Sunday Update - 2026 Week 7

Sorry I spaced out last week and didn't do a Sunday Update.  There really wasn't much to talk about that week anyway, but still, it was rude of me.  This week... Well, there's not much to talk about either, but here I am.

No writing, but I did do some editing.  I really need to get off my ass and get this book finished.  In order to do that, though, I need to stop wondering whether anyone actually cares.  (Beyond a couple of people, that is.  They know who they are and they know how much I love them.)  I marketed, but it was pretty much crickets.  Tomorrow, Dying Embers goes on freebie, so we'll see if anything comes of that.

In reading news, I started a SF, read about a third of it, and DNF'd it.  It wasn't bad.  It was just not giving me any reason to finish reading it.  I sometimes wonder if that's what other people feel about my books.  (Then I remind myself I have plenty of people reading my books all the way through in KU.)  I started reading Flight of the Falcon by Daphne duMaurier on Friday, though, so I've got that going for me.

In baking news, I made a chocolate oil cake with strawberry jelly and vanilla frosting.  Yummers.

On the activity front, Hubs and I are over the crud finally, so we're making an effort on turning back into humans, as opposed to the slugs we were.  While it was still unseasonably warm, we took walks Mon, Tues, Wed for about 2.15 miles.  Then it got cool and we worked in the woods Fri and Sat for around 3 hours.  I also did some cleaning and shopping.  Weight: 176.2 (the poundage I lost to the flu jumped right back on me... derp)

Due to the woods working, I'm pretty sore today.  Throwing logs will do that to a body.  We're mostly through cleaning up the top branches of that sycamore that fell over 2 years ago, so yay.  Funny thing about that sycamore.  It turned brittle.  I went to saw the limbs and they snapped off in my hands like bread sticks (the crunchy kind, not the Olive Garden kind).  Good thing we weren't planning on trying to burn that.  

Speaking of the downed sycamore, that bastard tree took out two perfectly good dogwoods when it crashed.  I've got a large chunk of the bigger dogwood that I may try to carve into someone once I get some carving experience.  I'm thinking I need to carve a dog out of the dogwood, or would that be too obvious? :smirk:

Oh, and I got our taxes done yesterday.  Woot.  If you're using TurboTax, you have until 2/28 to do them at a discount.  Which was enough of a poke in the ass to get me to do mine.

I think that's it.  I'll try not to forget to post on Sundays from now on.  Have a great day and an awesome week.  :hugs:

Updated:  After Silver pointed out that the title of today's blog said 2025, I changed it.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 4

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?

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 3

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.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 2

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?

Marketing on a Tuesday, etc.

 First off, UP WISH CREEK is free starting today.  

Starting today, UP WISH CREEK is free! (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Get your copy of this snarky, paranormal suspense today. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LVU03BV

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.)

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 42

Well, another week has passed and I'm having a hard time getting revved up to do anything this morning, which is why this post is later than I usually post one of these.  

Writing was accomplished. It took me two more days to finish the read-through of DN3, and then I added new words for two days.  1781 words to be exact.  Not a huge amount, but it's something, eh?  DN3 is now up to 24920 words/87 pages.  Woot.  I would like to have this in your hands by the end of the year. We'll see how that works out.

I did marketing.  I moved 59 free copies of Dying Embers.  I also sold one after the sale was over.  No page reads yet, which is :sadtrombone:, but it's early yet.  Tomorrow, Rumor Has It goes on freebie.

Reading was slow.  I did DNF that Victoria Holt yesterday, but I haven't started anything else.

In baking news, I made a pizza yesterday - pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, black olives, and red bell pepper.  Yum.

On the activity front, I walked two days and spent three other days working on washing windows in the smoking porch.  I'm up to 64.25 miles on the walking.  The window washing?  Yuck.  But I'll finish that project today.  I just have to finish the doors.  Then I'll start the project of washing the other windows in the house.  (We have a lot of windows, so I have to break it up a little.)  Weight: 174.0 - I guess washing windows isn't really the calorie-burning event I wish it would be.  

As for gardening, I have 10 tomatoes out there ripening.  Well, I had 10 yesterday.  We had storms overnight, so we'll see what's left.  I have a ripe tomato in the fridge and I had to throw one out because it was funked up.  :shrug:  Not the Master Gardener of all time, but it's better than last time I tried this.  Next year will be even better.  I hope.  Maybe.

Yesterday, Hubs and I watched a good movie - Hostage starring Bruce Willis.  Not the most well-written thing, but certainly thrilling.  It was very intense.  But good guys win and bad guys die, so I'm satisfied.

As usual, life is pretty boring here.  Sorry about that.  How are things in your life?

Sunday Update - Week 26

I almost typed Sunday Ypdate.  Yip.  LOL. Yeah, this is what comes of too little sleep and then waking up late.  

Anyway...

I wrote words!  5269 of them.  I gave myself a good talking to mentally and Monday night, I just started adding words to DN3.  I took Friday off because it was a mentally draining day and I just wasn't in a place where words would come out.  Then yesterday I wrote over 1800 words, which kinda made up for the day off.  The point is, I'm averaging over 1000 words a day, which is good.

And I even did some editing.  I stopped writing one night and as I lay in bed, I realized that something needed to happen between where Duke was and where Duke had been before, so I went back... a thing I almost never do while I'm dirty drafting... and fixed it.  The writing really started flowing after that.  Woot.

No Marketing this week.  I'll see what I can come up with this week for a new offering.  It's hard to muster the urge when I have to fight FB every step of the way, but if I don't market, I don't sell.  And I like selling books.

The reading... well, you can see that in yesterday's posts.  I'm not blazing any trails here, unless it's the trail to DNF.

Yesterday morning, I made a half-batch of cinnamon rolls.  They turned out pretty good, even if halving the recipe took some mathing.  

On the activity front, I did something active 6 out of 7 days, so woot.  I only walked three of those days, so 3.5 miles (37.4 total).  I meant to walk 4 days, but I was wandering in the yard before setting out and I got stung by some kind of baby, bastard hornet.  Hurt like a bugger and put the kibosh on that day's walk.  (It's all better thanks to Benadryl gel.)  Now that it's hot, I decided to start dancing in the living room again.  So I did that one day.  And I went grocery shopping.  Weight: 172.0

Look for more information on Friday's drama this Tuesday.  (The post's already written, I just need to schedule it.)

On a gardening note, my tomato plants are huge and they all look like they're getting the beginnings of flowers, so that's something.  My green pepper plants are still tiny, but they're making progress.  Some of my trees are looking pooky, though. I think they need replanting in bigger pots or in the ground.  Ack.  I have no more bigger pots and they're not ready to combat the deer yet.  We'll see how that goes.  I may go pick up pots today.  Also, the blackberry patch I've been watching down the road is getting close to being ripe enough to pick.  Cross your fingers I make it there before the birds do.

Okay, so that's about all I have for you today.  How was your week?  

What a Chore

It's been so long since I release a book, I'd almost forgotten what a chore it all is.  Oof.  The writing really is the easiest part for me, even if it takes a while.  Editing seems to take forever.  Then there's the formatting.  And all the little things - like adding it to the blogs and posting announcements, etc.  :falls over:

Editing... Thicker Than Water went through 6 drafts, 7 if you count the final one. 8 if you count the other final one for print publication.  Which I guess you should.  I mean, you did the work, count it, right?

So, you get the book out into the world and you job is done... umm... If you think that, you're missing something.  What is it?  Oh, yeah, marketing.  That's a job that's never done.  Not unless you want to never sell your books.  And if you're not interested is selling books, what did you publish it for?  Jus' sayin'.

So yeah, I've been busy.  This morning, I've already posted scads of marketing things to get RHI seen by thousands, so I can sell maybe a few copies of TTW.  Yesterday, I did the marketing things, plus I formatted TTW for print and went through that process with Amazon.  It looks pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself, but the real proof will come when I get the... umm... proof.  Which should be in a week or so.  

One thing I realized while I was doing the print formatting and uploading thing was that I had missed fixing the scene breaks in both the epub and the print versions.  If you bought a copy of TTW and already downloaded it to your Kindle, the scene breaks are *** and they should be --∞----∞----∞--.  It's fixed and uploaded now, but like I said, early copies have the old placemarkers.  

So many little things to check and change and fix, I may be a little nuts this week.  Good thing Hubs is used to me and I don't associate with anyone else.  I keep my nuts at home.  :gigglesnort:

Anyway, I do have plans to get back to writing this week.  We'll see if that happens.  It should.  I'm ready to resume being a writer again.  Woot.

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 11

Well, hello again.  I almost forgot it's Sunday and time for my weekly update.  (Yes, I did forget yesterday was Saturday and even though I did have stuff for a Reading Wrap-up, I didn't post one.  Oops.)

So, this past week, I finally finished the edits for Duke Noble #2 (Thicker Than Water... Secrets and Lies... Whatever Title I Think is Better Than Those Two).  It's been sent out to readers.  If you did not receive a copy and you were expecting one, email me.  Right now, it's just about 63000 words.  I don't expect that to change overly much.  That's about 2K less than the first book, but it is what it is.  I could shove more words into it but they'd just be filler.  :shrug:

I did marketing for Cinder Ugly.  Not great turnout, but I didn't push it nearly as much as I should've, so I only have myself to blame.  I need to figure out which book is up for marketing this week.  Stay tuned for that.  It'll be a surprise for tomorrow's Marketing Monday post.

I finally read another book.  Woot.  I'm also about halfway through a third book. Also woot.

In baking news, I made pizza this past week.  It turned out really yummy, so yay.  The plan today is to make carrot cake again.  I still have loads of carrots left and why the hell not?  LOL

On the activity front, I did something active on 4 days, but two of those days had multiple activities.  It was mostly outside/gardening stuff.  No weight update.  I'm chunky and I'm okay with it.

Ah, gardening... I finished the south bed that runs along the garage and 1) put all the irises and lilies back, 2) planted new gladiolas.  Then I worked on cleaning up the other beds for Spring.  On a happy note, not all of my grape hyacinths died in the neglectful times.  They're not blooming, but also not dead.  I still have a lot of work to do to bring my gardens back to nice, but I'll get there.  Oh, another thing I did this past week was pot the dogwoods that germinated in my fridge over the winter.  I ran out of pots, though, so I didn't plant them all.  Now I have new pots, so I'll be planting the remainder of the dogwoods this week, along with the buckthorns.  Everything I planted previously - redbuds and spicebushes - have been watered.  I think this was the week where I also potted a volunteer cedar.  I've named him Clyde.  Fingers crossed everything survives and thrives.

We had weather go through, but it was mostly wind.  No storms and no swirlies.  We lost some dead branches.  Nothing major and nothing damaging to anything else.  We barely got any rain.

I think that's it.  Oh crap, I just remembered a project I was supposed to be working on for the pay-job.  One that I said I'd have ready for them on Monday. Guess what I'll be doing today?  :shrug:  I'll make cake tomorrow.  

Anyway, have a great day.  Peace out.

Thursday This n That

 I started this an hour ago and then got distracted by social media.  There are some really interesting things out there.  And some really awful things.  Some days I can't handle wading through the awful to get to the interesting.  There are also a boatload of ludicrous things.  I was also supposed to do marketing and I woke up in plenty of time, but the time I have left before I call Mom is running out.  I guess I'll market after I talk to Mom.

Yes, I call my mom almost every morning.  She gets Friday and Sunday off from me.  We talk about everything... and nothing.  Sometimes we talk about the same things over and over.  Sometimes we gripe about stuff over and over.  I don't care.  She's not getting any younger and eventually there will come a day when I can't talk to her ever again, so I'm grateful for every word now.  

I need to cut Hubs' hair again.  It's been a while and he's starting to look shaggy.  Plus, it's driving him nuts.  Maybe this afternoon I'll finally get 'er done.  I would've done it yesterday, but my wrist was giving me trouble after Tuesday's pizza kneading.  

I love making pizza, but it's hell on the wrists.  Oo, that reminds me... I'm out of cinnamon rolls.  Lucky for me, those don't require a lot of kneading.  

Oh, I finished the 5th draft of my manuscript last night.  And I sent it off to my first reader.  I need to contact others to see if they're still willing and able to read for me.  I'm still torn about the title, so for ease's sake, let's just call it DN2.  Now that it's off to be read, I need to work on cover art.  And maybe get back to writing again.  But not today.  Today is a day of rest.  And reading other people's books.

Tra la la.

Okay, I need to go use the little writer's room, fill my coffee mug, and get ready to call Ma.  Have a great day out there, folks.  And leave a comment if you're so inclined.  Thanks!

Sunday Update - 2025 - Week 10

It's like 7:30 and I'm just now getting around to posting because it's NOT actually 7:30 to all the little grey cells and other parts of my being.  Damn time change.

Anyway, I've been motoring along on Edit Notes - Round 4.  (Which I just now realized I've also listed as round 3 and round 5, depending on the day and how tired I was when I backed up the files.  But I actually think it's round 4.  :shrug:)  As of last night, I passed the 50% mark in notes.  Yeah, I thought this would go quicker, but it's not.  I keep finding stuff I missed and finding places where I said something early that I didn't explain later.  Derp.  Anyway, I've made progress, which is always good.  It'll be published when it's published.  Oh, and I think I have the title... Duke Noble P.I.: Secrets & Lies - how does that grab ya?  It grabs me better than any of the dozen or so titles I've played with, so there's that.

I did my usual week of marketing.  Okay, so I didn't do as much marketing as I should've.  I still moved 306 copies of Wish in One Hand this week.  Time will tell if that equates into sales later.  The freebie I had for DE last month has gained me some sales this month, so I'll keep doing it.  To that end, I'll be starting another freebie tomorrow.  I think one of the Ugly books.  We'll see.  Update: CINDER UGLY will be free starting tomorrow and going through Friday night.

I actually started reading a book this past week.  It's my new-to-me old copy of a Sax Rohmer novel.  I meant to do a Reading Wrap-up yesterday, but I forgot.  Maybe this coming Saturday, I'll remember.

In baking news, I made another batch of cinnamon rolls.  I think I nailed the inner goo.  (Embrace your inner goo.)  I also did beef stew one day and chili another.  Yummers.

On the activity front, I spent about 4 hours over three days digging up the south garden.  Another hour should see that bit finished.  Also, we spent about 45 minutes walking around in the woods.  And I did a massive grocery trip.  Unfortunately, despite the actual activity, I gained 2 pounds somewhere along the way.  Weight: 175.2 - damn cinnamon rolls.  LOL

Gardening... Well, I've dug up the whole south garden bed to a depth of about 12-18 inches, thrown all the weeds out, and shifted all the irises.  Somehow, I ended up with a pile of dirt in the middle, so I'll be moving all the irises out of the east side, spreading the dirt around, and replacing the irises today.  (I've already done this with the west side.)  I'll be using the middle of the bed for my new gladiolas and my old lilies.  Once I get this done, I really need to start potting the tree seeds I started last fall.  I've also found two volunteer cedars that need to be potted or pulled.  They can't be allowed to continue growing where they are.  One of them is under the deck, for petesakes.  Oh, and I need to start cleaning out all the other beds. One thing at a time, eh?

In other news, Woodstock, the wren, is still in the garage.  Despite our best half-assed efforts, he will not be moved from his new home.  :shrug:  He's in there singing right now.  The cats are fine.  Hubs is fine.  I'm fine.  

How are things in your world?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 9

 It's Sunday?  Well, yeah, I guess it is.  I have no clue what happened this past week, but I'll try to rebuild it somehow.

No writing,  but I did editing work every day, and thus, my 4th draft is complete as of last night.  I'm thinking it needs one more re-through and notes before I send it off to my readers.  I could just be being nitpicky though.  This is the first book I've brought to publishing in 3 years, so I have reason to be cautious, but there's a fine line between cautious and anal.

I didn't do any marketing this week for reasons and because of because.  I have WISH IN ONE HAND going on the freebie starting tonight at midnight, though.  

I started reading a book last night after I got done with editing.  YAY!  

In baking news for the week, I did a pizza last Sunday, and another carrot cake.  I also made a vat of BBQ ribs in the crockpot.  Yum.

I also got kinda active.  I started turning over my garden beds in prep for planting.  Three days I did that, for a total of 2.75 hours.  It doesn't sound like much, but it's about all I can do until my stamina improves.  I'm old, I'm tired, and I'm flabby.  I'm also counting the day I shredded carrots for the cake.  That's a workout, lemme tell ya.  Unfortunately, my weight went up a freakin' pound.  Weight: 173.2  Now that the weather is changing for the warmer, I hope to turn that around and head it back to a reasonable tonnage.

Speaking of gardening, I bought a bag of gladiola bulbs, so I'm turning over the south garden bed in prep for those.  Right now, that bed is mostly weeds, but there are some not-weeds in there.  Lilies, for one.  I've already found 4 lily bulbs, so yay.  And irises, of course.  Scads of those.  Also years ago, I put anemones in there.  I thought those were all dead by now, but I found like 3-4 still alive.  They look pathetic, but I'll try to resurrect them.  Anyway, I'm about half done with the turnover.  I did the middle part that had nothing in it first and now I'm working on the end that had lilies and irises.  Then I'll work on the other end with it's irises and anemones.  THEN I can put it all back together again.  I'm tired just thinking about it.

In other garden news, I uncovered my daffodils and my hyacinths.  I can't wait for them to bloom.  :fingers crossed:  I love spring so much.

Other than that, not much going on.  What's up in your world?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 8

Woke up late, got distracted, and here we are...

I finished inputting the second round of edit notes this past week, and I started making the next batch of notes.  This batch is the one where I make notes and then go enter them, so I'm done with about 61 pages worth of manuscript now.  Woot.

Marketing this week was focused on Blink on an I.  I only moved 50 copies.  :sad trombone:  I don't have anything set for this coming week because the majority of my books are set to renew their 90 days in KDP on Tuesday.  The only book that isn't with the others is SSS and I'm not sure I'm up to another week of lackluster downloads.  I'll probably wait and hit the genies books starting in March.

Still no reading.

In baking/cooking news, I made some awesome soup that I've now decided to call Chicken Cheddar Chowder.  Say that three times fast.  With that, I whipped together some biscuits.  Yum.  And later in the week, I did Parmesan-crusted pork chops.  Mmm.

On the activity front, I cleaned the dishwasher.  (If you don't think that's an active thing, you try getting in there and scrubbing the inside of your dishwasher.)  I also went grocery shopping - also an active thing if you do it right.  And yesterday, I went into the woods.  Walking up and down the hill in melting snow with mushy ground underneath will certainly get you using muscles you didn't know you had.  I'm feeling it this morning, lemme tell ya.  No stepping on the scale this week, though.  It's too cold to get naked unless it's for a shower and I'm not showering first thing in the morning until the temps rise.  

Speaking of temps, this past week gave us here at Sanderson Inc. LLC a low point of MINUS 5.  (Which was about on par with my mom in Michigan, but way too cold for SW MO.)  We also got like 6 inches of snow.  On the upside, we're supposed to hit the upper 60s sometime this coming week, so most if not all of the snow will disappear.  The robins I saw this week will certainly appreciate that.

Oh, the reason I went into the woods was to see if I could locate tracks near the hole where I suspect some critter has taken up residence.  Well, if they have, they've been inside since the snow fell because I didn't find any tracks near there that I couldn't identify as deer.  Coming back up the hill, I did see fox tracks, though, so yay.

Well... I think that's about it.  Sorry I was late today.  Have a great rest of your day, wherever you are.

Thursday This n That

That's right, it's Thursday... Derp.

It's freakin' COLD here.  Last time I checked it was -5.  Negative five.  37 degrees below freezing.  Blerg.

The wren in our garage is fat and happy and warm.  I've named him Woodstock.  He's not yellow, but he is a funny little bird.  We're leaving suet nuggets on top of the Jeep for him.  And there's a shallow pan with water.  And, of course, the space heater is keeping it above 40F in there.  (So the pipes don't freeze, not for him, but he gets the benefit of it.)

The news coming out of Israel is pissing me off royally.  If you support Hamas or the P'stinians, please stop coming by here.  I stand with the Jews.  How any person can stand alongside the people who are celebrating the murders of babies escapes me.  It must be some kind of insanity.

Anyway...

I got my first page of edit notes for this round done and entered into the manuscript.  This is the phase where I do that... make a page of notes, enter the notes, lather-rinse-repeat throughout the day.  One page of notes = 3 pages of manuscript.  I hope to make more progress today.  Might as well, I can't go outside or anything.

Last night, we sat down to watch a new series.  I had great hopes for it, but the series opener was unimpressive.  It had a couple spots that made me LOL, but not enough to sustain my interest.  :shrug:  Hubs and I looked at each other and said 'well, we did that'.  For those interested, it was Good Cop / Bad Cop.  Your mileage may vary, but it's not for us.  Still loving High Potential, but the season ender was last week, so we'll have to wait to see how they resolve the mystery next season.  

I made awesome soup the other day.  I'm calling it Chicken-Cheddar-Bacon-Potato Chowder.  I had defrosted a chicken breast and it's cold, so I got the idea for soup, did some recipe scanning, and then just starting throwing things in the pot.  Like I said, it was awesome.  We'll be having leftovers of it tonight for dinner.  Yum.

Speaking of food, now I'm hungry.  Have a great day.  Stay warm.  Eat something yummy.

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 6

Six weeks into 2025 and I'm feeling pretty good about life in general.  Specifics?  Eh, the jury's still out.

I finished the second round of edit notes on Tuesday, took a day off, and began inputting them.  I'm only at pg38, but it's going well.  I guess.  I'm trying to just go from note to note, but I keep finding things I missed making notes on, so it's going slower than anticipated.  Like I said, I won't meet my goal of having this finished by Valentine's Day.  Not even close.  I am shooting for before the end of the month now, but that will depend on how fast I can get these notes entered, the next pass through and notes completed, sent out to readers and how quickly they turn it around back to me.  Then there will be formatting, etc.  Actually, typing all that out now makes me wonder if I can have this done by Easter.  (And I don't know when Easter even is this year.)

I did some marketing this week.  Not nearly enough.  I slacked off on this one.  Project Hermes did move 71 copies and had some page reads, though.  Tomorrow, Dying Embers starts its freebie week in celebration of its ten year anniversary.  Woot.

Reading still isn't happening.  I can't seem to muster the urge to read right now.  :shrug:  This, too, shall pass.

In baking news, all I made this week was Italian bread pizza.  It's like French bread pizza, but with a loaf of Italian bread.  Big shocker there, eh?  Anyway, it was totally yummy, and I still have half a loaf of bread left to make it again sometime this week.  Also, this week, we need cinnamon rolls.  We ate the last two a couple days ago and I'm jones'n.  Oh, and I plan on making carrot cake this week.  Maybe today.  I bought a huge bag of carrots for this purpose and for the beef stew I made yesterday.  OMG, that stew turned out amazing.  Yummers.

On the activity front, I did something active 5 out of 7 days.  Cleaning, walking, woods work, etc.  Oh, and I went fishing one afternoon.  I didn't catch anything, but lugging the gear around after ages of not going fishing was a real workout.  Speaking of real workouts, day before yesterday, in addition to my puttering around in the woods, I lugged a couple dead dogwood tree trunks up the hill.  And I paid for every inch of both the trees and the climbs.  Dogwood is not a light wood.  OMG, ouch.  I'm still feeling that one.  Weight as of Wednesday: 173.0

I found a couple really neat rocks in the woods, too.  One of these days, I should take pictures of all my neat rocks and let y'all see them.  Anyway, one of them was small and has interesting differently colored stripes in it.  The other is bigger and has some kind of translucent brown mineral layered into the white base rock.  Not sure what it is, but it's cool, so home it came.  Hey, Hubs didn't tell me this time, as he often does, not to bring any rocks back with me, so I went for it.  LOL

Yesterday, I hit Wallyworld ahead of the coming weather scuz.  And this morning I remembered that I forgot coffee :gasp: and some other essential, but less important, things.  This means a Dollar General run shortly.  

And that's about all I have for you today.  I hope wherever you are, life is good for you, too.  Have a great day!  And leave me a comment or two when you get a chance.  

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 5

Happy Groundhog Day!  (also known around here as Hubs' emancipation day and Ayn Rand's birthday)

Okay, so the weekly update goes something like this...

I am up to 83% of the book on edit notes.  I expect to finish the notes today and start inputting them.  I do not expect to have this ready to publish by the 14th like I hoped, but stranger things have happened. All in all, though, I worked on the notes every day and went from 34% to 83%, so that's a win.

I didn't do any marketing this week.  I do have a freebie starting tomorrow, though.  PROJECT HERMES is next up on the rotation.  Then, DYING EMBERS will be free the week after, in celebration of its 10th anniversary of being a published novel.  Woot.

No reading yet.  I'm just not feeling it at this time.  

In baking news, I was busy.  I did cinnamon rolls and pizza.  Talk about an arm workout.  I also did a vat of pulled pork, which gave me the opportunity to do Cuban sandwiches.  

As for activity, it went better this week.  Not great, but every journey begins with a single step and all that.  I got out of the house and wandered the yard one day.  Yesterday, I did some tree maintenance - cutting some pesky limbs and snipping others.  I also took out the last lilac stalk and pruned the rose bush in the side yard.  Then I went into the woods and threw some logs, after which I wandered around in the woods for a while.  All good exercise.  I haven't weighed myself lately, so... :shrug:

Ah, the lilac... Here's hoping it grows new shoots.  If not, it's outta there.  I'll replace it with something else bushlike or I'll just let the irises take over that spot.  We'll see.

I'm pretty sure we got the wren out of the garage.  Yay.

I did some genealogy research that I didn't have to pay for, so I could answer a question for Mom.  She was wondering if her grandmother ever became a citizen.  I don't have proof positive, but on the 1930s census, under Citizenship, it's marked YES.  So, we've got that going for us.  I've got the naturalization papers for Dad's dad and his grandpa.  I just need to find and download the papers for the others.  (No reason.  And nothing to do with the current panic about deportations.  Just for our own edification.)

Other that that, it's pretty tame around here.  How are things going in your world?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 3

 Well, here we are after the end of the third week.  And as usually happens around this time, I kind of fell down on my goals for the year.  Derp.  Anyway...

You know the drill... no writing because I'm editing.  As for editing, I was plugging along nicely on my second round of edit notes and made it to like 20-something %, then I took Friday off... which led to me taking Saturday off.  I'll redouble my efforts today.  I have to or I won't hit my self-imposed goal of having this in your hot little hands by Valentine's Day. 

I did do a bunch of marketing... well, some marketing... for Ugly and the Beast.  I moved 119 free copies and sold 4 copies (3 SU and 1 CU).  We'll see if I get subsequent sales.  Tomorrow, Unequal goes on freebie.  I need to put together some marketing stuff today.

No reading at the moment and thus, no Saturday Reading Wrap-up.  Sorry about that.  

In baking news, I made pretzel turtles and quickie pizza using hard sandwich rolls.  :yawn:

The big news of the week, in case you missed it, was Finn's medical issue.  Turns out he has a staph infection in his bladder.  And before you ask, we have no clue how he got that.  Stress?  Not that we can tell.  Cleanliness?  We aren't super anal about cleaning, but the litter box is scooped several times a day.  So, we shrugged and went on with out lives.  We switched the cats to purified water and urinary tract health IAMS, just in case.  Finn's on meds and the issue appears to be clearing up.  The vet was pleased with his progress, but he wants him back on Tuesday for a follow up shot of bladder meds.  

Now I'm watching Sawyer like a hawk for signs he picked up this infection.  

Anyway, it's all very tiring and I need a nap, even though I haven't actually been up that long.  

What's been up in your life?

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 2

2025 Week 2... or the first full week of the year.  Woot.

By now you're probably sick of me saying I haven't written.  That's okay, I'm pretty sick of not writing myself.  On a brighter note, I finally finished inputting the first round of edit notes and I have begun making another set of edit notes.  This is the process.  I'm shooting to have this done and published before Valentine's Day.  We'll see if that actually happens.  It would be a good thing, especially since 2/13 is my 10th anniversary of being a published author.  

I spent a boatload of time on marketing this week.  I finished the freebie thing for Fertile Ground and did the whole freebie thing for In Deep Wish.  I moved over 315 books, some of them for actual $$ (okay, 301 were free).  As sad as that sounds, this is already my third best January since I started selling books and it's only the 12th of the month.  Monday starts a freebie thing for Ugly and the Beast.  I need to get to work on some graphics for that.

Earlier this week, I actually finished reading a book.  I haven't started a new one because... Well, I'm lazy.

Speaking of lazy, I haven't gotten any exercise this week.  Unless you count shining the red dot for the kitties.  Or stirring ingredients for baking.

Ah, baking... I made a chocolate oil cake covered in raspberry jam and vanilla frosting last Sunday.  Yesterday, I did a batch of cinnamon rolls.  Much stirring was involved, so I guess that's exercise. Heh.  I might do pizza today.  We'll see.

In weather news, we got about 5 inches of snow.  And some freakin' cold temps.  The temps are up a little, so the snow's melting.  We lost satellite TV for a few hours.  We lost satellite internet for... Oh, wait.  We DIDN'T lose internet.  At all.  It didn't even slow down.  Elon Musk is my hero.  On the bright side, it's supposed to be bright and sunny for the next week or so.  Fingers crossed it melts all the crap still on the roof.  And on the roads... because no one has bothered to come down these 'publicly maintained' roads with a plow yet.  

I think that's it.  I'm a pretty boring person.  All the interesting things go into my fiction and everything else is blah.

Have a great day today, wherever you are.  And feel free to drop a comment, if you so desire.

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 1

It's the first Sunday Update of the year and, of course, I'm getting a late start.  I woke up late and then I had marketing to do.  So here we are...

I'm still not writing, but the editing is zooming along at a turtle's pace.  Last week, I edited every day but one, for a total of 39 pages edited.  I'm at page 173 now out of a current 191 pages.  The manuscript is at 58016 words.  When I started this edit round I had around 47K words and 133 pages, so you can see why this might be taking me a while to finish.  Every time I think I'm getting ahead, I wind up with the same amount of pages left to do.  But I'm adding words and making it awesome, so it's all good.

I'm also in the middle of a freebie thing for FERTILE GROUND so I'm marketing a lot.  It's going okay.  Books are moving and people are reading pages.  It's all good.  Oh, and starting Tuesday, IN DEEP WISH will be free.  I need to jump on that and make some marketing materials.  Speaking of which, this is the thing I made for FG this morning:

creepy, huh?

No Saturday Reading Wrap-up yesterday because I am still reading the same book - Child Star by Shirley Temple Black.  I crossed the halfway mark yesterday.  Woot.

In cooking news, I made a thing that I'm calling Italian Spaghetti Bake.  And yesterday, I made a vat of Turkey Noodle Soup.  Today, I'm hoping to do a chocolate oil cake with raspberry jam and vanilla frosting.  Either that or cinnamon rolls.  Maybe I'll get crazy and do both.  

On the activity front, I did something active 5 out of 7 days.  Sure, some of the stuff I'm counting isn't super-active, but hey, whatever it was, it got me out of my chair and my blood pumping.  I weighed myself to start the year: 174.2 - which is up 13.2 pounds from 1/1/24.  :shrug:  I was working and stressed then.  Now I'm home, relaxed, and back to grazing. 

This creeping crud thing that Hubs and I have just won't die.  Neither of us feel too bad, but it's a lingering thing that's just annoying.  I'm going to firebomb it with meds & vitamins today and see if I can't kick its ass.  By the way, Rikola Honey Herb cough drops are the bomb.  Rikola Honey Lemon Echinacea cough drops are GROSS.  They taste like weeds and lemon rind.  Blech.

Okay, I suppose I'd better get doing something, even if it's wrong.  Have a great day and drop a comment about how your week went.

Sunday Update - Week Last One of 2024

Okay, so it was the last full week of 2024 and things happened...

First off, per Friday's post, I did the whole Start Today thing.  To that end, I edited every day for the past three days and got 13 more pages edited.  Considering I went 22 days since the last time I edited, it's a win.  I still have about 50 pages to get through.  The manuscript is now at 55461 words - up about 8000 since I finished the first draft.

No new words or marketing this week.  I'll do more marketing after the first of the year.  And I'll definitely do some more writing.  Yay.

I'm also pretty much set on the number of books finished in 2024.  I finished at 36, which isn't bad considering.  Next year, I'll set a goal of reading 5 books per month.  Easy and totally not overwhelming.  If I need to up the goal later in the year, I will.  

Last week, I baked a pumpkin cheesecake, cinnamon rolls, and a loaded lasagna.  The only thing left is cinnamon rolls.  We decimated the rest.

Activity is another area where I'm hitting the Start Today thing.  I walked Friday and Saturday with Hubs.  We did about 1.8 miles.  It's a start.  Do something active every day... starting today.  I haven't weighed myself since 12/21 but then I was at 174.0.  Not great, but I'm not whipping myself over it either.  

Oh yeah, Christmas was this past week...  Well, we didn't really do anything out of the ordinary except eat lasagna, pumpkin cheesecake, and cinnamon rolls.  We don't get each other gifts, per se.  This year's gift was Starlink for both of us.  It's totally worth it.  The tree still looks pretty as seen on my Christmas post.  We have loads of cards underneath it.  I'll take it down after 1/1/25.  

I think that's probably about it.  I'll do some kind of wrap-up posts for the year or something in the coming days.  Until then, enjoy the last few days of 2024 and get ready for a bright and shiny 2025.

How was your last week of '24?

I almost forgot.  We weighed the cats for their 2-year birthdays.  Sawyer was at 17 pounds 6 ounces.  Finn was at 13 pounds 1 ounce.  Neither of them are fat cats.  I mean, Sawyer's a moose, but he's not chubby.  Finn's thin by comparison but he's also tall.  Who would've thunk that they'd be this huge when they were just little bitty kitties?