Randy Ford Author-on the beginning of a journey

      I’m not sure when I became aware of the first symptom.   It was stiffness.   I waited for it to go away or to have more of something before I said anything to anyone about it.   I was busy.   I’m not sure what I was doing, but I know I was very busy.   At that point the symptoms (yes, too soon there were more than one) were easy to ignore, which I did for as long as I could.   Something else was also wrong with me.   If I didn’t take care of that, bad things could happen, not the least of which for me was death.   A simple Vitamin B 12 monthly injection took care of that.  But that didn’t take care of the original symptom or the symptoms that followed.   They got worse.   There was no true debate; there was something definitely wrong.   There were internal tremors and more stiffness, drooling and one arm that didn’t work as well as the other.   I finally went to a specialist.   When tests didn’t turn up anything and when symptoms more than multiplied, the brain specialist found a cause.   He called it Parkinson’s.

      And the disease is still progressing, still causing stress but manageable.   No cure is currently available.

      I have every reason to be hopeful.   I’m glad I can still get around, ride my bicycle and push myself up hills as well as I do.   Because I’m of the age I could retire, and also because I’m not satisfied with the work I’ve done, I’ve become somewhat impatient.   There are so many things I still want to do and that is very difficult for me.   But the greatest miracle for me is that I’m not finished.   I know…and the anxiety is real for me…that in the relatively near future I could easily become incapacitated.

      I will not try to be inspirational with the story I’m about to write.   The journey I shall take will be a personal one.   It will come from inside me and from memories, which may or may not be accurate or interest anyone.   I hope to discover the truth, though the truth has too often been for me elusive.   The truth is that I don’t know where I am going.   Therefore it’s hard to say how it will turn out, but maybe for once I won’t be result oriented.

      And with some luck and a lot of work I’ll finish it.   I’ll post everything.   Why not!

Randy Ford

Fran Marian-sequel to THE RUG BROKER published

     Fran Marian, author of THE RUG BROKER (Red Hills Press 2006) announces publication of a sequel: THE CHINESE SILK (Red Hills Press, Nov. 2008).  Philadelphia Oriental rug gallery owner Nora Readon continues her adventure in Turkey’s rural rug weaving villages while reaching out to her alienated son Tom.  But when Nora finds a hidden prayer rug in Tom’s room, she reacts with fear and prejudice, seeing Islam as another tactic Tom has chosen to distance himself from her.  It takes the power of a centuries-old Chinese silk rug to prove that love between a parent and child can withstand even time itself. 

      Taken from the WRITE WORD, the newsletter of the Society of Southwestern Authors  Vol 37.  No. 1  Feb-March 2009