Greetings!

It's been a long and very personal road to recovery for both my wife and I after our car accident in early September. At first, I thought I was going to lose my soulmate, my key to my heart, as the woman I married lay unconscious in the hospital with a severe brain injury. Then, miracles upon miracles, she awoke and quickly regained her faculties to the amazement of our doctors and nurses. Steffi is a strong woman, in body and mind, and within weeks she was up and talking which puts a smile on my face whenever I see hers. She is going through physical therapy sessions to minimize recurring vertigo, head aches and dizzy symptoms she gets in certain conditions.

As for myself, I broke my left tibia and fibula (the leg bones below the knee) and had crushed my left ankle between the side wall of the car and the break pedal. The ankle was the serious injury that required two surgeries to fix. I was in a full leg cast for two months and I'm wearing an ankle brace that restricts movement and provides support. I'm going through physical therapy for my leg and doing light exercises to strengthen it as well. My ankle is still kinda off limits for the time being until I'm given the go ahead to start a physical therapy regimen by my doctor. I'm cheating a bit by putting some weight on my ankle and so far it feels pretty strong, so things are looking good!

We've been able to put the accident into perspective as something we have to overcome as a part of our lives. Our injuries were bad but the cause of the accident wasn't malicious or nefarious in the least, it was simply that, an accident. It is up to us to rise to the challenge of returning to our normal healthy selves as best we can. The world is a mix of good and evil people, most of us fall somewhere into the gray area between these two extremes and we don't attribute blame for our injuries to anyone besides pure chance. Life is too short and precious to point fingers, we choose to look ahead and try to make our little corner of the world a better, and nicer, place to live.

I was cleared to work earlier this month and our lives are settling into a familiar schedule. Steffi's symptoms are greatly reduced however she has yet to pass stress and concentration tests before being cleared to return to her job as a nurse. She is confident that she can pass those tests in the new year and I do not doubt her ability to do whatever she wants.

Now, as for my intent to continue writing, I have to admit I wasn't feeling inspired or motivated to do anything creative during the months when we were semi-confined to house and bed. I need to be exposed to all the normal things that happen to me over the course of a day or week in order to get these cogs in my head a-turnin'. But, the main reason I even started to write was to express my feelings for Steffi and our relationship as a cohesive story. As a result of being with her day in and day out, I lost that need to express myself with fthe written word since I could just tell her what I was thinking whenever I wanted.

Fortunately, that itch in the back of my mind to write is returning little by little. I need some time to review my notes and where I was going in my stories but rest assured I will continue both of my story series as the urge to write gets stronger. I've learned a lot about story structure in recent months and what may interest people in terms of exciting plot and meaningful pacing. While we were on vacation in August I came up with an entirely new story and several interesting ideas for other shorts that may or may not work out. I intend to finish that mostly completed story and upload it as soon as it is ready. The Fertile Ground series will continue once I get through all my notes and stuff that I have tucked away in the recesses of this hard drive. Suppressing Fire may or may not continue depending on where I planned on taking those characters and if I think I have an interesting climax to the story.

That's all for now. Many thanks to everyone who sent us positive energy over these past few months. Our love goes out to Daralyn who helped us in so many ways during those boring days spent at home.

Hug the one you love today and twice as hard tomorrow. The future is what you make of it so make it a good one. #BackToTheFuture