Life in All its Confusion

Yeah, I know. Haven't been here in a while.

So. ApolloCon was lots of fun. Saw my friends Rosemary Clement-Moore (of the Prom Dates From Hell books) and Shanna Swendson (of the Enchanted, Inc. series), and Chuck Emerson of Houston Bay Area RWA, and made some new friends. I met A. Lee Martinez who also writes some cool books, and his girlfriend Sally who is very cute and funny, and Rie Sheridan and Martha Wells, and I even got to meet Allen Steele who was the Guest of Honor--except Every One of my panels was opposite Every Single guest of honor. I did manage to get to be on a panel with Steele, who is a very nice man, and with Steven Brust, who has an amazing leather akubra-ish hat, and reminds me of Kinky Friedman, only without the cigar and Jewish cowboy-ness. Listened to some amazing music. Bought some art.

I bought some new books --Martha Wells's The Wizard Hunters, and Shanna's new Enchanted book, Don't Hex With Texas, and Rosemary's Prom Dates. And yes, I've already read them all. Now I need to get the next book in Martha's series, and I need to get another book I wanted, but I don't remember the title, and I don't remember the author's last name--I just remember it was a fantasy, and it had horses in it, and an alternate world. Drat. Now I'm going to have to try to figure it out. Ha! Patrice Sarath (See, I can find these things if I am sufficiently motivated) and the book is Gordath Wood from Ace fantasy. Yay! There may have been one or two others I need--yep, the new Jack Campbell is out. Okay, need to buy more books. (Okay, I don't NEED to, but...)

And then, on Sunday, when the con was over, I headed out for the hospital in Austin. My mom was supposed to have minor, in-and-out day surgery last Wednesday, but when they looked inside, turned out they needed to do more than they'd thought, so it turned into major surgery. I was really worried she'd be going home from the hospital with nobody to look after her and Daddy (he's only slightly less forgetful than she is), since the sister who lives next door was out of town at a wedding. Since my dad can barely take care of himself, I wasn't sure how he'd do with taking care of Mama too, right out of the hospital. Fortunately, they kept her in the hospital through Sunday, (and Daddy stayed in the room with her the whole time, so he had some looking-after too), and I was able to get there and take them home on Monday and stay a couple of days. The surgery went well, she's healing really well, the tumor they found hadn't spread so she won't have to have any further treatments, and my sister comes home today.

I think I've convinced them that when they're hungry, they ought to eat, so they don't lose any more weight. Daddy's looking awfully thin, I think because when he starts a meal, he gets up to do something in the middle of it, and forgets he's still eating. But one day, he seemed to forget he'd already eaten and made himself another sandwich and ate a second lunch, so hopefully, he'll make up for it. Several small meals during the day is probably better for them anyway.

And now I'm home again, and still have a synopsis to write. And I'm kind of brain dead. The boy's girl is coming down for the weekend, so we'll play over the holiday, and maybe my brain will come home again.

No writing. Not much exercise. I walked to the mail box and back with Mama, and halfway around the house, and back and forth across the hospital three or four times--but I don't think that got me very far toward Rivendell. But, ya know? Sometimes life throws you a few fastballs, with curves. I'm still here.