Hello, dreamers. So, this might be the latest in the week I’ve made my customary “Writer’s Desk” post. Late last week, I was cruising through my “disruption sweep” of The Ursa Frontier. Then, well…I got sick.

I don’t know if this particular virus has a name, but if it does, I’d imagine it’s the “Martian Death Flu” or something. Not since prior to the Pandemic have I been knocked so firmly on my ass by a virus. It was brief but brutal: pain in my lungs and throat with a dry cough, followed by a high-grade fever, then ending with severe nasal congestion. What fun.

The past few days have confirmed what the pain in my lungs had already told me: whatever I had, it did serious damage to my respiratory system. From Spring through Fall, I typically run 2-4 miles a day. Earlier this week I could barely walk up the block without tiring. Today I finally managed my customary four-mile daily walk, and afterward I was just wiped.

Writing is a mental exercise, but at times like this one is reminded that the brain is very much a part of the body. While I have in fact been working on completing this latest pass through The Ursa Frontier, I’ve had little capacity for anything else. So while I have done plenty over this past week, it’s hard not to feel as though the week was essentially a loss.

As I am still recovering, I’m doing something I don’t do very often, and allowing myself to take it easy. I’m doing more reading than writing, focusing my writing solely on completing the disruption pass. I will also refrain from making any further posts this week (most likely), and will resume my customary weekly posting schedule next week, starting with my next “Writer’s Desk” on Monday.

I do have one bit of news to share: this week I finally received my first response to a query. It was a form rejection letter, but a polite one. With any luck, this means further responses are soon to come, and hopefully at least one of those will be more positive.

That’s all for now. I apologize for the radio silence this week. Over the past six years or so, I’ve often gone silent, sometimes for months at a time, amid frustration with the direction of my writing. But I resolved late last year that I’d done so for the last time. I’m here to stay now. This is who I am. Seen in that light, this post could be viewed as both a means of keeping myself accountable, and fulfillment of a promise I made to my loyal readers. I’ll be back at it with a vengeance next week. Until then, dare to dream. – MK