Marketing Monday - Natural Causes

Well, it's another Monday and I'm marketing.  I decided to let loose with Natural Causes because it's been like 6 months since I marketed it.  Thus, it's free starting today.  Have at it.

Starting today, NATURAL CAUSES is free.  (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.)  Pick up your copy of this hard-boiled crime novel today.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y44BXTM

Personally, I think this book is really underappreciated.  But I'm the author, so what do I know?

Anyway, it's free right now, so if you enjoyed ACCIDENTAL DEATH and haven't read this yet, you're missing out.

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 36

Welcome to the Sunday Update.  I think it's Week 36.  These days, who knows? LOL  Anyway, sorry last week was a dud, but let's see what I can do to amuse you today.

I did some writing this week.  Not nearly enough, but something anyway.  I managed 1709 out of two days.  :sad trombone:  This week ain't lookin' great either, but we'll see.  

Marketing was accomplished.  Unfortunately, still being hamstrung by FB, I moved only 29 copies of IDW.  I did sell a copy each of the other books in the series, though, so I've got that going for me.

Nothing got finished on the reading front, so no post yesterday.  I'm in the middle of reading a collection of inter-related short stories by Arthur C. Clarke.  They're okay.  Nothing really exciting, but fun.

In baking news, I made oatmeal raisin bread with a cinnamon swirl.  What can I say... I was inspired by watching The Great British Baking Show.  Plus, I got a new to me cookbook with this recipe in it.  It's pretty yummy, but the swirl part was a bust.  It's falling apart at the swirl line.  :shrug:  Better luck next time, I guess.  Except it took all day to make, so there might not be a next time.  We'll see.

On the activity front, I was more active this week.  Yay for cooler weather, eh?  I did two walks, two days of cleaning/yard work, and a big grocery trip.  I'm up to 53.7 miles walked for the year.  Weight: 171.4

Thanks also to the cooler weather, I guess, my tomatoes are bearing more fruits and more flowers, too.  I have like 5 more tomatoes.  Yay.  I also found this show on gardening.  It's out of Ireland, but plants are plants and dirt is dirt.  I just need to adjust their advice to Missouri climate.  The episode on growing tomatoes was very informative.  I found out I'm not feeding nearly often enough and that I should've pinched off the excessive shoots.  :shrug:  Next year's garden should be way better. Live and learn.

This morning, I heard a strange sound coming out of the woods.  When I did some research, I discovered it was the sound of an Eastern Screech Owl.  Yay.  In other nature news, the fawns are getting big and their spots are fading fast.  We named Sissy's fawn Scout and it's a big fawn.  It's probably a buck fawn, but I haven't seen any antler nubs yet, so the jury's still out.

Yesterday, I wandered the yard with stakes, plotting out where we're going to be transplanting some of the deck trees.  Hubs checked out my placement and agrees, so we'll proceed with that in a month or so.  I'm trying to put them in the ground when they have a better chance of surviving the deer (i.e. when the trees are leafless and less likely to attract attention.)  I hope it works.  Otherwise, there's always next year.  

Okay, I think that's probably enough out of me.  Have a great day and a lovely week.  

Friday This n That

I keep forgetting to post on Thursday.  Derp.  I also keep forgetting to visit other people's blogs.  Double derp.

Deer have nannies.  About this time of year, the mom deers are busy getting ready for being pregnant in a few months and they don't have time for their fawns, so one doe will take over the mom duties for several other does.  Yesterday, the nanny deer brought her four charges down for a drink at the water pan.  It looked like two sets of twins.  They drank their fills and off they all went.  

My tomato plants are producing more fruits now that the weather is cooler.  I have like 4 more tomatoes out there than before.  Woot.  I also saw a hummingbird visiting one of the plants that has flowers and pollinating as it sipped, so fingers crossed for even more tomatoes.  Woot.

We've been watching a lot of British shows lately.  :shrug:  It's stuff we haven't seen, so yay.  But they have a much more casual take on nudity over there.  It's unexpected.  We'll be watching a mystery thing and SURPRISE... boobs.  Or buns.  Or the occasional humping scene.  I don't think it's for shock value like it would be here, but we're just not prepared for it.  

Also, watching a lot of British shows has given me new phrases to say.  Like 'fiddly bits', which is when you're working with something small.  (Small screws, tiny parts, etc.) 

Sawyer's being obnoxious this morning.  He's had three time outs in the bathroom in the last couple hours.  Silly cat.  On the up side, he didn't wake us up last night.  Whew.  Two night in a row.  If he goes one more night, it'll be a record.

Okay, that's all I've got this morning.  What this-n-that things do you have today?

At the Movies with B.E.

Welcome to At the Movies with B.E.  This week, I'm going to try adding a ranking system using a 😻 (smiling cat face with heart-shaped eyes emoji) or a 🙀 instead of stars.  Hokey or not?  :shrug:  Anyway, let's get on with it...

Murders in the Rue Morgue (1986) - starring George C. Scott, Val Kilmer, and Rebecca De Mornay.  I remember watching this when it was on TV way back when, so I loaded it up for watching.  It's a little "80s" but still a good treatment of the story.  😻😻😻😻

Ladies in Lavender (2004) - starring Maggie Smith and Judi Dench.  I found this while searching through various Roku suggestions.  I admit I was a little hesitant, but we went ahead with it, hoping it didn't turn out to be shitty.  I'm so glad we did.  This is a lovely little movie about two spinster sisters in Cornwall in the 1930s and what happens after they find a young man washed up on the beach.  They take care of him until he's well and care for him afterwards, until he becomes a part of the town.  The ending was awesome and we really enjoyed the movie, despite the fact that they never really delve into why he washed up on the beach.  I think he was trying to get to America, but the exact nature of his problem was never addressed.  :shrug:  Oh, well, I can live with that.  I can always make something up in my head to cover that.  😻😻😻😻😻

Toast (2010) - has Helena Bonham Carter, but she wasn't the star.  The only other person I recognized was the guy who was in that one series about the young surgeon with Asperger's.  This movie started out okay and then got tense and then was okay and then got weird and then sucked.  We didn't finish it, but we watched most of it, which was enough of it to adequately give an opinion.  I was really bummed because it held the promise of being a really good movie and with some tweaks, it could've lived up to that promise, but it didn't.  :sad trombone noise:  🙀🙀

My Family and Other Animals (2005) -  this is based on a book by Gerald Durrell (as was a TV series called The Durrells on Corfu - which we watched on PBS years ago).  It's a goofy and funny show about a family who leaves dreary, rainy Britain for the sunny life on the Greek island of Corfu, and all the things that happen to them.  It was fun to watch, even if it did star the gal who played Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movies.  Definitely not a movie with anything major to say about anything, which is a nice change. 😻😻😻😻😻

I found several more movies to watch that I'm really looking forward to.  One in particular is called The Hippopotamus.  It looks like loads of fun, so fingers crossed.

Labor Day

Marketing Monday has been pre-empted in favor of this post.  In Deep Wish is free now through Friday, though.  Jus' sayin'.

Labor Day... I don't celebrate it.  Don't get me started.  But it's a day off for a lot of people, and when I was working, it was a day off for me, too, since the businesses were usually closed.  As a writer, I don't have holidays or days off or whatever when I'm working.  Every day can and sometimes is a work day.  (Not right now.  I've been a toad.)

I did get a good deal on some clothes this morning, so thanks for that, Labor Day.  I have two new pairs of pants and a shirt that should be here Friday.  This is for a trip I'm taking down the road apace, but I couldn't turn down 40% off.  I'm a sucker that way.

So, basically, Labor Day is good for shopping.  It's also good because it marks the end of summer, which means, for me, the summer people go home.  Yay.  Of course, it also means that this weekend is seeing my neighborhood full of strangers in strange cars and someone has been shooting off fireworks and firecrackers.  :eyeroll:  Tomorrow... Ahhh.

I can't see much purpose in having this national holiday otherwise.  Another day for government workers to take off, I guess.  Oops, I said 'don't get me started' and yet, there I go.

Anyway, have a great day wherever you are and whatever you celebrate.  And if you're on vacation somewhere, be courteous of your fellow humans, eh?  The world will thank you for it.

Sunday Update - 2025 Week Whatever

This is going to be short.  I spent a lot of time this week focusing on non-writing-related stuff, none of which is bad so don't go worrying.  I was just otherwise occupied.  I did some marketing, I did some reading, had very little activity and no baking.  Everything else is same-same.  We'll see what this week brings.

Have a great day!

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 8/30/25

Not a big reading week for me, but I did finish one, so let's get to it.

I bought some new-to-me books at the thrift store this week: a suspense, two literature, two SF. I also picked up a new ebook - paranormal romance.  Those should keep me for a while, I think.

Books Read:

30) Primordial Threat by MA Rothman (8/28/25) - SF* - 5 stars.  I hadn't read this author before, although I follow him on FB, but it's not underappreciated.  I snagged it when the author put it on sale for 99c.
No review.  He's got a boatload of reviews and there's nothing I could add that would gain him sales.

No DNFs.

Currently reading... I haven't picked out what I'm going to read next.  The urge is to read the Agatha Christie I picked up on 8/21, but I have so much to choose from right now that I might leave that until I need it.

What's on your reading list lately?