Are You on Thyroid Meds?

It's been almost a week. I'm noticing slight changes. I'm getting up in the morning better. That's about it. But the doctor did say it could be a couple weeks before I notice things.

I've had this weird headache come on today. It doesn't feel like a sinus/allergy headache. It is located at the top and back of my head and it is also making it hard to read. I'm wondering if it's hormonal? (TMI alert) It's that time and I'm wondering if since I've got the thyroid meds in me, if my monthly cycle will begin to be weird until things are regulated? Phil told me to drink a Coke. LOL. I took some Tylenol to see if it would help. So far it hasn't.

Coke is next on the list.
Then a sinus pill, just in case.

Or maybe I'm just getting a cold?

Embrace Me by Lisa Samson

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Embrace Me
(Thomas Nelson March 4, 2008)
by
Lisa Samson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lisa Samson is a Christy Award-winning author of 19 books, including the Women of the Faith Novel of the Year, Quaker Summer. Lisa has been hailed by Publishers Weekly as "a talented novelist who isn't afraid to take risks."


In Embrace Me, the latest novel by acclaimed author Lisa Samson, readers are privy to the realization that regardless of outward appearances…hideous, attractive, or even ordinary…persons are all looking for the same things: love, forgiveness, and redemption.

This story explores a world that is neither comfortable nor safe, a world that people like Valentine know all too well. Masterfully crafted by Samson and populated by her most compelling cast of characters yet. It is a tale of forgiveness that extends into all spheres of life: forgiving others, forgiving oneself, forgiving the past.

She lives in Lexinton, Kentucky, with her husband and three kids.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Biting and gentle, hard-edged and hopeful...a beautiful fable of love and power, hiding and seeking, woundedness and redemption.

When a "lizard woman," a self-mutilating preacher, a tattooed monk, and a sleazy lobbyist find themselves in the same North Carolina town one winter, their lives are edging precariously close to disaster...and improbably close to grace.

Valentine, due to her own drastic self-disfigurement, ahs very few friends in this world and, it appears as if she may be destined to spend the rest of her life practically alone. But life gives her one good friend, Lella, whose own handicap puts her in the same freakish category as Valentine. As part of Roland's Wayfaring Marvel and Oddities Show, a traveling band of misfits, they seem to have found their niches in an often curiously cruel world.

Residing in a world where masks are mandatory, Valentine has a hard time removing hers, because of her disfigured face but more so because of her damaged soul. It is much easier for her to listen endlessly to different versions of a favorite song, Embraceable You, and escape reality. Yet, life has more in store for her when she meets Augustine, replete with the tattoos, dreadlocks, and his own secrets. With his arrival, Valentine's soul takes a turn.

If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE

Sometimes I just don't have words.

Online reminders services are great.

Until they remind you your dead best friend's birthday is coming up. Not a fun way to wake up this morning.

Update--The Doctor Called

His first words were, "Congratulations Doctor, you have correctly diagnosed yourself!" I laughed. He makes fun of me because I do so much research before I come see him. He said, "You are extremely hypothyroid."

We were both relieved that I wasn't diabetic. He also said my cholesterol wasn't ideal, but we're not addressing that right now because he believe as soon as we get the meds going and things regulated that the cholesterol problem will correct itself, or rather, correcting the thyroid issues will set things right.

Honestly, I'm thrilled to find out I'll be feeling better soon! I'm the heaviest I've ever been in my life and I'm so tired all the time. (That's just part of it, the list of symptoms is atrocious!)

So--here's to hypothyroidism and feeling better soon!

Dreams, Dreams, and More Dreams

• I write down all of the dreams I can remember. Sometimes, I wake in the middle of the night to write them--those are the best. Misspelled words, rough drawings, and incomplete sentences, yet totally raw and full of emotion. Sometimes, my dreams seem pretty meaningless or mundane. But as I examine them and dig into the representations my subconscious makes, I'm left speechless and stunned. Yes. Me. Without words. That's what happened with my dream last night. I don't know if I'll share or not.

• I'm waiting for the results of my blood tests. I could have either thyroid disease or diabetes. Or neither. I'll find out sometime today.

• Chuck is sleeping on my pile of clean clothes. Damn dog. Damn laundry that never ends.

• I'm in a "get rid of" mood. I want to scour my house for unnessary items and get rid of them.

• But I need to read submissions for Coach's Midnight Diner first.

• I'm was so totally angry in my dream last night and I have dream hangover. I still feel angry.

Letterboxing in Missouri

I told you here we'd be going Letterboxing while we were in Missouri--well, we did!

The first one we did at Beaver Creek Conservation area was a bust. We followed the excellent directions, but there was no box hidden at the location. It seemed to us that this place was well used by people who maybe don't have a lot of other things to do and possibly the box was stolen because of that. When we pulled up to park, a white car pulled in after us and parked three spots to the right. They were hot and heavy getting it on and they didn't even put their car in park. We had to cover Zane's eyes and Mike wanted to go scare them.

The second one made it all worth while. This one was located at Maramec Springs State Park.

I didn't set out to take photos of all scenic mentions in the directions, but it seems I have. So let me show you how letterboxing works in our family. Mind you, we're not typical. Sorry to disappoint.

We entered the and parked as the directions stated. Then it said, "Head east toward the bridge with a yellow sign. Read the sign and heed it. Cross the foot bridge and enjoy the trout scenery. You can buy fish food 10 or 25 cents and feed them if you wish." So of course, who can resist popping in quarters to feed the fish? Not my boys!

Next, "Follow the trail toward the green spring house, cross the bridge before the spring house."

"You will see a tunnel on your left. Take the stairs under the bridge. Continue straight on the trail." I don't think they intended Zane to take a pit stop, but what can you do?

Then, "Follow the main trail past the furnace. Up the hill you will see green and yellow equipment built for fun. No time for that now. Take the low road to the river."

"Continue North on paved path. You will hear the babbling brook in the distance & see people with fishing poles. "


Past the tiny spring you will follow the trail up the hill and continue on the trail between the two black rails. Continue trail down the trail.

A big tree once stood tall is where you’ll find it all. Take a break on the edge of the fallen tree and you’ll see a brown building with green roof at 2 o’clock. Reach where moss always grows under the tree covered by debris.

So. We looked for a fallen tree. And Phil dug with a stick. Because there might be spiders or snakes. Don't the boys look excited? But the box wasn't there. So we looked for another fallen tree. And we dug some more. And we couldn't find the box. And everyone was bummed. But the park was so amazing and beautiful that we were all glad we stopped anyway. We figured the box had been planted before the flood and it must have been washed away. You could see the flood lines and the water had covered the path the box was supposed to be hidden on. So we decided to make the best of it and enjoy the day.

But wait! What's that? We miscalculated? Or maybe the one reading the directions didn't quite "get it?" It said, " If you pass the 2nd stairs past the big rippling water you’ve gone to far. " Lord have mercy we didn't pass the 2nd stairs yet!! So we found yet another fallen tree. And Phil dug again. Don't the boys look even more excited? Well, at least Phil pretends for me.

And there it was!!! The box!! So we all stamped the book inside the box and used the stamper inside the box on our journals. Finally. Success. Now the boys at least look interested, don't you think?
The directions then read, "Continue North on the trail and enjoy the swinging bridge."

We did. But I've posted tons of pictures today so I might have to continue this tomorrow. Or because I know myself, it might be a week or a month from now. But I'll remind you where I talked about it first.

Want to Order Dark Harvest Free?

Remember when I posted about Revolution Money Exchange here and here? Well, May 15th is the last day to get your $25.

That's how to get Dark Harvest free (plus a profit!) Sign up and get your $25, order Dark Harvest for $20 and you get a great anthology plus a $5 profit!

After you've signed up and ordered, come back here and comment and we'll have a Gift Card Giveaway--but you can only enter if you pre-order Dark Harvest!


Pre-order now! Click here. You'll be sent to Bob Freeman's Paypal account set up for Dark Harvest orders. Bob is president of the Indiana Horror Writers and is doing all the work. (Thank you Bob!)

DARK HARVEST WILL BE RELEASED JUNE 14TH
PRE-ORDERS WILL SHIP BEGINNING MONDAY JUNE 16TH

SHIPPING IS INCLUDED FOR U.S. ORDERS.

INTERNATIONAL ORDERS,
PLEASE EMAIL ihw@comteck.com
FOR SHIPPING DETAILS

Edit to add (for clarity)
This is how you'll use your free $25 to order Dark Harvest.

Revolution Money Exchange (RME) will deposit $25 into your RME account.
They'll send 2 small deposits to your bank account and you'll go back to the RME website to confirm those deposits. Once that's done, you can transfer your $25 into your bank account and thus, RME pays for Dark Harvest and gives you an extra $5 plus a chance to win a gift card from me.


Edit again to add another thought (thank you my cautious friend--you know who you are)
If you don't want to link your bank account then send the $25 to my RME account, I'll pre-order Dark Harvest for you and send you your $5 extra. :)

Not Going Camping

40 degrees and rain plus a tent does not equal a good camping trip.

So we're staying with some friends instead.

It's all good. :)

Going Camping

So no sooner do we get back from one trip and we're going on another. That's okay with me though.

We're going camping as my Mother's Day present. I wish we camped more often!

Here's some Missouri pictures I haven' t blogged about yet.

Coach's Midnight Diner--Submissions Extended

Coach just announced Diner submissions will be extended to May 31st!

The announcement at Relief says:

Diner Subs Open Until May 31

Submisisons for Coach's Midnight Diner will remain open until May 31st. After receiving some harried emails from folks we met at Calvin ("I just found out about the Diner! My story is almost finished but not quite! Can I please have more time?!?!?") I decided to go ahead and leave it open. So go ahead and finish your Shatner on a Plane story and get it in!

Writing Horror as a Christian

Heather posted On Writing as a Christian on her blog today as well as a discussion at Intersection called Bubble or Patron. This sparked my comment on her blog and since I've not talked much about it here, I thought I'd copy and paste it.

I can only speak for myself.

When I figured out God was telling me (and not so politely) to write; instinctively, I knew I had to write horror. Psychological horror is my bent, not the gore-fest mainstream horror has become.

It was interesting, to say the least, to watch expressions of those attending the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) conference in 2006. When I said I wrote horror, they looked at me as if I had said I was a prostitute at 5th and Broadway. The little name tags they handed out had everyone's genre listed under they're name. They changed mine from horror to thriller. Nice.

There were two things that made me understand that wasn't the place for me. A very popular, well-respected agent telling a class (I'm paraphrasing) that Christian horror was a stupid idea and it would never work. (I shook his hand and told him we'd never work together. LOL) And the Holier-than-thou attitude most people had at that ACFW conference.

I tried, though. Because I thought maybe God was trying to convince me I needed to change. But I was depressed and my stories seemed fake. And forced. And the more I tried to manipulate the story to fit into the rulebox of the CBA (Christian Booksellers Association) the more I understood that it wasn't me they were forcing into the box, it was God. I prayed a lot about making the first step towards the ABA (American Booksellers Association) and when I did, God was right there to shower me with his love and acceptance and let me know, without a doubt, that I was doing what he wanted me to do.

I was working on a Bible study (the sheep one, H) and I read a book called A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm. It is such a simple book, but I had a paradigm shift while reading it. It may be that God meant for me to understand MY journey this way and it may not apply to others, but as I was reading about how a shepherd has to take his sheep through hard places, the dark valley. Usually people refer to this psalm when dealing with death, but I read that I walked THROUGH the valley. (and I understand the implications when dealing with death) but it applied to me, at that time in my life, to life not death.

Reading this book, having this shepherd explain to me that during movement of the flock to higher ground, going through the valley was a very intimate time, the sheep depended on the shepherd, the shepherd had gone the route beforehand and since a trust had already been established, the sheep trusted the shepherd and stayed close. The route through the valley is the most well-watered route. It is in the deep valley that you find the springs of crystal clear water.

Of course, I want that mountaintop experience with God. But what I really crave is the intimacy and refreshment of trusting him in those dark valleys.

And that's when I knew what he wanted from me. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me" As I explore horror and all it represents, I will fear no evil. He is with me.

That's when I started believing that I should follow His rules instead of the rules of man (the CBA) So I've been writing the stories the way they come out. And since then, doors seem to be opening all over the place.

I'm not saying that this is what God has for everyone. But this is how I came to know and understand that the CBA was not for me.