truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so it’s a good time to bring you up to date on what’s been going on with me for the past year and a half.

In May 2023 I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my right breast following a routine mammogram. (So if you want reasons that you ought to be doing routine mammograms, I am one. Also, the word that now strikes fear into my heart is “distortion.”) I did not say anything at the time because I REALLY did not want to talk about it. I just wanted to get through it.

They did biopsies, they did an MRI (which is the most unpleasant medical experience of my life to date, excepting only IUD insertion), they determined that the best thing to do was surgery followed by radiation. Happily, it---or they, there were two of them---they were not the sort of tumor that called for chemo. Also happily, they were very small, so a complete mastectomy was also not called for. At the beginning of July, I had a lumpectomy. They got both tumors, the margins were clear, the lymph node they dissected was clear. All good. I spent July and August recovering from surgery. Lots of fatigue.

In September I had radiation treatments for 20 days. Following excellent advice from my friend Elizabeth Bear, I used calendula cream and Korean snail slime religiously and never had anything worse than a mild sunburn. And more fatigue.

In October I started on Tamoxifen, which is an estrogen blocker. And here things started to go awry. The Tamoxifen made my fibromyalgia not just worse, but TERRIBLE. I was in miserable amounts of pain basically daily. So in January my oncologist decided to try halving my dose (from 20 mg to 10). The fibromyalgia cleared up, but the fatigue did not, so I wasn’t in pain, but I was exhausted. I was going to bed at 8 every night, sleeping from like 9 to 6 and then taking a 3 or 4 hour nap every afternoon. Not great, but I was still hoping my body would adjust when at the end of March I got a blood clot in my right calf.

No more Tamoxifen.

We tried a 10-day course of blood thinner injections (NOT FUN), but after that was done it became apparent that the blood clot was still a problem (my right foot started swelling and became too painful to walk on), so I started three months’ worth of blood thinner pills.

(At around this same time, I started getting nauseated. As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with the cancer or the cancer treatment, but it is persistent as hell.)

Had a mammogram in April that showed nothing wrong

Finished the blood thinners at the end of July and, the Tamoxifen having had time to clear my system, started estrogen suppression therapy, with an injection every three months and pills daily. So far, the big side effect is that my temperature regulation is completely out of whack, so that I spend my days going from too hot to too cold back to too hot, with the occasional hot flash thrown in for good measure. This is not pleasant, but it is better than the terrible fibromyalgia, and my oncologist holds out hope that it will in fact get better with time.

Had an MRI at the beginning of October which showed no problems, and---my oncologist tells me---breast MRIs are notorious for false positives, so if it didn’t find anything, that means there really isn’t anything to find.

So, from the perspective of this major and very scary upheaval, things are really going pretty well. It’s hard to say whether my current health problems (endless fatigue, nausea, anhedonia, apathy, complete lack of creativity) have anything to do with cancer or cancer treatment. (We’re currently tapering my antidepressant to see if that changes anything.) But I am doing my best to keep fighting.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
The lovely people at Open Road Media are publishing the entire quartet in e-book. They're available for pre-order now, and will be published July 11.

I am so very happy about this. Words cannot even.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
1. The Grief of Stones (the sequel to The Witness for the Dead that comes out in June) got a starred review from Library Journal! (warning: the review is somewhat spoilery)

2. The Goblin Emperor is on sale on Kindle for $2.99 for all of March!
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
For anyone in the Madison area, I'll be doing an author event at A Room of One's Own on Tuesday, February 26, at 6 p.m. I'll be reading from the next book in the Goblin Emperor universe, The Witness for the Dead.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
New LGBT historical mystery by Elizabeth Bear and me starring a teenage Christopher Marlowe! Available on Amazon. Also a bunch of other places.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
(Please pardon the huckstering. My horse has not stopped being expensive yet.)

The plan for November.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
I've been working with a personal trainer for eleven months. (If you're an equestrian in the Madison area, she's RideTrainElite Rider Fitness Coaching, and she's awesome.) Most of it I, obviously, don't care to talk about, but I did want to post this picture as proof that, yes, people with biologically female bodies, we can have upper body strength. Maybe not as much as a biologically male body, but "not as much" doesn't equal "zero."

I think Gen X women (biological females) were done a great disservice by the Presidential Fitness Tests, which implied strongly that because women didn't have as much upper body strength as men, there was no point in their trying to DEVELOP upper body strength, instead of the logical conclusion that women need to work HARDER at developing upper body strength. Because it's not like we CAN'T.

Hence this picture:

arm extended to show musculature
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
I am launching a Patreon on Tuesday. If you have suggestions about patron rewards, I would love to hear them.

(N.b., my book reviews will still go up at Goodreads and here, all content currently in the dreamwidth archive will stay there, and I will not be abandoning this blog, although the content may be mostly political for a while fuck you 2017.)
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (tr: mole)
This is just to let everyone know that I'm going to be off the internet for the next couple of months. Do not panic; although it is a medical issue, it is nothing life-threatening or paradigm-shifting.

Hopefully, I'll be back, at least in a limited capacity, by the New Year.

In the meantime, two things:

1. Since someone asked & I suspect other people will be interested in the answer: no, there is not currently any legally available e-format (or paper format for that matter) of either Mélusine or The Virtu. This is because I, personally, do not have a useable electronic version of either book and thus cannot self-publish them through Lulu and/or Smashwords (or another of their ilk), which I promise you is still the plan. I am really, wretchedly sorry about this state of affairs, but making any of the files I do have into useable versions of the text of the published books is something I cannot do right now.

2. If you need to get in touch with me, to ask me a question or tell me about something important, my email address is semonette (at) sarahmonette.com. I will be checking my email, although not necessarily every day.

Best wishes to you all for the rest of 2012.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
I hate to do this, but I have had enough of the freaking endless spam that now infests LiveJournal. I have turned off anonymous comments.

To all of you who do not have a LiveJournal and who have commented on my blog, I'm sorry. Please believe, this is not about you and not caused by anything you did. It's about the bloody spam.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
For anyone who was at the reading Saturday and would like to read the rest of the story, it's "After the Dragon" and it's here.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (egon)
A weird little miracle occurred. The Saab guys found two '97 9000 ignition switches that had been shelved wrong. I got one, and then apparently another guy came in today with the exact same problem, and he got the other.

So, you know, if you're a weirdo like me still driving a '97 Saab 9000, it looks like you can expect your ignition switch to fail on you any time now.

You're welcome.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (writing: demon)
I will be a Guest of Honor at Odyssey Con 11 this weekend.

The Usual Caveat: I am very shy and very near-sighted, but--unless I am rushing off to a panel or otherwise obviously busy--I am delighted to meet people and sign things and whatnot.

It looks like it's going to be a fun weekend, so if you've a mind to, come out and join us!
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
I have acquired a post office box.

Sarah Monette
P.O. Box 259838
Madison, WI 53725
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
1. Project Valkyrie
60 minutes, 40 laps.
301 miles, 2 laps.

2. Everything is melting. The world is a mess. And Wisconsin's new governor is just going from strength to fucking strength.

3. My wrists have been bothering me, and with all the sleep dysfunction nonsense, I don't have much energy, plus I have a book to revise and another half a book to write ([livejournal.com profile] matociquala writes the other half), so blogging is probably going to be light and sporadic for the next little while. Just so you all know.

4. I know they're deadly carnivores who would eat me in a heartbeat, but I have a hopeless soft spot for polar bears. Especially when they're as cute as this little one and his or her mom.

5. I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day (too many years in public school), but I am a big fan of love. So here's some itty bitty kitty Valentines committee pictures.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (writing: bone key)
[For anyone whose eyes glaze over at long lists.]

As part of the Ben Jonson Memorial Fundraiser, I would like to do a limited edition chapbook of the four uncollected Booth stories: "The Replacement," "The World Without Sleep," "White Charles," and "The Yellow Dressing Gown." Price would be $20; after production costs, all money will be donated to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital's Companion Animal Fund.

By "limited edition," I mean a print run of 50. Unnatural Creatures will be on sale from 02/02 2:00 P.M. CST to 02/03 2:00 P.M. CST. This will be a "speak now or forever hold your peace" kind of deal.

If you would be interested in this chapbook, please leave a comment either here or here. A comment is not a commitment.

Thank you!
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
64 hours (and counting) ago, [livejournal.com profile] elisem had a stroke. Because she got to the hospital right away, she is coming out of it with no permanent damage.

What Elise would like people to do for her is to spread the word. The efficacy of TPA (tissue plasminogen activator, the drug that means Elise is coming out of this unharmed) depends on its being administered within a very narrow time window. Learn the symptoms of stroke, and if you observe these symptoms in yourself, a friend, family member, co-worker, etc., CALL 911. If you're not sure, CALL 911. This is a case where better safe than sorry are truly words to live by.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (ds: trying to help)
For those of you who find your mammary hypertrophy* getting in the way of your physical endeavors, I can report that Title 9's Last Resort Bra (a.k.a. the Enell Sports Bra) really does perform as advertised. It is expensive like whoa ($60 a pop) and hard as hell to get into (they are absolutely correct when they warn you that the proper size will feel too small when you start), but it works. I had been doubling up my sports bras to withstand the sitting trot, and the Enell bra is actually better. Once I get into it, I don't have to think about my breasts again until I take it off.

Which, frankly, is what I want from a bra.

---
*Thank you, Lois McMaster Bujold and Ethan of Athos, for that phrase.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
The next time you see [livejournal.com profile] mirrorthaw, buy him a drink. Or a cookie.
truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
Please disassociate me in your mind from the famous French painter, Claude Monet. Instead, think of the Radio City Rockettes. That should clear up any lingering mental confusion.

ETA: And if not, try this handy mnemonic: "When you MOW the tennis court, please be careful of the NET."

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