My search for the lost Siren Island had ended, and I planned to end my life there. But when I landed, suffering from cancer with not many hours left to live, I found that there were other things at stake besides my inevitable death.

Find out more in Sisland. Story #34 in the Science Fiction Weekly series. Available in digital format from Amazon.

Some rambling from Neil A. Hogan

This simple short story, with the predominant theme of cancer, is dedicated to a few people. My birth mother, who I finally met in 2004, died from cancer in palliative care at the age of 49. (She adopted me out before I was born. The 70s wasn’t the place for a single teenage mother.) I only saw her awake once, though I spoke with her a couple of times on the phone before she died, and I was able to be there briefly during her final hours. It was difficult to meet her before then as I lived in another city and couldn’t get away from my work and other responsibilities without months of planning and saving. I thought she would live longer than she did as she seemed strong when I met her. I thought she would be fine. I had originally planned to visit again three months after that time.

This story is also dedicated to a friend who had helped me set up a business in the 00s, and worked with me on it for a few years, who died in 2019 from cancer at the age of 33. I hadn’t contacted him for over a year and only learned he had died a couple of days before the funeral, which I couldn’t attend as I had moved to another city and couldn’t get away from my work and other responsibilities without months of planning and saving. I had thought he would win his fight as his Instagram and Facebook pages were full of happy selfies. I thought he would be fine. Unfortunately the cancer reached his brain and he died just four weeks after his last post. I had originally planned to visit again three months after that time and reconnect then.

My dad has prostate cancer. I haven’t visited him in a few years as I have moved to another city and it’s difficult to get away from my work and other responsibilities without months of planning and saving, but we’ve had a few Skype calls and he’s looking good for his age. I’m sure he’ll be fine. Hoping to be able to visit him within the next few months.

Getting Old

I am learning of the sad reality that approaching fifty years old means more and more of my family and friends are dying for one reason or another. Having met thousands of people over the years, it’s now simply impossible to attend every funeral. I’ve already had to miss five relatives’ funerals just in the past five years. When my mother died in 2016 from a heart attack, one of her closest friends who she’d known for over fifty years wasn’t able to attend her funeral due to distance and cost and her own health. It helped me to understand that the funeral is not that important. It’s being with that person while they’re still alive that is.

Science has proven we are genetically predisposed to live for 38 years (CSIRO) and anything past that is a bonus. No wonder a lot of people have a mid life crisis at that time. They’ve suddenly found that they’ve been given an extra life. Like being given a new set of regenerations. So, if we’re all predisposed to live until 38, then that explains why there is an uptick of funerals after that time. It might also explain the increase in life insurance premiums.

Plan Forever

Speaking of which. Check out another site I’ve been working on. Life Insurance Articles. I’ve owned the domain www.PlanForever.com for over 10 years and I had developed a software program for it that can enable you to look up the day of the week for any period in the past 2020 years and future 7979 years (up to the year 9999)! I’m not a programmer. I designed it and worked with a programmer to put it together. Great for time travel writers who like to be a bit more accurate. (NB: Due to a change in the Gregorian calendar in the 1700s, the software program isn’t entirely accurate for dates before then.) Unfortunately the underlying PHP program that it is based on is no longer current and so I have to shut the software down on the 16th January. If you wish to check out the century planner, or just to find out what day your 100th birthday will be on, you can visit the site and click on ‘Plan System’

To make the site pay for itself, I’ve converted it into a Life Insurance Articles repository, and am collecting reproducible articles for it from around the world. I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to writing one myself. We’ll see.

Delays

My friend dying late last year knocked me for six. I just could not write anymore after that. I took a few weeks off from writing, for reflection. #34 is the last story in the science fiction weekly series for now. I do have another one that I had started a few months ago but I’m not in any mood to finish it just yet. I’ve also delayed Stellar Flash Book 4, Fantasy Short Stories Book 4 and Alien Dimensions #19 for another month. I’d prefer to write with a better frame of mind. I’ll post again when I get back to things. Apologies to anyone who is waiting on a reply from me. I’ll start replying to emails next week.

Oh, and, Happy New Year!