Thursday This n That

Wow.  I mean, just... wow.  The freebie thing for DYING EMBERS shot off like a freakin' rocket this week.  When I checked the stats this morning, my orders said 777.  705 of that is DE.  (71 was from last weeks freebie of PH. And I sold one FG.)  I've never moved that many copies of anything at one time.  Hell, I haven't moved that many copies of all of my books in an entire year since my first year. That year, I moved like 1016, which is fewer books than I've given away this year.  I am shocked.  This is my wow-face =oO.  Anyway, thank you.  Thanks to all of you who've read my books, and to all of you who've downloaded my books, and to all of you who've reviewed my books.  You're all awesome and I love you. :HUGS:  You're really making my anniversary special.  Special thanks to Silver and Debs and Janet for sticking with me all the way.  You guys rock.

Today is officially the 10th anniversary of DE going out into the world.  On 2/13/15, it went live on Amazon and I got my very first sale ever.  Woot.  

Speaking of sales, I've officially made more money this year than all of 2023.  Sure, it's $28.82 vs $28.08, but we have to take our little successes where we can find them, eh?

Man, these last few years have been a little depressing for me with regards to being a writer.  I mean, I haven't broken $100 since 2021.  The last year I made more than my average of $400/year was 2019.  But there's always hope.  And more than a little of a masochistic nature, LOL.

Okay, enough about that... I think I might've already mentioned it, but I made carrot cake.  It was good but unimpressive the first day.  Every day, it's gotten a wee bit yummier, though.  Mmmm.  Next time, I definitely need to add raisins.  I do love me some raisins.

The weather here has been gross.  Wet and cold and icy.  Blerg.  Good thing I got all my errands done over the weekend or we'd be screwed.  Eh, it's all about planning ahead when you live in the back of beyond.  

Ack.  I need to wrap this up so I can call Mom.  It's a thing.  Every morning M-Th, I call her at 7am and we talk for an hour.  She's 84 and, let's face it, she's not going to be here forever, so I like to get as much chatting in as I can.  Plus, I really enjoy our conversations.  There's no better way to start the day for me.  (I also call her on Saturday, but that's at 7:45.  She gets Fridays and Sundays off from me. LOL)

And with that I bid you all adieu.  Have a great day wherever you are!

Ten Years

I had a great idea for a post for today, but that was last night, and now it's gone.  So, let's see what I can come up with...

As you know, it's my 10th Anniversary celebration week.  Woohoo.  It's been one helluva ride (which is something you apparently can't say on FB because I had several marketing posts declined there yesterday using the made-up word 'helluva' when without the word, they were approved.)  

In the past ten years, I've published 17 novels in 8 genres - suspense, mystery, thriller, urban fantasy, paranormal mystery, dystopian, hard-boiled crime, and fantasy.  I have 4 series in the works (with more than one book in them) and two books that are waiting for their sequels.  One of those will have a sequel out either this month or next.  I have three books that will never have sequels - the two dystopians and the political thriller.  Hell, I didn't PLAN for any of my initial books to be the start of a series, but they worked out to be Book Ones.  SLEEPING UGLY, while planned as the start of a series, was not one of my initial books.  Just sayin'.

Over the decade of publication, I've sold almost 3300 books for nearly $4000.  So, that works out to about 330 books and $400 a year.  Ummm... woot?  I've also given away just over 8000 books.  

My biggest seller is DYING EMBERS, of course.  It's also the one that's been out there the longest, so no big surprise.  Then ACCIDENTAL DEATH.  Then WISH IN ONE HAND.  That's the order they were published in, so again no big surprise.  Unfortunately, the fourth oldest book is not next on the top sales list.  PROJECT HERMES isn't for everyone and that's fine.  It's #9 and has been passed by all the books in the genie series and the second book in the SCIU series.  

Sadly, my lowest seller has been my last book - SONG OF STORM AND SHROUD.  Poor thing.  It didn't get a whole lot of marketing love from me, since I went back to a day job shortly after it was published.  It's also supposed to have sequels which would help sales, but I haven't mustered the will to write those books yet.  I expect it will continue to languish in obscurity until I get those done.  The ideas for them are there, just not the words.  

Only 8 of my books have earned me more than $100 each.  The rest of them are still in the double digits.  It can disheartening.  Believe me.  I lost count of the number of times I swore I'd quit this endeavor.  It ain't for the faint of heart.  It might be a sign of a tendency toward masochism, but I'm undiagnosed by medical professionals, so we'll ignore that.  ;o)

I also lost count of how much money I've spent on this.  Last tally was over $11000 - most of that in the first year.  I'd like to eventually have this publishing thing fund itself, but I'm not holding my breath.

If I could go back and do it all over again, would I?  Yeah, I think I would.  I'd do a few things differently.  I wouldn't pay that first cover artist for WIOH for one thing.  All in all, though, I think I've done all of this the best way I knew how at the time.  I'm still at this and I don't foresee quitting any time soon.  

Anyway... here's to Ten Years!  Thank you to everyone who's helped me along the way and to all the readers who've enjoyed my work.  I can't wait to see what the next ten years bring.

Marketing Monday - 10th Anniversary!

 Hey all.  This week I'll see the 10th Anniversary of being a published author.  On 2/13/15, DYING EMBERS was pushed into the world.  So...

To celebrate my tenth anniversary as a published author, this week DYING EMBERS is absolutely free. (Always free on Kindle Unlimited.) It's been a helluva journey. Thanks for sharing it with me.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TEQK7OU

And it has been one hell of a journey.  Who knew when I started this writing thing back in January of 2004 - that's right, I've been at this for 21 years now - that I'd be a self-published author with sales and reviews and junk?  I certainly didn't.  Of course, when I started writing back in 2004, I thought that I'd be represented by an agent and have loads of traditional book sales by now.  

We all know how that turned out, eh?

Anyway, I'll talk more about that in the week to come.  Until then, pick up a copy of Dying Embers and enjoy my gift to you.  And if you enjoy it, pay it backward by leaving a review.  ;o)

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.  

Thursday This n That

 I woke up late, hurried through some marketing, and called Mom.  Then I forgot I needed to post until I saw a friend talking about how her post was late today.  I'm so derpy sometimes.  Anyway...

Yesterday, I spent the morning scrubbing the drip pans on my stove.  Bar Keeper's Friend is an amazing product for stuff like that, but it's not infallible, and these were pretty far gone after 12 years.  After a while, I gave up and ordered new ones.  And new burner covers... because at least once a year, I accidentally turn on the wrong burner and end up burning the cover over it.  (If you've never done this, all kudos to you, you awesome person.)  While I was looking for new covers - I got black, by the way - I saw someone selling WOOD burner covers.  That seems like a horrible idea, especially given my penchant for burning the damn things.  A metal one just gets discolored.  A wood one would set the whole damn place on fire.  

Do you use burner covers?  My mom doesn't, and I didn't used to, but I got tired of wiping off the damn burners after every meal, so I got burner covers.  I can throw those in the dishwasher, easy peasy.  I'm lazy that way.

We heard foxes in the woods yesterday.  I think I found a spot where they're making a den.  There's been this hole in the woods for years.  Just recently, I've noticed fresh excavation signs... like a big pile of dirt outside the hole.  No paw prints in it, but someone is making a home.  I do hope it's foxes and there's a female making a home.  Baby foxes!  Yay!

On the way out of our neighborhood the other morning, I came around a curve on a hill and up ahead were several vultures huddled around something in the ditch.  As I approached, the vultures flew off and that's when I noticed the bald eagle standing over whatever carrion was there.  When I got closer, the eagle tried to take off with the carcass still clutched in one foot.  He made three attempts to fly away and finally dropped the dead thing in the middle of the road.  He perched in a tree and watched me as I continued past.  He was gorgeous.  The perfect example of an adult bald eagle.  Breathtaking.  (Yes, Virginia, eagles are carrion eaters.  Not exclusively, but hey, a bird's gotta eat.)

My dogwood seeds are germinating.  I checked the baggie in the fridge and I can see several white 'hair's in there.  So, we have roots!  Yay!  Not sure about any of the other seeds.  Time will tell, I guess.  If all I get are dogwoods, I'll still be happy.  

Okay, I think that's enough out of me this morning.  Time to get on with the rest of my day, especially since I'm running behind.  Derp.

Marketing Monday - Project Hermes

It's Marketing Monday again, and today thru Friday PROJECT HERMES is free.  

Starting today, PROJECT HERMES is absolutely free for a limited time. (Always free with your Kindle Unlimited subscription, but this is so everyone else can enjoy it, too.) Get your copy of this delicious medical, political thriller now!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Y6G0EW

But I think Marketing Monday probably should also be about you, so if you have any book(s) to market today, drop it in the comments.  Or if you know of an awesome book you didn't write that's on sale or new release or something, drop that, too.  If it's not too out there, I'll let the comment go through.  No spammers, please.  (My blog, my rules, doncha know.)

Have a great day and read loads of books!  (Starting with mine... lol)

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?