News & Update for Mid-October 2025 (Long)
I haven't been very active in any of my social media channels for the last couple of months, so it's probably time for a quick update on where things are at.
Firstly the good news regards publishing.
I had a short story accepted into the latest volume of The Expanding Universe, Volume 11. This is a collection of science-fiction exploration where stories consider the idea that we are not alone in the universe, and contemplate what other entities might share our space. You can find an Amazon link to it here: https://geni.us/TEU11
AND
Secondly, progress:
The following projects are edited and awaiting formatting prior to upload for pre-release:
Stand-Alone Short Stories:
The Songster and the Pirates (Ed.2)
Jacob's Vision (Ed.2)
Peace Flower (Ed.2)
Nurse (Ed.1)
The Heights of Winter (Ed.2)
Screams for the Dying (Ed.1)
Tischa's Rescue (Ed.1)
Dinner and a Show (Ed.1)
Novels:
Mack 'n' Me: Blaedergil's Host (Ed.3)
Mack 'n' Me: Arach (Ed.3)
The Unwanted (Ed.2)
Note 1: Progress has had to be built on a number of fronts. Firstly, I had to change my work routine and expectations to all for more Life necessities (see below), and recovery time from a number of Life happenings that had more of an emotional and psychological impact than I thought anything could. In short, it became hard to function, and I had to work out a way to recover and keep moving forward. I also came to realise that word production without publication was fairly pointless for an independently publishing author, and set about balancing the workflow to both catch-up on lost publishing ground, and then balance the two.
The following projects have had words added, and been settled into a regular writing routine:
Another 366 Days of Poetry (Ed.1)
Novels:
Dark God's Demise (Ed.2)
Note 1: A third project is being brought on-line, but is yet to be established. Perhaps I'll have news of it, next week.
Note 2: Gains here have been small, but are slowly increasing as I recover from a bad working partnership and a serious dose of work-place bullying, so it's been a struggle.
Thirdly, the YouTube Let's Play and Writer channels
In addition, in the past 15 days, I have done little recording, as I've been trying to restore internet service, firstly through the original provider, and finally by replacing them with a second service. During this time, I prepared the titles already in production, but watched my channel go backwards due to dwindling releases. Since the internet being put back online, I have uploaded over 60 episodes, formatted another 30 episodes, and scheduled over 50 episodes for release, across nine different games, and two different title releases.
And Lastly...Life
...which, in short, has consisted of adapting to life with Huntington's, looking for work I can do from home, official recognition of autism (not me; I can't afford to get the paperwork tick), a very sick dog, internet provider issues, and a blown hot-water system. If you really want a longer version, it's as follows, otherwise you can stop reading, here.
As many know, my husband of over thirty years, was diagnosed with the onset of Huntington's Disease in late November, 2024, but I had been observing the symptoms for some two to four years prior. The official diagnosis has meant the last six months have been full of specialist visits to see where he's at with the disease progression, and to put in place treatments to deal with the symptoms of this degenerative, terminal condition. It's been a process, and we are still following up on the relevant government supports that we've been told need to be put in place, and adapting to greatly changed expectations of what retirement will look like. As I said, it's been a process, and it's ongoing.
On top of that we finally have an official diagnosis for one child's autism, something I asked for eight years ago, but which the educators at the time denied. The current educators kicked the ball off, this time, but it has been a four-year process, culminating in more specialist appointments and much toing and froing, but ending with some support. Let's just say, that regardless of whether any of the relevant educators listened, it was a good thing I had already been doing the research, and implementing relevant strategies to help my child interface with the world around them.
Threaded in between all that we have had sick parents, both with stints in hospital, but one with the onset of dementia, and the other with some serious vertigo issues. Needless to say, we have been extremely worried about both, but unable to travel to see either. They are both okay, and have good supports in place, but even knowing that, it's been hard to not be able to do more to help them.
Amidst all this one of our dogs ate something she shouldn't have, which took two weeks to resolve and necessitated daily trips to the vet until we were sure she would pull through...which wasn't guaranteed. She made it, and is progressing beautifully.
With dog recovery, and puddles of puke and poop, behind us, we settled our wills, and set to trying to ensure the house was in good repair for the future when we will have little reserves, and need things to hold firm. The house repairs have been on-going for six weeks, and the hot-water system needing replacement, and internet provider failing to provide service to the point we had to change providers, as well as finalizing the changes to secure our future energy needs, all happened in the last week.
It's been a bit of a hard run, so far, but I'm working on getting you more stories...and before too much more time has passed. I only pray that your 2025s have been kinder, and your futures run smoothly, wherever and whenever in the world you are.
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