Tuesday Kuykendall

It’s been a while. So, today’s update is a little longer than normal.

I was sick. It started in May; terrible stomach aches right after I ate. At first, they were short, sharp pains right behind my sternum. The episodes were intermittent; every few days for an hour or so. Then it went away for almost a month, and I forgot about it. In late June, it came back—with a vengeance. The worst was on a day when I’d had a couple bowls of Cheerios, then a slice of cheese pizza, then two glasses of wine. I thought I might be dying, a heart attack or cancer. It was that bad, and it lasted several hours.

The next morning I felt better, but a call to my doctor seemed prudent. She ordered an ultrasound, and they found I had a gallbladder FULL of stones. It took another month to talk to a surgeon, then they scheduled my surgery for another three months out.

The gallbladder is fascinating. After learning about it, what it’s for, how it works, I was almost sad it had to go. It holds bile back from the normal flow coming from the liver. It stays there until a kind of chemical sensor tells it there is significant fat sitting in the stomach, and then it opens a valve to release the extra concentrated bile. Our bodies have control systems that are not unlike process systems out in the world—very cool.

In order to get through the three-month waiting period, I had to be very careful about what I ate. If I had too much fat, my gallbladder would try to do what it was designed to do, but all those stones would thwart its efforts. (I won’t gross you out with details about what a stone is made of; look it up if you must).

I ate a lot of vegetables and spaghetti. If I ate a little too much, or got careless and had more fat than I should, it would trigger another ‘episode’ of pain. I controlled it for a while. But eventually, even controlling my diet stopped working.

Three weeks ago I had another severe attack and went to the emergency room. The pain subsided, as always, but a kindly surgeon suggested it might be better to take it out now, instead of waiting. She sent me home to get some sleep. I was back the next morning, and within a few hours, it was gone.

The staff: nurses, anesthesiologists, surgeons, receptionists, everyone—were kind, friendly, competent, efficient, and made me feel cared for and safe. They did an amazing job, and my healing has been swift.

Anyway, between that saga and trying to get my book edited, I have had little time for anything else, and I’ve neglected my webpage. Now that it’s behind me, I’m getting to the real work of getting educated and building my writing career.

In other news, I spent this past weekend in Seatac with about 200 fellow writers at the 2025 PNWA conference. It was such an amazing experience, and I learned so much. One of the themes of the weekend was asking ourselves why we write; what do we hope to achieve.

I was all set to self-publish my first book when someone asked me that question directly; did I want a career, to take my writing seriously, or was it just a pastime? It made me do some soul-searching. I realized I was feeling sorry for myself and mourning the end of a career I loved. I never wanted to retire.

I wanted to drop dead of old age in a lab. Clearly, that’s not going to happen. So; I stopped thinking of myself as retired. I’m a writer. I’m going to take it seriously. I’m taking back control of my life, inside and out.

I may still self-publish, but I want to give the old-fashioned path a try first. The book I wrote and was planning to get out into the world by the end of the year is going to have to wait a little longer.

I write because I love words and I want to inhabit them. I want to share words with readers in the same way that the authors I love share them with me.

I don’t have any delusions that I will sell millions of books and become rich and famous. But I hope I can create stories that people who read them will love.

I’ve removed most of my previous blog posts, short stories, and some of the essays because I want to improve them for my subscribers, and for future readers.

Even with an agent (hopefully someday soon) I have to do most of my own marketing and figure out ways to earn some income. I’m not sure exactly how yet, but I won’t charge for subscriptions. I plan to start something called “Affiliate Marketing” where I will recommend books through links. It’s a common practice for writers, so look for that in future updates.

I’m revamping my webpage, but I’ll still share some short stories and essays along the way.

I would like to ask you for a favor. If you enjoy my blog and stories, would you be so kind as to tell your friends to check it out? One of the things I learned at the conference is agents and publishers want authors who have followers and subscribers. I’ve added subscriber blocks, and people shouldn’t have to create a WordPress account. And I will never, ever, share my subscriber list with anyone.

When my book comes out one way or the other, I will have ‘rewards’ for my earliest subscribers. I appreciate all of you and your attention.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.