Exciting News

This week has been an odd one; I started it thinking there was something really wrong with my heart and/or lungs, due to breathing problems and chest pains, only for it to end on the highest of highs. Fiction has nothing on real life and its unpredictability.

To assure any of you that may be concerned; there is nothing seriously wrong with me. On Monday and Tuesday I had genuine difficulty taking a full breath and it felt like my heart was trying to hammer its way through my rib cage. The response from the doctor? "It's probably stress, you should take a few days off and see if that helps". Translated; "I have no idea what you have, but I'm not prepared to spend money on the NHS to get you tests yet so let's see if you get worse before we do anything." So I took time off, rested, hardly moving, and it didn't help. I was highly sceptical of stress being a reason as I've been WAY more stressed then I am at the moment and nothing like this ever happened (family dying is a bit more stressful than work/life commitments in my opinion). Then my wonderful brain did one of those somersaults and reminded me I was put on a new inhaler three weeks ago. And the breathlessness started two weeks ago... Holmes, I think you may be onto something. 

I instantly dropped the dosage I was on and hey presto, two days later I feel much better. In case any asthmatics are reading this the inhaler is called Clenil Modulite, and while most people seem to be fine on it I've since read that a few have breathing and chest problems from it. Thank you drug company for not mentioning that in your leaflet that comes with the thing (even though you mention a bevy of other delightful side effects). So hopefully this will be the end of my chest problems (about time!) and I will be having serious words with my doctor when I go for my next asthma check up.

Being published Chuck,
that's what!

The best news (though I think breathing is pretty fab in itself) came on Friday, when I heard from a publication I sent a short story to for inclusion in their anthology. It was accepted and just this morning I signed the contract and emailed it back to the editor. Not sure when the publishing date is (I've asked in my email) but it should be in a matter of months. Can't quite believe I get to say this but here goes; I'm going to be a published writer. Squeeeeel!!!

So thank you to the beta-readers who gave their feedback on the short story, it seriously helped make it the best it could be. And thank you to all you readers of this blog; knowing there are even a few people out there in the world reading my words and not being induced to vomit by them (or, if they do make you sick, then being kind enough to keep quiet about it) is an inspiration and encouragement to me. But this is only the beginning - more short stories are in the pipeline and here's hoping that they find equal success in the future.