This n That Thursday

It's the last This n That of 2015. 

I'm having a tough time looking back at the past year.  Not because it was a bad year but because it all seems to blur together in hindsight.  What did I do in 2015?  I published 4 books.  Everything else gets fuzzy around the edges when I try to look beyond that.  I'll try to do an actual wrap-up on Sunday or something.

The flood waters here are starting to recede. Which is good because I really have to go to the store and I've been holding off so I don't accidentally wind up driving through a low-lying floody spot.  (There are loads of low spots.  And loads of high spots.  Hey, it's the Ozarks.  It definitely ain't flat around here.)  Now that the water is leaving here, they're getting floody east and south of us - because that's pretty much where the 'here' waters are going.  Heading for the mighty Mississippi.  Cumulative waters from here, there, and everywhere are making it particularly nasty for anyone along Ol' Man River. 

I did not get pictures of the wet weather creek here.  Sorry.  It was too wet to go out, and then it was too cold, and now the stream is going away again. 

Speaking of pictures, we had a hawk hanging out around the house yesterday.  Unfortunately, everywhere he landed was behind branches so pics were problematic. He finally landed on the wires, but then he wouldn't look toward the house. 

That bitch squirrel who had babies in our house last year is desperately trying to get back inside the eaves.  She chewed a hole in the north side.  We kicked her out and put flashing over that.  She chewed a hole in the south side.  We kicked her out and put flashing over that.  Now she's chewing on the soffits in frustration.  Sorry, lady, but you need to find another place to call home for the winter.  Go build yourself a leaf nest for petesakes. That's what the other squirrels are doing.  Find a tree already.  I'm considering a Nerf gun.  I don't want to hurt her, but I want to discourage her from chewing on my house. 

What on your This n That plate for today?

Sunday Update - Week 52

Last full week of the year, folks.  And I really didn't do much of anything.  Shame on me.

I didn't get any work done editing Fertile Ground.  Didn't even look at it.

My cover artist is up to her armpits in alligators and will get the new cover art to me when she can.  Which I am perfectly fine with since I won't be launching this until March.  Hell, my editor doesn't have to have the first pass to me until January 10th anyway.

I did start a story based on an idea that popped into my head after reading a news article.  I have 5 paragraphs down. I have no idea where it's going, but the idea is recorded.  I also jotted a note about a potential Christmas suspense short for next year.

I cooked stuff for Christmas.  I made a cake.  Walnut Graham Cake with Candied Walnut Glaze.  It's okay, but not as good as I remembered.  I think I may have over mixed the batter.  I know I over-boiled the glaze. My twice-baked potatoes turned out pretty good.  So did my ham.  And I ate too much. Natch. So I spent the remainder of Friday and portions of Saturday laying around like a pig in the sun.

All of my books are on sale as of yesterday - in both the US and the UK*.  99 cents each through New Years Eve.  Get them while they're hot.  And if you like the stories, leave a review.  Please.  And pass this news along.  Word of mouth is the only advertising I have right now.

I did hit 1000 books sold in 2015.  Yay.  And I'm having a contest over at Outside the Box to celebrate.

What's new in your world?

*For some reason, my author page at Amazon UK is showing weird - where sometimes it only shows the paperback versions.  There are ebook versions of all my books available everywhere Amazon sells ebooks. (UK links available here for my suspense and mystery titles, or here for paranormal).  AND even though it doesn't reflect the sale on my author pages, they are on sale. Click the book you're interested in and the Kindle Countdown Deal shows up on each individual product page. 

This n That - Christmas Eve Edition

I don't remember a lot of Christmases (or much else from my past). I do remember one Christmas Eve.  My older sister and I were playing in our room when there was some kind of kerfluffle out in the living room.  I think we might've heard a booming Ho-ho-ho.  When Mom called us, we ran out to discover soooo many presents under the tree that you could hardly get past.  I think that was the year I got my giant frog stuffed animal.  Looking back now, it probably wasn't that big, but to me, it was the biggest most wonderful frog ever.

I remember Mom and the older girls baking Christmas cookies.  I'm 5 and 10 years behind them, so J was probably 9 and L was probably 14.  There was a wonder about it.  So special and secret as I gazed at them from my spot by the kitchen entryway. 

I remember the years our grandmother came to stay with us for Christmas.  My nephew was a toddler at the time and he liked to sit under her walker.  On Christmas Day, she took the bows from her presents and stuck them all over her head to make him laugh.  It worked.  We all laughed.  Good times.

I have a vague impression of the years - ones with all five of us kids at home, ones with us and then mates and then grandkids where the house was so full of people you could hardly find a place to sit and open presents.  All tumbled together.  And it's good.  The specifics are gone, but the meat of the memories lingers.

Sure, there were questionable Christmases. Sometimes the bad memories are stronger than the good ones.  Which is why we have to work to keep the better memories firmly seated in our heads.  They're the only ones that matter.

What's one good memory for you from Christmases Past?

Christmas Week - Quiet Enjoyment

As I said over on Outside the Box, this will be a week without the typical posts.  I'm not in the mood and I suspect neither are you.  Instead, I want a week of quiet enjoyment of life's little wonders. 

For instance, it's unseasonably lovely here.  We went for a wonderful walk yesterday.  We figured it was upwards of two miles round trip.  But it was a pretty day and this is such a pretty area, it was worth the hike.  We didn't really see anything exciting or unexpected.  The cows were hanging out as usual.  The little birds were doing their thing.  It was just nice. And quiet.  And we got to enjoy each other's company.

Really, that's all I need for Christmas.

What's one moment of quiet enjoyment you experienced this holiday season?  If you haven't found one yet, what is a moment you're hoping for when the hurry-scurry is over?

Sunday Update - Week 51

There is not enough coffee on the planet this morning.  I say we take over the Colombian drug plantations and make them grow coffee beans instead.  Coffee addicts of the world, unite!  There are more of us than there are of them!  We can kick their butts.  After we have some more java.  Cuz really, who's got the energy for a hostile takeover without caffeine? 

Another blurry week has gone by.  Next to last full week of 2015.  According to my to-do list from last week, here's what happened...

My editor is now working on In Deep Wish.  Meanwhile, I'm making edit notes for Fertile Ground so I'll be ready to jump into that during my downtimes getting IDW ready for March pub. 

Speaking of getting IDW ready, my cover artist should have the cover done soon.  I've seen the stage before the font insertion and it is awesome.  But she's jammed with the holidays and stuff, so it's not quite ready yet.  And that's totally cool because I don't really need it immediately. 

I spent some time this past week working on spreadsheets for next year.  So pretty.  (Yes, I think spreadsheets are pretty.)

Speaking of spreadsheets, I am 2 books away from reaching 1K sold in 2015.  It's not a mile-marker I ever thought of reaching when the year started, but I'll be thrilled to see it happen.  Which it will.  Two books in 11 days?  I think that's doable.

Yesterday, I started out with the idea of doing the dishes.  (Yeah yeah, I leave my dishes 'til the morning. Unless I'm writing, then I do the dishes at night as a break.)  Anyway, I did the dishes and then I knew I had to clean the coffee maker because it was taking forever to brew me a pot of life-giving nectar.  Which morphed into me scrubbing all the stove burner pans.  Which lead to me deep-cleaning the kitchen.  And while I was cleaning the coffee pot, I had to do the drains.  Naturally.  Can't waste all that hot vinegar when it's so useful for flushing out all the drains.  Except my bathroom sink drain still isn't draining right.  So, this morning, I'll be taking the pipes apart and scrubbing the gunk out.  Yay.

I lead an exciting life.

What's going on in your life?

This n That Thursday

So, a couple days ago, I thought I'd be all 'on the ball' and junk by starting the template forms of my sales spreadsheets.  I'm down to two now.  My data spreadsheet which has sales by month for each book.  And my sales totals spreadsheet which takes the data from the other spreadsheet and puts the overall numbers into easily understood forms.  I didn't want to reinvent the wheel, so I made copies of the two 2015 spreadsheets and renamed those copies to 2016.  Easy peasy. Right?  Well, no.  For some asinine reason, my 2015 overall spreadsheet thought it would be awesome to change the source names to point to the new 2016 files.  So when I wiped out the old data in prep to put new data in, my 2015 spreadsheet had nothing but zeroes in it.  :headdesk:  Took me about an hour and a half to redirect all the formulas to where they were directed before.  Not sure in what universe change those formulas would've been a good idea.  Thanks, Excel Software Engineers.  Now I have to remember what I did, so I don't repeat the mistake next December.

I was handing out postcards for BloodFlow and someone said 'so I guess you must like shows like this'.  Well, not strictly.  I like true crime shows.  I like political thriller movies to a certain extent.  I haven't found a political television show I enjoyed.  Unless you count NCIS and Bones.  I don't watch NCIS anymore, though, and I only watch Bones in reruns on TNT.

Right now, I can't think of a single fictional TV series I actually follow.  I used to watch reruns of Grey's Anatomy, too, until I realized Meredith was Derek's doormat - and people liked it that way. I'm kinda glad he died.  I wish she would've stuck with the veterinarian.  Then again, Christina was in a totally farked up relationship with Owen, and Burke before that.  I don't think the writers of that show know what a healthy relationship is supposed to look like.  Just people treating other people like crap and the crapped upon falling all over themselves to appease their semi-abusive mates.  Bleh.  Just once I wanted to see Meredith to tell Derek to go pound sand. 

Anyhoo...  Enough about that. 

I have a new calendar for 2016 now.  Pretty pretty, but plain.  I mean, it's got like filigree around the edges, but no pictures.  I don't need those for above my desk.  I have my pretty chickadee print for that.  And my new birdie-a-day calendar that sits on my desk (which I could write on, but I don't want to mar the pics.)

The candy I sent my mom for Christmas was totally grody. (I know because I ordered some for myself, too, and it wasn't edible.)  They credited me and they've been awesome in the past, so I'm not going to tarnish their company name.  Now, I need to pick something else out, but I'm running out of time for shipping.  And Mom does not do online giftcards.  She may end up with a Merry New Year's gift instead.  She's cool about it, though, so it's all good.

We've seen the fox several times now.  I have decided to call him 'Pup-pup'.

Got any this-n-that in mind this morning? 

Staying Organized

I'm not an organized person by nature.  I mean, I know where everything is for the most part and I can usually keep track of appointments in my head.  (Sketchy business, I know, but it used to work for me.)  But the more things I have to do, the less I'm able to juggle it using just my brain cells. 

When I started this self-publishing thing, I knew I would need help.  I picked up a date book.  And a wall calendar with just dates and no pictures.  Stuff gets jotted one place or the other or both, so I don't drop the ball on the things that need doing.  (In theory.  I still drop the ball from time to time anyway.)

That was last year at this time.  And one would've assumed I would be smart enough to know in advance that I would need all that stuff again.  But no.  It's December 15th and I only just now got a 2016 date book.  I still need a calendar I can write stuff on.  I guess I should've written 'buy new organizational materials' in my 2015 book so I wouldn't forget.

:shrug:

Being a self-published author means keeping track.  It has to.  I don't have a boss, giving me deadlines.  I don't have a secretary to remind me I have something due to the editor.  There's no team putting together my marketing plan and no assistant following up on things for me.  It's just me.  And my planner.

Me... and my planner... strolling down the avenue...

Ahem.

It's green.  I like green.  This year's is smaller because the dollar store didn't have bigger ones and I didn't want to drive to Walmart.  (Which is why I didn't get a calendar.  The dollar store didn't have anything but the pretty picture calendars.)  As long as it keeps me on track, I don't care how big it is.  When I was outside sales, I had a huge date book.  But I had a lot of appointments and notes and junk.  "10:30am - Ann Arbor - Mary Jones at Widgets, Inc. to discuss engineering of new Platt case."  Stuff like that.

Now?  No time stamp. No location.  "Edits to JC" "Contact AB about ad" "Make shot appt" Check it off when it's done. 

I just have to remember to write it in the book.  And sometimes that's the trick.  Remembering to write stuff down so I'll remember it. 

How do you stay organized?