Weekly Progress Report #14

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Not a good report this time on my goals from last week. I completely failed to do any editing. I don’t know, I may have hit a wall on that story. It was interesting to me, but now, I think I’m pretty sick of it. I’ll set it aside for a month or so and come back to it. Maybe then, I’ll actually be interested in finishing the editing. The last couple of weeks, I haven’t done anything on getting something ready for publishing. Mostly I’ve been doing flash fiction and short stories. Good practice and maybe I need to practice for a while before I try to publish anything.

I do have two short stories out to publishers and am waiting on the inevitable rejection letter or perchance an acceptance letter.

Started a new series of writings called Weekly Writing Challenge. Posted the first story last night. I’ll be pulling a new prompt for this week from the jar tonight. I plan on posting each week at about 6 pm Saturday Eastern Standard Time the Weekly Challenge.

I plan on doing a couple of other stories this week as I get the inspiration. Posting may be light as it’s ramping up at work due to Annual Inventory in two weeks.

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My battle against cancer continues. I had an MRI yesterday morning. I have an appointment to see the surgical oncologist this Thursday to review the MRI and discuss next steps. I’m hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. This past nine months I’ve had a bucket and a half of emotional blows. I feel pretty good right now, but that could change very quickly.

I also am getting my semi-annual EKG this Tuesday and will see the Cardiologist. I would say I should pass this with flying colors, but I’ve had an occasional twinge in my chest area the past few weeks. When I say twinge, I mean a bit of tightness and I lose my breath for a few seconds. I know, probably not a good sign, but I’m deep in denial right now about my heart. Whether I say anything to the Cardiologist about this is up in the air right now.

Blood sugar wise is also not good. I’ve been testing my blood sugar levels the last couple of weeks. I’m averaging 177 right now which is high. I’ve also noticed that when I have carbs or sugar then my right heel starts hurting. At times, I can hardly walk on it and I’m limping.

All in all health-wise, I’m a mess and still going downhill. If the cancer don’t kill me, then my heart will go out or I’ll die from diabetes.

Till next week, time and tide wait for no man.

Echo – A series by Kent Wayne

Kent Wayne or as we know him in the blogging world as Dirty Sci-fi Buddha has a great series of books that I just finished. Normally I don’t do reviews because I’m pretty sucky at them. I felt compelled to review all four volumes on Amazon. I thought it would be pretty neat to put them all here at once.

Echo Volume 1 – Approaching Shatter – 4/5 stars

I had to deduct one star due to the length being quite short for a novel. The author added the first 3 chapters of the next book to pad it out, but as I had already planned on reading it, I skipped the preview.

This volume introduces us to the world of Echo. It also sets stage for the main character. There is just enough action to keep it interesting. You might be tempted to skip this volume but don’t! It’s crucial to the rest of the story. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it and was eager to read the volume 2

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Echo Volume 2 – A Taste of Ashes – 5/5 stars

The action heats up in this volume and never stops. It just keeps ramping up with little short respites that let you catch your breath. Every time I thought it couldn’t get more tense, the author turns up the heat even more.

The military sci-fi is spot on. I really liked this volume.

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Echo Volume 3 – The Dialectic of Agony – 5/5 stars

After reading volume 2, I almost took a break but I’m glad I dove into volume 3. This is probably my favorite of the series. We go from military sci-fi to fantasy and back again. The author split the volume between two main characters that will be eventually intertwined.

The storytelling is engrossing. I was tempted to read all night long.

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Echo Volume 4 – The Last Edge of Darkness – 5/5 stars

As a conclusion to the series, I did not expect this. Not much action for the first 2/3 of the book, but then WOW! The ending was great. Tremendous kudos to the author for introducing concepts that generally most people shy from. The way he introduces Time Concepts, morality and religion is thoughtful and you are eased into it. I’ve read other books with these concepts and they seemed preachy. Not this one.

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Fantastic series all in all. I probably could have devoted more time to my writings, but instead spent hours reading. Time well spent in my opinion.

Weekly Progress Report #11

The holiday doldrums are here. It’s that time of the year where it’s hard to follow through on plans due to holiday distractions. This weekend so far has been shot to hell. Earlier in the week, I did do a bit of editing. I’ve also done some more research on writing. That counts for something in my book. I posted everyday but one this week. Of the posts I made, a couple were quickies with not much thought to them. All in all, not a good progress report for writing.

This week my plans are going to be fluid. It’s Christmas week and I know from the past years, things can change in an instant. For today, I’ll be posting Part 3 of Writing a Book. After that, I have no plans other than to post everyday.

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In health news, I did really well sticking to my diet until Friday. I figured if I was going to go off my diet, then I might as well go whole hog. I’ve been paying for it since then. Slept for two hours last night and then woke up soaking wet with night sweats. Got up for a half-hour and then tried to go back to sleep. Eventually I did and got about an hour’s worth of sleep then my alarm clock went off. Yes, I get up everyday at the same time to take my Chemo pills.

No doctor appointments for this week again. I’ve never been a big fan of seeing doctors, but my life has changed drastically since last May. Now it feels weird if I go a couple of weeks without seeing one doctor or another.

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Stay safe out there. Holidays are typically a time where more people get into accidents and get hurt or die. This last week there was a pileup of 25 vehicles on the interstate near me. 11 people had to be airlifted to the hospital. Thankfully there were no fatalities.

Till next week, time and tide wait for no man.