Archive for 'The Boy'

Happy October!

I can't believe 2011 is now 75% over! Wow, where did all that time go?

So let's see what I've been up to…

The Last Slayer

THE LAST SLAYER by Nadia LeeI got a note that Audible picked it up, so it's going to be available as an audio book. That's super-exciting: my first audio book! I'll keep you updated.

Oh and in case you haven't seen it, here's the cover from Carina Press. The Art Department and Frauke Spanuth did an amazing job. I also love how Carina Press reworked the back cover blurb, incorporating the pitch paragraph from my cover letter and adding more to it.

The Last Slayer Sequel

I've titled it Thrones of Thorns for now. I wanted to the title to refer to some kind of element in the story, and I'll leave it up to you to imagine what that might be. It may change though…

This is the project I'm doing the 500 Words a Day Challenge with, and so far it's going very well. At this rate, I'll be done with the first draft by mid-December at the latest. I'll have to do a round of revision before I can show it to anyone for feedback, but this time I'm going to try sending it before drafting it millions of times. Usually that's what I do before showing my project to anybody… I can get a weeeee bit obsessive. But recently I realized that when I do that, I usually don't want to do further rounds of revision, incorporating everyone's comments, because just the idea of looking at the project one more time makes me feel ill. Which, if you think about it, is really unproductive and silly. So it's time for a Change In Process.

The Sekrit Assassin Project

I can't believe I'm still drafting it, but I am. (Don't judge me.) Anyway, I'm going to finish this draft before the year's over and send it to Agent. I don't think there's anything else I can do to this project that I haven't thought of, and it's about time she sees it.

On to non-writing stuff…

I can't wait for Dexter to start! W00t! It's one of my favorite shows, and I'm dying to meet this season's serial killer.

And here's the Boy, 3 months old. People have asked for a picture, and I finally got around to moving photos from my digital camera to the PC. The onesie is a special gift from his honorary Auntie May. (Maybe he'll grow up to be Spiderman…)

Sorry Girls

Have a great October, everyone!


Hot August!

August is probably the hottest month where I am. It's muggy and scorching. That doesn't mean I get to rest. :-)

I turned in edits on The Last Slayer on July 28th. I need to wait on my editor's feedback. I'm really hoping we get done w/ the final round (copyediting) by the end of August.

On a somewhat related note — on July 23rd I started the 500 Words a Day challenge. I have over 4,500 words written on the sequel to The Last Slayer, even though I've been writing no more than 650 words a day. As a matter of fact, my daily word count ranges between 509 and 636. Something I realized through the process is that I don't have to write a lot. I just have to write some to get the momentum going.

I plan to continue with it in August. If all goes as planned, I'll be done with the sequel by the end of the year, if not sooner.

Here's a non-Slayer related news item: Bettie Sharpe and Stella from Ex Libris gave five-star reviews to Carnal Secrets and A Happily Ever After of Her Own, respectively. Bettie's review is found here and Stella's is on her blog. :)

I also signed up for Kindlegraph. You can view my profile here and request digital inscriptions for any Nadia Lee titles you have on Kindle.

Finally, I'll leave you with the latest picture of the Boy. So many people have asked about a new picture, so here it is. (He's over 12 pounds now…!)

The Boy

Hope you all have a fabulous August!


The Boy Is Really a Terminator

The Boy cannot be bargained with. He cannot be reasoned with. And he absolutely will not stop crying, ever, until his mommy holds him and comforts him to his full satisfaction.

(Thankfully he doesn't cry all the time. And there's a special place in hell for the jerks who shot off fireworks outside at four o'clock in the afternoon!)


The Second Half of 2011 Is Here!

I can't believe it's already July. It feels like January was just a day or two ago.

The first half of 2011 was pretty busy but productive. In January, I walked away from an offer on Carnal Secrets. I gave away Destiny Entwined to my newsletter subscribers on Valentine's Day and published it the same day to anybody who wants to read it but aren't subscribed to my newsletter. Then I self-published Carnal Secrets later in February.

In March, I received an offer from Carina for The Last Slayer.  This time, I didn't walk. :)

In case you missed it, the Boy was born on June 18. You can read more about it and see his pictures here.

So what are my plans for the month?

  1. Wrap up edits for The Last Slayer
  2. Finish outlining the sequel (yes, there's probably going to be a sequel)
  3. Announce the giveaway details for Confessions of an Improper Bride by Jennifer Haymore by July 8th

I'm hoping that with some discipline and pre-planning, I can accomplish them all.  :)


The Boy: Details & Pictures

I've been away for about five days, plus a couple more to recuperate and to get used to having a new baby in the house. Many thanks to everyone who's asked about my situation on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Here's the story:

On Friday, June 17, I had a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment. (This doctor will be referred to as Dr. H, for high-risk pregnancy.) He asked me about my condition, did the internal exam, etc. I told him I'd been having trouble sleeping and eating for several days. My midwife said she was concerned about the swelling in my legs and feet, as well as my weight gain (13 kg or so; about 28 lbs total since Wk 1). Japanese medical professionals prefer that expectant mothers not gain more than 10 kg (22 lbs)…of course, Japanese women are generally pretty small. (My best friend here, a woman with two kids, weighs literally less than 100lbs.)

We made an appointment to induce on Monday at 1:30 p.m. because Dr. M (ultrasound specialist) estimated the Boy's weight to be around 3.6 kg (7.9 lbs), and Dr. H didn't want to wait beyond Week 41.

So I came home and told Hero Material. We packed the additional stuff we thought we might need.

A little after 7:30 p.m. I started to bleed and get contractions, but they weren't too severe. I finished a load of laundry. Around 2:00 a.m. contractions started to get worse, but I decided to try to get some sleep. At around 5:00 a.m. I woke Hero Material up and said, “Call the hospital.”

The hospital told us to come ASAP. So we took a cab and arrived at the ER entrance 10 minutes later. (After-hours admissions are done through the ER.)

A midwife came out and took us to the maternity floor. She weighed me, checked for dilation and said I was halfway there. So we were told to wait in a small private room.

After about two hours, things got pretty bad because my back pain became excruciating. I have a herniated disk, and basically what my therapist told me came true: every time I had a contraction, the back muscles would spasm and pinch the nerve, sending an absolutely stunning pain all the way from midback to the tip of my toes. Multiple nurses and midwives came by, and they thought I was “just” feeling severe uterus contractions. *sigh* I was missing Dr. H at this point because he knew all about my disk hernia, etc. but he wasn't on call that day.

I asked for an epidural six times or so, but was denied because for some weird reason, Japanese medical people think that toughing it out is the best. Also they think that an epidural can make the newborn sluggish, and they hate that because they want to see a “genki” (healthy and energetic) baby and run a bunch of tests to rule out any problems.

By the time they moved me to the delivery room, I was feeling faint from pain and exhaustion. Weirdly enough, I delivered the placenta first, though I had no idea it wasn't the baby when I was pushing. Imagine my disappointment. My water still hadn't broken, and several more medical people came in. (Later Hero Material told me three doctors plus five nurses were in the room.) I don't even remember what happened after I delivered the placenta because I kept fading in and out. The only consistent thing I can recall is that I was holding onto Hero Material's hand the entire time. [By “holding on”, Nadia really means “crushing to a fine, exquisitely agonizing paste of bone shards and muscle pulp.” — HM]

When the delivery doctor (Dr. D) realized that I wasn't pushing very well anymore, and the baby was becoming distressed, he decided to perform an episiotomy and help push the baby out. Once the incision was made, the baby came out pretty fast. I saw a midwife catch him, then kinda faded out some because of the pain and exhaustion. (Hero Material tells me I bled massively afterward.)

A nurse undid my gown and bra and placed the Boy in my arms to establish skin-to-skin contact. He looked so squished, but he wasn't crying anymore. The nurse said he weighed 3.9 kg (8.6 lbs).

The Boy

I wanted to stay with the Boy, but I couldn't, not on the first day, because I was too out of it. I fainted again on our way to my room, and later I learned that Hero Material caught me and carried me to the hospital bed. I told Hero Material to go home and get some rest (he had to work early the next morning) and call / email our family and a handful of close friends and business contacts, etc.

Afterward, nurses and midwives came by every three hours to check up on me and take my temperature, blood pressure, etc. They also made sure I was taking all my meds on time and made a note of how much I was eating. (BTW — this medicine and eating monitoring continued until I was discharged.)

The second day was better, although I still couldn't stand or walk around without feeling dizzy. A couple of friends came by, and I was allowed to keep the Boy in the room.

This is the Boy looking at Hero Material. The Boy is remarkably like his father — long limbs, narrow feet, long fingers and the forehead wrinkles he makes when he's thinking about something. Of course, you can see that the Asian influence is really strong, too.

The Boy Looking at Hero Material

And the Boy sleeping.

The Boy Sleeping

On the second day, nurses and midwives still came by every 3 hours, and they taught me and Hero Material how to change diapers. A midwife gave me a notebook and showed me how to keep track of the Boy's soiled diapers and feeding times for each day. At around midnight, I became too exhausted, and the night shift nurse fed the Boy and changed his diapers for me. Ah, I love nurses!

I felt remarkably better on the third day. A nurse showed us how to bathe the Boy. We just watched the first time, and she said we could try it the next day. Every time they bathe a baby, the hospital staff records the latest weight. Per her chart, the Boy's been gaining like 100-120 g per day (3.5-4.2 oz).

Afterward, we ate a nice celebratory lunch provided by the hospital.

celebratory lunch - rice, sauce & tea

celebratory lunch - rice (fancy kind)

celebratory lunch - boxed set

celebratory lunch - boxed set revealed

celebratory lunch - soup and dessert

Everything was most excellently yum. Not that the regular food was bad (it was surprisingly good), but it was nice to eat something a little fancy with Hero Material. I felt quite cheery afterwards.

A pediatrician came by to tell me the Boy needed some kind of light therapy because there was something wrong with his skin pigmentation. The Boy was looking a bit too yellow, actually, and the doctor thought something ought to be done about it before we were sent home. So I said, “Sure, go ahead.” (I wasn't going to argue with a doctor, esp. over something he said was necessary and that even Hero Material and I had noticed on our own.)

So this is the Boy in the light therapy chamber. Doesn't he look like he's ready for Venice beach?

The Boy - Light Therapy

On the fourth day, Dr. D paged me to the examination room. He said everything looked good, and I was ready to go home the next day. I was super-relieved.

Later, Hero Material bathed the Boy while the nurse and I watched. The Boy looked so happy. :)

On the fifth day, the Boy was ready to come home! Look at his cute onesie!

The Boy - Ready to Go Home

And here he's Mommy's New Man! :D

The Boy - Mommy's New Man

P.S. Despite my midwife's concern over my weight gain, I lost most of it during labor. I'm now within 10 lbs (less than 5 kg) of my pre-pregnancy weight. Heh.


Ah…The Boy

Not Coming Out

Today is my official due date, but it's already 8:00 p.m. and the Boy shows no sign of coming out.

This comes after the preterm labor scare / talk on March 8, which totally freaked me out. The doctor prescribed some medicine to prevent contractions, put me on a modified bed rest until I hit at least Week 32, and told me to relax and take it easy for the baby's sake. I couldn't even ride my bike anymore (which I liked doing from time to time to go grocery shopping or meet friends, etc.). He said if things looked worse, I'd have to be hospitalized. That totally wasn't what I wanted, so I did as he asked.

Now that I've hit the full forty weeks, the irony of the situation isn't lost on me. Hero Material told me it's because I followed the doctor's instructions well, so I shouldn't be too unhappy. Sweetly enough, he regularly rubs my back. (The PT sessions I get just aren't enough.) He even offered to rub my back last night at around 5 a.m. because I kept turning to find a comfortable position.

I can totally sympathize with women who told me they were more than ready to perform C-sections on themselves. I actually suggested that, and Hero Material said, “Umm…a kitchen knife may not be the best idea…Here, let me rub your back, how about that?”

I'm seeing my doctor tomorrow morning. Hopefully he'll tell me something good…like, “Hey, the Boy's ready to come out now!”