Keeping Ahead of Colon Cancer

By Elaine L. Orr

In 2014, I wrote a tribute to my cousin, Linda Woltkamp, who died after a stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis. She fought it for years. Her lack of preventive scans is one reason I fought so hard for a three-year scan (instead of a doctor-preferred five years) in 2023. My two very aggressive tumors were caught at the colon wall (Stage 2A, not in lymph nodes) and do not appear to have metastasized. 

Colonoscopies are not high on anyone's list of a fun way to spend two days, but I had six in eighteen years because I find them preferable to dying. Two times precancerous polyps were removed, including three years before my two fast-growing tumors presented themselves. 

I do not usually write about such personal matters, but my cousin and I present such stark contrasts it seems worth the exposure. She was a responsible person and a heck of a lot of fun. She just didn't want to get a colonoscopy. (The photo at right shows us in 1987 with family members, in Anaheim during a Disney visit. Linda is on the left.)

I have a few suggestions, which should not be taken as medical advice.

1) Know when to get your first screening. The recommended age is now 45 for people with an average risk. If there are no polyps, people can usually wait ten years for the next one. Talk to a doctor if you have a close relative who has had it (parent or sibling, for example). You will need one earlier. Note I said need. Don't let anyone talk you out of it.

2) If you have any of the common symptoms, see a doctor soon. Colon cancer is striking more people younger than fifty and even some in their twenties, though the latter is uncommon.

3) Talk to your doctor about whether non-invasive testing is sufficient for now. Such tests look not only for blood in your stood but also things such as DNA mutations or certain proteins. (It depends on the test.) The big HOWEVER is that these tests detect cancer. Colonoscopies can prevent it by removing polyps.

4) Consider genetic testing if you have a close relative (or even cousins or a grandparent). However, colon cancer, like breast cancer, can strike if there is no history. History can be a warning sign, and genetic information can guide physicians - and you.

5) Be a strong advocate for yourself. Because of an insurance 'fight' between Blue Cross and a clinic, I could not go to my usual GI doctor for the procedure three years after finding the precancerous polyp. I could only have testing at a school of medicine. Good people, but if I had taken their five-year advice, I probably would have been Stage 4 instead of 2A. I had to argue three times to get the test at three years.

People don't read long articles, so I'm not giving common information such as symptoms. Look it up.

The medical school GI staff did not give my (stunned) husband and me info on colon cancer after giving us the news and sending us on our way. None, never. I got a bit when I saw a surgeon about ten days later (and he did a great surgery). 

I found a definitive guide for patients from The National Comprehensive Cancer Network. They have guides for many cancers, which are are impartial, comprehensive, and regularly updated. Having this guide kept me from searching for 'everything' on the Internet. You can't become an expert, and why should you? It does help to know the vocabulary and have a broad perspective.

Finally, my CT and PET scans have been negative and my post-surgery colonoscopy is in 10 days. (I don't like being this personal!) You could say I'm lucky or stubborn. Either works. Just get your preventive screenings.

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Out with the Old?

As 2024 draws to a close, I've been throwing out paper. Tax records are easy (only required for seven years), as is most medical material (which can be accessed online now).

What about writing ideas? I have a drawer of them. (Well, half of one. Other files are for books I'm working on or contain research materials.)

A few years ago, I scanned the contents of some folders, but that was using an older computer. I doubt I could put my hands on the digital files. Should I start over? What are the chances I will write those pieces? 

Of course, I've convinced myself that if I toss any of the material I will later decide I should have kept it. 

I've developed some "keep or toss" criteria, though I won't commit to applying them. Ask yourself:

1) If finding the material in a file does not make you remember when (or why) you wrote it, will you really use it?

2) When is the last time you added even a paragraph to the sample chapter or proposal?

3) If the ideas were jotted on napkins, is the paper still intact?

4) Do you want anyone else going through the folders after you die? (This is a more relevant question for older writers but, heck, that bell can toll anytime.)

Answers will vary, but my guess is the process will get easier when you run out of filing space or you trip over a pile that's too big to put in a drawer.

Happy New Year!

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Sometimes a Phrase Strikes You

My husband always has a book of poetry in the bathroom. He would probably not like that I mention that, but he doesn't read my blog, so it's safe.

A poem (in the book Good Poems for Hard Times, edited by Garrison Keillor) by Ted Berrigan closes with, "Let none regret my end who called me friend." 

It implies so much. The poet (if he's writing from his own point of view) had friends. He chose to comfort them by making clear he would be at peace when he passed. Though that would be hard to predict with total accuracy, the chances increase because he expects to be at peace.

Having had successful cancer surgery this year, I have no thoughts of my own demise. A phrase has not felt so perfect to me since one from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Swing. 

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside—

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Thinking about Ancillary Characters

In my current WIP (Fired Up and Feisty), suspicion swirls around a group of seniors in town for the annual alumni weekend at Ocean Alley High School. My mystery series books always introduce new characters or "pull to the forefront" people who were incidental in prior books. But they don't usually have a group of outsiders coming into town.

I'm thinking through what to reveal about each of them -- appearance, high school experience (good or bad?), attitude (snooty or friendly?), type of humor (endless possibilities there), and more. If I spend more time on one character than others, readers may think I'm establishing that person as the villain or future victim. If I say an even amount of fairly little about each person, they'll all be flat.

I decided to say or show one distinctive thing about each one the first time they appear. Sometimes it takes few words, sometimes more. For example:

Madge walked toward them. “Did anyone see Catherine? And what about Sandy Cotton? They were both on the third floor.”

The woman with red curls said, “Someone in an SUV came to get them. Sandy told a policeman where they were going.”

“Ah. Good,” Madge said.

“Too good to stay with us?” a man asked.

Two or three people said, “Shut up, Harvey.”

That tells you Harvey is a smart-aleck and others don't hesitate to let him know that.

As guests who had to leave the hotel because of a fire sit in city hall, they show their impatience. Who wouldn't?

The woman with iron-gray hair asked, “Can we get this show on the road?”

A grumpy looking man asked, “You wanna drive the bus?”

“I could do it better…”

“Hey, folks.” The man had an air of authority about him. “Doesn’t help to grouse.”

Madge remembered him as the man dressed as a college professor at last night’s diner gathering. She didn’t recall that he’d introduced himself. He had at least managed to wear shoes, slacks, and a collared shirt, albeit wrinkled.

The grumpy man said, “Put a cork in it, Redford.”

What you most learn from this brief banter is that Redford is not popular. And is perhaps precise.

I've slowed down a bit to develop better back stories for the B&B guests, all of whom are new to the series. I don't think I want the level of detail as for continuing characters, but I may surprise myself.

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From Bird to Butterfly: Transition to Blue Sky

By Elaine L. Orr

I feel as if I should hold a funeral for my Twitter (X) presence. Twelve years and more than 11,000 followers! I'd been contemplating this switch because of the growth in negative postings. Until recently, I'd held out hope that Elon Musk would get bored with losing money on the platform and sell it. No such luck.

The final straw came with last Friday's change in Twitter's Terms of Service, specifically, "Twitter's new terms of service allow the company to use users' content to train AI, even if the user opts out." I don't think so.

So, as of yesterday, I've switched to Blue Sky, a similar (but very positive) social network that functions in a similar manner. My profile is https://bsky.app/profile/elaineorr55.bsky.social. 

As with the old Twitter, I'm following people with similar interests to encourage them to follow me back. I may never get to 11,000 followers, but I think it will be easier to interact with other authors and readers. I also found a pretty butterfly-with-blue-sky graphic. 

I read years ago that severely ill children draw butterflies because they can go anywhere unencumbered. I like that idea. That's a concept that can work for anyone who feels stifled.

If you want to learn how to use Blue Sky, which is truly a friendly place, I have one suggestion. When you sign up, you can choose subjects you are interested in. Posts related to those topics will appear in your feed. To keep your sanity, don't pick politics right now. You can see all those posts by putting a subject or name in the search bar, but  you won't be met with an onslaught of opinions when you open the site.

Finally, as I have no expert qualifications, you'll want to learn how to get started from someone else. They have help info on Blue Sky, but I also found another easy-to-understand resource:

 https://publish.obsidian.md/debbieohi/why-bluesky

To constructive commentary.

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Making Your Fiction Matter

 By Elaine L. Orr

Mysteries that draw in readers do so not because the crime is intriguing and the sleuth skillful. They grab attention because what happens matters. 

In You Can Write a Mystery, Gillian Roberts presents the dictum that the fundamental element of drama is conflict. Mysteries embody a crime that means, "Live vs. death, law vs. order are now in conflict with the another, and the magnitude of of the offense forces action, either in the pursuit of justice for deeds already done or the pursuit of evildoers because of deeds they intend to do." The detective (amateur or professional) has to be passionately involved in the case.

As I continued to work on the first Senior Shenanigans novel (Fired Up and Feisty), I realized that while I loved the series concept and enjoyed the characters arising from it, I couldn't care enough about figuring out how someone died in the hotel fire in the opening segment. If I couldn't, why would anyone else? (See my October 31st post for portions of the early scenes.)

I realized I started the book in the wrong place. I mean, really the wrong place. I hadn't shown enough about the characters before the fire. What could pull on heartstrings? Where were the old grudges? 

Because Madge is the primary sleuth, the murder (or at least its resolution) had to matter most to her. I remembered (in Book 10 of the Jolie series, The Unexpected Resolution) reference to a friend of Aunt Madge's, whose scrapbooks from years teaching 2nd grade had a photo of Scoobie as a young child. That teacher (named as Mrs. Anderson) could not appear in the current book, because she had donated the scrapbooks to the library after she died. 

But what if she had a sister who was coming to the high school reunion fort he first time since Mrs. Anderson died? Helping her would give Madge a better stake in the story. And was Mrs. Anderson's death a purely accidental car crash? If not, who had something to hide?

Now I have the story that can leap forward. With that in mind, here are the first few paragraphs of Fired Up and Feisty.  

New Opening for Fired Up and Feisty

MADGE RICHARDS AND HARRY STEELE made their way through Arnie Newhart’s Diner toward the woman who sat alone at a booth in the back. The raucous atmosphere would befit Halloween or spring break at the Shore, but patrons were all senior citizens or, as their nephew Scoobie would say, Super Seniors. The annual Ocean Alley High School Reunion Weekend had begun.

Arnie stood behind the counter and raised his arms at them. “Mayor Madge, you never come to this bash, what’s up?”

Madge nodded toward the back of the diner. “We’re keeping Catherine Anderson company.”

Arnie’s nod was a knowing one. Catherine and her sister had been regulars at reunion events since graduation decades ago, but after Lenna’s death in a bad car accident during reunion weekend a few years ago, Catharine had stopped coming.

Madge often though of Lenna, a retired second-grade teacher who had been a close friend. When Catherine asked Madge and Harry to keep her company when she came to her first event without her older sister, they couldn’t say no, even though they usually avoided the so-called Golden Grad reunion events. Madge wasn’t one for partying in the past.

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I think the new scenes will draw people in better than roaring firetrucks, and the diner scene can show key players through their actions and comments better than simple introductions later, at the B&B.

I'm on a roll.

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Aunt Madge and the Civil Election Wishes You a Good Day

By Elaine L. Orr

In 2020, I wrote a 17,000 word story about elections in the fictional Ocean Alley, New Jersey. As you can tell from the title, it was a friendly election and a good example of how to talk about issues. Plus, I had a fun time writing it. 

In honor of the 2024 election in the United States, I'm offering the book free for a couple of weeks. 

Keep calm and carry on.

Google https://bit.ly/3UoZJJ7

Amazon https://bit.ly/4fhVqan

ibooks https://bit.ly/3YnrKSe

BN https://bit.ly/3YcEPOc

Google https://bit.ly/3UoZJJ7

Enjoy!

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