Good day. Today, I come to you at last as an actual income-earning author.
That’s right. Last week, I received my first royalty payment from my publisher, Inkshares. The way the conventional book publishing industry works, royalties are typically paid on a lagging quarterly basis, so it takes a while to reap the rewards. And like about 99.9 per cent of debut authors, those rewards were quite modest. But they are rewards, nonetheless.
That payment also came practically three years to the day since Inkshares first said it would publish Bane of All Things. Publishing is indeed a slow business, all around, and the pandemic has put the squeeze on things, too. Covid set the release of BoAT back probably six to eight months. Even now, my publisher continues to feel the supply chain pressures that are impacting commercial printers and other key players that get books out the door.
As we look forward to fine spring weather and pandemic restrictions lifting, we can finally plan for some local Eastern Ontario book launch and signing events. Stay tuned for more on that!
On the health front … less favourable news
Not content with having staked a claim in my brain, the cancer has now spread down my spine.
Over the past two weeks, I have completed a new sequence of radiation therapy. I have also begun a new treatment with gene therapy that is also brand new.
I am not going to lie to you. This is serious stuff. But the team of doctors I have on my side are not giving up. Neither am I.
For the record, this is the same cancer I have always had since just before the pandemic started – metastasized melanoma. MM is skin cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. It is a sneaky and tricky one. Last October, I had surgery to remove an MM tumour that had developed in the brain.
But this new gene therapy is an upgrade to the original gene therapy that I completed a year ago. While radiation therapy hasn’t stopped the cancer in its tracks, it is showed progress in slowing it, and we will continue it as needed. My oncologist also continues to investigate other new treatment options.
To recap, gene therapy tries to shut down cancer cells like a team of guns for hire, while radiation is used to zap any obvious lesions that can be targeted with an MRI. I have also undergone immunotherapy – this attempts to teach your own immune system to better fight the cancer by itself.
Nothing is proving to be the magic bullet, but hopefully this multi-pronged approach will ultimately make the difference.
It’s been a rough ride for our family since these new symptoms began at the start of March. But I am still here and intend to remain so!
Your kind thoughts and consideration are much appreciated.
Cheers
Leo
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