Friday 14 February 2014

Unrequited devotion to duty

I will admit to not having done a great deal of work of late. It's really difficult to fit it all in around the operations, recuperations, appointments – ahem - trips to coffee shops, trips online… so was delighted to receive my copies of the January / February edition of Chase Magazine and see that I could still occasionally manage to put a few words on paper.

I'm talking about Dear Thing by Julie Cohen and Crossing The Line by Christian Plowman in this edition. 

I only write about books which have blown me away and which I desperately want other people to read. And these two are no exception. The subject matter, surrogacy, is what drove me to Cohen's novel but once in, I found it was as much a story of unrequited love as making babies - an unexpected extra dimension which was joyously painful to read.

The second, Crossing The Line, is an auto-biographical view of life as an undercover detective. It's a theme which wouldn't normally jump out at me but once it had become clear that I'd read the entire first chapter in Waterstones, I felt compelled to buy it. Plowman's story is certainly gripping, powerful and, I admit, quite entertaining (even if I did feel a little voyeuristic in my fascination of the dirty underworld Plowman frequented) but it was also overtly sad and it was the human cost to Plowman which really had me fascinated. 

Please click here to pop over to Chase to read more (pages 50/51).

How's my new companion, cancer today? Well, I'm one step closer to booting the gate-crasher from the party. Last week I had my second official operation (third if you count the unexpected extra one to clear up the burst artery) and I'm back and fighting and just hoping we can finally get on with chemotherapy soon. It's funny the world you enter when you find out you have cancer, when you start wishing things like chemotherapy upon yourself. But the sooner we crack on with it, the sooner we can start talking about cancer in the past tense. Next post I'll tell you about the wig buying trip with my children. If you ask me nicely, I may even include photos.

14 comments:

  1. It's great to hear things are going well, and you're staying positive (I'm not naive enough to think you don't have down moments, but even faking being positive can be beneficial). Fingers crossed the chemo gets started - and finished - soon xx

    I had to laugh at you reading a whole chapter of a book in Waterstones, I do that all the time!

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    1. Thanks Annalisa :) I'm quite good at shaking my head out of being down as it always seems like a waste of precious time which is my absolute pet hate! That said, I have wandered around hissing that I'm 'sick of it now, would really like to not have cancer any more, thank you,' a few times this week! It looks like I'll be starting chemo at the beginning of March. I can just picture you in Waterstones...!

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  2. Jackie, I feel bad for not knowing you were going through this. I haven't visited your blog for a while, but have interacted with you via Twitter where your tweets remain upbeat and ever giving. My reason for doing less blog visits is my own family fight with cancer. A close loved one who I hope is now coming to the end of her chemo. She's had her surgeries and has just had her sixth and last dose of chemo, so life does leave little time.

    Coming to the end, as a close loved one and the one who was confided in at the dark moments, I can tell you there is an end. Lean on those close to you. If they tell you to and they're there, I'm saying. - they really mean it. We can't be there if we don't.

    Sending positive thoughts your way. Loving your positive attitude. It will get you through to the end. It helps. I shall pop by more often xx

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    1. Hey! Don't feel bad! It's nice to see you over here. I'm sorry you've had cancer in your life, too. Here's to your friend being fully cured and hopefully being able to put this behind her now/ soon. Thanks for all the positive vibes and I promise, I'm leaning :)

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  3. I'm impressed with you managing anything creative at all under the circumstances. While I've managed to keep working and doing all the usual everyday chores etc after thyroid cancer, the treatments (less horrible than chemo but very draining) have left me with little creativity. I find it takes huge reserves of energy - which I just don't have. So well done and keep writing and I wish you all the very best in this journey.

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  4. Hi Lindsay, I'm so sorry to hear you had thyroid cancer and hope you've seen the back of it now without any lasting ailments. I know what you mean. I feel alright in myself to carry out basic tasks but I definitely don't have the same ability to focus/ concentrate at the moment which doesn't really lend itself to novel writing/ editing! I'm trying to just stay calm and hope that reality will return before too long. It's only been operations sapping my energy so far but I've been told that the anti-sickness drugs etc. for breast cancer are fantastic now so I'm really hoping I won't be too rocked by the chemo. Time will tell! I have a great TBR pile if I do get sent to my bed :) Thanks for popping by!

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  5. Crack on girl. Lovely to hear your strong voice. You are brilliant.

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    1. Not really brilliant, but thank you :) Any editing for me yet, Fiona?? Looking forward to getting stuck in again...

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    2. Don't tempt me! It is so nearly there but I think, if I have learned anything from your expertise and wisdom, it is that it needs a spot of spit and polish before I waste your valuable time again. Close but no cigar.

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    3. :D Ready when you are! No rush...

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  6. Yes you are indeed brilliant and apart from anything else you really make me want to read both of these books - and my tbr pile grows ever larger!!! "Crossing the line" doesn't sound like my kind of book at all but if you say it is so unputdownable I feel I really must give it a go! I will let you know if I agree with you :)

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    1. Tee hee, then my job is done. Hope they don't stay on your TBR pile too long and do hope you enjoy them. Let me know!

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  7. Sorry for your troubles. Hope things get better for you.

    Thank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.

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