This n That Thursday

Wish in One Hand is now available at Kobo. Oh, and it's only 99 cents from here until I decide to change it back.  Figure at least a month. Or until the end of the year.  We'll see how it goes.  I also sent it through to Nook and Apple, but I haven't got the notifications that it's there yet.

I finally saw a bald eagle!  We were on the way home from picking up Max's ashes and it few over the road between the house and the river.  I've since seen two more.  Yay.

The world has become such a ludicrous place I can't help but laugh at it.  It's a sad, sick, strange sort of laugh bordering on the hysterical, but still. Case in point - a woman sued for the right to wear a colander on her head in her drivers' license photo. Apparently, she's something called a Pastafarian.  She won because, hey, if you let one person bend the rules, you have to let them all bend the rules.

I read a big-long rant yesterday from an author, talking about how midlist authors were getting screwed by the big 5.  I was with her until she said something to the effect that only dinosaur erotica could be successful in self-publishing.  I think she might've had something in her tea.  Maybe she was on a roll and taking potshots at anything that moved.  I don't think Bella Andre would agree with her theory.  Bella's making big money self-publishing.  I certainly don't agree and I'm not making big money.  Yet.  This is year one.  Talk to me again in year three.

Jack's Pizza is the bomb. Especially the bacon-cheeseburger kind.  Even more so if you add extra toppings like pepperoni and olives.  Yum.  (BTW, it's also really inexpensive, which makes it even better to me.)

Crows apparently bury food.  We may remember the recent Vienna sausage incident.  And I might've mentioned the little stacks of corn underneath last year's leaves.  This year one made a hole in the driveway pea gravel and filled it with kernels.  Silly birds.  They also like to dunk the bread my neighbor puts out in the water pan we have for the deer.  One slice of bread, when wet, fits inside their beak quite nicely.

Speaking of deer, we think this is Elias from last year:

We also saw Jones last night, but the light was too low for any pics.

Any this n that to share today?

Sunday Update - Week 46

Last week was pretty busy for me, so let's jump right in...

I finished the edits for BloodFlow.  Tweaked the hell out of it and it's as good as I can make it.  (Thanks, as always, to my editor, Janet, for all her hard work.)  Then I formatted it for epub and uploaded that sucker for pre-order.  It's live, if you're interested.  (Thanks for the 2 pre-orders I already have on this one.)

Then I worked on the print formatting and the print cover for BloodFlow.  I ran into a stumbler on the cover.  I did it exactly the way they said to do it, and they rejected it.  This morning, I did some magic and I'm trying it again.  Once they approve it, I'll order a proof.  If that's hunky-dory, then it'll be live for purchase.

Speaking of covers and proofs, I got the new print cover for Wish in One Hand.  It's been uploaded, accepted, and a proof has been ordered.  That'll be here Wednesday.  If it's cool, I'll make it live for purchase, too.  So sparkly...

As a break from all this, I went into the woods.  Nothing like clearing trails and hacking at dead trees to defog the mind.  While I was doing this, I happened upon the second property pin at the back of the property.  Yay.  We've been looking for that sucker for 2 years.  It was under a fallen cedar, next to an animal den.  I had stooped over to see if I could find tracks near the den, so I can determine what the hell lives there, and TADA!  (Still don't know what critter lives there.)  Turns out, I was off about a dozen feet from where I thought our property stopped, but only because I had straight north slightly off.  Oops.  Now there's a new bottom trail that follows our actual property. 

Heard from the Kid yesterday.  She's doing well, which is always bonus.

I had a contest for $10 on my blog last week.  One person qualified - Silver James.  She had indicated I should donate the money to an animal rescue organization.  That will be done when I go to the vet to pick up Max's ashes. Fitting, I think. 

Oh, and I attempted to make postcards for BloodFlow marketing, but every time I tried to upload a file to Vistaprint, my modem freaked out.  Not sure what the issue is, since I can't recreate the problem on any site but Vistaprint.  I'll be looking for a new postcard supplier today. 

And I'll be beginning the process of creating cover art for In Deep Wish today, too.  I have a couple ideas - one of which involves me looking for a model for Zeke.  I found one dude.  He's pretty close to what I imagine Zeke looks like, but none of his poses convey the attitude I'm shooting for.  I may scrap that and either pick another character to share the cover with Jo or just use Jo and the background I like. 

Like I said, busy busy.  I don't even want to talk about the state my home is in.  I need to dust and vacuum and do the bathrooms and the windows and... Yeah, I'd rather be in the woods.

What's the skinny where you're at?

This n That Thursday

I wrote this big, long craptastic This n That, but I decided to delete it.  Who needs that kind of negativity in their feed?  Sure, the world has pretty much gone crazypants, but you already know that.  Let's talk about random stuff instead.

As I write this on Wednesday night, we're having a wind storm.  Here's hoping it clears the leaves off the roof so Hubs doesn't have to.

Male box turtles have a concave bottom shell to make breeding easier.  Basically, so they don't slide off.

I still haven't seen a bald eagle, but the bird I'm thinking is a peregrine falcon flew over the house today so Hubs got a look at it, too.  I'm not seeing things!  Darkish gray back, white underside, falcon shape. We're still referring to the bird as SHOW YOURSELF!, though, until we both get a good enough look to say with near certainty what it is.

We call the bird SHOW YOURSELF! because it likes to call all over the forest, but it never stops anywhere where we can get a good look at it. So when we hear it calling, we yell 'show yourself'.  We also refer to the red-bellied woodpeckers as 'Buddy' and the pileated woodpeckers as 'Wild Thing'. Oh, and the fox squirrels are all members of the BOOM family - after the first HUGE one we saw when we moved here that I named Boom-boom.

I have a single rose getting ready to bloom.  Silly bush.  Didn't bloom at all earlier this year. Now, when it's getting cold?  Bloop!  I'll try to remember to take a pic.

Speaking of pics, Elias stopped by the yard today and I got a couple nice shots of him.  The deer have been scarce for about 8 weeks now.  And silly buck shows up 4 days before deer season begins.  I told him he needs to stick around and eat a lot, then disappear for a couple weeks.  I hope he listens.

The time change is still kicking my ass.  I can't keep my eyes open past 9pm, and I can't keep them closed after 5am.  I'm still getting 8 hrs, but not when I want to. 

Anything on the this-n-that meter for you today?

Sunday Update - Week 45

Well, last week was a week. 

I know last update I was struggling with Max and I almost thought we had reached the point where he would start getting better, but no.  By Wednesday, he was miserable, and there was nothing left that we could do to improve his quality of life, so we chose to let him go.  It's been hard on both of us, but we're doing better.  Our vet and his staff were wonderful.  And they provide cremation services.  We've already got a spot picked out in the house for him to stay and I'll be doing a memorial grouping of pictures to hang on the wall above it. He'll be on the top of the bookcase he was never allowed to jump on (but frequently did when we weren't looking).  All of his canned food has already been donated to a pet rescue organization.

But life must go on, and Max was always a cruiser-cat who never let anything bother him, so the best way to honor him is to cruise thru this and get back to life.

To that end, I finished the proof-edits for BloodFlow last night.  Then I emailed the book to my Kindle for a final read-through.  I'll be doing that today so I can format this for upload this week.  It should be available for pre-order on the 13th, as planned.

I also got the new cover for Wish in One Hand this past week.  It's awesome.  And thanks so much to Maria Zannini for finding the flaw - we all missed a period. :gigglesnort:  The E in B.E. didn't have one after it.  Jessica fixed it up right quick and it's uploaded again.  She's working on the print cover now.  I'll be getting with her on the 14th to start work on the cover for In Deep Wish - due out in Feb/Mar. 

In sales news, I don't know what's going on, but no one's read any pages in any of the three books in a week.  Is Amazon having another glitch or are people just not reading much lately? :shrug:  I know I'm not reading much lately.

I read one book last week - The Hitwoman Hires a Manny by JB Lynn.  It was freakin' awesome and just what I needed to take my mind off everything.

I also made a cake.  Because Max would want me to eat cake.  Chocolate with extra thick chocolate frosting. 

And I went into the woods.  Wednesday morning, after we made the decision but before we could actually go to the vet's, I took my anger and frustration out on some dead trees.  I did more in the woods yesterday - because it was cold enough to not worry about being bit by a snake.  Trail 1 is now cleared halfway to the bottom of the property.  I knocked over another dead tree - which was so rotten it snapped off at the top while I was pushing it.  Yep, bonked me right in the head.  Lucky for me, my head is hard the wood was soft so no damage occurred.

Okay, that's about it.  Any updates to share with me this week?

Goodbye, Max

Max fought the good fight, but yesterday, we decided he'd had enough and did the kind thing.  Time to rest, old buddy. 

Goodbye, Max.

Too Much Too Much Too Much

What is it with the overload of everything these days?

Bacon, pumpkin spice, red velvet... if a little is good, a lot must be better right.  Spread that shit over everything.  Seriously.  I mean, I like bacon as much as the next guy, but I don't want it in my ice cream or my donuts or my Poptarts.  I like pumpkin.  (Not pumpkin spice - cinnamon and cloves are fine, but nutmeg makes me gag.)  Pumpkin pie, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins... NOT pumpkin coffee.  And sorry, but I don't get the allure of red velvet.  Meh.  But it's everywhere like someone decided it was manna from the heavens.  It's vanilla. Dyed red. Might be a little creamier, but it's still just red vanilla flavor.

Everything is overdone.  And if it's not it's X-Treme.  Bigger, bolder, spicier, more in your face.  Your tastebuds will be blown away by this latest craze.  BLOWN. AWAY.  You can't just have spicy anymore either.  You have to have ghost chili spicy.  If your tongue doesn't want to rip itself off, jump out of your mouth, and run away, you're not doing it right.


I believe it was Aristotle who said something to the effect of 'everything in moderation.'  But who cares about Aristotle.  He's some dead dude anyway. America wants what it wants in large proportions, liberally distributed through every aspect of life.  They don't want a cheeseburger. They want a 1 pound steakburger with a half-pound of cheese covered in bacon and sriracha. 

We want a super-grande, double-whipped, half-caff, pumpkin-spiced latte with extra foam and sprinkles.

And that's certainly your right. 

I just don't get it.  How do you taste the coffee in there?  Or the burger under all that stuff?  How can you enjoy a single strip of bacon in all its bacony wonder when everything tastes like bacon?

You know, I think back in the old days, spices were used to cover up the taste of less-than-quality meats. Would the eaters of extra-spicy, in your face seasonings and extreme flavors even know when they were eating rancid meat before they were hit with the aftereffects of it? 

Me, I like to taste my food.  I like to stick with the moderation.  A little of this and a little of that goes a long way.  But that's me.  Just for petesakes, stop trying to make me eat red velvet.  Can't buy a cheesecake or muffin or petit four or donut assortment without someone sneaking red velvet in there.  Bleh.

Sunday Update - Week Whatever

Weary.  That's the word for it. 

Sorry I'm late with the Update, but it's been a day and it's only 8am.  I even slept in - according to the time change.  I got up at 7:15... then I changed the clocks, so it was only 6:15 - which kind of crapped out my morning win. 

I'm having a tough time focusing on the positives today, can ya tell?  So, here's the Negative Nelly version of Sunday Update...

I didn't finish my read-through of Fertile Ground.  I'm 50% thru and it's a hot mess.  This sucker is going to take sooo much work to make it publishable that I'll probably wimp out and leave this until the May launch.  Good thing In Deep Wish doesn't need as much work, so I'll have something to put out in March. Whether anyone will want to buy it?  :shrug:

I did a sale for Wish in One Hand.  :crickets:  October blew chunks for sales.

I got my edits yesterday afternoon.  I read the edit letter, gnashed my teeth, and set it all aside.  Definitely not in the brain space to deal. 

Max has taken a nosedive.  Oh, he's been in good spirits.  Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Playing with his toys.  Purring.  But he won't eat.  Each day since last Monday has been worse then the one before. And every day he doesn't eat well means he gets less perky and playful. I assume that the antibiotics are making everything taste gross.  (That happened with my Mom earlier this year.)  Nothing I offer him goads him to eat.  Until this morning when I pulled the last trick out of my bag and offered him canned roast beef.  He gobbled that up.  Let's see if it's still appetizing this afternoon.  And yes, I know that stuff is full of things that aren't necessarily good for cats to eat but when you're staring down the barrel of the choice between euthanasia and giving him food that might be bad for him, you choose the food.  I'd fix him canned sardines and ice cream if I thought he'd eat it.

And that's why I'm not in the brain space to deal with edits.  Or re-reads.  Or housework.  Or reading other people's books.  Or being Positive Polly.  My brain space is full.  And I am weary.

No worries.  This too shall pass.  And I will get my second wind.  Today, though, ain't looking good.  I think I need to go into the forest and chop wood.

What's the update from your space?