Of Men and Pirates

I can’t imagine a time where my choices, my thoughts, and what I did or who I did it with would be governed by a man.  I can’t even imagine that now.  My father, who I have blogged about was not a good father, nor was he, in my opinion, a great role model.  Reading countless books about historical figures and even historical fiction really shaped my opinions of great men.  Ones that I can admire, ones that I can relate to on some level.  Usually, they were men who were forward thinkers.  Ones who respected women.  Of course I can’t say that about all men, my personal experiences have been varied.  I myself have been the victim of abuse from men, as well as their superiority complexes.  Not all men are like that, and I know this for a fact…I was fortunate enough to raise two fine young men who respect women and treat them accordingly.

I can’t imagine a world without men in it.  After all, you need men to make babies.  Not physically, not anymore, but even that has changed as science has figured out ways that women can have babies with or without the man factor.  Is this good?  Yes and no.  For a lesbian such as myself, perhaps it would have been at some point in my life.  Now that my boys (conceived the good old fashioned way) are grown and gone I think back to when I wanted MORE children and am grateful I didn’t have the means to do so.  I’m done with diapers.

As a Lesbian Fiction writer, I use men (and women) as antagonists.  As I delve into historical romances, in a male dominated society, I find myself resenting, on the women’s behalf, the patriarchal societies I am learning about.  Now, I am looking at it from a point of view that we have freedoms they did not.  We are still fighting for some of those freedoms.

PIRATED LOVE and its sequel PIRATED HEART take place in the 1500’s.  Of course most of the things I read about are male dominated and male oriented stories, historical facts, etc.  But what about the women?  There were some women who not only were beyond their times, they dominated it.

In PIRATED LOVE, coming out soon, we have a Pirate known by the name of Black Betty who captures a ship, carrying  a woman, who becomes her bride.

Lady Claire Von Hagen was en route to the island of Baleniesia, in the Caribbean, to meet the man her father had dictated she would marry.  Lord Von Hagen, Governor of Baleniesia, ruled his island and his daughter with an iron fist, and he had determined that marriage to the distasteful, but wealthy and titled, Sir Edmund Fitzhugh, would be most advantageous.  Lady Claire was sailing to Baleniesia to submit to marriage when her ship was captured by pirates.  Her abductor, a pirate Captain known as Black Betty, had other plans for Lady Claire.

Claire had never experienced love of any kind, and she had certainly never conceived of the things that went on between two women.  Black Betty taught her things that surprised her, and the freedom she experiences with this woman, and their developing love, capture Claire’s heart.  From the islands of the Caribbean to the shores of Canada, and on from there to the continent of Africa and the Orient… together they experience things both had only dreamt about. 

Will they survive the dangers of the high seas and the first years of a relationship that neither expected to find?

I hope, this first of several historical novels I have planned in this and other era’s is a delight to you and that you’ll spread the word.

In the meantime, take a look at my FIRST historical novel

THE JOURNEY HOME.

In both Paperback and E-Book

Forty-Nine FEELS like Fraud!

Today on what is my forty ninth birthday I’m reflecting (what author doesn’t do a LOT of THAT?)

I mean, it REALLY feels surreal to realize that I’m this age!  Where does that time go?  Forty Nine though SOUNDS like you are faking that you aren’t really in your FIFTIETH birth year (btw, someone wished me a happy fiftieth and I corrected her VERY frostily).

I mean, I could say, I’m 29 and holding…but then I want to know what am I holding?

I could say I’m 29 with 20 years experience, now THAT sounds plausible.

But 49?  When the hell did I get this age?  I don’t consider 49 to be old!  I know I don’t LOOK it! 

I KNOW I’ve been genetically blessed and on a REALLY good day, can pass for my 30’s.  But 49???  How the hell did I grow up?

Well, since I wasn’t supposed to live to see my 35th birthday, I’ll take it! (Do you believe in Miracles).   Each and EVERY year is a blessing.

Yes, I’m older, the body is falling apart, but I am HERE.  I’m writing fabulous stories, none of which would have been published it I hadn’t taken a chance in 2001 on an experiment!  I’m here, I’m queer, and look out at what I plan to STILL accomplish!  Yeah, the body is not in the best shape, but cancer, broken and sprained bones, and illness will plague it!  I’ll be that little ole lady that bitches and moans about the aches and pains, but I’ll do it with a sense of humor and a sparkle in my eye…I’ve earned each and every worn out joint, each and every break, and each and everything that I’ve overcome!  I’m a fighter, I’m here to tell you!

Meanwhile, as I contemplate my FIFTIETH birth year….I’m gonna relish EACH and EVERY day!

And, if you WANT to get me a present?  Please go to my website and buy me a book (for you of course)…and yes, that’s a shameless plug!  Lol!  And, while you are at it? 

MACERATING MALICE is OUT!

Alice is ALIVE!

Where has she been?  What is the explanation for the missing months between her and her wife?

As Kathy listens she is horrified to realize what has happened to the woman she once called the love of her life…

How she survived begins to unfold as she describes the terrors that she has endured the last two years…

E-Book

Of TUMORS and HEALTHCHECKS

I’m not fond of doctors.  I don’t hold them in ethereal awe as all-knowing.  Instead, I think of them as a necessary annoyance.  You might ask why and I’ll tell you it is probably because I’ve had more poking and prodding than the average person should.

You see 14.5 years ago I was given a death sentence and while it was ‘only’ four to five months that I was to live, I chose instead to become a human guinea pig. (BLOG) As a result, I obviously survived.

Here’s the thing though when you survive.  They want to know WHY.   As a result they want you to come in at least once a month for that first year, twice a year after that, until finally it’s a health check once year.  I’m not the most patient of people and I didn’t go in for years.  As I get older though and other health concerns come up, I go in a little more frequently.

This last summer I had pneumonia.  In fact, those of you who met me in New Orleans for the Golden Crown Literary Society conference may not have known it but I was sick…very sick.  I hid it quite well, had a good time, but there is much about that conference I simply do not remember due to the way I was feeling.  When I got back from the trip I went directly to the hospital, I had the car rental guy drop me off there!  Walking pneumonia turned to viral pneumonia and that hung on for eight weeks!   The doctor called for a follow up visit a couple of weeks ago because pneumonia is one of those things that can come back easily.  So I went in on a Thursday in October for a chest x-ray.  They called me on Friday because there was an area of concern that they had seen over the summer that seemed to be worse and they wanted an MRI.  That MRI was Monday.  As I left, the technician said we will let you know in 5-7 days.  Well, anyone who knows me knows that I’m NOT going to wait that long for any test results.  I went across the medical center to my doctor’s office and asked if there was anything they could do ‘hurry this along,’ as it were.  I said the things going through my brain (yes I am imaginative) would be more damaging than anything physical they could do.  The doctor called two days later.

When you have a mass the size I did over my heart/lung (mine was four inches across) and they shrink it, the body has to fill that empty space.  As a result, calcium can fill it in.  Well this calcium was cause for concern.  Apparently she believed I ‘may’ have a two inch tumor in my heart (or so she said at first) in my aortic arch (whatever that is).  Looking such things up in Web MD, I do NOT recommend.  You will only find yourself ‘sicker’ than you believe with all that helpful information.  My doctor, who is one of the most thorough women you ever want to meet, was meeting with the x-ray people and others because they thought this two inch (whatever) was growing.  Only they thought it was in my lung, over the heart.  Well, I can be blunt and I called bullshit.  You know, knowledgeable and educated people of that caliber tend to be taken aback when you challenge them.  I’m challenging enough but I’m also educated and knowing about what has happened to me.  They wanted to wait three months to ‘see’ if it grew more, as we had from this last summer.  I happened to know that lung cancer is one of the fastest growing cancers there is and I wasn’t going to sit back and wait.  I told her so too.  I also challenged why all the other MRI’s and chest x-rays weren’t available for comparison.

Here’s the thing.  Where I live here in the Northwood’s, they have two health systems.  Apparently they don’t share information…unless you ask.  My doctor, while extremely competent, didn’t have all the information she needed to do the comparison.  I was convinced that the two inch ‘mass’ she was telling me about was a shadow, reduced from the four inch mass that had been there fourteen years ago.  I found it too much of a coincidence that in nearly the same place as I had a tumor before there was one now, it had to be scar tissue.  I told her so too.  So, she sent for the information.  If not from across town we were going to send to Stanford for the results of my experimental procedure and all the data that we could get to compare…before and after.  This all takes time.  As I mentioned before I am not the most patient of people.

I told a few friends, but I also stated, I’m not fighting if this is what they think it is…you see, I fought so hard when I was younger and it took everything out of me.  That procedure was so horrible, I was so sick, that I don’t even want to remember it.  Much of it I have blocked out and forgotten.  I don’t want a repeat of it, in any form.  So, I’ve already made my decision.  I won’t fight it if the fates give me cancer again because I don’t have it in me to fight it again.

Fortunately I didn’t have to make that dire decision.  I was right.  I don’t like saying ‘I told you so,’ I really don’t, but in this case…  The doctor called today to tell me the ‘mass’ is indeed the shadow, the scar tissue from old.  I’m terrible about scarring on the outside, I can imagine what I’m like on the inside where all this went on.  It’s been a rough couple of weeks I’ll tell you, but I got a lot of tears and lot of thoughts out of the way.  It’s amazing how much you introspect when something like this happens to you.  So I’m here for a while yet, to tell more of my stories, to annoy my friends (lol), and to keep going…until next time!

I once wrote about my cancer by giving one of my characters my cancer and some of what I went through. I didn’t have to embellish it, it was dramatic enough.  If you want to read that story, please check out my book GERMANIC here on my website at www.kannemeinel.com.  I recently upgraded my website, take a look around, it’s fantastic what technology can do!

See you around cyber!