Back Again. (Back...get it?)

It's been a crazy couple of months. I won't go in to the usual boring work stuff but…dayum. I think you know what I mean. Suffice it to say that the two days I took off from work to have surgery last week were the high point of my month. Surgery, you ask? Nothing serious. I've just had a few holes sliced in me over the last couple of weeks. The first was just to have a mole on my chest checked out. Suze had been worrying about it for years and when my doctor looked at it during a routine check-up, he said I should have it biopsied. So I did, not realizing that meant they were going to cut out a nickle-sized chunk of Mafus flesh. That turned out okay (I think there are no finer words in the English language than "your test results came back negative.") and it's almost all healed up. But the kicker was the whole point for the check-up in the first place, which was having a couple of cysts on my back looked at. I tend to get them a lot (starting in college) and every few years, when I've got 2 or 3 saved up, I arrange to have them removed all at once. I know a guy who has cysts that float around under the skin and when he gets a collection, they cut a hole and push them all out through it like a Pez dispenser. That ain't the kind I got. Mine are big, insidious suckers about the size of a fat quarter that latch onto the meat and they have to knock me out and dig them out before they turn into something worse. Usually, they leave a slight dent in the flesh with a scar about an inch or so long. But there's this one… The very first one I got was over my left shoulder blade and this is the fourth time I've tried to have it dealt with. This time, I guess the surgeon took it personal and went at it like it had insulted his mother. He cut a six-inches or so long incision into my back, across the middle and yanked out scar tissue like he was pulling up wire grass. I had no indication this was going to be the case and if I had, I never would have done it when I did because next weekend is… HEROES CON! Yep. Day after tomorrow, we're heading down to Charlotte to attend the 30th Anniversary of the Heroes Convention with tracer extraordinaire, Christian Leaf in tow. I'll be doing it with stitches in my back so, if you see me and you're happy about that fact, please don't clap me on the back. My Percocet supply is dwindling and I might holler. Hopefully, we'll be representing the Mike Wieringo Scholarship Fund again. I say "hopefully" because, though I spoke with Shelton a few months back at the VA COMICON to confirm our appearance, I haven't spoken to him since and I don't see us listed on the website. That doesn't mean anything though, because that's been the case before. But I try not to ever take anything for granted. If we do get to set up, I'm going to assume we'll be next to the Perhapanauts folk in Artists Alley around table 401 or so. So look for us there if you're interested. If we're not there, it probably means I'll be enjoying my first convention in 5 years as a spectator. Not a tragedy, obviously, but it would not be so good for the scholarship. But like I said, Shelton's never let us down before so... _____________________________ Believe it or not, between the time I started this post and my typing this part, I've broken a tooth. Gotta squeeze in a dental visit between now and Thursday. Somehow. Jeez. And I thought getting a haircut was going to be problematic. ______________________________ For those of you who are curious, I've written 75 page of the HMDH novel (about 16,000 words). That may sound like a lot but I started this thing a couple months ago and I'm only to the part where the first issue of the comic version ended. That sucks. Stephen King says a writer (in his estimation) should put out 10 pages of fresh copy daily. So I'm a few hundred pages behind. To his mind, I should have my first draft done some time next month. Ain't happening. But I'm plugging along. Of course, I experience doubts on a daily basis. That was driving me crazy until I read a great quote somewhere. I've forgotten who said it. It was on a writing site online. The quote read, "Allow yourself to write a horrible first draft." So that's what I'm doing. I was handicapping myself by "crafting" every single line. And it was killing my momentum. So I'll craft later. And write now. It's still fun. I'm having to give personalities and backstories to characters who were just passing through in the comic scripts. I can't rely on visuals to get across something that needs to be written out, hopefully with some finesse. But, fortunately, it turns out that's the best part. I'm still having a blast with it. I just hope that doesn't diminish as my job becomes more and more demanding every day. Someday that will reach critical mass and my head will explode. Until then, I'll just keep struggling to eek out a half-page to a page a day until this thing is done. So that's about it for now. I have a ton of stuff to do to get ready for the convention. And I have to figure out how to eat dinner without breaking the rest of this tooth off. And I need to write a special post that I need to put up before we leave for Charlotte. You'll see why soon. So adios. Hope to see you in Charlotte!