Sneak Peeks

Sunday, November 30, 2014

The way to a man's heart (and to the end of a manuscript, and to the beginning of a bedtime story...) is through the stomach.

Have you ever been rolling through your schedule, knocking off the to-do list, grinding forward, maybe not smoothly, maybe with effort, but you're getting there then all of a sudden it happens?

Catastrophe.

Or divergence of monumental proportion.

Momentum stops. Progress stops. Life stops.

That happened to me four months ago.

Wow. A third of a year. Gone.

What happened to me? Probably not what happened to you. No one died. I didn't lose my job or get divorced. No force of evil intruded on my world and stole my security.

No. I got nauseous.

Brief backstory- My husband and I were hoping/planning/trying for another baby. In fertility terms we're practically ancient, nearing 40. But, magically, in July, it worked! Pink line! Plans falling into place! Another check on the life list, progress!

Then a few weeks later I got nauseous.

Morning sickness is blah. I had it with my first pregnancy. It sucks, but you learn to just set your fork down when it strikes, take care of the call, and sit back down to finish your meal when it passes.

That's not what I'm talking about.

Most of us have heard about the English princess and her bouts of terrible morning sickness. Hyperemesis Gravitas. It can be deadly. It's a state of nausea and vomiting that is so bad it can be life threatening. Lucky lady was cared for in a private hospital till it passed four months later.

I wasn't a lucky lady.

I was diagnosed with HG almost immediately as my weight plummeted. I almost can't recall clearly how I made it through the last four months. Everything is washed in a sort of green haze. Literally. There's a color to the world that shouldn't be there. And certain words trigger a sort of PTSD type reaction. Like - caterpillar. Shiver. Things I experienced during my struggle to survive this all-encompassing urge to vomit twenty-four hours a day still haunt me and bring a phantom return of symptoms when mentioned.

Nothing exists beyond the center during this terrible illness. The queasy stomach and shivering muscles. I was medicated at all times, and it worked just enough to keep me out of the hospital. But it didn't do much for normal functioning. I could barely talk and read with my daughter, let alone play at the end of the day. And writing? A schedule? I am actually laughing as I type this. Seriously, it's a joke. There is no creativity. No desire to do anything besides curl around that rebellious center and attempt to smother it.

So, after I published FANGIRL_15 I basically fell off the face of the Earth. And that's why. I was nauseous. But the monster has finally passed and I've crawled back out of the third level of Hell. I received an amazing review of my Veil series by the judges of the Writer's Digest 22nd Annual Self-Published Book Awards. 4 out of 5 stars! Such an honor. And their invaluable critique ended with the judge's personal hope to read more in the series. Blew me away. Couldn't stop smiling for an hour.



I regret the time I lost, but I'm back on track. Wheeler and Sophie's story, the sixth novella in the Beneath the Veil Anthology, was slated for release in October, but that obviously didn't occur. My schedule is reset four months back. I foresee a January release, but I also believe this edition is worth the wait. I'll have a cover reveal soon, along with a sneak peek at book seven, Jekyll and Hyde's story.

Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes during this difficult time and for continuing to make Beneath the Veil Anthology so successful.