Whew. It’s been a busy year so far, but the good news is that health-wise I am really starting to bounce back. tl:dr, last year I was severely anemic, was finally diagnosed in November, by December my iron levels were back up but I still have occasional crashes. This month is the first time I’ve really felt mostly like myself in close to two years!
Having more energy means I’m keeping up with my writing commitments better. I’m in the middle of writing the third book in a BDSM billionaire romance trilogy for Hachette/Grand Central Publishing/Forever, the Struck by Lightning trilogy. The first book, Slow Surrender
Speaking of which, there’s a Goodreads giveaway for the book going on right now. If you’re on Goodreads, check it out here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/55415-slow-surrender
They’re giving away 10 copies of the book.
Meanwhile, I’m writing book 3, Slow Satisfaction, and having a fun time with it. When I started writing this BDSM-themed book, I didn’t realize there was going to be quite such an exhibitionist streak to Karina. Interesting how these things go… This one is going to be fun to bring in for a landing. My goal is to leave myself and every reader utterly limp from erotic satiation.
I’m also in a transition period of Daron’s Guitar Chronicles. It took two full years of the serial to tell all the things that happened during the two months the band was on tour! Now they’re off the road and Daron is feeling very dislocated. That makes me feel weirdly dislocated when I write it. But I’m used to that. I did a Liner Note post recently where I tallied the word count on the serial so far: 491,213 words. That’s about half the length of the Harry Potter series, so I’ve got a ways to go if I want to beat Voldemort.
When anemia hits it’s the weirdest thing. When it’s hard to get out of bed it”s so easy to ascribe it to depression or lack of motivation. But when you’re standing at the bottom of a staircase wanting to go up and your legs are just NOT moving, that’s not being too depressed to go up the stairs. That’s lack of oxygen to your muscles. (And your brain.)
The two major parts of restoring my health other than taking iron supplements have been getting off the road and trying to actually get 8 hours of sleep a night. I stayed home all winter pretty much, no cons except Arisia here in Boston. And I have a very reduced schedule for the rest of this year, too:
*Readercon (July 11-14, Burlington, MA)
*Society for American Baseball Research (July 31 – August 5, Philadelphia)
*Geeky Kink Event New England (Aug 16-18, Warwick, RI)
*Circlet Editorial Retreat West Coast (Sep 13-15, San Francisco)
*Barcelona (vacation! Sept 20-30)
*Palmetto Healing Arts Clinic (Oct 31-Nov 3, Columbia, SC)
Next year I’ll have to ramp up again to promote the Struck by Lightning series, so I’ll be adding Frolicon back in, Romantic Times, Wiscon, maybe RWA also? It’s important that I not just overdo it again and end up right back in the ER, so I still have to pace myself.
With an eye toward the Barcelona vacation… anyone have suggestions on sites or programs for learning Catalan? I used to be fluent in Spanish so at the very least I should brush up there, too, but I would love to learn Catalan if I can. There’s no Rosetta Stone module for it!
Writing news, cons, free books, health stuff, general life update…
