When my fingers on my left hand and middle finger on my right hand were amputated, it didn’t bother me at first. As I looked back and knew I had gangrene it was a no-brainer to have them removed. My brother teased me by saying that he wanted my damaged fingers to give them to a museum. They were blackish-green and looked like an Egyptian artifact.

When I was released from the hospital and nursing home, it still didn’t register that my life will be changed forever. The little things such as tying my shoes or opening canisters I was not able to do.

To add insult to injury, I’m left-handed and now have to do things with my right hand which is totally annoying. I still haven’t cried over the fact that my situation has really put in a damper on my social life, but it does make me sad on occasion.

Don’t get me wrong–I have a lot to be thankful for. My arms and feet could have been amputated but thank God they weren’t. God knows how much we can bear. I realize that there are others in worse condition than me so help me God not to complain.

You’re probably wondering how did I type this article–amazingly I typed it with the ring finger on my right hand. I’m typing keys one at a time. I’m using my cell phone which is more comfortable than using my desktop. With my desktop I’m inclined to use both hands but I forget my left fingers are gone.

So far, I’m coming along fine as this situation is my new normal. Hopefully soon I’ll find a prosthetic that is perfect for my hand so I can get back to doing the things I love.

When my fingers on my left hand and middle finger on my right hand were amputated, it didn’t bother me at first. As I looked back and knew I had gangrene it was a no-brainer to have them removed. My brother teased me by saying that he wanted my damaged fingers to give them to a museum. They were blackish-green and looked like an Egyptian artifact.

When I was released from the hospital and nursing home, it still didn’t register that my life will be changed forever. The little things such as tying my shoes or opening canisters I was not able to do.

To add insult to injury, I’m left-handed and now have to do things with my right hand which is totally annoying. I still haven’t cried over the fact that my situation has really put in a damper on my social life, but it does make me sad on occasion.

Don’t get me wrong–I have a lot to be thankful for. My arms and feet could have been amputated but thank God they weren’t. God knows how much we can bear. I realize that there are others in worse condition than me so help me God not to complain.

You’re probably wondering how did I type this article–amazingly I typed it with the ring finger on my right hand. I’m typing keys one at a time. I’m using my cell phone which is more comfortable than using my desktop. With my desktop I’m inclined to use both hands but I forget my left fingers are gone.

So far, I’m coming along fine as this situation is my new normal. Hopefully soon I’ll find a prosthetic that is perfect for my hand so I can get back to doing the things I love.

Regular readers of these posts will recall that I have been writing mystery novels — or, if you prefer, detective stories –– for much of the time ( eight years ) I’ve written this blog.

Imagine my amazement, then, when I was reading Sulari Gentill’s amazing mystery “The Woman in the Library” (copyright 2022, Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks) and discovered that it wasn’t really mystery or detection that I was writing at all!

It’s hard for me to tell much about the tale — partly because I don’t want to spoil it, and partly because this episode in Chapter Eleven so impressed me that I’m writing about it before I finish the book. But suffice to say for this excerpt that a group of new friends, bound together by the events of Chapter One (which I did say I wouldn’t spoil), includes the narrator of the story, who is a writer. One of her neighbors turns out to be a writer, too.

Neighbors Leo and Winfred (Freddie) are getting to know one another, and they’re talking about their manuscripts. Each wants to know how the other writes, and also what they are writing. “I ask him about his novel,” Freddie reports, then adds:

“I fancy that Leo writes historical fiction, and for some reason I’m convinced his era is the Roman Empire. I have no reason to suppose this… it’s just a fancy.

“Romance,” he says. “I write romance.”

My surprise clearly needs no words because he continues to explain. “My agent will tell you it’s a story about passionate friendships and reluctant relationships in modern America, but really it’s a romance.”

“Oh… set today?” I’m still thinking gladiators.

“Modern America, remember.”

“Have you… have you always written romance?”

“Yes, and what’s more, so have you. The mystery writers, the historical novelists, the political thriller writers, the science fiction writers… everybody but the people who write instruction manuals is writing romance. We dress our stories up with murders, and discussions about morality and society, but really we just care about relationships.”

“You can’t be serious. You’re saying Stephen King writes romances?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Leo sits back in the sofa. “The killer clown is entertaining, and all that, but what we’re really interested in is whether the fat kid gets the pretty girl.”

There are many other wonderful moments in “The Woman in the Library,” I can say with just over 100 pages left to read, knowing that some I haven’t read yet will equal what I’ve read already for that power — and for the laugh-out-loud joy of another scene. But the diagnosis here — I’m a romance writer! — has put “The Woman in the Library” on my Sustaining Books list already, along with making it a very strong candidate for my favorite new book of 2022.

There’s a wonderful puzzle left to solve, but after I become “the woman in the library” myself and have to take this copy back, I will be a different writer for having read it.

I don’t exactly endorse things, but this is one of my favorite kind of Sustaining Books.

Regular readers of these posts will recall that I have been writing mystery novels — or, if you prefer, detective stories –– for much of the time ( eight years ) I’ve written this blog.

Imagine my amazement, then, when I was reading Sulari Gentill’s amazing mystery “The Woman in the Library” (copyright 2022, Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks) and discovered that it wasn’t really mystery or detection that I was writing at all!

It’s hard for me to tell much about the tale — partly because I don’t want to spoil it, and partly because this episode in Chapter Eleven so impressed me that I’m writing about it before I finish the book. But suffice to say for this excerpt that a group of new friends, bound together by the events of Chapter One (which I did say I wouldn’t spoil), includes the narrator of the story, who is a writer. One of her neighbors turns out to be a writer, too.

Neighbors Leo and Winfred (Freddie) are getting to know one another, and they’re talking about their manuscripts. Each wants to know how the other writes, and also what they are writing. “I ask him about his novel,” Freddie reports, then adds:

“I fancy that Leo writes historical fiction, and for some reason I’m convinced his era is the Roman Empire. I have no reason to suppose this… it’s just a fancy.

“Romance,” he says. “I write romance.”

My surprise clearly needs no words because he continues to explain. “My agent will tell you it’s a story about passionate friendships and reluctant relationships in modern America, but really it’s a romance.”

“Oh… set today?” I’m still thinking gladiators.

“Modern America, remember.”

“Have you… have you always written romance?”

“Yes, and what’s more, so have you. The mystery writers, the historical novelists, the political thriller writers, the science fiction writers… everybody but the people who write instruction manuals is writing romance. We dress our stories up with murders, and discussions about morality and society, but really we just care about relationships.”

“You can’t be serious. You’re saying Stephen King writes romances?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Leo sits back in the sofa. “The killer clown is entertaining, and all that, but what we’re really interested in is whether the fat kid gets the pretty girl.”

There are many other wonderful moments in “The Woman in the Library,” I can say with just over 100 pages left to read, knowing that some I haven’t read yet will equal what I’ve read already for that power — and for the laugh-out-loud joy of another scene. But the diagnosis here — I’m a romance writer! — has put “The Woman in the Library” on my Sustaining Books list already, along with making it a very strong candidate for my favorite new book of 2022.

There’s a wonderful puzzle left to solve, but after I become “the woman in the library” myself and have to take this copy back, I will be a different writer for having read it.

I don’t exactly endorse things, but this is one of my favorite kind of Sustaining Books.

Regular readers of these posts will recall that I have been writing mystery novels — or, if you prefer, detective stories –– for much of the time ( eight years ) I’ve written this blog.

Imagine my amazement, then, when I was reading Sulari Gentill’s amazing mystery “The Woman in the Library” (copyright 2022, Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks) and discovered that it wasn’t really mystery or detection that I was writing at all!

It’s hard for me to tell much about the tale — partly because I don’t want to spoil it, and partly because this episode in Chapter Eleven so impressed me that I’m writing about it before I finish the book. But suffice to say for this excerpt that a group of new friends, bound together by the events of Chapter One (which I did say I wouldn’t spoil), includes the narrator of the story, who is a writer. One of her neighbors turns out to be a writer, too.

Neighbors Leo and Winfred (Freddie) are getting to know one another, and they’re talking about their manuscripts. Each wants to know how the other writes, and also what they are writing. “I ask him about his novel,” Freddie reports, then adds:

“I fancy that Leo writes historical fiction, and for some reason I’m convinced his era is the Roman Empire. I have no reason to suppose this… it’s just a fancy.

“Romance,” he says. “I write romance.”

My surprise clearly needs no words because he continues to explain. “My agent will tell you it’s a story about passionate friendships and reluctant relationships in modern America, but really it’s a romance.”

“Oh… set today?” I’m still thinking gladiators.

“Modern America, remember.”

“Have you… have you always written romance?”

“Yes, and what’s more, so have you. The mystery writers, the historical novelists, the political thriller writers, the science fiction writers… everybody but the people who write instruction manuals is writing romance. We dress our stories up with murders, and discussions about morality and society, but really we just care about relationships.”

“You can’t be serious. You’re saying Stephen King writes romances?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Leo sits back in the sofa. “The killer clown is entertaining, and all that, but what we’re really interested in is whether the fat kid gets the pretty girl.”

There are many other wonderful moments in “The Woman in the Library,” I can say with just over 100 pages left to read, knowing that some I haven’t read yet will equal what I’ve read already for that power — and for the laugh-out-loud joy of another scene. But the diagnosis here — I’m a romance writer! — has put “The Woman in the Library” on my Sustaining Books list already, along with making it a very strong candidate for my favorite new book of 2022.

There’s a wonderful puzzle left to solve, but after I become “the woman in the library” myself and have to take this copy back, I will be a different writer for having read it.

I don’t exactly endorse things, but this is one of my favorite kind of Sustaining Books.

Regular readers of these posts will recall that I have been writing mystery novels — or, if you prefer, detective stories –– for much of the time ( eight years ) I’ve written this blog.

Imagine my amazement, then, when I was reading Sulari Gentill’s amazing mystery “The Woman in the Library” (copyright 2022, Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks) and discovered that it wasn’t really mystery or detection that I was writing at all!

It’s hard for me to tell much about the tale — partly because I don’t want to spoil it, and partly because this episode in Chapter Eleven so impressed me that I’m writing about it before I finish the book. But suffice to say for this excerpt that a group of new friends, bound together by the events of Chapter One (which I did say I wouldn’t spoil), includes the narrator of the story, who is a writer. One of her neighbors turns out to be a writer, too.

Neighbors Leo and Winfred (Freddie) are getting to know one another, and they’re talking about their manuscripts. Each wants to know how the other writes, and also what they are writing. “I ask him about his novel,” Freddie reports, then adds:

“I fancy that Leo writes historical fiction, and for some reason I’m convinced his era is the Roman Empire. I have no reason to suppose this… it’s just a fancy.

“Romance,” he says. “I write romance.”

My surprise clearly needs no words because he continues to explain. “My agent will tell you it’s a story about passionate friendships and reluctant relationships in modern America, but really it’s a romance.”

“Oh… set today?” I’m still thinking gladiators.

“Modern America, remember.”

“Have you… have you always written romance?”

“Yes, and what’s more, so have you. The mystery writers, the historical novelists, the political thriller writers, the science fiction writers… everybody but the people who write instruction manuals is writing romance. We dress our stories up with murders, and discussions about morality and society, but really we just care about relationships.”

“You can’t be serious. You’re saying Stephen King writes romances?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Leo sits back in the sofa. “The killer clown is entertaining, and all that, but what we’re really interested in is whether the fat kid gets the pretty girl.”

There are many other wonderful moments in “The Woman in the Library,” I can say with just over 100 pages left to read, knowing that some I haven’t read yet will equal what I’ve read already for that power — and for the laugh-out-loud joy of another scene. But the diagnosis here — I’m a romance writer! — has put “The Woman in the Library” on my Sustaining Books list already, along with making it a very strong candidate for my favorite new book of 2022.

There’s a wonderful puzzle left to solve, but after I become “the woman in the library” myself and have to take this copy back, I will be a different writer for having read it.

I don’t exactly endorse things, but this is one of my favorite kind of Sustaining Books.

Regular readers of these posts will recall that I have been writing mystery novels — or, if you prefer, detective stories –– for much of the time ( eight years ) I’ve written this blog.

Imagine my amazement, then, when I was reading Sulari Gentill’s amazing mystery “The Woman in the Library” (copyright 2022, Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks) and discovered that it wasn’t really mystery or detection that I was writing at all!

It’s hard for me to tell much about the tale — partly because I don’t want to spoil it, and partly because this episode in Chapter Eleven so impressed me that I’m writing about it before I finish the book. But suffice to say for this excerpt that a group of new friends, bound together by the events of Chapter One (which I did say I wouldn’t spoil), includes the narrator of the story, who is a writer. One of her neighbors turns out to be a writer, too.

Neighbors Leo and Winfred (Freddie) are getting to know one another, and they’re talking about their manuscripts. Each wants to know how the other writes, and also what they are writing. “I ask him about his novel,” Freddie reports, then adds:

“I fancy that Leo writes historical fiction, and for some reason I’m convinced his era is the Roman Empire. I have no reason to suppose this… it’s just a fancy.

“Romance,” he says. “I write romance.”

My surprise clearly needs no words because he continues to explain. “My agent will tell you it’s a story about passionate friendships and reluctant relationships in modern America, but really it’s a romance.”

“Oh… set today?” I’m still thinking gladiators.

“Modern America, remember.”

“Have you… have you always written romance?”

“Yes, and what’s more, so have you. The mystery writers, the historical novelists, the political thriller writers, the science fiction writers… everybody but the people who write instruction manuals is writing romance. We dress our stories up with murders, and discussions about morality and society, but really we just care about relationships.”

“You can’t be serious. You’re saying Stephen King writes romances?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Leo sits back in the sofa. “The killer clown is entertaining, and all that, but what we’re really interested in is whether the fat kid gets the pretty girl.”

There are many other wonderful moments in “The Woman in the Library,” I can say with just over 100 pages left to read, knowing that some I haven’t read yet will equal what I’ve read already for that power — and for the laugh-out-loud joy of another scene. But the diagnosis here — I’m a romance writer! — has put “The Woman in the Library” on my Sustaining Books list already, along with making it a very strong candidate for my favorite new book of 2022.

There’s a wonderful puzzle left to solve, but after I become “the woman in the library” myself and have to take this copy back, I will be a different writer for having read it.

I don’t exactly endorse things, but this is one of my favorite kind of Sustaining Books.

Regular readers of these posts will recall that I have been writing mystery novels — or, if you prefer, detective stories –– for much of the time ( eight years ) I’ve written this blog.

Imagine my amazement, then, when I was reading Sulari Gentill’s amazing mystery “The Woman in the Library” (copyright 2022, Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks) and discovered that it wasn’t really mystery or detection that I was writing at all!

It’s hard for me to tell much about the tale — partly because I don’t want to spoil it, and partly because this episode in Chapter Eleven so impressed me that I’m writing about it before I finish the book. But suffice to say for this excerpt that a group of new friends, bound together by the events of Chapter One (which I did say I wouldn’t spoil), includes the narrator of the story, who is a writer. One of her neighbors turns out to be a writer, too.

Neighbors Leo and Winfred (Freddie) are getting to know one another, and they’re talking about their manuscripts. Each wants to know how the other writes, and also what they are writing. “I ask him about his novel,” Freddie reports, then adds:

“I fancy that Leo writes historical fiction, and for some reason I’m convinced his era is the Roman Empire. I have no reason to suppose this… it’s just a fancy.

“Romance,” he says. “I write romance.”

My surprise clearly needs no words because he continues to explain. “My agent will tell you it’s a story about passionate friendships and reluctant relationships in modern America, but really it’s a romance.”

“Oh… set today?” I’m still thinking gladiators.

“Modern America, remember.”

“Have you… have you always written romance?”

“Yes, and what’s more, so have you. The mystery writers, the historical novelists, the political thriller writers, the science fiction writers… everybody but the people who write instruction manuals is writing romance. We dress our stories up with murders, and discussions about morality and society, but really we just care about relationships.”

“You can’t be serious. You’re saying Stephen King writes romances?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Leo sits back in the sofa. “The killer clown is entertaining, and all that, but what we’re really interested in is whether the fat kid gets the pretty girl.”

There are many other wonderful moments in “The Woman in the Library,” I can say with just over 100 pages left to read, knowing that some I haven’t read yet will equal what I’ve read already for that power — and for the laugh-out-loud joy of another scene. But the diagnosis here — I’m a romance writer! — has put “The Woman in the Library” on my Sustaining Books list already, along with making it a very strong candidate for my favorite new book of 2022.

There’s a wonderful puzzle left to solve, but after I become “the woman in the library” myself and have to take this copy back, I will be a different writer for having read it.

I don’t exactly endorse things, but this is one of my favorite kind of Sustaining Books.

Former Minooka star Isaiah Hill (7) is a key cog in the Eastern Illinois offense. (photo courtesy Sandy King, EIU Athletics)

If Isaiah Hill’s collegiate career were compared to a stop light, there have been nearly as many yellow and red lights as there have been green.

Hill, the 5-foot-11 redshirt senior, wants nothing more than solid green as he enters the avenue leading into his final season.

“I finally feel like I’m back to a point where I’m 100 percent,” Hill said via a Zoom call from Tuesday’s Ohio Valley Conference media day.

Hill’s list of injuries during his career have included broken fingers and a “strained MCL”. However, the worst came via a torn Achilles in Feb. 2021.

“That was the week before our first game (during the spring Covid year season),” Hill said. “I went home, found a surgeon and got my Achilles repaired (in early March). I did a couple of months of rehab.

“I came back in the spring and was ready for the fall camp.”

However, on a rainy fall camp day Hill caught a ball in the back of the end zone.

“I tweaked my MCL,” he said.

The Panthers offense sputtered without Hill in lineup. He returned for the final four games and managed to lead EIU with 39 receptions and 493 receiving yards.

Hill ended season with three straight games with 100 or more yards receiving and double-figure receptions in each contest to earn second team All-Ohio Valley Conference honors.

Hill had 11 catches for 207 yards at Southeast Missouri, a mark that was eighth best single-game receiving total in school history.

“It was super great feeling. That’s what you work for your career to have games like that,” Hill said.

On Tuesday, Hill was named to the preseason All-OVC offensive team along with tight end Jay Vallie, who missed last season with an injury.

Dark days

Despite his success, thoughts of those tough times stay with Hill.

“I can’t even tell you how many nights I was in my room (thinking) ‘this is it; I’m probably never going to be able to play football again’,” Hill said. “I was just sitting in my room thinking and crying.

“I love this game so much that I wanted to do everything I could to get back to the field. Luckily I was able to do that within a short time period.”

Hill originally committed out of high school to play at South Dakota State, where he spent two years before transferring to Eastern in 2019 as a redshirt sophomore.

Granted an NCAA transfer waiver to play at the start of conference schedule that season, Hill played in the final eight games, making six starts at wide receiver and being named to All-OVC Newcomer Team. He led team with 58 pass receptions for 571 yards.

Asked if he thought of transferring again during his injury-plagued time at EIU, Hill said, “Definitely there were some thoughts of ‘I need to get out of here’ but this is the place to be. I like that I’m here, and I’m just glad to be here.”

Coach’s comments

First-year head coach and EIU alum Chris Wilkerson likes that Hill is in Charleston as well.

“Isaiah is a great story,” Wilkerson said. “He’s battled injuries during his career, but was our most productive wide receiver last year.

“A phenomenal football player, a phenomenal leader. Our biggest task as a staff is now to try to find creative ways to get him the ball in space and to get him some more touches and to maintain his health. That’s been the biggest thing during the course of his career.”

Could those creative ways include putting Hill in the backfield at times?

“In high school I was lined up in the backfield a lot,” Hill said. “At Minooka I played pretty much everywhere, whether it was me on jet sweeps or coming out of the Power I (formation) doing a lot of running back stuff. I’m just trying to do whatever I can to help this team. If they need to put me in the backfield, I’m all for it.”

Wilkerson also noted that Hill is working on his MBA and has been “another coach on the field working with the younger receivers.”

Who will get Hill the ball?

Redshirt freshman Zach Weir and Bartlett High School product Jonah O’Brien are the lone quarterbacks with EIU game experience.

Weir, from Grafton, Wisc., completed 32-of-66 throws in 2021. He had one touchdown and was intercepted four times.

O’Brien returned to EIU after a stint at Colorado State. O’Brien, a redshirt sophomore, began 2019 as the EIU scout team quarterback but played the final home game of the season against Southeast Missouri, completing 12-of-21 pass attempts for 84 yards and one interception.

Meanwhile, South Bend native and University of Virginia transfer Ira Armstead II is a dual-threat option. A former three-star recruit by ESPN.com and 247sports.com, the sophomore is listed at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds.

Freshman Kevin Conway, who played quarterback and safety at Providence Catholic High School and attended Diamond Football Academy prep school in Happy, Texas in the fall, transferred into EIU for the spring semester.

“I like all four of our quarterbacks. It’s going to be a tight battle between all of them. I don’t know who’s going to come out on top, but when it comes to chemistry I try to go in with every one of them and get as many reps as I can,” Hill said.

Following spring practice, the Panthers added senior Dom Shoffner, a transfer from FBS Charlotte. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Shoffner began his collegiate career at North Carolina Central and also played at Monroe (NY) Junior College.

EIU opens fall camp July 31. The Panthers open the season on Thursday, Sept. 1 at FBS member Northern Illinois. The home opener is Sept. 10 against Chattanooga, a non-conference opponent.

Coming up tomorrow: Sophomore defensive end Jordan Miles shares his goals for the team and for himself following a breakout season.