Hi guys!

It's been a long week. who knew that being home from work would be so stressful and busy. lol Short version, I'll be home another week but I'm hoping to go back on August 8th. But time will tell.

since I am home from work for a bit longer, I decided to try to get back into writing after the two week or so break from my book and due to life events. so tonight I wrote 2 and half pages in my ghost book and I do think the book is nearing an end but I still haven't quite decided how I want to end it. i can't go into details yet because that would give it away.

I think I will just let the characters "tell" me how it should end. I already have an idea but not sure if I want to follow through with it. Guess we'll all just have to wait and see. Out of the three books I have written, i think this one is my favorite so far. of course, i liked the last one too. so maybe my next book will be my favorite. lol I'm hopeless.

Just wanted to let any readers know that I am here, I am still writing and always will be. As for dreams, lately, I haven't remembered much of my dreams. All I remember from last night is drinking a regular Coke and enjoying every minute of it. which is odd since I don't like regualr coke. lol oh well, maybe as I continue to get better, I'll dream more and remember them. when I do remember, you know I will post them here.

Until then, ta ta!

Hi folks! I had an adventure

Sorry for not writing here this week. I had an adventure. This is a long post so pull up a chair.

I guess it started last thursday with stomach pain. The pain grew and grew until I was sick early sunday morning. I wasn't eating, not drinking enough, and in a lot of pain. By sunday night, I told my boss that I was going to try and get into see my doctor monday or go to the ER. I lucked out and got an appointment with a doc 9:30 on monday. She examined me and suggested Diverticulitis and sent me to get blood work and a cat scan right after my apointment. After the Cat scan, I was to wait there while the docs went over the results. The good news was that it wasn't diverticulitis. The bad news was that I had pancreatitis and it was bad. I went from the cat scan building, walked to the main hospital right to admission. Yup, I was admitted to the hospital.

I had more blood work done, was given Morphine Dilauded (medicine from God, I swear!) and made comfy in a bed. now time seems to get messed up a bit, so not sure which day exactly. lol I think monday Night, I had an xray of abdomen. Oh, I was really dehydrated too so finding a vein for the I.V. was fun. Tuesday, I had a type of MRI done. The mri showed that I had gall stones and the gall bladder needed to come out.

Surgery was scheduled for Wednesday at 3 and the nurses, surgeon assistant, anithesiologist and his assistant were all great in comforting me. They made me laugh a lot. I went into my first surgery ever. I remember scooting over onto the gurney and getting my arms strapped on the things. I remember them putting an oxygen mask on me and the anethesiologist (geez, i can't spell that word) told me to enjoy the trip. lol that was the last thing I remember.

After the surgery, I tried to talk, found I could only whisper no matter how hard I tried. My first word after surgery was parents. they didn't understand me so I croaked out Mom and Dad. found out they were waiting for me in my new post op room. Breathing really sucked right out of surgery, I panicked a little but as i breathed more, I relaxed. It was a bit scary for me. I had laproscopic surgery on my belly. they removed the gall bladder and said it looked like it was messed up for a while now. so yea, time to get rid of it.

I was discharged today and now I'm home, and after this post, I'll relax. My belly looks like it went through a war. I have bruises everywhere. Including where they put needles in my belly for medicine to stop blood clots.

Now a lot people immediately think that diet is why gall bladder goes bad. However, I asked the surgeon if gall bladder issues are inherited and he said yes. Mom had her gall bladder out. Her grandmother had her gall bladder removed. It's family history. The doc also said I can go back to whatever I was eating before. not that a lot people will care about that.

I did go to the store today about sandwich stuff and actually bought a salad kit. I did eat a fruit cup earlier. I think they were oranges. now I'm going to find something to eat that doesn't require a lot of effort. Then, I'm going to veg out in my recliner and relax. Maybe I'll read up on recommended diets for gall bladder removal stuff.

This was only my second hospital stay in my life and it was my first surgery. I went through a lot of emotions. I was scared, I cried, I laughed, and dozed. Also gave my parents guilt trips when they'd leave after visiting me in the hospital. You know, just had to do it. lol

Anyways, one week after a small stomach ache started, I sit here minus one gall bladder and with many many bruises and sore spots. Moral to the story, Do not put off seeing a doctor if you have a stomach ache.

I could probably type a lot of stuff here but I'll leave it now.. time to relax and enjoy my first night home..

Dark's Bride

You know I can't really control when inspiration strikes me to write a poem.  Sometimes it just hits me and I have to get it out.  Well, this one is a real doozy. 

 

Here it is, just as I wrote it down... Guard yourself..  ~muwahahahaha~

 

Dark's Bride

 

Dark ominous clouds blacken the sky

Blotting out all light from your eyes

Darkness seeps into your room

It fills you with dread and gloom

Shadows move across the walls

They seek to answer unknown calls

Closer and closer they edge to you

Surrounding you to give you what's due

The shadows creep closer, to touch what they seek

Fear and madness are what they reek

Your soul is what they need and crave

To send you to an early grave

To be one of the shadows from which you hide

And  become the dark's bride.

 

Katie DesChenes © July 16th 2011

Camping story 3

Let's see.. Oh here's a memorable camping trip... we used to have a pick up truck that had a camper shell on it. a bed went over the cab of the truck. there was maybe 2 feet of space up there, once you were up there, you weren't going to sit up. Well, dad was driving around in the mountains on dirt road. my sister terry was in the back with me and I think her friend sat up front with dad in the truck. I of course, got in the little bed area above the cab of the truck. Suddenly, the road got really bumpy.. well it used to be a road about a hundred years ago. It was so bumpy that I was going up and down in the bed. Bang, hit the roof.. plop back on the bed. over and over and over again. I'm talking about every second, I was hitting that roof. at first I laughed.. cause ya know, I'm stupid. lol but it got worse, I hit the roof with more force with each bang. momentum, I think. mean while, Terry is standing on one foot, has one foot on cabinet, one hand on another cabinet, and another hand on another cabinet, to keep them closed. I started screaming because I was tired of being the battered ping pong ball, terry was yelling at me to get down and help her (as if I could).. finally, dad stops the truck and we take a break..

But wait, there's more! When we got back in the truck, something was wrong with it. I forgot what but Dad got it started and it sounded wrong but hey, it started which was a good thing because there was not another living soul around for miles, let alone roads.... we drove across a meadow in the mountains and finally came across a big van. There were two guys in it. the one actually sitting in the passenger seat got out to talk to my dad. the other guy had his legs dangling out of the drivers seat door and was basically plastered. lol Dad pops the hood of the truck and gets the tools out of the camper, telling us girls to stay put. The guy who could function started picking up small rocks and hitting his friend and yelling "Vernan!" rock hits the dude who isn't moving. "Vernan, come on man!" another rock hits him, still not moving... "Damn it, Vern! Get out here and help the guy" more rocks thrown at the dude. The more sober guy finally gives up and helps dad fix our truck. We move along leaving the drunks behind and I saw in the window that the guy was still throwing rocks at the other guy. too freakin funny..

after camping, we headed back to civilization. On one of the dirt roads, only one car can go at a time.. so if you hear a honk, that means another car is coming and you have to find a "wide" spot in the road to pull onto so the other car can get by. We start heading down hill on this very steep dirt road. guess what.. our brakes died. Yup.. here's dad, both feet on the emergency brake pedal, he's basically standing on the brakes and rocking back and forth "come on, betsy. you can do it" and I'm sitting next to him holding up a sign that says "NO BRAKES" in the window, alternating eyes closed, peek and see where we are, close eyes again.. waiting for another car to show up on that damn road or we go rolling off the cliff because the we couldn't slow down for the turns...

but as luck would have it, we made it to the bottom of the hill in one piece without seeing another car on the road, the smell of burnt rubber in the air, and everybody shaking...

Yup.. good times.

It came from the webs

Hi guys! Just thought I'd let you know that I have my own website now. It's just my name.. http://www.katiedeschenes.com/ I thought it was time to get one and after a friend nagged me about it, I chose my name. Reason? Well, authors have their own websites with their name as the name of the website. While I haven't been published, I am an author. So go to to my website and check it out. It's still in the early stages and I need to put links and stuff on it today sometime.

Also, I have my blog redirected to http://blog.katiedeschenes.com. If you have the old dream writer link, it should still work and take you to the new link.

Self Publishing thoughts

I'm interrupting my camping stories posts for a few thoughts on self publishing. I do want to go that route but the cost is going to be hard to swallow. I haven't researched the different companies yet because there's no use since I can't afford it.

When I can self publish, I'll have three books to choose from (third one is in progress). If I had to choose today, I'd choose the in progress one just because I'm enjoying to so much. I'd love to publish all three but unless I win the lottery or come into a lot of money, I'll have to stick with just publish one book for now. I want to do self publishing right and to do it right, isn't cheap.

Now with the cost in my mind, I have been thinking about something lately. I can put a paypal link on here and accept donations towards the cost of self publishing. However, since I don't get a lot of comments or readers, would it actually be a useful thing or not?

Maybe I'll give it some time and let the idea rattle around in my head for a while. What do you guys think?

Camping Stories... The perils of big cars on narrow roads

Now, I don't remember a lot of my childhood, maybe I blocked it out because of so many scary camping trips. lol So I don't know if these pieces are one camping trip or many.

Now, in the mountains here, there are a ton of dirt roads with steep inclines and sometimes there's barely enough room for one car to drive on, let alone two. I remember one road in particular that we went on a lot up near Georgetown. You couldn't see around the turn of the road, so you had no clue if a car was coming or not. You just had to hope that the if there was another car coming, that they honked their horn or heard you honk yours. Sometimes, you had to go in reverse when another car was coming the other way because you had to find a 'wide' spot in the road. yup, scary times but it happened so often that I think I got used to it despite looking out the window and seeing the cliff inches from your tires. lol

That brings me to another tidbit. I can remember we had a big blue van. I don't remember the year or anything, I just can remember seeing the van. Now, this part, I've pieced together from my parents. There was one dirt road that we managed to get the blue up, barely. One one turn, I vaguely remember we had to get out of the van while dad tried to get it back on the road. You see, one of the back tires was hanging off into the air. Mom and I think my aunt and brother, started getting rocks and basically built up a road underneath the tire that was just hanging out there. Once they had enough rocks, dad was able to move the van forward. we all breathed a sigh 0f relief and got back in the van.

I also remember an old hanging wooden bridge. It had gaps between the planks and hung low in the middle and it swayed freely with no supports on any part of it, nothing on the sides to grab on to and nothing holding it up. It was certainly wide enough for a car to go over but nobody in their right mind would try it. Right? Wrong! Dad decided he could take the van over it just fine. I believe mom called him names and everybody got out of the van and walked across the bridge, leaving dad alone in the van. We walked slowly and carefully across the bridge and it supported our weight just fine. Behind us, Dad started inching the van across the bridge and we hurried over and waited anxiously. Slowly the van crept across the van and miraculously, he made it across.

We all piled back into the van and went on our merry way. I think it was after that trip that mom decided staying at home was the better thing to do. After that, when we went camping, it was my dad with mom at home. I just emailed dad to see if he remembers where that bridge is. I was hoping to find a picture of it somewhere for you. my description does not do the scene justice. lol

I do remember another incident with my mom but I don't remember if it was that blue van or a different white van we had or what. I can remember we were driving pretty high in the mountains and it was a foggy day. Visibility wasn't that great that high up. The dirt road we were on was a bit bumpy and suddenly mom yelled "Stop the car!" Dad stopped the car and looked at mom. The fog lifted to reveal that the road ended abruptly only about 20 feet from where mom said to stop. Not only did it end abruptly, it was a cliff and the drop was at least 100 feet. Something told mom to stop because we couldn't see squat in front of us.

I think that's enough rambling today. Hope you enjoyed it! Tomorrow, I'll share a camping trip with our white pick up truck that had a camper shell on it.

Okay, so I emailed my dad and asked where the bridge was and he sent a link that shows the bridge. it wasn't what i remembered. I distinctly remember a reddish bridge that drooped. maybe that was a different one. lol Here's what my dad said and the link to the pictures.


"I drove past Blackhawk to Rollinsville on Highway 119 then took the old Moffat Road narrow gauge RR trail to the Needle Eye Tunnel (Now collapsed). The other side of the tunnel took us to a 200 foot trestle that wobbled and shook… you guys got out… I drove over… the road eventually went over Rollins Pass… there was a ghost town there with the old hotel… eventually you wound up in up in winter Park. There were snow sheds for the trains.. ghost towns of Penelope and Antelope…. We didn’t need no stinkin’ 4X4!!! We were invincible!!!



Go here… lots of pictures of the devils slide trestles!!!!Dad http://www.matts-place.com/trains/colorado/rollins.html "

Direct link to one of the pictures http://www.matts-place.com/trains/colorado/images/rp061800d.jpg

Camping Stories.. The introduction

After reminicing about camping with a coworker, I thought I'd post some of my most memorable camping stories here.

I'll start out with my introduction to camping. I believe I was 6 months old at the time. Mom had set me down in my carrier next to the campfire. They had gathered flat rocks to use to set pans on and coffee pot to heat up hot water. They put a nice sized flat rock in the fire and went off to do something.

The way my mom tells it, they suddenly heard a loud pop coming from my direction. They looked around and spotted the flat rock going straight up in the air. The rock popped again and broke into two pieces and started coming back down. Evidently, one half of the rock landed mere inches from my tiny little head.

Yup, nice exciting time for a first camping trip, eh? And that's just the start of the stories. Tomorrow, I'll post another one for you to read.

What goes ON in my head

I headed back to my desk with a cup of fresh coffee to help open my eyes a bit. I glance out of the floor to ceiling windows at the parking lot behind the quiet building. The landscape was sculpted by rocks and tall walls as if to hold back the dirt and land from edging forth. I spot movement on a wall and my eyes go to that spot. A humanoid like shadow crawling down the wall, head first to the parking lot below. It's arms and legs are thin but they hold him to the wall with ease. I drink my coffee, still staring out of the window at this thing on the wall. The things head turns and looks directly at me with evil in it's eyes. I wave at the thing, it waves back and we continue on with our separate lives.

As you probably know by now, I have extra weird thoughts roaming around in my head. The above paragraph was just one of them as I got a fresh cup of coffee and went back to my desk at work. Of course, I'm half awake since people fired off fireworks for hours into the night. Think I'll look out the window again and try to spot the shadow.

Yup, I'm a writer with weird thoughts.. who'd a thunk? lol

Note to self: learn to proof read what you type...

Vampy thoughts

Have you ever noticed in vampire books that when the male vampire finds a mate, he gets possessive and says 'mine'? I haven't noticed that too often in werewolf books or other paranormal books. Show me a vampire book and I'll almost guarrantee the vamp will be possessive.

My books are the exception. My first two books that I wrote are vampire books and I didn't include that obsessed thought of 'mine'. It makes me wonder if I should write that in somehow. Is it some sort of unwritten rule to have that possessition in vampire books? Is that what readers want in the books they hold in their hands?

What do you think? Do readers want to get lost in the idea of a vampire owning them?

Thoughts of Happiness

What makes you happy? For me, I'm happiest when I write. When the words flow from my fingertips to the keyboard without much thought or advance planning, that's what makes me happy. When that doesn't happen, I have other things to make me happy. Like playing Warcraft or LOTRO with Michelle and talking to her over the computer. Even when we don't say much, we know we are there for each other and may break up the silence with a rude noise. Ha Ha! Also, work does make me happy. Yes, I will always complain about it because I think it's human nature to do so. But, I love my job and I love being able to work full time which is not too common for people with R.A.

Other things that make me happy, Fridays.. It seems everybody's attitude is lighter on Fridays because they are planning their weekends. My cat, Pipsqueek makes me happy too. I watch him as he tears through the apartment, occasionally running into walls or falling off counters. He's a dork and a klutz but he makes me really happy. Nothing like coming home after a long day at work and he greets me at the door, ready for attention. He's a sweetheart.

I could list a million things that make me happy but that would be boring. Instead, I want you to think about what makes you happy. What brings a smile to your face? It could be something you do everyday or just once in a while. It could be anything. Just think about it. What makes you happy?

Edited to add: Great, just realized I sound like I'm trying to get you to think happy thoughts so I sprinkle pixie dust on you so you can fly. lmao