#weekendcoffeeshare A New Year’s rollercoaster

If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you how I don’t like rollercoasters anymore.  They make me feel whiplashed.  Well, whiplash (a metaphorical kind) is what my life gave me this last week.From watching a rented movie New Years Eve to time spent in an ER New Years Day, to spreading news of my first book now in paperback, I don’t think normal is meant for me.  Even keel?  I have to try hard to maintain it these days.

I am so grateful that through this last week that I’ve had the support of my mom, my significant other, and my church family.  Because New Year day was horrible, getting a call from Shands hospital that my son had been in a bad car accident.  They couldn’t tell me anything else, so I went down there.  And sat, and waited, for at least an hour before someone could tell me his status since nurses and doctors were really busy in the ER.  Let me tell you, that hour is the worst.  Shands is the leading trauma center in our city.  I knew that, and it made me even more worried, not knowing the extent of the accident.

Finally, I got details, and when I saw him they had him sedated and in a neck brace.  I worried about his state of mind.  The next day, when he was in a regular room, he was awake.  Thank God! A day later he was discharged, and he has a concussion.  Considering all of my worries, we are blessed that he got nothing worse.  My writing this week has been seriously affected by this event;  I didn’t work on any writing projects or add to any flash fiction challenges, but I did post a free verse poem that acknowledges the process and pain of a fellow traveler in the ER that day and my struggle of being between two places, grief and relief.  https://pamelascanepa.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/10117/

After resting at home a day,  he went back to work, and so did I.  That evening, I got an uplifting piece of news.  The work I did over Christmas break paid off!  I had gone into KDP at Amazon and converted my first ebook into a paperback.  I had to re-do it a few times, and then after hitting publish, it took a few days to go “live.”  My mother ordered one, and I wasn’t telling anyone until I saw that the finished product was presentable.  It was a lot of hard work to figure out the formatting and their requirements; formatting is not my forte.  But I persevered!  It looks good! I think I should have gone with a smaller trim size (or whatever it’s called).  My mom’s excited because many of her friends love reading but don’t have a Kindle.  Therefore, my writing is getting into the hands of more people, which excites me immensely!  You may view or purchase the paperback of my sci-fi romance, Made for Me, at  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1520250215, and here’s what it looks like:

I had kept getting error messages about the text possibly getting cut off at the edges.  Well, it’s all there!  It was nice to get some good news after all that went on this week.  While I was a little down about not being able to work on any current writing projects, this came up and reminded me:  “Pam, this is who you are and what you do.  Nothing can take that away.  Rest if you need to, and then come on back to it.  You’ve achieved many things so far, and when ready, you’ll continue.”   That’s my self-talk to get me through the rest of the year.  *sighs with relief.

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