The time has rolled around again to whip out the first book and set it free... or rather set it FOR free.
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Revenge is better hot.
:blink blink: I just woke up and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet, so bear with me.
I did some writing. Not nearly as much as I would've hoped, but life's like that sometimes. I only wrote three days, but I managed to put out 4054 words. The book is up to 14648 words. Not NaNo #s, but better than nothing, right?
This week, I marketed Sleeping Ugly. FB is still hamstringing me, so I get like 3-5 posts up and it tells me they're not letting me post anymore for a while to prevent spamming. Turds. I'm following all the rules of the groups I belong to - like only posting one book and only once every 24 hours - but I'm the spammer. Gah. So, while I got posts out, they weren't all the groups every day, which meant I only moved 57 books instead of my former amounts of 120-150 a week. I did manage to sell a couple others, too, so not a total waste of time. It's just disappointing.
Reading was okay. I finished one freestanding book and then one of the books in that Poirot omnibus. :shrug:
Nothing baked. It's too hot and I'm unmotivated.
On the activity front, I got off my butt 4 days this week. Two walks, some gardening, and some housework. I haven't weighed myself. Again... too hot to be motivated.
In gardening news, the tomatoes all either have flowers or buds for future flowers. Last night we got heavy rain and when I looked out this morning, most of the plants look depressed. I'll need to go out today and shore them up with extra slats and yarn. I hope none of them are actually broken. That'd suck. The trees all look fine. I did manage to repot some of them. I need more dirt and more bigger pots to really do a good job. What the bigger trees really need is to go in the ground, but I'm trying to wait until fall to give them a good shot of living through the deer. After Elmer the Elm's horrific death, I'm hoping young trees without leaves will get ignored and by spring they'll just be part of the landscape and therefore uninteresting.
Ah, Roku... how I love thee. Yes, I have spent way too much time this week vegging in front of the tube. I'm watching Midsomer Murders, Murdoch Mysteries, Doc Martin, Yorkshire Vet, Great British Baking Show, and Hometown from the beginnings. Not binging, just watching an episode each like once a day or once/twice a week. There are a lot of episodes of all those, so yay. I'm also watching Emergency!, Red Green, Dr. G, Mayday: Air Disasters, Forensic Files, and MST3K when I feel like it. When we get done, or we get bored, I'll subscribe to BritBox. I'm looking forward to watching all the episodes of Inspector Morse and Poirot (naturally, Poirot... lol).
Okay, I think that's about it for me this week. How are things in your world?
Not the best reading week I've ever had, but not the worst either, so let's get right to it.
No new books. I still have 6 unread ebooks - three urban fantasy, two thrillers, and a YA action/adventure. And of course, I have scads of unread hardcopies in case of emergency. ;o)
Books Read:
27) Space Academy Dropouts by Phipps & Suttkus (7/6/25) - SF humor*# - 5 stars. New to me and underappreciated at the time of download. Free off the Book Barbarian newsletter.
Review: "This is a pretty neat story, with loads of fun characters. I really enjoyed reading it."
No DNFs.
Currently reading... the next story in that Poirot omnibus. I'm on The ABC Murders. I'll probably finish it today and then read another ebook. The omnibus has two more stories after this. Unfortunately, I didn't notice when I bought it that Death on the Nile has damage to the last third or so of the story - like the top quarter of all the pages was ripped out. I won't be able to read that. Good thing I've already read that story in other formats, and I've seen the movies. Still, damaged books make me sad. =o(
Okay, your turn. What's been on your reading plate this week?
Here we are with my 2025 Books Read post. I started it a little later than usual this year because it took me a while to finish that first book.
If you haven't been following along all these years, here's how this post goes. The books I read are in reverse order - newest first. * means ebook. # means 'new to me and underappreciated'. If there's a number at the end, it's where the book's at in a series. The links go to Goodreads where I may or may not have written a review. (Check back on Saturdays for my weekly Reading Wrap-up to see reviews.)
I set my goal for this year's reading at 70. We'll see how that goes.
Okay, with that out of the way, let's begin...
27) Space Academy Dropouts by Phipps & Suttkus (7/6/25) - SF humor*#
26) Sweet Harmony by Noel Bailey (6/25/25) - magical romance*#
25) The Danger by Dick Francis (6/15/25) - thriller
0) Novella by Name Withheld (6/9/25) - SF*
24) The Face in the Water by Kathleen Pennell (6/8/25) - mystery*#
23) Blade Runner (or Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep) by Philip K Dick (6/5/25) - dystopian
22) You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming (5/29/25) - action/hard-boiled crime
21) On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming (5/24/25) - action/hard-boiled crime
20) The Singing Stones by Phyllis A. Whitney (5/17/25) - romantic suspense
19) Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (5/15/25) - mystery
18) Bill and the Last Cup of Coffee by Lance Lassen (5/8/25) - dystopian action/humor* (I read the ebook, but this is the link to the paperback. In the time between now and when I downloaded the book, the ebook page has been removed and the paperback was set to 'out of print'. :sadface:)
17) Goldfinger by Ian Fleming (5/5/25) - action/hard boiled crime
16) In Plain Sight by Dan Willis (4/27/25) - magical hard-boiled crime*
15) Dr. No by Ian Fleming (4/26/25) - action/hard boiled crime
14) Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (4/20/25) - dystopian
13) Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming (4/16/25) - action/hard boiled crime
12) Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke (4/11/25) - science fiction
11) Murder by the Script by Lisa Pevey (4/8/25) - cozy mystery*
10) Festive Fonts and Fowl Murder by Lisa Pevey (4/7/25) - cozy mystery*
9) The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follett (4/6/25) - suspense
8) A Murder in Cursive by Lisa Pevey (4/3/25) - cozy mystery*
7) The Ebony Swan by Phyllis Whitney (4/1/25) - romantic suspense
6) The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip (3/29/25) - fantasy
5) Murder by the Letter by Lisa Pevey (3/27/25) - cozy mystery*
4) Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout (3/26/25) - noir crime
3) Moonstruck: Retribution by Silver James (3/20/25) - paranormal romantic suspense*
2) President Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer (3/14/25) - noir crime
1) Child Star by Shirley Temple Black (1/8/25) - autobiography
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this reading journey with me.
Saw this just now in one of my author groups. It's a cautionary tale...
Last week, I saw a similar story - only this time it was a reader saying the book they were reading had all sorts of weird errors and after thinking about it for a time, they realized that the author had Replaced all instances of 'ass' with 'arse' (probably to make it more British sounding). Working on an arseignment? Going to an arseignation? Went fishing and caught a big barse?
In the above case, though, I'm not sure what 'too late' would be for a book. Post publication and after a slew of bad reviews perhaps? Ugh.
If you're silly enough to make this mistake, the fix isn't that hard. Once you realize you've replaced all your Toms with Bobs, do another Find and Replace, finding Bob this time and going through each separate instance... OR just replace all Bobs with Toms again, and THEN do another search for Tom replacing it with what you meant to replace it with in the first place - each instance separately. Which is what you should've done the first time, but you got lazy and paid the price.
Sometimes, doing the work the right way, no matter what kind of boring slog it is, actually saves time in the long run.
If you've done it and didn't do that final run-through before you loaded it for publication, only to have people read it and leave bad reviews, you're kinda screwed. Always check, recheck, and double-check before you hit Publish.
Ding dong the witch is dead... to me, at least. Yesterday, I had the great honor of killing my account with Brightspeed. Gah, they suck so bad. Even the last phone contact with them sucked. The first person I talked to 'Shannon', who was barely understandable as it was, hung up on me accidentally. I called back and got 'Sergio'. He was actually harder to understand, but he got the job done and confirmed my account was cancelled effective 7/9. Then I asked about the 'final bill' and he said it was like $58+, and I was all like 'whoa whoa whoa, wait a second there'. I explained how we haven't had phone service for WEEKS and that any bill they sent wasn't going to get paid - very nicely, of course - then I said 'please make that go away for me, Sergio' and he did. $0 bill and the service is dead. Long live 1-VoiP. Of course, I don't trust Brightspeed, so I fully expect to see a bill that they will want me to pay, but I have Sergio's confirmation number and a willingness to call and go all screamin' chicken on them.
By the way, it's really nice to pick up the phone and hear a freakin' dial tone for a change.
I also killed DirectTV. That dude was also hard to understand, but only because he had his mic too close to his mouth and he was speaking too fast. He tried really hard to get me to stay. He offered me a discount. He offered me a giftcard, too. I finally ended up telling him he couldn't give me any offer that would be less than FREE. $0 bill there, too, but no refund (per their Terms of Service according to the dude). I just still have service through the 18th. (I already took all the stuff down and put it in the spare room, so nah.) And since my equipment was so old, they didn't want it back. Yay.
This new Blogger thing where they want to insert links into my blog posts because their AI told them I should is really irritating. It keeps flashing a dialogue box at me that I have to dismiss. If I want links in my posts, I'll put them there tyvm.
I found a new-to-me show on Roku - Yorkshire Vet. It combines two of my loves - Dr. Pol and All Creatures Great and Small. And I have access to all the episodes, so I can just sit down and watch one when I feel like it. For free. Woot!
The bird of the day is actually a two-fer... Rosy-faced Lovebirds. I'm not a fan of parrots, per se, but these are okay. Little cuties. Aww.
It looks like Lumpy lost her fawn. We hadn't seen it in a while, and a couple of days ago, I noticed that her milk bag is gone. It wasn't too unexpected. Lumpy's getting pretty old and that baby was really small - like premie looking. Still a sad thing. On a happier note, we have Sissy and her baby (which would be Lumpy's grandbaby) both doing well and we have another doe with twins who's been visiting.
One of my tomato plants has two flowers blooming! I helped the pollination of them along, so fingers crossed. Most of the other tomato plants have buds, so they should be blooming soon. Then we'll get some real pollination action going on. Woot.
Okay, that's probably more than enough out of me. Have a great day!
When I got close to finishing the first draft of my first novel, I began doing research on everything I would need to do to get it published. I bought the big book of agents. I made lists and notes and spreadsheets. I studied how to write query letters. I scoured the web for information. I joined a couple of writers' groups online.
I did the same thing when I decided to stop looking for an agent. I went through the process of researching publishers who might accept unagented manuscripts and how to contact them. When that didn't work, I went through the process of researching everything on how to self-publish... before I made a single step down the path.
This morning, I saw a gal bitching because she self-published through Amazon in May and made some sales, but it's already July and she hadn't seen any money yet. A boatload of people told her what is already obvious to anyone who's done like 2 seconds of research - Amazon pays at 60 days from the end of the month that your sales occurred in. So, May sales get paid at the END of July.
Even then, she questioned the truth of the answers those people gave her. She was sure Amazon was out to screw her. :eyeroll: And some dude in comments egged her on because Amazon supposedly closed his account within 30 days of him publishing his book, but they didn't take it down and they're collecting all his monies. Obviously, Amazon is ebil.
Okay, so Amazon isn't perfect. Generally, though, if you do your research and you follow the rules, it's easy to navigate the river. I'm guessing dude didn't follow the rules.
I often see people complaining about things that are so easy to figure out with a little effort. But effort is a four-letter word for some people, even when it's little and not really effort. Here... I'll help... Go to your freakin' search engine, type in what you're looking for, scroll through the answers it spits out. Voila. And it helps to not just read the first answer. Read several until you find the right answer and understand it thoroughly.
Okay, so that is effort for some people, I guess. Researching shit ought to be fun because like, you know, we're WRITERS. :shrug: But no, they'd rather bitch in a Facebook group. It probably took more time for the bitching than they would've expended on the research, but hey...
Anyway, long story short... I blocked the chick. And the dude. I don't need that kind of negativity and willful ignorance in my life. The moral of the story? Don't run around social media screaming at people to chew your food for you and then whine when you choke.
