Update.

Sorry about the absence.

It wasn’t this cheerful. Yes, still AI imaging.

Last week this season’s iteration of whatever Influenza-Like Illness that is wandering around jumped on Rita with all four feet. Normally she shakes off this sort of thing almost as fast as I do, but her immune system is still recovering from radiation therapy, and the latest virus took full advantage.

I started getting mild body aches over the weekend — mild enough that I really wasn’t sure if they were from getting whatever Rita had, or from lifting heavy on Friday — and woke up Monday morning with an ice cream headache that I just couldn’t get rid of. I rolled out of bed, and my body promptly told me to sod off to Highgate, so I arranged for someone to cover the desk at work, and collapsed back into bed.

Fever spiked to 101.4 from about noon to about three PM, and I started feeling better that evening, but went into the clinic Tuesday morning out of an abundance of caution¹.

In the exam room, the brand-new, very cheerful doctor did the normal greeting, then opened his tablet, and started reading from a large pink Post-It note stuck to the keyboard:
”Good morning, are you here because you need a slip so Rita won’t worry?”

”What? No.”

”Good, good. Do you have any recent trauma that you didn’t think was important and unrelated to why you’re here today?”

”Seriously? No.”

“Have you been experiencing unusual amounts of pain for a month or longer, unrelated to why you came in today?”

“Really?”

Two nurses stuck their heads around the door, glaring at me. One looked over her glasses, “Answer the question, Mr. I’m Going To Outstubborn Chicken Pox at 35 Years Old, Faint In The Exam Room, And Spend A Week In ICU.”

”Yeah,” said the other, “It’s not like you’ve got a past history of ignoring an extremely serious case of carditis for 14 months. Oh, wait.”

“Was it two trips or three to the hospital because he treated bilateral pneumonia with aleve and chicken soup until someone made him come in?”

“Oh, and don’t forget the classic,” she affected a slightly African, rather sing-song accent, “‘Oh, bedamned, guess I did get stabbed after all. That’s inconvenient.’”

Doc looked at the two glowering nurses, then back to me, leaned over, and murmured, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I think you may have a … reputation … here.”

Sigh.

After a rather more thorough than may have been strictly necessary exam, I wound up with orders to take the rest of the week off, drink plenty of fluids, and rest.

I’m fine. Rita still isn’t 100% but she’s better.

Let’s see here: We launched our 60th anthology — Moggies of Mars — this week. Rita edited it, and I think it’s great. Y’all should probably buy it.

Cedar and I did a brief video about Raconteur Press Boy’s Adventures for 2026. This was our second 2026 announcement, the first video in the series was Cedar and Lisa regarding Raconteur Press anthologies for 2026, and the next one will be about adult novels.

In other news, Larry Correia is a very dear friend to me and Rita, and he has a kickstarter for his new series with Ark Press. He writes engaging stories, so you should probably check it out. Let him know you heard about it from us if you do.

Hairballs, Hiccups, and Hope, the charity anthology for Lori Janeski is still going well. We thank everyone who bought a copy.

Raconteur Press continues to have a pretty good lock on the Boy’s Adventure Book section of Amazon, I hope to continue this trend. If you have boys — or even girls, who might want to read something that isn’t pink — consider buying ‘Storm Dragon’, ‘Boys Own Starship’, ‘Dreams of Gold And Fire’, and/or ‘I’ve Got This’. Your authors and friendly publishers will be very grateful.

And now, back to regular blogging.

Ian

1. As an aside, having the admitting desk roll her chair back to the door, open it, and hiss, “Mr McMurtrie just came in” down the hall was a little much. Hearing sneakers sprinting down the same hall after that was just rude.