Dear Readers,
Well, my treatment of doxycycline for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which is apparently rare in Virginia, is at an end. Now we’ll see if it works. Flulike symptoms will send me to the local hospital, where undoubtedly other devices and pharmaceuticals will wrack my frame and flesh. (Note: I have only just this evening looked RMSF online. The Center for Disease Control calls it “the most deadly tickborne disease in the world.” In addition to death, RMSF can cause damage resulting in amputation of various limbs, hearing loss, and mental disability. Yikes! So check your children and yourselves periodically for ticks. Let me add as a reassurance that RMSF is rare, only about 3000 cases a year, with most occurring only in five states: North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.)
Well, my treatment of doxycycline for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which is apparently rare in Virginia, is at an end. Now we’ll see if it works. Flulike symptoms will send me to the local hospital, where undoubtedly other devices and pharmaceuticals will wrack my frame and flesh. (Note: I have only just this evening looked RMSF online. The Center for Disease Control calls it “the most deadly tickborne disease in the world.” In addition to death, RMSF can cause damage resulting in amputation of various limbs, hearing loss, and mental disability. Yikes! So check your children and yourselves periodically for ticks. Let me add as a reassurance that RMSF is rare, only about 3000 cases a year, with most occurring only in five states: North Carolina, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas.)
The floodwaters in my apartment—only an inch really—have receded, but different dampened objects keep demanding a trip to the dump. This morning one of the carpets began emitting a mildew odor, and after dismantling two bookcases and a dresser that stood on the carpet, I along with some help from others in the household (thank you!) dragged the carpet outside to await its farewell voyage. Heck, the rug is thirty years old and has more than done its duty. (Note: After detecting that the mildew odor diminished, I dragged the poor thing back into my apartment and will attempt one last cure of sunshine once the rains blow through again tonight and tomorrow.)
These maneuvers have left my entire apartment looking as it might on moving day.
Now, the reason for this note: I need to change the nature of some of my posts here. I will continual to post, but with more casual pieces and essays. The reasons for this change are as follows:
First, I need to devote myself to articles written for money. These I can only post after publication.
Second, and this is the main reason, I have a logjam of writing done over the last two years that I need to sort out and send down the river for publication. For personal reasons, and from an abundance of time, I have written more in the last twenty-four months than ever before in my life. Since May of 2016, the following have come into existence:
So, as I say, I need to get out a logger’s hook and free up the jam.
I will continue to post the Durant articles, some personal notes here and there, and articles and reviews as they come into print elsewhere. I also plan to put up more posts from other sites, which some of you seemed to enjoy the few times I have done so in the past.
Thank you for reading me. I hope you’ll keep coming back.
With gratitude, and as always, my best to you,
Jeff Minick
These maneuvers have left my entire apartment looking as it might on moving day.
Now, the reason for this note: I need to change the nature of some of my posts here. I will continual to post, but with more casual pieces and essays. The reasons for this change are as follows:
First, I need to devote myself to articles written for money. These I can only post after publication.
Second, and this is the main reason, I have a logjam of writing done over the last two years that I need to sort out and send down the river for publication. For personal reasons, and from an abundance of time, I have written more in the last twenty-four months than ever before in my life. Since May of 2016, the following have come into existence:
- 60,000-80,000 words of Latin tests for a homeschool company. That project is over and done.
- 50,000 words centered on a collection of essays about my belongings. They form a sort of autobiography through the memories wrought by objects, stuff if you will, like a desk, a bust, a dictionary, a hutch. These pieces need heavy editing before leaving home.
- 92,000 words for The Girl Who Loved Books, a novel about three young people, all lost and broken-hearted by love, who find their way to a middle-aged bachelor attorney’s spacious home and fantastic library. There they try to heal themselves and one another. Like my other fiction, this story is set in Asheville, North Carolina. The novel is 90% done. I just need to go through once more and liven up some of the dialogue.
- 50,000 words of a collection of general essays, with some fifty to sixty bits of poetry at the end. Writing these poems, many of them sonnets, once brought me immense pleasure, but about three years ago the muse decided to strike the camp. A few verses found a place in various magazines.
- 30,000 words for Walking Through Hell: A Guidebook for Those Who Have Wounded Themselves and Lost Their Way. The title should reveal the theme. Still tapping out words and then the book will need heavy editing. This self-help book will be short and to the point.
- 100,000 words in All The Angels and Saints, a prequel to my novel Amanda Bell. This one I wrote about ten years ago, put it aside, pulled it out of storage this past weekend, liked what I found, and so will edit the manuscript as I retype it.
So, as I say, I need to get out a logger’s hook and free up the jam.
I will continue to post the Durant articles, some personal notes here and there, and articles and reviews as they come into print elsewhere. I also plan to put up more posts from other sites, which some of you seemed to enjoy the few times I have done so in the past.
Thank you for reading me. I hope you’ll keep coming back.
With gratitude, and as always, my best to you,
Jeff Minick
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