The longest months of my life.

I had a very long couple of months. For me it's one of those good news, bad news deals, except in this case the bad far outweighs the good.

Bad news first. My dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. I spent most of my time both taking care of him and coming to grips with the situation. As a result, even when I did have the time to sit down and write, I simply wasn't in the emotional state to get any significant amount of work done.

The good news is that my family has been very supportive. We've had a constant stream of visitors and well-wishers coming in, many of whom were willing to help out in any way they could. Dad recently received his third chemotherapy treatment and is slowly getting stronger (he's getting out of bed more often, at least), which is also good. He had to retire sooner than he'd planned, though, and I think perhaps the loss of his job gets to him sometimes. At least if I were in that position it would get to me.

Even with that, though, the holidays still managed to be quite nice. Seeing my dad surrounded by family and smiling lifted everyone's spirits. We're told that the chances are good that the chemo will send his cancer into remission, and if that's the case it means I'll have my dad around for a few more years yet. Still, there's always that doubt in the back one one's mind.

This is the first time I've been able to really talk about the subject without getting all emotional, so I guess I'm getting used to the situation. I'm back to writing, which comes as a major relief because I need something to take my mind off of things. Well, something aside from video games. I've been playing the Playstation 3 I got for Christmas constantly, my way of trying to escape reality I suppose. If I'm going to sink my time into something, though, I prefer that it be something a little more constructive.

Work continues on my novel and I hope to get back on track with the blog soon. Just wanted to let you guys know I'm still alive.