misslj_author | What's Up Wednesdays #003.

More about What's Up Wednesdays here.

WHAT I'M READING.

Nearly half way through The Genome by Sergey Lukyanenko, finally! I had books from the library so I kept putting this back until those were read. Anyhoo, I think Lukyanenko is the bees knees when it comes to urban fantasy/paranormal, his Night Watch series are up there in my top ten all time favourite books. So when I got a notif from Amazon that there was now an English translation of The Genome, that was the one I bought with a gift certificate at Christmas.

I only have one problem with this one: the translation isn't as good as it is for the NW books. But having said that, this is terrific book. It's hard sci-fi but doesn't have so much sci-fi!science that my brain wants to melt; in fact, I actually understand what's going on, so I count that as a big win. For another thing, it's very obvious that Lukyanenko likes to poke the bear that is the Russian government (he's Kazak and lives/writes in Russia/Russian.), so his main characters in this book are a black woman who is a doctor, an executioner and a linguist; a gay man who is the best at what he does in the sector; a teenage girl who has been genetically altered to be an assassin; a Frenchman who has an uncanny ability with weaponary; and the captain, also genetically altered to be a specialist pilot. The captain, the teenage girl and the co-pilot are all Russian. There are issues of prejudice between the crew and their new passengers, while the crew themselves meld together into a tight knit unit akin to a family. Who just happen to be on board a discus shaped space ship with high tech weapons and internals.

It's fast paced, it's interesting, it's got me gripped. The characters are all awesome, especially Janet, the black woman, who is a tough, strong, no-nonsense character who also is the most empathic, alongside Alex, the captain. Actually, I like all the characters so far, but I bet that'll change! In short, another fantastic book from Lukyanenko, and I hope there's more English translations of his work done soon.

WHAT I'M WRITING (+ A WRITING GOAL).

Promo things for my new release, A Shot in the Dark, which is available in eBook and paperback.

I've done a bit more on the paranormal, but that's going slowly right now as suddenly, things have happened, much earlier than I expected and I'm suddenly running around like a chook with its head chopped off. (Read: VERY busy). Also have made a start of fixing up and synopsising the sci-fi, but that's also slow going because of aforementioned running around.

WHAT WORKS FOR ME.

Sleep. Ye gods and little fishes, sleep is so marvellous and wonderful and my bed is awesome and it must never leave me. Also, reading helps jiggle the old brainmeats, which is why we should do it. And because we enjoy it. And I'm so gripped and confused and impressed with the TV series Fortitude, which is confounding, wonderful, horrifying and brilliant. If I could write something that intense and maintain the suspense, not giving anything away, I would be delighted.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW.

More bullet points!

Epilepsy diagnosed. That's okay, I'd expected that, but laws regarding driving mean that getting my license has been set back by a few years, so that's annoyed me greatly. Oh well. C'est la vie.

My niece's wedding is in 6 weeks and I am so not ready!!

Planning a trip to the gorgeous Flinders Ranges for the near future sometime with mum, because she's never been and I'm of the opinion that everyone should visit at least once in their lives. This'll be my fourth trip up there.

Fortitude. I cannot get enough of this brilliant show. Stanley Tucci is amazing. The rest of the cast are too.

The music of Ólafur Arnalds (he does the soundtrack for Broadchurch) is perfect to write to.

The new poster for the next James Bond movie, Spectre, is out and sweet mercy me. Daniel Craig. 'Nuff said.

Mum's had a few more falls, which is worrying, but her GP is on the case and I'm hopeful that the new plan will be a good one.

L-R: The Spectre poster; our first spring onions, fresh from the garden. They smelled amazing; my new release, A Shot in the Dark; the cat hiding under a stool in the bath... as they do; some of the cast of Fortitude.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Genome sounds interesting and provocative for the author given current climes in his homeland.

Yay for the onions.

Good luck with managing the epilepsy. Over in the States things are much the same, you have to be seizure-free for a few years before you can drive.

Good luck, also with the writing stuff.

The bit I read last night had a scene where the gay character had met a guy and fallen for him and been rebuffed, so he was upset. The rest of the crew were sympathetic but also teased him a bit--as people tease anyone they care about. Gentle teasing, if that makes sense. TBH, the only thing so far that skeeves me a bit is the Lolita-esque relationship that's developing between a man and the teenage girl.

That's actually kinda relieving to hear. It's not just Aust who has that, then. Thank you.

Oh that's interest but yeah Lolita stuff usually ruins it for me.

It is definitely that way here. It sounds like the diagnosis is a little new to you (if not unexpected). I hate to say it but it often takes a while to get the med levels right to prevent siezures so it could be dangerous to drive.

For me too, usually. It's not too much, so I can skim those bits, but still, it's sad that it's there.

Well, I had assumed that's what it was. My previous GP ran all the relevant tests but they didn't show anything, so he decided that it was just "one of those things" and sent me on my way. The last seizure I had 10 days ago made my current GP freak out and wave her arms around, then refer me to a neurologist and put me in for the queue in the public hospital system, basically to get me in somewhere fast, whoever answered me first, basically. So the private guy won out, of course, bc people can't really afford it. I can't either, but I'll save and make some sacrifices and get it done.

Anyway, I'm on a raft of other medication for depression and diabetes 2, and the seizures happen very rarely (which is another reason previous doctor dismissed them), before the most recent one, it'd been a good five years between them. So it'll be interesting to see what, if any, meds are prescribed.

Yeah that's too bad.

Good luck with that. I used to doctor Canadians who didn't want to wait (for some of what I did, the wait was intermittably)

Ugh, I hear you. I was on more meds than my 99 y.o. grandma who passed earlier this year. Finally found a diabetic med that seems to be working. Not in time to save the feeling in my foot but in time to slow down any potential damage to my eyes (luckily that was my speciality, diabetic wound care so if anything happens to that foot, who better to deal with it?). Good luck with the meds. epilepsy is way out of my strike zone so I can't even hazard a guess as to what they'll try.

What's the diabetic med? I have a slew of diabetic meds myself, so I'm always interested in what works that's out there. Ugh, I'm sorry to hear about your foot, how awful.

Invokana and it's brand new as of last year. http://www.invokana.com/

it is what it is. I'm just glad my eyes are fine. I can deal with the foot. I know how to keep it healthy.

Ah righto. Just took a look at it, I don't think I can take that one. The joys of juggling meds, eh?

It's a pain in the ass for both doc and patient some days. I'm not even sure it's available in your country (or has been for a decade for all I know. The rules on these things are nuts)

I have no idea, either, actually. Byetta was suggested to me, but when I mentioned it to my GP, she pointed out what some of the side effects were and I decided that it'd be a cold day in hell before I went on that one willingly!

That one messed me up. My sugar was relatively controlled then I was put on that. Month one was fine. Month 2 & 3 my sugar shot up to the 200-300 range and stayed there for years. I said I think this gave me pancreatitis. I was poo-poohed (forgetting that I AM in fact a doctor and I know what I'm talking about).

Sure enough years later, long after I was off it, they learned yes it does cause pancreatitis

Woah! That's quite a jump. And that sucks re the pancreatitis. Righto, well, definitely avoiding that one!

I was excited to try it (I don't mind being a guinea pig) since it was made from Gila monster saliva but yeah, it was bad for me at least. So far the worst that's happened with Invokana is it can cause yeast infections

What's Up Wednesdays #003.

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