Thursday This n That

 Alligator Alcatraz...  First off, I just saw some liberal chick whining quite incorrectly that it was a wildlife sanctuary and how dare we all celebrate it because it's cruel.  I also saw a cute cartoon of some alligators talking and one says 'did you hear we get to eat them if they escape?'  Which reminded me of this prison just outside Marquette, Michigan.  It's across the street from Lake Superior and it butts up to some of the nastiest, craggy woodlands you'd ever want to see.  Back when I was in college, it had the highest walkaway rate of any prison in Michigan.  But the escapees were rarely ever seen again.  You see, it was filled with criminals from places like Detroit and Flint.  City boys who probably had never taken a survival course in their lives.  The way I figure it, the missing criminals either went into the water and drown, or they went into the woods and died.  Win win, in my book.

Soon, I will be able to kick Brightspeed to the curb.  The VoiP is in place and working smashingly.  I called Mom on it yesterday.  Unfortunately, the Starlink router only has 2 ports, and we have 2 computers to plug in, so I needed a splitter.  It came and after some massaging, it's working, too.  The true test will be calling Mom through the splitter this morning.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I have a temp phone # until my regular # transfers over to the new service, so don't try to call me at this time.

Better internet... check.  Better phone... check.  Next up, replacing the satellite TV with something like Roku.  Woot.

Man, Wallyworld was a zoo yesterday.  Totally spasticness.  

What's with this new crap here on Blogger?  This morning it has a notice at the top - some crap about upgrading something - and it just offered to insert links into my post for me.  Why the hell would I want links inserted into my post?  Wouldn't a link take people away from READING my post?  Derp.  Makes no sense.

My tomatoes might almost be trying to make flowers.  Fingers crossed.

My black walnut tree got root rot and died.  I guess they aren't meant for growing in a pot.  Next time I have to transplant a volunteer walnut, I'll find a place in the woods for it.  =o(

I almost put in -o(... That would be a cyclops, I guess. Rawr.

Okay, that's about all I've got today.  Feel free to drop some this-n-that yourself before you wander off.  Have a great day!

Blogging Suggestions?

 I'm hoping, at some point, to have regularly scheduled blog posts on various weekdays.  Sunday will be the Update, of course.  (When I remember.)  Thursdays will still be This n That posts.  I'm open to suggestions on the other days.  Having themes might make it easier for me to think of things to talk about.  :shrug:

Old Movie Monday?  Wicked Wednesday - for crime posts?  Freaky Friday - for weirdness posts?  Would Topical Tuesday be too lame?  I could do Fantasy Friday, too - and talk about fantastical things.  I dunno.  Should I devote a day to writerly topics?  Readerly topics?  In the past I've done fishing reports and also reading wrap-ups on Saturdays, but I stopped each of those because I wasn't fishing that much or reading that much.  

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions.  Have at it.

Thursday This n That

Remember that Jon Lovitz character from SNL who always had a story about how he did whatever the other characters were talking about?  I think I've reached the point in my life where I am that character.  I mean, I'm 52 and I've been all over, doing all sorts of things, so yeah, I pretty much have a story for loads of situations.  And I'm my father's daughter, so I tell the stories.  The difference between me and Lovitz?  My stories are true.  :shrug:  

Yep, Dad was a talker.  He had a story for any situation and they were true.  And if he didn't have a story, he told a joke.  Dad's jokes... totally NSFW.  

So, I'm working full time and I'm still doing spreadsheets for the office.  This was busy spreadsheet week.  Eight spreadsheets.  Well, 7 spreadsheets came in Mon-Wed and those were worked into 15 other spreadsheets.  So, another 4-5 hrs worth of work.  Plus another single spreadsheet came in with 3 tabs that need to be worked into 6 total sheets.  I gave up last night and sent my time sheet in.  I'll do that last bunch tonight.  Woohoo.  No seriously.  It's good to be busy.  

Speaking of busy, Hubs has been deep cleaning the house and rearranging to make things tidy.  Not furniture.  Like closets and junk.  Well, he's moving furniture to clean under it, but he's putting it back where it was.  It's all good.  He moved all the extra pillows and blankets out of the closets, put them in their own bags, squeezed all the air out, and slapped labels on them.  Then he took a shelving unit and put all the bags on it in the storage closet.  It's genius.  And we now have scads of room in the closets.  I tell ya, Hubs is better at this than I ever was.  LOL

I've been searching for clothes online.  Shirts are easy.  I found some nice breathable polo shirts for like $15.50  each.  Huzzah.  And I raided Hubs' closet, so I'm good until I get new shirts.  Trying to find pants that I can wear to work that will be comfortable enough to wear all day, that won't cost both my legs to buy, isn't easy.  Between day-job and pay-job, I have the money.  I just hate spending more money on something than I think is necessary.  I may have to suck it up and spend more for pants.  Blerg.  The tightwad in me is squealing like a wee piglet.  

I'm wondering if I should change the name of this blog.  I'm not really writing much anymore.  Eh, that may change, so I'll leave it for now.

Okay, I got a late start today, so I guess I'd better get my buns a-movin'.  Have a great day wherever you are.  And drink plenty of fluids.  It's a scorcher out there.  Yuck.

Sometimes I Don't Post

Sorry.  I woke up late and that put me behind for the rest of the morning.  

Anyway, sometimes I just have nothing to say.  Sometimes I have loads to say, but none of it is suitable for the public.  Occasionally, I feel like whatever I have to say will bore the everlovin' crap out of you.  If you get here and you don't see a post, it's due to one of the aforementioned reasons.  

I mean, I would like to have something to offer you every morning.  Especially as it's all part of my 'new month, new attitude' thing right now.  But sometimes having you arrive to nothing is better than you arriving to find me whining or ranting or just being boring.  Like this morning.  Derp.

For now, we survived last night's storms.  More are due tonight.  Yay.... Spring in the Ozarks.  That might be another reason why you don't see a post - power outages.  If I ain't got power, I can't get online to post.  Act of Nature stuff.  

If I'm dead, I'll try to have someone stop in here to let y'all know.  Otherwise, I'm fine.  I've been sicker than a dog and still managed to stop by here.  

:shrug:  And that's why sometimes I don't post.  

How are things in your world?

Thursday This n That

It's 3:30am and I've been up for an hour.  I might try going back to bed after I type this post.

Getting older sucks.  But it's better than the alternative.

I make my own sweet tea.  But I commit sacrilege by putting sucralose in it instead of sugar.  And no, sweet tea is not just tea with sweetener in it.  It's a wonderful, magical beverage.  (Psst... The secret is baking soda.)

I lied.  I'm going back to bed now and I'll finish this when I wake up again.

It's now 7:30.  Which is over an hour longer than I planned to sleep, but it makes up for the hour I was up, I guess. And then some.

There's a picture making it's way through my FB feed.  It shows through a magnifying glass a tiny daisy growing up through the cracks with blurred people walking around above it.  It says 'Stand up for what you believe in, even if means standing alone.'  FB has chosen to hide this photo 'due to sensitive content' and says it might show 'violent or graphic content'.  Maybe they watched 'Day of the Triphids too many times.  Or Little Shop of Horrors and it scared the crap out of them.  :shrug:  Maybe the idea of standing alone IS too violent for sensitive types these days.  Or maybe they just don't want people to stand up for stuff.

A FB friend of mine just got back from another 30-day ban.  We call him Army Sci-Fi guy around the house.  He's pretty much on point most of the time.  Anyway, to make sure people still get to see him even if FB decides to eliminate him, he offered his blog for folks.  So now I follow that, too.  Whether you do FB or not, I suggest you subscribe to his blog.

This morning when Hubs finally got a chance to feed the deer (sorry, deer, I overslept) there were 17 of them standing around waiting for corn.  They don't play nice when there are only a few.  They play even worse when that many show up.  Don't let anyone fool you, deer are not the soft, fluffy, gentle creatures of Disney fame.  They can be mighty nasty when they want to be.

As a person who once got her arms shredded by a rabbit (long story), they aren't always very nice either.  

Okay, it's almost 8 now, so I should probably get this posted.  Got any this-n-that for me today?

Sunday Update - Week 15

Gak.  Sorry I'm late here, folks.  I didn't finish this last night and then I got distracted this morning...

Well, we started out the week with Easter, which was just another day here at Sanderson Acres.  I didn't even make a special dinner.  Just threw a Stouffer's Grandma's Chicken and Vegetable Rice Bake in the oven and called it good.  

I didn't do any writing or editing this week, but I did format four books for print, get the two I'd done entirely myself uploaded, and get the proofs ordered.  And I contacted my cover artist for the other two books, got the paperback covers, uploaded those books and ordered proofs.  Then the proofs for the first two came in and I approved those for sale on Amazon.  The other two proofs should be here this coming week.

I really should set up some marketing for the paperbacks of Blink of an I and Unequal.  But I haven't.

I had a great reading week.  Right now, I'm on a Rex Stout - one that isn't a Nero Wolfe.  I never knew he'd written that many books.  I have a lot of work to do on that collection now.

No baking.  Maybe I'll make something with walnuts tomorrow.  I had a walnut windfall, so we're chock-full of those buggers.

In gardening news, stuff happened.  And I created a new blog to talk about that, so I'll let you go over there and see some stuff.  Including pictures!  Woohoo.  

On the activity front, I did something every day but one.  Some days I did more than one active thing.  All told, I walked almost 4 miles.  And did some garden stuff.  And went fishing, which was a bust, but I did gardening that day, too, so it's all good.  Weight: 184.8 still.  Better than up, though, right?

Speaking of garden stuff, my flower gardens are coming along.  Most of them were untouched by the deep freeze.  Unfortunately, my roses took a big hit and I had to cut them way back to remove all the dead stuff.  And I think my crepe myrtle is mostly dead.  Which is a bummer.  It has new leaves at the very base and not even a leaf bud anywhere else.  =o(

Since I'm late, I'll just leave ya there.  I can't think of anything else I did last week anyway.  How were things in your world?

Tuesday Stuff n Junk

I do posts like this when my brain is incapable of holding a single thought long enough to write an entire post on one subject.

Yesterday, a comment to yesterday's post arrived in my inbox for moderation.  They said something nasty about me and then tried to coax me to their religion by implying it could fix me or some such nonsense.  ROFL.  You'll note the comment did not make it through moderation.  Comments like that are deleted.  My readers don't need to see that crap.  

I'm kinda derailed with my writing/editing/etc. Thus, my previously stated schedule for having Duke Noble out is on pause.  This may be due to my not being able to hold a single thought in my head for any length of time.

In release news, my friend Silver James' latest Red Dirt Royalty: Twice the Temptation (through Harlequin) is available in ebook format as of yesterday.  (Paperback due out on the 9th.)  Also, the children's book my friend Cedar Sanderson illustrated - One Hungry Werewolf went live today.  And another acquaintance Sarah A. Hoyt has a new book out today, too - Draw One in the Dark (urban fantasy).  Yay for all of them!

Facebook keeps trying to suggest pages that are supposedly 'for me'.  Umm, no.  About one in five, they get it right.  Like the Michigan photography page or the lighthouse page.  Eco-freako pages?  Nope.  Feminist pages?  Nope.  Trans-whatever pages?  Ut-uh.  Leftist loony pages?  No way.  Football pages?  Yeah, they missed the part where I quit football cold turkey and never looked back. 

Speaking of football, until this morning I had no clue who made it to the Super Bowl.  The Chiefs, apparently.  And that was because they're Missouri and a news-weather site I follow said something about the weather on game day for the Chiefs.  Meh.  I have no clue who they're playing and I don't really care.

I know I mentioned thinking about creating a garden.  I'm not sure if I mentioned I'm leaning toward a container garden I can set up on my deck.  It would get rid of the need to fence the damn thing to keep the deer out of it.  Anyway, it's an idea.  It wouldn't be too hard, either.  And we have most of the stuffs to get it going, or we can get the stuffs cheap at the thrift stores.  Basically, I need dirt and seeds.  And probably those platforms with casters so I can roll the plants around to get the best sun and protect them from storms.  

PBS is showing a new version of All Creatures Great and Small on Sunday nights here.  It's a pretty good show, if you can distance it from the books.  (If you never read the books, you're home free.)  They've also got a show called Miss Scarlet and the Duke - a mystery set in the Victorian era, I think - that's kind of fun.

Okay, I probably better get a start on my day.  What's up with you?

Rambling at Year's End

Stuck in the between when the holiday is over and the new year hasn't begun, when I have no idea what day it is. (Worse than usual.)  The lost final week of a lost year.

At some point today, I have shopping to do.  They're predicting craptastic weather starting tomorrow, so the big decision is whether to go south and get groceries today and go north for cigarettes tomorrow, OR do both today.  Cigs are a half hour north.  Groceries are a half hour south.  Doing both today would put me on the road for 2 hours today.  Not that I haven't done that in the past.  Yo, former road-warrior here.  But it has been a while since I did hauls like that and these days, if I have to drive a lot, I'm a toad for the rest of the day.  By the time you see this to comment on it, the choice will have been made.  

At some point this week, I have to finish the spreadsheets.  Oh, I finished the ones for the pay-job yesterday - all twelve monthly ones, and three others input to throughout the year.  I also got some smaller personal sheets done - books acquired, the weight/activity log, the one where I keep track of my marketing.  I have the big Sales Totals spreadsheet and the Books Sales Data sheet that feeds it left to do there.  And I have to update the one where I keep all income and outgo for the writing biz.  That one makes me have a sad, but ignoring it doesn't make it go away.  Ignoring it would be like sticking my fingers in my ears and humming to avoid having to hear bad news.  It is what it is.

I also have to do my yearly wrap-up blog posts.  

And I should probably start thinking about taxes.  Blerg.

I have three books left to read by the end of the year to meet my updated goal of 90 books.  The one I'm reading now, though, is longer than I thought it would be, so I might not hit 90.  We'll see.

Eh, it's time to call the office.  I'll catch you all later.  What are you up to this week?  Getting ready for 2021 or trying to hide from it?

Thursday This n That

Carrots wait for no one, so I pick them now, before they are eaten by some slobby cow.  If you sang it in your head, your childhood was awesome.  (It's Bugs Bunny, by the way.)

I stopped by the thrift store on Tuesday.  Snagged 12 books for $4 - 8 paperbacks and 4 hardcovers.  Yay.  I got an Alastair MacLean I didn't have.  And an Agatha Christie I needed.  I found a Michael Crichton I hadn't even heard of.  Oh, and a Phyllis Whitney for the collection.  I picked up a couple new-to-me authors and some old favorites, too.  I love thrift store day.  I also got the third book in a trilogy where I already own the second book.  The hunt for the first book is ongoing.  When I have them all, I'll read them.  Yes, I could just order the damn first book, but that's not the point.

To date, I have acquired 103 books this year and spent $22.70.  (The majority of which were free ebooks, by the way.)  Thus proving you don't have to spend a lot of money to read.  Ahem, yes, there are libraries, but I don't use them.  I don't like returning books.  I also don't like the fact that our libraries have become more internet cafes (minus the beverage) and daycare centers than actual places to revel in books.  But that's me.  If I want to read a book, I'll own the damn book.  If I like it, I get to keep it.  If I don't, I donate it to one of the local thrift stores so someone else can enjoy it. 

The mulching and bagging of leaves was a success.  Hubs plans to continue it throughout the leaf season.

This new blogger thingy is a pain in my ass.  It automatically puts a line between paragraphs, so I have to now adjust myself and stop putting in a line.  Which also means when I'm typing stuff elsewhere I have to adjust to put the line IN after I've typed something here where I don't have to put a line in.  Stupid.  Gah, why won't people just leave shit alone?

By the way, I still put two spaces between sentences in my writing.  Period, space space.  It's how I type.  Changing back to one space now would be a serious pain in my ass.  I fix this in my writing by having Word find the double space and change it to one space (Find: space space, Replace With: space) when I'm formatting my books for publication.  

We had another buck in the yard yesterday.  A spike.  I missed seeing him, but Hubs told me all about it.  Apparently, his spikes go straight up.  Pokey head.

Today's the last day for wearing my favorite t-shirt.  It's become so ratty, it needs to retire.  =o(  Sad how just when a shirt becomes the most comfortable, it's time to shift it to the dustrag bag.  

Okay, your turn.  This n that to your heart's content.

The Journey

Back in 2006 I discovered blogs.  I made my own, of course - the now idle version of The Writing Spectacle - and began seeking out other writerly bloggers.  I found a list of writing blogs on a website and began working my way through the list, checking out them all out and bookmarking the ones that looked interesting to me. 

One of the blogs I followed then was Karin Tabke's.  Hers was awesome and really seemed to strike a chord.  Of course, she was also a member of a group blog - Murder She Writes - and I tagged along behind her over there.  And I found a bunch of new books to read and authors to follow.

I also encountered a group of awesome individuals - both contributors and commenters.  That's where I met my friend, Silver, as she commented there.  And where I met my friend, Jenn, a contributor there. 

Through Silver, of course, I met my friend and editor, JC. 

Funny how that happens.

The other connections are mostly gone now, but I learned the other day that even though I haven't spoken to some of these people in years, we're still friends.  I mean, I still follow most of the MSW contributors on Facebook, even if I don't interact with them.  I still want to know what they're up to.  I still feel joy for them when good things happen and sorrow when bad things occur.  They're good people.

It's been a long road and I'm honored to have met so many good people on the journey.  This writing thing can be pretty lonely, as we all know.  People come and people go.  When I think about how many I've lost touch with for one reason or another, it makes me kind of sad.  But that's life.

Anyway, I wanted to thank you for being part of this journey.  I hope you'll stick around and maybe 14 years from now, we'll still be hanging out and having fun, sharing the joys and the sorrows along the way.

:hugs:

Thursday This n That

I find it amusing that California is apparently freaking out about a potential avocado shortage.  Especially since they're the highest avocado producing state in the US.  Sure, CA produces way less than we import, but they export most of what they grow, from what I scanned through yesterday.  Plus, avocados are grown in FL and HI, too.  Oh, and a bunch of other countries that aren't on our border grow avocados - AU, NZ, Brazil, Peru...  They might be a bit more expensive.  Then again, considering how much other produce we get from all around the world, maybe not.  Tell ya what Cali, keep all of your avocados in state from now on.  Personally, I'd rather have a secure border than a cheap avocado.  :shrug:  Tell ya what, you can have all of mine.  K?

Speaking of produce, I bought a bag of apples in AR that were grown in Sparta, Michigan.  Gotta love technology and progress and freedom.  Yummy yummy apples from my home state, out of season and reasonably priced. 

I'm utterly surprised to have lilies coming back this year.  The deer munched them all to the ground last summer, so I figured without the leaves to provide energy, the bulbs would surely die.  Guess not.  Must be the lilies way of continuing to thrive amidst adversity.  Go Lilies!

Amazon supposedly fixed the pricing problem I had yesterday.  Still looked screwed up to me, but I stopped having the gumption to fight it.  It is what it is.  Thank goodness I didn't pay for advertising this time.

Blogger is having a brain fart while I type this.  Lagging big time and putting weird characters where there shouldn't be any characters.  Bleh.  Remember how I said 'gotta love technology' up there?  Yeah, love it when it works. 

Anyway, rather than have this whole thing fall apart in the middle of writing it, I'll let you go for now.  How are the this n thats in your world?

Data Collection... Or Lack Thereof

First off, let me warn you ahead of time.  I didn't sleep well, I woke up too damn early, and I haven't had nearly enough coffee to be a courteous human being.   If you're down with that, please proceed.

I keep seeing and hearing about Europe's new data collection (supposed protection) law.  I'm unmotivated to do a goddamn thing about it.  It's Europe for petesakes.  They're on the rapid slide to a police state.  I'm here in the US, I never plan on visiting the EU, and I don't do police states, so they can kinda kiss my lily white cheeks, if you catch my drift.

However, since Blogger and the rest of the collective care and I use their services, I guess I should probably give a great goddamn about it.  I'll be researching it later when my brain is more fully engaged to see if and how this effects me.

But here's my less-than-informed answer to it all.  I don't collect data on my blog visitors or my newsletter subscribers.  Blogger collects data, which I rarely bother to look at.  And my newsletter service collects data, which I also don't bother to look at.  Sometimes I might see a jump in visitors to the blog and wonder why and then go to Stats and see where all the hits are coming from.  It's usually Eastern Europe.  Not sure what they're looking at over there and I don't really care other than in a purely curious way.  Like 'hey cool, someone from Lithuania has read my blog'. 

My general blog visits average around 35 people a post.  Sometimes it jumps to over a hundred.  Woohoo.  I'm burning up the internet there.  I have about a dozen newsletter subscribers who haven't seen a newsletter from me since sometime last year.  (Sorry about that, guys, but newsletters are a pain in the butt and since almost all of you stop here, too, I'm just repeating myself there.)

So, let's say I don't jump through all of the EU's hoops to adhere to their silly law.  What's the worst that could happen?  They find me guilty of something over there and request extradition from the US so they can punish me for doing something I don't actually do?  I'm almost at a point in my life where I'm ready to say "Bring it".  So much has gone wonky and stupid in this world, I'm about ready to take my chances.  I think if it weren't for the fact that I'm married and my actions might bring about ramifications for my husband, I'd tell them all to take their GDPR or whatever it's called and shove it where the sun don't shine. 

Ahem...

Anyway, right about now - since the law takes effect on the 25th - you'll be seeing people asking for you to resubscribe to their newsletters so they can make absolutely certain they're adhering to the law.  I'm ignoring those, too.  I don't actually read 90% of the newsletters I'm signed up for, so I probably won't notice if they stop arriving.  If you've signed up for a newsletter and you get it and you decide you don't want to get it, you can always unsubscribe.  It's not that hard.  If you stop at a blog, this or any other, and you're worried about having your data collected, don't visit there anymore. 

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know your data isn't being collected by me for any purpose.  And if Blogger is worried about it, they can certainly stop collecting data on my behalf.  No skin off my ass. 

And as I said before, I haven't researched this and I'm grumpy, so if I've said anything above that is incorrect or whatever, deal with it.  I'm off to find more coffee before my head implodes.

When Blog Writing Style Turns Off Readers

I've been wondering about something off and on.  You see, there's this blog I visit that has sort of an ensemble cast.  A group of writers post writerly stuff - each on a specific day.  Some stuff I agree with, some I don't.  Some of it's insightful and some is helpful, and some is not.  But there's one contributor I can't read.  Not because of their ideas.  They seem like a rational sort with the possibility of being both helpful and insightful.  The problem is that every time I start reading one of their posts, I get bored, frustrated, irritated... something.  Something about their writing makes me want to poke my eyes out.  Or their eyes out. 

Because of this, I have never tried to read one of their books.   I mean, OMG, if they can't get a blog post out without turning it into some kind of weird syntactical nightmare*, what must their books read like?

I know, I probably shouldn't think like that.  This person is a popular (in their genre) author.  There must be some merit to their writing.  But I can't make myself slap down money or use valuable reading time to take the chance that their fiction reads better than their blog posts.

Anyway, it got me to wondering.  I certainly hope I don't do anything like that here.  Not much I can do about it - any more than my telling this other person my opinions would change how they write those blog posts.  What I say here is what it is. 

Hell, I don't even edit these posts for the most part.  Which I like to think I've made clear at some point, but a new visitor might not have been around when I said that. 

Still, I like to think the general flavor and voice of my blogs are about the same as the flavor and voice of my novels. 

So, I guess what I'm saying is that if you like what you've read here, give my novels a whirl.  And if you don't, I totally understand - because it happens to me, too.

Have you ever avoided reading an author because of what they've written online**? 

*"The hope and aim of a word-handler is that he may communicate a thought or an impression to his reader without the reader’s realizing that he has been dragged through a series of hazardous or grotesque syntactical situations." - E.B. White

**Not talking about their opinions or their philosophies, just their writing styles.  Lord knows, I have a whole list of authors I won't read because of their opinions and their philosophies, but that's a whole other topic.

Sunday Update - Week 45

The last week was a total blur, but I managed to piece it back together a little.

I've been writing my brains out.  I typed 14538 words over each of the days. 

I hired an editor and a cover artist.

Somewhere in there, I did some more research work on the world of self-publishing.

I read three books.  (Because hey, if I can't work and still find time to read, what the heck am I doing? Ya know?)

I went grocery shopping.

Took Max for a walk nearly every day - except when it was raining.  He hates that.  He also hates walking on leaves, so the walks have been short. 

I spent some time talking to my financial backer (aka Hubs) about cover artists and editing. 

Hubs and I took a drive up a couple roads we'd never been down before.  One of them was supposed to - according to Google - connect with the other which would bring us to the water.  That first road ended up being a one lane that sort of ended at what might have been a trail through the woods.  When we backtracked and went down the second road from the other direction, we found where the two roads shoulda oughta joined up if Google had been right.  :shrug:  It was fun and the car didn't die, so it's all good.

Oh, and if you didn't read Friday's post, I'm resurrecting the old 'Pound of BS' blog into something more professional where I can share publishing news, stories about murder and mayhem, and anything related to the book I'll be putting out in 2015.  If you don't follow it already, you get extra brownie points in the contest I designed to go live on Monday if you're a follower before the contest actually goes live.  (Same for here.) 

I'm really excited and I hope you are, too.

Anyway, what's up in your world?

The Winds of Change Are Blowing

Hey all,

I just posted to my long-ignored other blog... which I have renamed in order to make it more professional.  (Okay, so B.E. Sanderson ain't sexy, but it works for now.)

Go over there for a sec and check out the post.  You'll be glad you did.

The Winds of Change are Blowing

Tell me what ya think.

Lazy Blogging Monkey

A thought occurred to me over the weekend - I won't bore you with the long, protracted thought process that lead to it - that I have been a lazy little monkey when it comes to the blogosphere.  Oh, I've been posting here and there, but I haven't been visiting blogs like I used to.  I scroll down the blog roll, stopping here or there, but really not very many places.  Then I go over to FB and fritter away my time looking at funny pictures or getting my information about the world in ten second burps. 

Thank goodness I never quite got addicted to Twitter.  (I sometimes wonder if that's due to the derth of technology around here.  Maybe Twitter is loads easier to use with a smart phone or a portable device of some kind than it is with my hulk of a desktop.  :shrug:)

Anyway, I'm going to make a concerted effort to be more active around the blogosphere - as well as trying to post more often here.  I may repeat myself here and there (cuz, hey, brain damage), but I'll try to make it entertaining. 

Now, for a little fun otherwise... Who can tell me what this is a picture of?

I'll come back later or tomorrow and let you know who was right.

Bloggery Stuff

Okay, so Google screwed everyone with it's bonehead play of dropping Google Reader.  But the dashboard still worked.

Except not quite.

It won't let me add new blogs for one thing.  And some days it keeps telling me I have no blogs in my list - "would you like to add one?"  :eyeroll:  Why yes, I would like to add one, but you won't let me do that anymore either.  Turds.

So I'm slowly working on moving my blog reading over to Feedly.  So far... meh.  But then again, I'm a creature of habit.  Not hard to see why, when I've been reading blogs in my dashboard for freakin' years, I'm not exactly jumping up and down about a new way to read blogs.  Bleh.

And this morning I discovered that my dashboard has been hiding blogs from me.  (Not that it wasn't doing that before.  For weeks, it was telling me that the last post by Jeffe Kennedy had been posted in May.)  Today, I found out that Rob Thurman hasn't been absent for months.  She's been posting but dashboard hasn't been telling me.  Bastiges.

Anyway, if you haven't seen me for a while, blame the dashboard.  I'm working on getting everything transferred to Feedly, but there doesn't seem to be a way to just transfer all the damn blogs I read over at once, so I have to input them one by one. Not a project I had slotted time for, but I'm getting there.

Right now, I'm still swinging back and forth between the old dashboard and the new feed.  Depends on the day and my mood and the vagaries of technical gremlins where I'm coming at you from.  :shrug: 

How much you wanna bet as soon as I get comfortable with Feedly, they'll change it or cancel it or implode or something?

What do you read blogs on? 

This Morning's Blogroll

For kicks, I thought I'd post the first ten links from my morning blogroll (you know, before I refresh it and see what else is out there)...

Happy Release Day! from Confessions (by Suzie Townsend)

REVIEW: Planesrunner by Ian McDonald from Book Chick City (by Melanie)

Muse Takes Over from Janet's Journal (by Janet)

Teaser Tuesday (March 5) from Alli's World (by Allison Kirk)

Tell Me a Story from Random Thoughts (by Cynthia)

Lucy the Wonder Weenie - Book Review from Pearls Cast Before a McPig (by Sullivan McPig)

How to Find Public Domain Photos, Music, Etc. from Jenna Scribbles (by Jenna)

*SHIVERS* Death's Awakening (Cover Reveal) from Writer's Alley (by S.A. Larsen)

Author Spotlight: RaShelle Workman's Blood and Snow Series from Christine Fonseca, Author (by Christine Fonseca)

Apropos of Nothing from Murderati (by Gar Anthony Haywood)

These are in the order they posted and not in anyway meant to show which ones I liked best, or even the ones I commented on.  (These days I read more blogs than I comment on.)  Lots of release news and reviews - but of course, since it's Tuesday.

What's on your blogroll this morning?

Over There

Today I'm over at Killer Chicks talking about letting go.

Wednesday I'll be heading over to Michigan for a week, so posts here will probably be sporadic at best until the 28th.  I already loaded a couple posts at The Unpublished Writers' Guide to Survival and Tabula Rasa for while I'm gone.  And I did the same for my scheduled Killer Chicks posts. 

That way you won't miss me too much.  ;o)

Have an awesome time while I'm gone, folks.

Want to Win?

If you want the chance to win a book, stop by Tabula Rasa.  I posted a snippet from a book I love and I'm offering you the chance to snag a copy.  All you have to do is comment.

Also, since the winner of my 1000th post contest never got back to me, I'm going to use that fundage to pay for a contest over at The Killer Chicks tomorrow. 

Yes, I am everywhere.