Sunday Update - 2026 Week 41

Hello again.  I'm awake and I have coffee, and that's about as good as it gets right now.

No writing this week.  It's editing time.  I only did three nights and 31 pages worth, but I think that's a good start so far.  I'm hoping to have DN3 - Truth Be Told - done and on the shelves before the end of the year.  Sooner if I can manage more than 31 pages a week.  ;o)

Marketing was done, but only three days worth - Monday-Wednesday.  I was busy on Thursday and Friday, so it didn't happen.  Thus, I only moved 15 copies of Project Hermes.  Not sure what or if I'll market this week.

No baking.  

On the activity front, there was about 3 hours worth of driving - which doesn't sound active, but it sure takes it out of a gal.  I also moved furniture around on 3 days, and I did some cleaning that comes with moving furniture.  Oh, and I did the usual gardening watering.  Weight: ? - I haven't bothered to weigh myself since last Sunday and I'm not doing it now.  (Update 7:15a - Weight: 179.0)

In garden news, my tomatoes are speckled with flowers, as are my peppers.  No sign of fruits yet, but there's hope.  Unfortunately, one of my redbud trees died.  I think it was root rot.  The poor bugger just fell over when I touched it with the watering jug and, when I tried to set it right, it came out of the dirt with no roots on the stick.  Sad.  

Furniture moving... Well, I've been wanting to try out a different living room configuration, and with Hubs on vacay, what better time to do it?  We have a long living room, and the previous layout cut the room in half with the TV on one end and the chairs facing the TV set across the middle of the room.  Now, the TV is on the west wall with the recliners on the opposite wall.  It actually makes the living room feel way larger, so yay.  I also rearranged part of the sun porch and I moved Hubs desk about a foot.  We'll see if Hubs likes my new placements when he gets home.  

Other than that, I have been watching a lot of TV, which is weird without Hubs.  I'm pretty much sticking to shows he wouldn't want to watch because watching our usual shows without him is lame.  I pulled up and watched Empire Records first, then I did a watch of Queen of the Damned (fun book, fun movie).  I've also inhaled season 7 of Call the Midwife.  Hubs watches CTM with me sometimes, but more often, he's off doing something else.  I think all the screaming women in labor gets to him.  

Oh, something else I did this week... I hit the thrift store.  On Friday, I wandered around and found a nice, metal firewood rack with stylized leaves for $10 (for if ever we get a woodstove) and I really sturdy vice (for if ever I start woodcarving).  I also saw this pair of really cute wood stools that I thought might look good in front of the windows in the sun porch - you know, for the cats to sit on while they look out the windows - but I didn't buy them.  On Saturday, I went back for the stools.  

Another occurrence... I bought some lottery tickets and won $20, which is why I went back for the stools.  I also won something in our local bank's customer appreciation raffle.  With all that luck floating around, I should've bought PowerBall tickets.  ;o) 

Anyway, not sure what today will bring.  I might start my deep-cleaning project.  I'll definitely get some more editing done.  Other than that, the world is my clam.  :gigglesnort:  Have a great day and I'll catch ya on the flipside.

Marketing Monday - Rumor Has It

 It's Monday and I'm marketing, so it must be Marketing Monday!  Woot.  This week's offering is RUMOR HAS IT.  

Step back in time to the old, hard-boiled detective stories with RUMOR HAS IT. Right now, it's absolutely free! Pick up your copy today! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZNXQKPC

I'd say more but it's hard to type.  I have ouchie hands this morning.  :shrug:  Go download the book.

Marketing Monday - Thicker Than Water

Hi.  It's early.  I got like 3 hours of sleep last night due to cats, bug bites, and thunderboomers.  But at least I can get a jump on the marketing thing, so yay. 

Starting today, THICKER THAN WATER is absolutely free. Get this throwback to the old, hard-boiled crime novels of yesteryear before it's too late. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F88QQ2P4

Marketing Monday - Thicker than Water

I decided to end the year and start the new one with a bang, so I'm offering THICKER THAN WATER as a freebie for the next five days.  Woot.

For the first time ever, THICKER THAN WATER is free. (Always free with KU.) Don't miss your chance to snag this hard-boiled crime noir! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F88QQ2P4

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

Marketing Monday - Rumor Has It

Good morning and welcome to another fine addition of Marketing Monday.  Today, RUMOR HAS IT is on the block and it's free.  Woot.

Hearken back to the old days in this nod to Spillane, Stout, and Gardner.  DUKE NOBLE, P.I.: RUMOR HAS IT - a crime noir novel - is free.  (It's always free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.)  Get your copy today!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZNXQKPC

Meet Duke

I've been inside Duke's head so much lately.  If you don't know Duke, let me fill you in...

Howard Ellington Noble, given the nickname Duke by his grandfather, is a private investigator.  Some people call him Hank, and that's okay with him, but he's Duke.  He's in his 50s and his hair is shot with gray.  He has an eye for the ladies, and they have an eye for him, but he's single and always has been.  He smokes.  He drinks. He drives nice cars.  He's loaded, partly because of an inheritance and partly because he does his job exceptionally well.  He's attractive and fit, even if he's not a young buck anymore.   

He was expected to take over the family business - Ellis Industries - when he completed his degree in business, but he stepped aside to start his private investigations.  His brother, Harry (or Harrison Farnsworth Noble), took over the business when their dad passed away.  He's okay with that, although sometimes his family isn't - even after all these years.

Basically, he's a good guy.  Basically, he's a law-abiding citizen.  Of course, he's willing to be a bad guy if the situation warrants it, and he's not afraid to break a law here or there if he needs to.  He has a healthy respect for police officers, treats people like he wants to be treated, and doesn't suffer fools.  

Intelligent, but not a brain.  Rich, but not a fop.  He'd rather eat at a diner than a 5-star restaurant.  He enjoys poker, but he's not a gambler.  

And he loves his mother, Bernice, even if she irritates him and makes him a little crazy from time to time. 

As an aside, Bernice is named after one of my own great-whatever grandmothers, so no, it's not misspelled. And it's pronounced Ber-niss in my head because that's how Mom pronounces it, but readers can pronounce it however they want in theirs.  I'm not picky.  No clue if the personality of the real Bernice is similar to the fictional one.  My Bernice died before I was born.  I don't think she'd be mad at the portrayal, though.  By the way, Bernice Noble named her sons, so that ought to give you some insight into her.  She didn't figure in RUMOR HAS IT, but she's pivotal to this new book.

The rest of Duke?  Well, you'll just have to read the book... soon to be books... and fill in the picture for yourself.  ;o)

Monday Update

Apparently, I'm not quite into the swing of being 'retired' again because I totally forgot to post yesterday.  Bear with me.  I'm workin' on it.

So, last week was my first full week of being back to being a private citizen / hermit again.  Here's what happened:

I wrote words!  Not every day, but I did manage to write twice for a total of 1733 words.  Not great but not horribly shabby either.  I learned that I am totally not up to any kind of marathon writing yet.  My hands start to be little, whiny babies at about 800 words right now.  That amounts to about a half hour of continuous typing.  I'm hoping that, by the end of July, I can be back to a sustained 60-90 minutes at a time. 

The story my brain wanted to work on was Duke Noble's.  I ended up restarting the next book in the series.  Right now, it's called Thicker than Water.  Once before, I started this story, and I may end up using some of what I wrote previously.  But since I got stuck, I probably needed to just jumpstart this sucker.  We'll see.  

I'm also working on getting back into the swing of reading.  I finished a Sherlock Holmes compilation and started a Hercule Poirot one.  Right now, I'm feeling mysterious... what can I say?  

On the activity front, I did something active 5 out of 7 days.  I'm not back to walking yet. There's so much other stuff I'm behind on that walking seems unproductive.  Instead, I spent time either cleaning or gardening.  Weight: 166.4

Cleaning is more exercise than you'd think.  And man, am I not used to doing it anymore.  I found muscles I forgot I had.  Oof.  It's not like Hubs wasn't doing it and doing a good job at it, but I'm a control freak sometimes, so as soon as I could take that job back, I did.  He's still doing dishes, but only because he gets to them before I think about it.  I did dishes once since I've been back and oh my aching back, I'd forgotten how much doing dishes hurts.  Oh well.  The job needs to shift back over to my list and get off of Hubs' list.  Jus' sayin'.

Gardening was mostly weeding and digging up beds because they are in such a state.  My poor shade bed... the astilbes are down from 6 to three and those were getting choked out.  I thought my two coral bells were toast, but one of them send out shoots and there are two little bitty live shoots from that.  The other variety is gone.  The lily-of-the-valley that was doing so good is left with one shoot that the deer have munched.  On a positive note, the tomatoes I planted a few weeks ago appear to be growing right along.  No signs on flowers yet, but I have hopes.

I made homemade cinnamon rolls on Friday.  I have had such a craving for cinnamon rolls like you wouldn't believe.  But I can't ever seem to find a recipe that makes me want to dive in.  Cinnamon rolls are such a pain in the butt to make, after all.  What I ended up doing it modifying my recipe for Tasty Buns.  I made the dough per the recipe, but then instead of making buns, I rolled it out into a rectangle, covered it in a butter/brown sugar/cinnamon mixture, and made cinnamon rolls.  They turned out super yummy.  The recipe ended up producing two pie pans worth or about 14.  Mmmmm.

Okay, I think I've bent your ear (bent your eyes???) for long enough.  Go forth and have an awesome day.  I'll try to remember to be back tomorrow.  How are things in your life?

Rumor Has It is Live

Cross-posted from Outside the Box:

I did it.  I finally sat myself down and did the formatting and did the uploading and RUMOR HAS IT is live.  It's $2.99 and it's available through Kindle Unlimited for those of you who might have a subscription.  I already sold a book to someone who wasn't me.  Yay.  (I always buy the first book, so I can check how it looks on my actual Kindle.)

Sara Hughes is Dead.

Sara had plans to take her own life. The coroner claims she died in her sleep.  Her daughter fears she was murdered.  Once Duke Noble, P.I. confirms his suspicions, he's hot on the trail of a killer. But with so many likely suspects, who will get nabbed for the crime?  The bully who expects to inherit everything?  The spineless toady with the grasping wife?  The outrageous divorcée?  Duke's a guy ready to tackle anything the world throws at him, but this time, he's facing something much harder to dodge than bullets and fists… His past.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen.  :hugs:  You guys rock.

Now I have to update the back matter of all my books, which I'll do sometime today.  And I need to format this for paperback printing (and do all the other stuff involved in creating a paperback), which I'll do soon.

I've updated my blogs, including adding a new page to this blog for the series.  Which reminds me that I need to get to work on the next book.  (I'm already planning the cover.  Heh.)  

Anyway, I'm kind of excited right now, can ya tell?  I hope you'll all be excited when you read it, too.