Life Imitating Art

It has been the strangest of times recently. I say recently but I actually mean for over a year the world has turned upside down. Life imitating art. Has the world been reading Stephen King’s The Stand?

Health and Corona

As you know I’ve had a few health issues to deal with since last summer which plunged me into a dark place. I’m delighted to say that I got the amazing news a few months ago that I am in “complete remission”. The Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma will come back (hopefully not for many years) as it’s incurable but I’ve decided I am going to enjoy life, savour every opportunity I’m given and learn to throw caution to the wind once in a while. I’m the worrying type – thanks Mum for that little hereditary nugget – so I need to forget about some of my inhibitions and live my life to the full. Receiving that diagnosis back in October 2019 frightened the hell out of me so receiving the great news that it’s in remission has pretty much given me a new lease of life and I’m going to grab hold of it with both hands. Well, I would if Coronavirus hadn’t appeared!

For the first four months of the Covid-19 restrictions here in the UK I was pretty much been confined to my sofa as I’m in the vulnerable category. I was told by the NHS to shield myself from the outside world because of my weak post-chemo immune system. During this time I was also placed on furlough from my day job in the theatre. I was subsequently made redundant in August. Because of the Government’s restrictions on social gatherings I and many thousands of other theatre workers up and down the country found ourselves on the employment scraphead.

Writing, writing and writing

I haven’t completely wasted the downtime though, I’ve been doing quite a bit of writing. I’ve made great progress on The Lawman Legacy script. This summer I also started writing my first novel. I’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time but never really had the motivation to sit down for hours on end typing (you can tell by the frequency of my blog posts). However with nothing else to do and being in the Covid shielding group there was no better time to start. It’s provisionally titled ‘End of the Line’, although it’s unlikely this will be the final title upon release, and it’s all about a zombie apocalypse. Of course it is!

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As a result of the film script and the novel I am sad to say I have neglected another project I was hoping to complete this year (Covid restrictions pending), The History Guys. I’ve been reluctant to work on this for a number of reasons but the main reason is I just don’t have the motivation for it right now. I want to get my novel finished and released this side of Christmas and it’s hard to focus on other creative things when all I can think about is how Daniel Garner and his friend Jim are going to escape a zombie-infested London.

Snoopy

This past Sunday was the one year anniversary of the death of my little boy and best friend Snoopy. He came to live with with us when he was eleven weeks old and he lived a happy 14 years. In the end he was in constant pain and it was cruel to keep him alive any longer. On 27th September 2019 he gained his angel wings.

I still miss Snoopy every day. I miss his cuddles (he loved them) and I miss him jumping onto the bed, laying on my chest and staring at me with those big loving eyes. Also how he’d jump on me every time I returned home because he missed me, even if I was only gone for a few minutes.

Although he is no longer here physically he has always been here spiritually walking beside me and giving me strength as I tackled my own health problems.

They say dogs love their owners unconditionally. The opposite is also true. He really was my best friend.

Six months

It’s been over six months since my last blog post and a lot has happened in that time. I hope it won’t be another six months before I write my next one and I hope the next six months is a healthier one for us all.

Take care everyone, stay safe, wash your hands and love each other.