The first Wednesday of every month is the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Posts go up the 1st Wednesday of every month. Check it out here and join if you need support with your writing. Don't forget to stop by and say hi to the co-hosts: J Lenni Dorner, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, Lee Lowery, and Rachna Chhabria!

I was actually gonna post this last month, but then Kindle Vella became a thing and there was some interesting discussion about it that I wanted to take part in. Go read that post if you haven't already and weigh in.

It's been 4 months since my surgery and I've finally been cleared of all restrictions. I had a delay due to an incision that kept breaking open. I thought in celebration of that, I would give a timeline of how my life was every month. This may not exactly be writing related but I want everyone and their mother to know what I went through and why this is a big deal.

Day 1: PAIN

Day 2: MORE PAIN. I end up in the ER because it will not stop.

Day 3: Pain but now I have heavy-duty narcotics to take the edge off. Maybe I can get something done, but most likely, I will sleep because I am exhausted from pain, lack of sleep, and drugs that make me tired. I've barely eaten in the past 2 days because of nausea and lack of appetite caused by the pain.

Day 4: Pain has lessened to what I call tolerable. It's probably not what you call tolerable.

Day 5 & 6: I can get things done once I get the pain to a manageable place, but I have to repeat the process throughout the day, and I'm still feeling weak. I'm haven't slept more than 3 or 4 hours at night since the pain started. My land lord is probably wondering why there is a giant spike in the water bill, because in order for the pain killers to work, I have to take them then lay in a tub of as hot as I can stand water for a half hour. I may feel well enough to leave the apartment or cook dinner.

Day 7 and onward for at least another 7 days if not more: Still in pain, but its lessening. Still not sleeping the night. Still doing pain management so I can go work, but when I get home, I sleep the rest of the afternoon because I'm exhausted (and in pain.) I'm really sick of doing hot soaks.

Day 14ish: Pain is still there, but I think I might finally get to sleep the entire night soon. I am super excited about this fact.

Days 15ish-? (how ever long the month is): There is no pain. I am stoked. I slept all night. It felt great. I am still exhausted, but I really need to catch up on chores. (Hubby does help, but he is working a 40 hr a week job; things fall by the way side.)

Day 0: Woke up with spotting. Looked at the diary my gyno has me filling out and realized shit's about to hit the fan. Crossing fingers that maybe it won't be too bad.

Spoiler: It's worse. Return to day 1.

I'm not sure how to end the post. I could go on about realizing that I had been lying to myself about how well I was handling it, that I could now admit to myself that I was just surviving, or that I had a scary realization that I have no idea how much more of that I could have taken. It's mind blowing. It also sucks. I don't recommend it.

The first Wednesday of every month is the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Posts go up the 1st Wednesday of every month. Check it out here and join if you need support with your writing. Don't forget to stop by and say hi to the co-hosts: Erika Beebe, PJ Colando, Tonja Drecker, Sadira Stone, and Cathrina Constantine!

I scrapped my original post because something caught my attention that I thought would be a great topic for IWSG. Tyrean Martinson posted on her blog and FB about the new Kindle Vella. She had questions about it and, like many authors, is considering it. Christine Rains' comment to Tyrean's post really stuck with me.

Readers don't have the patience to wait for books.

That really stuck in my craw. Because it's not just books. It's everything no one has any patience to wait for. Everyone is demanding what they want NOW. And we keep rewarding that. Writing advice now tells authors to publish as soon as possible. Don't wait or you will lose readers. They'll find other books to read if you don't publish this instant!

But not only do they want it now, but they want it THEIR way. Tyrean brought up a best selling author who is planning on doing it. She's going to release ten chapters then write the rest based on reader feedback.

Whose feedback, I wonder. A best selling author has a lot of fans. They're going to have different opinions on how the book should go. How do you choose which ones to listen to? And what about the ones who's ideas get passed over? Would it be shocking if they got angry the story didn't go the way they wanted? The author promised she would take their input and yet here she is ignoring it. Doesn't she value them? They thought she cared about them. They saw her as not only an author, but friend.

You could argue that this is doomsday thinking. To a point, yes, it is, but it's also not. I'm a fan of Youtuber JackSepticEye. He's the equivalent of a best selling author with 25 million followers. One thing he has noted is how when he was younger, he over shared on his channel. He felt he had to in order to connect with the viewers. As such, the separation between celebrity and fan was flimsy. Fans didn't see themselves as fans, but as friends with him. They believed they knew everything about him, and some felt he owed them responses or attention because of that. Eventually, he put that barrier back up and set boundaries because people were getting unreasonable.

I think it's important to keep that separation between creator and fan. Otherwise, we risk fans believing they are entitled to dictate to us how we write, and getting offended when it doesn't happen. Yes, I write for others to enjoy my work, but I don't want add to a culture that makes people unable to cope with something not being their cup of tea. Especially, when they got that thing the instant they demanded it.

That's not healthy. Patience is a virtue. It's okay to not like every bit of entertainment you consume. There's nothing wrong with fanboying over a creator. But also realize they are not your BFF.

What are you thoughts? Are we creating a culture of instant gratification? How can we foster a healthy relationship with fans?

The first Wednesday of every month is the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Posts go up the 1st Wednesday of every month. Check it out here and join if you need support with your writing. Don't forget to stop by and say hi to the co-hosts: PK Hrezo, Pat Garcia, SE White, Lisa Buie Collard, and Diane Burton!

Optional April 7 question - Are you a risk-taker when writing? Do you try something radically different in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?

My short but sweet answer: Not really. I do like to do weird things like ask "What if an incubus fell for an asexual?" and turn stuff on their heads a bit, but I'm not sure that's all that risky.

First off, I just want to thank everyone who offered to read and review A Quick Spell. I appreciate it immensely. You can still get in on that by signing up here. Secondly...

2021 YOU AREN'T FIGHTING FAIR!

There's not much to say on the writing front this month. Last month, I was off to a slow but good start, but shortly after my IWSG post, 2021 decided to fight back and it wasn't going to be fair about it.

I lost my day job.

It boils down to I could not work because of surgery so I was fired and someone else hired. Of course, the real kicker there was the prep cook who failed his drug test and went to jail but had his position saved for him. (And yes, we looked into if that was even legal.)

Then hubby got news that he might be out of a job. (As of this writing, it is still in the air if he needs to job hunt or not.) And our health insurance doesn't want to cover the costs of my hospital stay, which is at the heart attack inducing price of 107,000 dollars.

Literally, all this happened the same time. The only good thing was I got my catheter out and I can now move freely without toting around a bag of pee.

I'm trying to find the silver lining. One is I don't have to worry about a stressful job ruining my surgery recovery. The other is it has me thinking about graphic design again. If you look at the top of the page, I re-added the tab for book covers. I still have another month of doctor ordered restrictions, but those restrictions don't stop me from using Gimp.

How's life in your neck of the woods? Are you a risk-taking writer? Did you join the A to Z Challenge this year? Do you want a book cover? ;)