Greetings, my friends,
My, what a busy September it’s been…
I guess my first news to report is that when I reported last month that I’d discovered a “magic pill” that helped so much with my gastroparesis, I apparently rejoiced prematurely. For the last few weeks, despite taking the HCL, I’ve been back to vomiting almost daily. I also found that even though the HCL is supposed to help digest food and move it along out of the stomach, I’m back to being able to eat just about nothing except grilled cheese sandwiches without feeling incredibly sick. I have noticed that over the past few weeks, I’ve also been under a more-than-usual amount of stress, so as I reported before, I definitely believe there’s a direct correlation between stress and the gastroparesis.
So, in addition to toilet hugging being my pastime these past few weeks, I’ve been freezing despite the upper 90+ degree weather, I’ve been exhausted, and my hair’s been falling out again. However, despite these annoying little things, it didn’t occur to me until last week that they are actually “symptoms” and put together, they likely mean I’m anemic again. So, I started back on the iron and B-12, and I have an appointment for bloodwork coming soon. My hope is that once the stress goes, the gastroparesis will flee, I’ll stop puking, and I’ll be able to eat a better variety of foods and get nutrients so these things will stop happening.
In other news, I entered a caption contest for The New Yorker, but I was not selected as a finalist. However, the finalists that were selected were all really good, so I don’t mind losing to them.
I ran across a Halloween decoration a couple of weeks ago that was similar to a Christmas village… Only this wasn’t a village, per se, but more like an interactive creepy carnival. Well, needless to say, the carnival theme reminded me a lot of the “Zombiefest” setting for my book Thou Shalt Not, so between my sister and a couple of friends at work, I was persuaded to buy this carnival and make it my own. I can’t find a great video that shows everything, but this one isn’t too bad:
To tell the truth, I didn’t actually plan on spending that much, or on even owning so many Halloween decorations in the first place, but once I went to the store to price them, it turned out they were already picked over since I visited the store the week before, so I had to have them at that point. Then, when I realized the store I was in didn’t have everything anymore, I then made it my mission to drive all over Central Florida until I had successfully collected every available piece. And now, to justify spending WAY too much money on a decoration I’ll likely only be able to display a couple of days because if left up any longer, my cats will surely destroy it, I’m afraid I’m going to have to host a Halloween party so that people can see it. If you think you’ll be in Florida near the end of October, shoot me an email, and I’ll send you an invitation. (I’ll post photos once I have it all set up.) If anyone has any favorite Halloween recipes to share with me, I’d sure appreciate it.
I entered four short stories in a Writer’s Digest contest earlier this year, and I was notified that one of them received an Honorable Mention. Woo Hoo! No, I wasn’t a finalist, but that was still pretty cool news. Yay, Team Rachel!
Since my last post entitled “The Raven,” I’ve actually taken on the project of trying to memorize Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven. So far, I’ve learned 11 out of 18 stanzas. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
And finally, I wrote an opening sentence in a Writer’s Digest contest where you are to write one opening sentence only based on a photo that they give, and my sentence was selected as a finalist in that contest. Squeeeeeee! And THIS is where I could use YOUR help…
If you’re registered at the Writer’s Digest site, would you please vote for me in the comments section? (Mine is Sentence “B”: b. Paralyzed with fear, Cole didn’t even have to look over his shoulder to know the kayak that’d been following him for miles was empty.) The link to the contest is here: http://www.writersdigest.com/your-story-competition/your-story-76-submit-now
If you’re not registered at the Writer’s Digest site, would you please send an email to: YourStoryContest@fwcommunity.com with “Your Story 76 Vote” in the subject line and write SENTENCE B in the body of the email?
Thank you so much! I’m forever grateful to those of you who vote.
So tell me… How do YOU celebrate Halloween?
Rachel Carrera, Novelist 