It’s been almost ten years since my official diagnosis of Dupuytren’s Contracture. In short, this is a disease that causes hard nodules under the skin of the hand, and one or more fingers loses the ability to straighten and gets more and more curved over time.

In October 2020, I went in for surgery to free up my right pinky, which had become decidedly claw-like. I came out of that with most (not all) of my motion back, and a cool lightning bolt-shaped scar.

Well, over the past year, I’ve noticed the ring finger of my left hand getting more bent. Last time, in part because of other life stuff, I waited long enough that the only option was surgery. This time I wanted to try to fix the problem earlier. The hope was for a less invasive treatment that would be quicker to heal.

What does that treatment involve? Brace yourself. Basically, I went in on Tuesday to get a drug (that the insurance company tried to bill me $5000 for!) injected directly into the cords and nodules in my palm. That stuff weakened the tissue. I returned today, two days later, so the surgeon could numb my hand, then bend my finger back to snap the cords that were restricting the movement.

It sounds horrific, and I admit I was freaked out. I may have postponed the procedure a few months because I hated the idea of it. But honestly, it wasn’t too bad.

The most painful parts were the injections, both the initial drug and the anesthetic that were shot into my palm. The actual snapping of the cords? I barely felt that. I heard it, and I felt the popping, but there was no pain.

I’m a big fan of no pain.

I’m not putting pictures in the blog post, because I know that sort of thing can squick people out. But if you’re curious…

• The Before Picture: That was as straight as my ring finger would go as of Monday.
• The Shot: I’ve gotten over a lot of my needle phobia, thanks to the diabetes. This still sucked.
• After the Snap: Check it out. This was a minute or two after the surgeon finished what they called the “manipulation.”
• The Splint: I get to wear this at nighttime for the next six months to keep the finger from reverting to its bad habits.

It’s been five hours, and there’s still some numbness, along with the bruising and swelling. I’m told the pain will be coming later tonight and tomorrow. But in the meantime, I’m able to type well enough to do a blog post, and there’s no scarring or stitches or any of that.

One thing that did give me pause today: you see that little white thing taped to the window frame next to the door? Here’s a closer look. That’s a smelling salts packet. You know, in case the patient passes out.

I asked about that, and the surgeon said it most often comes up when they’re removing stitches. I’m happy to say I didn’t pass out or go into shock. I also didn’t look while he was manipulating the finger, and I’m okay with that.

Typing may be limited for the next couple of days, depending on pain and swelling. But so far, I’m happy with the results. And since this condition tends to keep coming back, I’ll probably be doing it again for other fingers at some point in the future.

Just don’t high five me on the left side for a few weeks, okay?

As part of my ongoing mission to get the house organized, I’ve realized I have a lot of extra copies of books two through four of the Magic ex Libris series. So I’ve marked them down over on my Payhip store. I also added books two and three of the Janitors of the Post Apocalypse.

Unfortunately, because of shipping costs, this is a US-only thing.

If you’re interested, click on over and order yourself some personalized autographed books!

And if you’re not interested, that’s okay too. We’re still cool.

(I also have some of my ebooks for sale there, if you’d rather purchase those directly than through Amazon or whoever.)

The Tweet below has been making the rounds, and with it has come a lot of knee-jerk defensiveness and willful misunderstanding.

[Tweet by @Merman_Melville: “i think it’s very funny that the house of dragon guys are like ‘we want to reflect the misogyny of the time period’ the time period is the twelfth of makebelieve. it’s the 149th year of sir gooby the dragonfoot. it’s the eighth age of targabargabor. it’s literally made up”]

Responses I’ve seen have ranged from, “Stop telling us to remove conflict from the story” to “But misogyny is part of every human society throughout history” to the more generic, “The woke police are ruining everything!”

Look, the genre police are not going to break your fingers and kick your puppies and throw you in author jail for one thousand years because you wrote about sexism and misogyny and violence against women. The fact that these stories continue to get published and made into popular television series should tell you you’re safe to keep writing your fantasies about violence against women, Mister Author Guy.

But for the love of Cheez-its, don’t try to dodge responsibility for your choice by hiding behind “historical accuracy.” Especially when you’re writing your made-up story in a made-up world. A world where you made up the history.

Even when you write historical fiction, you’re choosing which parts of that historical setting to include. You know how [Popular Grimdark Story] has graphic depictions of violence against women but not, say, graphic descriptions of menstruation? It’s because the author picks and chooses what to write about, what “historically realistic” details to include and exclude.

A lot of writers — mostly men — like to choose to write about sexism and misogyny and violence against women. A fair number do it badly and gratuitously, with little real understanding of what they’re writing about. And these days, it tends to feel pretty unoriginal. Is it any wonder some readers have grown tired of it and prefer more original writing?

Don’t worry, y’all still have plenty of freedom when it comes to choosing what to write about. But could we please GTFO with the excuses and take some damn responsibility for the choices we make as storytellers?

All three volumes of Invisible are available as a single ebook as of today.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series, it’s a collection of personal essays about the power and importance of representation — and the lack of representation — in science fiction and fantasy. The third volume, co-edited with Mary Anne Mohanraj, collects poems as well.

Contributors include Mark Oshiro, Diana M. Pho, Bogi Takács, Sarah Chorn, SL Huang, LaShawn Wanak, Fran Wilde, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Brandon O’Brien, Rebecca Roanhorse, and so many more. Their essays and poetry are powerful and eye-opening.

Proceeds from the sale of this set will go to the Carl Brandon Society.

If you’d like to sample the contents, most of these essays are also available online: Invisible, Invisible 2, Invisible 3.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks | Smashwords | Google Play