Story on my mind.
Sep. 8th, 2014 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jana_denardoMy Urban Fantasy set in Pittsburgh, Kept Tears has been on my mind a lot in these last few weeks, coming to a head today with the news that my university didn't get the grant we had applied for to help our veterans. It is terribly disappointing to say the least (though not unexpected given the competition for the money). We are a veterans approved school and I am proud of that and of my role in the veterans commission.
What some of you may not know, before my career-ending injury, I spent time as a VA doctor and I am proud of that. Most of my family are (or in my case, should have been) veterans. So it's something that means a lot to me. Many of you know that when I wrote Kept Tears I wanted it to be real, as real as I could make it, in spite of it being urban fantasy. Aaron (dark haired fellow on the right in my icon) is a disabled veteran and current grad student.
In spite of the fact my field of experience is on the opposite limbs, I made him transhumural amputee (You can see a hint of his prosthetic arm in the icon). It required a lot of research on my part (much of which isn't readily available) and in spite of some people thinking there's a bit of Star Wars in Aaron's "Luke Arm" it is real and just moving into the market. It's an arm that is functional, developed in part by DARPA and Deka labs (among others). It's fascinating stuff and as the prosthesis improves which I'm sure it will now that the basics have been worked out, it will return a good deal of functionality to upper limb amputees. That's amazing stuff.
So how did I come up with this for Aaron instead of a lower limb amputation which I'm much more familiar with (sadly as part of limb salvage teams I've been scrubbed into many amputations)? A couple years ago I had to have a rotator cuff surgery on my left arm and had to have my biceps muscle's origin actually moved which required a year of therapy. In my mind, I had the thought of wow, this is SO hard and painful. There are so many things I can't do like pull on my shirt easily or zipper and button my pants or tie my shoes. How in the world do upper limb amputees get by? Aaron's story took off from there.
I always did plan a sequel and that's what's in my mind right now. I'm still trying to coalesce the plot. Why now? Because I didn't just blow out my left arm. This year we tackled another rotator cuff tear, stabilizing ligament tear and glenoid labrum tear on my right arm. I'm back in therapy for many months. All I can think about is 'it is worse for people like Aaron, so I can't complain.'
People have enjoyed Aaron and Rhys's story and for that, I'm very happy. Here are the links to the novel and hopefully soon I'll have the sequel under way.
Kept Tears is published with Dreamspinner Press. find the ebook here & the paper back here
What some of you may not know, before my career-ending injury, I spent time as a VA doctor and I am proud of that. Most of my family are (or in my case, should have been) veterans. So it's something that means a lot to me. Many of you know that when I wrote Kept Tears I wanted it to be real, as real as I could make it, in spite of it being urban fantasy. Aaron (dark haired fellow on the right in my icon) is a disabled veteran and current grad student.
In spite of the fact my field of experience is on the opposite limbs, I made him transhumural amputee (You can see a hint of his prosthetic arm in the icon). It required a lot of research on my part (much of which isn't readily available) and in spite of some people thinking there's a bit of Star Wars in Aaron's "Luke Arm" it is real and just moving into the market. It's an arm that is functional, developed in part by DARPA and Deka labs (among others). It's fascinating stuff and as the prosthesis improves which I'm sure it will now that the basics have been worked out, it will return a good deal of functionality to upper limb amputees. That's amazing stuff.
So how did I come up with this for Aaron instead of a lower limb amputation which I'm much more familiar with (sadly as part of limb salvage teams I've been scrubbed into many amputations)? A couple years ago I had to have a rotator cuff surgery on my left arm and had to have my biceps muscle's origin actually moved which required a year of therapy. In my mind, I had the thought of wow, this is SO hard and painful. There are so many things I can't do like pull on my shirt easily or zipper and button my pants or tie my shoes. How in the world do upper limb amputees get by? Aaron's story took off from there.
I always did plan a sequel and that's what's in my mind right now. I'm still trying to coalesce the plot. Why now? Because I didn't just blow out my left arm. This year we tackled another rotator cuff tear, stabilizing ligament tear and glenoid labrum tear on my right arm. I'm back in therapy for many months. All I can think about is 'it is worse for people like Aaron, so I can't complain.'
People have enjoyed Aaron and Rhys's story and for that, I'm very happy. Here are the links to the novel and hopefully soon I'll have the sequel under way.
Kept Tears is published with Dreamspinner Press. find the ebook here & the paper back here
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