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.
Showing posts with label newsletter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label newsletter. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Sunday Update - Week 33
Time again for another weekly update. Yay!
My newsletter went out last night, in case you missed it. If you did miss it and want a copy, let me know. I'll forward mine over to you. Or check your spam box. It might be in there.
I sent Wish Hits the Fan off to JC last Monday. Then I didn't do anything else of a writerly nature, unless you count some marketing stuff. I'm still trying to decide what to do next. To write new words or to edit something I've already written, that is the question.
I did a fair bit of reading. Okay, it was only two books, but they each took a while. First off, there was Bradbury's Illustrated Man, which is a collection of short stories. Not my favorite Bradbury. Then I re-read Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I read it once before about 15-16 years ago. After all that time, I didn't actually remember any of the story but who dun it. Still, a pretty good mystery. Right now, I'm reading an Australian romance. Not simply a romance set in Oz, but one written and published in the Great Southern Land. It's pretty neat so far. I love that I can get books from other places.
Fishing happened. I didn't put out a fishing report because frankly it wasn't that interesting. I only caught a couple bluegills and a little bass over the four trips out. And I fell on my ass, so I'm still smarting from that little bit of gracefulness. You should see the bruises. They're glorious. I did find a dead largemouth. It was a keeper, too, which made me especially sad. It had choked on a big lure. I retrieved the lure and set the fish out where the vultures could get to it. Waste not, want not.
Somehow or other my email address has gotten on some kind of porn spam list. Luckily, Gmail shoves all that crap into the spam folder for me. Unfortunately, if real mail ends up in my spam folder right now, it's screwed because trying to search for a real piece of mail in all that vulgar crap takes more effort than I have the will to expend right now. It's getting deleted in one fell swoop. Thus, if you've sent me mail and I haven't responded, try again or leave a comment here on the blog that you sent me something and I'll try to catch it before it gets shitcanned.
Oh, I saw an eagle on Thursday morning. It was hanging out with a bunch of vultures eating a dead fish (not the big largemouth I found - a different one) on the shoreline. My initial thought was 'oh, look, a vulture with a white tail', but then my brain kicked in and I realized what it really was. It really needs to keep better company.
Well, that's it for me. Do you have anything to update this week? How's things in your world?
My newsletter went out last night, in case you missed it. If you did miss it and want a copy, let me know. I'll forward mine over to you. Or check your spam box. It might be in there.
I sent Wish Hits the Fan off to JC last Monday. Then I didn't do anything else of a writerly nature, unless you count some marketing stuff. I'm still trying to decide what to do next. To write new words or to edit something I've already written, that is the question.
I did a fair bit of reading. Okay, it was only two books, but they each took a while. First off, there was Bradbury's Illustrated Man, which is a collection of short stories. Not my favorite Bradbury. Then I re-read Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I read it once before about 15-16 years ago. After all that time, I didn't actually remember any of the story but who dun it. Still, a pretty good mystery. Right now, I'm reading an Australian romance. Not simply a romance set in Oz, but one written and published in the Great Southern Land. It's pretty neat so far. I love that I can get books from other places.
Fishing happened. I didn't put out a fishing report because frankly it wasn't that interesting. I only caught a couple bluegills and a little bass over the four trips out. And I fell on my ass, so I'm still smarting from that little bit of gracefulness. You should see the bruises. They're glorious. I did find a dead largemouth. It was a keeper, too, which made me especially sad. It had choked on a big lure. I retrieved the lure and set the fish out where the vultures could get to it. Waste not, want not.
Somehow or other my email address has gotten on some kind of porn spam list. Luckily, Gmail shoves all that crap into the spam folder for me. Unfortunately, if real mail ends up in my spam folder right now, it's screwed because trying to search for a real piece of mail in all that vulgar crap takes more effort than I have the will to expend right now. It's getting deleted in one fell swoop. Thus, if you've sent me mail and I haven't responded, try again or leave a comment here on the blog that you sent me something and I'll try to catch it before it gets shitcanned.
Oh, I saw an eagle on Thursday morning. It was hanging out with a bunch of vultures eating a dead fish (not the big largemouth I found - a different one) on the shoreline. My initial thought was 'oh, look, a vulture with a white tail', but then my brain kicked in and I realized what it really was. It really needs to keep better company.
Well, that's it for me. Do you have anything to update this week? How's things in your world?
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Sunday Update - Week 19
Last week was devoted to two things: The Kid was here AND getting Fertile Ground ready for publication.
So, the Kid arrived a week ago yesterday. We hung out, did some driving around, hung out some more, ate, chatted, shopped, etc. I'd post pics of us together, but I forgot to get authorization from her to release her picture publicly, so you'll just have to imagine it. I took her back to the airport on Friday and she had a problem-free trip home (which is a miracle when you're connecting through O'Hare.) Good times were had by all, but it's also good to get back to normal.
Speaking of normal, I had to finish proofing and formatting Fertile Ground while she was here so I could keep my promise of releasing this on the 16th. I did it. It's done. If you find errors in it now, they were inserted by gremlins while I slept. Anyway, I'll shout about release day pretty much everywhere tomorrow.
In case you missed it, I posted the first chapter of Fertile Ground on Friday - here and here. Seems like people were sufficiently creeped out by the beginning, which is a good thing for a suspense novel.
I sent out a special edition of the newsletter last night with some stuff just for subscribers. If you're not a subscriber, you missed out. Easily rectified for next time. Just sign up for the newsletter.
Between getting ready for the Kid's arrival and getting FG ready for public consumption, my 'do something active every day' thing got derailed. Not that I wasn't active almost every day, but not much of it was organized exercise.
I also haven't read any other writers' words lately.
We lost internet Friday afternoon, which had me totally freaking out. It's hard to release a book without internet access. Hard? Try impossible. Anyway, I called the company and got some dude who said his name was Ramone but who sounded like a hack taxi-driver in a Bollywood movie. He assured me there were no problems on their end, and proceeded to walk through testing my modem. Twenty minutes later he tells me he was just informed that there was, in fact, a problem on their end and it would be resolved by 5:15 my time, and then guaranteed me I'd get a call when it was fixed. Couple hours roll by and I notice the light on my modem is no longer flashing red, so I try the internet. It's fixed. No call. D'oh. They finally called around 6pm to tell us we had internet - by recorded message.
For the record, I don't have a problem outsourcing phone support to another country. If it gets me stuff here cheaper, then more power to them. I have a problem with trying to get technical stuff done by talking to a person who hasn't had the proper training in English. How would they feel if they called tech support in their country and got someone who barely spoke their language? As pissed as I do, most likely. Jus' sayin'.
I've been seeing a lot of hit animals on the road again this Spring. I know it's not any of you, but for the love of whatever god you worship, pay attention on the roads. It's mating season right now and the critters are out in force. Yes, I know, sometimes it's unavoidable. I hit a barn swallow yesterday after it swooped in front of my car. I also hit a squirrel last year because he ran under my wheels. But I also missed several other animals because I was paying attention. Especially turtles. Turtles don't dart out in the road and unless you have traffic coming at you, you can usually swerve to miss those.
That's about it for me today. Got any updates in your part of the world?
So, the Kid arrived a week ago yesterday. We hung out, did some driving around, hung out some more, ate, chatted, shopped, etc. I'd post pics of us together, but I forgot to get authorization from her to release her picture publicly, so you'll just have to imagine it. I took her back to the airport on Friday and she had a problem-free trip home (which is a miracle when you're connecting through O'Hare.) Good times were had by all, but it's also good to get back to normal.
Speaking of normal, I had to finish proofing and formatting Fertile Ground while she was here so I could keep my promise of releasing this on the 16th. I did it. It's done. If you find errors in it now, they were inserted by gremlins while I slept. Anyway, I'll shout about release day pretty much everywhere tomorrow.
In case you missed it, I posted the first chapter of Fertile Ground on Friday - here and here. Seems like people were sufficiently creeped out by the beginning, which is a good thing for a suspense novel.
I sent out a special edition of the newsletter last night with some stuff just for subscribers. If you're not a subscriber, you missed out. Easily rectified for next time. Just sign up for the newsletter.
Between getting ready for the Kid's arrival and getting FG ready for public consumption, my 'do something active every day' thing got derailed. Not that I wasn't active almost every day, but not much of it was organized exercise.
I also haven't read any other writers' words lately.
We lost internet Friday afternoon, which had me totally freaking out. It's hard to release a book without internet access. Hard? Try impossible. Anyway, I called the company and got some dude who said his name was Ramone but who sounded like a hack taxi-driver in a Bollywood movie. He assured me there were no problems on their end, and proceeded to walk through testing my modem. Twenty minutes later he tells me he was just informed that there was, in fact, a problem on their end and it would be resolved by 5:15 my time, and then guaranteed me I'd get a call when it was fixed. Couple hours roll by and I notice the light on my modem is no longer flashing red, so I try the internet. It's fixed. No call. D'oh. They finally called around 6pm to tell us we had internet - by recorded message.
For the record, I don't have a problem outsourcing phone support to another country. If it gets me stuff here cheaper, then more power to them. I have a problem with trying to get technical stuff done by talking to a person who hasn't had the proper training in English. How would they feel if they called tech support in their country and got someone who barely spoke their language? As pissed as I do, most likely. Jus' sayin'.
I've been seeing a lot of hit animals on the road again this Spring. I know it's not any of you, but for the love of whatever god you worship, pay attention on the roads. It's mating season right now and the critters are out in force. Yes, I know, sometimes it's unavoidable. I hit a barn swallow yesterday after it swooped in front of my car. I also hit a squirrel last year because he ran under my wheels. But I also missed several other animals because I was paying attention. Especially turtles. Turtles don't dart out in the road and unless you have traffic coming at you, you can usually swerve to miss those.
That's about it for me today. Got any updates in your part of the world?
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Sunday Update - Week 15
Okay, so it's Week 15. Week 3 times 5. Week 30 divided by 2. Whatever. Here we are again.
I finished this edit pass on Fertile Ground yesterday and sent it off to the Awesome Wonderful Editor. She'll have it back to me by the 1st.
I have the cover done. It follows the same general feeling of Dying Embers now. Yay. I'll show it off in my newsletter at the end of this month. Have you subscribed to the newsletter yet? There'll be a snippet of the book in there, too.
Since I was pretty much all about getting Fertile Ground done, I don't have much else to report.
Oh, I saw a bald eagle on Friday! I thought they'd all already gone north, but nope. There's still at least one around here.
This week, I will get back to work on my bathroom. Tomorrow, I'll finish patching and caulking. I'll probably also start taping things off. Haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do about the damn mirror. The bathroom has a huge mirror covering most of one wall from the counter to the light bar, and all the whatchamadoodles that hold it to the wall are clear, so I have to paint behind them without getting paint on them or without trying to move that whole big sheet of glass. (Because moving the mirror will definitely result in mirror breakage. I know me.) I'm thinking I'll remove one thingie and paint behind it, wait for it to dry, move another thingie, etc. Or maybe move every other thingie and paint behind all those so I don't have to wait so much. We'll see. If you hear the sound of shattering glass, my idea didn't go so well. ;o)
And that's about it for me today. How's things with you?
I finished this edit pass on Fertile Ground yesterday and sent it off to the Awesome Wonderful Editor. She'll have it back to me by the 1st.
I have the cover done. It follows the same general feeling of Dying Embers now. Yay. I'll show it off in my newsletter at the end of this month. Have you subscribed to the newsletter yet? There'll be a snippet of the book in there, too.
Since I was pretty much all about getting Fertile Ground done, I don't have much else to report.
Oh, I saw a bald eagle on Friday! I thought they'd all already gone north, but nope. There's still at least one around here.
This week, I will get back to work on my bathroom. Tomorrow, I'll finish patching and caulking. I'll probably also start taping things off. Haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do about the damn mirror. The bathroom has a huge mirror covering most of one wall from the counter to the light bar, and all the whatchamadoodles that hold it to the wall are clear, so I have to paint behind them without getting paint on them or without trying to move that whole big sheet of glass. (Because moving the mirror will definitely result in mirror breakage. I know me.) I'm thinking I'll remove one thingie and paint behind it, wait for it to dry, move another thingie, etc. Or maybe move every other thingie and paint behind all those so I don't have to wait so much. We'll see. If you hear the sound of shattering glass, my idea didn't go so well. ;o)
And that's about it for me today. How's things with you?
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Sunday Update - Week 29
Hey, I remembered on a Sunday! I totally rock.
What happened last week? Let's see...
I rolled out the cover reveal for the ebook version of Wish in One Hand. Now I just need to complete the edits so I can put it out for pre-order. So close. I'll be showing the print version to my newsletter subscribers in the blast I send on August 1st, along with some exclusive stuff - a snippet, a contest for a free book, a chance to read an early ecopy of the book. So, if you're not a newsletter subscriber, get on that before 8/1. K?
I downloaded some other new image manipulation software that is supposedly to be comparable to my ancient Microsoft Image Composer. So totally not. Bleh. I'll keep using the old stuff until some future updated Windows makes me stop.
My hardcopy book order arrived. Ideal by Ayn Rand, Audacious by Mike Shepherd, Sew Deadly by Elizabeth Lynn Casey, and the National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Mushrooms. Yeah, I'm eclectic.
I made some headway editing Bloodflow this week. I love this book so much. And this was the book that frightened me because it's pretty intricate with all the players and the intrigue and the technical stuff. But it's coming together and should be ready for a November launch.
Oh, and if you missed the cover reveal, here it is:
What's news in your world?
What happened last week? Let's see...
I rolled out the cover reveal for the ebook version of Wish in One Hand. Now I just need to complete the edits so I can put it out for pre-order. So close. I'll be showing the print version to my newsletter subscribers in the blast I send on August 1st, along with some exclusive stuff - a snippet, a contest for a free book, a chance to read an early ecopy of the book. So, if you're not a newsletter subscriber, get on that before 8/1. K?
I downloaded some other new image manipulation software that is supposedly to be comparable to my ancient Microsoft Image Composer. So totally not. Bleh. I'll keep using the old stuff until some future updated Windows makes me stop.
My hardcopy book order arrived. Ideal by Ayn Rand, Audacious by Mike Shepherd, Sew Deadly by Elizabeth Lynn Casey, and the National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Mushrooms. Yeah, I'm eclectic.
I made some headway editing Bloodflow this week. I love this book so much. And this was the book that frightened me because it's pretty intricate with all the players and the intrigue and the technical stuff. But it's coming together and should be ready for a November launch.
Oh, and if you missed the cover reveal, here it is:
What's news in your world?
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Sunday Update - Week 14
First off, Happy Easter to those that celebrate. Happy Solstice or Spring Celebration to them. Happy Sunday to everyone else. Or Hoppy Bunny Day.
Me, I'm making a ham today. Mashed potatoes. Corn. Rolls. I forgot dessert. I know, I know... but let's be real. The holiday snuck up on me and we're lucky the ham will have pineapple and brown sugar because I totally didn't pick those up until yesterday.
I spent the majority of last week dragging butt. I haven't been writing. I've only just kinda poked around at the edits. I looked into some advertising. Obsessing over sales... yeah, that I can do. :eyeroll:
I planted some more stuff. No pics. We did have one humdinger of a storm, which left my cedar garden in disarray, so I put that right again. Ferdinand the Forsythia is fine, though. Yay.
As you can probably tell, I'm not all hurrah about anything as of 7:45 on Saturday night. Not sure exactly what the culprit is this time around. I know I feel like I need to write something new. But I need to get these edits done. And can't forget about the marketing. And if I want the publication schedule to work out the way I have planned, writing something new should probably wait.
Yes, I would like some cheese with that whine, thank you very much.
Years ago, I belonged to a writers' forum. Actually, I was quite active. Busy little beaver me was posting and commenting and generally being both helpful and witty, until one day I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of cliques and an undercurrent of nastiness and a whole middle-school vibe, so I walked away. Since I jumped into self-publishing, I've been ghosting around another forum - to learn about the biz, see what issues other people might be having in case I ever need to know how to fix it, generally trying to be helpful where I can. And as I watched, I could see the cliques and the undercurrents and the middle-school thing cropping up there as well. And it's got me kinda heartsick. Well, on the bright side, it reminded me how awesome my blogging friends are here and on Facebook. We might not be a large crowd, but we're loyal and friendly and conduct ourselves with a modicum of maturity. Thanks for that, guys.
Lastly, today's the last day to get an entry into a contest to win a paperback of Dying Embers. Just head on over to B.E.'s Writerly Space, and sign up for my newsletter using the newsletter sign up form tab. Oh, and don't forget to answer their email where you have to click a link saying that 'yes, I did sign up to receive newsletters'. I still see you as signing up, by Mailigen won't let me actually send you a newsletter without that little clicky thing because they don't want me to spam anyone. (And I don't want to either.)
What's up in your world?
Me, I'm making a ham today. Mashed potatoes. Corn. Rolls. I forgot dessert. I know, I know... but let's be real. The holiday snuck up on me and we're lucky the ham will have pineapple and brown sugar because I totally didn't pick those up until yesterday.
I spent the majority of last week dragging butt. I haven't been writing. I've only just kinda poked around at the edits. I looked into some advertising. Obsessing over sales... yeah, that I can do. :eyeroll:
I planted some more stuff. No pics. We did have one humdinger of a storm, which left my cedar garden in disarray, so I put that right again. Ferdinand the Forsythia is fine, though. Yay.
As you can probably tell, I'm not all hurrah about anything as of 7:45 on Saturday night. Not sure exactly what the culprit is this time around. I know I feel like I need to write something new. But I need to get these edits done. And can't forget about the marketing. And if I want the publication schedule to work out the way I have planned, writing something new should probably wait.
Yes, I would like some cheese with that whine, thank you very much.
Years ago, I belonged to a writers' forum. Actually, I was quite active. Busy little beaver me was posting and commenting and generally being both helpful and witty, until one day I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of cliques and an undercurrent of nastiness and a whole middle-school vibe, so I walked away. Since I jumped into self-publishing, I've been ghosting around another forum - to learn about the biz, see what issues other people might be having in case I ever need to know how to fix it, generally trying to be helpful where I can. And as I watched, I could see the cliques and the undercurrents and the middle-school thing cropping up there as well. And it's got me kinda heartsick. Well, on the bright side, it reminded me how awesome my blogging friends are here and on Facebook. We might not be a large crowd, but we're loyal and friendly and conduct ourselves with a modicum of maturity. Thanks for that, guys.
Lastly, today's the last day to get an entry into a contest to win a paperback of Dying Embers. Just head on over to B.E.'s Writerly Space, and sign up for my newsletter using the newsletter sign up form tab. Oh, and don't forget to answer their email where you have to click a link saying that 'yes, I did sign up to receive newsletters'. I still see you as signing up, by Mailigen won't let me actually send you a newsletter without that little clicky thing because they don't want me to spam anyone. (And I don't want to either.)
What's up in your world?
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