Sunday Update - 2025 Week 13

Thirteen weeks into 2025 and I'm feeling pretty good about life in general.  Sales are up, soon I'll publish my 18th novel (the first published since 2022), and life is good.  As for the past week, here's what went on...

No editing or writing.  Once my edit notes come back, there will be a flurry of stuff to do, though, so I'm not kicking myself too hard.  I did some marketing this week.  This is looking to be my best month of the last few years.  Which still isn't going to get me into any higher tax bracket, but I'm hopeful.  I need to figure out today what I'm going to do for this week's sale.  I'll be as surprised as you are tomorrow. ;o)

The main writerly-type thing I'm focused on is driving ahead on cover art.  I even spent a couple hours wandering the local thrift store to see what sparked my creativity.  I picked up a couple tablecloths, a fake plant arrangement, and a lamp.  Now I just need to make that and some stuff we already have here into something that will sell books.  It's all percolating in my head.  I'll probably get the camera out and start playing today.  

I spent a lot of time reading this week, although it doesn't seem like much when you look at the reading wrap up from yesterday.  I did finish that book I said I'd finish, though, and I started another one.  Yay.

In baking news, I made another batch of cinnamon rolls and I also did a pizza.  So yummy.  My ever-widening ass is telling me I need to cut back on the baking, but I doubt I'll listen to it.

Speaking of the old ever-widening ass, I was pretty active this week.  I did something active every day - from gardening to tromping through the woods to just wandering.  I also did some cleaning. No update on the weight this week.  I feel slimmer, but I'm not going to promise myself any fewer pounds.

Speaking of gardening, I have now potted all the dogwoods that were germinating in the fridge.  The ones I potted previously... Well, some of them died.  On the upside, I have 4-5 that look like they might make it and even have real leaves - 2 each.  Nothing is coming up in the redbud pots or the spicebush pots.  I think the over-winter neglect killed those seeds.  Better luck this fall.  I also potted all the buckthorn seeds I could find.  Note to self: do not put black seeds in black dirt in the fall.  You'll have a tough time finding them come spring.  Cecil and Clyde... the cedars... are both doing well and both have lots of new growth.  Yay.  As for my gardens, I'm not seeing the glads or the lilies coming up yet.  Fingers crossed.

On the woods work front, I got a lot of dead limbs off the cedars and the area is looking really nice - at least from the road.  Now that it's getting warmer, I'll have to stay out of the woods, so the rest of the work in there will have to wait.  

This week, I plan on finishing the clean-out of the last two garden beds that need cleaning - the cedar bed and the shade bed.  There's nothing in the cedar bed but weeds, which I hope to change this year.  As for the shade bed, I'm not holding out hope that anything I planted is still alive in there.  If it's all gone, I'll order up some replacement astilbes and coral bells, and maybe some more lilies of the valley.  We'll see.  I also plan on knocking some other stuff off the to-do list I posted on Friday.  Time and gumption allowing.

And I think that's it for me.  What have you been up to lately?

It's on the List, Man

I have so much to do and it seems like every time I turn around there's another thing to do, so I've begun saying "It's on the list, man."  It's not a written-down list.  It's an in-my-head list, but this is it...

- finish potting the tree seeds
- clean out the cedar bed
- clean out the shade bed
- plant the wildflower and the marigold seeds I bought for the cedar bed
- order plants to put into the shade bed because I think everything nice in there has died
- finish cutting dead limbs off the cedars by the road
- finish replanting the irises bulbs that the critters had moved over the winter
- vacuum the hard floors
- wash the hard floors
- dust
- wash windows
- clean the kitchen
- clean my bathroom
- clean the smoking porch / sunroom
- redo the irises by the big rock (which may have to wait until after the blooming season)
- take furniture polish to the kitchen cabinets
- tidy up the spare room
- clean the fridge
- create a cover for my new book (which includes setting up stuff for a pic and taking said pic)
- hit the thrift store to find something to use for the above pic
- finish editing my new book
- format my new book
- create next week's sale
- sort my books to decide what stays and what goes so I have room for my unshelved new books
- tidy up the storage closet
- shred old paperwork I've tidied out of the storage
- create a donate box of everything I've picked to go
- go to a thrift store and donate the stuff (which should coincide with going to find pic stuff, but probably won't)
- hammer in all the loose nails on the deck
- work on getting Wrenegade out of the garage
- clean bird poop off the garage floor
- clip the cats' claws

There is a longer list Hubs and I have together, by the way.  Stuff that requires money as well as time.  That one includes things like repairing the deck, fixing the roof, and putting in a wood stove.  One day, I'd like to remodel the kitchen by turning the wall between the kitchen and the living room into a pony wall, so I can get some natural light into the kitchen, but that is so far down any list that I doubt it'll ever happen.  Maybe if I win the lottery... ROFL

Since I started typing this out, I added about a half-dozen things I need to do that I had forgotten.  You see what I mean about 'things keep getting added'.  Just thinking about it all makes me tired.  I need a nap.  Too bad, naps aren't on the list.  ;o)

What's on your list to get done today?

(I might come back here and put a line through stuff as it gets done, but then again, I might not because seeing stuff NOT getting checked off over time will depress the hell out of me.)

Thursday This n That

Ever since I got my new monitor, I can't see the outline of this box where I type in my blogs anymore.  It's like typing out into space.  Derp.

I'm actually typing this at quarter to eleven at night, after lying in bed for an hour and then getting irritated with myself enough to make me get up again.  Played a few hands of poker, read some crap on FB.  Now, I'm listening to classical music and drinking milk in an effort to get tired.

On a side note, listening to classical music to get myself to sleep means I can no longer listen to it in my car.  It makes me drowsy.  Not a good thing to be while I'm driving.  Blerg.

Hubs and I have been dismantling our wood piles.  We have four piles and we've started on Pile 2.  Anything big enough to be firewood is getting dragged back out so we can cut it up.  And we've got some big-ass logs in there.  Loads more wood to cut up.  Yay.  It's mostly oak and cedar wood, but we do have some elm and ash and hickory and black walnut on the property.  Unfortunately, once it goes into the pile, we can't really tell what the other stuff is.  Cedar is easy to identify because the wood is red in the center.  I'm also trying to keep whatever hickory we find separated.

On a side note there, dead cedar trees are dangerous.  Spiky, super hard, dry limbs.  We are using great care not to fall on anything.  You'll put your eye out.  (Yes, I was channeling A Christmas Story there.)  Or you'll become perforated.  Nobody wants that.  And our property has loads of cedars - both living and dead.  

We're having a freeze warning tonight.  My last three little tomatoes are still pretty green and my other plant is still blooming.  They will probably be toast.  :sadface:  

I really should write a wrap-up post for my container garden blog for this season.  

...I went back to bed and laid there until around midnight.  This is me finishing the post at 6am.

It's actually about 36 degrees F right now, so not quite a freeze.

I made a to-do list yesterday.  It's still sitting there.

Hubs just started laundry.  He's awesome like that.  Get up and get 'er done.  

What this n that things do you have to talk about today?

Thursday This n That

I started the week with a massive to-do list, but I'm whittling it down.  And I'm adding to it.  But hey, stuff's getting accomplished.  For instance, all the gardens are weeded now.  Of course, the first one I weeded is already showing signs of needing to be weeded again.  Blerg.

If you read yesterday's post on Paperbacks, you'll see there at the end how I discovered issues with those of my paperbacks I migrated over from Createspace.  That alone added to my to-do list.  I think this is a neverending to-do list.  It just goes on and on and on.

Neverending should be one word.  Jus' sayin'.

Today is April Fools Day.  I don't do pranks.  Loathe them, in fact.  It is, however, the day I met Hubs in person for the first time.  Seventeen years ago.  Our wedding anniversary is in May.  About 6 weeks from the day I saw him to the day we got married.  When it's right, you know it.

When we got to the car that day, Hubs had a dozen yellow roses waiting for me.  I still have several of those, dried in a vase.  If I'd known how momentous the occasion was going to be, I would've kept them all.  I have every other rose he ever gave me, though.  

April 1st was also my childhood dog's birthday.  Or the day we assigned as his birthday.  We got him mid-May 1976 and he was 6 weeks old, so we walked it backwards.  Happy Birthday, you wonderful dog, you.

I don't say my dog's name online because it's frequently a security question.  I also never use that name as a security question because you never know when I'll forget and drop the name somewhere out in the world.  

It's amazing how many little things we have to do in our daily lives because some numbnuts did something no rational person would conceive of doing.  Can't buy effective cold medicine over the counter?  Thank the group of numbnuts who make meth with it.  

I just joined this group over on FB that's devoted to Crime Fiction.  But they don't allow self-promotion except on Mondays.  So it's just a bunch of people talking about the books they're reading and asking about books others have read.  It's kind of nice.  I did do a self-promo this past Monday and got one sale in the UK from it.  I think.  It's a UK group - a fact I discovered after I'd joined.  :shrug:  It's either that or my one Brit fan who used to hang out here found the book on the same day I posted.  Either way, yay.

I got my proof copy of RHI on Monday.  The Amazon proofs come with a banner all the way around the cover saying 'Not for Resale'.  Well, duh.  Except the banner covers verbiage I'd like to be able to read to determine whether it looks right.  Derp-heads.  The old Createspace proofs had 'Not for resale' stamped on the back page.  Heaven forbid someone wanted to buy one of those.  :eyeroll:

While I was out weeding, I found a wee, itty-bitty frog.  A baby gray tree frog.  So damn cute.  I mean, they only get to about 1.5 inches when they're full grown, but this one was maybe a half-inch, so a baby.  Yeah yeah, actual baby frogs are tadpoles, so let's say an adolescent tree frog.  Geez.

Well, this ended up being longer than I thought it would be, so I'll just leave ya there.  Got any this-n-that to share?

Sunday Update - Week 13

What a week...  and I'm late again, but at least it's Sunday and not Monday this time...

Monday, I pushed Duke Noble, P.I.: Rumor Has It out into the world.  The initials reviews are good, so yay.  I haven't finished the post-publication checklist on that yet, but I did format it for paperback and I'm waiting on the proof of that so I can make it live, too.  My first paperback through Amazon - not Createspace - so we'll see how it looks.  The process wasn't too bad.

Other than posting about the release, I haven't done any marketing.  We'll see what happens in the coming days.

It was a nice reading week.  It's always easier to read when I don't have writerly stuff going on.  Yesterday, a friend of mine, who was purging her book collection, posted about the books she was letting go and offered them up for basically the cost of shipping.  I picked out 8 - 3 Agatha Christies, 3 Rex Stouts, and two Piers Anthony.  Here's hoping the mail doesn't lose them.  :fingers crossed:  I know Piers Anthony doesn't seem like my usual fare, but I love his Xanth books (well, the early ones anyway) and I hope to start a collection of those.  If you're not familiar with Rex Stout, he writes the Nero Wolfe mysteries.  Anyway, I haz a happy.

In baking news, I did French bread pizza, frittatas, and granola bars last week.  Nothing exciting, but necessary.  I was also going to do a coffee cake, but I ran out of walnuts when I did the granola bars, so those will have to wait.

Guess what?  We went fishing!  Didn't catch anything and only got one bite, but it was fishing.  I had heard weeks ago that they were redoing the place where I fish, and yup, they did.  The parking lot is awesome and so is the boat ramp.  Unfortunately, the took huge chunky rocks and lined the river with them, so it's kind of hard for me to bank fish there.  So, maybe a third of my regular spots are messed up, but in that third is one of my most productive areas.  Drat.  Eh, when the water level goes down, I'll be able to walk around the rocks.  

As for other activities, I did something active 5 days out of 7, with 4 of those days having two activities.  Loads of gardening, yard work, and cleaning.  Yesterday, I was a cleaning fool.  I'd let so much stuff slide, my to-do list is hefty hefty hefty.  I didn't weigh myself at all, though.  

Speaking of gardening, I still haven't started my container garden.  Whoops.  That's on the to-do list for this week.  In other garden news, the peonies, the lilies, the columbines, and the lilies of the valley are all poking their heads up.  The lilac is covered in little green leaves and the beginnings of loads of flower drupes.  The hydrangeas are working on it.  The last remaining azalea has this season to get its act together or it'll be on the wood pile and I'll put a peony in its place.  Let's just say it ain't looking good for that one.

Well, I supposed I ought to get my buns in gear and start the day.  How are things in your neck of the woods?  

Busy Busy Busy

Okay, so after much foot-dragging and toadness, Cinder Ugly is available for pre-order.  (I will explain my reasoning for pre-order versus actual order tomorrow on Outside the Box.)  Now that it's live and I have a linky-loo, I have loads of work to do.  As in my post-publication checklist... 

Goodreads listing – add ASIN before the book goes live
Add book to your Amazon author page.
Verify book is on Amazon UK author page.
Update FB header.
Add book to all blog sidebars.
Update internal links inside book to Amazon
Post to the blogs
Post to FB pages
Post to Pinterest
Post to MEWE
Add book to appropriate Outside the Box book page
Update links on book page – US, UK, CA, AU
Bookmark Amazon pages – US, UK, CA, AU
Update back matter of all other books
Post to FB groups
Fall apart.

(The last item is optional and can be inserted anywhere along the way.)

The crossed off items are done.  Other items have to be done today.  Some of the other items are partially done.  (7:42pm Updated to reflect what I've done since this posted.)

I'm questioning the wisdom of doing all this and having a sale going on at the same time.  Really, I am.  It's a little crazypants right now. (In my head.  All outward appearances show the usual calm and relaxedness of every day life here.)

Launching a new book is a bit frazzling.  Thank goodness I make lists or I'd never remember all the things I have to do.  And I still have to do print versions of Cinder Ugly and Ugly and the Beast - which a totally different list.  Ugh.

I know I said I'd have a sale on the first two A Model Curse books next week, but I hit a speedbump.  Sleeping Ugly's 90 days in Kindle Select is up on the 5th, which makes it hard to schedule a sale to overlap two 90 day windows.  So, the sale will begin after Sleeping Ugly renews for another 90 days and it allows me to schedule a Kindle Countdown Deal.  All the little variables.  Blerg.

I need a clone.  None of this is hard, it's just all so tedious.  Not a fan of tedium.  I'd rather hand this all off to someone and say 'do it' and then not have to worry about it.  

So anyway, I'm busy busy busy.  Like a little bee.  Or a beaver.  Personally, I feel more like a beaver - fat and waddling and ready to curl up in my den and sleep.  But I'll get it all done.  Hopefully before the book goes live live next week.

To-Dos or 'The Guilt of Taking a Day Off is Killing Me'

I didn't accomplish anything yesterday, which, I guess, was the point.  I said I was taking a day off, and I did it.  Today can't be like yesterday, though.  

I mean, I had to do two days worth of dishes last night because they were driving me crazy. (I ran the dishwasher this morning so I didn't have to listen to the damn thing, but it was totally loaded.)  My to-do list is staring at me accusingly, reminding of things I should've already had done.

-vacuum
-dust
-cobwebs
-sunroom floor
-sales spreadsheet

It's good to take a day off after you've been busting your butt, I guess, but I always feel guilty.  So, today's going to see those things done.  And I need to work on a blurb for Cinder Ugly.  

And take a shower... cuz, ew.

And the weeding needs to get finished.  And raking.  And the windows.  And I probably should clean out the junk drawer and wash those glasses we never use...

Being an adult means having a lot of stuffs to do.  Whether I'll get everything done this week is anyone's guess.  But hey, at least I'm not bored.

Heh, does anyone else remember being told "if you don't have something to do, I'll find you something to do'?  Hell, I've said heard it and I've said it.  It's a mom thing.

Anyway, time to get my day going.  What's on your to-do list? 

To Dos and To Dones

So, anyway, it's Tuesday.  I was a busy gal yesterday and I'm kind of burned out this morning. 

- The sale for the Dennis Haggarty books started, so I spent a bunch of time posting about that on FB. (AD is #11 on the free Noir list this morning and #61 in overall free Crime, so that's something)
- The new cover for Blink is live.
- The name change for Blood Flow is working on it.  The Amazon page already says Project Hermes, but the cover isn't there yet.  Createspace, on the other hand, is giving me fits with the cover, which was built off the cover for Blood Flow, but suddenly it's somehow not the right size even though the book itself hasn't changed.  Derp.
- I bought 5 bags of marble chips for the front walkway and spread those.  Need about 8 more because they ended up being way whiter than the old chips and now it looks weird.  Ten would be ideal.  Plus, I need about 6 bags of river rock, but the store was out and I can't carry that many bags of rock in my stealth pick-up (i.e. my little four-door sedan).
- Worked on spreadsheety stuff
- Edited 29 pages of Early Grave, only 30 to go.

Today, I need to...

- Finish those last 30 pages of inputting edit notes and get started on the major points AWE made in the edit letter, so I can get this to her by the end of the week (or earlier, if I bust my butt).
- Figure out what the hell is up with the cover of PH.
- Do some more marketing stuff for the sale.
- exercise
- Touch base with the office to see if there's anything they need me to do today.
- Do whatever they need.

There are probably more things.  There are always more things.  And I'm tired just thinking about the things I have to do without adding more to the pile.

What's on your lists today?

Sunday Update - Week What?

Hey, Everyone.  Thanks for stopping by. 

It's Sunday morning and I'm caffeine deprived.  But let's see if I can rebuild the week anyway...

I haven't done any writing or editing this past week because I was preparing for Wish Hits the Fan's book launch and all that.  I did get the book loaded for pre-order and all that.  I was really working up a storm on pre-release stuff.  Then Thursday hit and I fell apart and I still haven't gotten back to work.  Today.

I read three books last week - Silver James' Assassin's Moon, Night Without End by Alistair MacLean, and Postmortem by Patricia Cornwall.  All very exciting books. 

Fishing was bleh.  But still very necessary.  Unfortunately, I think fishing on Thursday was what derailed me. 

The fawns are losing their spots and the bucks are losing their velvet and all of the deer are losing their summer coats.  Fall is here even though it's not really yet. 

After dealing with Kira's allergies for years, I decided to tackle them.  I ordered some stuff from Vetericyn - ear wash and eye wash.  (She gets itchy eyes and ears.)  It only arrived a couple days ago, but it already seems to be helping.  I had bought some wound care stuff of theirs years ago for Max and it worked like a dream.  Why I didn't get this other stuff earlier is beyond me.  (Maybe because it ain't cheap, but then again, trips to the vet for eye goo that never really worked well wasn't cheap either.) 

Postcards for the Once Upon a Djinn series arrived.  The first batch went out yesterday.  The next batch will go out later - because some of them are to people in FL and with Irma... Well, we'll see what happens.  I also handed out my first one of these and the gal at the feed store was suitably impressed.  (I already know she's a reader, so she gets swag when I stop there.)  I told her and I'll tell you, if you haven't already bought these books, don't buy them now.  Wait until the 15th, when they'll all be on sale and available.  You can get all 4 books for under $5 then.

Of course, if you want to get them now so you can start reading, they're still pretty inexpensive at $2.99 ea. 

Today I have to finish updating the back matter for AD, NC, and BF.  Then I have to upload WHTF to Createspace.  Then I have to futz with UWC.  And I have some advertising I have to get in by Tuesday for a Friday newsletter.  Address more postcards.  And finally, tonight, I plan to get back to work on Early Grave.

Ugh, I need more coffee.

What's up in your world?