Northern dreaming

Yes, still itching. My arms and some other parts of my anatomy look as if I had goose bumps on them, and the itching is still bad enough that it wakes me occasionally.

So, antihistamines help, some. But not for long, you need to keep taking them and I don’t think that’s particularly healthy, not if it’s at a rate of a pill every second or third hour. I take them before going to bed, now.

Topical stuff: aloe vera is in some ways best of the things I have tried so far. It stops the itching only for a rather short while, but that is true with the rest of them too, and it dries fast and doesn’t stain or smell. I have tried some essential oils, and peppermint also works pretty well, but then you will smell rather strongly for a while. I have used jojoba, grapeseed and linseed oils for base oils, and linseed oil is supposed to offer some relief from itching too although I noticed no big differences when using it compared to the other two. Next I intend to try coconut oil, by itself and mixed with some essential oils.

Oh yes, linseed oil smells a bit funny too all by itself. Mixed with some essential oil it of course doesn’t matter much as all of them have strong enough smells to mask the smell of the base oil, but if tried by itself, well, I don’t think I’d recommend it to anybody who works in an office or some similar place.

OK, I’ll continue with this after a day or two, I have done some shopping and will be trying several new things in the coming days. 🙂

It’s not over yet. My arms and legs started itching again, and while there is not much red in evidence there are these small bumps all over the skin, you kind of need to look from the side in that kind of lighting where they can cast bit of a shadow, but when you do, yep, they are there.

I went to a doctor and according to him it’s the same hand, foot and mouth disease still. In fact, it’s quite possible this will take several weeks more, maybe even up to half a year, before all the symptoms will be permanently gone. Most likely there is no risk of it becoming any kind of severe again, but the itching may continue (at least it’s much less severe now) for a while yet, and there may be occasional episodes later.

And I may still lose some nails.

Nice.  😦

Itching has mostly stopped, and the rash/hives are mostly gone. A couple of fingernails feel kind of funny, but hopefully that’s just hypochondria (I rather hope I hadn’t been told about that losing your nails stuff…). I got a couple of fresh blisters inside my mouth during the last weekend, but nothing after that.

Okay, maybe it’s almost over, and I get to keep my fingernails.

There have been some promising developments in my private life too, so maybe I can finally get fully back into writing and other stuff – I’m no good when it comes to dealing with stress, I lose the ability to concentrate, or I can do that only sporadically so when there are extra stress factors in my life – and the ones during the last months have been pretty big, lots of old, decades old baggage has surfaced now – I can become rather useless for several other things. I’ll dither, start things, stop doing them, start again, lose focus again, dither around some more… Managing my day job (well, I work nights but anyway) has been about the only thing I have been able to do well enough for nearly four months now.

But as said, things are looking better now. Finally.

So as long as my fingernails stay where they are supposed to… 🙂

– also thinks it’s hand, foot and mouth disease.

Itches like crazy. Seems this doesn’t cause the rash and hives for everybody, nor does it itch for everybody, but the itching, even severe itching, more often happens to adults. Plus it can be over in a week, or it can last several weeks, although a week is more common. And sometimes people lose at least some of their nails, which at some point just fall off… great. Just great.

There are several somewhat different viruses which cause this, and different people react differently, so no saying beforehand how it will go for you. Most times it’s a very mild disease, but occasionally it can become severe enough to require hospitalization, and it can come in kind of waves – you are sick for a few days, then it seems you are recovering, only to become even more sick after a few better days. And like several other kid diseases more often the worst cases happen when adults get it, kids usually can handle it better.

Okay, I think I will go back to lathering something on my arms. And maybe it’s time to take another antihistamine pill, those seem to help some too.

I could use an old fashioned big blackboard right now. If I was writing ‘I will not scratch my arms’ one thousand times I would not have the time to scratch them. 🙂

I haven’t abandoned the blog and don’t intend to, but right now I have enough other things to worry about that I just am not in mood for any kind of regular posting. And this will probably go on for at least a month or two more.  There have been, and are probably going to be, a few rather significant changes in my life, and I need time to adjust my thinking. And get over this partial paralysis I seem to be suffering from right now. Right now doing one thing at a time is all I can manage, and moving from one thing to another takes way too much time. Mostly I would just want to escape, maybe by doing nothing but watching movies and reading novels, preferably very fluffy stuff like romantic comedies or something else I usually tend to avoid, and eat chocolates, and every time I relax a bit I seem to end up in this fugue state where I do nothing, just daydream. Or watch television. Or something.

I’m working on it. Once the practical stuff is over it will probably be easier to deal with the rest, I have always had this tendency to freeze when I’m waiting for something to happen.

So, until this situation is over I may occasionally post paintings or photos, but I intend to get into the habit of posting regularly sometime during this summer, probably after midsummer. Lets say not every day, but I am going to aim to at least two or three times each week.

Until then it’s going to be just when I am in the mood, and that may not be very often, I’m afraid. 🙂

I will probably keep the lower price on the three shortest short stories, but at least Night Work will get a bit higher next week the latest. And the novels will go back to where they were before this.

The new cat has been here for a few hours, now. He’s hiding in the bathroom, behind some buckets, and Pörri makes occasional forays to the door (closed, for now) and sniffs, and has growled a bit a few times. From my previous experience this stage will probably last at least a few days. I wasn’t quite planning on keeping him in the bathroom at this stage, but since he chose it I guess I’ll let him stay there for now, until he starts feeling a bit less scared.

And yes, the cat is a he (spayed, thank god), a black Persian or Persian mix, with, right now, a very ugly looking coat since it has not been combed for nearly half a year. Name is Sebastian, called ‘Basti’.

Pörri’s name is looking even funnier in comparison, since she has very short hair (Pörri would translate to something like ‘fluffy’. I guess she may have been that as a kitten, when I got her she was about two years old and anything but).

Keep your fingers crossed.

And, starting tomorrow and including my stories, managed by the eminent (I think that’s the closest English equivalent to the Finnish word I keep thinking about :)) Sabrina Chase:

The Human Wave Garage Sale

When did it become fashionable for published fiction to be full of self-loathing for qualities most intelligent humans value? Where’s the adventure, the courage, the fun? We suppose it was about the same time that Literature Majors because the arbiters of what was good and right in publishing.

Fortunately their reign of grey goo and boredom is at an end.  Having gone Indie, authors can choose to write humans as they wish.  And since most authors are (allegedly) human they can even write heroic humans who fight for things that have meaning.

The ennui of the cognoscenti no longer holds sway. The new bad boys on the block are Human Wave authors, whose characters might sometimes be trapped in dystopia but never helpless. And if they must go down fighting, they do so gloriously and for principles bigger than themselves.

Be daring.  Be creative.  Be revolutionary.  Read (and write) Human Wave.

Sarah Hoyt

Ill Met By Moonlight — Young Will Shakespeare is a humble school master who arrives home to find his wife and infant daughter, Susannah are missing, kidnapped by the fairies of Arden Woods, the children of Titania and Oberon. His attempts at rescue are interrupted and complicated by a feud over throne of fairyland, between Sylvanus, king regnant, and his younger brother Quicksilver who is both more and less than he seems. Amid treachery, murder, duel and seduction, Shakespeare discovers the enchantment of fairyland, which will always remain with him, for good and ill. Free from the 1st to the 5th of August.

Spinning Away — In a world where the ability to pick what news will interest most people is very real power, Layna Smythe strives to stay ahead of her rivals and alive. She often forgets that she’s also lonely, until an attack reminds her of the man she left behind. Free from the 1st to the 5th of August.

Crawling Between Heaven and Earth — Sarah A. Hoyt’s first short story collection, initially published by Dark Regions Press in 2003.  Contains most of Sarah’s early published work. Free

Wings — Second short story collection. $2.99

Michael Hooten

Cricket’s Song, Book 1: The Cricket Learns to Sing — Cricket is a young orphan growing up on an obscure farm in the country of Glencairck.  He wants to be just like Harper, who plays for the people through the winter, but Harper is not content to let him just learn how to harp.  He teaches him the ancient traditions of the Bards of Glencairck, a noble order that is responsible for not just entertaining the people, but for providing impartial judgement to their disputes.  When Cricket is old enough, he enters the wide world  and finds that not everyone knows the old rules, or follows them.  He has to decide for himself what is right–and how far he is willing to go to defend his beliefs. Free for Kindle August 1-5

Rawle Nyanzi

Alien Frontier — Fifteen-year-old Norma Teague must avoid getting drafted into an alien army. However, her home village demands that she go since she has a magic belt that lets her destroy any armor made of matter. $1.99

Thomas Sewell

Hitchhiking Killer For Hire — A border gang beats Ex-Special Forces soldier Sam Harper and leaves him for dead in the desert. Sam must discover “Why?” in this story of government corruption and human smuggling in the near future west. Dedicated to Louis L’Amour. Free for Kindle August 1st through 5th

Elizabeth Bruner

Flash of Fire — A collection of super short stories (1000 words or less) on the subject of fire. Ranging from the love of a volcano goddess to natural phenomena encountered as humans explore a distant planet, these stories evoke a sense of wonder and awe at the nature and power of fire. $.99 for Kindle August 1 through 5th

Zachary Ricks

Battlehymn — (Also Barnes & Noble)  It’s a story of giant robots, forbidden love, princesses in danger, and the power of rock ‘n roll. If you’re a fan of Macross, you might enjoy Battlehymn. $1.99

Cedar Sanderson

Snow Angel — When a child’s imagination leads his mother to a startling discovery, she must then protect him and his guardian from unknown danger. A human mother is fiercer than angels! Free July 31 to August 4

Little Red and the Wolf-Man — Little Red wears a red cloak, and keeps her shotgun hidden under it. But Grandmother has the biggest secret in the forest, and she is dying… can Little Red help the forest dwellers? $1.49

Mike Weatherford

Cynthia — (Also Barnes & Noble) Cynthia was a nice girl from a prestigious family, with a “nice-girl” education.  That didn’t help much when she found herself chased by an organized criminal element, captured by pirates, and stranded on a planet that was so deadly human government had declared it forbidden.  Luck, in the form of Rat – a trained survivalist – can help, but will it enable her to survive? $0.99

Kiti Lappi

Novels:

Fourth Sword — A portal fantasy: woman from our world gets transported to one with an ongoing generations long war and working magic, and finds out, after some adventures and to her chagrin, that she was taken there for a purpose. $ 1.49

The Demons of Khemas — A tavern wench has fallen for a barbarian swordsman (not that she admits it). When he disappears she needs to find out what happened. $ 1.49

Short stories:

Nights of the Wampyrs — A small town has problems with a couple of vampires, and the only people who figure out what is going on realize they have to become vampire hunters. Old school vampires, based more on the European folk tales than the later fictionalized versions. First story tells of the birth of one vampire, the two others concentrate on the hunters.

    Raven’s Night $0.99

    After Night Descends $0.99

    Night Work  free from 1st of August to 5th, $ 0.99 after that

Dealing with Elves — A young woman is drawn to a forest where elves live. Urban fantasy, mostly a mood piece. Free from 1st of August to 5th., $ 0.99 after that.

The Task — A ghost story set in a traditional fantasy world, a peasant girls shelters for a night in an abandoned castle. $ 0.99

Sabrina Chase

Bureau of Substandards Annual Report — (B&N)Five short stories of that pearl among pan-dimensional bureaucracies, the Bureau of Substandards–and the stalwart security janitors, attack admins, and bemused subdirectors that serve there. $1.99

The Long Way Home — (Book 1 of the Sequoyah trilogy) (B&N) Webspace pilot Moire Cameron is one of the best–but even she can’t fly her way out of a catastrophic drive failure that triggers a time-dilation bubble. Left suddenly eighty years out of date, she is on the run in a world she no longer knows, caught in the middle of a human-alien war while agents of Toren hunt her for the information only she has–the location of the pristine world of Sequoyah.$1.99