This afternoon, I feel like screaming into the void. Or maybe a pillow. A pillow won't complain the way the void does. Honestly, I don't blame the void. If an absolute stranger came and screamed at you, wouldn't you complain? Why am I screaming? Because Amazon. And every indie author in the audio radiance nods in agreement. Because of course it's Amazon.

I spent most of today learning to work the pole... err... poll. I signed up to be a poll worker for the general election, and today was our first training. I still have online training modules to do, and an entire binder to read through. And yes, I was inspired to do this because of the social media campaign. If you know, you know.

We love bi+ books! A website for fans and authors of bi+ books of all genres.

We love bi+ books! A website for fans and authors of bi+ books of all genres.

Actually, home again was yesterday. We got home from Smut Lovers, unloaded the car, and sort of fell over. If falling over includes six loads of laundry, that is. Today is a low-energy day, although I did go to the pool to exercise this morning. There's been a lot of seated work since -- backing up the computer. Making calls. Making graphics for Bi Books Forever (see below).

It's time! Smut Lovers Conference starts Wednesday! Are we ready yet? No!!! Well, not quite. The books that I have are in the living room, ready to be loaded into the car. That includes the box of books that arrived TODAY! There's one more box coming, and I'm holding out hope it gets here by Thursday. I may do all the prep work for the charity basket that I want to put together.

The phrase "Thanks, I hate it." comes courtesy of College Boy, who has been saying it for years whenever faced with something that he either didn't want to hear, or that was truly brainbending. It's become so much a part of the family lexicon that it has shown up in a book (appearing in Children of Dreams, if I remember correctly.)

Two weeks of shows done. And now... breathe! I have two and a half weeks before the next show. Which means I have two and a half weeks to restock my books, because I was not expecting books to fly off my table the way they did! I started this run with a full table, and ended it nearly selling out of two titles.

Narratess Indie Book Sale

The Monday after a weekend event is my time for catching up. Laundry, cleaning up, getting the millions of things done that usually get done over the weekend. So today is my day to catch up on things. The last load of laundry is in the machine. My planners are updated for the week. I've read all (okay, most) of my emails and ordered the supplies I need for upcoming shows.

This weekend marks the start of my silly season -- two shows back to back, then two weeks off, then another show followed by a week off before one more show. Then I get to breathe for a month and hope that I have time to restock before my last two shows of the year. Between now and the beginning of December, I have six shows.

This past week has been interesting. I spent quite a lot of time silently wondering "How do I do this again?" Okay, that's not entirely true. I did spent a bit of time catching up on what I'd already written. Sometimes, I can't remember what I've written from day to day, so remembering after two months was asking a lot. …

Vacation is over, it's time to get back to work... almost. I'm actually getting back to work on writing on Wednesday. I'm currently working on revising the metadata and keywords for all of my books. It's been a minute since I last updated mine, so it's well and truly past time. Yes, I'm updating all of them. Now, this sort of requires a lot of thinking about what the average reader plugs into the search engine when they're looking for something new.

Today is officially six weeks post-op. Do you know what that means? Restrictions officially lifted! I can (slowly and carefully) return to lifting, bending, twisting and I can go back into the pool. So I can also get back to exercising! Of course, this is also the week when I'm going to be too busy to go into the pool. Well, maybe later this week?

Progress is progressing! Today, I was discharged from pain management, because if there's no pain, there's nothing to manage. Makes sense, right? The admins were all lovely and wished me well and told me that they hoped they didn't see me again. Which... I hope I don't see them either! I still have one more week of restrictions, and I've gotten to the point where I keep forgetting.

It's the little things that really drive it home when you're not running at full capacity. Things like... picking up something you've dropped when you're not allowed to BEND, for example. I had my first post-surgical followup with the neurosurgeon last week, and she's pleased with how I'm doing. I'm still on restrictions -- no bending, twisting or lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk for another two weeks.

Elizabeth Schechter has been writing award-winning Romantasy since before the word was coined. Her writing credits include the award-winning steampunk romance House of Sable Locks, the Celtic fantasy ...

Three weeks along in my recovery, and slowly and steadily, I'm getting there. Not going to lie, it can be frustrating. I cannot bend or twist, or lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk (which is about 8 pounds). I'm currently at that stage of recovery where I want to do all the things, but I'm not supposed to do any of them.

On May 25th, I told you all that I was waiting for surgery approval, but that there was a safety valve where I could head into the ER. It's been one month since that post (more or less). I am now exactly two weeks post surgery. Surprise! I'm currently recovering, and doing very well. Surprisingly well, to be honest. I was almost entirely pain free immediately after surgery.

And now... we wait. What are we waiting for? Last week, I sat down with the neurosurgeon. She walked into the room and asked, "Do you have your phone?" Me: "Yes." Her: "Good. Take a picture of this. I want you to see what we're talking about." So I have a photo on my phone of my spine, and of the disc that has breached containment.

The ball is still rolling, and I don't have any firm answers yet. Tomorrow, I will sit down with the neurosurgeon, and we'll see where things go from there. I have my records and my imaging discs, and I'm about as ready as I can be, and I really just kind of want to go in and say "I'm broken. Fix me."

I had another pain management appointment today, and the ball is rolling. What ball? The one that involves a referral to a neurosurgeon for spinal surgery to relieve the pressure on my sciatic nerve. My pain doctor and I are in agreement -- surgery is the best option for me. Which means that I'm now on crunch time. I NEED to finish…

"Clever Headline Goes Here." Otherwise known as "this is your brain on sciatica pain." I thought I pulled a muscle exercising. So I did what you usually do when you pull a muscle -- anti-inflammatory medication, heat and ice, gentle stretching. Then the pins-and-needles started, and I hied myself off to the orthopaedist. Ortho set me up with six weeks of physical therapy and sent me to see a pain management doctor.

I took a class last week, and now I have homework. I need to redo a lot of what goes on behind the scenes for my self-published titles. So over the next few weeks, I'll be redoing many things that you probably will never notice, and one thing you might. The many things you probably won't notice are the metadata and keywords, which help people find my books when they search online.

Friday night, we went out to dinner, and I made SURE that we were home in time to watch Artemis come home. And once she was down and safe, I posted something to my social media. And... it certainly took off. I've never had a post ever that gained the traction this one did. Friends have been tagging me when they see it, so I know how far it's gone. And I've tripped on one person who stole the post and claimed it for their own, which... I suppose that means I'm a real writer?

I'm writing this up while I watch the Artemis II flyby of the Moon, and I really, REALLY need someone to say "And now... the back side of Luna!" I doubt anyone will (or if they did, I missed it.) Screenshot from my other monitor. I keep saying I'm tired of living in unprecedented times, but for this unprecedented time? I'll take it. The last time we went to the Moon, I was eight months old. And I just found out about the message that Jim Lovell (Commander of Apollo 13) recorded before he died, and that NASA played just before the Moon flyby started, welcoming the Artemis team to his old neighborhood.

ALT: a close up of a man 's face with sir written on his chest

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