I know I’ve been quiet a bit on the blog front. It’s mostly because I was out and about creating my Book Baubles Swappable Bling 2.0 ^TM line of creative bookmarks. Then I had been working on the prototype for the Book Baubles Swappable Bling Literary Link Bracelet & Bookmark ^TM sets.

Unfortunately for me, while waiting for some fresh supplies to arrive after Christmas, I started having an unusual pain. The Friday after Christmas, I had this nagging back pain and a horrible gnawing stomach pain right at the top of my stomach, just below where my ribs meet. I was miserable and slept most of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. No position was comfortable—not sitting, not laying, not standing, not leaning on the corner of the couch nor wall. OTC pain meds did nothing. Gas relief did nothing. Milk aid did nothing. Extra antihistamines didn’t help.

I tried to find a doctor, but that was a joke. I did everything I could to avoid the ER. A trip to the ER would be at minimum, even with insurance, 3 grand! I even went to an urgent care, and they were like meh. Monday morning, New Year’s Day, I ate five…FIVE….Cheerios and was in horrible pain. After much hemming and hawing, I had my husband take me to the ER.

I was at the hospital from 11 AM Monday until around 2 PM on Wednesday. The reason? I had to have emergency surgery. Fun times! So, I will spare you the gory details of what exactly the operative report said, but just know I’m on the mend. But I’m still mad that I’m going to have about a 5K dollar bill to pay AND I lost the time I had scheduled off to create cool new things to being ill. I go back to the boring old day job on Monday, which I just sit at that, so it shouldn’t be a problem. But I’m going to be so behind from the time off that I will be cranky for a few weeks until I get all my work whipped back into where I like it to be. I am also grumpy that I had to be off the rest of this week and get behind b/c it’s not like I got to use that time to do anything fun!!

Anyway, if you want to see the bare bones of my bookmark page, visit dragonandquillcreations.com or the FB page at https://www.facebook.com/dragonandquillcreations!

Writing plans for 2024 include continuing my stories over on Kindle Vella (sleekbio.com/VellasbyShannon), doing some cool in person events, getting the 20th anniversary re-write of Gen X and the updated Psi X out in the world, and working on a few new stories that are in various states of being written LOL.

2023 was the start of an awesome in person event line up roster and I hope that continues for me into 2024. What are your 2024 plans and goals? Do you have anything exciting? Happy New Year!