Whitley Strieber's Blog - Posts Tagged "stroke"

In 2004, my wife had a serious stroke and embarked on a perilous journey. Luckily, I recognized the symptoms of a brain bleed, and she was in an emergency room within twenty minutes of her collapse.

She was in the hospital for six weeks, during which she experienced every complication of such a stroke that there is. She was all but given up for dead.

This was for her a terrible but profoundly enlightening experience, and for me an ordeal on behalf of a love that runs very, very deep.

We are just about to finish the book that tells the story of our journey through the labyrinth. It is probably the most intense and emotional writing experience I have ever had.

I attended the LA Times Book Fair on Saturday, where I signed at Mysterious Galaxy and participated with my wife Anne in the "Teen Books" panel. It was our first experience of this gigantic festival of books, and it was quite an amazing experience. I was just delighted to see the massive, thronging crowds, all there because of books and reading. Plus, a lot of my fans showed up and that was lovely, too. I always think that I have terrific fans. There is just something wonderful about readers. They are so often so bright and so very active in their lives just in general. Questing, engaged human beings.

I'm home now waiting to hear from editors about the book Anne and I just completed about the spiritual, physical and emotional journey of her stroke, and starting work on a new novel.

Do I ever slow down? Do you? Of course not!