"Everyone's all right"

(Originally posted Aug. 3, 2009)

Finally, some time and space to write a real author's note. My relaxing week off got much less so when I was at our friends' cottage and I got a call on my cell from Shirley: "The first thing I'll tell you is, everyone's all right." You just know, when you hear those words, that whatever the person tells you next is going to really suck.

What it was was that she, my 11-year-old son Raphael and our friend Dave Kirby had been in an auto accident. It was rainy, the road was slick and an inexperienced teen driver came the other way too fast and lost control on a curve. By steering off to the right, Dave managed to keep it from being a head-on, but it was still bad enough that Dave's van rolled, hit a rock-cut and was thus totalled.

Fortunately, Shirley, Dave and Raphi are all religious about wearing seat-belts, and so ended up with cuts and bruises only, as did the other driver. But the medics were worried enough about Raphi that they smacked a cervical collar on him, put him on a backboard and drove him in an ambulance to hospital, where he had all manner of tests.

Thus what was supposed to be a happy, relaxing, somewhat inebriated evening was spent doing things like comforting my whimpering son while he went through the giant, mysteriously-whirring ring of metal that is a CT scan machine, while telling myself repeatedly that most likely it wouldn't turn up any evidence of internal injuries; helping Dave retrieve and clean a zillion tiny shards of glass off possessions that had been in the wrecked van; making sure everyone took lots of Arnica (aka whack-weed) and Rescue Remedy; and driving three people who had just been in an accident back to the cottage, which necessitates driving gently, when gently is kind of, um, not the way I usually drive. The next day or two, I spent a fair amount of time helping with emotional processing, talking about the accident with all three, sharing with Dave and his partner Louise what I know about insurance claims, and so on.

It really brought home what I've been saying lately: "hang gliding isn't any more dangerous than driving." (Ha ha, feel better?) Both my sons, now, have had an experience I never have: being in a vehicle while it rolled. Let's hope none of us do ever again. Part of the trauma was little things, such as the boxes of delicious, fresh brownies and tarts bought from the renowned Don's Bakery of Bala, that we had to throw out because they were full of bits of glass, or the $75 worth of gas Dave had just put in the tank.

Anyway, with all that going on, I lost my jump on posting and so had to write posts this past week, and not even as many as I'd meant to, when I'd meant to write an author's note, and therefore put it off until now.

So, first -- today is a holiday in Canada so I won't post until tomorrow (Tuesday). I plan to spend today, probably, working on the coolest jigsaw puzzle ever, which is half-done and completely covering my dining-room table at the moment, and about which I will eventually post on blookarening. Yesterday I spent at Unicamp of Ontario, the place that saved my sanity when I was a kid, with both my sons, for a 40th anniversary celebration.

BTW, both Unicamp and Dave's cottage have connections to my writing. Unicamp is the place where I first shared Chevenga with other people. There was a small and dedicated group of young fans I'd take up into one of the several treehouses on the camp property to tell the story. It was a version that now I'd probably die before admitting emanated from me, but it kept them enthralled. BTW, a shout-out to any Unicampers who read this: "Blat!" (You had to be there.)

Re Point Ariel, i.e. Dave's cottage, if you have a copy of Shadow's Son, by Shirley, myself and Steve Stirling, you'll see mention of it in the acknowledgments, because we wrote it there in a three-week blitz, one of the peak writing experiences of my life.

I've had to do more relaxing, non-verbal things for a couple of weeks because I really have put myself on the edge of burn-out by the writing schedule I've held to since mid-March. I not only do the posts, but enough freelance journalism to keep the wolves from the door, and so often my day goes 14 or more hours with breaks only for meals, childcare interruptions and a bit of online news reading, five days a week. (You can tell by what time I post the later of the two segments, because that's when my day ends -- I start somewhere between 7 and 9 a.m., so if I post at 11:59, I've gone 15-17 hours.) Because PA is a revision and much of ak is already written, I didn't think it would be this hard, but I keep wanting to add new stuff.

I recognize the symptoms: feeling like I'm grinding out the writing rather than enjoying doing it, a kind of dreamy, not-quite-there feeling in the head that lasts all day, irritability and mental errors. I think I'm over it now, though the real test will be how I feel on Tuesday when I start again. If I'm not, I will probably switch over to posting ak three times a week instead of five, not only to ease my schedule but because ak is looking to end before PA does, and that seems bass-ackwards to me.

I don't like this option, because ak is the new ground for me and therefore closer to my heart. However, there is new ground in PA, who'da thunk, and I'm also deriving inspiration from the interest of readers to whom it is totally new.

Speaking of which, the mystery as to where a bunch of new readers came from on July 19 was solved for me by capriox, who noted in a comment that GreenGlass posted about PA on MeiLin Miranda's forum, to which capriox added as well, saying things that modesty would never allow me to say about my own work. Moral of the story: mentions like this generate way more interest than blog ads. Em... that was a subtle hint, too, to all readers of the commentary persuasion. THANKS AGAIN, you two!

Comment by GreenGlass, Aug. 3

Wow. I'm glad everyone is okay after such a close shave. Ugh, the dangers of large metal transportation devices...

Happy 40th Anniversary and vacation! You should definitely enjoy your awesome puzzle. If you're pushing yourself too much with your writing schedule, then I for one would much rather you feel that your work is of good quality then good quantity.

I'll get to posting my review right away!

Comment by capriox, Aug. 3

I know "shit happens", but yikes! Very glad to hear that everyone came through okay.

I'm sorta surprised you haven't reduced your posting schedule already. I didn't realize you'd already written a lot of asa kraiya, but still, you're a posting machine! Just give us a big warning notice if/when the new schedule goes into effect. Not that I won't obsessively check the sites anyway...