This & That – Page 4 – Muse Interrupted

Explaining My Absence

I have been away from the blog so long because (1) of my recovery from the PRK touch-up in my right eye, which, again, has resulted in my desktop computer drying out my eye; (2) I accompanied my husband on a business trip to Quebec for a week; and (3) well, how can you tell that I’m under the weather, because I can’t remember three!

Addressing (2) – I’ll post a few piccies of the Quebec trip in a few days. I’ve ordered a pair of Gunnars computer glasses and hope that when I receive them I’ll able to spend more time at the desktop, which is where I update the blog. For now, I’m editing a manuscript on Daisy, my netbook.

If you’ve never heard of Gunnars, I sort of found about them by accident. A friend aware of my difficulty with dry eyes following surgery told me she had seen “computer glasses” with yellow lenses that cut down on blue glare in a major department store. So I went looking. And I found some Foster Grants, but they’re reading glasses. And I don’t need reading glasses. I just need something to cut down the glare. Some Internet searching took me to the Gunnars website, and now I am awaiting my pair. I’ll let you know what I think.

It’s been six weeks since I had the right eye (my distance eye) corrected for the second time. This time I had PRK surgery, which has a much longer recovery period than the SBK surgery I had fourteen months ago. About ten days post-surgery, I could see 20/30 in the eye doctor’s office, whereas before the surgery I had fallen from near 20/20 vision down to 20/50 over a period of six months. I’ve been told that 20/30 for 10 days post-PRK is good.

At the four week post-PRK surgery, I was seeing at around 20/25 and 20/30, so not much improvement. That was two weeks ago. My vision was much clearer than at the 10 day appointment, but I had developed a sort of double vision which especially affects me when reading something in the distance and making me very glad I still have driving glasses to allow the left eye to take over for driving.

The double vision is a bit disconcerting, although it’s getting better as the weeks progress. I am now at 6 weeks post-surgery and I won’t see the eye doctor again until the 3 month point, where the goal is that I’ll be seeing 20/20. In about the last ten days, I have begun noticing an improvement in the double vision, which is a weird sort of experience in that I CAN see, for example, the name of an elementary school nearby as I’m walking the dog, but I also see a ghost image of the name right above the real name. However, now I’m noticing that if I lower my head and look out the top of my eye, the ghost image goes away. At first it was if I lifted my head and looked out the bottom of my eye, the ghost image would go away. Now it’s the top. My fervent hope is that over the next several weeks I will be able to look through the MIDDLE of my eye and not see the ghost images. Cross your fingers!

Before the PRK touch-up, the eye doctor could not get me to see 20/20 out of my right eye even with corrective lenses. I do have great hope, considering the clarity of what I can see out of the top of my eye 🙂 that even if I will eventually still require driving glasses, that I will be able to see distance clearly enough for everyday activities that don’t involve getting behind the wheel.

The last time I posted, WHERE SHE BELONGS was on the Paid Bestseller lists for Amazon Kindle following a very successful free run in which I gave away over 96,000 copies of the book worldwide! I have some other commentary and stats I’d like to share with you, hopefully later this week. Now that WHERE SHE BELONGS is back on paid status, however, the book continues to sell very well. I should surpass having sold 1000 copies either today or tomorrow. Sales are also up for HEAD OVER HEELS, Deceiving Derek, and Catching Claire. More about all of that soon!

Getting Back Into The Swing of Things

Yes, I’m late (what a surprise) organizing photos of our Galapagos trip. Getting sick the first week home didn’t help. I didn’t really do much of anything last week. Most days I was too dizzy (a weird kind of vertigo) to leave the house. I did manage to begin uploading short videos of the Galapagos Islands to my Facebook page. Pop on over and check them out (look under Photos and then Videos to find them most quickly). While you’re there, go ahead and click “Like.” It’s painless!

I won’t be posting the videos to the blog (most likely) or my website so please visit Facebook if you want to see them. Stories and photos will appear on the blog as promised.

I wanted to get photos from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law (who got some great underwater shots) before beginning organizing. As soon as I have them all done, I’ll start with the blog posts. In the meantime, please know I’m thinking about it. Yes, thinking is requiring a lot of my focus lately. Just sitting here and thinking doesn’t require a lot of energy.

I spent the beginning of this week organizing the household. There’s a lot to do before Eldest Son comes home in a month. Youngest Son is now living at home for two back-to-back co-op work terms. It’s great to have him home, and even greater that he has a job and is gone during the day, because now I have some precious writing time until E.S. and his girlfriend move in.

When I left for South America, I was in the middle of writing an especially hot short story for Penny (see Blog Legend on the right sidebar if you don’t know who Penny is). So it seems like perfect sense to finish the story before E.S. and G-1 return (Girlfriend 1 – no, he doesn’t have two, but he’s the oldest so she’s G-1. Y.S.’s GF is hereforthwithtofor G-2). I don’t know how successful I’ll be, however, because I have two June deadlines for two Cindy projects (which I don’t feel like revealing right now…come back later), and I must get to them first.

While I was in Ecuador, I received my author copies of the Greek BORROWING ALEX. I’ll post the cover and a loose translation of the Greek title tomorrow. It’s so weird to see my book not only in another language but another alphabet. Between the Japanese version of HEAD OVER HEELS and the Greek version of BORROWING ALEX, I’ve yet to see a foreign version published with our alphabet (German, French and Spanish publishers, feel free to contact me to rectify this). (Other languages also and always welcome!)

I always find it takes me a week to get back into the swing of things after I’ve been away. It doesn’t matter if I’ve only been away a few days for a conference or I’ve been 3 weeks in South America. The same amount of stuff seems to pile up. I’m starting to clue in that I might as well always leave for 3 weeks at a time. Alas, our next big adventure likely won’t be until 2014, when we plan to visit the Aussie relatives.

How do you get back into your regular routine after being away? I just want to close my eyes and dream of the Galapagos.

Yes, It’s April

I’ve been so busy writing lately that I haven’t had time for the blog. I know, I’m bad. The proliferation of social networks has made the blog kind of passé, but I like that posting to my blog feeds to the social networks, which is where I get the most interaction with my blog readers. It’s so easy to reply to a blog post on Facebook, etc., why bother visiting the author’s website and commenting there? I understand the ease, and I understand the reluctance to post one’s email address in the Comment field (even though the blog admin is the only person who sees it). I don’t visit blogs anywhere near as often I used to. I used to check several author and agent blogs per day. Now, well, there doesn’t seem to be enough hours IN the day to engage in the social networking that most publishers insist the author needs to do, blog, AND write our books.

No, I’m not dismantling my blog, just providing one of my myriad excuses why I don’t post here with regularity anymore. Also, when people don’t comment ON the blog, it does make the author feel a little like there might not be interest in what I’m posting. Maybe I’m getting boring.

I’d like to say I’m going to make a concerted effort to begin blogging more frequently. And I have some professional changes coming up in June that just might very well lead to me blogging regularly. In fact, I think I’ll put that on my June to-do list.

I don’t want to announce the changes now, because they’re still in the works, but let’s just say I’m entering a new and exciting stage of my writing career. One that will put me in charge more than ever before (was I ever in charge?). Some of you will know what I’m talking about. The rest, make a guess!

Driven

For those interested in the upside and drawbacks of SBK laser eye surgery!

Today I spoke to the clinic that did my surgery in December. The bad news is that if my eyes remain at 20/30 vision (which means my distance eye can see at 20 feet what a healthy eye can see at 30 feet), then my prescription won’t be “bad enough” (meaning my cornea or lens or whatever they operate on isn’t thick enough) to qualify for a touch-up. If I get a touch-up with 20/30 vision, there’s a chance I might lose the distance vision I have. So…I might have no choice but to suck it up and get glasses for driving and walking the dog (when I feel the need for the latter).

The good news is that I’m only at the three month recovery point, and my eyes might improve before the six month point that they have to wait before performing any touch-ups, anyway. The likelihood that my distance vision will improve when it has been steadily declining since the day after the surgery…I don’t know what the likelihood is, but I don’t have a lot of confidence that it will improve. However, I did go through that heavy bout of dryness, so I’m holding out hope that my vision will improve.

Also, it might take 7 or 8 months before my vision has stabilized. Now I understand why the clinic provides free touch-ups up to two years after the surgery.

I’m in a wait-and-see mode. But I do feel better about it after talking to the clinic consultant on the phone this morning. I am really nervous about losing the distance vision that I have achieved, so…we shall “see,” haha.

By the way, I just heard about a type of contact lens that you wear only at night, and it reshapes the cornea so that you can see during the day. That sounds pretty cool. Maybe that’s something that will work for me. Or I could suck it up and get driving glasses and then fake that I can read street signs while walking the dog.

Over time, you do get used to not being able to see as well as you could with contacts or glasses. That doesn’t mean I’m happy about it, you understand.

Now, tomorrow is the release date of the audio book of WHERE SHE BELONGS! That’s some news I can get behind. I’m holding a celebratory party and give-away TOMORROW on the blog. So pop back here Tuesday, March 20th and leave a comment in the post that will go live on Tuesday, March 20th, and you’ll be entered to win a copy of the audio book. Note, comments left on this post don’t qualify for the contest. Just tomorrow’s post. So be sure to check back.

Note, you can comment on this post and tell me to suck it up, or say, “Poor Cindy,” but the random number generator which will choose the winner of the audio book unfortunately will not be affected one way or the other.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Except it’s March 1st.

Leap Day decided to take advantage and literally tack a day onto February. You know what, though? We’ve had a fairly snow-less winter, so I don’t mind. It’s been cold and very dry at times, but the majority of the snow hit us post-December. Now, if it’s still like this in two weeks, I’ll be whining:

march_1st_beagle — Don't get me wrong. All I have to do is utter, "walk," and she'd jump up. But first, a tall mug of steaming tea...(for me). Ahhh.

march_1st_2 — Do I know how to start a day or what?

Halloween Costumes People Other Than Me Have Been

It’s been a couple of years since I posted about Halloween Costumes I Have Been. So I thought I’d do it again. Except this time it’s Halloween Costumes People Other Than Me Have Been. I won’t reveal who the someones are, except to say they are related to me. I also won’t reveal the decade, because then I might be killed. I will reveal that the person standing beside the Caveman is Aphrodite. In the flesh. Just in case you didn’t believe she really existed.

If you’d like instructions for Halloween costumes for Pond Scum, the Chewing Gum Family, Robot Boy, or The Three Witches of Macbeth, check here and here. And don’t give me any grief about the Pond Scum costume. It made sense at the time!

Here we go…

Caveman!

INSTRUCTIONS:

Marry Aphrodite.
Go hunting. Don’t give me any grief about the hunting! It wasn’t me who did the hunting, and the hunter had hunted all his life, beginning with hunting deer for food as a 13-year-old in the decade following the Great Depression. People lived on farms and hunted for food and then later hunted for sport. And then realized maybe they should stop hunting for sport. And so they did.
While hunting for another animal entirely, get stalked by a wolverine (this is tricky, but I assure you it can be done.)
Shoot the wolverine before it pounces on you.
Have your brother-in-law by marriage, who happens to be a taxidermist, create a wolverine skin.
Have this same brother-in-law give you a beaver pelt, because what home is complete without one?
Wait a few years.
Get invited to a Halloween party. Decide to be a caveman.
Strap beaver pelt to your chest and secure with a wide leather belt at the waist.
Take no notice that the beaver pelt is no longer than a mini-skirt. Trust that your friends expect this sort of behavior from you and will accept you, with or without mocking.
Hang wolverine skin down your back so that the head hangs over your butt. Prepare to stand around all night so you don’t sit on the wolverine’s head. Or, prepare to lift the wolverine’s head to sit, revealing what you may or may not be wearing beneath the pelt.
Considering the length of the beaver pelt, you’d better be wearing something beneath it!
Coax Aphrodite into stitching the wolverine paws over your shoulders and onto the beaver pelt. Because it looks super cool.
Strap a diving knife onto your belt…because it makes total sense that a caveman would go diving. In case he encounters a shark, he needs a knife. And he can pretend the knife is really a hunting knife. Because it’s a knife. Who will argue with him?
Wear a fancy watch to detract from the length of the beaver pelt.
Clasp on ONE earring. Make sure to choose the correct ear. Choosing the wrong ear might lead people to think you’re really Hagar the Horrible.
Hey, maybe you ARE Hagar the Horrible. This is an adaptable costume!
Ask a teenage person who lives in your house to take a photograph to commemorate the costume for all time.
Thirty years later, consider choking the teenager.
But, for now, hie thee to thy Halloween party and have a blast!

APHRODITE INSTRUCTIONS:

Wrap sheet or other cloth around body toga-style.
Secure with Grecian rope at your waist and a broach on your shoulder.
Spray paint leafy crown thing with gold leaf.
Look amazingly hot.
Remember how much you love the teenager who took this picture.

Have you designed any creative Halloween costumes for this year? Too many people buy store bought costumes these days. Why, when it’s so easy to make your own?