Potpourri of Posts: Ribs, Publisher's Block, and Jewish Future History

The Saga of the Fractured Rib

 

       To bring this topic to a conclusion and to use my probably least favorite cliche: What a difference a week makes!  Last week at this time I was contemplating a visit to the ER.  By now, the rib has mostly stopped hurting.  I don't holler any more when I twist or bend or get up and down or even when I sneeze (I've only produced one serious sneeze; otherwise I've tried to surpress it).  Deep coughs are still forbidden, so I've been trying hard not to swallow anything the wrong way.   I found that Vicodin doesn't do a damn thing for arthritis pain.  I think the fall made the arthritis worse -- jars every joint in the body.  And so that's that -- enough of boring senior citizen topics!
       PS (added the following day):  I'm starting to get some unusual lower back pain.  I hope that's not some ominous aftereffect that was late showing up.

 



Publisher's Block

 

       I have been threatening for some time to publish v.2 of The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head, but I can't seem to get myself into the frame of mind to do it.  The cover and the map are finished, and the book is completely formatted for print.  I'm still contemplating the Glossary -- it's inserted but needs a second look to make sure there are no problems (unless I decide to omit the Glossary entirely -- can't make up my mind). 

       Anyway, I think the reason I can't make myself get into CreateSpace and upload everything and hit that publish button is that nobody is buying v.1.  I am truly puzzled by that fact.  So I'm going to put a question out there to anybody who reads this blog:

 

What is it about the retelling of myth within a termite culture that doesn't seem to turn people on?

 

       I would really like some comment on this.  I may have had a couple of comments on Twitter or elsewhere saying things like "Sounds fascinating!" but nobody wants to read it.  People seems interested in myth in general if the pages on my termitespeaker blog are any indication.  I get lots of views on my discussions of myth and on the Bird Myth recountings and on my reviews of books that deal with myth in literature, so I can't think it's a disinterest in myth itself. 

       I have two theories.  First, I keep saying that The War of the Stolen Mother is a spoiler for  Termite Queen, so maybe the people who have bought TQ want to read it first, and it's so long that they don't get to it very quickly.  Maybe after they finish, they will proceed to buy Labors.  Second, people read the sample chapters on the termitespeaker blog and they're put off by the footnotes or by the scholarly apparatus that opens the book.  I admit that my books don't always have slam-bang openers ("Monster Is in the Eye of the Beholder" is another case in point), but I really don't apologize for that.  I happen to like scholarly apparatus.  It gives the book a sense of its time and place.  After all, you're certainly aware that I neither wrote nor edited The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head.  Di'fa'kro'mi the Remembrancer composed it and Prf. Kaitrin Oliva translated and edited it.  All I did was channel it from the future!  (Tongue-in-cheek there, in case you couldn't tell.)

       Maybe I should post up the two opening chapters from v.2, The Storm-Wing.  It starts out a lot faster, especially after you reach Ch. 2.

       So what do you think?  Why does nobody want to read what I think is the best stuff I ever wrote?

 

Jewish Future History  

 

       My latest post over on the other blog (Bird Myths, Pt. 3: The Jewish Ziz) is attracting a good bit of attention and an exchange of comments got me to thinking about the section of The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars that deals with the saga of the Jewish people after the Second Dark Age.  For some time I have been pondering the idea of extracting that section and publishing it as a novella.  After the exchange on that post, I did copy the text into a different document and I was appalled to find out it was 123,000 words!  That just goes to show how out of control MWFB really became, and why I could never publish it as it stands!  The Jewish section seemed to me short enough for a novella -- no more than maybe 30,000 words! 
       However that may be, I have gotten interested now in possibly whipping it into publishable shape, so that's another reason I've lost enthusiasm for preparing The Storm-Wing for publication.  I think I would call the book something like Of Fathers and Demons.  I need to shorten it drastically -- I'd like to get it below 100,000 words at the maximum.  Some characters who pertain to the larger novel but have no real function here need to be eliminated.    One of the problems is that it's not really a novel -- a book with a coherent plot; developing, interacting characters; a climax or climaxes; and a true beginning, middle, and end.  It certainly isn't science fiction (although it's future history) and it certainly isn't fantasy.  Its style is really uneven.  It has portions that are compelling renditions of character and it has one sequence where one character tells the life story of another (an absorbing novella in itself), but a lot of it is exposition -- an info dump, if you will, although I hate that term.  The original purpose was to show what became of the Jewish people after the Second Dark Age and what is happening with them by the time of the 28th century.  So there is a lot of one character sitting there and narrating that history to others who aren't familiar with it.  There is much philosophical argument in another section.  Will anybody want to read that sort of thing?  I don't know.  But some parts of it are really good, if I do say so myself, so I may persist.  I think if I ever publish MWFB that section will have to be eliminated for the sake of that coherent novel business that I spoke of above.  And I don't want what I wrote there to be left on the cutting room floor.

       So what do you think?  Would any of you find the story of Judaism in the 28th century interesting enough to read?  Give me your views on this, too!

       I'm going to post this now, and it was hastily put together, so forgive any typos.

 

 

      





The Saga of the Icy Porch Continues

       All is not so well.  Sunday night I went to bed and sneezed -- and was attacked by this horrible pain in my ribs.  I won't go into all the details -- I'll just say I went to the doctor Monday morning, had my ribs x-rayed, came home, had lunch, took some of the midlevel pain medication the doctor had prescribed -- and it only felt worse.  So I ended up spending 5 hours in the emergency room.  Had cat scan, blood work, and all the usual things they do in the ER.  The doctor was one my mother had had in the same ER way back in the 90s -- really nice doc.  He even remembered me from my frequent nagging presence in the ER at that time.  I thought it might not be ribs at all but maybe a kidney stone because of the location of the pain (Fel, if you're reading this -- I can see you shuddering) . 

       But it's not.  I do have a fractured rib -- 11th rib -- plus some cartilage damage.    The doc (or maybe it was the nurse) said that wasn't one of the floating ribs, but it really is. according to the following Wikipedia excerpt.  Count downward on the image. They sent me home with stronger pain medication.  The problem is turning over in bed and getting in and out of bed.  I holler whenever I have to twist.  Plus coughing and even just clearing your throat and blowing your nose is almost impossible.  (Remember the old line "Does it hurt?"  "Only when I laugh"?  Actually. laughing does hurt, but that's not the only thing!)  And I have no idea why it didn't hurt more the first day and a half.  I suppose sneezing pulled the rib apart.

       The upshot is, I will be very unproductive for awhile because it's an understatement to say thatI don't feel at my best.  No intellectual posts that require a lot of focused thought, and I'll have to delay the publication of The Storm-Wing.  I'll probably barely feel like keeping up with my email.  Income tax has to take precedence, too.  I'm really disgusted.

From Gray's Anatomy (NOT the TV series)

From Wikipedia (article Human Rib Cage):

The upper seven true ribs(costae verae, vertebrosternal ribs, I-VII). are attached in the head to the sternum by means of costal cartilage. Due to their elasticity they allow movement when inhaling and exhaling.

The 8th, 9th, and 10th ribs are called false ribs (costae spuriae, vertebrochondral ribs, VIII-X), and join with the costal cartilages of the ribs above.^[3]The 11th and 12th are also sometimes referred to as false ribs.

The 11th and 12th ribs are known as floating ribs (costae fluitantes, vertebral ribs, XI-XII), as they do not have any anterior connection to the sternum.

The spaces between the ribs are known as intercostal spaces; they contain the intercostal muscles, nerves, and arteries.

Why You Should Never Forget That Life Can Change in an Instant

       We had a significant snowfall a couple of days ago.  The man who shovels my snow came and cleaned off the walks and driveway and the steps, and all was well.  Yesterday it warmed up a bit and we had some melting.  After lunch, I went to get the mail.  My mailbox is to the immediate left of my front door, so I don't even have to step out to reach in the box and pull out the mail.  However, somebody had stuck a flyer in the stormdoor, between the little bars and the screen.  The flyer was way over to the right, so I couldn't reach it without stepping out on the concrete slab of the stoop.  I looked down at it and it looked perfectly normal, so I shoved open the stormdoor, which is very heavy, and stepped down the rather high step.
       WHAMMO!  It was black ice!  Meltwater off the bushes and roof had dripped there and frozen!  My right foot slipped out from under me and down I went!  Boy, did I holler!  But of course nobody heard me, because there are no neighbors within shouting distance of my house, and nobody was outside across the street or walking by.  I landed on my duff, which was lucky because it's padded pretty well (LOL), but I whacked my back on the door stoop.  Also, the heavy door, which I was now stuck under, banged my right shin, although it didn't hurt for some reason.  I only discovered it later. 
       My first thought was, oh my god, what if I've broken my backbone? -- because it whacked me right across the middle of my back.  But I took a moment to check out all my limbs and nothing felt numb or tingly -- everything moved normally -- so I decided I was just very well bruised.  Of course, maybe a broken rib ...
       So now what?  It was impossible to get to my feet because there was no traction on that ice.  So I managed to turn over, get on my knees (all the while shoving the door open with my foot), and crawl over the doorstep, back into house, and up to my recliner, where I could pull myself to my feet.  I considered whether I ought to call 911 and get checked out, but I walked around and nothing seemed really impaired -- just painful.  So I thought, the hell with emergency rooms -- I don't think I've got any life-threatening injuries.  When I sprained my ankle rather badly a few years back, I never went to the doctor with that , either.  Frankly, I hate doctors and medical procedures.
       Of course, I had no ice.  I never use ice for drinks or anything -- never make iced tea or coffee or lemonade, so I don't keep ice cubes.  The trays just take up room in the freezer and the cubes evaporate over time.  I did have one of those gel packs, but it wasn't in the freezer.  I put it in the freezer, but I only left in about 20 minutes, so it wasn't very effective.  I figured the longer I waited, the less effective ice would be anyway.  (Hey, I just had a thought -- I could have gone out my other door, which is not icy, and scooped up some of the big hump of snow next to my driveway.)
       I should say that I have quite a lot of arthritis in my shoulders and hands, and I'm getting it in the right knee -- the same leg that got whacked by the door.  (I have a 2-inch diameter bruise on my shin, btw.  Fortunately, the door didn't impact the actual shin bone but struck on the right, on the soft tissue.  Might have broken my shinbone if it had hit right on it.)  So today my leg is sore and I'm hobbling, and my back is very sore and it hurts to sit and lean back in certain ways.  I can't get a good look at it -- the mirrors are all wrong and the lighting isn't good enough.  I can see some bruising, mostly again on the right side.  I really need to call my friend who is a CNA and get her to come look at it.  Maybe I'll call her tomorrow, after the bruise has some time to develop.  I should be all colors of the rainbow before this heals up!
       I was surprised that I slept pretty well last night.  Turning over was the only problem.  Once I got settled on one side or the other, the only thing that hurt was my shoulders, which always hurt at night anyway (although the concussive effect on the whole body didn't make the shoulders feel better).  Things could have been way worse -- I could have broken a bone or hit my head (always a worst-case scenario, but my head was perfectly safe in this particular fall.)  I could have bruised my lung or my kidneys, but I don't think I did.  Lungs feel fine, and I don't think the blow was low enough for the kidneys.  Kinda hurts when I hiccup!
       Oh, and I never did get the danged flyer off my door until this morning, when I opened the inner window in the door and used a pin through the screen to shove the rolled-up paper out of the slat, and then picked it up with my pick-up-stick!  I did throw some salt  out on the step and I put up a sign saying "Careful!  Icy Step!" on the mailbox.  I'm surprised the mailman delivered the mail.  I wonder how he stepped up there without falling down.  Hey, can I claim on my own house insurance?  Nah, it doesn't cover the homeowner!  They just have to take their lumps!
       So there you are. One moment everything was hunky-dory, and the next moment, WHAM! I'm on my backside on a black-ice-covered porch! One moment you're driving down the street minding your own business and the next moment somebody runs a red light and creams you! Or a meteoroid crashes on top of your house! Better enjoy things while you can! Make hay, etc.! Life is too short!