Leah R. Cutter's Blog

So, for those of you following along from home, I recently started the Wahl’s Paleo Plus diet in an effort to cut back on the number of migraines I’ve been having. I also removed things from my diet that I suspect I’m allergic to, such as eggs, dairy, and nightshades.

My migraines all occur just before, on, or just after my period. This week was the first time I had my period since I started the diet, about three weeks ago.

The bad news: I’ve had just as many migraines as I usually have. The changes to my diet don’t appear to have affected the frequency of my migraines at all.

The good news: The migraines that I’ve had are *tremendously* less severe.

For example: Per usual, I woke up the day of my cycle starting with a horrendously bad migraine. On a scale of 1-10, pain was at about a 7-8.

Usually, I’m wasted for that entire day. There isn’t anything I can do. I can’t think. Answering even a short email takes me 20+ minutes. Looking at the computer screen hurts my eyes. Etc.

Last week, when I woke up with that same level of pain, I figured there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Got up, took meds, went about my day.

Realized after breakfast that hey, I was responding to an email normally. Typing away as usual. I could actually think.

Huh.

I didn’t write that day—but I thought about it. I was able to be productive that entire day.

Plus, instead of being in incredible pain for 12+ hours, after only a few hours, last week, the pain ratcheted down significantly. Then again. After 12 hours or so, the migraine was gone.

This has never happened to me, not with that intense of a migraine.

So while the diet hasn’t stopped the migraines, it had dramatically lessened them. This is both good and bad. Bad, because, damn it! I want to be over these damned things!

Good, because that indicates that the things I’ve removed from my diet weren’t causing my migraines. I’m not adding anything back in yet—am giving it the full three months. However, if there are no other side effects when I add them back in, I’m going to be able to eat them again. (Though I don’t believe I’ll go back to cream in my coffee. I prefer the coconut milk.)

The other good thing about this diet is that overall, I feel better. Significantly better, actually. I wasn’t feeling bad before, but I can tell now that I wasn’t as good as I could have been.

The weirdest thing? I’ve been on hormone replacement therapy for years. I don’t know why I feel this, however, I believe I’ve removed something from my diet that was blocking my hormones. They appear to be more effective now. Which is good. I’m more stable emotionally. Particularly when my cycle started.

So it’s a mixed report, I guess. Some good news (less severe migraines) and some bad (just as many as before). We’ll see where I am in a month or so from now!

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Woo AND Hoo! I sold a short story to the anthology, “Death of All Things.” The anthology itself should be coming out August or so this year.

I AM SO EXCITED. I actually really love the story they bought, called, “Wedding Vows.”

This anthology was originally funded via a Kickstarter. Here’s the description from there:

Death and taxes: the universal themes. Or, nearly. Not all cultures pay taxes, but all pay the reaper. Acknowledging that nobody will ever beat Sir Terry Pratchett for his depiction of Death, we believe there are more stories to tell, exploring the realm and character of death: tragic, humorous, and all the shades in-between. Edited by Laura Anne Gilman & Kat Richardson, THE DEATH OF ALL THINGS will contain approximately 14 brand-new stories with an average length of 6000 words each. It will include short stories by multi-award winning and NYT-bestselling authors

Stephen Blackmoore,
Aliette de Bodard,
Christie Golden,
Jim C. Hines,
Jason M. Hough,
Faith Hunter,
Juliet E. McKenna, and
Fran Wilde.

The ebook and print book (and both together!) are available for preorder here: https://squareup.com/market/zombies-n...

YAY!

There will be more news later as well…

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Sooooo…..This week, “Steam. And Dragons.” came out.

Edited by, well, yours truly.

This is the third of the Campcon anthologies. (“Tales From and Alien Campfire” and “Horseshoes, Hand Grenades, and Magic: Where Close Counts” were the first two.)

There are some truly wonderful stories in this anthology. From more traditional fantasy to steampunk to science fiction. Plus a few others thrown in, like horror and historic mystery.

Yeah, that last one is mine. “Rabbit, the Dastardly Thief, and the Disappearing Dragon”. It’s another Rabbit story, set in Tang dynasty China. (The first two Rabbit stories sold to Alfred Hitchcock. I’ve republished the first, and in two month’s time, will publish the second, third, and fourth, both separately as well as in a collection.)

It was fun editing this collection. I wasn’t supposed to do it – originally my sweetie had signed up for the task. Then Life Happened. We switched things around so I would do the editing on this volume.

Will I edit more anthologies on my own, outside of Fiction River? Quite possibly. I have this idea that I keep going back to. “Runes in Flesh: Tattoos and Other Markings.” I’d do it through BundleRabbit, though it might be “heavily curated” – meaning I’d read through and make edits on stories before they’d get published. Or maybe not. Copious spare time, you know?

But I wanted to announce this publication before any more time went on. I’m proud of the stories in here, as well as the work I did.

It’s available at all your favorite realtors – http://www.knottedroadpress.com/book/steam-and-dragons/

 

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Okay, this is likely to be a longish post, so stay with me.

For those following along at home, you may or may not recall that I’ve been suffering from a bunch of migraines. I have successfully done a couple things to reduce them:

Doubled my thyroid medication. This got rid of a bunch of migraines. At this point, I only get menstrual migraines. Which means I have migraines for 1-2 weeks a month, then the rest of the time, I’m fine. Not even a headache.
Changed my diet to include more leafy greens, like kale and lettuce. This reduced the severity of my migraines to the point that 95% of the time I need to ask myself if I’m just having a headache or if I’m having secondary symptoms, which means it’s actually a migraine. The amount of pain is no longer an indication. (Secondary symptoms include: sensitivity to light, noise, and smells; ears ringing; difficulty concentrating, etc.)

Since changing my diet helped my migraines significantly, I’m now doing more tweaks for the next three months to see if I can finally reduce the frequency of my migraines.

The diet I plan on following? The Wahl’s Paleo Plus diet. (http://terrywahls.com/) I’ve been doing low carb for quite some time (since 2009). This diet is very low carb, while having many more veggies and varying my meats.

In addition, I’m eliminating some things from my diet for the time being, just to see how I do.

Eggs. There’s always been a chance that I have some level of sensitivity to eggs. I react horribly to flu shots, which are cultured in egg protein. If you are allergic to eggs, you don’t get flu shots. So I’m cutting them out for three months, just to see if they’re affecting my migraines.
Dairy. I’ve tried taking dairy out of my diet before, for a month. I didn’t see any change. This was before I’d upped my thyroid medication, however. In addition, 80% of those who test as sensitive to gluten also test as sensitive to dairy. So I’m going to do without for three months, and see if it makes a difference.

Nightshades. I’ve always reacted badly to eggplant. 20 minutes after I eat it, all around my lips and the inside of my mouth gets covered in sores. The same thing happens (though to a lesser extent) with I eat too many raw tomatoes. I’ve never noticed a problem with potatoes. However, I’m cutting all of them, along with green peppers and sweet peppers, for three months.`

Things I’m adding to my diet?

More organ meat. 12oz a week. Tonight, cooked up a bunch of bacon and chicken gizzards, and tomorrow, will fry up some chicken liver. I have calf liver in the freezer that I’ll use for pate next week. This last week I’ve been eating cow tongue.
More fish. Again, 12oz a week. Gosh, that means pickled herring. And salmon. And sashimi.
More veggies. 2-3 cups of leafy greens a day. 2-3 cups of sulphur veggies. 2-3 cups of “colorful” veggies. And more.
More fat. Lots of coconut milk, coconut oil, and bacon fat.

The official diet wants me to eat just twice a day. I’m not ready to do that yet. I’m not used to eating as much as they’d like for me to eat for breakfast. Will have to work up to that. (My usual schedule is a medium breakfast, a large lunch, and a smallish dinner.)

I actually started the “diet” last week. Took about a week for my body to get used to few carbs. But am feeling good now. Will report in now and again. Hope that all is well in your world!

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Woo AND hoo!

My article about the Island Sampler is on the Kobo Writing Life post today!

Go check it out!

Writing All Over The Map: Leah Cutter’s Island Sampler

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Just returned from being a guest editor for the Fiction River anthology series. Exhausted doesn’t even begin to cover how tired I am. However, I still wanted to announce my title, Fiction River: Stolen. The above is the mockup of the cover, that I had all my wonderful authors sign.

I will blog more about the process later. Right now, words are hard. It was a marvelous experience. I have more work ahead, before I turn in the final manuscript. Looking forward to working with everyone.

In the meanwhile, I think it might be time for a nap…

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

I recently bought a brand new kindle (Paperwhite.)

OMG. I think I’m in love.

Seven years ago, I’d bought a kindle as well. I ended up reselling it, because I just didn’t like it and didn’t use it. I remember the device being clunky, and the text difficult to read. I preferred paper books at that point.

This new device? Makes reading sexy. Honestly. I’ve only started reading on it but I can totally see the appeal, and will probably read on this thing until it dies.

I’m much more used to reading on the computer/my tablet/my phone than I was seven years ago. Plus, this kindle feels like a paperback to me.

Except that it’s a magic book FULL OF MORE BOOKS.

As a reader, I’ve always been afraid of going someplace and not having enough books to read.

Never again.

Mod cons, man. (Modern Conveniences, for those of you too young to remember the term.) This future has some pretty nifty stuff.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

Let’s start off by reminding people who don’t know that I have weird body chemistry. For example, I’m allergic to Ibuprofen.* And wheat. And corn. Etc.

About 1 1/2 years ago, I started getting serious migraines. Out of the blue. Between 12-15 a month at the start. Kinda sucked.

Searched for things that would help. Started taking an OTC product called, “Migra-lief” that contained Magnesium, Riboflavin, and Feverfew. Lots of studies have showed that these each of these three things help reduce both the frequency as well as the severity of migraines. Plus, my doctor thought it would be a good idea.

Stopped taking the supplement last year as part of a migraine study. Migraines disappeared. Figured it was because of the other stuff I was taking. Gradually, migraines increased again. Decided to take the supplement again, figuring it wouldn’t hurt.

Within a month I was having really severe migraines again. There was no reason for it. Stopped taking the supplement. Stopped having severe migraines.

Okay – I have weird body chemistry. Obviously my body is unhappy with something in that mix.

This last week or so, I started taking magnesium on its own. Again, lots of science behind it. Anyone who get frequent headaches would probably benefit from taking magnesium.

Three days later – I had a severe migraine out of the blue. I hadn’t done anything that should have given me a migraine. Hadn’t pushed my limits. Was stable at that time.

WTF body?

All I can figure is that there’s some additive that’s typically added to magnesium that I should not take.

Now, the good news, is that I regularly eat a lot of the foods that contain magnesium, like dark greens (had a salad for breakfast), avocados, nuts, and yogurt. Will have to track for a while and make sure I’m getting at least the RDA.

I keep thinking that there must be something I can do or take to fully reduce my migraines, get me back to having between 0-2 a month. Haven’t found it so far. Might not be anything. But I keep looking.

 

*Ibuprofen. The first time I took it, I was with a friend who’s an EMT. He had me flat on my back in the middle of a parking lot in minutes. My at-rest pulse rate was 120 beats per minute. My skin was clammy, I felt nauseated, etc. He said he’d read about people whose skin turned gray – this was the first time he’d actually seen it.

I’ve met one other person who had the exact same reaction to ibuprofen as I did. However, she took it twice, had the same reaction both times, heart pounding, clammy skin, felt nauseated, etc.

There’s been studies done now on young people who are injured or who have surgery, who then take a large dose of ibuprofen for the first time, and suddenly have heart attacks. Healthy young people with no history of heart disease. It’s a very small percentage of the population. The study I read was careful to point out that it wasn’t a causal relationship–if you take ibuprofen you won’t necessarily have a heart attack. But there is a correlation between the two for a few people. It’s rare, but it happens.

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

No, not with a novel. Or even with another quilt.

I just finished reading all the short stories for the Fiction River anthology workshop this year!

I was pretty focused and disciplined, reading 4 short stories a day and making comments on every single story. I’ve been doing this for months, now.

I believe the count is 1.1 million words this year. Hell of a lot of great stories, too.

I plan on spending the next week going back over the short stories for my anthology.

Plus, I am looking forward to reading a novel again! While I love short stories, I just want to fall into a complex world and wallow for a while at this point. I have a bunch of novel samples downloaded, as well as a couple in paperback that I can’t wait to start.

One of the good things about doing all this reading was how much I walked. I loaded all the stories onto my tablet and walked around my house for an hour or so every day, averaging about 2500 steps per session. I plan on continuing to walk and read everyday, if possible.

 

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.

 

No, not a novel this time. The latest quilt!

It’s a scrap quilt, so 95% of the material in it was left over from other projects.

It was also a pain in the ass to finish.

Each one of those squares had to be cut individually. Then I stitched light and a dark squares together. It would take two seams – both from one corner across the center to the diagonal corner. Then I’d cut between the seams, making two squares of the different colors.

After that, I assembled the two-colored squares into bigger square, four by fours.

Once I finished creating all the bigger squares, I assembled them into rows. Then attached the rows to each other.

Finally sewed the center pieces all together. Added the color strips on the outside.

Here, we have the back:

Around the center gray and blue rectangles, you’ll see a row of the left-over squares from the front of the quilt, sewn together. Then much more left over fabric.

I took the quilt to a nearby shop for them to actually “quilt” it together with the batting in the center. I’ll do the final binding around the edges by hand. Then, I will have a new quilt! Yay!

Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.