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?