Sickness, health, and writing

Gentle readers:

I got out of the hospital after a long stay(way too long, IMO, but it was necessary. unfortunately), and am now, more or less comfortably back home. Basically, because I'd been, among other things, spending too much time at my beloved computer, writing, and doing other things, I ended up with a nasty sneaky lymphoma which fortunately only affected my right leg and right side, although there was fluid buildup in the lungs on the left side for a little while. Fortunately nothing went to the brain or heart! I consider myself lucky, and will keep it that way.

This has affected my writing schedule somewhat, in that I have to write in short bursts rather than long hauls, but that's to the good. It sort of forces me to get up and move around, which is what I should have been doing anyway to begin with, I also have pills and chemotherapy to deal with. The chemo is every 3 weeks, so I have time to recover and get stronger, and that's what I'm trying to do.

But the writing will keep coming, no matter what. It/s one of the most important things that keeps me going, and I'm going to finish and publish this masterpiece if it's the last thing I do(sometimes I feel like it is!)

In any case, the blogs may come slower; there doesn't seem to be much in Neandertals, I didn't see anything much in Medieval, either, nor on My Beloved Wolves. But I won't stop. Maybe I'll just blog the first chapter of my first book, for you folks to read, if you want, and you can see what you think.

I have a feeling these will be exciting and challenging days,
Anne G

NIce picture

All:

This isn't exactly what I had in mind in the way of "Neandernews", but going through the John Hawks Blog, for what I did want, I came across this picture

It's a commemoration of the site in the Neander Valley where the first recorded or published Neandertal remains were found in 1856. There were earlier ones, in particular, a skull at Gibraltar which the finders couldn't figure out, but ths was the site. It's interesting to note that at least until other Neandertal specimens were found, the finders weren't quite able to figure the remains out, either. They kept coming up with the idea that it was some "degenerate" "modern" human, such as an Irish person(the Irish were held in disrepute at the time), or a "Mongolian cossack" who had crawled into the cave to die. A fellow named Schaffhausen began to grasp that these remains were really old, and, eventually, people began to figure out that these specimens weren't exactly "like us". From which a great many controversies have flowed, and are still flowing.

Oh well. Neandertals quickly became, in the minds of many, what I would now call a "despised group". At least modern "despised groups" are around to speak for themselves. Since Neandertals aren't, I hope I'm doing well by them.
Anne G

I'm back again, just to letcha all know

Dear readers:

I'm finally back to blogging again. Trouble was, I've been in the hospital for almost a month but now I'm recovering at home. Finally. It kind of put q dent in my writing, too. Ugh. I mean, I just barely finished the chapter I was on, and had trouble figuring out how to finish it. But there's going to be lots to blog about now that I'm back. There's some lovely Neandernews, some decent medieval stuff and notices from some of my writer friends about books they're workng on, even some good news about wolves, both the ones on Ellesmere Island, and the Washington wolves, who seem to be surviving.

There's so much to blog about! I will be catching up over the next few days,
Anne G