Guys and Gals!
TLDR: both Reciprocal Paranoia (book 4) and Rapturous Pejoration (book 5) are with my wonderful test readers, and should be released soon.
Well I went into my operations (complete shoulder reconstruction and ankle tidy up) will my usual sense of self-reliance, optimism and confidence that things would work out, and as usual life scooped up a bucket full of machine parts, dropped them in a sack and smashed me in the face until I spat my teeth from my bleeding gums. This is my way of saying: I'm not just a bit late with my books, this time I actually have an excuse.
It's 12 weeks today (Thursday) since my shoulder reconstruction and the rehab has been harder than expected. I slept for 6 weeks in a padded sling with my arm stuck out in front of me at ninety degrees. Put another way, I didn’t sleep. I was looking forward to this (in a sick-ish kind of way) as finally teaching me how to sleep on my back. Didn’t work. I injured my injury, which has complicated my recovery. I got migraines from neck issues from the shoulder problems and had the joy (since repeated often) of a whole day in bed with nothing wrong with me but a rhino stamping on my face, stormy seas bucking under my mattress, a vampiric disaffinity to light and the need to slither out of bed to vomit. On the upside, I finally learned how to spell nausea without spellcheck and the migraine phase seems to have passed. My shoulder and arm are pathetically weak (this week, for the first time, I can lie on my front and pass a ball across my back, sweet ecstasy). By comparison, my ankle recovery has been a breeze. There are moments when I feel as though I will never fly again, but as dear friend pointed out, even the gimpy pigeons that eat yesterday’s abandoned pizza seem happy in their own way. Words can’t express how this image has nourished me in the dark times.
To the many people who wrote in to wish me luck (well, the one person), I say: thank you, BazookaMadeOfCheese.
The good news is that Reciprocal Paranoia (book 4), has been with my wonderful test readers for a week (and early reports from the early finishers are excellent), and Rapturous Pejoration (book 5) was delivered to them 2 days ago, this past Wednesday. Barring unforeseen problems, soon I will graduate to lifting a weight that isn't pink and the next two installments of the Contact series will hit the virtual bookshelves.
Yours aye!
Mike
* you really, really, really miss em.
