Shingles Sux!

 

May 2021 Blog

Don’t ask me how I know... Okay, ask me.

 

Horror Personified: A Haiku

One body, wracked with

Pain, feeding upon itself –

Nature run amuck.

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

 

My labor pains were not this bad, and at the end, I had a baby to show for it. This is ridiculous.

Among the things my mama never told me: if you have Chicken Pox, you will get Shingles.

Among the things I find unconscionable: Medicare will not pay for Shingles vaccine and the shots are expensive (two shots at $150-$175 each). What’s up with that? Shingles affects older people. Older people depend on Medicare. It should be covered.

Needless to say, I am now on a crusade for Shingles vaccinations. I’ve seen that one in three people will get Shingles in their lifetime. That’s way too high a number for a preventable disease.

And trust me, you do not want to get Shingles. I’ve had only a mild case, and I went to the doctor and got meds. It still hurts. It’s like extreme pain for no reason 24 hours a day.

I’m lucky we caught it as soon as the rash came up (and it actually came up all over my right hip in the middle of the night).

At 1:00 o’clock in the morning, I was on the computer googling rash and pain. Shingles popped right up at the head of the list. I had no clue until I saw it on the screen. Shingles it was. Good thing my doctor had an opening the next day, She gave me prescriptions to fight the virus and the nerve pain. Even with the meds, the pain is brutal.

Needless to say, I ‘ve not gotten much done in the writing department lately. So, I’ll have to rest on my laurels for a while longer. I’m still plodding along. Still managing my daily Haiku:

 

Obligations Rule: A Haiku

We can but plod on –

Wade through our troubles and pain –

Others count on us.

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

 

Sorry for the short blog this month. Next month will be better.

As always, I welcome your reactions and responses to any of my blogs. I love to hear from my readers. Also, here are links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, if you care to share your thoughts with me there or look for my publication announcements:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky

Until next time, let us read and write to our heart’s content, all the while looking forward to enjoying our lives even more in the coming months. Let’s keep the faith.

Hard to believe that I have eleven books published, All are available on Amazon for your reading pleasure.

https://www.amazon.com/author/annwilmerlasky

BTW, Happy May Day! May this be the start of a bright new month and follow through for the rest of the year.

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Springs

 

April 2021 Blog

Well that worked!

 

My Choice: A Haiku

This day, to do as

I choose, is a rarity;

I choose to enjoy.

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

 

One of those rare days I can do what I please. It pleases me. So, I’m writing this blog to announce the arrival of my newest Audible.com book, “The Seasons of Sam Rock”, narrated by the multi-talented Steven P. Hamm. A man who could easily be Sam Rock if this book were to me made into a movie.

It’s been a long journey and a steep learning curve for us both, but now; “It’s Alive!” (One of my favorite lines from the old Frankenstein movie.) Check it out: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Seasons-of-Sam-Rock-Audiobook/B08ZGV8VQF

     The only thing I’m not fond of with the coming of Spring is the “change”. (You know the one I’m talking about). Actually it happened the Sunday before Spring started, and I will miss that hour’s sleep until late Fall when we change back.

Every year there is talk about abolishing Daylight Savings Time, and every year the  motion falls by the wayside. I’m not in favor of DST. When I lived in Arizona, we didn’t change, and we survived just fine. Of course, in places like Phoenix, with days of 115° F you’d rather not save the daylight. The people navigate just fine in the cooler darkness.

But it is what it is, and we deal with it. I’ll just keep saying “But it’s only...” for a while until I get over it.

Spring also means new growth. I might even try to grow something this year, even though we are still in the midst of a drought. Surely a few herbs and flowers won’t soak up too much precious water. I’ve pretty much given up on grass. I think the gardener sprayed to kill off the mustard grass last year and killed everything else in the yard as well. So now we have a layer of dust blowing around the yard and nothing else.

Not only is it depressing to look at, it’s not good for the wiener dogs to breathe – or for us for that matter. Allergies are already getting bad this year.

The vultures came back to Roswell last month, and the parade of the smaller birds at our feeders has grown. I love to sit and watch their antics. I’ve learned so much in the past year. I know when they start making “kissy face” noises and bobbing their tails up and down it’s mating season. I know doves are not peaceful. They argue among themselves and others.  I know that male grackles feed their young – and way past the time they could fend for themselves. And if grackles peck long enough, they can break pecan shells open and eat the insides.

I love that I can sit there and watch their antics, and they don’t even pay any attention to me anymore, unless I make noise shuffling my papers or move around too much. Otherwise, we both just go about our business.

I’m afraid the squirrels have left the area or died out over the winter (although it was not a harsh winter). I’m not sure what has happened to them. We used to have as many as five at a time cavorting up and down the pecan tree. Lately, I’ve seen only one, and that one not at all in the last week or so. They will be missed.

I’m waiting for the hummingbirds to come back. There’s usually two or three that come through here when it turns warm, and they stay for most of the Summer. I try to keep a feeder with nectar filled for them. They are fascinating to watch and are very territorial. They tend to chase one another away from the feeder whether they are hungry or not.

Spring also means I can sit outside and write, so I should finish my WIPs in short order, barring other disruptions or demands on my time. I have high hopes anyway.

I’m two-thirds done with “The Secret of Raven’s Roost” which is still a working title. Also considering ”Return to Raven’s Roost”. Whatever I end up calling it, it will have “Raven’s Roost” in it.

Okay, my day is complete, I just saw my first ladybug in all the years I’ve been here. (about ten now) so I’m now sure this will be a good year.

On that note, I’ll wrap it up and let my dear husband type this. I’ll edit it tomorrow and post it on the 1^st of April.

Happy Spring, everyone.

As always, I welcome your reactions and responses to any of my blogs. I love to hear from my readers. Also, here are links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, if you care to share your thoughts with me there or look for my publication announcements:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky

Until next time, let us read and write to our heart’s content, all the while looking forward to enjoying our lives even more in the coming months. Let’s keep the faith.

Hard to believe that I have eleven books published, All are available on Amazon for your pleasure.

https://www.amazon.com/author/annwilmerlasky

I am so happy. This just popped up in my Twitter feed today: https://twitter.com/AuthorShout/status/1377582577930940420

 

 

 

 

 

Happier New Year 2021

 

January 2021 Blog

Hard to raise a resounding cheer replete with mask and gloves, but here goes.

 

Happier 2021: A Haiku

The clock has struck, and

I have held my breath too long;

My cheer is silent.

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

 

Happy New Year! I am imploring 2021 to do better by us. It’s predecessor was such a cruel, deviant monster. It would be difficult to survive two such years in a row.

I know nothing has changed overnight, but there is hope on the horizon for better days ahead. I’m actually looking forward to getting a shot in the arm. Also, looking forward to less daily chaos surrounding us all. The sooner, the better on that front.

After things settle down, I’ll look forward to finishing at least two novels this year, along with a couple of Haiku chapbooks.

Sometime this month, the Audible version of “The Seasons of Sam Rock” will be live. I’m  listening Steve Hamm’s upload now. It sounds great! He really brings Sam Rock to life. Would love to see him star in a Sam Rock movie someday. I’ll settle for him doing the audible for the Sam Rock sequel now titled “The Secrets of Raven’s Roost: A Sam Rock Novel”, if he’s available. I like to dream big.

I’m also dreaming of a healthy world at peace. I’m thinking that is not so far-fetched with the changes coming this month. We can only wait and see, but the signs are encouraging

Maybe I’ll be able to concentrate more on my writing this year. There is so much I need to catch up on that’s been so difficult to do this last year. I spent way too much time worrying and waiting for the worst to happen. Maybe this year is my year to anticipate the good things left in life.

I’ll also look forward to going to a restaurant and enjoying the company of others. I’m even looking forward to getting in a car and going somewhere to enjoy the scenery and the people. And, although I don’t like crowds, I’d love to attend a gathering of people and not have to worry about coming in contact with someone with something I might get that might kill me. Oh, and I’d like to see a movie at a theater with popcorn and everything.

I ‘m hoping this New Year finds all my friends well and safe. It’s been rough for all of us. We’ve all gone from crisis to crisis with barely a chance to breathe in between. May we all find the inspiration to follow our dreams instead of reliving our nightmares on a daily basis.

I will try to maintain a positive attitude for this coming year. I’m planning on getting everything organized and clean and neat and tidy. Okay – now I’m getting into resolution territory. I hate doing that, because there’s always so much room for disaster and failure.

So, I’m not making any hard and fast resolutions this year. I’m just going to do the best I can, which is really the best we all can do.

I’ll be happily reading and writing and editing and publishing to my heart’s content. And I will be encouraging my writer friends to do the same, so all our reader friends out there can continue to follow our journeys and enjoy themselves.

So, again, Happy New Year! Cheers to a much better 2021!

Hard to believe that I have eleven books published, All are available on Amazon for your pleasure.

https://www.amazon.com/author/annwilmerlasky

Until next time, read and write to your heart’s content. Look forward to the best of the coming year. I have a feeling...

As always, I welcome your reactions and responses to any of my blogs. I love to hear from my readers. Also, here are links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, if you care to share your thoughts with me there or look for my publication announcements:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky

Hopefully, all were able enjoy some holiday festivities, and we can look forward to enjoying our lives even more in the coming months. Let’s keep the faith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stardust

June 2018 Blog

The following poem in free verse form was started sometime after January 24, 2012. I have no recollection of starting it. It is now finished and will be part of an upcoming poetry chapbook entitled “Metamorph”.

Singularity (Free Verse)

by Ann Wilmer-Lasky

I will write as I will write

And dream against a dream

Until such time as I shall sleep –

Silent,

Ashes drifting on the solar wind.

From birth to death –

My life between but spotted –

Ink and tears mingled, inseparable;

My oh so faint scribbling yet

Unerasable,

indelible.

Whether I am noted or a footnote

Or but a shadow in someone’s fading memory,

My thoughts will join the stars

To burst among the fiery suns

Or find space bent

And fall

Into the blackness of the void.

     Regardless of what I do or do not accomplish in this lifetime, I will rejoin  the Universe as stardust. To me, that is a comforting thought. Whether or not I rejoin the human race is of no consequence.  I will have returned to whence I came.

     There is little to report this month on any front. I have begun formatting my next Haiku chapbook, “The Write Life”. This one is for writers or readers who want to understand writers. I plan it to be inspirational, motivational and commiseratory in tone. I go through what every writer goes through, I’m sure. Perhaps I can encourage or even just amuse (or bemuse) others.

 It will be followed hard upon by the one I’m planning on climate change entitled “Global Warning”. That should be out midsummer, when it will be hotter than the depths of Hades and stormier than a Martian…

Climate change deniers are moving us closer to Doomsday than all the saber rattling in the world. I would hope to change some minds with this one.

My novels are stalled. There’s another death in the “Sam Rock” sequel. Everyone is rushing to see the body, but I don’t know who’s dead or who the killer is. I’m my own cliffhanger. Think I’ll jump in feet-first after I get this posted.

The “Black Oak” sequel is still screaming “final edit” before formatting. It contains even more amazing deaths perpetrated by my eclectic band of shapeshifters.  Best get at that, too, before they invade my dreams.

On the home front, my “retina specialist” says if I take my A REDS 2 supplement, wear sunglasses outside, use extra light and magnification, and see him every six months, I should die before my eyes give out. Okay, he said I should be able to see for the next ten years. (if with some difficulty).  I personally don’t plan on living that long, but it would be nice.

In the meantime, the computer screen is getting harder and harder to read, especially when the type and the boxes are blue or green. Those are rapidly fading against the white background. Even black print looks gray unless I make it larger and bold. But at least I can still see.

I’ve also noticed that magazines are getting harder to read. I swear the type is getting smaller. (I may not be wrong about that) . And have you noticed the “fine print” lately? For me, it’s even finer. It also seems package designers think it’s really clever to put yellow type on white backgrounds – that’s hard on two good eyes, let alone those with compromised vision.

I may start advocating on social media for the vision impaired. I don’t think they are giving much consideration by the powers that be – all over the internet and across all media platforms.

Twitter is the worst. They have so many color schemes that just disappear into oblivion. So clever – NOT. And finding the “color adjust” settings on most browsers is nearly impossible. It seems when you do find them and try to employ them, they change other screen settings, making it difficult to adjust to a screen you can live with across the board.

So, this month, I’ve pretty much played it by ear and done what I could, making small adjustments here and there. Not sure what the future may bring, but I’ll soldier on and do what I can to clear out my “Works In Progress” projects before whichever expiration date comes first.

 I’d like to leave you with this thought; None of my problems is any excuse for not making far more progress than I have. I’d like to think that my writer readers will see this and determine to do far better than I have. At least I will have inspired someone.

In next month’s blog, I will continue to journal my progress, both on the writing front and the vision front. Until that time, I welcome your reactions and responses to any of my blogs. I love to hear from my readers. Also, here are links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, if you care to share your thoughts with me there:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky

I’m also including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003SH6HIQ

All of my books are available on Amazon.

June’s featured novel is my paranormal Western “Black Oak: Town of Joy” http://tinyurl.com/hohuhce 

June’s featured poetry chapbook is “The Castleweaver's Tales: A Dozen Glimpses of Medieval Madness: 25th Anniversary Edition”  https://tinyurl.com/ybllonvw

The Darkening

May 2018 Blog

While I can see, I must be about finishing my manuscripts and publishing them. I can no longer look to the future.

The Darkening: A Haiku

Against ensuing

Blackness, I would enjoy what

Light I am allowed.

Life Sucks and then you die - and life still sucks - so says George in the series "Dead Like Me" and she knows.

The time to do my “to do” list has just been shortened considerably.

I’ve been wondering why everything seems so dark all the time.  Then I closed my right eye one day and saw only clouded images in my left. So I go to the doctor (after a few months). I have cataracts, right? Yep,  in both eyes actually. But that’s not the real problem. They are not worth operating on.

What the real problem is, is inoperable. I have Macular Degeneration. Something I thought only other people got. I didn’t realize it was an insidious, creeping condition that takes you unaware. The only thing that might halt or slow it down, seems to be a vitamin/mineral supplement concoction called A REDS-2, which I started taking on April 11^th, the day after my startling diagnosis. But it’s not a cure-all and I am going blind.

How soon? Don’t know.  Hopefully the retina specialist I’ve been referred to can tell me,  but he won’t be in town until May 24^th. (We have very limited resources here in the “UFO Capitol of the World”.)

In the meantime, while I can see (especially to format), I need to publish everything I can. Guess it’s also time to get those audio-books started. I’m going to be depending on those soon. My guess is, a lot of others enjoy them for the same reason.

I guess “through a glass, darkly,” will have different meaning for me now, as I assume everything will fade away to darkness.

I have added an additional task – that of studying Macular Degeneration to see what I can expect. I may even write about – if only to warn others out there that it does exist and you must do everything you can to protect yourself.

So far, I understand that one really does need to wear sunglasses, taking an A-Reds 2 supplement for the last few years (could) have helped, and the heavy doses of diuretics I take for my congestive heart failure condition probably hasn’t done my eyes any good.  I need to learn more.

On the writing front (after spending some time on self-pity) I have gotten back to writing. I’ll be finishing my Seasons of Sam Rock sequel soon.  I’ve also started formatting my next poetry chapbook, “Life’s Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku: Volume Two: The Write Life”. Getting a good start on that should help with my subsequent releases, as I’ll only have to plug into the template. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

My next novel release will be the sequel to Black Oak. I just have to polish the manuscript, format and publish as well. Okay, I have to find the files first. I swear they are here somewhere. Really, I have a hard copy in a file box somewhere, and I have computer files saved from my old dead computer. Honestly, all I have to do is track them down. They are somewhere on my new half-Terrabyte hard drive and one or the other of my one-Terrabyte external hard drives. My computer guys did so much copying and saving, I may have multiple copies.

Guess I really should straighten all that out. My Norton security scans says I have over 1 million files on each drive. But, it’s really hard for me to stare at the screen much anymore.

By-the way, computer people, do you know that those of us with compromised eyesight can’t see all your fancy color concoctions? Your clever pale blues and pinks and light greens and (especially) yellow just fade into the white background. Those fill-in boxes are getting harder and harder to see. And the browser geniuses don’t seem to offer a display option that would benefit such impairment.

So, now, I muddle along, enjoying the visions before me less and less. But, while I can see, I need (more than ever) to get my last month’s ducks in some kind of order.

I also need to teach my husband how to pay the bills. He hasn’t paid a bill in over 31 years of marriage. He’s definitely going to have to learn to compromise and juggle, as I have done all the years – managing, somehow, to keep a roof over our heads and the lights, heat and water on. Oh, joy, won’t that be fun?

In next month’s blog, I will journal my progress, both on the writing front and the vision front. As I end this month’s blog, let me share another Haiku – appropriate to the way I feel right now.

It is this: Some days it doesn’t pay to think; other days, it’s just too painful.

Timeout: A Haiku

I’ll not be thinking

Today; my brain is tired,

And it needs to rest.

Until next month, I welcome your reactions and responses to any of my blogs. I love to hear from my readers. Also, here are links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, if you care to share your thoughts with me there:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky

This month, I’m including a link to my Amazon’s Author’s page. Feel free to visit me there also:

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003SH6HIQ

All of my books are available on Amazon.

May’s featured novel is my Middle Grade sci-fi offering: “The Aurora UFO Incident - A Novel” https://tinyurl.com/yb875xw4

This month’s featured poetry chapbook is again “Life's Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku: Volume One: One for the Book” http://tinyurl.com/zuayqu8

DO-OVER

March 2018 Blog

Do-Over

I’d like this to be my last time on Earth, for I am stardust and must rejoin the Universe.

Do Over: A Haiku

I’d not wait ‘til my

Next incarnation; I’d like

To get life right now.

Can I just start the year over again? I can’t believe that two months have slipped by already.

It’s not that I haven’t done anything in two months. It’s that what I’ve done has amounted to little actual accomplishment.

Maybe this month will be different. I’m calling for a do-over.  Oh, I know I can’t get January and February back. I’m just calling for an early reset so that the rest of the year doesn’t slip away.

I think I’ll start the month with promotion. I just got this neat book by Rachel Thompson (Bad Redhead Media) called “30-Day Book Marketing Challenge.” I’m about to plunge into it.

Okay, so I got the book a couple of three weeks ago and started it once, but as usual, I got sidetracked with life and only made it through Week One – the week on Twitter promotions.

So, for my do-over, I’m starting again. I’m taking the 30-day challenge from the beginning for the month of March.

Hope I can learn to boost my sales for the rest of the year. Social Security just doesn’t stretch too far these days. My writing needs to step up and fill the gap.

I’m checking my backlist of books available on Amazon. I’m only counting seven published. (Somehow I thought it should be nine. Don’t know how that happened.) Besides promoting what I have published, I need to double my output. Actually, I could triple it with all the Haiku chapbooks I have started.

I also need to get my books on audio. I can’t believe I haven’t done that yet. So many people “listen” to books these days. It’s ridiculous I haven’t even tapped this outlet.

I may even need to set up a studio to read the poetry books myself. Although I’m sure there are some excellent poetry readers out there, no one can know all the nuances that a poet thinks into the writing of a poem.

Besides, I love reading my poems and have always enjoyed recitations of my work. Guess I’m just a ham at heart.

Lots of other things I’d like to restart this year, but life is a linear progression. Although the older you get, it seems to tend to the exponential. It will suffice if I get my “authoring” life in order. Other things may naturally fall in line.

Back to the neat book I’ve acquired from my favorite source – Amazon, of course. I bought a hard copy of the “30-Day Book Marketing Challenge” because I love to make notes and mark up the pages.

I’m glad I also acquired the Kindle version, because there are so many links to so much great information. And the links are live in the Kindle version. I’ll take a live link any day to having to type a long string of words and symbols and then getting them wrong.

My current manuscript now has the dubious honor of having taken the longest to write of any of my novels ever. I’ve done pretty well on it so far this year. I’m planning to finish it by Easter. Actually, it’s my 40-days of Lent project, but I’ve missed a few days. So, I’ll be practicing catch-up again. (When am I not?)

I’m about to get distracted again. I’m outside, sitting in the sun and the wind, watching a squirrel skitter along the fence behind the only one of my dogs who has braved the wind with me.

The squirrels love to play games, it seems. They manage to stay one step ahead of the dogs, although sometimes, just barely.

I’m also listening to the birds chirping for their afternoon offering of seeds. They (and the squirrels) have become my morning and afternoon companions. There is nothing more freeing (to me, at least) than to sit in my backyard with pen and paper and write amidst birdsong and squirrel antics.

Thank goodness winter has been cooperative. We’ve had the mildest winter in years (which probably doesn’t bode well in the wake of climate change and global warming.)

That reminds me, one of my Haiku chapbooks will be titled “Global Warning”. I’m gathering a lot of my Earth and weather-related Haiku for that one. It will come out after my next one – on writing.

I hate to think what will happen to our children’s children’s future. I’ve noticed the changes even in my lifetime. If we do nothing about it, the future will be far different from the past – and not to the good of mankind.

As I look forward to the long month of March and the beginning of spring, I would advise the writers among my readers to double down on their efforts. Write whenever and however you can. Edit what you’ve written to the eye of the reader. Publish your best efforts – cast you work upon the waters. You never know who’s going to swim by and lap it up (my unabashed cliché for the month).  And then promote, promote, promote.

Until next month, I welcome your reactions and responses to any of my blogs. I love to hear from my readers. Also, here are links to my Twitter and Facebook accounts, if you care to share your thoughts with me there:

https://twitter.com/awlasky

https://www.facebook.com/ann.wilmerlasky

All of my books are available on Amazon.

This month’s featured novel is my 1940’s noir fiction “The Seasons of Sam Rock” https://tinyurl.com/ydftx4xq

This month’s featured poetry chapbook is “Life's Lemons and Lemonade: A Collection of Haiku: Volume One: One for the Book” http://tinyurl.com/zuayqu8