Writing Summer Reversal did not go smoothly.
Part of the reason was my own limited ability. I tried to combine Western fantasy and Eastern fantasy, and I can say with certainty that it did not work.
Perhaps I should have set the story in a world with a Western cultural background. Then it would not have felt so out of place.
But more than anything, I think I simply lacked the skill.
If I write another book, I will abandon this patchwork approach to worldbuilding. Eastern culture will be entirely Eastern, and Western culture entirely Western. I will do my best to give the story a more authentic flavor.
Another reason this book did not go smoothly was that I fell ill.
Around New Year's Day in 2021, a severe cold brought on by a chill led to myocarditis, which in turn caused frequent premature heartbeats. At its worst, my doctor even advised me to go straight into the hospital and prepare for surgery.
Fortunately, after I took medication and rested for a while, my heartbeat settled down. At my most recent checkup, my doctor advised me to start reducing the dose, then stop taking the medication for a while before another examination to determine whether I could come off it altogether.
That was the best news I had heard all year.
As the saying goes, blessings never come in pairs, while misfortunes never come alone. Perhaps once you reach middle age and a core piece of hardware goes wrong, the rest of the hardware starts malfunctioning too.
Throughout the year, I was almost never free of one ailment or another. The boxes of medicine I went through could have been stacked high enough to bury me; I needed so many IVs that the nurses struggled to find a place