Is this thing still on?

Haven’t been here in a while. And that’s not a bad thing as I’ve been playing lots of music, learning to shoot pool like a (semi) pro, and living my life.

Looks like I’ll be going “under the knife” very soon to receive my cochlear implant. Thankfully, my right ear still functions at a normal level. But it appears that I have about two years of training ahead of me to teach my left ear how to process these new digital inputs…and then training both ears to work together in concert.

And speaking of concerts, I may be doing less and less of those in the future. Apparently, my ability to hear (and perhaps enjoy) music could change dramatically once the surgery is done. I guess we’ll see…

nanowritmo winner

Writing-wise, it’s been a busy month. I have submitted stories, collected a few more rejections, and have been declared a “winner” of National Novel Writing Month. That means 50,000 words written in the month of November. I crossed the “finish line” Sunday evening, and with two days to spare.

Obviously, this month was more about quantity than quality. But I think the raw material generated is worthy of more time, effort, and energy. So after a few days of reviewing what I have so far and making a TON of notes, I will set about finishing the first draft. After that, we’ll see what happens.

national novel writing month

AKA, NaNoWriMo…

This is where anyone anywhere can sign up for the challenge of writing 50,000 words in a month (average 1,667 per day). It started decades ago with novelists. Now it’s a national organization with their own mercy. And participants write whatever style or genre they please. The idea is to have an audacious goal and get after it.

It is considered “winning” if you write 50K words or more.

When writing a novel, I do understand the value of just getting the first draft down. However, I typically like to work at a slightly slower pace and review the previous day’s work before planning back in. But there’s no time for that here.

So…I’m doing it this year for the first time. And I do plan to “win.” More than the 50K words, I’m hoping I will have a decent idea and a good start on a novel idea. We’ll see…

As of 11/17 I have 28,164 words, which means I’m slightly ahead of the necessary pace.

the streak ends…

…and another begins.

I spent the week in Virginia taking care of some family stuff. And I realized Thursday morning while driving home with some breakfast for my mother and me…that I FORGOT to exercise the day before.

It had nothing to do with time-management or willpower or “just not feeling like it.” I just got busy and it slipped my mind.

Thankfully, the streak ended on 501 consecutive days of exercising (way better than 499 or even 500!).

The new streak is now up to 2.

the recliner

Sometime around October 19 I woke at 12:30am with this strange aching sensation in my right hip and right knee. It was far from excruciating, but did hurt enough to keep me awake. For hours. So yeah, that first night I wondered if I was going a bit mad…

I had not injured myself. I was sleeping on my left side and the pain was on the right. I could not think of a single good reason for this pain. So it had to be in my sanity slowly slipping away.

In all, I would spend five nights in the recliner. It did kind of help. But I still missed a lot of sleep.

Somewhere around day two, the great Google machine directed my attention to sciatica. And like the proverbial green Oldsmobiles that seem to sprout up after you buy a green Oldsmobile of your own…it seemed everyone I talked to either had sciatica or they had a sciatica story. I learned about golfball therapy and tennis ball therapy and yoga stretches. Even Ted Lasso mentioned it when he climbed off the riding mower!

I am happy to report that my first visit to the chiropractor on 10/25 had me sleeping in my own bed again. I doubt I will ever eradicate the sciatica completely. But if I behave myself during the day (stretches, good posture, healthy diet), I’m hoping I can skip the recliner at night.

updates

NaNoWriMo – I just passed the 10,000 word mark. The project is a novelization of a short story of mine called “All Healed Up.” The 10,000th word in my manuscript is the word “heal.” I thought that was pretty cool.

Exercise – 497 consecutive days of exercise

Bed vs. Recliner – A couple of weeks ago I was introduced to the wonderful world of sciatica! I would wake every night around 2am with this delightful pain in my right hip. So I ended up sleeping in a recliner for five nights until I made it to the chiropractor. Thankfully, I’m back to sleeping in bed. Only now I sleep with a pillow tucked between my knees.

Stories published/submitted – I have seventeen stories submitted in various places, hoping a few will find a home.

my favorite headphones

It came to may attention a few years ago that I didn’t hear so well out of my left ear. This obviously made headphones sound unbalanced and muffled. While killing time in an airport I tried on a pair of conduction headphones…and I bought them on the spot.

I have since broken three pairs of conduction headphones. And I waste no time in replacing them.

Instead of filtering all the sound through each bud and directly into your ears, the sound is conducted via the bones just outside my ears. There are several benefits to this;

-Balance – now when I’m listening to something in stereo, I’m actually able to enjoy the stereo effect. With conduction, the sound in my left ear is nearly as good as the sound in my right, both in volume and tone.

-Surroundings – since nothing enters or blocks my ears, I can hear my surroundings. So when I’m out jogging I can hear cars before I see them. At airports I can still hear announcements and various sounds around me while I’m on a phone call or listening to an audiobook or music.

-Hands-free – they obviously sound good, but the built-in microphone works equally well. So I can talk on the phone while driving or exercising or pretending not to stare at people out in public.

nice surprise

Just received an email that a story of mine was just published at Every Day Fiction.

It’s called Foibles.

And can be found HERE.

2nd best thing someone ever said about my writing

“It made me laugh and cry on the same page.”

I never was able to get that nice person to point to that particular page…

new story at flash fiction magazine

The very nice people at Flash Fiction Magazine accepted a story of mine called Umbilical.

It posted today. Please take a look. And if you are so inclined, leave a comment.

For more of my stories, please click HERE.

Thank you!

Umbilical: https://flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2021/10/25/umbilical/

Stories: https://michaelsnyderwrites.wordpress.com/stories/