Well, I am still in Houston. All for the purposes of Protocol. I am so fine that my doctors don't really even care about seeing me. They're like, "Kate? Oh, she's fine. Just take some more blood of hers. For research. We don't need to see her. We've got some patients to deal with who are actually sick!"
It's a big come down from when I was staying in the hospital. I'd have eight doctors and PAs and residents in my room every morning, looking at me.
But, hey, fame is fleeting. And frankly, I am happy to move on from this particular version of it.
So even though all my numbers are going up, I have fabulous VO2 capacity, I feel like I normally do and just want to take off, etc., etc., Protocol says I have to stay close to this particular branch of MD Anderson. Just in case. And y'know? Better safe than sorry.
So now I am camping out at my cousin Sarah's house. She is a saint. Period.
I am playing with AI. Which is fascinating. I know to some it's frightening, and, oh yeah, it can be incredibly dangerous. But you know what? This is a dangerous world and it always has been.
Anway, I am working on a new cover for my book and I think this AI generated image will be part of it. The book also has a new subtitle: Fighting Stage 4 Cancer and the Culture That Caused It.
I am working with a new cover artist. The last one designed a great cover for Jesus Is Not Republican and just never delivered on the second. No matter where in the world there was a disaster, he was in it. Like the Hawaii forest fire. Sheesh. As I result I ended up choosing the art for the cover and he chose the font. Now fonts are important and are a universe unto themselves but picking a font for a cover is not designing. As you can see, I am still quite cranky with him.
So now I am working with a new artist who is incredibly responsive. Maybe it's because she's a woman?
I'm also working on more book marketing. I'm learning Amazon ads, FB ads, getting on podcasts, doing TikToks and pitching essays designed to send readers running to Amazon or their local library or bookstore to buy my book with its cool new cover and dual message of beating cancer and beating the psycho social anti-woman factors that cause it. Not that I have an attitude or anything.
I am getting some lovely rejection letters and do have an essay coming out in AARP's The Ethel. It's about taking control of my own cancer cure. The editor asked me for more ideas and I pitched her another one, which she really liked. It's about women my age wearing midriff tops. I've titled it "Wearing a Midriff Top to My Mother's Funeral." The editor and I are exactly the same age and we both wear bikinis to the beach or on the pond or wherever.
And, of course, I continue to take writing classes, which I LOVE and are saving my sanity. It's given me a whole universe of likeminded souls who love words and using them in the best way possible. And it's also giving me access to some really great minds. It's quite amazing.
That's it. Meanwhile, snow is piling up back in Park City but here's what I see on my morning power walks here in Houston. I must say, spending ten days in a hospital makes being able to just walk out the door and be outside something that makes me instantly euphoric!
