The State of The Writer

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

No, I’m not doing a location reveal.

This is more under the guise of explaining what’s been going for almost two weeks and really the last couple of years.

For the record I don’t look like the picture above and never did (I wish I did, okay.) And I’m highly amused by the name of the typewriter which is apparently HerVeyns As Hons. Parallel universe brand, no doubt. I’m also amused by the fact that the pages near the typewriter are handwritten, there’s no paper in the machine, and the machine might perhaps have an internal light. Never mind. Now I’m done dissecting the picture so you don’t have to, moving right along.

For the last almost two weeks, I’ve been sicker than I’ve been since Jan. 2020. As in, not dying level of sick, but extreme tiredness and JUST not functioning. And being unable to fully kick it. Festivities started as in 2020 with some kind of stomach symptom, then moved to a double ear infection (which always makes me daft) and then settled into a sort of general malaise. This is the first time in two weeks my head is semi-clear and typing a few sentences doesn’t make me want to take a nap.

I feel terrible because I’ve not been posting Witch’s Daughter on substack and have made no progress at fixing Winter Prince. And though I’m writing No Man’s Land, because it won’t let me NOT write it, I also haven’t posted that. Other things I haven’t done include cleaning the litterbox, which I’ll be dealing with as soon as this is done.

More generally I feel horrible about fulfilling pledges from my fundraiser in 22, partly because it’s hard to tuckerize someone when your writing has been stop and go but mostly stop.

In my defense, I grossly overestimated the rate of improvement once I came to lower altitude. I am improving, mind you. Various symptoms and medications have been cut back to an almost miraculous amount. But one of the triggers of my auto-immune is stress and between the national situation and … moving. Not to mention various family events (good ones, but still stressful) my autoimmune keeps throwing me back health wise.

All I can do is promise I’ll get to mailing out books and tuckerizations that are grossly overdue, as well as the USAian Anthology being assembled, and beg your pardon. My body is as usual on a journey to kill me, and all I can do is work around the edges of that. I have hope it will get better so I can finish books before I die.

What I have almost finished is the next Rhodes and two of Dyce which I hope to have out before the end of summer, and the three being serialized in Chapter House. It would help if No Man’s Land weren’t eating my brain, if it weren’t now 125k words and just starting to unravel the mystery towards solution (even though it’s not a mystery. You know what I mean) and if it let me go long enough to do other stuff.

Anyway, the last two weeks have been bizarre, and possibly prolonged by my trying to ignore being sick. (Naaaah!) The only reason I know it’s not auto immune is that Dan caught it too, and this week got bad enough he took two sick days, which hasn’t happened except for doctor’s appointments in…. years, I think.

And that’s where we are and where I am right now. Once I post this, I’m going to eat something then clean litter boxes, put stuff in the washer, and see if I can get the next couple of chapters of WD up to going up on chapter house substack. (I have them written but they read blah, and I don’t know if that’s because I was ill while going over them, or they are actually blah.)

Quick notes: With the check donations in 23 I got a small pack of coffee, and someone asked me not to have it until I had emailed him. I did, but got no response. And now I’ve lost both sample and email. (Well, I AM ADD. I lose everything including my mind, often.) If that person is reading this, please ping me. I will endeavor to find the coffee.

Also to the person who left me a comment detailing the connection for him between eczema and aspartame. I can’t remember if I posted this before, but the same link seems to exist for me, and being aware of the possibility stopped a massive outbreak cold. (Though there’s still a very minor one going on.)

Oh, and before you yell at me, I promise not to overexert in cleaning. I’m just going to do a “lick and a promise” so I can settle to write then take it easy for two or three days, so I can recover. Pinky swear.

Until Monday.

123 thoughts on “The State of The Writer”

  4. (Parrot squawk) “Flog the muse! Flog the muse! AAAWWWWWWKKK!”

    So, you are saying you are

    all Tuckered out

    right?

    (Grin)

    Liked by 1 person

  5. “…the USAian Anthology being assembled…”

    YAY! I’ve read the whole series up to the 1st USAian novel, and am looking forward to more. I think that’s a great sidebranch in the Darkship universe.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. YAY! :) – Faithfully and eagerly waiting for your next Darkships and Earth Revolution/USAian works…

        But in all seriousness, get well and take care of yourself first and foremost. We’ll be here – we’re not going anywhere.

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          1. Well, it was supposed to be a Ronaldus Maximus speech called “We Are Americans”.

            Feel free to delete the others…

            …grumble, grumble…

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  7. TAKE IT EASY! My wife has autoimmune which shows up in a variety of ways but exhaustion is a major complaint. Nothing is that important that it can’t be point off as long as there is food, water and they can get it themselves. Take care of yourself because that is what is most important. Unless you have kids that are infants they can figure out someway of eating.

    Be safe and be healthy – remember if you can’t change it you don’t have to waste time on it.

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  11. I feel ya. Can’t hardly breathe sometimes, headache that won’t quit, stomach is sayin’ “no entry” and joints feel like they’ve got hot lead mixed with glass betwixt the moving parts.

    Full on augh is here. Went to work anyway yesterday, playing dead today. May the health fairy visit us all soonest.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Allergy season in New Hampshire. Starts when the snow is gone and the birch trees are flowering. Doesn’t stop until the snow covers the ground again, or it freezes over.

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  12. I liked the invisible typewriter ribbon myself. All in all quite metaphorical. Well, there was that time long long ago when I touch-typed half a page with no ribbon. Was a manual Royal. Now I just type with the bluetooth keyboard turned off.

    BTW, have your HVAC vents been inspected/cleaned? I cured a whole sick family once by inspecting their base housing and finding 5/6ths of vents laden with California dust and lint.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Oh yeah, check vehicle filter and vents. Your car/truck could be making you sick.

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      1. Hmm, unknown. Rumor has the previous owner’s wife caught and was killed by Hanta. I do my best to keep the vehicles mouse free, though both the garage and barn are too convenient for shelter. There’s a bucket trap I need to build and test…

        Our dryer vent uses hinged louvers. It seems to work, wanting annual cleaning.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. K, things that I’ve found that work?

          Gag inducing levels of peppermint oil, applied often enough to keep the scent. (also keeps ticks off of pants when walking in tall grass)

          Dryer sheets, ditto.

          And… this is a new thing, for me… those stupid scent boosters that are the goop for dryer sheets, but as little like wax dots.

          I haven’t had a single mouse in the van since I edged the ridge around the inside of the hood with them.

          Reapply when they FREAKING MELT, in like two months.

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          1. It’s been a while, but $SPOUSE bought a 12 pack of Irish Spring soap and dryer sheets for the garage. It helps. (Makes note to replenish.) Some soaps don’t work, Dial in particular was horrible in the barn.

            The first time I did the Glade automotive thing, I missed the Dial-a-stink control and it was on max. I put the thing in a loosely tied poly bag (like for produce), and it worked well, though that car was FRAGRANT! Second time, I actually read the directions, and set the Glade on minimum. Haven’t had any ex-mice stuck to the glue traps since. (No more glue traps. Nope.)

            I have some other things to try for the shop/barn. I blocked the gap where an occasional rat was sneaking in, but I need to renew the soap and get dryer sheets. There’s a couple of lethal approaches that should work on mice, but that’ll wait until I’m in the shop daily or so. Have had problems with that in the past, one of the reasons why I don’t do poison any more. (“The mouse got where to expire?”) That and curious dog. No.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Funnies thing I ever caught in a glue trap I’d set in the garage was a winter phased weasel. Pretty, cute looking, but the meanest couple of ounces of critter I’ve run into. That was another welding glove job.

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    4. HVAC vents been inspected/cleaned?

      …………………..

      We need to do that. Problem is, limited companies locally offering that service.

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      1. all you need to inspect is screwdriver to remove vent covers, stepladder to reach if needed and flashlight; optional a mirror on a stick to see around corners; you can do that on your own.

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        1. Our vents are floor vents. No tools to remove the vent covers (dang cat does it). A flash light to look down. They look clean looking in. It is the longer runs that are unknown. The furnace is checked and cleaned every year. The two filtered vents, covers are swept regularly (one is in the wall, other is ceiling), the filters are changed every 3 months (special heavy duty filters), or sooner if needed (fire season we go through filters every two to 3 weeks. Not using the furnace, but we are using the fan for air circulation. We don’t have central air conditioner.)

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          1. When we had Angie, the long-haired border collie (Kat is short-haired, but herundercoat makes up for it), I found a massive amount of undercoat fur at the vent furthest from the furnace. Was wondering why the bathroom stayed cold until I looked. Now, I check medium frequently, annual for some, every couple of months for others.

            $TINY_TOWN is notorious for dust (living downwind from volcanoes does that :) ), so in heating season, I check filters monthly, and usually swap them. I stack the filters; put a new one in the proper holder and set the older one on above it. It helps. Even the high end 3 month filters need to swap monthly, particularly in autumn. I can go 6 weeks if the springtime is wet.

            In fire season, we use air purifiers. One is HEPA, the other is an electrostatic. When we’ve had bad wildfires and severe to hazardous air quality, all the dogs we’ve had learned to camp out by the filters. Loud purifier versus breathing easier. They chose wisely. (The electrostatic is fairly quiet unless it’s on high. The HEPA has two choices, loud and louder. OTOH, it works.)

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            1. My tenant called and complained that the air conditioning wasn’t working. I investigated and found that there was almost no airflow. Unscrewed the service cover and found that the evaporator coil was a solid block of ice.

              “Leave it off for a few hours and I’ll have another look after the ice melts.”

              A few hours later I peeled a soggy mat of dog hair 1/8″ thick off the evaporator coil. “There’s your problem!”

              I also suggested moving the dog bed away from the intake vent.

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              1. Central heater/air was “working fine” but was “putting out a stench”. Would have called the *landlord, but we called a furnace company ourselves. Equipment was working fine. Noticed dog and all the cats were avoiding the south side of the house, where the under house crawl area was, and it was slightly open. Oops. We had a skunk who decided to move in. Neighbor down the road had a live trap. One unhappy little Willamette Valley Spotted Skunk when he got caught, let the whole neighborhood know. Cute little thing. We secured the access. Hubby **relocated him on down the road a bit. Could have just relocated him directly behind the property, or across the access road (both orchards). Chose to relocate him a further away down the access road. With the right audience member the, specific location (also on this road), becomes the hay fields behind his neighborhood. Adding “we like to share”. The groan is a good ending to the story.

                Current house the above would be difficult as long as the screens are intact on the house vents. Our access is from a closet in the house. Still relatively close to the fields, but further into a neighborhood. Doesn’t mean we don’t get critters wandering through (turkeys, raccoons, coyotes, and eagles overhead, so far).

                (* Never thought about it. Guess if something really had been wrong would have. But then our landlords were an elderly couple, across the street, who the husband was dying of cancer. We tried to buy the house, as they were selling. That didn’t work out. Bought the one we have.)

                (** Learned relocating them is not legal. Can evict. Can’t relocate. Oh well, over 35 years ago. Pretty sure statute of limitations on that one has expired. Wasn’t going to kill it. 1. not eating. 2. Too cute. Yes, I do know that people descent them to make them exotic pets. NO.)

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                1. When we had previous dogs, we’d get skunks taking shelter under the deck, and under the sun room. They never got mad there, and the smell was noticeable, but not that bad.

                  Years back, our young Lab-Aussie had a close encounter. More of a near-miss than a direct shot, and a bath cleanded her up nicely. Seems all of our dogs have liked baths. (Recalls trying to bathe a cat. Tries to erase the memory.)

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                  1. The skunk sheltering there, other than an obvious odor, wasn’t “bad”. All the animals were leaving it alone. Including the German Shepard (OTOH she was also 13 years old. Learned what “bad” was when skunk was trapped. Whoa. Didn’t hit anything as the smell was gone when skunk and trap was gone. Trap went back to retired animal control type official.

                    Liked by 1 person

                  2. Not so much the bath (my poor cat would freeze until it was over and then hide) as the roommate who decided the fluffy (and formerly abused) Persian needed to be blowdried. Twice. I wonder if she and other folks involved in the operation still have the scars.

                    Liked by 1 person

  14. Have you tried Ivermectin or one of the good independent doctor Covid/Flu protocols? They seem to work well on a lot of cases of crud. Like really well.

    Don’t worry about work, we want you around for the rest of the Crazy Years and beyond.

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      1. *grins* It’s a pretty good preventative and cure for everything from sleeping sickness to Con Crud. There’s a reason the inventor got a Nobel Prize.

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        1. Helped me push back an serious infection before I had a chance to get antibiotics from the doctor, which was good since I was heading towards sepsis. The combo of both reduced the severity and healing time plus avoid a hospital stay.

          Learned later that one of the promising treatments for sepsis is intravenous Ivermectin.

          I took it because I thought I had the flu, but the wife spotted some nasty uglyness on the back of my leg that I didn’t feel or know was there.

          Accidently took the right meds for the wrong reason. Praise the Lord and my Guardian Angel.

          Liked by 1 person

      2. Ivermectin works by preventing replication of cells, if I remember correctly. It is used regularly in 2nd and 3rd world countries for viruses, bacteria, internal worms, external parasites, and has been investigated in the past for cancer.

        Until a few years ago it was on the WHO list of acceptable medicines for all kinds of diseases and parasites.

        According to a doctor who has spent years dousing 3rd world children fir parasites, an overdose will give you nothing more than a mild headache and (again, until you-know-when) it was achnowledged as one of the safest medicines in existance.

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        1. Same thing for HCQ; my mom has been taking it for lupus for 20 years.

          One theory for why Africa had fewer cases than expected is that it’s sold OTC for malaria, and apparently it’s almost like a daily vitamin.

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          1. ivermectin is pretty safe, it’s anti-inflammatory activity is as least as helpful as it’s anti-biologic invader activity; hydroxychloroquine has some serious potential eye toxicities that require at least 6 month eye (retina) exams

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  16. No, I’m not doing a location reveal.

    Aaaw, I wanted to see the SuperC, now that you’ve got the second story pop-up set up. And figure out a good pun for the Seneca.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s rather bizarre, but we don’t even know if I AM diabetic. Things are changing with low altitude.
      Also monkfruit doesn’t taste sweet to me. Which is annoying.

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      1. Cats’ tastebuds aren’t supposed to be able to taste sweet either. Maybe you have a little Panthera leo spelaea in your genetic tree? Or are you secretly that kind of a shifter?

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        1. Apparently a LOT of people don’t taste sweetness in monkfruit.

          The consensus is that a lot of people only taste a vague coolness, like mint, or a teensy tiny hint of sweetness.

          So much for “ten times sweeter than sugar” and the latest evil plan to take over the food world.

          Liked by 1 person

              1. Very much so. I’m fine with saccharin but aspertame has an icky aftertaste to me. To each his/her/its/whatever own.

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                1. I never found any of the artificial sweeteners to be sweet at all to my taste. As snelson134 says biochemistry is individual, or at least there’s a heck of a lot of variation.

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                  1. “a memory of having tasted something sweet”

                    That would make a great post-apocalypse, dystopian, pre-restoration story… part 2 of 3?

                    (Part 1 being what we had, Part 2 being what we have, Part 3 being the path back up)

                    If I had talent I’d write it. Since I don’t, I’ll buy it if someone else writes it and it shows up of a Sunday…

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                3. I always notice an aftertaste with that too. I tend to rotate through 5 or 6 different types of sweeteners each cup of coffee just to cut down on ODing with any particular one. (Although I do have a preference to a spoon full of honey in a mug.)

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                4. I remember, must have been around 5 or 6, I swiped one of the tiny saccharine pills Grandpa put in his coffee. If half a pill was equal to two spoons of sugar, they must taste unbelievably great!

                  BLEAAAAAGHH!!! It was horrible! Couldn’t spit it out fast enough.

                  And then there was Grandpa’s knowing smile next time I saw him…

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    3. Nudges trebuchet prototype behind the archway….

      Fluffy and the minions declined to comment.

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    4. I’m sure The List is around here somewhere. Which warehouses did we drop it in? 696b through 78831a? The fireproof ones, I know it was.

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    5. How do you define “wrong?” If you mean the experiment didn’t work, that’s one thing. If you mean the experiment or device worked perfectly and now Hunnish chaos is being unleashed everywhere EXCEPT near the coffee makers, um, well…

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      1. Except for the time that the coffee supply mysteriously switched to decaf. All of it. That was horrifying.

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  21. Good luck, and good luck getting healthy and back to writing.

    And looking forward to the rest of No Man’s Land. I mentioned in the substack that that book gets me giggling like a lunatic. It’s going to be a glorious book whenever its done.

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  23. He took sick leave. Oh, my. (insert clever quip about possibly missing limbs or organs here)

    I think we’re about ready to reintroduce a fairly rare word to our casual language of the day: Ague. (formerly meaning when you get fever and chills daisy-chained together, but ready to be refurbed into “Ague! This stupid thing isn’t going away! Give me the motrin bottle again.”)

    Liked by 2 people

        1. Oh!

          Did you know that Trader Joe’s sells little mini bacalhau tarts? I got some several months ago when I was down in the metromess for a doctor’s appointment, and finally baked them last week.

          Kortnee even split them with me, and willingly ate a second and third one!

          Liked by 1 person

  25. I had the privilege of meeting you at your autograph table at Libertycon XXX (so much fun it was obscene!) and appreciate how difficult it is for you to do that sort of thing. I continue to pray for your improved health (and Holly C.’s too); maybe someday Himself will get sick of my nagging and fix it.

    Liked by 1 person

  26. No worries, Sarah. It’s not the full moon, the weather’s not too wild, the solar flares shouldn’t cause strange mutations or wipe out more than the NYC metro area. And none of us Huns and Hoydens had anything to do with what caused the flares, either.

    This time.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Well, the solar storm just hit G5 for a bit with a planetary Kp index well over 9, and we are three CME impacts done out of six total, so it’s a biggie. There are documented statistical correlations between human health impacts and solar storms, so it could be a bit of a thing.

      https://www.swpc.noaa.gov

      But it could also be pretty – auroras are currently forecast to possibly be visible as far south as southern Colorado. Of course, that means also watch for “Night of the Comet” outbreaks tomorrow.

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      2. “Where have all the people gone?”

        A 70s TV movie. Solar flare caused everyone on the surface to disintegrate. A group of spelunkers emerged from the cave to find everyone else -gone-. Also all car generators/alternators fried.

        Schlock, but entertaining-ish.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. The Cicada-pocalypse….

        Never heard them em-mass in over 15 years. Took so much aspirin for arthritis that I had wrecked my upper-range hearing. (Army, factory jobs, loud hobbies, also)

        I can hear them! Wow!

        No idea how or why, but in addition to a miraculous regen of my liver, (damaged by meds) I have also regained enough mid/upper frequency hearing to hear that “alien spaceship” sound they make en-mass.

        No idea how or why I was thus blessed. Very grateful.🙏

        Liked by 1 person

  27. As many have said here, don’t stress on my behalf. My contribution to your earlier solicitation was just a contribution for you and yours. Tuckerizing my sainted wife was just a bonus. The money was for you and all you’ve done. I try to do as little news as possible (much of it still leaks through, but I try not to take it too seriously).

    Now I have to plan my trip to LibertyCon. Last year I did it via 30 day rail pass, and it was great fun. I was able to hit DC and play tourist for 4 days on my way home. This year I’m trying to plan to hit Cooperstown on my roundabout way to Chattanooga.

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  28. Solar storms raging, wars over seas, Nazi Antisemitic Riots by Democrats at Elite Ivy League colleges, government acting like a Latin American Banana Republic, crime running wild in democrat owned cities, or as I would like to say, Friday.

    You can’t save the world by your self, so stop worrying about it. You can only do what one person can do, and that is good enough. If you have only opened one set of eyes, that is one set of eye’s more that can now see, and one more voice to spread the word. You are not alone, you were never alone. As each day goes on we win more and they lose more. Take care and get better we can carry the load until you are ready. Call on us.

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    1. P.S. Avoid the Bunny Tracks Ice Cream, it’s a new form of crack, I have gotten two women addicted to it.

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      1. Guilty too. Addicted. I don’t addict others. But then why would I share the little pint? Smooth. Mine. All Mine. I get around the addiction by not buying.

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        1. Sometimes I think Ben & Jerry’s is a contraction for Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler. At least that’s where their politics trend to.

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          1. The bunny tracks I had was bluebell.
            Also you fubbed the joke. That’s “Funny, I get Ben from Benito, but Jerry is a weird nickname from Adolph.”

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            2. Like snelson says. “Jerry” is an old disparaging nickname for Germans, similar in vein with “krauts”. I’d chalk it up to your not growing up with it in America, except most kids and even young adults nowadays wouldn’t get the reference.

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  29. This year is insane for allergies and autoimmune, yes. I’ve come down with, among other problems, allergic eczema like I’ve never had it before. Exhausting. I may have finally found something that will help, fingers crossed….

    On a wry humor note, one of my supervisors was in a position to have a customer blow up in her face the way they’ve been blowing up in mine all week. The deer-in-headlights expression was something else. As was her shock when I pointed out this was what I’d been dealing with at least twice a day every day, and having to explain what ACTUALLY happened later on top of it when they complained to a manager….

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  30. Eh. I don’t think you owe me anything from that fundraiser, but if you do, just cross off the name. I’d rather you wrote one or two sentences instead (especially if it’s Dyce!)

    It’s been very strange for me lately. I have one day where I’m up and moving well all day – then the next day, I’m just plain blah, don’t want to do anything at all (big fight with myself just to get the kitchen cleaned up and take a shower). No reason, just rhyme – it’s every other day, for the last month. (This is one of the good ones; did all my errands this afternoon, have meatloaf in the oven and potatoes on the stove.)

    Wonder if there’s some stomach flu going around; two of my wife’s coworkers apparently had it bad enough yesterday and today that they went to their doctors. No relation in anything they ate, either, according to her.

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    1. Check vitamin D levels. I don’t take it I can’t function. I am also one of those people who burns on contact with the sun. It takes a while to get the levels up.

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  31. I had heard you were sick. You can put my stuff aside if you need to. You don’t want to over exert yourself.

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