Things My Cats Have Taught Me

 The following is a list of things The Boyz have taught me:

- never leave coffee unattended.  Even if there are no cats in the vicinity.  Even if the cats in the vicinity are sound asleep.  If you leave your coffee, you will return to find either a cat with its paws/face in the mug or coffee splatters everywhere and fur or litter in your cup.

- focus on the warm spots.  If you get up from a chair, you have a 90% chance of finding a cat in the chair when you return. If there is a cat in your chair and you change chairs, the cat will want your new chair.  Or, if you have multiple cats, you'll find another cat in your new chair.  The same applies to getting out of bed in the middle of the night.  The cat will find your warm spot and fill it.

- trespassers can't be trusted and should be eliminated whenever possible.  If there's a bug anywhere in the house, the cats will find it and kill it.  This goes for mice/shrews/moles and birds (and once, when we had Max, a squirrel) as well, or anything really that's unlucky enough to try to come inside.

- sleep whenever you can / naps are important.  The Boyz are usually sleeping.  Except when they're keeping me awake.

- work whenever you can.  It seems like anytime I sit down at the computer, one or the other of The Boyz will come over to either a) get on my lap and make it impossible for me to type or b) get into trouble right behind me so I have to stop working to chastise them for being naughty.

- being naughty has its advantages.  When The Boyz are naughty, they get attention.  Sometimes they get treats (that's a slippery slope, I know, but sometimes it's the only way to redirect their attention).  

- never take things too seriously.  Not that The Boyz don't take things seriously.  Sometimes, they take things way too seriously - especially 'fraidy-cat Sawyer, who'll jump at the slightest sound, or Finn, who acts like I've set fire to all his hopes and dreams when I scold him.  Their reactions are what have taught me to not take things seriously, if you catch my drift.

;o)

Marketing Monday - Blink of an I

Today is Marketing Monday and BLINK OF AN I is free this week.  Unfortunately, I feel like warmed-over, leftover doggie doo, so mustering the will to actually market anything is iffy.  Not sure what bug I picked up or where, but bleh.

Anyway, if you're inclined, pick up a copy.  Even better if you're on KU, read a copy.  (I get paid for that, even when the book is free.)  Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079X142G2

I wonder as I write this post whether marketing this book as "I feel like crap today.  Pity me and download my book." would work.  ;o)

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?

Thursday This n That

I just stumbled across a British psychologist pimping his services in a FB book marketing group.  Sure, writers probably do need loads of mental help, and thus, it could be a brilliant strategy for this dude to gain more clients, but I blocked him.  Turd.  Those groups are for marketing books, not services.  Shoo shoo.

I've got cabin fever.  (Cue song from Muppet Treasure Island.) I really need to get my lard-ass outside today before I start dancing around in a turban made of fruit.

We found a neat new-to-us show - Touching Evil - with Robson Green.  I really do love Robson Green.  And those piercing blue eyes... :swoon:  The show only ran a couple seasons, but it's really worth watching if you're into gritty crime dramas.

Everything is covered in snow.  Which is weird for here.  We got about 9 inches worth and it's not warming up enough to melt it quickly.  Plus, it's supposed to be freakin' cold again this weekend.  Bleh.

On the upside, the cold is making all the critters so fluffy.  Cuteness overload.  The birds are balls with legs.  The deer look like stuffed animals.  I want to snuggle them all up.  I won't, but I want to.  Deer do not LIKE to be snuggled.

I'm at that point in my writing career where I'm doubting everything I've ever done.  woot.  It happens every now and then, and it will pass.

I've been blocking a lot of people on FB again.  Frickin' nutburgers.  

Last night, I made pizza for dinner.  It's been a while since I did pizza and let me tell ya, I can feel all that kneading this morning.  Derp.  It was worth it.  It always is.

Okay, I think I've run out of witty things to say today.  Anything witty on your end?

Marketing Monday - Natural Causes

Hello.  Welcome to Marketing Monday.  Since I am a little sore and a lot tired (or a lot sore and a little tired... it's hard to tell) from show shoveling, let's just get right to it, eh?

Starting today, NATURAL CAUSES is free.  (Always free with KU.)  Get your copy of this small-town, gritty, murder mystery today.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y44BXTM

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.

The Coming Sno-pacalypse

It's Friday and Sno-pacalypse is supposedly on its way.  It's supposed to arrive after 6pm tonight, so I've still got today to do anything else that needs doing.  Except I thought it was supposed to be here earlier, so we already did everything that needed doing.  

I did the grocery shopping - two weeks worth in case we get snowed in.  The state of MO does a good job of clearing the highways, but the county doesn't do so great on clearing the side roads, so we can be kinda screwed living back in here.  It seems to me that the last time we got a snow event, it was a week before we could leave the neighborhood.  

I gassed up the car.  It's probably not going anywhere, but if we lose power, we can stay warm in the car for an extended period of time.  It won't be comfortable - 2 humans and 2 cats in a Chevy Cavalier - but it will be better than freezing our asses off in the house.

I also picked up enough cigarettes to get us through.

Hubs put new insulation in our well-tap pit, so it won't freeze in there.  This afternoon, he'll go over and turn the heater on in the wellhouse, so that won't freeze.  (A neighbor who's on a different well has already had his freeze this season.)  

I moved all my garage plants away from the windows and also brought a few inside for the duration.  Cecil the Cedar is in the spare room with Seymour the Nephthytis and my green pepper plants.  

Hubs covered all the windows in the garage to help retard heat loss there.  He also drained the plumbing in the garage and made sure there's no water in the toilet out there.  Just in case the heaters can't keep up or we lose power.  (We've already had to replace one toilet because it cracked due to cold - from when the house was vacant before we bought it.  That was fun.  Not.)  The heaters will be turned on tonight.

I already have a towel along the bottom edge of the front door to keep the cold out and the warm in.  Today, I'll put a blanket along the bottom of the doors leading to the sun porch.  Yesterday, I took the cushions off my patio furniture and used them to retard the air leakage from the sun porch to the deck.  (That door is horribly gappy.)  I'll also use some towels along the window sills to stop cold there.  I have no proof it works, but I did it in Michigan and it seemed to help.

Which leads to the reason to our madness.  We both grew up in Michigan and we know what cold weather can do.  We also know that this is southern Missouri, and most people aren't ready for any kind of snow or cold for any length of time.  These homes aren't built for polar weather.  The people are woefully underprepared.

After our first winter here, which was so suckily cold our furnace couldn't keep up, Hubs re-insulated using R30, so we've got that going for us.  I feel bad for almost everyone else around here who get by with the R5 we had before.  Hubs also put insulation around a lot of the pipes under the house and in the garage.  He's handy that way.

Anyway, if you're reading this and aren't quite prepared, there's still a little time.  (Maybe not to reinsulate your home, but for other things to get you by.)  Go forth and get 'er done.  We're gonna hunker down for the duration.  Stay safe and warm out there, everyone.  :hugs: