It Don't Rain But It Pours

Damn. I just heard that one of the Maggie-Della Mystery draft contributors suffered an ocular stroke and is now blind in one eye. That makes three of the writers/readers for the series blind in one way or another. Granted, the stories focus on blindness and its relationship to truth, although that's only one theme among many. Still, I wasn't expecting to hear from this person to say that she was now "visually impaired."

This person is an extremely dedicated, Southern-style, writer. She's skilled at her craft and I always enjoy reading her stories, even though my style is quite different from hers. She had some wonderful insights of her own to offer regarding my writing. I met her on a site for writers called EditRed. A lot of my stories are there, too.

This makes a second strike for the Maggie-Della clan this week. Another contributor lost a friend and co-worker to an unexpected heart attack. This person had just given birth to a baby and died shortly afterwards. This contributor works in a hospital (she's the inspiration for the character Kay Miller in the second novel, still being written). She'd worked with the recently deceased woman for 7 or 8 years there. She was devastated by it.

All I've had to deal with this week is a slight head cold. It kept me out of work today, although I was well enough to get some work done from home. So, not bad overall. But, then this happens to two other people in the same writing "community." Sometimes life rears up and kicks you on the head. Then, on other occasions it'll rear up and kick a friend's head. In both cases, it hurts.