The Pub Discussion Board

Eric Storm wrote:

Update for July 26, 2023:

Agent of Change, Chapter 25, has been started.

AC Chapter 24 will be posted on the 1st.

Eric Storm

Good news and something to look forward to.

Update for August 1, 2023:

Agent of Change, Chapter 24, has been posted to PRM.
Agent of Change, Chapter 18, has been made public.

Eric Storm

Thanks for asking.

Physically, we weren't touched.  We got a bit of rain (not even an extreme amount of that), and it was a bit windy.  My neighbor lost a rather large limb off a tree (which was probably already rotten...).  The storm didn't even knock over my garbage cans.

Mentally, it caused a lot more damage.  Idalia ran itself on a course that is extremely rare, and she was also a very powerful storm, reaching Cat 4 a few hours before landfall (and then getting downgraded to Cat 3 literally minutes before landfall...)

As anyone familiar with hurricanes knows, storm surge is the actual killer, not the wind.  Tampa got a 5-foot storm surge.  St. Pete got their second-highest storm surge ever.  Because of the size and strength, and path, of Idalia, she was blowing water directly onto the entire west coast of Florida.

I should mention: I live in Evacuation Zone A.

Now, having said that, this house was built over 60 years ago, and it has NEVER seen flood waters.  However, that did not stop my stress level from freaking me the fuck out for two days straight.  In the forty-eight hours before the hurricane passed by, I got perhaps six hours of sleep, an hour here, and an hour there.

I truly loathe living in the state of Florida.  I'm legally blind:  I cannot drive.  I have to depend on someone else to evacuate me if I need to go.  That person, right now, would be my brother, but I'm not the only person he has to evacuate.  He is also responsible for my niece, as she never learned to drive  (Can't blame her:  I wouldn't want to drive with these crazy assholes in Florida, either).  That makes three people, and four cats.

In a Ford Focus.

Yeah, you see the problem.  Evacuating all of us isn't really possible.

In any case, by the time the storm had fully cleared us, around 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon, my nerves were pretty well shot, and I was exhausted mentally and physically.  I went to bed and slept for eleven hours straight.

Do I really need to say, I've gotten no writing done recently?

Eric Storm

PS:  Oh yeah, I'm also fighting with some kind of respiratory infection.  Fun, huh?

Happy to hear you made it through the storm. Hope you feel better soon.

How you doing Eric? Asking for a friend. Just kiddin, seriously are you back to regular life?

I do wish you luck healing from whatever maladies that befall you

Kidney stones are no fun (I've had more than I can count), but, as they say, this too shall pass.

Yeah, I've had three of those. Two broken up via sonar lithotripsy, one handled by what is so-quaintly called "laser-and-basketing". Never again for the last one.

Eric Storm wrote:

Unless it's too big to do so...

Eric Storm

ChiefRock wrote:

IBS?? Try living without a colon. You are never constipated but you cannot make a turd. It is better than the alternative though, they got all the cancer

I'm thinking we could probably go back and forth on who has it worse here.  My mom had colorectal cancer, and a colostomy, so I'm familiar with how... "annoying" that is.

Let me just say, though, that your condition has two features that I sorely envy:  1. minimal use of your time, and 2. predictability.

I don't know whether you have the version of a colostomy that requires the pouch, or if you can get away with irrigation only, but either way, you're talking about maybe an hour a day of your life taken up dealing with it.  I have spent upwards of 5-6 hours a day in the bathroom with my IBS when it's on "level 10".  Not because I'm actively going, but because I don't feel like I'm done going.  And I also have the days where I go in the bathroom, sit down, poop immediately, then sit for a while to see if there's "more to come".  And there isn't... until I leave the bathroom, and then I'm compelled to go right back in there, sit, poop once, lather, rinse, repeat.  I spend so much time in the bathroom that I'm currently trying to figure out how to put a computer terminal in there so I can get work done while I'm in the bathroom.

And as to predictability: At least you know when you're going to have to deal with your shit.  I cannot tell you if, an hour from now, I will be able to leave the house.  Sitting here right now, I have no idea what I will be able to accomplish with my day, because I don't know how much of it is "mine", and how much of it belongs to my IBS.  And even the portion that does belong to me is impacted by my IBS, because when IBS is active, it tends to drain your energy level, so even when you're not in the bathroom, you're not necessarily getting anything useful done.

So... yeah.  Like I said, I think we could argue the "merits" of our conditions endlessly.  Needless to say we both have a shitty life.



Eric Storm

ChiefRock wrote:

I was born October 10, 1949. can I have a new chapter for my birthday?

Anything's possible, but I highly doubt it.  While the next chapter of AC is close to being done, it's not there yet.  And given the usual speed of my reviewers, it likely wouldn't be ready for release on the 10th.

But I'll see what I can do.

Eric Storm

Update for October 11, 2023:

My apologies to ChiefRock, my reviewers haven't even gotten the chapter back to me to post.  Sorry I missed your birthday.

Just wanted to mention, lest people think I'm completely goofing off, that as of tonight, Misfits is over 200,000 words long.  Not that you're going to get to read it anytime soon, but when you do, it's gonna be a long read.



Eric Storm

We appreciate the news. I'll probably be working when you post but I'll have a nice reward when I get home I suppose.

Update for October 24, 2023:

My writing progress will be severely curtailed for a short time.  I have pneumonia, and until I get over that, it's going to simply be too hard for me to focus creatively.

I am not "deathly ill", I just feel kind of "off".  But it's enough to make writing a legitimately difficult thing to do.  I am on meds to combat it, so we'll hopefully be back on track in a few days.

I will keep you updated.

Eric Storm