Crap. Crappity crap. One of my favorite authors ever, Kage Baker , is said to be dying of cancer.
From Locus Online News
Author Kage Baker, 57, has been battling cancer for some time, and is now in the hospital following surgery to remove a brain tumor on December 26, 2009. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment, but her condition remains very serious.
It links to a letter from Kage’s sister Kathleen, at “Ren Faire History Snobs ”:
It started out as uterine cancer, and the surgery for that went well - but on Christmas Eve we discovered it had metastasized to her brain. She had a craniotomy the day after Christmas, and an inch-long tumor was removed from her cerebellum - three weeks later, it has regenerated to the size of a golf ball. She has begun both radiation and chemo this week, and they do seem to be helping: but it will be a week or two before we know if they are making a sufficient difference to save her life. At this point, it is a race to see what dies faster: Kage or the cancer. There are also 5 tumors in her lungs, though all of them are mercifully smaller; they are responding fast, too, and she said tonight that she can breathe a bit better already.
The comments on that page mention more recent information posted at the “Green Man Review ” from the 27th:
Kage’s doctor has informed us she has reached the end of useful treatment. The cancer has slowed, but not stopped. It has continued to spread at an unnatural speed through her brain, her lungs and – now – reappeared in her abdomen. It is probably a matter of a few weeks, at most. Kage has fought very hard, but this is just too aggressive and mean.
I was just randomly Wikisurfing good authors when I came across this. That’ll teach me.
I will probably never eat chocolate without thinking of her.
!@#%*!
I just finished her Company series yesterday.
(And this isn’t the first time it’s happened, either. Why do I kill off prolific writers?)
I heard about that a couple of weeks ago. My ex-husband actually IMd me with the information, since it was one of the things I introduced him to. She’s young, and it’s so fast, and sad. I’ve enjoyed her books greatly.
This really sucks.
howye
January 31, 2010, 10:45pm
4
That’s too bad. She was one of the authors I always checked out for new books when I hit the local bookstore.
That’s very sad. I’m sorry to hear what an awful time she had. I, too, just discovered the Conpany–Sky Coyote is here on my desk half-finished.
