Heart-broken?
Not sinking just yet - so maybe April isn't the cruellest month after all...
In many respects, April has been something of a triumph: four pieces accepted for publication (two short stories & two poems), plus one other story — already long-listed — currently being considered for publication in a prestigious UK magazine. And there’s still a week of the month to go!
I must be doing something right…
Not only that, but in the last few days my printer/distributor has made direct customer orders a possibility (a facility already available to US writers) — which means I can offer some paperbacks at discounted prices and provide an alternative to the major retailers who require a 45%-55% discount in order to carry the titles. You can see which books are on offer HERE or by clicking on the image below. [Discounts apply to UK and US orders.] I may add other Coverstory books’ titles in the coming weeks.
And as if that wasn’t enough, I’ve just finished the third full edit of a new novel (still some way from being ‘ready’), and in seventeen days go off on a week-long writing retreat. My annual birthday present to myself!
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Oddly enough, I happened to be glancing through one of my notebooks yesterday and came across an entry dated about six weeks’ ago. I was obviously at a very low ebb, the primary reason being concerns about my health and doubts about my work. (Aren’t there always doubts about your work?!) If nothing else, that single entry and my experience of April thus far demonstrates the somewhat random nature of the ‘swings and roundabouts’ attendant on the lack of predictability that is living…
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Today would have been my late father’s ninety-third birthday. It’s the first one he’s missed since 1932 (he died in January). With that in mind, it’s probably pertinent to close out a recent topic…
Cardiology: the results of my consultation yesterday & the outcome of the tests they’d carried out. Apart from slightly high blood pressure and it’s predilection to beat somewhat erratically (or ‘flutter’), my heart is actually pretty healthy and generally functioning well: 57% efficient against a normal range for a man of my age of 50%-60%. (Apparently the heart is a very inefficient organ…) Bottom line: it’s not likely to give up on me any time soon. Oh, and no pacemaker needed. There’s an option for an additional medical procedure (which I’m not that keen on, but which we’ll discuss), and in the interim we’ve tweaked the meds. That’s the story.
Which feels like a bit of a result. And a relief.
Perhaps I can now get my head up and look forward; make decisions about what to do with the rest of the year — and my work. I should answer open questions about my relationship to poetry, for example, and settle on the ‘what next?’ in terms of following-on from the novel I’m currently drafting.
Tempus fugit and all that — and, if recent medical episodes demonstrate anything, faster than ever too.
‘Pedal to the metal’; that’s what they say, isn’t it? I can almost hear the throaty roar of the engine..!
Ian,
Congratulations on your successes and good news re your heart.
Glad your heart is still functioning ok. Don't forget that break you were going to have!