TMI, and Do I Have the Mettle?

Okay, so this cyst - seriously ridiculous seriousness. When I got to the outpatient clinic, they took me to the back, gave me a gown, and told me to strip down to my undies.

I said - "It's just a cyst on my wrist. I thought I was going to pull up my sleeve, get a shot of something numbing and get the thing cut out of there."

They said, "No, this is a surgery. There are procedures to follow."

I was not happy.

When my husband and I got married twenty years ago, he had one of these cysts removed from his wrist. My memories of his surgery are non-existent.

As I walked (at least they didn't roll me) to the surgical room, holding the back of the gown closed, my husband waved farewell and told me that they made him take off his undies too. I think he was trying to make me laugh or at least be less cranky about the whole thing.

Fortunately, I was only slightly sore one day later. There's been no other pain, but I have a nice bruise on my thumb. Once the stitches come out, I'm sure I'll be pleased that I got it removed - even with the splint, my thumb movement is much better.

Thanks for all the good wishes.

Mettle, Meddle

As of today, I have received fourteen emails about an editing error in FRUIT OF ALL EVIL.

Mettle was used when meddle should have been used.

Ack! How could that possibly have happened???

Here's the deal: a bunch of people look at these books, a number of different pairs of eyes. But no matter what, I certainly can't blame anyone else for any of the mistakes in my books. Ultimately, I take responsibility for every single word I write, including the incorrect ones.

I would love to say that this sort of mistake will never, ever happen again, but I can't make that promise because chances are I would have to break it at some point. Sometimes eyes don't see what's really there, but what the mind thinks the eyes should see. It's a crazy thing.

Thanks for reading my books, and thanks for the messages and emails even the ones that point out the mistakes. I'm truly grateful for you all.

Books
Have you ever read a book that snuck up on you? You're reading something that you're enjoying, not really aware that it is getting under your skin and you suddenly find you're more than enjoying it, you've become attached to the characters? That happened to me this week.

THESE THINGS HIDDEN by Heather Gudenkauf got my attention immediately, but I didn't realize how much I liked it until about halfway through. It's a young adult, no dystopia, no vampires, just challenging life situations that were heartbreaking and disturbing. The book ended on a satisfying note, though not necessarily happy. I'm glad I read it.

I was thinking about young adult books the other day, and I realized how wonderful it would have been to have many of the books that are available now when I was a young adult. My younger life was pretty mellow on the drama scale, but I would have dug into some of these books, particularly those that tackled big issues. I think there used to be a pretty big gap in age-appropriate (however, that's a whole other discussion) YA reading. I love that that gap is being filled.

Have a great week!

Paige