Missing in Action

Or, Back into the Fray

Hi Everyone,

First of all I would like to say thanks to all the people that have showed concern for my absence on the Internet since my trip out to MaltaComicCon in early December. All your phone calls, emails, text messages, voice-mail messages and one or two old-school letters have meant the world to me, despite my inability to speak to anyone directly via telephone.

And now an explanation, whilst out in Malta some of the guests (no names – no pack drill, but they will know who they are) had really bad colds. The night after a catch up evening speaking to the other guests post-convention saw us all intermingling and having a great time chatting. The night after this I awoke around 03:00am and found that when I swallowed it was like swallowing glass – I knew then I was probably coming down with something.

Now bear in mind the Maltese weather was in the mid-twenties during the day and warmer at night than it had been all year here in the North of England during most days and sunny throughout to boot.

I tried to do all the right things to combat any oncoming cold, but on the day of the flight back home I was constantly trying to clear my throat, so as soon as I arrived home I went straight to bed and off I went the following morning to the chemist (the pharmacy for any of you foreign folks – LOL) and sorted out an array of cold combatants.

Now I won’t bore you all with any of the gory details, but suffice it to say I have never visited the doctors, nurse’s rooms and hospital so much I my life. X-Rays, Steroids, Antibiotics, Prescribed Pain Killers, Cough Linctus’, Throat Sprays, Gargling Solutions, and a multitude of Soothers (their shares are probably up this year) along with about 6 boxes of Man-Sized Paper Hankies and a couple of smaller boxes (their shares are also probably up this year) have been my constant companions since December 8th.

The cold went straight to my chest and I have been coughing ever since, at its worst incessantly. This in turn was exhausting and meant I was constantly tired and found myself in bed for a few weeks over the Christmas period. My ribs felt like I had been punched by a gang of assailants. Seven or eight weeks of constant coughing, especially if I tried to speak or went from hot to cold or vice versa or had anything spicy to eat or I tried to lie down to sleep, left me feeling quite weak.   

I’m still coughing, but it is easing off thankfully – although this happened a few times where it looked like I was getting better and then suddenly it would start all over again worse than it had been before – it appears this time to be subsiding at long last. Oh, yes, and my voice still sounds like it’s breaking - like that of a little boy. LOL

The trouble is now that my keeping up to speed with Worlds End Volume 2 is now shot to pieces again, as is my answering of emails and the like. I had planned on ending the year with a couple of competitions and announcements, some of which I had discussed with folks in Malta and some of which were still Top Secret.

Over the next couple of weeks I will hopefully be in a position to finally make some of those announcements and sort the competitions, as an extension to the 2015 10th year Anniversary Celebrations. I’ll also be adding folks on the networks – something long overdue for some of the folks with friend and colleague requests, etc. I’ll also be getting back to folks via email that have emailed the studio.

Thanks once again for all the concern shown over the past few weeks – I really appreciated it, even though most of the messages were seen retrospectively.

Now it’s time to be upward and onward in this New Year.

In fact it’s time to retrospectively hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and are indeed enjoying the start of a very Happy New Year too. I missed out on this year’s festivities and family get-togethers, but I plan on making up to everyone during 2016.

Thanks also to the many folks that joined in the fun and frolics with our Wizards Keep 10th Year Anniversary Celebrations.

Look for exciting announcements all throughout 2016 – you know me and my teasers.

Next up will be my write up on the magnificent MaltaComicCon 2015 and this will be closely followed by Bentley’s long awaited Blogs, 'Blogtrotting with Bentley' with the subtitle ‘A Bogtrotter Lineage’ – there’s another teaser for you guys and sometime down the line I may even post some more Worlds End Artwork.

That’s all for now, folks, so…

Until next time, have fun!

Tim…

January 30th 2016