Beloved novelist Judy Blume has been privately battling breast cancer.

Blume made the sad announcement on her blog Wednesday, in a post entitled "!@#$% Happens." According to Blume, her doctor discovered an "invasive ductal carcinoma" during a routine ultrasound on June 12. The author recalls, "The biopsy report was a shock. Isn't it always? What do you do? Where do you go?"

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Thankfully, the cancer was caught very early on and, though the news got in the way of original summer plans, Blume refused to let it bring her down. "I choked up that first day, but the tears didn't flow. This is neither good nor bad. It just surprised me. Instead, I sprang into action."

The Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing scribe goes on to detail her decision to undergo a mastectomy at the end of July, as well as her ongoing recovery. "Now it's one month post-surgery," Blume wrote, "I'm still in NY and feeling stronger every day." In fact, Blume has been thinking of restarting work on her anticipated new novel.