June 23, 2024
After a long absence from blogging, I’m back.
The first step in my intent to return was to finish a book I started six years ago, Shushan Portal: Behind the Hollyhock Hedge. During those years, my husband who was in kidney failure required daily home peritoneal dialysis. Then along came COVID-19 and lockdown. Fortunately, one of our four sons lives nearby and became our grocery shopper and delivery man, saving us from venturing out.
In December 2020, with the pandemic complicating life in general, my husband died. Even though we had a long time to prepare for his death, I felt empty and rudderless. Our nonverbal autistic son who lives at home was devastated.
Soon thereafter, I developed serious neurological symptoms. Remember, this was in the early days of COVID, and people not experiencing medical emergencies or respiratory distress avoided clinics and hospital emergency departments.
I was convinced I had MS, but tests negated this. Apart from noting spinal arthritis and pinched nerves, my condition remains essentially undiagnosed. A saving mercy in all this was the daily arrival of my stay-at-home son’s assistants. In keeping his life running smoothly, they brought clarity and help to mine.
By the grace of God, my health is considerably better now. I still have weakness in my legs and hands, and my short-term memory can be very short. However, I am learning to manage energy consumption. Most importantly, I can think. I can write.
Shushan Portal is finally finished and published! I had long wanted to return to the futuristic world created for The Shushan Citadel. I missed the elaborate castle-fortress at Shushan, the monastic serenity of Abbey Trάdún, the cultural enrichment maintained at DúndirkaNoka. I missed the colourful characters inhabiting these communities – the heroes, villains and spies.
In Shushan Portal, newcomers arrive at this wonderous, treacherous world, and settle in a region they call Ravensglen. It’s a story I’m hoping readers enjoy as much as I did in the telling. Shushan Portal has been described as “a thrilling book tour through Canada’s Atlantic provinces, facing sinister forces and a portal to a future dimension.”
I hope you’ll stop by my website http://www.gloriapearsonvasey.com when you get a moment … and for any book you read, please leave a review (or at least some stars) on Chapters/Indigo, Kobo, Apple Books, Amazon, iBooks, Goodreads or someplace. Authors will love you for it.