doing very well. The whole stroke, from why/how it happened to the speed of the recovery, has been baffling doctors.
Monday, June 13, 2011
The Power of Love
Here's the true power of love: I'm posting this love scene from a hospital--while I'm on vacation. Yes, for the love of my book and an awesome writing contest, I'm still posting this.
Name: Wes
Title: A Spoil of Wishes
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Entry word count: 748
Manuscript word count: 110,000
Link number: 13
Hot, savage passion mingled with sweet longing in that kiss, erasing Shae’s every doubt: Lorian wanted her. Beyond physical desire, she tasted the raw emotion bursting from his lips. She wanted to get closer, to push this feeling ever onward and see how far it could go.
Shae struggled briefly with his coat. The shirt she handled with less finesses, sending a couple buttons scattering across the room as she rumbled to remove it.
Lorian gripped the low neckline of her dress and with one sharp yank ripped bodice down the center. Shae shuddered at his display of lust and power. She reached up to kiss him again, and her tattered clothing fell away.
Lorian tossed her onto the bed, and she landed amongst the pillows feeling like he had thrown her into the sky onto a cloud. He climbed through the canopy curtain on his hands and knees, slowly crawling up her body. Shae’s fingers traced across his shoulders and down his back, across the patchwork mess of scars.
Shae drew him down until their bodies met, and he rained kisses on her lips and neck, making her gasp and sigh and clutch hard against his skin. He was so strong, so powerful. She was trapped by him, caged underneath his hulking form, but she felt safe there, enveloped completely in his arms. With her lips and her touch she tried to show him everything her words could not express.
He reponsed in kind at first, but then Lorian murmured between kisses, his voice quiet but firm. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Yes we should!”
“You’re drunk, Shae. Really drunk.”
“I swear I want this, Lorian. Oh God, I want you so much.”
He touched her cheek with a gentle hand. “The punch, Shae—the powdered unicorn’s horn--it distorts things; it can confuse what you really want.” He pulled away from her, leaving her feeling cold and alone. “Sometimes people wake regretting what they did the night before.”
Shae was quick to reach out to him, to reconnect physically. “Please, Lorian. Don’t go. Don’t…don’t stop.” If she had known about the was in the the punch, she wouldn’t have had it. This was what she wanted, not the influence of some elixir. She couldn’t communicate all the thoughts and feelings tearing through her, and he was already pulling away. “Please, no.”
His unnatural green eyes were on her again, filled not just with longing, but with sorrow. “I care for you, Shae. I can’t do this. I don’t want it to be like this.”
She had started this; she had been the one to make the move, to kiss him. They had connected. Everything had been so perfect. And now he was rejecting her. She felt hollow—her heart stopped existing.
She lashed out, led by her maelstrom of emotions. “Why don’t you want me? Am I not enough? Am I not enough like her? Do I need to boss you around? Is that what you need?”
“Shae, I didn’t mean—”
She slapped him hard across the face. “How’s that? Does that turn you on?”
His face jerked to one side from the impact. He was very still after the slap, but it couldn’t have hurt him much. Shae took his chin in her hand and forced his head back to her.
“I’m going to fuck you so hard you aren’t going to be able to get up for breakfast.” She planted a kiss on his lips. She would get him back, show him she really did want this.
His lips were lifeless. Everything that had been there was gone.
His eyes were full of pain. Not from her slap but something much deeper. Realizing she had hurt him, Shae was quick to apologize, but it was too late for that. Lorian rose and started for the door.
“No!” Shae scurried across the bed after him, but she made little progress. “No! Lorian, I’m sorry! Please, don’t go. Don’t leave me! Stay! I’ll stop. We can just…we don’t need to. Just don’t go!” The room blurred as tears filled her eyes. “Please, don’t leave me!”
She couldn’t see him now, but the crushing sound of the bedroom door closing chilled her blood with harsh finality. She collapsed into the mountain of bright white pillows, her body still smoldering with unsatiated lust and her heart torn asunder. Shivering in the cold, lonely night, Shae curled up around one of the pillows and cried herself to sleep.
And that is my love scene. The First Kiss scene of the book. Anyway, more from me later this week when I am no longer hospitalized and home from "vacation."
Wes
is OK now. But man did he do a number on himself.
Name: Wes
Title: A Spoil of Wishes
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Entry word count: 748
Manuscript word count: 110,000
Link number: 13
Hot, savage passion mingled with sweet longing in that kiss, erasing Shae’s every doubt: Lorian wanted her. Beyond physical desire, she tasted the raw emotion bursting from his lips. She wanted to get closer, to push this feeling ever onward and see how far it could go.
Shae struggled briefly with his coat. The shirt she handled with less finesses, sending a couple buttons scattering across the room as she rumbled to remove it.
Lorian gripped the low neckline of her dress and with one sharp yank ripped bodice down the center. Shae shuddered at his display of lust and power. She reached up to kiss him again, and her tattered clothing fell away.
Lorian tossed her onto the bed, and she landed amongst the pillows feeling like he had thrown her into the sky onto a cloud. He climbed through the canopy curtain on his hands and knees, slowly crawling up her body. Shae’s fingers traced across his shoulders and down his back, across the patchwork mess of scars.
Shae drew him down until their bodies met, and he rained kisses on her lips and neck, making her gasp and sigh and clutch hard against his skin. He was so strong, so powerful. She was trapped by him, caged underneath his hulking form, but she felt safe there, enveloped completely in his arms. With her lips and her touch she tried to show him everything her words could not express.
He reponsed in kind at first, but then Lorian murmured between kisses, his voice quiet but firm. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Yes we should!”
“You’re drunk, Shae. Really drunk.”
“I swear I want this, Lorian. Oh God, I want you so much.”
He touched her cheek with a gentle hand. “The punch, Shae—the powdered unicorn’s horn--it distorts things; it can confuse what you really want.” He pulled away from her, leaving her feeling cold and alone. “Sometimes people wake regretting what they did the night before.”
Shae was quick to reach out to him, to reconnect physically. “Please, Lorian. Don’t go. Don’t…don’t stop.” If she had known about the was in the the punch, she wouldn’t have had it. This was what she wanted, not the influence of some elixir. She couldn’t communicate all the thoughts and feelings tearing through her, and he was already pulling away. “Please, no.”
His unnatural green eyes were on her again, filled not just with longing, but with sorrow. “I care for you, Shae. I can’t do this. I don’t want it to be like this.”
She had started this; she had been the one to make the move, to kiss him. They had connected. Everything had been so perfect. And now he was rejecting her. She felt hollow—her heart stopped existing.
She lashed out, led by her maelstrom of emotions. “Why don’t you want me? Am I not enough? Am I not enough like her? Do I need to boss you around? Is that what you need?”
“Shae, I didn’t mean—”
She slapped him hard across the face. “How’s that? Does that turn you on?”
His face jerked to one side from the impact. He was very still after the slap, but it couldn’t have hurt him much. Shae took his chin in her hand and forced his head back to her.
“I’m going to fuck you so hard you aren’t going to be able to get up for breakfast.” She planted a kiss on his lips. She would get him back, show him she really did want this.
His lips were lifeless. Everything that had been there was gone.
His eyes were full of pain. Not from her slap but something much deeper. Realizing she had hurt him, Shae was quick to apologize, but it was too late for that. Lorian rose and started for the door.
“No!” Shae scurried across the bed after him, but she made little progress. “No! Lorian, I’m sorry! Please, don’t go. Don’t leave me! Stay! I’ll stop. We can just…we don’t need to. Just don’t go!” The room blurred as tears filled her eyes. “Please, don’t leave me!”
She couldn’t see him now, but the crushing sound of the bedroom door closing chilled her blood with harsh finality. She collapsed into the mountain of bright white pillows, her body still smoldering with unsatiated lust and her heart torn asunder. Shivering in the cold, lonely night, Shae curled up around one of the pillows and cried herself to sleep.
And that is my love scene. The First Kiss scene of the book. Anyway, more from me later this week when I am no longer hospitalized and home from "vacation."
Wes
is OK now. But man did he do a number on himself.
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