Yeah, I have been writing for twelve years now, but that's not the point today. Today is my anniversary. Twelve years ago today I married the man who would become my best friend. He was already my biggest supporter. Hell, he's the one who told me - before we were married - that I needed to devote myself to writing books and nothing else. Thanks to him and his financial support, that's exactly what I've been doing since 2004.
Lemme back up a little. In January of 2004, I had the idea for my first book. Or what would eventually end up being my first book. And I was committed to finishing it - something that had never happened before. In February of 2004, I met Hubs. In an attempt to woo him, I sent him the first few chapters of The Comet (which turned into Spectacle, which turned into Fear Itself.) He was suitably wooed.
You've probably heard this story before, but we didn't actually meet-meet in February of 2004. We met online. And much writing was exchanged back and forth in the form of emails and chat messages and Word files before our actual meeting in April. 6 weeks later we were married. Whirlwind, but it's worked for us.
I couldn't imagine being with anyone else. I wish I'd met him way before I did, but then I wouldn't have been in the right place and neither would he have. We met at just the right point, when we'd learned all the life lessons we needed to be the right people for each other.
Twelve years later, we are still the right people for each other. And I haven't regretted a single day of our lives together.
We aren't doing anything today. We talked about it. Neither of us was
particularly interested in going anywhere or doing anything out of the
ordinary. He has his work to do. I have mine. I might make something
fun for dinner. Otherwise, we'll spend our day like we usually do -
together in our little log home in the woods. Just the way we like it.
He won't read this. He never reads my blog. But he knows. I show him every day how I feel about him, and he does the same for me. I just wanted to write this and celebrate with all of you how happy I am. =o)
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Sunday, May 15, 2016
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?
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?
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Thursday This n That
Today is the last full day of the Kid being here. Bright and early tomorrow, I drive her back to the airport. =o\
I discovered this morning that a kid from my alma mater, Northern Michigan University, as well as from back home in Grand Blanc, made the 90-man roster for the Pittsburgh Steelers. (Okay, I'm not technically from Grand Blanc. I'm from the countryside outside Atlas and I went to Goodrich. But I did have a Grand Blanc mailing address, so I'm counting it as home.) I hope he makes the final roster. No one from NMU or from GB ever makes it to pro-football. Go Wildcats! Rawr.
I took the Kid to the thrift store yesterday. We walked around, found a few items for her, and a lovely, new, green glass ashtray for me. I do love interesting, glass ashtrays.
We also took her to Roaring River State Park where we walked the lovely trail beside the river, watched trout fisherman, gazed at the fish you could see easily in the crystal clear waters, and saw several snakes swimming across the river. When I got home, I used the pics I took for snake identification...
It's a copperhead. Luckily, every one we saw was swimming away from where we were.
I'm about halfway through proofreading Fertile Ground, and, picky bitch that I am, I'm discovering way more stuff than I thought I would. Tweak here, tweak there, everywhere a tweak tweak. See, this is why I don't go back and read my books after they're published. There's always a better way to word something somewhere. Ugh.
I never say this in my books, but all flaws, typos, and mistakes are entirely my fault. It's kind of a given, isn't it? I mean, with self-published authors, it is. Everything we put out is our responsibility from cover to cover. If there's a mistake in there after we publish, it's our fault. I try to make them as flaw-free as possible, but I'm not perfect. It's just life. If you find a flaw and feel like emailing it to me, I won't get pissy. I'll just fix it so the next person has a better copy. And I apologize if one happens to make it past all the proofing processes I put a book through.
Okay, that's it for me today. Anything to add from your part of the world?
I discovered this morning that a kid from my alma mater, Northern Michigan University, as well as from back home in Grand Blanc, made the 90-man roster for the Pittsburgh Steelers. (Okay, I'm not technically from Grand Blanc. I'm from the countryside outside Atlas and I went to Goodrich. But I did have a Grand Blanc mailing address, so I'm counting it as home.) I hope he makes the final roster. No one from NMU or from GB ever makes it to pro-football. Go Wildcats! Rawr.
I took the Kid to the thrift store yesterday. We walked around, found a few items for her, and a lovely, new, green glass ashtray for me. I do love interesting, glass ashtrays.
We also took her to Roaring River State Park where we walked the lovely trail beside the river, watched trout fisherman, gazed at the fish you could see easily in the crystal clear waters, and saw several snakes swimming across the river. When I got home, I used the pics I took for snake identification...
I'm about halfway through proofreading Fertile Ground, and, picky bitch that I am, I'm discovering way more stuff than I thought I would. Tweak here, tweak there, everywhere a tweak tweak. See, this is why I don't go back and read my books after they're published. There's always a better way to word something somewhere. Ugh.
I never say this in my books, but all flaws, typos, and mistakes are entirely my fault. It's kind of a given, isn't it? I mean, with self-published authors, it is. Everything we put out is our responsibility from cover to cover. If there's a mistake in there after we publish, it's our fault. I try to make them as flaw-free as possible, but I'm not perfect. It's just life. If you find a flaw and feel like emailing it to me, I won't get pissy. I'll just fix it so the next person has a better copy. And I apologize if one happens to make it past all the proofing processes I put a book through.
Okay, that's it for me today. Anything to add from your part of the world?
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Not Your Grandma's Bread Pudding
Mornin' All!
A couple years back I had a boatload of crusty rolls going stale and I hate throwing out food, so I went looking for a recipe I could try that would use up all this bread product. I found one I liked and then I tweaked it. Here it is...
Bread Pudding
8 cups of cubed crusty bread product (rolls, french bread, buns... anything with some heft to it)
1/2 cup golden raisins
4 cups apples* (peeled and diced)
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 1/3 c milk
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs (beaten)
Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 9x13" cake pan in cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine bread, raisins, apples. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine brown sugar, syrup, milk, and margarine. Heat slowly**, stirring constantly, until margarine is melted. Remove from heat and pour over bread mixture. Fold together until just combined. Pour into prepared baking pan, smooshing it around until it's even. In a small bowl, beat together eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread mixture in pan. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until apples are fork tender. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or wait a day (it gets better when you wait) and microwave each serving for 10-20 seconds before adding ice cream. Makes about 12 servings if you're generous with your servings.
*Any apples will do. Last time I had a mix of different apples in the house, so I used a few Gala, a couple Granny Smiths, and a couple Red Delicious.
**If you don't heat slowly, the milk will separate and look chunky. Been there, done that. Tastes the same and you can't tell in the pudding itself, so don't sweat it.
A couple years back I had a boatload of crusty rolls going stale and I hate throwing out food, so I went looking for a recipe I could try that would use up all this bread product. I found one I liked and then I tweaked it. Here it is...
Bread Pudding
8 cups of cubed crusty bread product (rolls, french bread, buns... anything with some heft to it)
1/2 cup golden raisins
4 cups apples* (peeled and diced)
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 1/3 c milk
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs (beaten)
Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 9x13" cake pan in cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine bread, raisins, apples. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine brown sugar, syrup, milk, and margarine. Heat slowly**, stirring constantly, until margarine is melted. Remove from heat and pour over bread mixture. Fold together until just combined. Pour into prepared baking pan, smooshing it around until it's even. In a small bowl, beat together eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread mixture in pan. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until apples are fork tender. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or wait a day (it gets better when you wait) and microwave each serving for 10-20 seconds before adding ice cream. Makes about 12 servings if you're generous with your servings.
*Any apples will do. Last time I had a mix of different apples in the house, so I used a few Gala, a couple Granny Smiths, and a couple Red Delicious.
**If you don't heat slowly, the milk will separate and look chunky. Been there, done that. Tastes the same and you can't tell in the pudding itself, so don't sweat it.
Sunday, May 8, 2016
Sunday Update - Week 18
Sorry I missed Week 17. Not sure what happened there and don't remember the events, so here we go into Week 18.
Okay. I managed to get through the final edits from AWE on Friday night and emailed the book to myself for one last read-through. I also began formatting it for publication. It will be ready for launch on the 16th - sans pre-order and without a lot of advertising out of the gate - because, frankly, I haven't had the time or the fundage for fanfare. Fingers crossed that everyone who liked Dying Embers shows up for the next book in the SCIU world.
My newsletter went out on Monday. If you missed it, check your spam box. There was a chance to get a PDF ARC in there, and not all the spaces have been filled, so if you want one, there's still a pretty good bet that you'll get one.
I also did the Worldwide Cover Reveal on Friday.
The rest of the week was pretty much devoted to getting ready for the Kid's arrival. She got here yesterday. Smooth flying all the way out and a smooth layover in Chicago. It's awesome having her here. The drive up and back was free from events. We won't discuss the travesty that was dinner out. I'm still irritated at that restaurant and at everyone who has raved about it to us over the past three years. I should've just driven us the rest of the way home and made frozen pizza. Would've saved us money and I wouldn't be sitting here at 3 in the morning still remembering dinner.
In other news, Kira - who is totally xenophobic, as well as being agoraphobic - must remember the Kid because after ten minutes of standoffishness and hiding, she walked up and head-bonked the Kid in the leg, demanding pets and snuggles. And now it's like the Kid wasn't even away for 3 years.
BTW, this is the cleanest my house has been since we moved here. And the Kid was suitably impressed.
Your turn. What went on in your world last week?
Okay. I managed to get through the final edits from AWE on Friday night and emailed the book to myself for one last read-through. I also began formatting it for publication. It will be ready for launch on the 16th - sans pre-order and without a lot of advertising out of the gate - because, frankly, I haven't had the time or the fundage for fanfare. Fingers crossed that everyone who liked Dying Embers shows up for the next book in the SCIU world.
My newsletter went out on Monday. If you missed it, check your spam box. There was a chance to get a PDF ARC in there, and not all the spaces have been filled, so if you want one, there's still a pretty good bet that you'll get one.
I also did the Worldwide Cover Reveal on Friday.
The rest of the week was pretty much devoted to getting ready for the Kid's arrival. She got here yesterday. Smooth flying all the way out and a smooth layover in Chicago. It's awesome having her here. The drive up and back was free from events. We won't discuss the travesty that was dinner out. I'm still irritated at that restaurant and at everyone who has raved about it to us over the past three years. I should've just driven us the rest of the way home and made frozen pizza. Would've saved us money and I wouldn't be sitting here at 3 in the morning still remembering dinner.
In other news, Kira - who is totally xenophobic, as well as being agoraphobic - must remember the Kid because after ten minutes of standoffishness and hiding, she walked up and head-bonked the Kid in the leg, demanding pets and snuggles. And now it's like the Kid wasn't even away for 3 years.
BTW, this is the cleanest my house has been since we moved here. And the Kid was suitably impressed.
Your turn. What went on in your world last week?
Friday, May 6, 2016
Worldwide Cover and Blurb Reveal - Fertile Ground (S.C.I.U. #2)
No consent required.
Adam
Wyte has been nothing special his entire life, but everyone will remember him once
his mission is complete. His diabolical plan to sow his seed and reap sons is
so far along, no one can stop him now. And his carefully chosen list of women
will help him—whether they want to or not.
Justice is essential.
With the
shadow of Jace Douglas’ success hanging over her, Agent Teri Buchanan
transferred away from the S.C.I.U. headquarters intent on proving she’s as good
as the next woman. And if moving to the Detroit branch also lets her bury the
memories of her own attack, even better. When her first assignment means hunting
down a serial rapist turned killer, she can’t let her fears interfere with her
job. Even if she ends up confronting a need to carry out more justice than she ever
received.
----------------------
This is not available for pre-order yet. I plan to have it loaded to Amazon on the 16th. Meanwhile, head on over to Goodreads and Want to Read it.
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Thursday This n That
The only visible difference between a male pileated woodpecker and a female pileated woodpecker is a small red swipe on either side of the beak. I only learned that last month, so we're having fun seeing who's who.
I have two peony plants in the front bed of the 'Sarah Bernhardt' variety. This year, they decided they don't want to be the exact same color. One is white, the other is pale pink like it's supposed to be. In similarly weird plant news, my yellow rose has decided it wants to be dark pink now. (It went feral, I think.)
Yesterday, we were on a walk when I saw something on the road... "Would you look at the size of that nightcrawler! :bends down to pick it up: That's not a nightcrawler. It's an earthworm snake. :gently encourages snake out of the road with toe of shoe: " It was huge even for an earthworm snake - like 8-10 inches. I could've picked it up - earthworm snakes don't bite unless you really piss them off - but Hubs would've been horrified. Then Hubs contemplated using earthworm snakes as bait and whether they'd catch really big fish. LOL
I need to give the cat a bath today. She's okay about it. She just uses her most pitiful meow the whole time. Max, on the other hand, was horrible about baths. He was just getting non-violent in the bathtub when...
I miss Max. :sniffle:
In other news, I'm almost done getting ready for the Kid to arrive. Whatever gets done, gets done. Whatever doesn't, she won't notice anyway. Except bathing the cat. And vacuuming. Somehow since she left, she developed a cat allergy. So, having a clean cat and a well-vacuumed house will help cut down on the amount of antihistamines she'll need to take while she's here. Funny thing is, Kira is actually her cat. I gave her Kira as a birthday present back in 2003. Well, she was the Kid's cat. I think it's more like we're her humans now.
Kira's birthday is Sunday. She'll be 13. We won't be having a cake. Not for her, anyway. It's also Mother's Day and the Kid will be here, so there may be some kind of cake consumed. She'll get a can of her favorite Fancy Feast Cod, Shrimp and Sole pate.
That's it for me today. What have you got for me?
I have two peony plants in the front bed of the 'Sarah Bernhardt' variety. This year, they decided they don't want to be the exact same color. One is white, the other is pale pink like it's supposed to be. In similarly weird plant news, my yellow rose has decided it wants to be dark pink now. (It went feral, I think.)
Yesterday, we were on a walk when I saw something on the road... "Would you look at the size of that nightcrawler! :bends down to pick it up: That's not a nightcrawler. It's an earthworm snake. :gently encourages snake out of the road with toe of shoe: " It was huge even for an earthworm snake - like 8-10 inches. I could've picked it up - earthworm snakes don't bite unless you really piss them off - but Hubs would've been horrified. Then Hubs contemplated using earthworm snakes as bait and whether they'd catch really big fish. LOL
I need to give the cat a bath today. She's okay about it. She just uses her most pitiful meow the whole time. Max, on the other hand, was horrible about baths. He was just getting non-violent in the bathtub when...
I miss Max. :sniffle:
In other news, I'm almost done getting ready for the Kid to arrive. Whatever gets done, gets done. Whatever doesn't, she won't notice anyway. Except bathing the cat. And vacuuming. Somehow since she left, she developed a cat allergy. So, having a clean cat and a well-vacuumed house will help cut down on the amount of antihistamines she'll need to take while she's here. Funny thing is, Kira is actually her cat. I gave her Kira as a birthday present back in 2003. Well, she was the Kid's cat. I think it's more like we're her humans now.
Kira's birthday is Sunday. She'll be 13. We won't be having a cake. Not for her, anyway. It's also Mother's Day and the Kid will be here, so there may be some kind of cake consumed. She'll get a can of her favorite Fancy Feast Cod, Shrimp and Sole pate.
That's it for me today. What have you got for me?
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