Okay, so I'm finally not sick. (Mostly.) So, we get a Marketing Monday today. Yay! :muppetflail: Here's hoping it'll draw lots of downloads and lead to sales of TTW*.
*yes, I'm still working on the third book for Duke Noble. Maybe now that I'm not plague-ridden, I can actually make progress on getting the editing done.
Rumors of my death are probably circulating. Don't believe them. I'm not dead, even if I would've wished for it after a week of this creepy crud. Just when you think you're done with it, it circles back and kicks you in the nards. Today, I almost feel human, so fingers crossed. Yesterday, I felt almost human and zipped to the DG for a few things, which laid me out for the rest of the day. Tomorrow, I definitely have to go grocery shopping whether I'm up to it or not.
I've been watching the Olympics... well, watching little bites of the Olympics anyway. Most of the Olympics are behind a pay wall, so I'm only watching short videos that are free. It's not as exciting as usual, because I could already know what happens, but it'll do. I refuse to pay NBC for anything. (Like I already refuse to pay PBS or BBC.) If it ain't free, I guess I'll go without.
Okay, so maybe I'd be willing to pay a subscription if I could find a service that wasn't run by leftist assholes. I was really into getting a BritBox subscription, but then I found out they're owned by BBC, which is run by such loathsome people I can't see sending them even a penny of my money. This, of course, makes me sad, because I was really looking forward to a long stretch of watching Inspector Morse from start to finish, followed by Lewis. Not sad enough to send money to the BBC, of course, but still sad.
Thank goodness for coffee.
Sawyer is being a pain the ass this morning. I guess I should be happy that he's doing this in the morning rather than at night while I'm trying to sleep. I know what his problem is... it's the same problem every morning... He wants to eat. And he doesn't want to eat kibbles. He wants wet food. NOW. Not after 9am which used to be after 10am which used to be noon. I've drawn the line at 9 and no earlier. Meanwhile, Finn is sleeping.
It's been so warm lately, I'm getting the urge to garden. Except I know as soon as I garden, the weather will turn and it'll freeze, killing all my hard work. So I wait.
And that's it for me today. I'm going to wander back to my recliner and veg. Take it easy today, wherever you are. :hugs:
Hi. There really isn't too much to talk about this week. Sunday afternoon, I came down with the creeping crud (see Friday's plague post to get the link to the virus of the month). Not much else has happened other than dealing with that. I'm 90% over it. Hubs is stuck at like 60%. Neither of us have slept well in a week, so you can imagine what life is like here.
Thusly, I didn't write. Or edit. There was minimal marketing, which somehow moved 56 copies of Blink anyway. Woot... I guess. I sold a book and someone read a whole other book and most of a third book, so I'm already at almost $5 for the month.
Me, I finally finished reading The Night Manager by John LeCarre. Good book. It didn't end nearly as well as the movie, but it also didn't end nearly as badly as it could've. Ultimately, there was a HEA for the MC, so yay. Not a lot of justice for the bad guys, but sadly, LeCarre had a poor sense of life, so I'm not surprised.
Also not surprising... no baking this week.
Activity? I spent the first four days of the week dragging myself from room to room. Thursday and Friday, I cleaned and did laundry. I lost some weight, of course. I stepped on the scale on Thursday and I was at 176.4, so down a pound. The fat is hanging on to me for its dear life. Hubs probably lost 10 pounds because he's a dude and fat runs from him. :shrug:
I really need to get over this and get back to life. This damn book won't edit itself.
Okay, time for some more coffee. Or maybe I'll just go back to bed. Have a great day wherever you are and try not to catch this crap, eh?
So, I'm guessing we've had what they're calling a Super Flu. It's ravaging the countryside or whatever. It's pretty brutal, but still not the worst flu we've ever had*. I came down with it and about a day later, Hubs got it, too.
Mine started Sunday afternoon. I laid down for my usual nap and slept for over an hour - which was weird. When I woke up, I felt like a had the worst nap hangover ever. Usually, nap hangovers leave after I drink some juice or something, but this one lingered. Plus, I couldn't get warm, which is not a nap hangover symptom. Then the cough started. It was a deep booming cough, like I was trying hack up parts of my soul.
The next day, Hubs got it.
By Tuesday, I was starting the slow climb out of it and he was descending further into the depths. I dragged myself to the Dollar G to pick up more cough medicine and honey.
Wednesday sucked.
Yesterday, Hubs started coming out of it. And I hit the DG again for Pedialyte and Ensure, fruit cups, pudding, etc. (Thank goodness for the new DG which is like 5 minutes away.) Then I did all the things that needed doing - cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc. Which tuckered me out, but a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do, eh?
Today will be mostly napping for Hubs. This shit is an asskicker, lemme tell ya.
If you get it, drink lots of fluids. Make yourself take in some kind of calories - even if you have to drink Ensure. Sleep lots. Stay the hell away from other people if at all possible, so they don't get it, too. And hang in there. It'll pass. :hugs:
*H1N1 (Swine flu) from... oh, I dunno, we were in Colorado, so more than 13 years ago... it was the worst we've ever had.
Sorry I'm late.
Being sick sucks.
Good news: I'm on the road to recovery.
Bad news: Hubs had got it, too, and he's about 2 days behind me, plus he got a worser version of it.
Yeah, I know worser isn't a word. But it fits, so there ya go.
Bad news Part 2: Since I'm feeling better first, I'm the one doing all the things left undone while we suffered. Next time, I'm making sure Hubs gets over it first. ;o)
Once I get done with the honey-dos, I am getting in the shower because ew.
I haven't had ice cream in like 4 days. You know it's bad when I don't eat ice cream.
I managed to get to the DG. Didn't want to. Had to. We were out of cough syrup, chicken soup, and honey. And lemon juice, but I forgot that so we're still out of it. Nerts. I've been mainlining tea and cough syrup.
I haven't eaten much other than soup for days. I'm having a fucking hamburger for lunch. Dammit.
Okay, that's about all I'm good for right now. Have a great day and don't catch this crap, whatever it is, if you can help it. (Probably got it from some unwashed heathen touching stuff at the Walmart, which I then touched and brought home with me. Purell, people. Seriously.)
The following is a list of things The Boyz have taught me:
- never leave coffee unattended. Even if there are no cats in the vicinity. Even if the cats in the vicinity are sound asleep. If you leave your coffee, you will return to find either a cat with its paws/face in the mug or coffee splatters everywhere and fur or litter in your cup.
- focus on the warm spots. If you get up from a chair, you have a 90% chance of finding a cat in the chair when you return. If there is a cat in your chair and you change chairs, the cat will want your new chair. Or, if you have multiple cats, you'll find another cat in your new chair. The same applies to getting out of bed in the middle of the night. The cat will find your warm spot and fill it.
- trespassers can't be trusted and should be eliminated whenever possible. If there's a bug anywhere in the house, the cats will find it and kill it. This goes for mice/shrews/moles and birds (and once, when we had Max, a squirrel) as well, or anything really that's unlucky enough to try to come inside.
- sleep whenever you can / naps are important. The Boyz are usually sleeping. Except when they're keeping me awake.
- work whenever you can. It seems like anytime I sit down at the computer, one or the other of The Boyz will come over to either a) get on my lap and make it impossible for me to type or b) get into trouble right behind me so I have to stop working to chastise them for being naughty.
- being naughty has its advantages. When The Boyz are naughty, they get attention. Sometimes they get treats (that's a slippery slope, I know, but sometimes it's the only way to redirect their attention).
- never take things too seriously. Not that The Boyz don't take things seriously. Sometimes, they take things way too seriously - especially 'fraidy-cat Sawyer, who'll jump at the slightest sound, or Finn, who acts like I've set fire to all his hopes and dreams when I scold him. Their reactions are what have taught me to not take things seriously, if you catch my drift.
;o)
Today is Marketing Monday and BLINK OF AN I is free this week. Unfortunately, I feel like warmed-over, leftover doggie doo, so mustering the will to actually market anything is iffy. Not sure what bug I picked up or where, but bleh.
I wonder as I write this post whether marketing this book as "I feel like crap today. Pity me and download my book." would work. ;o)
Hey there, friends and fans! Welcome to February! (Okay, I'm not really that perky this morning, but you know what they say... fake it 'til you make it.)
This week, no writing. Editing was sporadic, but I am up to 28% of the book has edit notes now. Marketing happened and because of marketing I ended January with nearly $16 in sales and moved like 13 copies of paid-for books. Woot. Hey, ya gotta get your excitement where you can. I did only move 26 free copies of NC :sad trombone:, though. This coming week, Blink of an I will be free.
I'm about 75% done with The Night Manager. I had hoped to finish it before the end of January, but that didn't happen. Oh, well.
In baking news, I made a loaf of Raisin Pecan Quick Bread and a pizza. Then yesterday, I got a wild hair and made a loaf of Oatmeal Bread (a yeasted bread) - plain, no raisins or cinnamon or swirling. It turned out really yummy and we had slices of it with our pot pies for dinner. The baking has really helped keep the house warm, too.
On the activity front, it's been COLD, so not a lot of activity going on here. Hubs and I shoveled the driveway. I did grocery shopping. Other than that, nada. We did go across the street to help when she got her SUV stuck, but the guy who lives there got it out before we made it up the hill, so that really was only a short uphill walk for me. I did step on the scale - clothed because it was COLD. Then I stripped anyway because I'm all about the data, and learned my clothes weighed 3.2lbs. My weight: 177.6
Because of the cold, I spent a lot of the week huddled inside in front of the tube. We watched some really good movies (and vetoed some duds). Unfortunately, since I'm not doing a weekly movie post, I didn't write their names down and I'm at a loss to remember most of them. We caught a good one yesterday called Evidence of Blood (from 1998) that starred that guy who played Tom Cruise's brother in The Firm (David Strathairn). Really good stuff there. We also watched The Courier (2020) yesterday. That was Benedict Cumberbatch as an everyday guy back in 1962 who gets recruited to carry documents from the USSR to the UK. It was based on a true story, and the story is pretty amazing. We've also started watching a goofy British crime-comedy called Vexed. What a hoot.
Yeah, my life is pretty boring. But that's life in the woods, eh? How have things been where you are?
I just stumbled across a British psychologist pimping his services in a FB book marketing group. Sure, writers probably do need loads of mental help, and thus, it could be a brilliant strategy for this dude to gain more clients, but I blocked him. Turd. Those groups are for marketing books, not services. Shoo shoo.
I've got cabin fever. (Cue song from Muppet Treasure Island.) I really need to get my lard-ass outside today before I start dancing around in a turban made of fruit.
We found a neat new-to-us show - Touching Evil - with Robson Green. I really do love Robson Green. And those piercing blue eyes... :swoon: The show only ran a couple seasons, but it's really worth watching if you're into gritty crime dramas.
Everything is covered in snow. Which is weird for here. We got about 9 inches worth and it's not warming up enough to melt it quickly. Plus, it's supposed to be freakin' cold again this weekend. Bleh.
On the upside, the cold is making all the critters so fluffy. Cuteness overload. The birds are balls with legs. The deer look like stuffed animals. I want to snuggle them all up. I won't, but I want to. Deer do not LIKE to be snuggled.
I'm at that point in my writing career where I'm doubting everything I've ever done. woot. It happens every now and then, and it will pass.
I've been blocking a lot of people on FB again. Frickin' nutburgers.
Last night, I made pizza for dinner. It's been a while since I did pizza and let me tell ya, I can feel all that kneading this morning. Derp. It was worth it. It always is.
Okay, I think I've run out of witty things to say today. Anything witty on your end?
Hello. Welcome to Marketing Monday. Since I am a little sore and a lot tired (or a lot sore and a little tired... it's hard to tell) from show shoveling, let's just get right to it, eh?
Who had Civil War II on their 2026 bingo card? It's not north vs south this time. It's law-abiding citizens vs law breakers. Anyway...
I didn't do any writing this week and I did very little editing. I think I got one page of notes which amounted to only 1% of the book. Then my hand started to cramp and I set it aside for a while, which ended up being a longer while than I had intended. (Sno-pacalypse prep didn't help there.)
Marketing was done. I moved 100 copies of EG and someone read the book in KU, so I have that going for me.
I'm about halfway through The Night Manager. Maybe setting my goal at 35 books read for the year was wishful thinking.
In baking news, I made a quick bread. I started out to make that raisin-pecan bread and was about halfway through when I realized that the milk in the fridge had gone bad. Since I wasn't inclined to hop in the car and drive to the DG at that time, I searched for a substitute. I ended up settling on vanilla yogurt and water. The loaf baked up nice and looked lovely. It also tastes pretty good. Cutting it was the problem. I tried cutting it hot and it fell apart. :shrug: It cut fine after spending the night in the fridge, yay, so I sliced the whole loaf. Now it only falls apart if we microwave it to warm it up. And that's okay. I may make it again with the yogurt and tweak it so it holds up better.
On the activity front, I did an hour in the woods, throwing logs before the snow flew. Yesterday, we shoveled snow. I also did a double-load of grocery shopping, which was definitely exercise. I haven't weighed myself - it's too cold to be naked in the bathroom right now. My last weigh-in wasn't good, though. Blerg.
Speaking of throwing logs, the newest pile I created ended up with a big empty spot at the bottom, next to a downed cedar. I got the idea to make it a critter hidey-hole, so the last time I was in the woods, I reinforced that idea. It has two openings and a windbreak, plus as many leaves as I could pack around it. I hope the critters use it. I'd use it if I was a critter. For his woods-work, Hubs moved the remainder of the wood he'd already cut, so it wouldn't be sitting there when the snow hit.
Speaking of snow, we shoveled about 2-3 inches off the driveway yesterday. It was light, dry snow, so not that big a deal itself. It was really COLD though, so that was a kicker to the proverbial nuts. We weren't out there too long, but we accomplished what we set out to accomplish. We'll see what daylight brings and how much more we'll have to do today. The plan is to clear our driveway and, if necessary, get the driveway across the road. Those folks are both in their 80s and he's not in the greatest of health, so we do what we have to. That goodness I bought that new snow shovel last month.
This week, we also spent a lot of time getting ready for the winter storm, but I already talked about that. I guess that means I'm done with the update. Have a great week, wherever you are. Stay warm. Stay safe. Peace out.
It's Friday and Sno-pacalypse is supposedly on its way. It's supposed to arrive after 6pm tonight, so I've still got today to do anything else that needs doing. Except I thought it was supposed to be here earlier, so we already did everything that needed doing.
I did the grocery shopping - two weeks worth in case we get snowed in. The state of MO does a good job of clearing the highways, but the county doesn't do so great on clearing the side roads, so we can be kinda screwed living back in here. It seems to me that the last time we got a snow event, it was a week before we could leave the neighborhood.
I gassed up the car. It's probably not going anywhere, but if we lose power, we can stay warm in the car for an extended period of time. It won't be comfortable - 2 humans and 2 cats in a Chevy Cavalier - but it will be better than freezing our asses off in the house.
I also picked up enough cigarettes to get us through.
Hubs put new insulation in our well-tap pit, so it won't freeze in there. This afternoon, he'll go over and turn the heater on in the wellhouse, so that won't freeze. (A neighbor who's on a different well has already had his freeze this season.)
I moved all my garage plants away from the windows and also brought a few inside for the duration. Cecil the Cedar is in the spare room with Seymour the Nephthytis and my green pepper plants.
Hubs covered all the windows in the garage to help retard heat loss there. He also drained the plumbing in the garage and made sure there's no water in the toilet out there. Just in case the heaters can't keep up or we lose power. (We've already had to replace one toilet because it cracked due to cold - from when the house was vacant before we bought it. That was fun. Not.) The heaters will be turned on tonight.
I already have a towel along the bottom edge of the front door to keep the cold out and the warm in. Today, I'll put a blanket along the bottom of the doors leading to the sun porch. Yesterday, I took the cushions off my patio furniture and used them to retard the air leakage from the sun porch to the deck. (That door is horribly gappy.) I'll also use some towels along the window sills to stop cold there. I have no proof it works, but I did it in Michigan and it seemed to help.
Which leads to the reason to our madness. We both grew up in Michigan and we know what cold weather can do. We also know that this is southern Missouri, and most people aren't ready for any kind of snow or cold for any length of time. These homes aren't built for polar weather. The people are woefully underprepared.
After our first winter here, which was so suckily cold our furnace couldn't keep up, Hubs re-insulated using R30, so we've got that going for us. I feel bad for almost everyone else around here who get by with the R5 we had before. Hubs also put insulation around a lot of the pipes under the house and in the garage. He's handy that way.
Anyway, if you're reading this and aren't quite prepared, there's still a little time. (Maybe not to reinsulate your home, but for other things to get you by.) Go forth and get 'er done. We're gonna hunker down for the duration. Stay safe and warm out there, everyone. :hugs:
They keep dropping the predicted temperature for this weekend. Freakin' single digits and negatives. And a possible up to 9" of snow. Derp. We're making plans for the snow-pacalypse, and crossing our fingers the power doesn't go out. I did two-weeks worth of grocery shopping yesterday, got cigs, and filled the tank in my car. Today, I'll hit the Dollar General for a few other things, just in case, and then move all my plants away from the windows in the garage so Hubs can put up the window coverings to retard heat loss in there (old comforters mostly). He'll drain the hoses and bring them inside, and then we'll hunker down for the duration.
Speaking of the impending snow-pacalypse... Wallyworld was a zoo yesterday. And yes, they were running out of bread. (Which I didn't need, thank goodness.) I didn't check the milk or the toilet paper, but they were probably getting low, too. The poor cashier said the place had been a zoo since the first mentions of the storm, so like 2-3 days worth of zoo, and it's only going to get worse. Today will be zoo to the nth power down there.
To the woman shrieking that ICE should leave her alone because she has a head injury... People like you piss me off. I am really sick of people using traumatic brain injury as an excuse for bad behavior. And by the way, if your head injury was severe enough that you can't understand simple instructions, you have no business driving. They made me prove I could drive safely after my head injury before they'd let me get behind the wheel of a car. The same should've happened to you, if you have a head injury, which I suspect you don't. Anyway, this is as bad as pretending you have a limp to get handicapped parking. Knock it off.
Yes, my head injury is 32 years (and 11 days) old. They don't go away, you just learn workarounds to deal with your deficiencies. Or you don't. Whining about it doesn't help. Trust me. I tried that early on and it didn't help.
I sometimes think about writing a book about my TBI experiences, but I can't remember a lot of what happened in any great detail, so a book probably isn't the way to go.
I recently started following Josh & Jase (two Brits who love America) because they're touring Michigan right now. These guys are hilarious. And they've just reached the Upper Peninsula. This should be fun. I spent 4 years up there and I really do miss it sometimes. (Not now. Now it's cold and snowy and just NOPE.)
Okay, I probably should go. I had other things on my mind to talk about today, but they're gone, so...
Have a great day!
Good morning! It's time again for another Marketing Monday. Today, we're doing Early Grave - the third book in the Serial Crimes Investigation Unit series. It's a third book, but like all the SCIU books, it can be read without reading the others. (Although reading the others does enrich the experience, imo.)
Speaking of marketing and free books, I am actually ahead of the game and have set up freebies for the next three weeks. This week, it's EG, next week will be Blink of an I, and then Natural Causes. Enjoy.
Well, here we are again at Sunday morning. I wanted to sleep in today, but my bladder had other ideas. Derp.
No writing this week - it's editing time. Unfortunately, not a lot of that was done either. I think I'm at 13% on my edit notes, which works out to like 2.5 pages worth of notes. Better than nothing, but I need to get my act together if I want to reach the goal of being done with this by the end of the... oh crap, it's the 18th.?! Really? Well, crap. It would take a miracle to get this book finished in 12 days. So, let's say this book's deadline is February. Sometime in February. Before March?
I did marketing. UWC was free and it moved 38 copies. I also moved 2 copies of WIOH at regular price, so there's that. I also moved one copy each of DE and of FG, which I assume is from previous marketing. Yay. And someone's been reading PH in KU. woot. I'm up to like $9 for the month, which isn't gravy, but it's better than a sharp stick in the eye.
I'm still reading The Night Manager. It's slow going because I'm also trying to read my book for edit notes.
This week, I made beef stew, which turned out awesome, and biscuits to go with that (also awesome). Then I made a pineapple upside-down cake. Yummers.
On the activity front, I did a couple days out in the woods throwing logs. Those kicked my ass, which led to not doing anything for a day or two (or five) after each session. I'm not as young as I used to be and I keep forgetting that. So, doing nearly 2 hours in the woods hits me like a 200-pound boxer hits a weakling with a glass jaw. Derp. Let's not talk weight, eh? It was 177.8 last Sunday and I don't expect it's gone down any since. Did I mention the pineapple upside-down cake? Yeah.
Speaking of throwing logs, Hubs is most of the way through moving the piles of firewood he's already made with the chainsaw. And I'm making good progress creating other piles of not-firewood - better known as taking all the crap lying around and moving it to centralized locations. (Can also be known as creating wildlife habitats, but that's tertiary.) The hope for me is to create a glade down there in the woods, with wildflowers and pretty trees. Maybe a gazebo... you know, if I win the lottery or something.
We're trying a new high-protein food for Lumpy. I think she's looking better, but that could just be wishful thinking on my part. This cold snap could be the deciding factor on whether she lives through this winter. It's 10 degrees out there. :shudder:
Speaking of 10 degrees... Umm, yeah, I won't be going in the woods until the air can't hurt my face.
I went to the thrift store this week. No books, but I didn't find a really nifty posthole digger for $7. Woot. Yes, I am a redneck who gets excited about cheap tools. We'll be using the posthole digger to make holes... naturally... which will be used to plant trees. Or at least to get the ground here broken up enough to maybe plant trees. We have a plan.
And on that exciting farm implement news, I think that's it for me. What's been up with you?
Here's a little sea-shanty I cooked up this morning. Sing along with me...
What do you do with a slothful writer?
What do you do with a slothful writer?
What do you do with a slothful writer staring at a blank page?
Chain her to the keyboard until she writes words.
Chain her to the keyboard until she writes words.
Chain her to the keyboard until she writes words until she gets to THE END.
Yes, I am a slothful writer. Although, to be honest, I'm editing right now not writing. Still, the song amused me. I hope it amused you, too.I went to Wallyworld yesterday. They've already put out a bunch of gardening stuff, including seeds. It's too early! Oh, and I got an email from Tractor Supply about it being time to start planning my garden. No. (Okay, yeah, I've already been thinking about it, but it's too early to actually do anything about it.)
Wow. You can really see the dark side of the moon this morning.
I love the internet sometimes. Oh, sure, it's rife with misinformation and morons abound, but it's pretty cool, too. For instance, Hubs and I were talking about something the other morning and I mentioned how I babysat 3 kids when I was 13. Which got me to thinking about those kids. Which led to me running a search on them, starting with the oldest. And well, shit, he's a clinical psychologist now. Good for him. He was a good kid and pretty smart at the time. And now he's 50 and life seems good for him. Yay.
What we were talking about is, on the off chance we have to both go out of town at the same time, we should get the neighbor girl (age 13 almost 14) to watch the cats - give her a key and instructions, etc. He was worried that she was too young to cope in the event of an emergency, which was when I pointed out that I watched 3 children ages 8, 6, and 4 when I was 13. Of course, times have changed and 13 ain't what it used to be. Hell, in the olden days, some girls were married at 13. (Jerry Lee Lewis married a 13-year-old, for instance. I mean, ew, but it happened.)
Mom and I were talking the other day about swearing. She never swears. (Okay, every rare once in a while, she'll say ass or bitch, but that's it.) She feels it shows a certain amount ignorance and laziness, and if you're smart / not lazy, you can find other words to use. My standpoint is to use the best word for the situation and sometimes a swear word fits better than any other. She had to admit my point, but she's still not for it. For the record, Hubs doesn't swear much either. Although, if certain situations arise, he can belt them out with the best of us cursers. (Yeah... about that... I'm a foul-mouthed chick sometimes.)
Night before last, we were just falling asleep when something in the backyard started barking. LOUD. And it wouldn't shut up. Even after I went to the window and banged. Even after I walked into the bathroom, opened that window and told it to shut up. It was only slamming the window shut that encouraged it to move off - but not to stop because I could still hear it barking as it moved off into the night. We think it was a fox. After doing a little research, foxes bark for three main reasons - defining their territorial boundaries, alerting others to a predator, and looking for a mate (which generally happens in late winter... which is now, I guess.)
Okay, I think that's enough out of me for now. Anything good in your this-n-that basket today?
First off, UP WISH CREEK is free starting today.
Now that we have that out of the way, what should we talk about today? World news? Nah, you get enough of that already. The woods? You've probably had enough of that. Personal shit? I don't have any drama llamas hanging out here.
I guess that's why I don't post that often anymore. Nothing to talk about. My life is pretty boring and the world doesn't need my input on its events. I write books and try to sell them, I have cats, I get my jollies throwing logs in the woods, I read a little, and I watch way too much TV. There's me in a nutshell.
I did get started on editing DN3 (tentatively called Justice: Past Due, although I'm also kinda attracted to Taint in the Blood - which may or may not also be a Bones title*), so yay.
So, I put it to you this morning... is there anything you'd like me to talk about?
*Nope, not Bones. It's the 14th book in another popular suspense writer's series. Derp. There's no book called Justice Past Due as far as I can tell, though, so yay.)
Well, we wrapped up the first week of the new year and lemme tell ya, I didn't have this stuff on my bingo card for the year (i.e. the Venezuela stuff, the Iran stuff, the Minnesota stuff). Wow.
Anyway... Writing didn't happen, because I just finished a book and I took the week off. Editing was supposed to start yesterday but, while I did email the book to my Kindle, I didn't do any. I did write a short blurb. And I think I have a title - JUSTICE: PAST DUE. (Sucks, doesn't it. Titles suck.) I do hope to have this book done by the end of the month, so I'd better get cracking.
Marketing happened. I moved 30 copies of PH. I also sold a copy of DE and someone read pages of both TTW and PH, so yay.
I finished that book I was reading, so I have a new Books Read post for 2026, and I'm currently reading The Night Manager by John LeCarre. It's pretty gripping.
In baking news, I made Raisin Pecan Quick Bread. It's super yummy. Yesterday, I did a vat of pulled pork. Also yum.
On the activity front, I did three days of woods work and one day cleaning. Woot. Hang on, I have to go weigh myself... Ack... never mind, you don't want to know. I know I didn't want to know. Weight: 177.8
Speaking of woods work, I moved the summer clean-up pile to the permanent pile. (Summer clean-up pile is for any crap that falls in the yard during the hot months when we don't go into the woods due to ticks and snakes.) Hubs went through all our old firewood and threw out anything that was roached, then reorganized the pallets for more efficient wood use, which gave us a couple of empty pallets for the newly sawn wood. That black cherry tree is probably going to be a couple cords alone. (Don't ask me. I never did figure out how many chucks a woodchuck could chuck or how many logs are actually in a cord.)
The Boyz are currently fighting in what I've begun to call The Box Maze. Some days. Ugh.
Other than that, not much going on. It's pretty same-same here. How are things in your world?
Oh. It just occurred to me after I hit Publish that this is the 11th, so I had to come back to add this. It's my accident anniversary. 32 years today. :shrug: Ya know, this used to be a bigger deal, but now I'm kinda over it.
Working in the woods yesterday, moving one pile of crap to another pile of crap, and I went to move a rather large hickory limb. I stood it up and tipped it over to get it out of the way, but I neglected to account for the way the limb was weirdly twisted, so when it hit the ground, the thick end bounced up and hit me in the thigh. Talk about ouch. It's going to be a glorious bruise once it blooms.
You ever have a dream so happy that you were sad when you woke up?
I'm driving myself crazy trying to think of a title for DN3. I mean, I had settled on The Deepest Cut, which would be right for the MO of the killer, but all wrong for the timeframe (plus, it's been done to death). Maybe that's why every other title sounds lame by comparison. I need to get over it. I'm laying in bed running the Title HamsterWheel and not getting any sleep. I thought I had a good title - Green-Eyed Murder - but the next morning, it was lame. Then I came up with a couple last night which I got out of bed to write down, but they seem lame this morning. The best one out of that lot is JUSTICE: PAST DUE - I think the colon helps. :shrug: (And a big hug to Silver, who sent me a list of suggestions.) Oh, well. I'm in the between place right now, so I have time to ponder it. I'll start editing probably this weekend. We'll see.
I had a neat idea for a SF short story. Whether I write it... eh.
I think I need to bake a cake. I've been jones'n for baked goods lately. I really don't need the calories or the carbs, but mmmm.... cake.
I also want pizza. I made a passable substitute for lunch yesterday, using leftover spaghetti sauce, rolls, and mozzarella. Still, it wasn't enough to get rid of my craving. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and make real pizza soon.
The bird of the day is a Great Blue Heron. Love those birds, but they do make the most unholy of noises.
The other day, I found a neat new-to-me show called Exhibit A with Graham Green. It's a half-hour show where they go over a true crime, present the facts, and give you the solution. I like that I don't really have to think too much about it. Wham, bam, thank you forensics. I am all about the crime sometimes.
I'm almost out of ice cream, which is a crime in itself. Yay for Dollar General being like 3 miles from the house now.
Well, that's it from me. What's on your list today?
Every so often, I check my reviews and ratings. (Yes, I have a spreadsheet for that.) Yesterday, I went through the Amazon listings for each of my books, noting the number of reviews vs the number of ratings, and the rankings. Nothing really new. Some nice new reviews, some crappy ratings - the usual. But one review has left me feeling a little blue*.
They said they liked the book, but then they said something about the plot resolution that showed they hadn't really read the end, and then they went on to say that the book was rife with errors in grammar and spelling, hinting that I should've edited better. I, of course, was shocked. You know me - I work really really hard to clean up all that stuff before I ever hit publish.
So, I opened the last file and ran my spelling/grammar checker. It pointed out some things, but everything it pointed out was a stylistic choice. The book in question is, after all, written in a looser, more-dialogue oriented style. It's entirely possible that is what she was talking about. Unfortunately, I can't explain any of that to the reviewer. So, that review sits there, hinting to potential readers that my books are poorly written and crappily edited. (And yes, the above sentence is grammatically incorrect. It's how I write when I'm talking to you here.)
This might explain why the last freebie I put out for this book did so poorly. Who the hell wants a crappy book? If I read that review, I wouldn't download the book.
So, yeah, I'm bummed. The writing life is hard enough without stuff like that.
*Yes, I know, you're not supposed to read your own reviews, but I do it anyway. I'm a sucker for punishment, I guess.
Hello! It's time for Marketing Monday! :muppetflail: This week, we're hitting my one medical/political thriller - Project Hermes. Enjoy!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Y6G0EW
It's the little things that kill.
Well, it's time again to create another Books Read post. This will be my 18th year of doing this on this blog, so I expect my regular followers to know the drill. For everyone else, here's how it goes:
The books are listed from oldest read at the bottom to newest read at the top. There'll be Title by Author (Date) - Genre. Title only, no series info because I'm lazy. The title will mostly be linked to the book's Goodreads page. If there's then an asterisk, it's an ebook. If it's new to me and underappreciated (less than 50 ratings/reviews), I'll put a hashtag.
I set my reading goal at 35, because I was such a toad of a reader last year.
Okay, so here goes:
2) The Night Manager by John LeCarre (2/8/26) - Thriller
1) The Dead Will Beckon by Jason Chapman (1/4/26) - Suspense*#
Time to wrap up the last week of the year. All in all it was a good week, so here goes...
Writing: Last night, I finished the first draft of DN3. Yay! It's just under 49K words right now, but I expect to add a bunch in editing. And I hate the end, so I'm guessing it'll have a rewrite. I also came up with a title last night when I was supposed to be falling asleep. How does Duke Noble, P.I.: The Deepest Cut strike you? :half-shrug: I loved it last night. Now I'm not so sure. (Updated 8:20pm - The phrase 'the first cut is the deepest' wasn't coined until way past when this book is set, so NOPE. Back to the drawing board.)
I did marketing. Thicker Than Water (DN2) was on the block. I moved 129 free copies, one full price copy after the freebie, and someone read it in KU. Here's hoping that those freebies turn into sales of Rumor Has It (DN1)
I did reading. I finished my first book of the year. (And I totally forgot to add it in Goodreads, or make a 2026 goal for the year, so don't go looking over there.) It wasn't bad. Actually, it was pretty good. Different. And not what it was billed as... hard boiled crime? Not. Anyway, it was good, so that's a win.
In baking news, I made stuffed pork chops yesterday. Those were yummy, so yay.
On the activity front, I did 3 days of woods work - hauling deadfall and cutting it up and raking it up - for about 2.75 hours. I haven't weighed myself to start the year yet. I'm a little leery because I've been noshing quite a lot lately. (ETA: I did it. Weight: 177.4 - well, at least there's a starting point to go down from.)
Speaking of woods work, the big fallen black cherry tree is mostly cut up now and all the top branches/twigs have been moved to a pile that's out of the way. So yay. We have several stacks of firewood laying out there that have to be moved, but they'll be fine out there for the time being. We're both feeling pretty good considering what we've done and our respective ages, so we've got that going for us.
My Christmas tree is still up. I have to take that down and get back to normal.
I located my 2026 day-planner. I bought it in early December and put it somewhere I wouldn't lose it (and the cats wouldn't eat it), then promptly forgot where that was. I looked in all the obvious places, but nope. Then I noted a spiral binding peeking out from the top row of books on one of my bookshelves. Huzzah!
Since I was a total spazz last month, I didn't get my spreadsheets prepared for the coming year, so I did a lot of those last week. I still have a couple of personal ones to do, but those can keep.
Other than that... Welcome to 2026! May it be a banner year for us all.
How was your final week of 2025?
