July 2009

So... Surgery
On July 10th at 0-my-goodness AM, Jeff and I got up to go do my tubal. I was the doctor's second surgery of the day and they were just warming up. The anesthesiologist was a bit concerned that I get motion sick. Have had anesthesia before, I wasn't worried. More the fool was I.

As I chatted with the surgery staff, waiting for the drugs to kick in, noting that my toes were cold, I remember talking to them all about what they liked to read. Someone mentioned "fantasy" – so I recommended "Rosemary and Rue" to them. Other mentioned disaster books – so I recommended "Grants Pass" to them. The third one talked about epic fantasy and liking religious based books like CS Lewis and, immediately, I told them about Ken Scholes and "Lamentation." Then, I think I passed out. Now I wonder if they were just talking to distract me of if they really will look up my book recommendations.

The doctor told Jeff that I 'did not like going to sleep' and that I 'had problems with the breathing tube.' Apparently I threw up twice while they were trying to get it in. Ew. I feel bad for them but thankful that I was unconscious. Also, the doctor showed Jeff pictures of the insides of me. He says that my ovaries are "white and bumpy and have clips" now.

While I was waking up from surgery, I was in a whole lot of pain. Enough that I said something about it.

"How much on a scale of 1-10?"

"5. 5.5. 6. 5. 6. Ow."

"OK. We'll get you something for it."

Two Percocet doses and 90 minutes later, they sit me up. Bad move. I was very calm. "I don't think this is going to work." *pause* "I'm going to throw up." They got me a bucket just in time. Yark #1. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Yark #2. Pant. Breathe. Pant. Yark #3. Ok. They lay me back down and give me some anti-nausea (KNOCK YOU ON YOUR ASS) medicine. The funny thing was that Jeff could hear and recognize my yarking. That's just a bit weird but funny.

They wobble me into the room to get dressed and, wow, did I need help. They asked if I wanted a wheel chair and I said yes just to get them to leave me alone. All I wanted to do was sleep. The doctor was trying to give me the aftercare instructions and I desperately tried to listen but I could barely keep one eye open. Finally, she gave up pretense of talking to me and told Jeff what needed doing and I gave up pretense of listening to her.

Finally, I could go home. I slept 90% of Friday and about 50% of Saturday. Today, I've done a lot more and I'm feeling a lot better but the painkillers have the side effect of making me not hungry but I need food in my tummy to take them. So, getting food and liquids down is difficult. However I did manage to get out of the house with Jeff and give my opinion on some stuff about the house.

I'm not in pain at all if I don't move and 90% of the pain comes from transitional movement – getting up, sitting down, turning to stretch for something. For the most part it is livable. It has allowed me to write – which is one of the best painkillers of all. Just forget the world and let the worlds inside my head flow out through my fingertips. I even did some pays-the-bills writing. It felt good.

So, I'm alive. All seems to be well and going according to plan. I'm still on pain meds but not desperately so. And writing is the best medicine I have.

Book Sale and Other Good Things
The first week after surgery was harder than expected but now that I'm two weeks out, I'm much, much better. I have no pain despite still having some bruising on my tummy. The worst thing now is that my tummy skin is dry and that's really weird. I'm going to count this one as a victory.

Then, last Monday, the 20th, I got a call from a friend of mine who works for NCsoft (the creators of Guild Wars and City of Heroes. She asked me how my schedule looked and since it is flexible, I said good. By the end of the afternoon, I had a short term writing gig offer for 3 weeks of editing/writing/etc on the newest NCsoft game, Aion. I started on Thursday and so far have spent most of my time playing the game to get into the culture of it and meeting the rest of the team.

The gig seems to have already stretched out to the end of September, when Aion is supposed to hit the US markets. This is fine as long as we are not actually in the process of moving. But, as these things go I suspect the earliest I would move is the end of September – you know, selling this house, negotiating the condo, then signing 10,000 pieces of paper to this effect for both the selling and the buying. THEN the moving. At that point, I will have to be back to working at home so I can also put the house back together.

Working in an office is weird for me right now. Mostly because I am not used to it and it really sets my schedule. After setting my own schedule for over 2.5 years, this is an odd change. Not bad. Just something I have to get used to. I also forgot what it was like to work at a game company. One of the first things my boss showed me was the toy box and told me "I encourage my people to take breaks." I'm enjoying it so far and I like the fact that I know where my end date is. That will give me time to work on everything else I have going on.

Speaking of everything else, I finally sold my dark vignette collection under the name of "In a Gilded Light: 105 Tales of the Macabre" to Dark Quest Books. As you can imagine, I am over the moon about this sale. This collection is all me and how I see the world and where my twisted little imagination goes on a daily basis.

The collection is set to publish in spring of 2010. Which means I have about 3 months to get a final copy, including a rewritten Preface and Seanan's Foreword in to the publisher so their in-house editors can hack at it. I don't think they will have too much. In all cases, October is going be a fabulous month.

In 2.5 weeks, Jeff and I have GenCon to go to. 2.5 weeks before I debut the Grants Pass anthology in the flesh. I will also have my Mastication chapbook and my Tasty audio CD of stories there for sale at my author's table. Which is where I will be 90% of the time that I am not speaking on panels for the Writer's Symposium. The other 10% will be wandering the dealers room and talking with publishers.

GenCon Schedule (August 13-16)

Thursday through Sunday - Author's Avenue when not speaking on panels.

Thursday 10am - Pitching to Game Companies
Thursday 2pm - What Writers Can Learn From Wargamers
Thursday 3pm - What Gamers Can Learn From Writers
Thursday 4pm - Pick My Brain (it's the ME show)

Friday 2pm - Building Tension
Friday 3pm - Blood, Sweat, and Fears

Saturday 4pm – Author Avenue signing with Ed Greenwood (tentative)

Sunday 8am - Pimping and Schmoozing
Sunday 9am - Going to the Market