Greetings fellow Earthlings. How’s your week been? I, for one, am looking forward to the weekend. One–three-days off! And two:

BOOMER SOONER

Okay, now that that’s out of my system (at least for today. On August 30th, all bets are off), let’s get back to regular programming, shall we? I’m looking forward to the extra time this weekend because home life has been chaotic for the last few months. Vacation, huge book release, and some health issues took my “summer-o-writing all the new things” and tuned it on its head. I’m used to averaging about 1000 words/day (less during the week, more on weekends). This summer, I’ve written less than 10k new words. Painful, right? It’s not that I was blocked. It’s not that I didn’t want to.

I was exhausted.

After Redemption came out, I was literally dead on my feet. I’d been feeling off for several months, but in June I hit a major wall. It was bad enough that I finally went to the doctor and told them something seemed to be seriously wrong. Turns out, I was right. I have an issue with my right lung that basically made me feel like I have mono and bronchitis. Crushing exhaustion, hacking cough, restricted air flow–the works. But how I knew it was really bad was that I’d look at my laptop at night…then go watch TV. I don’t watch that much TV, but this summer, it’s all I could manage after work.

After lots of tests and multiple doctor visits (to multiple doctors), I’m on a treatment plan and I’m feeling better.  I’ve slowly started to get back on a writing schedule. I’m lucky that the first book in my next series was already written and in editing, so I’ve turned my attention to the prequel and to a number of Matt Archer short stories I’ve wanted to write. I’m also going to start editing a contemporary YA I wrote early in the year. It feels good to have a plan. But I’m not going to beat myself up over word count. I’ve learned a lesson that burning the candle at both ends, while ignoring my overall health, is a BAD IDEA.

See, bad idea. : )

My long-term prognosis is mixed. I’m on a very strong medication to treat the symptoms, but it may or may not cure the problem. The only definitive cure is to have a piece of my lung removed. Um, yeah, bring on the drugs and experimental treatments.  But now that I know, I’ll listen more closely to my body and if things get worse again, I’ll get it checked out. And I’m going to slow down my life a little bit. Hopefully readers will understand if it takes me 8 months instead of 6 to launch a new release.  My writing goals are pretty simple: put out good books that people like to read.  If it takes a little longer, then that’s how it has to be.

This weekend, though, I’m going to reclaim my ink. I’m going to set aside dedicated time to write and let other things slide for a little bit. I’m itching to get started, which is a great sign. I’m feeling better, and words/scenes/characters are coming alive in my mind again.

It’s an awesome thing.