Saturday, January 4, 2025

Continued health saga and some good sales news.

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.

In addition, now and again I will provide some of my fiction to read, for free, on this newsletter. Everything is available to anyone who subscribes, but I am always pleased when someone shows their appreciation for the newsletter by upgrading to paid.

Daily Diary, Day 1585:

I had a good night’s sleep with a new nightgown. About forty years ago I found the perfect winter nightgown, a soft cotton knit that went all the way to my ankles, and best of all, it had long sleeves with cuffs so the sleeves wouldn’t ride up. I wore this until it was in shreds, and I have never found another one that has done as well.

Flannel’s too hot, and while some time ago I found some silk nightgowns that worked well for most of the year, not only did the company go under about 5 years ago, the long-sleeved model still had the problem of sleeves rolling up, and the length was no longer than mid-calf. My current nightgown, while a comfortable 100% cotton knit, still has the problem of only going mid-calf, and the sleeves riding up, and it tends to get twisted around easily, which this week has been a problem since my swollen elbow already makes turning over difficult.

So, I went on another hunt for a gown a couple of days ago, and yesterday got the one I found. It goes all the way to my ankles, fits well enough that it didn’t get twisted, but the sleeves still rode up, but not too much.

Not perfect, but for now good enough. And with the aches and pains of arthritis, it is amazing what this bit of improvement in the struggle to get comfortable in bed did for my sense of well-being.

And I needed that, since my elbow is even more swollen this morning, and after looking again on line at what it probably is (arthritis or bursitis) I noticed that several sites mentioned if it is warm to the touch (which it is) that it might be a bacterial infection. So, not wanting to go to urgent care, which is currently swamped with flue and covid cases, I tried a video call for the first time. Result was that the doctor said that the amount of swelling and the warmth indeed suggested an infection, and she gave me a prescription for an anti-biotic, which my husband will now go and pick up.

So keeping fingers crossed the swelling will start to go down over the weekend, although I will still probably check in with my primary care doctor next week, if even for an evisit.

In the good news department, Amazon’s algorithm decided that my new book was selling well enough to send out an email yesterday (I assume to people who follow me (or bought books in the past) about the new release of Where the Glassflowers Grow. As a result, when I looked at the daily sales, there was a small bump in sales yesterday that put the total of sales up to 101! I could also see that a couple of the other books in the series sold. And then on Wednesday a BookBub ad will go out promoting Between Mountain and Sea, the free first in series book, and that should stimulate more sales. At that point I can assume I have done what I can in terms of marketing that series, at least for awhile, and get back to concentrating on writing and promoting the historical mystery series.

Anyway, a new night-gown, the newest chapter in my irritatingly frequent health issues, and the good news over sales seem to be the key diversions in my life today. Because I had to stay available in a video waiting room for the consultation with the doctor for over an hour and a half this morning, I didn’t clean or take a morning walk. (I am not complaining about the wait…it was far easier than sitting in urgent care). But beyond putting on some laundry, I think I will take it easy today and get back to reading my book on engraving.

While I don’t want suggestions on solutions to the nightgown, I would love to hear if any of the rest of you are so picky about what you wear at night!

And here is one of the very few plants that are blooming right now, but a nice cheerful yellow.

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