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?

This n That Thursday

I just heard a strange sound from the living room - like Hubs opened a shaken can of pop.  I'm too lazy to investigate.  By the time I go in there, I'm sure I'll forget to ask.

The way our house is laid out, the office is at the other end of the house from the living room, and my desk is on the far wall.  The phone is on a table at the far end of the living room.  If the phone rings while I'm at my desk, you can be pretty sure I'm probably not going to get there before the answering machine - unless I run. And I don't run.  I figure anyone who cares will leave a message.  Then Hubs' brother calls.  I see his name on the caller ID, but he doesn't leave a message.  I call him right back.  "Why didn't you leave a message?" "I never let a phone ring more than 4 times." "It takes me longer than 4 rings to get across the house." "Then you need to learn to walk faster."  ROFL  Ri-ight.

My crepe myrtle - the one I thought I killed when I transplanted it to a sunnier area?  It's covered in buds and should bloom sometime this week.  I'll try to post pics when I have them.  Oh, and the little hydrangea is full of big leaves.  No flowers this year, but maybe next year.

The dove slaughter I talked about Tuesday?  I found another place covered with feathers. Right in my marigolds. My theory is the falcon knocked the dove down there and then flew underneath the black walnut to eat his lunch.  Head's still there.  Gross.

I really need to weed, but it's so damn hot here right now.  I took Max out for a walk and damn near melted.  Max was happy to get back into the air conditioning, too, let me tell you.

Great Blue Herons make the most godawful noises.  There are a group of them who've set up a rookery in the trees behind my neighbors' house.  Sounds like someone is killing a giant toad over there. 

I went for a walk yesterday to check the river level.  Here's a couple shots to give you an idea how high it is:

Last fall:

Yesterday morning:

Pretty gross, eh?

What this n that do you have today?

Sunday Update - Week 28

Yes, yes, it's Tuesday.  Let's just say I totally didn't realize it was Sunday until I was in bed that night, so I chose to push the update to today.  K?

Last week was spent in furious activity trying to get Wish in One Hand ready for the editor to take a final pass through.  I accomplished this feat Friday afternoon and then I fell apart. 

I read a few books last week.  The First Wives Club - totally not like the movie.  My Sunny Vampire by Stacy McKitrick - fun book I probably should've read ages ago.  Slayride by Dick Francis - okay, but not quite as awesome as I remember his other books being.  If you're keeping track of genres, that's one 'women's fiction', one 'paranormal romance', and one mystery.  I read widely.  I also started a few books and deleted them off my Kindle.  Life's too short for 1) bad editing (typos, misspellings, grammar mistakes - so glaring I only made it a few pages in before I gave up), 2) whiny main characters, 3) long explorations into backstory I couldn't get excited about.

Took the car in for an oil change and while I was there, looked into getting some other routine maintenance done on the old beast.  I've got a 2003 Cavalier and as far as I know, she's never had a tune-up.  She's at the mechanic's right now getting all her plugs, filters, tubes, hoses, tanks, etc. flushed and changed and wiped or whatever.  Plus, she's getting a new serpentine belt.  He did tell me my tires looked good - which is weird because the guy at the tire place last year told me my 3 older tires all had dry rot and needed replacing.  Hmmm. 

Something killed and devoured a mourning dove in the side yard.  I suspect it's the resident, unidentified-raptor we call 'Show Yourself'.  I believe the culprit to be a peregrine, but without photographic evidence, I can't lay claim to that.  (I've seen it. We've heard it.  No pics.)  Anyway, whatever prey animal it was plucked that poor bird clean, ripped the head off, and ate its fill.  The crows took the remainder of the carcass somewhere.  I'm hoping something else comes and carries off the head before I go back out there.  Ah, life in the jungle.

That's about all my sleep-deprived brain can come up with this morning.  What's up in your world?

This n That Thursday - Flood Edition

I finished all the edit notes for Wish in One Hand last night before bed.  This morning, it feels like someone threw dust in my eyes.  Now I have to input all the notes.  Yay.

We live on a river that's part of a massive river/lake/dam system.  Beaver Lake, White River, Table Rock Lake, Lake Taneycomo, Bull Shoals Lake - the whole thing stretches from one side of the state to almost the other, dipping in and out between Missouri and Arkansas.  It's the result of the White River being dammed up in several places, but it's fed by numerous other rivers, creeks, streams, etc.  In case you hadn't heard, it's been raining pretty hard and steadily for a few days now in these here parts.  Which means flooding.  Beneath the dam that creates Table Rock Lake lies the city of Branson, MO and the city of Hollister, MO.  This morning I read an article about someone in a little town off Bull Shoals Lake complaining that the flooding is ruining his tourism for the summer, and how TRL is being kept way lower than his lake.  Umm, dude, they kinda half to be more careful with that lake and the dam because of all the humans laying in the zone beneath the lake.  Sorry people aren't vacationing where you are, but if TRL's dam goes because they weren't careful with it, guess where the water will eventually end up after it wipes out Branson and Hollister.  That's right, in your backyard.  And it'll make this flooding look skimpy by comparison.  Let the Corps of Engineers do their jobs and hope they can save Labor Day for you.

Reminds me of that scene in Jaws where the mayor is bitching about losing the summer season because of the shark, so he keeps the beaches open and Jaws munches that dude.

Oh, and we're fine here.  I live on a hill and as of yesterday, all the roads from here to Walmart are clear.  The nearby bridge is well above the rising river so no fears there.  North of here?  Everything pretty much sucks, but I learned a while back that pretty much everything I need can be gotten to the south.  Lucky I don't have to go to the county seat - they closed the town a couple days ago because it's on one of those feeder rivers and the river jumped its banks. 

Meanwhile, the west coast is roasting.  I'd send y'all some of this if I could.

Since my brain is pretty much absorbed by the rainfall and the writing, that's all I got for you today.  What do you have for me?

Ranty McRanterson

I started to write a post this morning, but it was a long rant that really wouldn't have made much of a difference in the world anyway, so I deleted it.  Then I thought about what else to write about and another ranty topic came to mind.  And another.  Yeah, there's a lot to rant about in the world. 

There's an autistic boy missing from the town just north of where I grew up.  So many things wrong with that story, I could go for hours.

There's a college football player who decked a woman in a bar.

Someone else claimed a racial identity that didn't belong to her.

The lead-in for a news story here read something like 'car pulled from lake is now out'.  :eyeroll:   

And then there was the gal who wrote about how 5-star reviews are all bullshit made up by friends and family of the writer.  I could really go to town on that one.  I mean, how dare she?  Insulting not only my fans but myself - because I write a lot of 5-star reviews...  GAH!

You know, it's really hard to stick to my 2014 promise to not let shit irritate me.  Irritating shit is everywhere and it seems to be getting worse by the day.  I'd stop reading the news, but you know, I'd rather not get blindsided when something stupid happens that might just effect me or mine. 

Ignorance is only bliss because you're not aware of the truck headed right for you.  And it only lasts until the thing runs you over.

So, like I said last week, I'm trying not to talk about stuff.  But it's damn hard.  And I may not live up to that promise.  There's such a wealth of things to rant about.  Poor Hubs has to listen to me rant daily, although sometimes he joins in and we rant together.

Do you rant?  In private or in public? 

Sunday Update - Week 27

The battle of the river dwellers - part two - kept me up again last night.  Last weekend's explosions were pretty bad, but that was just a precursor to last night's festivities.  Natch.  I read until 10:30 when I couldn't keep my eyes open.  Then I went to bed and laid there while the world exploded outside.  Not sure when it finally stopped or I finally fell asleep.  All I know is I am dragging butt today.

On to the update...

I finally got some more editing done.  If you're reading this, editor-darlin', I am trying to get this done and back to you.  (I will email you later this morning after more coffee.) 

I started the week up to my armpits in other people's stuff.  It happens on occasion and I roll with it.  No big deal.  It needed to be done.  We did it.  We'd do it again it the occasion arose.  Still, we're happy to slide back into our chosen roles as hermits.  It did, however, derail my best laid plans.  Which is why I am later than late on this edit deadline. 

My sale and advertising went live on Friday, but not without some minor burps that felt major at the time.  Turns out Kindle Countdown Deals don't start at 8am my time, but at 8am their time (i.e. Pacific Time).  AND there was some fine print at ENT wherein all discounted books advertised have to be at the discounted price by 6am Eastern. So I thought I was well n truly screwed.  Huzzah. When the afternoon ENT newsletter came out, my ad was in there, though.  And all was right with the world.

I'll do some kind of breakdown of the ad's success tomorrow at Outside the Box.  Meanwhile, Accidental Death is still at $1.99 until 8am Pacific, so if you haven't snagged a copy, now would be a good time.  It'll go up to $2.99 after 10am my time.  Tomorrow it will be back to its regular price of $3.99, so you're still getting one hell of a bargain.

So far, several someones in the KU program have read 2212 pages worth of Accidental Death.  Works out to about four and a quarter books.  244 pages have already been read today.  I like to think they either couldn't put it down last night or they had to start reading first thing this morning. Either way, it makes me feel good.  I know several people have mentioned that Accidental Death is hard to put down.  Yay.

In the reading news, I read both JB Lynn's new release (A Woof in Sheep's Clothing) and Silver James' new release (Double Cross: Hard Target Book 1) - and they were both awesome.  I'm currently reading The First Wives Club.  The movie - which I thought was a hoot - is so very loosely based on the book it's almost like a different animal.  I think I'll write a post about that later this week.

My volunteer tomato plant - which I thought I'd killed - appears to be on the road to recovery.  All its wilty leaves were perking up yesterday.  Yay.  We'll see if I actually get any tomatoes to harvest or if the animals eat them all.

I think that's about it for updates from me.  Any updates from you this week?

This n That Thursday

We have internet service, but no phone service.  Not quite sure how that works, since we have internet through our phone lines.

We have 3 baby wrens hanging around the yard.  What funny little buggers - exploring the porch and learning where to find bugs.  When they chirp to their mommy, they sound like really loud crickets.

I'm supposed to be editing, but it's been such a week I can't seem to muster the will.  In related news, my brain is in edit mode, so I'm correcting the local news station's FB feed, the newspaper ads, the ticker on any given news station...

Since my name is now out there to all my readers, I find there are certain bits of information I can no longer talk about here.  Like, say, I want to tell a story about the people in my neighborhood.  Well, some of them have Dying Embers and/or Accidental Death, and I'm now officially outed as B.E. Sanderson, so that's a wash.  The last thing I need is someone getting their undies in a twist because I wrote down what I thought was a funny story, and they thought I was making fun of them.  :shrug:  The life of a public persona.  I chose this.

Supposedly, this is going to be a banner year for cicadas.  It's been all over the news and papers.  They say the 13-year cicadas AND the 17-year cicadas will both be crawling out of the ground to sprout wings and mate.  And buzz.  So far this year, we've heard ONE cicada.  Whoopee.

I weeded the wild flower bed.  We have daisies - which I totally didn't expect.  Also, there was the one thing that looked kind familiar, so I left it alone last time, but since it didn't have showy flowers, I pulled it this time.  Right after I pulled it, I realized what it was and could've kicked myself.  Loads of tiny tomatoes on it.  I was all like 'crap crap crap'.  I tried to put it back, but I think it's pretty much a goner.  We'll see if it recovers from the shock and whether the tomatoes survive.  Not quite sure how a tomato plant got in my wildflower bed.  Bird poop, I expect.  Bird eats someone else's garden, hangs out in our cedar tree, lets loose, and tada, we have a tomato plant.  Nature is both awesome and a little gross.

What's up in the this-n-that world for you?