The day sure got better fast!

I was dreading Monday, August 9th.  For the past three weeks I've had LOTS of time to think about gum surgery.  I broke my bridge back in April.  (Here's the story.)  I waffled for weeks and weeks:  Should I raid my new-car fund and get implants (and hope my car will last at least another TEN years) so I can have some pearly ... um ... not very white new (implanted) teeth, or go for a partial plate, which wouldn't last more than ten years and possibly ruin another crown that would need to anchor the thing.

I went for the implants.  But I don't have to have them done all at once. I did need to have the roots extracted where the crown broke below the gum line, and what remained of a root canal that went terribly wrong.  And have a bone graft. (That was the scary part.)


I've been losing sleep for weeks.  Yesterday was the day. I went there with Mary Jane Maffini's "Organize Your Corpses" in my hand.  (MJ's my friend, and clutching her wonderful book (which I'm in the middle of)  during the procedure was almost as good as having a MJ holding my hand the whole time.)

The worst thing about the whole thing?  The strawberry-flavored topical numb-er.  (Ick.  I loathe strawberries.)  Otherwise, they gave me LOTS of Novocaine.  Fifty minutes later, I was on my way home, with three prescriptions marking the pages of MJ's book. 

I hadn't been home more than fifteen minutes when the phone rang ... with a New York number. 

Hmmm...my editor is in New York. 

I snatched up the phone.  Bingo!  It was my editor--and he had good news!

Chapter & Hearse:  #15 on Barnes & Noble's mass market list. 

Woo-hoo!

Chapter & Hearse:  #1 on Barnes & Noble's mystery MM list!

Suddenly, the day didn't seem all that bad after all.