Hi All,
Well, that was no fun. At all.
After six or seven weeks of being put on a couch to suffer with shingles, I’ve finally come out on the other side. Mostly. I still have some minor vision loss in my right eye that my ophthalmologist is still trying to correct and I’m still fatigued. But not like I was and I am able to finally put in several hours of work without having to take a nap. So yeah, on the mend.
If you can buy it or your insurance will cover it, I highly recommend the shingles vaccine — or maybe the new vaccine that is being approved this year. You do not want shingles. Trust me.
In all of this, many of you have had to patiently wait for books, books that I wasn’t strong enough to pick up and ship out to their authors. Here is an update on that:
- Jacqueline Carey: I sent her books a week ago. She got them yesterday, signed them, and got them back into the mail today. I should receive them sometime next week and I will ship them out immediately.
- Tad Williams: Tad has had copies of his book for several weeks now but illness hit his household as well, setting him back. He has the books and he’s going to try to sign them in the next week.
- Kristen Britain: The 20 copies of Firebrand that came in had severely damaged dust jackets, something I abhor. My book distributor is as we speak trying to get new copies or get new dust jackets. I should know more about this next week as well.
- John Scalzi: This signing wasn’t late but I did see John for his signing. All ordered copies of The Collapsing Empire have shipped.
- Timothy Zahn: This signing wasn’t late but I did see Tim on the scheduled date and he signed copies of Thrawn as planned. All copies not waiting on other receipt books have shipped.
All other signings, I think, have been completed if they could be. And we have signings with Robin Hobb and Terry Brooks coming up, not to mention the new signing I’m about to announce.
Thank you for your well wishes, your patience, and your love of books. I’m trying my best. And as I often say, this too shall pass.
If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comment section or send me an email.
Best Reading Wishes,
Shawn
Any update on S&N Edition of UNBOUND?
John Marco has the pages. And the pages still have to be signed by about six people. Hope the pages can go to Sam Sykes next.
Glad you’re on the mend!!!
Hi Shawn,
First, I wanted to say that I’m glad you are doing better, and I hope all writers you associate with are healthy and happy.
I’m still personally trying to get through stages of grief for the loss of my Dad on Christmas day 2016, and my brother less than 2 months later in February. Dad was 88 years old and I knew the day was coming.
The loss of my brother was particularly tragic to me. He passed due to complications of host VS graft from fighting cancer. I was his stem cell donor in the summer of 2015, so there is some residual guilt associated with that. Unfettered II was originally intended to be a gift to my brother and I was very angry for a while that this book did not arrive in time for him to enjoy it. It was a focal point representing lost opportunities. I still host some of that anger. However I have come to realize I would never want anyone to go through the ordeals my brother went through when the hospital tried to save him, it broke my heart. Yes I personally had to make the decision to take him off of respirators and let him pass quietly and peacefully, it was the hardest decision of my life. In writing this I am trying to release some of the anger and guilt still suppressed inside of me.
In the grand scheme of things, one book didn’t make or break the joy of sharing the life of my brother. I still eagerly anticipate the fulfillment of orders I have placed with your book sites.
Be well.
Thank you for the open words. I’m assuming you ordered the S&N edition of Unfettered II and that’s the book that didn’t arrive in time. I’m sorry for that. It is a book that is close to my own heart as well since it is the anthology I made after my mother passed away from cancer too. I know the guilt you feel; I too chose to remove care from my mother once she slipped into her last sleep. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do — like you had to do.
My hope is to help others who struggle with medical debt and cancer. Your book purchase will be doing that and on your brave brother’s behalf.