Improving and Back At It

Just wanted to say I am back to writing, here and there, and the pain has returned to not-fun but manageable levels for me.  Physio is probably a thing of the past, since I'm scared of a repeat and just having that appointment every week and needing a couple days in bed to recover after was playing havoc on its own.

So, yeah, hoping for some boring normal over this summer and just tapping away at the phone pumping out new scenes.  Really enjoying the one I'm writing now, in fact...and the next one I get to introduce a new Welf for ya'll!

Generally Not So Great Update

I'm really tired of typing posts like this, but...I do have a open and honest pact with you all about my progress, the ups AND the downs.

Short story:  hurt myself at physio on the 18th of April.  Not even like an exercise, just trying to lie down face first on a table weirdly enough.  Felt a pop in my mid back and by the time I got home...

Spent about ten days stuck in bed in incredible pain, basically in the fetal position on my right side moving as little as possible.  Considered going to ER, but given how ineffective they've been for me over the years, didn't want to torture myself in a chair for hours to be told there was nothing to be done since I'm not dying or bleeding.

Feeling on the higher side of my "normal" pain range now.  Hence me being able to type this really quick.

So...not much new writing, probably have an RFA coming up soon, and pretty bummed out.

Am improving day to day and I did finish a key scene before I hurt myself, have one setup (literally!) chapter left to write before the political chaos erupts! (beyond Moira's familial machinations which I know you all love soooooo much)

I guess the good news of not having physio any more would be that I'll have tons more free time to write (and play video games since this interrupted my BG3 plans something horribly...) and it felt like something I had to try to see if it helped.

Just typing this out made me feel better...and want to write.

Richard Raley:  eternal optimist.  Probably with a curse word and a bodily fluid reference thrown in there somewhere...

Okay, Spring Doctor Hell Survived

I'm still going to have minimum 5 appointments a month (4 physio, 1 spine guys) for a while longer but all the extra stuff looks like it will be out of the way come Tuesday.

I have gotten almost no work done for the last 6 weeks.  It's been...physio, procedure, physio, check up, physio, dentist, etc. one after another, then recovery from them to keep the spine from taking a downturn.  I fit like 3 days of work in April, one of which I up a deleted like two thousand words as soon as I finished writing them cuz they sucked...always so much fun!

I've also been reading reviews, answering email, posting here, stuff like that.

But...now I'm going to be taking a step back.  Get more into a writing mindset and try to get some chapters written.  If you have a question for the Q&A, ask, but it might be a week or more before I respond.

Outside of that, glad 99.9% of you enjoyed the new book, here's hoping WAR TO END ALL WARS, MOST OBVIOUS TRAP, and VICKY VON WELF AND THE MAXIMUS MASQUERADE (yeah, I'm changing the title) can keep the good times rolling.

Outside of that the sequel...I bought a PS5 to get ahead of the tariffs and I have 5 years of console gaming to catch up on.

Could be months until y'all see me again...and that's just playing Balder's Gate 3...

Seismic Semester Q&A

 Ask away.  Might take a day or two for me to respond when real life gets in the way, but I'll try to be quicker than that.  Obviously I expect most questions to be about the new book, but if you have something else, go for it.  I, as always, reserve the right to throw out some RAFOs when needed.

Seismic Semester Fan Survey

Going on three weeks, I assume a large number of people are starting to finish the book (71 ratings, 4.8 average, woohoo!), so let me throw out the same three questions I gave the beta readers (who can also answer here it they want, or maybe their opinion changed after a reread).

1.  Favorite Scene?

2.  Biggest Laugh?

3.  Favorite Single?

Q&A will be start of next month looks like!  Kinda in doctor/physio hell for the next week.  Am stealing the occasional feel good day to write, but not a lot.  And...I deleted about 1.5k words worth of work one night because I was unhappy with it...sigh.