I Don't See it As Amazing?

Mia and I recovering

Repeatedly over the last year I have been told that I am strong and amazing.  Oddly, I don't see myself that way.  I see myself as doing what must be done to live, to write and to have shelter.   As I look back over the year, I see triumph over struggles, but it doesn't seem all that miraculous to me. It was just what I needed to do to live.

I was asked to write out what a typical day for me was like in the last year.  I will write up two because it was either one or the other.   I was either chemo sick or traveling.  I know that my fans have been crazy for the next book and my publicist suggested I share these two schedules to create an understanding.  

My Mom is half right!

This is probably the most appropriate meme for me.  Though I write on the computer and not on paper.  It is amazing the things that people have said about my life and how it must be nice to be a writer.  I have even heard added to that...."and not a real job."  So for the curious, here are the two schedules that I have primarily lived the last two years with some small breaks here and there.

Teaching Week

Up at 6 (sometimes on the east coast so this is like 3 am to me)

Get ready for the day!

Arrive at training by 8 a.m. regardless of weather or distance

Train on Moral Reconation Therapy till Noon

Get lunch, answer questions and if time... do publicity for books

Train till approximately 4 p.m.

Grab Food for hotel eating

Publicity and write if I can - (sometimes after a chemo week I was too tired)

8 PM - Jump in World of Warcraft to relax for a bit. 

Go to bed by ten

Chemo Week - This is Day Four which was always the worst!

(Three days of this I wore a chemo pump)

Struggle to wake up usually around 9 - Sometimes move to couch.. sometimes stay on bed with lap top

Drink Coffee Caregiver brings

Putter at publicity

Nap with Mia (service pet and best friend... she is a corgi)

Putter at publicity

Nap with Mia

Try to write if brain is clear enough - sometimes it was... sometimes not... The time doing writing and publicity would increase and the nap time would decrease the farther I got from the actual chemo day.

Nap with Mia

Putter at games and hang out with friends online

Usually was asleep by 9 pm

There were months where I would do a chemo week then a teaching week back to back.  One day before teaching schedule would be spent in travel.  In the past two years I have been to New Hampshire, Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alaska, California, Oregon, New Mexico, and Utah.   

Somehow during all of this, I managed to put out books 2-4.  I know book 3 was short, but it was all I could manage for my fans at the time.  My goal once I have finished Fallen Tiers and it has been out long enough for my current readers is to consolidate the series into a trilogy.   Putting Outcast and Blackguard into one, Bloodmines and Psuedo-Dragon into another, then Fallen Tiers will be on its own.

I don't have a new schedule yet for the weeks I do not teach. I am working on it.  I know that getting Fallen Tiers out is the priority at the moment.  So obviously, that will be at the forefront.  Writing is still a bit difficult.  When I had the last tumor removed from my liver, I woke up with no feeling in my hands.  I had stomach surgery and somehow they damaged the nerves to my fingers in both hands trying to put some blood gas monitor thing in.  The fingertips hurt when I type, but as you can see, I am pushing through it. 

What I would like to know from those that took the time to read this... is there any character(s) that you would like to see in a new series?  Let me know. I appreciate all feedback and suggestions. 

Have a great day!

Love you all!

Cheri