Saturday Reading Wrap-up 11/30/24

Hello again.  Welcome to another Saturday Reading Wrap-up with your host, B.E. Sanderson. LOL, I crack myself up.

Okay, so last Saturday I went hunting through the Amazon Top 100 free lists and came away with 8 books to read - all new to me and underappreciated.  I got one fantasy, one UF, two SF,  a zombie apocalypse, a cozy mystery, and two romances.  I read the zombie one, DNF'd the two romances, and I'm on the cozy mystery now.

Books Read:

30) Zombie Math by J. Sharpe (11/25/24) - Zombie Apocalypse*# - 4 stars.  New to me and underappreciated.   Found this for free in the Amazon Top 100 free Post-Apocalyptic list.
Review: "An interesting and fun addition to the Zombie Apocalypse genre, with nods to all the popular books and movies out there, but with a spin of its own. It's not perfect, but it's still pretty good. A fast-paced and enjoyable read."

DNFs:

11/27/24 - free - romance.  Present tense.  Nuff said.  

11/26/24 - free - romance.  This must've been like the 6th or 7th in a series, but it didn't say it was part of a series.  The author spent so much time in the first half of the book talking about stuff that happened before this story.  And they also decided, because you know 'show vs tell' to show the reader that the whole family was harried and wacky and talked over each other rather than just say it, which made it a slog to get to the, ya know, actual story.  I gave up just past 50% when we still hadn't gotten to the romance.

11/24/24 - free - suspense.  The plot was okay, but the hero and his ex spent so much time thinking about their shared past and how they weren't/were going to sleep together, they wouldn't have had time to actually pay attention to the crime they were supposed to be investigating.

Currently reading... I'm partway through a cozy mystery.  It's okay, but I'm not sure if I'll finish it.  Right now, I'm not sure I could give it more than 3 stars and I don't finish books I can't give at least 4 stars to.

What's been on your reading plate this week?

Marketing Monday

It's just another Marketing Monday, whoa-oh-oh.  Today, it's RUMOR HAS IT - the first (and only at this time) book in my Duke Noble, P.I. series.  I'm working on the next book right now and I hope to publish it shortly after the new year.  :fingers crossed:

FREE for the first time! Duke Noble, P.I. RUMOR HAS IT - a hard-boiled crime novel with grit and guts, and an ending you won't see coming!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZNXQKPC

Who Killed Sara Hughes?

She had plans to take her own life. The coroner said she died in her sleep. Her daughter believes she was murdered. Duke Noble, P.I. has suspicions of his own and he's hot on the trail of the truth.

Sunday Update 11/24/24

Here we are again at another Sunday Update.  It's getting pretty close to the end of the year and next year I'll be doing week numbers instead of dates on these posts again.  

Okay, so I did 5 days worth of editing this week which amounted to 30 pages of the book - and puts me at page 82 or 46%.  Like I said, this is not a quick process.  I'd hoped to have this round of edits done by the end of November, but that was before I discovered I'd written in the wrong POV, so it's taking way longer than anticipated.  The good news is that the book is really coming together, so yay.

I didn't do any marketing this week.  And I didn't get any sales either.  I'll probably put something together starting tomorrow and see what happens.  

Man, I read a whole lot this past week.  See yesterday's post.  I also downloaded 8 new-to-me ebooks yesterday, so I'll have tons to read before the end of the year.  Yay.

In baking news, I made another batch of Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Yum.  And I did French Bread pizza last night.  Also yum.  

On the activity front, I kinda fell down.  My excuse is that I had some sort of throat funk going on, which made doing anything problematic.  I spent most of the past week sitting around, drinking tea with honey, and resting.  The good news is the funk is just about done with.  The upside to having a throat funk is I didn't eat as much as usual, so the weight came down a little.  Weight: 173.6  I plan to get back to doing active stuff starting today.

It's deer hunting season here.  Fingers crossed Sonny makes it through the season.  He really is a beautiful buck and would make someone a lovely trophy (and a lot of meals), so I hope he was smart enough to stick close to home.  Ideally, he should stay on out property, but he doesn't.  Silly deer.

I think that's about it.  It's pretty boring around here.  Sorry I'm not more interesting.

How was your week?  

Saturday Reading Wrap-up 11/23/24

Good morning, Reader Folks!  Time again for another thrilling installment of Saturday Reading Wrap-up.  Are ya ready?

No new books this week.  I'll have to pick some up this week, since I'm down to my last ebook.

Books Read: 

29) SLAN by A.E. Van Vogt (11/22/24) - SF - 5 stars. New to me but not underappreciated.  I picked up this book ages ago with a bunch of other old SF paperbacks, but I hadn't taken the time to read it until now.  I'm sure I only paid like a dime or so.
Review: "I'd heard about this book and I'd had a copy for a lot of years before I finally sat down and read it. It's a very interesting book with a good premise, thrillingly told. There's a BIG plot twist at the end and then the book just stops, which is a little jarring, but all in all a worthy read."

28) Caesar Now Be Still by Frank Schildiner (11/19/24) - Hard-boiled Crime*# - 5 stars.  New to me and underappreciated.  Seriously.  This book should be blowing up the bestseller lists.  I got this free off the Amazon Top 100 Free - Suspense list.  
Review: "I picked this up while it was free on Amazon and it was amazing. I loved the premise, the richness of the setting, and the twisted plot, but the best part was the main character - Wilson Hargreave (or Frenchy). Mr. Schildiner gave him a ton of depth. Plus, Hargreave kicks ass all the way around. I'll be looking for more of this series."

27) The Raff Memorandum by Nick Webster (11/17/24) - Suspense*# - Suspense - 5 stars.  New to me and underappreciated, but it's a newer release, so that could account for it.  I got this one free off the Amazon Top 100 Free - Suspense list.
Review: "This is the first book in my self-appointed mission to find underappreciated books, read them, and if they warrant it, give them the love they deserve. And this one definitely warrants a lot of love. The hero is gritty and doesn't play by the rules. The plot is full of twists and turns. The story is told in an interesting and engaging way, and it's a bit different from a lot of other stories of this genre. It's a fast-paced, no holds barred kind of book. And the end was super-satisfying. All plusses in my book. I hope to go find more books by this author and give him some monetary love next time. Keep up the good words, Mr. Webster."

DNFs:

11/18/24 - free - suspense - this one was just meh.

11/18/24 - free - suspense - it felt like the writer was just dumping bodies and when they finally got to the part where the cops came in - new body 20 years later - they seemed like they were TSTL.  I kept waiting for someone to mention the previous body count with the same signature, but nope.  I finally gave up.

Currently reading... I finished SLAN late enough yesterday that I didn't want to start something new.  I'll start that last unread ebook today.

I'm 6 books shy of my reading goal for the year, so I need to get a move on.  I think it's still doable, though.  Wish me luck.

What have you been dipping your brain into this week?

Thursday This n That

I'm enjoying being back on Twitter/X.  I'm reading a lot of interesting stuff that FB isn't showing me.  FB has been a real pain in the ass since the election, putting all sorts of crap I don't care about in my feed and hiding the stuff I've said I actually do want to see.  I've resorted to going to individual pages to see what I'm missing, which is kind of a pain, but necessary.  X doesn't do that.  So yay.

Speaking of hiding stuff, I think FB has shadowbanned me.  I hardly ever get responses to anything I post on my own page... loads of spammy stuff on my marketing posts in Groups, but not on my own page.  :shrug:  I gotta be me.  Of course, I'm not getting a ton of reactions to my X posts either, but I haven't been active on there in 8 years, so I'm not surprised.

Coffee is good. It makes it so I can do thinky things.

I was out of tea and my throat's been scratchy, so I zipped over to the Dollar General to pick some up.  They didn't have a wide selection - green tea, iced tea, Lipton.  I ended up getting the Lipton.  100 packets for like $6/$7 - 4 packs of 25 in little sleeves and wrapped in gold foil.  Ooo, fancy.  I was pretty excited.  It has to be better than Great Value tea, right?  Nope.  It seems like every other teabag tastes like mulch.  I could've gone out and grazed in the yard for free.  Derp.

Editing's coming along.  I'm averaging about 6 pages a day, which is depressing but it's my own damn fault for writing the book in the wrong POV.  Ultra-derp.

This morning, we heard a flock of snow geese going over headed south.  This makes me happy.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned Funky Chicken.  He's a neighbor's rooster and he does not crow right.  It's kind of sad and pathetic.  Well, Neighbor got him a buddy.  The new rooster crows correctly.  We now have the two of them crowing back and forth, like they're trying to teach each other how do it right.  ROFL

Okay, that ought to be about it today.  Have a good one wherever you are and whatever you're doing.  Hasta la bye-bye.

My Reading Mission

 I know it's late in the year to be accepting new reading missions, but with the holiday season approaching, what better time of year would there be for this particular mission?  What is it, you ask?

Well, when I was searching for ebooks to read, it occurred to me that I had a mission once and I have forgotten it and its importance.  Here's the best way to explain it... My self-appointed mission to find underappreciated books, read them, and if they warrant it, give them the love they deserve.  So, I went to the Top 100 lists on Amazon and scanned through them, only picking books with a low # of stars - ideally less than ten but never more than 50.  

I ended up with five books that fit the bill in Suspense/Murder.  I finished the first one yesterday and it was really good (from an entertainment aspect, although it was also well-written).  I typed out a glowing review for Goodreads, posted it to Amazon, then to Facebook, then a truncated version to Twitter/X.  

And I feel really good about it.  I get to read a great book and I get to maybe help the author sell a few books.  I got these book for free, but I hope to, in some small way, pay these authors for the stories they gave me by posting reviews.  Win win.

I don't care if they ever know or even notice.  I'm only talking about it here to encourage others to try doing the same.  There are a boatload of awesome, underappreciated authors out there, slogging away with no feedback.  New reviews are at an all time low.  Most people just leave ratings and most of the new ratings seem to suck - like people only bother when they didn't like something and not when they did.  It's sad really.  So, in my own way, I'm striking out against that and leaving credit where credit is due.  

Hopefully, when I have a little extra scratch, I can purchase these authors' other books and support them in a monetary way, too.  We do what we can.  

Anyway, keep your eyes on my Books Read post and my weekly Saturday Reading Wrap-up posts and find some awesome things to read, too.  Or if you have FB or Twitter, follow me and see what I have to say about the books I'm reading.

Oh, and for the record, I don't finish a book if I feel I won't be able to give it at least 4 stars.  And I don't review books I don't finish.  I think that's only fair.  (Also, I don't give the titles of my DNF books - just the reasons. I can get kinda snotty with my reasons and there's no need to harsh some poor author's day because their book didn't suit me.)

Have a great day and keeping on reading!

Sunday Update 11/17/24

Whoa, this year is going fast.  It's hard to believe I've been post-employed for over 6 months now.  Woot.

Okay, so this past week... Well, the beginning of the week started okay pretty okay.  I did stuff.  Then the end of the week, I felt like crap and didn't do much of anything.  Still, you came here for an update and here it is:

No writing, but I did get 16 pages edited and I'm through 6 pages of edit notes now.  Yeah, none of that sounds like a lot, but it is.  I'm going to try to boost those numbers this week.  We'll see.

I did marketing every morning of the work-week. This moved 146 copies of Early Grave.  No residual stuff yet, but I have hope.  I think I'll take this coming week off of marketing and see what happens.  Probably nothing.  :shrug:  I can handle nothing, I guess.  I've handled it a lot over a long stretch of the past ten years. ;o)

I read some stuff.  You can go to yesterday's post to see that.  Except the ebook I started reading is a suspense with few reviews and I'm enjoying it.  Is it perfect?  Nope.  Still enjoying it, though.  Yay.  I should be able to leave a good review for this and help a fellow writer out.  

Last week, I made Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies, pizza, and a big vat of chili.  Yummers.  I picked up the stuff to make French bread pizza instead of regular pizza, so that's what we're having today.

On the activity front, like I said, I did stuff early in the week.  In fact, I did three days in a row throwing logs around in the woods... maybe that's why I got to feeling pooky... ya think?  Anyway, I feel better in general when I'm active, so I'm going to get back at it soon.  Weight: 175.0

What else... let's see... I'm back to being 'active' on Twitter... X... whatever.  I'm still weeding my feed, following new stuff, unfollowing crap stuff.  Posting interesting things when I can.  It probably won't be the most exiting place to follow, but follow me anyway.  @BE_Sanderson

Okay, I think that's it.  There may be other stuff, but it's lost to me right now.  Tra la la.  Have a great day and a great week, wherever you are.  Hasta la bye-bye.

Saturday Reading Wrap-up 11/16/24

It's been a couple weeks since I did a wrap-up.  Sorry about that.  Anyway, here goes...

I snagged 5 new ebooks - all from the Amazon Top 100 free lists in either Suspense or Murder.  I tried to only get books with fewer than 50 reviews and often less than 10 reviews.  We'll see how that goes.  I'd really like to be able to read some good, underappreciated stuff and give it 4 stars or better.  No new hardcopies.

Books Read:

26) The Border Legion by Zane Grey (11/9/24) - Western - 4 stars. Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  I've had this one for a while.  In fact, it's my last unread Zane Grey.  I'll have to start scouring the used bookstores again soon.
Review: "Not my favorite Zane Grey. It certainly held my attention, but there were aspects of the characters I wasn't exactly keen on. To each their own."

25) The Case of the Waylaid Wolf / The Case of the Restless Redhead by Erle Stanley Gardner (11/2/24) - Mystery - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated (except this edition doesn't have loads of stars).  I've had this since Colorado and I think I paid like $3 for the whole box of these.
No review.

DNFs:

11/11/24 - free - suspense.  I tried, really I did.  I made it about halfway through before I just couldn't take it anymore.  Ugh, the whole 'skipping around, head-hopping, too stupid to live, WTF is going on here' killed what was a pretty good premise.  =o\

Currently Reading... I'm reading this huge compendium of HG Wells works.  I finished War of the Worlds yesterday and set the volume aside.  Not sure when I'll get back to that.  Then I started one of the new ebooks I picked up.  So far, so good.  I'm about 9 books short of reaching my goal for 2024.  I could reach that if I tried.  

What have you been reading lately?

Back on Twit... Err, X

For the first time since 2016, I am active on what used to be Twitter but is now X.  (I still call  it twitter.  Sorry, Elon.)  If you're interested, I'm @BE_Sanderson.  I'll try to remember to post stuff, but you know me.  Some weeks I can hardly remember to post here.

I stopped visiting Twitter because of all the crap I was seeing.  I did not delete my account, because I'd be damned if I was gonna let someone else have my user ID, but I relegated it to the unused links section of my Bookmarks.  And the only thing I did with it was let Goodreads post my reviews to it.  So, I'm back to see if I can generate interest in my books and other fun junk.  So far, so good.  My password still works, and all of my goodies are still there.  Woot.  I posted a notice that I was back, liked a bunch of posts, and then posted a funny thing.

"When your KDP sales graph is sick of your shit."

Eh, it amused me.  I mean, come on... it looks like a hand flipping the bird.  And yes, that's my graph as of first thing this morning.  Today's orders are still climbing, which would screw up the whole 'this is a hand' thing, so I snapped it as soon as I saw it.

I have to amuse myself where I can.

What's amusing you today?

Thursday This n That

I've been working in the woods these past few days.  It feels good to be back at it again.  Two years of not doing it means there is a LOT to clean up down in there.  Unfortunately, we lost several dogwood trees.  We have no clue what killed them.  Especially since there are live dogwood trees right near the dead ones.  Anyway, with all this deadfall, our firewood hoard is growing.  When we eventually get a woodstove, we're going to be golden.  Until then, though, it's just really good exercise.

Yes, I am sore from all the wood hauling - Hubs has been doing the cutting - but I'd rather be sore than turn into Jabba the Hut.  

I'm trying to make marketing images this morning, but the internet is killing me.

Mmm, cheese.

Right now, I'm reading a compendium of HG Wells' stories.  It starts off with War of the Worlds.  I'd read that once years ago and not since, so it's pretty interesting.  Nothing at all like the movie (the old one... I refuse to acknowledge that weird thing Tom Cruise did).  This whole volume could take me the rest of the year, but I think after WotW, I'll read an ebook or two before forging on.

I think I made a pretty good graphic this morning.  It might be too creepy, though.  What do you think?

Hey!  Blogger let my graphic load!  Yay!

Okay, I've gotta go get life started this morning.  Have a great day.

Insights and Other Fun Stuff

I know you're probably sick of listening to me talk about marketing.  I get sick of doing it, but it's a necessarily evil if you want to sell books.  Word of mouth can only get you so far, especially if you haven't published a new book in a while.  So here I am, posting marketing copy and images every morning - and sometimes night, if I can wedge one in there.  It is working.  I mean, if it wasn't I wouldn't still be beating my head on this particular rock, now would I?

Anyway, here's this morning's ranking snapshot for Early Grave:

Freaking photo wouldn't upload and I hate blogger sometimes. It's ranked at #9 in Serial Killers and #2963 overall in free books.

Not too shabby, eh?  And that's after moving only 82 copies.  Fingers crossed it turns into page reads and sales of the other books in the series.  

I have about 30 groups I post to now - more or less... some of them are genre specific.  And it usually takes me about 30 minutes for the posting.  The generation of new images every day?  Well, that takes a little longer.  Yep, a new image every day minus the one day I let the link provide the image for five days straight.  

Yes, you have to do the free thing for the whole five days.  If you do less days, you run the risk of the book not reaching the KU magic spot where it shows your book to its subscribers.  Go figger.

Now, this only works for freebies.  I've tried doing it for 99c books and I get :sad crickets chirping in the background:.  

An unfortunate side effect of this marketing is I am getting inundated with spammers and scammers.  They're only commenting and not messaging me much.  One of them emailed me.  It's all easy enough to ignore.  Plus, I get a chuckle out of some of the shit they try to pull.  A lot of them shower you with insincere praise and then ask you to message them.  ROFL  According to them, I am amazing, my covers are amazing, and my books are the best thing since the sun started rising every morning.  (Yeah, I'm that good.)

Anyway, that's the skinny on this marketing thing.  If you'd like to join me in this death by a thousand papercuts, and have any questions, let me know.  Otherwise, have a great day!

Monday Marketing

Hi there, Everyone.  It's Monday and that means Marketing.  Today, it's a freebie for EARLY GRAVE.  Sure, it's book three in the SCIU series, but those can be read standalone, so there ya go.

You're never too old to die.

EARLY GRAVE is free from now until Friday. (Always free with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.) Get this fast-paced suspense today. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CGYBSST

And if you're not all that familiar with the story...

Nurse’s aide Tess Harper finds great joy in helping the elderly. If helping them into their graves a tad early is any sort of help at all. She’s not doing it out of the kindness of her heart. Tess is no angel, only a predator. And she has the perfect prey. Old people die all the time.

Haunted by his own grandmother’s death, Agent Ned Washington finds himself embroiled in the hunt for a murderer. Dozens of old people have died but there was no kind and natural end for any of them. The hunt is on and Ned’s got a killer to stop before she sends more innocent victims to an early grave.

Personally, I think this book is awesome, but that's me.  It was fun to write, I like the characters, and the end sings to my sense of justice.  Bwa ha ha.

Sunday Update 11/10/24

I feel like there isn't enough coffee in the world to make me human this morning.  Ah, well, let's muddle forth anyway and see where the day takes us.

I'm still not writing, but I am back to editing.  I actually put together three days in a row and edited 25 pages this week.  I know that doesn't sound like much, but considering the fact that I'm changing everything from third person to first person, I'm pleased with the progress.  And I've complete almost 6 pages of edit notes.  Little yay.  I still haven't decided whether this will be book 2 or book 3.  :shrug:

My marketing fell apart this week.  I did a couple of days worth of marketing on Project Hermes and sold exactly zilch.  Ah well.  In happier news, I sold a paperback copy of Dying Embers, and people are currently reading KU pages of both Sleeping Ugly and Blink of an I.  Yay. Oh, and before I forget, Early Grave will be free this coming week - 11/11-11/15.

In reading news, I finished two books this past week - a Perry Mason twofer and a Zane Grey western.  Woot.  Not sure what I'll pick up next.  I really need to get some new ebooks.

I didn't do any baking this week.  My ever-widening ass does not need to calories.  I did do a batch of pulled pork and used the leftovers to make Cuban sandwiches last night.  Third time's the charm, as these turned out awesome.  Mmmm.

On the activity front, I managed to get out into the woods and drag some wood around.  Not much because I am back to being stamina-free, but it's a start.  I also joined Hubs for a walk and did a mile worth.  I haven't bothered to weight myself.  I don't need that kind of negativity.

This past week, we got a boatload of rain.  I think we ended up with like 7.5 inches total.  Sploosh.  

Also, this past week, we had the election.  Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with the results.  Let's start moving this country back to where it needs to be.  I don't expect immediate results, after all, he still needs to get inaugurated, but if she'd won, we would move farther away, so any progress will make me happy.

And on that note, I'm going to wander away, refill my mug, and try to wake up somehow.  Have a great day, everyone, and drop a comment if you're so inclined.

Thursday This n That

I'm starting to feel better about life in general, so that's a step in the right direction.  I saw where some person was saying they were terrified and that's kinda sad.  Personally, the thought of another 4 years of the march toward communism scared the shit out of me, so I'm not sure what's scaring them.  The thought of having to take responsibility for themselves and their own lives when the nanny state gets taken away?  :shrug:  

And I'm ready to stop talking about all this.  I want life to return to normal.  I'd like the opportunity go get groceries and not have to choose whether I want meat this time or toilet paper because I can't afford both.  I realize that this probably won't turn around on a dime, but it would be nice to have it sooner rather than later.

The deluge here finally ended.  We got around six and a half inches of rain so far this month.  The lake level jumped up about 5 feet in 24 hours.  The river near here was flowing at 75 cubic feet per second before the rain and jumped to 25000 cubic feet per second and then jumped again to 48000 cfps.  I haven't driven out or walked down to see it yet, and it's starting to come down, so I won't see it at its worst, but gah.  Hubs just showed me a photo someone had taken of the river.  It's full of crap.  This totally harshes my chances at fishing.  Blerg.

The cats let us sleep all night last night.  Progress.  Yay.

I'm reading a Zane Grey right now.  It's interesting.  So far, not my favorite of his, but it's okay.

The bucks are back.  Right now, they're chasing tail all over the woods.  Horny bastards.

I've really been a toad these past couple weeks.  I need to cut that shit out.  It doesn't do my body any good.  It doesn't do my brain any good either.  And let's not even talk about my attitude.  That's in the crapper.  I said I was going to edit every day this month and so far, I did it once.  Yeah, not the most banner of times.  I'd like to say that ends today, but I can't promise anything.

Okay, I think that's about it for me today.  How are things in your world?

Waiting for The Other Shoe

I have this affliction where I can't get excited for happy news.  It seems I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.  You know the shoe... the one that drops and makes all your happy go away and generally makes you look like a fool for ever being optimistic?  Yeah, that one.

Maybe it's a function of the era when I grew up.  Gen X'ers are not the most optimistic of people, as a general rule.  Or something.  Maybe it's yet another thing I can blame on my head injury.  It could also be due to some crushing disappointment somewhere along the way that I can't point to specifically.  :shrug:  

So, I'm reserving my glee until Big T actually gets sworn in.  Until then many things could actually derail it.  I don't expect the Dems to accept this defeat with grace.

We'll see.  

Election Day

Today is Election Day here in the states.  I don't think I'm overstating it when I say this is the most important election in America since Reagan beat Carter.  Maybe more important than that even.  This great country of ours has been on the slow slide to collectivism (socialism/communism/fascism) for decades now.  Today will either signal a stop to the slide or we'll see the slide reach its ultimate destination.

You know what to do.  And if you don't know what to do by this point, I can't help you.  

Hubs and I will be going to the polling location later in the morning.  Then we'll wait.  I guess the Hyena is cackling about how counting the votes will take days.  It shouldn't, but her handlers will make sure they drag it out.  

Tomorrow we should have some idea of which way the vote is going.  It'll either be a WOOHOO and hope will spring forth or it'll be a :sad trombone: and we will continue to muddle along.  

Keep your fingers crossed.

Marketing Monday

Today, I'm trying something a bit different.  Instead of a freebie, I'm offering PROJECT HERMES for only 99c.

Here's the graphic I made:

And here's the text:

PROJECT HERMES - a fast-paced, political/medical thriller - is on sale for 99c this week only.  Save $4.  Get your copy today!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Y6G0EW

We'll see how this does.  I've been posting to FB Groups this morning.  

Side note: I got a notice from FB that I'd committed trademark infringement. They're saying that HERMES is trademarked.  It's a freakin' Greek god, for pitysakes.  I haven't dealt with it yet, but if they throttle my reach because of this heinous crap, this week's sale could be a total wash.  Derp.

Sunday Update 11/3/24

 Good Morning.  :sips coffee:  Welcome.

This wasn't the most exciting of weeks here at Sanderson, Inc. LLC., but there should be some things to talk about today.

No writing.  I did some editing... one day.  I'm having a crisis of confidence again.  Blah blah blah... meh.  It's not the first time and it probably won't be the last.  Anyway, I've gotten 11 pages done now.  I'll try to get over myself and get some work done today.

On the marketing front, I did the 'posting to FB Groups' thing again.  This time for Sleeping Ugly.  I moved 116 copies.  Last night someone read 12 pages of SU, so there's hope.  Tomorrow, Project Hermes goes on sale for election week.  It'll be 99c.  (Or 99p for the UK folks.)  I need to work on some graphics for that today.  We'll see if I can move copies that people actually have to pay for or if I'm only popular when I'm free.  

I actually read some stuff that I didn't write this week.  See yesterday's post.  

In baking news, one day, I made chocolate oatmeal cookies and pizza.  Yummers on both.  Another day, I made ham and scalloped potatoes.  Mmmm.  

As for activity and exercise, my knee was still squonky from the fall back on 10/19, so I didn't get much done.  Then I said 'screw that crap' and yesterday, I went into the woods.  I got the remainder of that pile of sticks moved to the other pile.  Consolidating, doncha know.  No weight loss this week, but no weight gain either which is a win, I guess.  Weight: 175.2

Also, I did some gardening.  I took all the seeds and stuff I'd gathered, went through the steps, and got some stuff planted in pots.  The redbud seeds and the spicebush seeds are in the dirt, along with four acorns.  Meanwhile, the dogwood seeds and the buckthorn seeds are in baggies in the fridge for what they call stratification.  (Cold shocking to make the seeds germinate.)  Now, we wait.

Here in the states, Tuesday is election day.  I'll be glad when it's over.  We'll either see the country start to move back toward being America again, or we'll know for sure that the country is done for.  And at least the phone calls, the ads, and the whole 'vote yes on..., vote no on...' stuff will stop.  We'll trundle ourselves on over to the big auditorium behind the Baptist church and cast our votes.  Then we wait.  And we wait... because I have no illusions that if the Big T wins it'll be accepted by the other side and they'll drag out the actual notification of the winner for as long as they can.  I will have done as much as I can.

Oh, and in case you weren't paying attention, the time change was last night.  I hate this crap and I wish they'd just be done with it.  I'm not sure I know anyone who thinks this is a good idea, so why are we still doing it?  Ask the bureaucrats, I guess.  Derp.

Not much else going on around here.  Keep on keepin' on.  Hang in there.  And all that.  :hugs:

Saturday Reading Wrap-up 11/2/24

Hi Folks!  I know it's been a while since I did one of these.  I've been so wrapped up with my own stuff I haven't really been reading.  Well, I did do a little reading this week, so here goes...

No new books, but I have to rectify that because I'm out of unread ebooks on my Kindle.

Books Read:

24) Love Blooms by Jennifer Faye (10/31/24) - Romance* - 5-stars.  New to me but not underappreciated. Free from the ENT newsletter.
Review: "Cute book with just enough tension to make it interesting."

23) Moonstruck Mafia: Boston by Silver James (10/27/24) - Paranormal Romantic Suspense*# - 5 stars. Not new to me, but underappreciated.  This is a new release and I hope it gains the appreciation it deserves.
Review: "EPIC AND AWESOME - Don't be afraid of the big bad Wolf, or in this case, the big awesome book. This latest offering from Silver James is epic. I mean, you get several paranormal romances filled with suspense and interwoven into one amazing story. What's not to love about that? And she's taken a different turn with her Wolf shifters this time. All new heroes that skirt the wrong side of the law and all new heroines for them to love. You'll fall in love with them, too. I know I did."

DNFs:

10/29/24 - free - ??genre - I made it about halfway through thinking this was one kind of book and then it switched to something completely different from what I was thinking it was.  The effect was jarring, so I didn't bother finishing the book.

Currently reading... I picked up another of my two-fer Erle Stanley Gardner volumes.  I finished one of the books inside yesterday and start the other, but I won't add it to the 'books read' until I finish both.

What have you been reading lately?

Pretty Graphic for Sleeping Ugly

I know you know that SLEEPING UGLY is free right now, but I just wanted to post this graphic I made because I think it's pretty.

I splashed that sucker all over FB this morning, so if you've got any critiques, it's too late for that now and you will only harsh my morning.  

I'm sure some of you know exactly how hard it is making marketing graphics :cough:Silver:cough: but for the rest of you, this isn't just a matter of POOF there it is.  You have to find just the right background and just the right text to go with it.  Even then, you have no clue whether it's actually grabby to anyone but you.  (Unless you're already a marketing genius... this is for the rest of us.)  I've made graphics I thought we're really da bomb, and when I look at them later, I'm all like :sad trombone noise: so there's really no telling.  

One thing I have learned is that it all seems to go better if you have a graphic to splash rather than just letting the link in the text populate a clickable image.  That seems a little counterintuitive - like I would've thought that having a larger space to click would be more attractive - but in my experience, it's true.  More people click through and buy with a graphic and a link, than with just the link and its clickable image.  :shrug:  Also, some groups won't actually let a post without an image go through.  They're auto-blocked.  :additional shrug:

Anyway, I just wanted to leave this out there for anyone who might be contemplating this marketing plan.  Learn from my mistakes and all that.  And look at my pretty graphic while you're at it.  And get a copy of the book, then buy the rest of the series, okay?