Sexy Cancer Hair and a Bit of Angst

Pop quiz: Do you recognize me?

by Gigi

As many of you know, I've been absent from the blog for the past month because I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Since I'm a health nut in my 30s with a gym in the garage, this news was not at all expected!

But I'm fortunate in so many ways. In addition to having caught it early and being treated by a fantastic team of doctors, I've learned that I've got the most amazing friends in the world and the greatest husband on earth.

And to put my money where my mouth is when it comes to seizing the day, while I've been recovering from surgery I've been having FUN (in between all the extra sleeping and resting, of course).

I'm enjoying reading alchemy books as research for my next novel. But the real fun has been experimenting with new hair looks I'll need due to chemo.

Oh yes, I'm going to have sexy cancer hair. 

I've had the exact same hairstyle for the past 20 years. (Nope, I'm not joking.) It's nice hair, so I'm not complaining, but my curly long hair always refused to be styled in any way. But it worked for me. Therefore I went with it and kept the same hair I had in high school. I liked it well enough, so I never had the guts to cut it short to try something new.

But now that I have no choice about cutting my hair short, I'm free.

Last week, I cut off my hair. (It's what they recommend you do before chemo -- less stress on the hair follicles and also less traumatic if you do lose your hair.) Here are a few photos below. I was shocked to find that it's actually rather cute!

Even more fun was another recent expedition -- the Pens took me wig shopping! Photos are below.

If I do lose my hair temporarily, hell yeah I'm going to do it in style. I've got to keep up with the rest of the Pens, after all.

The last time I posted, I wrote about starting a part-time sabbatical this summer to dive into extra art and writing projects. Instead, I'm postponing my sabbatical for one year.

This year I'll be taking care of myself and getting well. But since I'll also have more time than usual at home when I'm not working or at Kaiser, I'll fit in some creative projects as well.

I've previously lamented my lack of angst and wondered if it would keep me from creating depth in my writing. So in addition to getting myself some sexy hair this year, I'm also hoping this experience will have some positive effects on my writing.

Since I have to go through this, I might as well get something out of it!

I already have reason to believe this will be the case. Normally I'm a huge plotter, and character depth is what I find most challenging. But as I've been brainstorming this alchemist novel, I'm all about the characters and their haunting secrets. As for the plot... Well, I'm hoping plotting is like riding a bike and that it'll come back to me once I start writing.

p.s. Thanks to guest bloggers Lisa Alder and Cecilia Gray for filling in for me on the blog last month!