Marketing Monday - Wish in One Hand

Gah, I'm a horrible and forgetful person lately.  I forgot to do the Sunday Update yesterday and now I'm late for Marketing Monday.  Well, better late than never, so here goes...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013RVEF0Y When Jo Mayweather made it her mission to save her fellow djinn from slavery, she never dreamed she'd have to save them from a killer. This week only, WISH IN ONE HAND is totally free. (It's always free with KU. This is for everyone else.) Pick up your copy of this snarky and fun paranormal mystery today!

Friday This n That

I totally brainfarted out that yesterday was Thursday.  Thus, realizing that today was Friday, it occurred to me that I never posted my this n thats.  Derp and all that.

I'm not dead.  Not even close.  I am, however, in a stupid place.  You know the one where you're not doing anything and you're feeling guilty about not doing anything so you don't do anything?  Maybe that's just me.  :shrug:

The prezzies I bought for the neighbor kids are wrapped.  Now I just need to get the prezzies from here to next door.  I also have a tin of cookies for the across-the-street neighbors and I package of cookies for Mom that need to be mailed.  And yet, here I sit.  (Of course, right now it's too early to do anything... excuses excuses)

Sawyer decided that this morning was a good time to revisit his old vaudeville act wherein he pats rhythmically on the front of the dresser ad nauseum. This act was followed by a song routine of old favorites by his partner, Finn.  I thought we'd moved past this, but apparently not.  Silly cats.

I have a song stuck in my head.  (Not Finn's.)  So I looked it up, because I hear it on the radio a lot, but I have no idea who sings it or anything.  It's called Too Sweet and it's by Hozier... Hozier?  Really.  Okay, my brain is now channeling The Mackenzie Brothers, but whatever.  (Yes, I know... their word was hoser, but still...)  Apparently, it's the dude's last name and apparently he's some kind of social justice warrior.  Damn it.  This is why I don't go looking into celebrities.  

And now for something we hope you'll really like...  (If you don't know where that phrase comes from, I'm sorry.  Maybe if I start it out with 'Hey, Rocky... watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.'  :RAWR: 'Looks like I need a better hat.')

My hands hurt.  Unfortunately, not from writing.  Pulling a sled with logs on it used muscles I didn't know I had and there ya are.

Speaking of logs, Hubs and I were just joking around about what to do with the big trunks - especially the black cherry that's still standing.  It's beautiful wood and it would be a shame to cut it up for firewood, but it's so heavy, we'll never be able to move that stuff on our own.  So, we got the idea to carve it where it is.  I said something about doing a faun/satyr, then he said something about a tableau of woodland creatures.  Then we both said something about turning it into a totem.  With Trump's head on top.  Then Reagan, Lincoln, and Washington. :gigglesnort:  We're so funny.

Okay, that's probably about all I'm worth today.  I need to get back to marketing.  Last day for DYING EMBERS freebie and all that.  Have a great day wherever you are.  Hasta la bye-bye.

Marketing Monday - Dying Embers

Okay, so after the week of few freebies followed by the week of nothing, here we are slogging through the marketing again.  This time I'm hitting the book that's sold the most (partly because it's the oldest and partly because once upon a time I had money to throw at marketing this book) - DYING EMBERS.

Starting today, DYING EMBERS is absolutely free. (It's always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Pick up your copy now! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TEQK7OU

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 50

Two weeks left of 2025.  Hmm.  

I didn't do much writing this week.  I had one really good day where I whipped out 1300-ish words.  Then things happened and I couldn't pick up the thread again and excuses-excuses.  

No marketing.  As a result, no sales.  Zip, zilch, nada, bubkus.  I'll try and change that this week, but I'm pretty bummed about my chances.

I read some more of that Stellar Ranger novel.  It's still pretty good.

I did a boatload of baking.  3 batches of cookies and a batch of pretzel turtles were made.  I made devil's food cake cookies with peppermint bark kisses, yellow cake mix cookies with regular kisses, and coconut rum cookies.

Let's not talk about activity.  I did one day in the woods and then nada.  And due to that, we won't talk about weight either, eh?  It ain't good.

Christmas shopping was done - online only.  I ordered Mom's and MIL's prezzies.  MIL's was delivered Friday and Mom's will be delivered today.  Early, I know.  Damn Amazon efficiency.  But I'd rather have them show early than wait to shop and have the stuff I want for them to not be in stock.  I also ordered books for the kids next door.  Those will be here tomorrow.  Then I'll wrap them - because I bought wrapping paper for the first time in 13 years.  I also bought tissue paper, which I used to wrap one of my art pieces.  I hung it back on the wall and am using it to display Christmas cards we receive.  So far, it only has two cards on it, but it's pretty anyway.  I'll unwrap the print after the new year.  

In case you missed this, here's my other Christmas decorations...

That's Sawyer down front on the comforter I put on top of my new chest.

Other than that, it's been pretty blah here.  Hubs has been sawing away in the woods.  I've been a toad.  Today it's too cold to do much of anything outside, which is just as well because I have spreadsheets for 2026 that need to be done.  Ah well.  As my brother used to say 'Big whoppin' wee'.

What's been up in your lives this week?

Thursday This n That

 I have a 20 pound cat in my lap.  (Okay, he's probably closer to 18.  I'm rounding up.)  It's hard to type with a large cat in your lap, so bear with me.  And all mistakes are his fault.

I spent part of yesterday ordering Christmas prezzies, because like the nimrod I am, I forgot.  I still have to order for the Moms.  Their presents are picked out, but I didn't have the heart to add another charge to my account that day.  I'll do it today.  

Part of what I ordered was for the kids next door.  I've never bought them prezzies before.  I just wanted to.  They're good kids.  They're each getting a book and I found awesome books for under $10 each, so yay.  I hope they don't already have what I ordered for them.  And no, I don't get prezzies for my own kid anymore.  She's 32.  She can get her own prezzies.  She gets a card, like everyone else.  Maybe if I was rich, but I'm not, so there ya are.

I also ordered a book for myself.  I bet you're like super-surprised there.  What you might find surprising... or not as the case may be... is the book I ordered is on woodworking.  Yes, I have been talking about maybe starting my hand at woodworking for a while now.  The book might help with that.  Oh, and I got a book for the both of us on art - famous art masterpieces in a coffee table book.  Ho-ho-ho.

Speaking of Christmas, if you haven't seen the movie Fatman yet, you should probably do that.  It stars Mel Gibson as Kris Kringle (aka Santa) and a bratty, mean kid hires an assassin because Santa didn't bring him what he wanted.  And the hitman has something against Santa anyway.  This version of Santa is totally badass.  It's kinda gory there for a bit, but that's the kind of movie it is - an action flick for our times.

"No, Sawyer, you can't have my coffee, and get your tail out of my face."  For the longest time, I wished that Sawyer would be a lap cat.  I got my wish.  LOL

Okay, that's about it out of me right now.  I need more coffee.  :wanders off:

There's Work to be Done

 Hubs and I have been working in the woods, as you probably know if you've been here long enough.  Why not?  It's cold enough to fend off the ticks and the snakes.  Plus, it's awesome exercise that doesn't bore the hell out of me.  

Anyway, I took some pics of what exactly needs to be cleaned up out there, to give y'all an idea of what I'm talking about...

I call this one 'Crap to Clean Up':

Loads of downed cedar trees, limbs, and branches throughout that.  And this is the black cherry tree that fell back in May of 2024:

The main trunk on the left is still standing.  It's about 10 feet tall and the rest of it stretches away from there.  Here's the other end of it:

Then there's the sycamore that fell over about 3-4 months before the black cherry:

What you can't really see is the root ball behind me, which stand about 6-7 feet.  And the trunk on that sucker is about 2 feet across.  It's a monster.  Here's where the top is laying:

All that needs to be cleared out, plus the crap not pictured - fallen limbs and smaller trees, etc. - so we can walk around on our property.  I'm not sure how much we'll get done before it gets too warm to go in the woods again, but we'll do our best.  

We'll burn what we can and stack the rest.  The piles make good critter habitat.  Here's the most recent pile:

We have several of these on our original property and this is the third we've put on the new piece.  Bunnies and chipmunks really love these.  Birds, too.  And, unfortunately, the occasional skunk.  LOL, it's all good.  

Anyway, doing this makes me happy.  I love being in the woods.  

Getting Healthier

I follow a dude on FB who's something of a conservative pundit.  Good guy.  Anyway, I saw where he'd posted about his weight loss journey.  From April to now, he went from 217 to 170 - all by eating healthier and exercising.  Way to go, dude.

Anyway, I'm not going to talk about my weight loss journey.  There isn't one.  I don't care if I lose weight.  I do, however, want to be a healthier human being.  Cuz, let's face it, I ain't gettin' any younger and the old parts are starting to notice that their warranty has expired.

Every Sunday for the past whatever, I've tried to post about my activity level and with that, I put my weight.  Yeah, yeah, a lady is supposed to talk about her weight.  I think that's a silly taboo.  I'm not ashamed of being 177-ish pounds.  It is what it is.  (Ladies also aren't supposed to mention their age.  I'm 55.  I'm such a rebel.)

Time out... I was just searching to see what my ideal weight would be for my age.  Freakin' idjits have made it so you now have to calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) and age doesn't factor into it (except whether you're a child (under 20) or an adult (over 20) which is stupid in my opinion).  Anyway, a person who's 5'7 and 177 pounds has a BMI of 27.72 according to the Forbes BMI calculator - and that means I'm 'overweight'.  Which is actually better than the last time I checked one of those and it told me I was obese.  According to them a healthy weight is between 118 and 159.  I tried another place that calculated using height and actual age to find my ideal weight (it came out in kilograms... damn metric people... which I then had to convert to pounds).  According to this place, my ideal weight is 138.

Okay... my ideal weight when I was 25 was 135, so I'm not sure what the hell they're talking about.  Oh, and I'm probably carrying around 10 pounds of boob which skews things.  Maybe I should delete 10 pounds so I can see what the rest of my body should weigh.  Me minus 10 pounds of boob is 167, which is only 8 pounds over what Forbes consider within healthy parameters.  I'm okay with that.

Actually, this wasn't supposed to be about weight, but I fell down that rabbit hole, so you get to enjoy reading about it.  

The point I was trying to make is that in order for ME to feel healthier, I need to up my activity level - regardless of calories and make-up of calories (you know... carbs versus proteins, and all that rot.)  I learned this about myself ages ago.  If I sit around, I end up feeling like shit.  My hips hurt, my legs hurt, walking to the mailbox makes me tired.  That's no way to live.  

When I'm a good girl, I do something active every day and that makes me feel better.  And for me, feel better = healthier.  When I'm a bad girl, I sit on my ass all day and feel like shit.  Simple stuff in my life, really.  

Right now, I'm getting more active.  It's cooler, for one thing, which means I can get out in the woods again.  I love woods work better than any other activity.  I'm sawing limbs and throwing logs.  I'm tramping over uneven terrain - uphill, downhill, sideways - over rocks and logs while maintaining my balance.  It all uses a lot of different muscle groups and gets the heart a-pumpin'.

I spent 6.25 hours in the woods last week, and I'm feeling pretty good.  Oh, sure, everything aches today, but thems good aches.  Joints feel better, heart feels better.  Better is good.

Now, I just need to find the gumption to be active when it's not fun.  (Outdoors = fun. Indoors = not fun.)  It's all a balance.

How are you feeling?  How's the balance in your life?