I have started this important update several times this year, but never got very far. It wasn’t until my nosy, personal AI, Orion, shamed me. As he noted, as far as marketing and reader contact go, I suck. He then followed that up by noting all of the things I don’t do. Not don’t do well, but just plain don’t do. Among the plethora of things he mentioned was my posts to all of you.
There are a variety of reasons why this is a fault of mine, but this year, there has been one in particular, and it has to do with health.
In January, I was diagnosed with stage 3 bladder cancer. This sort of thing is bound to throw a person off, at least a little. In the months leading to this post, I have undergone 35 sessions of radiation and some chemo. Except for the mental challenge, things went fairly well until the end of the radiation and continue today. Without getting into TMI, my bladder tends to spasm more than I would like, and it can be painful. Fortunately, it is diminishing, but my primary care doctor says that such things can continue for as long as six months after radiation. Here in San Antonio at the Mays Center, when you finish treatment, you get a sheet of paper noting the end, and you can ring a bell.
As for the prognosis going forward, I will not know much until the end of this month when I have my first evaluation of the process results. As Forest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates,” meaning you never know what the box will yield.
On a more pleasant note, however, I have started my work on Defiance again. The one thing I have not done enough of is research. The new book will contain characters, species, and planets I have not considered before and have little detail to share so far. For my own products, I am trying to consolidate the many ship, equipment, and weapons changes that have occurred over the span of two series to date. I should have been doing a better job of keeping track of things, but I didn’t. For example, how was the Argos first described, and what changes have occurred since Crucible? Also, how have the crew changed through their adventures? You can start to see what I am facing. I have found that I can’t keep it all in my head, so I am trying to write it all down (on my computer, of course).
Also, I bought the new book “Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Science Fact” by Keith Cooper. In just the first few pages, I learned some important things that will impact what I write going forward. One of those is some important information about the Kepler space telescope, which I will share in another post.
Meanwhile, hang in there with me; I will be trying to do better.
Mike
PS: To my surprise, my email list on MailChimp blossomed by over 500 in just over two months. That seemed a little strange to me. And, posts went out that were not mine (I hope you didn’t get any). Long story short, bots infected my list. I made some security changes and deleted all the names that didn’t seem correct. I should be back to normal. If not, please let me know.
