I am a duck right now. Smooth and serene on the top and paddling like mad underneath. It’s been a busy six weeks since I blogged—for good reason. It’s that whole you only see 10% of the iceberg thing.
First, there was Origins Game Fair. It was a good convention where I was a dealer and a panelist. Plus, I had many meetings where new projects were planned out. It’s one of my favorite things to do—meeting up with my editors and authors face-to-face. Unfortunately, long work conventions are exhausting. Also, we came home with an unwanted guest: Covid.
Despite masking and air purifiers and hand washing/sanitizers, I caught Covid. I’m not sure exactly where or when, but by Sunday evening of the convention, I felt like hell—which means I had to have been contagious for 1-3 days. Be it an errant button press or a handshake and then forgetting to sanitize, or being coughed on (there were a LOT of coughing people at Origins), after four years of diligence, my number was up.
I got Paxlovid on Tuesday after the convention, and we were hoping that it had passed the Husband by, but no such luck. By Thursday the 27th, he was sick. He got his Paxlovid on the same day. We had diametrically opposed reactions to Covid. I felt better as of the 2nd day of the meds and started testing negative as soon as the five days of Paxlovid was done. The Husband on the other hand, tested positive for Covid for almost two full weeks after he finished the meds and even had a rebound where he started feeling better, but then got much worse.
“A simple cold” my ass. We spent three full weeks living on separate levels of the house, running the air purifiers, and masking. It was like living with a roommate you barely tolerate. It sucked. Seriously. The Husband’s asthma is still acting up. Needless to say, we will be masked for Gen Con.
While we were suffering from Covid, life continued on. We’d contracted with Catio Spaces for a custom catio as our 16th wedding anniversary to us and our kitties. It’s lovely. Big enough for chairs for us to lounge in. Leeloo loves the catio. She demands it be opened in the morning and spends most of the day out there. Mena also likes it, but not like Leeloo. She’ll wander out there every other day or so.
Finally, the main reason there hasn’t been a blog post in six weeks is the fact that I have a brand new website. After 20+ years of hand coding my website with raw HTML, I decided it was time for a change and hired Caro from GoCreate.me, a terrifyingly competent and efficient web developer. Caro is amazing, and you should hire her if you want a new website with all the bells and whistles. There are so many new things to learn!
There’s more to do on the website, but the bulk of the fit and finish is done. Also, if you want to send me a postal letter or donate books to my TARDIS Little Free Library, I have a new PO Box address:
Jennifer Brozek
P.O. Box 121
Bothell, WA 98041
So, what to you think? Do you like my new website?
Oh yeah. I’ve been nominated for two Scribe awards! One for Shadowrun: Auditions (YA/MG novel) and one for Valdemar: “Needs Must When Evil Bides” (Short story). I’m particularly pleased with the short story nomination. It’s been forever since one of my shorts has been nominated.