Laying low with a new enemy - Sciatica, by J.C. Kavanagh

WINNER, Best Young Adult Book 2016
P&E Readers' Poll

Well, a delightful spring season has finally arrived here in Ontario. We jumped from snow and ice in early May, to a summer-like spring this past week. Yay! I've been busy with yard work and raking and trimming, etc. etc. My property has a variety of areas: grassy, treed, trails and woods. It requires many hours of maintenance but I've always loved the outdoors and my partner feels the same way.

But all of this physical work comes with a price.

In my case, it's the price of back pain.

It began during the first two weeks of May, I spent most afternoons raking and then transporting via wheelbarrow, the leaves and debris that accumulate over the winter months. Yeah, I felt good! Until my next-to-last wheelbarrow load. I bent over to pick up the pile of leaves and somehow twisted the wrong way. And that was all it took. Sigh.

So for the last few days, I've been walking just like the alien guy in District 9. Have you seen that movie? It's a sci-fi about space ships from a dying planet that find their way to earth, only to hover above cities until humans 're-locate' them to a type of refugee camp. There, the creatures love to eat cat food (only a writer would think of that hehehe). The gait of these creatures is identical to mine: a combination of stiff leg and waddle.

Cutting down the bamboo stalks

Inserting nasty killer vine into the wood chipper

Snow boulder Queen: the snow/ice storm in mid-April 2018

I want to be 39 again. My mind tells my body that every day. So, I'm thinking that pain is your body's way of snickering at your mind. "Who's 39?" my body asks. And then laughs and laughs and laughs.

The sequel to The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends will be published this summer. Stay tuned!

For now, I'm on the hunt for some elegant, yet tasty, Fancy Feast.

J.C. Kavanagh

The Twisted Climb
BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers' Poll
A novel for teens, young adults and adults young at heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
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