September 6, 2011

On Leptospirosis and a My First 5-star Review

So on Sunday night, I was more delirious than an addict withdrawing from smack and my whole body felt like I just got my ass whooped by Manny Pacquiao. After a trip to the hospital, I was informed that I had Leptospirosis. I had no idea what this weird infection was, and the fact that it's got the little red squiggly line under it within blogger's editor means it is probably not too common.

Apparently, the disease gets spread around by dogs and rats, and you get it from their urine in contaminated water. Of course, Bangkok has all of those things in spades. Luckily, I got a good treatment of antibiotics and was hooked up to an IV for 24 hours to make everything better for the time-being. It makes me feel guilty that other people in tropical climates without access to decent medical care have to suffer through crappy diseases that people in the West have barely heard of (Dengue fever, Typhoid, Malaria, and other potentially fatal afflictions).

On the plus side to a bad way to start the week, I received my first 5-star review from Vanessa at the Bornean Bookworm for America Goes On:
It’s very obvious to me that this story to some degree screams a cryptic yet powerful message to its readers. At some point in our lives, we want to be appreciated, to be taken seriously for our unquestionable noble sweats we spilled especially for our country and community.
I never really thought about the novella that way when I was writing it, but I guess that's what makes fiction interesting: it means different things to different people. So thanks, Vanessa, for the excellent review, and you cheered me up after I suffered from this lousy rat feces disease.

Check out America Goes On  right here for links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords for just $0.99.
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3 comments:

Lindsay Buroker said...

Congratulations on the good review, and I hope you are feeling better. Oy, never heard of that one, and I was even an Oregon Trail addict as a kid (someone in the party was *always* getting dysentery or some awful disease :P).

Good luck in the future (and stay away from the dog-pee water)!

Paul Salvette said...

Thanks, Lindsay, for your words of encouragement. Haha, I remember playing Oregon Trail and Carmen San Diego on like an Apple IIc or something. I guess we're showing our age a bit.

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