Status Update: April 18, 2012

I'll be moving back to Minnesota, which means I need to find a new slate of doctors.  I think I've located an Oncologist.  I was actually looking for a doctor my current Oncologist knew who practiced in Minnesota, but he was no longer with the group originally listed.  I took an appointment with another doctor in the group, and then went online to check her out.  I found that recently she had focused on head/neck cancers and lung cancers, but that she had a specialty background in non-hogkins lymphoma - so it looks like an excellent fit.  Since I have a porta-cath and need to have it flushed and lab work done every 4-6 weeks, I moved up my appt. with my current oncologist to two days before I move, then made another appt. with the new doc 6 weeks out.

Now I'm looking for a new team to provide my 2- and 5-year milestone tests (the 2 year evaluations are coming up this Oct.).  I'm checking at both the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota, which is an excellent research medical university.  Something good will hopefully pop up in one of these spots.

The last thing to do is find a new primary care physician and I think I'll let that go until I'm in Minnesota.

On the book front, I'm working on the last draft (hopefully last draft) of the first book of one series, and have started the first draft of the first book of the series that is its prequel.  The first series is a middle grade science fiction/fantasy, written in the third person and is positioned for Harry Potter meets Percy Jackson.  The prequel, however, takes place 300 years before that series, and is a young adult action/adventure written in the first person and positioned for Indiana Jones meets Hunt for Red October. Originally I had planned to do the sequel last (for many reasons) but now I'm looking at reversing that order (also for many reasons).

Despite the differences in style and setting, there's a strong connection between the two series and I really like them both.  The first person narrative voice is working really well for this second book but strangely enough I think the third person narrative is best for the middle grade series (although I may reconsider that as I get further on with the second one).  Writing in first-person is a first for me, but I'm enjoying it a lot, although every now and then one sentence or paragraph will suddenly appear in the third person.  I'm going to have to really scrutinize this during the editing stage!  I'm about 1/3rd done with the new book and it's really coming along fast - probably because I have it outlined in detail chapter by chapter.  I've already modified some things that will have to be changed in the middle-grade sequel for historical continuity, so this joint prequel/sequel strategy is turning out to be helpful overall.