First, the good news…
I’m so excited to announce that I’ll be a regular contributing super guest blogger to isca media, a UK-based publishing collective of independent, freelance journalists, writers, photographers and filmmakers. (I made up my title. I haven’t run it by them yet. In my shitty first draft of the title I included the words “amazing,” “guru” and “erudite” but thought better of those upon revision.)
This week, I wrote my first post for them, The What Monologues? I hope you’ll go check it out. I think working with isca media is going to be great fun and will result, hopefully, in outlandish and wonderful stuff. Stay tuned…
In the meantime, an update in j-world. My son who is not The Boy (we’ll call him D, because, in fact, we do call him D) may have swine flu. I have no reason to believe the illness which came upon him suddenly this morning is swine flu other than the fact that it (swine flu) is going around, and according to my favorite Knower Of All Things, Craig Wieczorkiewicz, “more than 99 percent of circulating influenza viruses in the United States right now likely are 2009 H1N1.” So if it’s the flu he’s got, there is a less-than-1 percent chance it isn’t swine flu.
I am, of course, watching D like a (motherly) hawk, checking his temperature every few minutes, feeding him homemade chicken soup, wiping his clammy brow, fluffing his pillow. (Too much, right? I sensed I was going overboard. Was it the homemade chicken soup that strained my credibility? The part about being motherly?) In any case, I’m keeping a watchful eye on the situation and I will be right here complaining bitterly (but quite possibly in a metered and rhyming sort of way) if I catch the flu.
And also, totally using swine flu as my NaNoWriMo word count excuse. Think good, healing thoughts, people!
YIKES! nononononononono I hope it isn’t swine flu. But if it is I hope for a mild case.
Rx…..lots of clear broth and The Hobbit being read in an English accent on the cd player.
[I always find that comforting] Hope D is better asap.
Get some rest and try not to get sick too Ms. Contributing Columnist Judy m’girl.[yay you!]
:0)
Hope your son recovers quickly! Then, if you work hard enough at it, you can use my excuse for the NaNo word count: dorkiness. :)
D’s sleeping in a big chair in my room right now. He’s almost a head taller than I am, but he still likes to be with me when he’s sick. My mushball melting insides confirm that I do, in fact, have some motherly instincts.
On the other hand, it’s a little screwy that one of my first thoughts was, “At least if I get swine flu, no one will judge my inability to knock out 50k words in nano.”
Sigh…
You should somehow work the swine flu into your NaNoWriMo story, even if it’s just a mention about somebody being under the “swinefluence.”
My personal experience with the swine flu had me in bed for three days before I started feeling better. Hopefully that’s all D will have to deal with too, time-wise. How long has he been feeling the effects?
Also, congrats on becoming a regular contributing super guest blogger! Subject-wise, what type of stuff will you be writing about?
If you should get the swine flu (which you should’t — as if shoulds and shouldn’ts pay any attention to me), you could say that you tried to put pearls before swine flu, but . . .
Craig, Your shining recovery is my hope! (Don’t tell me you’re not shining. That’s not what I need to hear right now.) D’s only been sick since yesterday morning… so maybe it will turn out to be something of the nothing variety.
Isca media. Well it’s wide open, but I’m hoping to do some fun collaborative work with other writers – posts shaped like scripts or flash fiction or Shakespearean sonnets (because, as you and I know, I am excellent at the whole speaking Shakespearean thing. Oh wait. No. That’s you.) Well, we’ll see! ;-)
Karen, My dad used to tell us kids all the time that he cast his pearl to the swine. I’m sure that makes this his fault. Somehow.
Well, the good news is very, very exciting good news! Cool!
And hopefully the not-so-good news will result in nothing more than some mother/son time together. I sense that your facade of non-motherly-ness will be sorely tested, and you will be exposed as the motherly mom you really are :-) (Hope he feels better soon.)
Firstly, you can have whatever title you want – we bow down in reverence to your literary might.
Our best wishes and thoughts go to you and D.
Big love from me and the rest of the Thespian iscatonians.
“I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it” – (As You Like It Act II, Scene IV).
BTW – just noticed you’re reading the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I read this last year. Will wait to hear what you think as don’t want to give away any spoilers.
Jane, Shhhhh… right now even the boys don’t suspect a thing.
Luke, You’re here! Yay! ANY title? There maybe a post in my title possibilities… I’m building the vocabulary list now. More soon.
I got distracted while reading “Girl” with a Charles Baxter novel, but I’m now reading both because I am that good.
Yay for you. What does isca stand for? Maybe you could have us guess. Perhaps, I Stopped Cats Arguing or Ice cream Smears Candy Again or I’m Sneaky Carpet Animal.
Sucks about the swine flu. But now he’ll have bragging rights to having contracted the most talked about flu bug since the bird flu.
Coming in late, but wishing you the heartiest of congratulations. You’ve just grown too big for this blog.
And I wish D the heartiest of get wells.
Enjoyed checking out the isca media site . . . I’m so inspired by all that you are able to juggle! I will definitely think good thoughts for D to recover quickly and definitely for you (and Ch.) not to catch whatever it is that he has!
Hope D gets better soon, you can check out my post about War plan against the sniffles http://bit.ly/Nd9Xe , even though it’s for a common cold, and in case it turns out it is swine flu D has, it’s still very effective!
I came around in a few days instead of the few weeks thingy.
Great news about the contributing blogger gig (can’t believe I just used that word… guess I’m still tired).
I won’t even wish you to break a leg, I just know you’ll do wonderfully!
Hugs!
isca or ISCA isn’t actually an acronym at all. It’s a Roman word and refers to a ‘settlement by the river.’
We used it when we travelled from London (LONDINIVM) and arrived in Exeter (ISCA DVMNONIORVM) where we had the idea for isca media.
Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) – The Riverside Settlement of the Dumnonii
Having said that, we really love all the suggestions by Tricia, particularly, ‘I Stopped Cats Arguing.’
CARPE DIEM
Tricia, I’m with Luke on “I Stopped Cats Arguing.” And… yes! Bragging rights, exactly. That’s what I was trying to explain to Karen from Mentor yesterday when I told her I always wanted to be the kid with the cast. She was not on board, though. She is more well adjusted than I.
Linda, I love the idea of one day being “too big for this blog.” Hold that thought.
Carey, D seems to be maybe a little better today. Cross your fingers! (And thank you for checking out isca. They are quite inspiring to me!)
Estrella, Sniffles advice. Thank you! Hugs!
Luke, Committing your comment to memory, after which I will recite it in a scholarly, British way and impress all my friends. (Well, the ones who are impressed by such things. Most of my friends are still trying to figure out what color chartreuse is.)