Two Months of Hel...

Ok, so let me qualify this post by saying first...

I'm not going to tell you the story of the last two months because I'm looking for sympathy. I'm not going to tell you the story of the last two months because I want anyone to feel sorry for me. I'm simply going to explain what's been going on with me so that you'll understand why I haven't been around...anywhere.

I haven't Facebooked. (I know, I know, bad Author!)

I haven't Tweeted. (Again, I know, I know, bad Author! *hangs head in shame*)

And I certainly haven't been writing...(Ok, ok, I'm soooo sorry! *drops to knees and begs your forgiveness...*)

Anyway, I normally do my very best to keep my professional, personal and work lives separate. I really do. But there are times that the lines get blurred between those three and you just can't do anything but roll with the punches each throws your way.

In the last two months, those three lines have crisscrossed, jumped over one another, tangled around each other, chewed me up, spit me out and looked at me like I'm the red-headed step child of a really disastrous one night stand!

Epic Line Crossing #1

On Labor Day, on a trip back from Austin, my poor 2012 Hyundai decided to pick a fight with a pick-up...and lost.

Now, I don't know if the Truck looked at him funny...called him a name I couldn't hear...shouted some obscenity that just sent my little car into a blinding rage, but, whatever happened, my poor, normally kind, gentle and loving Silver Surfer came out on the loosing end of things.

Fortunately, no one human was hurt, overly much. The Truck suffered a bent bumper and my beautiful, wonderful, manly Sonata came out with most of his front end pressed up against the engine. Being that it was still summer here in Texas, this jeopardized the cooling system and thus rendered him inoperable. *sighs*

Also thankfully, I have excellent insurance (It truly was my fault. No, no, I wasn't texting or anything but I wasn't paying attention in Stop-n-go traffic either and I looked down just long enough for the truck to stop suddenly as I was speeding up thinking we were moving again. Neither here nor there, I know, but the picking a fight story sounds better, doesn't it?)

Anyhoo, the other driver was fine and for the most part so was I. Or so I thought...which leads us too...

Epic Line Crossing #2

About a week after the accident I noticed a lump on the back of my neck, right about where the skull ends. Over the course of a week or so it kept getting bigger and bigger and more painful and more painful. Eventually it was about the size of a quarter and I thought it was probably best to get it checked out.

I go to the doctor and low and behold I have a "bleeder" in the back of my head. Apparently, even though I hit the truck doing less than about 20 mph, it was enough to rupture something that was already there.

Now, for years, I would occasionally get a really sharp pain in the area where this was going on. I didn't think anything of it, I truly didn't because it came on and left just as quickly. With the accident though, there was enough of a jerk in my neck to press the base of my skull against a benign tumor I'd been carrying around for goodness knows how long and break it open. The lump that was now growing back there was the fluid and nastiness leaking out...

Which now brings us too...

Epic Line Crossing #3

Once we'd discovered this problem, the doctor decided that surgery was probably a good thing, if for no other reason than to clean it out and make sure it truly was benign. The next day I was in the hospital, waiting patiently and feeling like a complete and total idiot for not having this pain examined ages ago.

I'm happy to report that it was benign and save for the occasional remaining drainage - which is a lot less now than it was - I'm fit as a fiddle once again. More or less.

So, that was the month of September.

Which now brings us to October and...

Epic Line Crossing #'s 4, 5, AND 6

Now, I've not really mentioned it before, because I really do try and keep my professional Authorly self and my real self separate and apart from one another, but in my day job, I work for the Government.

And unless you were living under a *rock* somewhere on like Pluto or something, you're all well aware that at the beginning of October the Federal Government was partially shut down for 16 days. While this helped my recovery tremendously, it didn't help my peace of mind at all. Like most, I'm not a NY Times Best Seller, yet, so I truly depend on the income from my day job. I'm single, have no real family to speak of - save for a few wonderful cousins in my life (LOVE YOU JANA!), and everything boils down to me. All my bills, the food, gas for the car, etc is all paid for by me alone.

And having that uncertainty hanging over my head, for 16 days, is not something I ever want to go through again! It also killed any sort of concentration I might have been able - should have been able to muster up to write! I became a CNN junkie during those 16 days, constantly listening for any breaking news that would tell me when I could go back to work.

I love my day job, I truly do, it's the second job I've ever had in my life that actually fits my personality to a "T". It's only eclipsed by my love for writing and if I could - and when I do - make a real living at writing, I will loose no sleep walking away from it to write full time. But, that hasn't happened, yet, so for the time being, I enjoy what I do and not being able to do it threw me into all sorts of kilter-whompass that I just didn't know how to deal with until it ended.

It's over now, thankfully and I've spent the last bits of October getting that part of my life caught up and back where it needs to be in order for me to function as an Author...

Or, at least I thought I had. But work intervened with something that, were it not for the shut down, would have taken place in the early part of October and not the end part. It's neither here nor there, other than to distract me, but that's over now too and while it's six-days into November, I'm happy to report that I am once again back where I want to be, where I need to be to balance everything in my life and start releasing my work to the world again.

I just wanted to post this, so you'd understand my absence of late and beg your forgiveness for not releasing Spi-Corp's Book 2 in Mid-September like I promised (In my defense, I was kinda in the hospital that day having a stint implanted to drain the ickiness...so, yeah...) and let you all know that the release date for Book 2 is now November 25th. I'm hoping to get it done earlier but that's my firm deadline and come hell or high water, it will be out!

Thank you all though for your patience. It truly is appreciated!

So, until next time.

Thanks as always for stopping by.

Margaret Taylor

Oh, and P.S., I haven't forgotten about the drawings I had up. I'm going to go back and draw for winners and I'll post them here in the next day or so and contact them via email to get the prizes out!!!!