Hence, I’ve been pondering those times in my life when I felt I was at death’s door. Having a bad reaction to the anaesthetic when I had my tonsils out at was twelve was no picnic, but I think chicken pox at sixteen trumps it. The worst accident I ever had was when I worked part-time in a catering firm whilst at university. I dropped a hundred cup coffee pot of near-boiling coffee all over my feet. It wasn’t pretty.
I don’t write medical romances, so I don’t need to find a stream of interesting medical conditions that will reveal my heroine and hero’s expertise, but illnesses and accidents are a part of life and will, therefore, on occasion make it into my stories. A quick scan of my books reveals the various nasties I’ve inflicted upon my characters—a chest infection, a kidney infection, a miscarriage, breast cancer, ticks, two rather inelegant falls and a couple of tummy upsets.
To be honest, I've been incredibly lucky. I am, as a general rule, disgustingly healthy. Which, of course, means I take my health for granted. Today I am VERY grateful for how well, healthy and strong I feel. I want to keep feeling grateful for this, but I suspect health is like the weather—when it’s neither too hot nor too cold it’s not really something we think about.
Of course, there is now going to be a character in my future who gets food poisoning (the poor thing—yes, writers are sometimes evil). For a writer, though, every experience can become fodder for their fiction. It’s the proverbial silver lining (and a distraction if nothing else). I’ve been keeping notes about my affliction. After all, one never knows when such details might be needed in a story. ;-)
So, I would love for you to tell me the most interesting sickness and/or accident you’ve had. Who knows, it could provide inspiration for my next book. And for playing, I’ll give away one of my books with an illness and/or accident in it to one lucky commenter. :-)
Poor Josie is one such victim in The Loner’s Guarded Heart out this month in the UK anthology Claimed by the Rebel.
