Category Archives: MS news

Watch me write…

like of the nano obsessed… Camp NaNoWriMo is almost halfway over… and this author is nearing 44k words, but hitting that 50k mark isn’t my goal… my goal is to finish both the novels I am working on… then I will have book two and three of the Skymann Series in the rough draft phase, book one (tentatively titled Artistic Beauty) is getting closer to being published… Mary from Gone Writing Publishing is looking it over as we speak…

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also… Finder’s Keepers book two, Southern Discoveries is getting closer to the finish line… I have a book cover, and am waiting on editor to get back to me… then I will have a publish date (as soon as figure out the self-publishing mechanics…) but the ebook version will be easy as pie to set up… Pronoun.com has a wonderful set up that is easy to use and understand… woo who… as soon as I have a publishing date set in stone, I will do a cover reveal… I love it… my first cover was awesome… but this second one might be even better… I cant wait to show everyone…

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the only other news I can think of at the moment is my awesome 25 foot walk at the neurologist… I already stuck this info up on my MS site, but I am so excited I decided to share it with you guys as well… 2 sec time… when I first got sick, my walk was 7+ seconds… each time I improve my time, I feel like I’ve just won a marathon…

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happy wordage, tracey

Help fight MS

*this is a repeat of a post from my MS site… I am posting daily up until the day of the Walk in my area… if you want to read about my life with Multiple Sclerosis then Click Here… and happy wordage everyone

I love this GIF, and felt like posting it a second time… but this post is about an upcoming MS event… Walk MS… you can find both Walk MS and Bike MS events in your area by following the links at the bottom of the post… We have five weeks and two days until the day of the Walk for my area… I will be upping my MS posts until in the meantime… sharing my own MS insanity…

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Starting Monday, March 7th, Fundraising week begins… From Bike MS to Walk MS, there are dozens of ways to show your support… there is even something called Challenge Walk MS… Last year I participated in Walk MS, I even attempted to join in the mile walk around the park… Hmmmmm… that didn’t go so well for me… last year, my walking abilities weren’t as on par as they are this year and I ended up running out of steam less than half way through… it wasn’t pretty… I had to cut through the park, there were tears and embarrassment, but once I calmed down and had a chat with my momma, I enjoyed cheering everyone else on as sat in the shade sweating as if I had just finished a triathlon…

This year the Walk in my area will be across the bridge in neighboring WV… I managed to attempt participating last year because it was downtown at the park… I doubt I will make it this year, but I wanted to give a shout out to everyone giving and participating in this cause…  I also want to participate as a virtual walker…

I have said that MS helped me to find my passion in life, but without the drugs, doctors, and therapies for this disease, MS would have taken my life long ago… it is the support and volunteers that make continued research and development possible… I am grateful to everyone giving their time, donations, or just their kind words… it is because of you that I will get to continue writing and living a life I never envisioned, but that I find small joys in every day… when it comes down to it, it isn’t the big events in life that matter… it is the small moments that mean the most…

If you want to give or join up at your local Walk/Bike MS (and did I mention that Shemar Moore joined in Bike MS last year… yummy… I mean thanks for calling attention to this cause) just …

CLICK HERE to head over to my donation page for this years walk

CLICK HERE to learn more about Walk MS…

CLICK HERE to learn more about Bike MS…

Thank you to everyone taking a moment to learn/give to this cause… and happy wordage everyone…. Tracey Clark

strong stomach is a must

Now… if you have a trigger happy gag reflex, turn away… do not read… but if you have a strong constitution and possibly a need to poke fun at my morning, then read on 😛

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okay… my morning didn’t contain any boats, no matter how  hot it was today… noooo…. I would have killed for a seat on that hellacious boat trip… I have been dealing with the croop for over a week, meaning I sleep like crap and hack and cough my head off…

When I finally managed to get to sleep, I slept long and hard… meaning I woke up dying to pee… but the dogs were barking and they always get to go first… but when I got up to get them, and take them on there morning (okay, afternoon… but hey, they potty right before bed…) potty run, I realized they were whining because both, yes both, of my pugs had had diarrhea … the only positive I could see was that they sleep in a kennel… so the liquid hell was contained…

one by one, I reached in and picked up my nasty pup… carried them out to run in the backyard… gagging the entire way… hacking, coughing, and gagging… just as I bent over to send the last dog into the backyard I gagged sooooo hard that I peed on myself… so, yeah… I think I would rather be tossed around on a boat for a few hours… heck… knock me out if you want, but someone else deal with the next doggy mess… lol… grr…

R & R

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okay… I’m one of those people that love to have their finger nails and toenails done, but only after the job is finished… getting me to go in the first place is like pulling teeth… even though I know that the finished product will make me smile…  and OMG the cost…

but let’s forget about price… deep breath… and again…

well I finally went to get my nails fixed.. and there were only about three fingers from each hand left with any polish on them from the last visit… not totally my fault, I swear… I love the gel polish and that stuff just refuses to come off… in fact, I have never had it taken off before… in the past, I just let the stuff grow off, and paint over what’s left if I have to go somewhere (and mom is embarrassed by my nails)… anywho… I finally learned what it takes to get the gel removed…

the lady at the salon filed the remaining polish, basically scrapping the crap out of my nails… then she put something (secret potion) on a piece of cotton ball and laid that on the nail, finally wrapping it all in foil… see easy… HA… it was a lot of work and dang if I didn’t break a nail less than a week after the smelly procedure…. but alls good… it was fixable… and at home… no secret needed, just a finger nail file…

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but finger nails are not the best part of the package… that would have to be the pedicure… ahhh…. I swear that my MS causes an extra large build up of callouses on my heels… the pedicure helps, and the massage chair I get to sit in while it all happens is a great bonus… but I already posted about my pedicure love over HERE… just another bout of MS facts from the home front … 😛 …

but now it is back to editing… I am over 50% done with the first round of edits on book two of the Finder’s Keepers series… after the first round, everything should go a lot faster… can’t wait to get Twin Findings (Book 2 Finder’s Keepers) out for you all

Happy wordage everyone, Tracey

let the busy days commence

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soooo… PT went OKAAAYYY…. kind of… I was on my stomach when I tried to lift my let up backwards…. that so wasn’t happening today… I ended up with a sharp pain shooting through my lower back…

So, PT guy says ok, and starts some stretches… I assume to untangle whatever was happening in my lower back… so he has my legs in this twisted position that would make a pretzel proud, and asks if I can feel the stretching…

My answer??? “yep … it is stretching across my lower back and pulling on my right leg…

His response??? “huh… that’s not supposed to happen…” lol

according to him I am making his job harder… hey, it’s not my fault… my body is confused … 😛 I blame the MS

Anywho… this is the third Friday… which is Arts and Crafts day… just head HERE if you want to read about today’s craft…

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1st knitting attempt for babies… very hard

Now… I have a cousin in visiting, lots of edits to complete for book two, I am thinking of using my Pronoun.com early admissions pass for a book of shorts… and I still need to squeeze in some present wrapping time… I am very excited to have two publications out there… Shocking Finds and a short story (Giving Chase) in the anthology Stories in Green Ink…

it is like a drug… I want to finish more of my rough drafts … muhahahaha….

Fatigue/ the hard hitter

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Exactly… lol… let’s just say that it is a good thing that i write while in a comfortable position…

I love my words, and I love the worlds and characters that I am able to create, buuuutttt…. the dang edits knock me on my arse… about an hour, that’s all I get… then my eyes get heavy, my eyes start to cross, and between one breath and the next I am out like a light… I wake up a few hours later (lucky if my laptop hasn’t crashed to the floor) and go back to my edits… Writing saved my life, and helped me to cope with all the losses when I was first diagnosed… there was a lot that i couldn’t do for years… but luckily, i had my stories… at first i couldn’t write or type… but I could imagine and dream up stories to tell myself… It took about five years before I could finish writing a sentence without passing out, and or crying with a headache… It has taken a lot of time, but for now, I can write and come up with story after story… now if I could only pass off the edits to someone else… lol…

no one seems to get it… the phrase ‘just lay down when you get tired’ is hurtful and completely missing the point… the point being that I don’t have time to slid into bed, I don’t have time to put my computer in a safe place, and I definitely don’t have time uncross my eyes… 😛 my brain looks at those continuous edits and says ‘nope, no more, I’m leaving’

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When I do catch on quick enough to the fact that my brain has had enough (and I’m not just bored to death with edit), I can try to change tracks… stop editing and move on to one of my craft projects… It isn’t that I hate edits, it is the process of cognitive input… for some reason, I can make up stories and write blogs until the cows come home, but ask me to research or fill out a questionnaire… that’s when my brain starts to get cross… hmph…

As for going off to bed for a catnap??? Who wants to be in bed all the time? If I stopped everything to take a nap every time there was even a hint of exhaustion, I would be in bed 70% of the time… booo… I already feel like I missed ten years of my life while I was dealing with my disease… I was hit hard when I was diagnosed… one moment I was a 25 year old college student and the next I was in a hospital bed, acting like a five year old… Why I got better, I don’t know… I just know that Multiple Sclerosis can throw a person into blindness, but that days or months, or even years, your sight can come back… which to me means that we should never give up hope…

getting sick sucks, but life changes on a dime, figure out what you want to do, and then go day by day figuring out what you can do… if you can’t drive to the store today, order a pizza and drive to the store tomorrow… When i am really down, I have my mother for support… somehow, she manages to pull me out of my MS blues when something I want to do is suddenly impossible… I hope that every one out there (MS or not) has someone in their life that can be there for time half as much as my Mother is for me…

Happy wordage everyone… I hope you enjoy the second friday of the month/MS news post… Tracey Clark

News clipping/ writing to cope with illness

Elizabeth Jackson of the Greater Ashland Beacon interviewed me for the Oct 13 release of the local news paper… she did an excellent job, and was a joy to speak with… Thanks

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