Thursday This n That

 I woke up tired.  I hate when that happens.

Mom has lived in her apartment since 2000 and they just now replaced the carpet that wasn't new when she moved in there.  

Sawyer's being a turd today.  He goes through cycles where he's just a naughty kitty.  Luckily, his naughty-kitty times are getting shorter and farther between.  But when they arrive, I'm tearing my hair out.  Ugh.  Finn, on the other hand, is pretty good all the time.  It's all about balance.

The rut is here.  We're seeing bucks chasing tail - literally.  There are three identifiably different bucks.  One of them is Sonny, who we've watched since he was a little-bitty fawn.  The other is slightly younger.  The other is slightly older.  

I love the Canadian sit-com Corner Gas.  It's a total hoot.

I'm terminally lazy right now.  Today, I really should vacuum and dust.  We'll see if that happens.  Yesterday, I said I was going to make bread and that didn't happen.  Make of that what you will.

We're starting to hear geese as they migrate through.  I love Fall.

It's cold enough this morning that I can actually go in the woods.  That may jump the queue of to-dos... because it's more fun than cleaning.

If a rooster lays an egg on the peak of a roof, which side does it roll down?*  (An old riddle that I was recently reminded of by an episode of Corner Gas.  I think Dad pulled this one on me when I was a  kid.)  

And on that note, I'll let you go.  Have a great day.  And I hope all your this-n-thats are fun.

*Riddle answer:  Roosters don't lay eggs. ;o)

Marketing Monday - Wish in One Hand

 Welcome to Marketing Monday - Halloween Edition.  It's like regular MM but Halloween is Friday.  

As Halloween approaches, remember to be careful what you wish for.  Starting today and running through Friday, WISH IN ONE HAND is totally free.  (It's always free with KU. This is for everyone else.)  Pick up your copy of this snarky and fun paranormal mystery today!  

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013RVEF0Y

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 43

Eleven weeks left of 2025 and, ya know, this is the first year in a long time where I'm not actively looking forward to the year ending.  Anyway...

I got some writing done.  Not a lot and not every day, but writing was accomplished.  2615 words, to be exact.  Not great, but better than the week before.  Unfortunately, I kind of stalled after the last scene, so I'll need to figure out where I'm going next and all that.  Wish me luck.

I did marketing.  It was all :sad trombone: and I only moved 19 copies of RHI.  Oh well.  This coming week, Wish in One Hand is up on the freebie parade.  It's kind of a Happy Halloween thing.  I mean, what's better to read on Halloween than a paranormal suspense with genies and efreet, filled with snark?  Jus' sayin'.

As for reading, I did read, but I ended up DNF'ing the book.  I got maybe 2-3 chapters in and realized I'd already read it.  And while I did like it the first time, I wasn't inclined to read it again.  No clue what I'll pick up next.  

In baking news, I did cinnamon rolls.  I forgot to allow for cooler temps and didn't let them rise enough, though.  Cinnamon roll fail.  They taste okay, but they're not light and fluffy.  Hubs has been eating them because he doesn't really care.

On the activity front, I went into the woods twice last week.  Once, I did some sawing and log throwing.  The other time, I just wandered around.  I also finished the sunroom window-washing project.  Not a huge calorie burn, but better than nothing.  I haven't checked my weight this week, so who knows?

Speaking of being in the woods... Man, there's a lot of downed trees we need to take care of in there.  We already had the downed sycamore and the black cherry.  Now we have what looks like an elm.  In addition to those whole trees, there are numerous limbs down.  Ugh.  On the upside, I'll get a lot of exercise once the weather turns cold.

Right now, the cats are tussling.  It's sounds like two alleycats going at it.  ... Okay, I broke it up.  Silly boyz.

In weather news, it's been raining cats and dogs, which makes me just want to sit in front of the TV.  I need to get over it.

Okay, I think that's it.  My life is pretty boring.  Sorry about that.  

Have a  great day wherever you are!

Thursday This n That

I was getting ready to head off on my errands when I heard something outside that made me turn and look out the window.  There were vultures on top of my car.  I called out to Hubs.  By the time he walked from the office to the front, even more vultures had landed on my car.  There had to be a dozen on it and several more on the ground around it.  He opened the door and they didn't fly away.  We actually had to go out and chase them off.  I was thinking some critter had died either under or in the engine compartment of my car.  (Flashback to years ago when I had a packrat making a home in there.)  We opened up everything.  I expected the smell of dead rodent to hit me.  Nope.  No smell.  No body.  Nothing.  Meanwhile, our trees are full of vultures and they aren't inclined to leave.  I'm not into omens, but the whole drive to Wallyworld, I was wondering if my car would die.  I made it home in one piece, the car did fine, and when I got home Hubs was fine, too.  No clue what the hell that was all about.

Also, yesterday morning, the coyotes were going crazy out there. Their yips and yodels and shrieks kept getting closer until suddenly, the sound stopped.  A few seconds later, a single coyote howled like a wolf would howl.  Then it did it again.  Then a third time.  I figure they caught what they were chasing and the one 'yote was calling the others to breakfast.

And then yesterday afternoon, the squirrels were freaking out.  The gray squirrels here do a sort of 'cough cough, squeeeal kind of call.  Several of them were doing it at the same time off the back of our yard.  It was weird day for animals, lemme tell ya.

No, it's not a full moon.  It is, in fact, a new moon.  Not sure what that means, in reference to all of the above.  Right now, everything is quiet, but it's early yet.

Yes, Halloween is approaching.  Yes, everything above really happened.

In other news, we watched an awesome movie yesterday - The Whole Truth.  It stars Keanu Reeves as a defense attorney tasked with trying to get a teenager acquitted of the charge of murdering his father (a vile and nasty man played by Jim Belushi of all people).  It was tense and twisty and twisted, with an ending we certainly didn't see coming.  Wow.  (And holy shit, when I was getting the link for the movie, I found out the mom was played by Renee Zellweger.  I thought she looked familiar, but she barely looks like the gal in Jerry Maguire.  :shocked face:)

Okay, I think that's it.  Got anything for me?

Marketing Monday - Rumor Has It

This week's free offering is RUMOR HAS IT - Book 1 in the Duke Noble, P.I. series.  I'm working on the third book now.  (Its title is eluding me.)  Anyway...

Starting today, RUMOR HAS IT is free.  (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.)  Pick up your copy of this hard-boiled noir crime novel today.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZNXQKPC

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 42

Well, another week has passed and I'm having a hard time getting revved up to do anything this morning, which is why this post is later than I usually post one of these.  

Writing was accomplished. It took me two more days to finish the read-through of DN3, and then I added new words for two days.  1781 words to be exact.  Not a huge amount, but it's something, eh?  DN3 is now up to 24920 words/87 pages.  Woot.  I would like to have this in your hands by the end of the year. We'll see how that works out.

I did marketing.  I moved 59 free copies of Dying Embers.  I also sold one after the sale was over.  No page reads yet, which is :sadtrombone:, but it's early yet.  Tomorrow, Rumor Has It goes on freebie.

Reading was slow.  I did DNF that Victoria Holt yesterday, but I haven't started anything else.

In baking news, I made a pizza yesterday - pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, black olives, and red bell pepper.  Yum.

On the activity front, I walked two days and spent three other days working on washing windows in the smoking porch.  I'm up to 64.25 miles on the walking.  The window washing?  Yuck.  But I'll finish that project today.  I just have to finish the doors.  Then I'll start the project of washing the other windows in the house.  (We have a lot of windows, so I have to break it up a little.)  Weight: 174.0 - I guess washing windows isn't really the calorie-burning event I wish it would be.  

As for gardening, I have 10 tomatoes out there ripening.  Well, I had 10 yesterday.  We had storms overnight, so we'll see what's left.  I have a ripe tomato in the fridge and I had to throw one out because it was funked up.  :shrug:  Not the Master Gardener of all time, but it's better than last time I tried this.  Next year will be even better.  I hope.  Maybe.

Yesterday, Hubs and I watched a good movie - Hostage starring Bruce Willis.  Not the most well-written thing, but certainly thrilling.  It was very intense.  But good guys win and bad guys die, so I'm satisfied.

As usual, life is pretty boring here.  Sorry about that.  How are things in your life?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/18/25

 I confess I didn't read much this week.  I think part of the problem is that I'm just not that into the book I'm reading.  I really need to DNF it and move on.  Except it's a Victoria Holt and I usually love her books.  :shrug:  I don't know.  Anyway...

No new books.

No Books Read.

No DNFs... yet.

Currently reading... The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt.  Like I said, it's not thrilling me.  So far, it's more like a soap opera than a gothic romantic suspense, like the others of hers I've read.  I'll probably DNF it, but I might give it one more chance.  We'll see.

What have you been reading lately?

What's Sincere and What's Scam?

I've gotten a few emails this week in regard to DYING EMBERS (which is still free through the end of today).  Most of them have been obvious - people trying to get me to pay them to market my book.  One of them, on the other hand, was someone wanting to use my book in their book club.  I've been on the fence with that one re: sincere or scam.

I mean, he seemed sincere enough.  He talked about my book like he'd actually read it.  He said intelligent things.  Unfortunately, so did several of the scammers.  (In all fairness, the marketers may not have been scammers, but for brevity, and because it's so hard to tell the difference, I'll call them that.)

It's a minefield out there.  How does one tell the difference between someone who is sincerely interested in a book and someone who's trying to part you from your well-earned and miniscule profits?  (I'm averaging about $18 a month here.)  

The idea that I may be ignoring someone who is sincerely interested in my work wrecks me.  I lay awake at night thinking about it.  I'd be willing to interact with them.  (I almost said like or love, but the idea of interacting with strangers makes me nauseous.  Hell, most days, I don't want to interact with anyone but Hubs, but that's on me.  The older I get, the more hermit-like I become.)

On the other hand, interacting with scammers - even just a little - is bad.  You even bother to tell them 'no thanks' and suddenly you're inundated with crap.  Who needs that?

So, I sit here, torn between knowing I need to interact with fans/readers and wanting to stay as far away from scammers as possible.  It's a slippery slope to hell either way.

What do you think?

(For the record, I deleted the 'book club' email, but didn't send it to spam like I do with all the others.  If he emails again, I'll think about this some more.)

Thursday This n That

I located my gumption.  It was hiding behind the TV.

Okay, so we all were taught there are three states of matter - solid, liquid, gas.  Years ago, I read something about there being a fourth state - plasma.  It's like fire.  Fire exists but previously had no assigned state of matter, so Voila! plasma.  I thought it was cool and seemed logical, so I taught that to my daughter.  Of course, she mentioned it to a teacher, who immediately told her she was wrong.  I had to talk to the teacher and explain where Owl came up with that and I provided sources.  Derp.  Which reminds me about my 6th grade science teacher who marked me wrong during our lesson on blood types.  We pricked our fingers, applied it to the paper with some solution, and watched for the reaction.  I already knew my blood type and the types of my parents, so it was easy enough.  Once the thing dried, though, the teacher said I didn't have what I had and said I had a blood type neither of my parents had.  I backed her down by pointing out that she was basically saying my dad wasn't my dad, and she changed my grade back to an A.  Silly git.

For the record, there's no way I could be adopted.  Sometimes, when I was a kid, I wished I was.  Sometimes, I felt like I was.  Mom explained it to me the easy way - we already had four kids, why would we adopt another one?  Harsh, but true.

I watch a lot of Long Last Family (the UK edition).  It's like a mystery show, and y'all know how I do love mysteries.  But it's real.  People finding kids they gave up for adoption, or adopted people looking for their birth parents, or siblings searching for each other.  Usually there are happy endings, and I love those, too.  

Is it just me or does Venus look brighter these days?

This morning, a barred owl was hooting out there in the woods.  They make a sound people liken to 'who cooks for you'.  The last time I heard it, it was just one big HOOT.  I tried to make squeaking noises to draw it closer, but nope.  Aw, well.

Which reminds me of this exchange I saw about people incorrectly correcting other people.  Someone had posted about a barred owl and another person corrected them by saying they meant BARN owl, not BARD.  ROFL

Okay, that's enough out of me.  Got any this-n-thats for me today?  What thoughts do you have on mine?

Marketing Monday - Dying Embers

 It's that time again.  Marketing Monday.  AND it's time for DYING EMBERS to hit the free lists at Amazon again.  

Starting today, DYING EMBERS is free.  (It's always free with Kindle Unlimited.)  Get this fast-paced, fiery suspense novel today!  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TEQK7OU

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 41

Hey Everyone.  It's Sunday again and it was a pretty boring week, but I'm a pretty boring person, so thanks for being here anyway. ;o)

No writing again this week.  I'm falling farther and farther down the hole, and I'm not sure how to climb out.  No editing either.  I did do some marketing, so I've got that going for me.  I moved 27 copies of Project Hermes, which ain't great, but it's better than nothing.  I also sold a copy of Dying Embers and had someone read DE, too.  Unfortunately, I'm only averaging about $18 a month.  Not exactly a living wage, eh?  

I did do some reading.  I finished one book and made it partway through another.  Woot.

On the baking trail, I made banana muffins.  Yummers.

In the activity realm, I walked three times for a total of 2.75 miles.  I'm up to 62.4 miles for the year, which ain't bad.  I still would like to reach 100 miles for 2025, and it's possible, but not likely.  I'd have to up my game, hope for good weather for the remainder of the year, and find some actual gumption.  Gumption supplies are at an all time low right now, unfortunately.  Weight?  I would rather not say.

We watched a rather pointless movie yesterday.  Literally, it had no point.  And no plot.  It kept throwing hints and promises that there would be a plot, and then the movie was over.  It was called Northern Borders and it had Bruce Dern and Geneviève Bujold in it.  It was pretty new, so they were old.  I kept joking with Hubs that the reason Bruce Dern's character was so mean was because he spent his youth getting his ass kicked my John Wayne.  (We both laughed, but we're weird that way.)

The fawns have no spots, so other than being small deer, it's hard to tell they ARE fawns.  I haven't seen Lumpy lately.  I hope she found a lovely spot and passed away in her sleep.  Nature's a bitch.  So's getting old.  

I think that's it for me today.  Look for a marketing thing tomorrow.  Other than that, I'm not sure what I'll be doing this week. (Update: Dying Embers will be free this coming week and Rumor Has It will be free the week after.)  I'm over the jetlag, so it's not that dragging me down.  :shrug:

Have a great week, wherever you are.  :hugs:

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/11/25

 Hello!  I know I'm not doing these as regularly as I used to, and thanks for stopping by anyway.  I didn't do much again this week.  It's been a slow reading year.  Things like this happen.  I'm woefully behind on my reading goal, of course.  It is what it is. 

No new books this week.  I did stop at a thrift store, but all I got was a bookshelf.  This particular store has jacked the prices up on all their used books and they're being such snots, I don't buy books from them anymore.  And after the experience buying the bookshelf, I won't be buying anything there anymore.  So sad, but them's the breaks.  The new-to-me shelf is only a two-shelfer, but it's holding my omnibuses, my Phyllis A. Whitney collection, and my Victoria Holts.  (This will mean more as you read below... I have a lot of both. LOL)

Books Read:

33) Dream of Orchids by Phyllis A. Whitney (10/9/25) - romantic suspense - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Picked up from a thrift store for 50c.
Review: "I read it again, but only realized partway though that I had. Still just as awesome the second time around."

No DNFs.

Currently reading... a Victoria Holt I picked up from the thrift store.  I only just started it, but so far, so good.

What have you been reading lately?

Cold Case in the Country

If you know me, you know that I am interested in true crime stories.  (Natch, since I write fictional crime stories and true crime is a great resource for ideas.)  What you may not know is that I am especially interested in cold cases.  I'm a 'justice for all' kind of gal, and the fact that crimes like these have gone unsolved for years... decades even... just pisses me off.

Recently, I came across this story from a rural newspaper (https://www.cassville-democrat.com/2025/10/09/murder-on-the-tracks-who-killed-justin-hocutt/*) of a 14-year-old boy who was murdered and left on the train tracks - either to hide evidence or to hide the nature of the death.  I expect the killer(s) wanted the death to look like a suicide.  

From parsing through the article above, it looks like this murder involved a troubled kid with troubled parents in a troubled area, investigated by a police force that didn't have the skills or the resources necessary to solve a crime of this nature, presented to a prosecutor who wasn't really interested in anything but a slam-dunk.  

It sounds like they have some good evidence to go on, and several worthy suspects.  They just need a shove to bring it all together.  

Personally, I'd love to see Kelly Siegler from Cold Justice take this one on.  I think all the pieces are there - they just need to be put together by a competent person to make a cogent picture.  She's good at that.

Hubs was joking just now that 'writer B.E. Sanderson breaks the case wide open... solves 26-year old cold case'.  Wouldn't that be something?  But I'm just a writer.  What this needs is a seasoned team of investigators and prosecutors.  

The only thing I could do is write a book about it.  Hmm...

*It's hard to read... not because of the gruesome nature of the crime, but because it isn't as well-written as one would hope.

2025 Books Read

Here we are with my 2025 Books Read post.  I started it a little later than usual this year because it took me a while to finish that first book.  

If you haven't been following along all these years, here's how this post goes.  The books I read are in reverse order - newest first.  * means ebook.  # means 'new to me and underappreciated'.  If there's a number at the end, it's where the book's at in a series.  The links go to Goodreads where I may or may not have written a review.  (Check back on Saturdays for my weekly Reading Wrap-up to see reviews.)

I set my goal for this year's reading at 70.  We'll see how that goes.

Okay, with that out of the way, let's begin...

33) Dream of Orchids by Phyllis A. Whitney (10/9/25) - romantic suspense

32) Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie (9/18/25) - mystery

31) Tales from the 'White Hart' by Arthur C. Clarke (9/11/25) - SF

30) Primordial Threat by MA Rothman (8/28/25) - SF*

29) Five Complete Hercule Poirot Novels (8/18/25) - mystery

28) The Devil's Angel by Margaret Bernard (7/26/25) - UF*#

27) Space Academy Dropouts by Phipps & Suttkus (7/6/25) - SF humor*#

26) Sweet Harmony by Noel Bailey (6/25/25) - magical romance*#

25) The Danger by Dick Francis (6/15/25) - thriller

0) Novella by Name Withheld (6/9/25) - SF*

24) The Face in the Water by Kathleen Pennell (6/8/25) - mystery*#

23) Blade Runner (or Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep) by Philip K Dick (6/5/25) - dystopian

22) You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming (5/29/25) - action/hard-boiled crime

21) On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming (5/24/25) - action/hard-boiled crime

20) The Singing Stones by Phyllis A. Whitney (5/17/25) - romantic suspense

19) Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (5/15/25) - mystery

18) Bill and the Last Cup of Coffee by Lance Lassen (5/8/25) - dystopian action/humor* (I read the ebook, but this is the link to the paperback. In the time between now and when I downloaded the book, the ebook page has been removed and the paperback was set to 'out of print'. :sadface:)

17) Goldfinger by Ian Fleming (5/5/25) - action/hard boiled crime

16) In Plain Sight by Dan Willis (4/27/25) - magical hard-boiled crime*

15) Dr. No by Ian Fleming (4/26/25) - action/hard boiled crime

14) Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (4/20/25) - dystopian

13) Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming (4/16/25) - action/hard boiled crime

12) Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke (4/11/25) -  science fiction

11) Murder by the Script by Lisa Pevey (4/8/25) - cozy mystery*

10) Festive Fonts and Fowl Murder by Lisa Pevey (4/7/25) - cozy mystery*

9) The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follett (4/6/25) - suspense

8) A Murder in Cursive by Lisa Pevey (4/3/25) - cozy mystery*

7) The Ebony Swan by Phyllis Whitney (4/1/25) - romantic suspense

6) The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip (3/29/25) - fantasy

5) Murder by the Letter by Lisa Pevey (3/27/25) - cozy mystery*

4) Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout (3/26/25) - noir crime

3) Moonstruck: Retribution by Silver James (3/20/25) - paranormal romantic suspense*

2) President Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer (3/14/25) - noir crime

1) Child Star by Shirley Temple Black (1/8/25) - autobiography

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this reading journey with me.

Thursday This n That

Bears keep attacking people in NW Arkansas.  Not sure what's up with that.  The attacks aren't super close to here and we haven't had any bear sightings inside of five miles from here, but yeah, I don't need freakin' bear attacks on my 2025 bingo card.  K?

Sawyer's new game is to bite my feet while I'm sitting here at my desk.  It's unpleasant.

I saw a coyote the other morning.  I was almost home from a walk and it trotted across the road about 10-12 feet in front of me.  

The last time I was in Walmart, I saw a woman wearing a Soo Locks t-shirt.  It just so happened that I was wearing my Michigan Born and Bred t-shirt that day, so I pointed to her shirt and then to mine, and we both laughed.  Stuff like that has happened more often that I would've imagined down here.  Like the day I was wearing my U of M sweatshirt and crossed paths with a dude wearing his OSU (the bad one) sweatshirt.  He seemed annoyed that he was all the way into Arkansas and ran into a fan of his team's rival.  :shrug:  Hell, when we first moved here a chick across the street and down the way was from Kalamazoo. We're everywhere, man.

I made deconstructed stuffed peppers a couple days ago.  This time, I used red bell peppers instead of green.  It was pretty tasty, but I missed the color contrast. They do say you eat first with your eyes.  :shrug:  

Today, I have to do an Amazon order.  Stupid Walmart stopped carrying the ink for the printer they sold me not that long ago.  Bastards.  Freakin' ink is probably almost as much as I paid for the damn printer in the first place.  :steams:

On a happier note, Amazon is really awesome about taking my returns.  I bought some clothes for my trip to Michigan, but I didn't wear any of them.  (I was expecting MI to be cooler than it was.  Derp.)  I'd left the tags on for just this result, and returned them as soon as I could after I got home.  Huzzah, my refund is in my account.  Yay.

Okay, I should probably get on with my life and let you get on with yours.  Have a great day!

AITA

I've been getting these AITA posts in my FB feed.  (For the record, AITA stands for 'am I the asshole?')  And since I stopped and read one, they're showing up with startling frequency.  Anyway, the whole premise of these things is to lay out a story about something you've done and then ask the world at large whether you're the asshole in the situation.

Okay, I'll admit it... these things are kind of addictive.  Unfortunately, in order to see the whole story on any of them, you have to click a link or something, so I'm only going off the parts I can see without clicking.  Still, for the most part, I think the person telling the story is not the asshole.  (Occasionally, the person is definitely the asshole.)

For instance, I read one this morning about a dad who had sole custody of his teenage daughter, and it seemed like every time he got after her about anything, she's play the 'I want to go live with mom' card.  Finally, after she was particularly rotten, he gave her what she wanted.  He packed her bags and dropped her off at her mom's to live.  Within a day, she was asking to come home.  He left her there for four days and then let her come home.  Like I said, I didn't read how it all turned out, but it seemed pretty reasonable to me.  

Thinking about it all now, I feel sad for people who think they need to ask whether they're the asshole in any given situation.  If you thought what you were doing was right when you did it, what exactly is making you think otherwise now?  Explore that before you go looking for validation online.  You can probably tell for yourself whether or not you were the asshole, hindsight being 20/20 and all that.  

I expect those things are probably not all true.  Clickbait, doncha know.  Except I never click because, while the story was interesting to read, I don't really care what the outcome was.  Does that make me the asshole?  ;o)

Marketing Monday - Project Hermes

 It's Monday again and that means Marketing.  This week, I'm offering PROJECT HERMES up to the sales gods.

Starting today, PROJECT HERMES is free.  (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.)  Get your copy of this medical/political thriller today.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017Y6G0EW

It's the little things that kill.

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 40?

 I think it's week 40, but these days, who knows?  :shrug:

Earlier in the week, I was doing pretty good at doing something writerly every day.  It lasted 3 days.  I'll try to start that up again today.  START TODAY*.  Okay, so those three days, I added words to the end of DN3 and then I got stuck because I haven't touched the damn book in weeks, so I went back to the beginning and I'm reading through it all to get back into the story.  I'm up to page 49 and hit a spot where I either have to write a new scene or go back and delete the paragraph where I hint about the maid needing to talk to Duke privately.  We'll see what happens.

I did some marketing this week.  Ugly and the Beast was free and I moved 64 copies of that, and one copy of Sleeping Ugly.  (I also sold a copy of Dying Embers (print copy... woot).)  Starting tomorrow, Project Hermes will be free for five days.

I didn't do a Reading Wrap-up this week because I didn't finish anything.  I am in the middle of reading a Phyllis Whitney that I suspect I may have read before.  :shrug"

In baking news, I make a chocolate oil cake with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream.  It's yummy.  Friday, I made chili and to go with it, cornbread.  Yay.  

On the activity front, I didn't do a lot of very active things, but I did things.  One day I walked.  I did some limb cutting and I cut down a nuisance tree.  I vacuumed and brushed the kitchen rug, which yielded me enough cat hair to build a third cat, if I wanted.  And I did Wallyworld, which is always a workout.  Let's not talk about weight, eh?  I'm going to call what I just saw on the scale an anomaly.  Derp.

The deck garden is still producing tomatoes, so yay.  I get one ripe one at a time, which is perfect for burgers or sandwiches.  As long as the warm holds out, I should still be getting 'maters.  Of course, as long as the warm holds out, it delays my ability to plant trees, so there's that.  (Heat, bugs, etc.)

I'm finally getting over the jetlag from my trip.  Funny how the change of just an hour can really mess a body up.  And I get to do it again next month... change times not travel.  Stupid timechanges.  Blerg.

Nothing else really going on around here.  Hubs and I have some projects we're talking about doing, but we haven't firmed anything up yet, so they don't bear talking about at this time.  

Anyway... see ya next time.  Have a great day!  And if you're so inclined, leave a comment.  I enjoy comments.

*'Start today' was supposed to be my mantra for the year.  We all know how that has gone so far.

Thursday This n That

I keep forgetting to make blog posts.  This is not helping with my new goal to be more present in my writing career.

What is with the phrase 'being present in x-thing'?  Where else can you be?

I heard something this morning about people being accused of taking money to support Israel.  Someone is out there paying people to do this?  I've supported Israel for decades, so where's my money?  Feh.  

Somedays, I'm full of shit and I know it. Other days, I don't know it.

I don't know about you, but I'm laughing my ass off over some of the things the dems are doing.  I'm also laughing my ass off over how Trump is responding.  A sombrero and mustache on Dollar Store Obama?  ROFL

Yesterday, Hubs and I sat down to watch a new-to-us crime drama from the early '00s.  It started out pretty good and then just got nasty.  VETO from both of us.  We don't need that shit floating around in our heads.  Gah, the little bit I did see is stuck in there now.

Ages ago, I tried to warn the Owl about being careful about what she reads and watches, because once something gets inside your head, you can never get it out.  I used the movie SYBIL as a reference point.  I watched it in college and I still think about it from time to time even now.  :shudder:

I have scads of tomatoes in varying levels of ripeness - from teeny-tiny ones not much bigger than a pea to bigger ones starting to turn red.  As long as the weather holds, and I can keep the hornworms off, I should have tomatoes through the month.  Hell, some of the plants are still blooming.  I could have 'maters through to Thanksgiving.  Lemme tell ya, after months of fearing I wouldn't get any fruits off these dang things, I am happy to know my efforts weren't in vain.

And now, I'm off to Dollar General, I think.  We're almost out of ice cream and there's almost a whole cake to eat.  Yep, definitely a tragedy to be averted there.  See ya.