Saturday

[pbray]

Last night I managed to get a few hours of contiguous sleep which is a major improvement over previous nights. I think I'm finally starting to fight off whatever cold/flu/upper-respiratory crap I picked up last weekend.

The drug companies have reformulated their cough & cold remedies since the last time I resorted to OTC stuff, so I spent a few days experimenting trying to find something that worked for me. For the record, the new formulation of Nyquil does not put me to sleep--instead it makes me ping off the walls. For hours.

So far I haven't found anything for a cough that works better than hot tea with whiskey, so it's for the best that my body is finally fighting it off.


I blame the cold medicine for my attack of authorly paranoia. Monday morning when I sent in the requested teaser to be printed at the back of the new release, my editor emailed me that she'd read it later that day. Tuesday goes by. Wednesday. By Thursday at noon I couldn't take it and emailed her to say "Look, the sensible part of me knows that you've just been too busy to get to this, but there's a small part that is wondering if you read it and are so horrified that you're still searching for words to tell me how much it sucked."

My editor, showing the patience and tact that is a major part of handling her unruly tribe of authors, replied that the sensible Patricia was correct, and she'd been caught up in crises all week, but would look at the excerpt soon.

I related this story last night to jpsorrow who promptly topped it. One of those things that is funny only in hindsight, as the manuscript for the second volume of his trilogy was misrouted from his editor's desk into the general slush pile.

Given that DAW released the first volume of his trilogy in hardcover this month, you'd think someone there would recognize his name.

Comments

[shana.livejournal.com]

I find that the best OTC for cough for me is Robitussin's sugar free formula. It has the expectorant/suppressent combination I like, and it doesn't have that awful cherry taste. [It tastes like medicine, but it isn't as foul, somehow.]

[fancythat2.livejournal.com]

Sore Throat/ Cough Soother Tea (that tastes good):

Into your favorite coffee cup add:
1 t. Chopped fresh ginger root (to taste)
1-2 t. Real maple syrup (not that fake gunk)(to taste)
1 t. Lemon juice (squish one slice of a real lemon)
A dash of cayenne pepper (to taste)
Enough boiling water to fill the cup.

Stir.
Inhale steam.
Slurp down after waiting for the temp to drop below lava hot. :-)

This is good for warding off the chilled down to the bone kind of day too.

[fancythat2.livejournal.com]

Cough syrup is SO vile I'd rather have the cough. :-)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll keep it in mind. So far the OTC cough suppressants I've tried either a) don't work or b) don't react well with me.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks. This assumes a level of preparation that would be scary for me. Fresh fruit in the house? Not sure if that's happened since Y2K....

[shana.livejournal.com]

Well, the regular Robitussin makes my mother nauseous, but she tolerates this fine.

[fancythat2.livejournal.com]

You could always give a friend the big sad puppy dog eyes and hope s/he will fix it for you because you don't feel good.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

She's tried that and it works. . . . For the most part.