I'm Finding My Voice Again- and I'm Surprised

With all the time that I've been writing, you'd think I'd know my voice.  But after my stroke, I'm having to relearn everything.  I had to learn how to walk, how to think, and talk and yes, even how to write.  It's been brutal, but I had my loving wife to see me through it.

I learned how to write before I learned how to talk well, a conscious decision on my part that I don't regret.  I speak okay now, but I still have to speak abominably slowly.  The stroke seemed to affect my speech patterns the worst.  So during recovery, I concentrated on writing.

Fast forward a year and a half, and I've found that I can write quite well.  It wasn't so easy at first.  I could write only five words a day, and not very good at that!  Then I worked my way up to ten, fifteen, twenty-five, fifty, one hundred and finally, the much vaunted 250 words per day!  That took me about six months to do.  Somedays I wrote less, and somedays-- those were the good days-- I even wrote more.

Spring ahead another six months, and I finally worked my way up to 1200 words every day.  I didn't have much else to do. so that took me eight to ten hours, but I was determined.   

Now, a year and a half later, I can write an average of 1500 words per day, and I consider them pretty good,  I still have to feather them, of course, but they are good enough to get by.

But still, I wonder what to write about.  I've written The White Werewolf, Werewolf's Revenge and The Haunting of Hiram Abiff, but I'm anxious to move on to some real dark fiction.  I've got one more werewolf novel, which is the Werewolf Awakening, and after that a good ghost story--both of which I should finish by this year, but after that---who knows what I will write?

By then, I should have my voice back.

COVID-19 and the Writer

We're all aware that COVID-19 is here.  Everybody is going into quarantine except for emergency responders and people that absolutely have to go out.  People are scared.  Their jobs are at risk.  The federal government is coming to the rescue.  But how long will this contagion be a threat?

There are two anti-malarial drugs that show great promised in treating the infection and are commonly available.  They have already been approved by the FDA- and that's a good thing.  We can only cross our fingers as to the testing outcome.

But the bottom line, is everyone, even writers are being quarantined.

This does give us the opportunity to write, though, and, while I'm not to happy about the COVID-19 infection, I have to make the best of it.  So I will write.  The wife has stocked us up with provisions for three months, and we don't have to go out, so we'll wait and see.

But, in the meantime, I will write.

The White Werewolf

Well, I'm back after a 5 year hiatus in writing and publishing.  I suffered a series of strokes due to, believe it or not, diabetes, which I didn't know that I had.

I also didn't know that I was having strokes until the final big one hit.

My son took me to the hospital at my wife's request because I just didn't sound right.  Like before, I was vague, had trouble concentrating, but this time, I was having trouble speaking, too.  I was, as they say, royally screwed.

When I woke up about 12 hours later, they told me I had a stroke brought about by diabetes, and I would have to be on injections of Humalog for the rest of my life, followed by a nightly injection of Lantos.  I would also have to take a host of pills (6 of them) forever.

Yikes. 

But worse than that, I couldn't talk, and they told me that I might never be able to again.  And, of course, since my right side was impaired and I couldn't think straight, writing was out of the question.  In fact, it was highly doubtful that I would be able to go the bathroom by myself again.  

That I could have a stroke at such a young age was unthinkable.  It was... unfair.  But, I was lucky to be alive, the doctors said.  I wasn't so sure.

But my wife was adamant, that I could come back from everything.  Again, I wasn't so sure.  In fact, I could barely comprehend her faith.  

She was right.

I've written three novels since my stroke.  The Haunting of Hiram Abiff, The White Werewolf, Werewolf's Revenge, and I'm working on the fourth-- Werewolf's Awakening.  I'm off of the Humalog and Lantos injections and take just Metformin pills and I don't even need that- but I've heard that extends your life.  I just don't eat any carbohydrates or sugar anymore and I'm fine.

I'm also down to just taking three of my medications as a preventative.

Now, I can talk.  I can walk normal.  I can think.

Above all, I can write.