Breaking Radio Silence

Syrena -Breaking Radio SilenceThere’s bound to be at least one or two of you who have wondered where I’ve been for the past few months. (1) No progress reports on Syrena, the sequel to Urban Mermaid. (2) No factoids about Colony Island and its people. (3) No shameless plugs for my novel. So, for the idly curious, as well as anyone who might have actually missed me, here is what’s gone down.

It Started Back in April

My mother-in-law had passed away in Feb. of 2016 and we were making final preparations to hold an estate sale and put her house on the market. Needless to say, work on Syrena ground to a halt. My wife, the only one of us still gainfully employed, despatched me to take care of this task or that on an almost daily basis.

We received a good offer on the house in early June but the home inspector found a number of issues that required rectifying. More time lost. The sale closed at the end of June and I was ready to dive into summer. Instead, I did a belly-flop.

In Sickness and Health

I’d been having some sort of strange auto-immune thing going on with my lungs and a persistent cough caused by sinusitis didn’t help at all. My cough became worse as the month of July progressed and wound up going into hospital for two days. Though I was a pulmonary case, they stuck me in the cardiac ward where the food was bland and tasteless. Of course, one does not get much sleep when one is awoken every couple of hours for blood-work or injections.

I was sent home with enough oxygen tanks for a scuba expedition. Since that time, the cough has gone and my pulmonologist seems to be pleased with my progress. I only need to tank up occasionally now and go for days without touching the stuff.

Syrena – Where Do I Go From Here?

I desperately need to resume work on Syrena, but more importantly, I need to get back into the writing habit. Drawing on my life-long practice of telling myself stories as a way of falling asleep, I came up with the idea for a short-story/novelette/novella as a writing exercise.

Yes, the story involves mermaids, but other than a few common concepts, this tale of tails is far removed from the world of Colony Island. The title will either be Mermaids and Moonlight or Moonlight and Mermaids. It takes place in the Pacific, involves magic, and is a gender-bender.

If it winds up being a short story, I’ll publish it here on colonyisland.com. However, if it winds up being a novella, I’ll see if my publisher is interested. If not, I’ll self-publish. Stay tuned.

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