April Voytko Kempler's Blog, page 8

The Tricky Thing About Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s can be a confounding disease. Some days are a bear, while other days could make you believe your loved one was improving. On good days, we ( and when I say we, I mean his primary care-giver and sometimes my husband or myself) can get Joe up, out of bed and kept out of bed, fed, dressed, and going through his physical therapy exercises. On bad days it is a total fight. He will absolutely refuse to get up, or he will get up briefly to use the bathroom and then sneak back into bed.

On good days we can talk with him, on bad days he says very little.

Recently Joe wasn’t interested in reading. He still picked up a book or two, and thumbed through the pages, but as for actual reading, nope, he wasn’t having any of it. Now that is sad. I personally love to read, if I no longer felt a passion for the written word, that would be truly grievous to me. The good thing for Joe is that he doesn’t realize he is missing reading, or at least I hope he doesn’t realize it. The words just don’t gel for him, the concepts are hard to grasp, the story lines too complicated. I even tried reading aloud to him, but he said he couldn’t understand what was happening. Truth be told, I only read about thirteen or so pages and I was having trouble with the character’s and plot line, but that is something else!

As is so common with Alzheimer’s some things come and some things go. Sometimes those little neurons connect and send a message where formerly they were missing the intended mark. But, just last week Joe started reading again! Is it the Aricept? We don’t know, but it was something positive.

As is our custom, my husband and I pick Joe up on Thursdays and he spends the entire day with us, that is if it is a good day. This time to lure him out of bed we dangled the book carrot. Long-story short: a client of ours recently moved into a new house and didn’t want any of her old books. Of course I said I would take them off her hands, no problem. We came home with twelve boxes of books! These treasures between the covers desperately needed organizing, so Paul said to his dad, “April needs help sorting books. Come over and help her go through them.” That was all it took. Joe spent about three hours sorting books into piles: those he wanted to take home and those for distribution elsewhere. He kept saying, ” This is quite a collection of books you’ve got here!” It was as if I had brought the bookstore to Joe and he was in high hog heaven.

I have to say it was a really good day.

What an Author Really Means When He says I’m a Slow Writer

Lately I’ve seen a couple of posts on the topic of writing speed. One writer commented that author Sue Grafton, who writes the alphabetical themed mysteries, averages a book every two years. This was considered slow by my writer friend who exclaimed that if she took that long to write a book she would forget where she left off. Good for her, I say! If you can write and publish a book in less time that that, you must be doing something right! Another writer posted that he won’t be posting as much since he needs to do extensive re-writes on a novel he hopes to have accepted by a small press. He is giving himself six months to complete his re-write.  Apparently he feels this is a long time because he followed with, “I’m slow.”

Really? I don’t consider that slow. In fact, I will let you in on a little secret: I’m a really slow writer. But, what exactly do I mean when I say I’m slow?

Writing is a hobby for me. Don’t be shocked. Even though I’m a published author, with my first book to be released this year, writing isn’t my full-time job. After God, family, taking care of myself, taking care of the household chores (i.e., cleaning, cooking, shopping, paying bills, laundry), working at our small business, and fitting in the time to exercise, I may sit down and get some writing done, if of course I’m not too tired from all the stuff I do during my regular day. That’s where the slow writing bit comes in. I just haven’t figured out a workable schedule yet. What helps is that while I’m running errands and such, I’m constantly thinking about what I will write when I do sit down. That speeds up the process. After ruminating for a time, I get to the point where I can’t wait to sit down and get these thoughts out of my head and onto the screen.

I wish I could write faster, but until I can hire a housekeeper and my husband expands his business–which to be honest, we don’t have plans for expansion, we both like it the way it is–then I will continue to write at the pace I currently write…slow.

How do you write? Share what slows down your writing schedule, or tips on how to clear space in your day to write faster.

New Book Cover Design: The Altered I, a Holocaust Memoir

I am really excited to share with you the new book cover design. This is still a work in progress, but I know so many have asked, “When is the book coming out?” and, “Is it out yet? Where can I get it?”

Well, all these questions will be answered in good time. For now, here is a peek at some of the new changes to the book. I hope you like it! And yes, that is Joseph Kempler’s eye, taken by the lovely and talented Eden Thome of Eden Rose Photography.