Well, I was riding my motorcycle... until I wasn't

What an expensive weekend.

First, let me apologize for not posting in a month... I did fairly well in my September races, and my weightloss has been proceeding apace into October.

First lap in practice last weekend for racing, I highsided at 15 MPH. A highside is a low-speed crash where the wheels of the bike become out of line, then the slide of the rear wheel is arrested - usually by regaining traction - and the torque vectors produced by the wheels try to precess (turn around each other). Violently. This typically throws the rider some distance forward, while the bike flips over.

My apex was about 12 feet.

I now have a 'permanent injury', a type-III separation of my left shoulder, which translates to a bump on my shoulder where the collarbone ends, and practically not much else. A whole lot of pain this week and next while the blood from the internal bleeding goes somewhere (goes necrotic inside tissue and then is ultimately cannibalized, but you probably didn't want to think about that...).

I have about $700 in damage to the bike, more if I want to repaint it. Plus a $600 helmet to replace.

It's a season-ender for sure. My next races are likely to be in 2009 as an Expert, with WERA, at Fontana, the 25th of January. We'll see what the blown shoulder feels like then - it'll likely be my first time back on the racebike (it's not street-legal...). If I can't ride or stand to brake from 165 MPH on that track, it'll be a REALLY expensive way to find out; maybe I'll try a trackday in Phoenix in early Jan.

The economy sucks, you don't need me to tell you. I promised my wife a new washer/dryer, and I have no pile of cash to do both - appliances and bike. She wins on this one, so I may not make Fontana. Such is life.

The way out, of course, is to supplement my income. I've been trying to do that (you may recall :)) by selling novels.

Hell's Own has been roundly ignored by the latest agency - you try to be a nice guy and wait out the 16 weeks they ask for before hounding them - and before you know it, four months have gone. I may try to put it on Amazon's Kindle list, or something else, I don't have a firm plan for it now.

I signed up for National Novel Write Month (NaNoWriMo), and will try to complete 100,000 words of Ilse in the 30 days. This is the story of a Wendish/Saxon girl and her brother, on the eve of the Northern Crusades. Ilse commits suicide with a family heirloom (a black dagger), and immediately comes to regret it. With her brother's best friend, Ilse and her brother agree to return the heirloom to it's rightful place - in it's original world. Opening a tale of vast panorama, the novel shows how the fugitives from a harsh culture find a place in the sweep of history rushing toward war and revolt against the established order of an old, old world.

Sounds like fun to write. It'll be in my usual style, with elements of sex, tragedy, comedy, humanity, betrayal, trust, redemption, death, life, and all kinds of good stuff to keep pages turning.

Darned thing better sell.

That's it for now,


dave the one-shouldered (I jest)