Life is pretty good

My writing life, and really my life in general, looks pretty good right now. My carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis still aren't 100% healed, but they're getting there. I've got a new desk in my home office that's much better for me ergonomically--sort of a bittersweet thing, since my old desk was BEAUTIFUL, while the new one is a plain, cheap pine table from IKEA. But this summer once it's warm and sunny I'm going to take it out on the deck and paint or stain it, and really, when it's your health and ability to work that's on the line, function has to trump form.

Now that I can write again, I'm putting in two writing sessions a day. Normally the first is 30 minutes during my lunch hour at work and the second is an hour late at night. I'm not worrying too much about word count, but just trying to put in regular time at the keyboard and get some forward momentum going. I'll never be the fastest writer in the world, but at least I feel like I'm finally making progress.

Guest blog, flattery, and a congratulations

I've been a bit quiet on the internets the past few days after pushing my carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis-afflicted hand a bit too hard removing wallpaper over the weekend. My hand IS getting better, and I've learned to rest it right away when these little relapses occur. It's just frustrating that the improvement is so GRADUAL. I'm used to things like the sinus infection I'm also recovering from--I go to the doctor, she says, "Yep, I think that's bacterial instead of viral. No penicillin allergy? Good. Have some amoxycillin," and within two days my symptoms are gone. But the hand doctor says I'm doing well, just use common sense and come in if I have severe pain or diminished sensation or range of motion, so I'll take her word for it.

Anyway, today I'm guest blogging over at fellow Carina author Katie Reus's place. I'm talking about secrets in fiction and giving away copies of both The Sergeant's Lady and A Marriage of Inconvenience (though you won't get the latter until April), so do stop by and comment for a chance to win.

I've been going to writing conferences and hanging around with writers on the internet for so long that I'm mostly blase about interacting with authors. But there are a few out there who can still reduce me to babbling, incoherent fangirl squee. Lois McMaster Bujold, whose books I'm currently wallowing in to the point that if you asked me to promise you something, I might just give my word as Vorfraser. (And if that makes sense to you, please say hello--I need someone to babble fangirlishly with about the dinner party in A Civil Campaign.) Jacqueline Carey. Diana Gabaldon and Bernard Cornwell, both of whom I've actually attempted to converse with at conferences--I think I managed to come across kinda sane. And Julia Spencer-Fleming, whose glorious Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mysteries hooked me completely despite being set in the present (with no fantastical, time traveling, or alternative history alterations thereto) and coming this this close to an adulterous hero and heroine, which is usually Not My Thing. (Except insofar as it's now showing up in my historical fantasy WIP, in yet another instance of my muse taking "I'll NEVER write X" as a dare.)

Anyway...Julia Spencer-Fleming liked my book! And she blogged about it! In public and everything! SQUEEEEE!!!!

OK. In other flattering-to-me news, All About Romance named The Sergeant's Lady as both a 2010 Buried Treasure and a reviewer favorite. In all seriousness, I treasure the time I spent writing that book and those characters, and it's an honor every time readers tell me they connected with them too.

Last but not least, I want to congratulate my critique partner and dear friend Rose Lerner for being voted the best debut author of 2010 in All About Romance's annual reader poll. If you haven't read her In For a Penny yet, you should really go buy it right away. She's a wonderful stylist, her characters come alive, and if you're reading MY blog you probably enjoy off-the-beaten-path Regencies, which hers decidedly are. They take a different route off the beaten path than mine, but still.

Hand prognosis

I came away from the hand doctor yesterday with better news than I expected. I have carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists and elbow cubital tunnel syndrome on the left side.

The carpal tunnel issue is in theory fixable by surgery, but we're going to try a month or two of occupational therapy and sleeping with my wrists in splints before taking that step. If it does come to surgery, I could be typing again within days, but would have to avoid heavy lifting or putting pressure on the palm for much longer. And frankly, I'm not all that eager to have my hand sliced open.

For now, the doctor advised me to "use common sense" about keyboard time. So I'm going to take a couple weeks away from my WIPs as a sort of sabbatical. I think they need more time to stew in my head anyway--I'm not the type who outlines or prewrites, but before I was published I used to think about each story for months or even years before I started writing them. I can't afford that long of a process anymore, but I think I've been pushing too far in the opposite direction by trying to write my ideas as soon as I have them.

As for other things, I'm not going to keep to a strict blog schedule with Favorites Monday, Research Wednesday, and so on, but I'll do short posts as I feel like I have something to say and generally hang out online if I can do so without making my hands worse. I'll be doing considerably less recreational netsurfing, though.

Tendinits Part 2

So, that tendinitis I thought I had beaten, or at least on the retreat?

It's back. It flared up a bit toward the end of last week, my second full week back at work after a two-week Christmas break, but it was manageable. Still, I called my doctor and got a referral to a hand specialist, whom I'll be seeing Wednesday afternoon. I also got an appointment with a massage therapist for yesterday evening, the same one who'd done wonders when I had lower back pain last year.

I don't know what she did and I'm sure she meant only the best, but I walked in with discomfort and walked out in PAIN. And 24 hours later, it's not much better.

I would love to ignore the pain, push through it, and write anyway. I don't like to admit weakness or ask for help. But I had a Tough Love conversation with Mr. Fraser this morning wherein he convinced me I must listen to my body. That my day job is legally obligated to accommodate this kind of issue, whether with an ergonomic consultation, voice recognition software, letting me take time off to rest the hand, or whatever. That my writing is a marathon, not a sprint, and that the world won't end if I have to take a few weeks or even a month or two entirely off to heal. That if I have to go to voice recognition software, I'll find a way to adapt to it, even if it slows me down.

So I'm trying to feel hopeful, even though it's hard and I'm beyond frustrated with this pain. And I'm also announcing that my blog is going much quieter again, at least until I've seen the hand specialist and can get some kind of prognosis.

I'm a bit down, because I was going to write and write and write over the three-day MLK weekend, and instead I'm just reading and reading and reading and judging my Golden Heart entries (don't worry, I'm not letting the pain impact my scoring--of the three entries I've judged so far, I thought two were fabulous, potential finalists, and scored them accordingly). So...if you've got a hopeful story of someone who suffered from tendinitis and got better, by all means tell me. But if you know of someone who was never able to use their hands again or they thought it was tendinitis and it turned out it was really something far worse...I really don't want to hear about it right now. Please. Allow me what optimism I can summon that the hand doc will be able to help me.

In happier news, the lovely and talented Delilah Marvelle will be visiting on Tuesday, so please stop by then to comment for a chance to win one of her books!