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Insights into the writing life of an exhausted mom of four 8 and under. |
| Hey guys! Aly here with your monthly update. :) So far, this month has been less stressful than last month. It's also gotten a lot colder, a lot faster than I expected haha. We've had to break out all the winter gear pretty suddenly after enjoying temps in the 60s the past few weeks. It actually feels like the seasons are behaving for once here in the Midwest, in some ways. The reason why things have been less stressful is quite bittersweet. We are moving toward hospice care for my mother in law, who is now suffering seizures and has limited cognitive abilities. She can no longer feed herself, and her daily radiation treatments are not seeing any progress made towards fighting back against the tumor--and she's over halfway through them. After my husband spoke with his family, we all feel it would be best to move toward hospice in the very near future and to stop treatments. Her cancer was very advanced to begin with, and the surgery to remove the tumor bought her about a month before the tumor regrew and started to cause issues. She spent that month battling the after effects of a massive internal hemorrhage caused by too high a dose of blood thinning medication, followed by a mysterious liver infection that came and went seemingly out of nowhere. Needless to say, she has been through hell and back multiple times and at this point, it seems rather ridiculous to continue treatment despite no improvement and worsening cognition/seizures. This has been a horrendous decision on my husband's part to have to shoulder, and although we know it's the right one, it's still extremely difficult to come to terms with the fact that we have to stop fighting and let her go. That being said, the logistics of everything have calmed down, and all that is left is to move her into a private nursing home closer to us and spend as much quality time as we can with her while she is still here. On the topic of writing, I'm steadily making progress on "Rattle the Stars," my Disney crossover fanfiction featuring Treasure Planet and Alice in Wonderland. I've also sent "Kingdom of Destruction," Book Two in the Kingdoms of Saelyn series, out to beta readers and I'm eagerly awaiting their feedback. Meanwhile, you can check out a new chapter each week of BOTH stories over on my website, Wattpad, Royal Road, or Writing.com. I've been drawing up a storm lately, in hobby-related news. They're mostly character drawings and I'm having LOADS of fun designing characters and playing with colors, expressions, outfits, and all the rest. Winter stargazing is going well, too. While the nights have grown cold, that means I won't have to fight bugs whilst I'm standing out with my binoculars or just staring at the Winter Hexagon from my porch. It's been fun seeing Orion rise in the East shortly after sunset, and seeing the beautiful Pleiades rise as well. If you happen to look up after sunset, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all together for the moment, stretching across the ecliptic overhead from East to West. Go have a look, if you never have. It's quite relaxing. :) I think that's all the news I have for the month of November, other than to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate. Despite the storms in our life, there is much to be grateful for.  AlyCatAuthor |
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