A Personal Message to my Fans!

R.J. Smith

Today, as I struggle to sit at my desk, I’m in quite a lot of pain as many of you have come to know.

This year, throughout the summer, 2014, starting in June, I had scheduled and was looking forward to a string of appearances and signings at books fairs, conventions, events and book stores in support of Cataclysm.

Unfortunately, I was forced to cancel ALL THE DATES of the book tour again this year due to the very serious spine injury I’ve written about that traumatized me in June 2013.

The injuries  have ruined my personal and professional life. 

Caused by the neglect of a paving contractor who left a huge hole in the sidewalk in my upscale neighborhood, they had dug  up the sidewalk and failed to rope off the area.

Unfortunately, while riding my bike on the sidewalk that evening, and unaware of the hole waiting up ahead (because there were no darn signs or caution tape… nothing) my bike went into that hole and the last two years of my life have been hell on earth.

Thank god it wasn’t a child riding their bike down that sidewalk. 

Just a few days ago I was at another of my endless doctor appointments to try and fix the damage to my spine. Off to the MRI machine again, making sure a surgery went as planned.

You see, by the time you read this, I’ll be laid up recovering from that back surgery which will hopefully correct some of the serious disc damage and spinal cord impingement’s in my back.

This is my second surgery, as last year I underwent neck surgery to alleviate an enormous amount of pain caused by disc impingement on my spinal cord. 

But it’s not over yet, I still have to undergo neurosurgery for injuries to my spinal cord in my neck and discs which has caused motor issues with my hands… and as you all know, if I cannot type normally, the novels will come very slow and the tours stop, everything ends.

I am not sure what the future holds for me anymore, I just had to turn down a movie script offer from Totem Films…. my whole career has come to a sudden stop because of these injuries. I can’t sit for long periods, which means I cannot write books on a ten month deadline or movie scripts in 90 days. I have trouble standing for more than thirty minutes, can’t pick anything up (like a box of books).

Last Fall, I was scheduled to travel to Oklahoma to write the true crime book, The Good Friday Killers. But because of the accident, that entire project has been cancelled until further notice.

This summer, I was supposed to be in New York to write my next novel, Mountain Monsters, a Horror novel and movie script about monsters in the woods who take over a town and invade West Point. But, everything has been postponed or cancelled until further notice. Travelling, or lifting boxes of books and setting up tables is just not possible.

Please send your prayers this way, I need them.