2014 in review

Well, we survived the holidays, where we ate too much and sat around enjoying days off and being together. I thought it might be time to do a wrap up of 2014, since I haven’t posted to Ye Olde Blogge in a while.

I’ve been busy writing stuff, when I haven’t been sick. Most of 2014 was spent lying around feeling like crap. It was horrible, and my biggest wish for this new year is to not be sick. Between whatever weird virus-thing I picked up last year — oddly enough, it was on January 4th — and the sinus infection in August, I spent the better part of the year under the weather. Bah, humbug!

Anyway, I’m sure you only really want to know about what’s going on in the chicken coop. I’ve heard you muttering about the lack of updates and cute pictures. Yes, I’m talking about you, don’t try to look innocent, it ain’t working. Sadly, there are no recent pictures, but the girls are doing fine, still laying pretty well. We’ve got a light in the coop that comes on just before dawn and twilight, staying on for about a half hour each time, to give them a little more light so they give us a few eggs, usually three a day.

George is still King of the Coop, and tells the world daily with his crowing. He talks to a couple of other roosters in the area, mostly bragging about his girls, I’m sure. He’s a handsome devil, and knows it.

The garden didn’t produce as much as I’d hoped, what with a late spring and very wet conditions throughout the season. Still, it was worth the trouble, and the basic structure is there for the coming planting season. My brother and I will be working to expand the garden, because we plan to grow some portion of the food for the chickens. The more I can grow/raise myself, the cheaper those eggs get.

I’m still writing. I publish most of my stuff lately into the new Kindle Unlimited program, which works really well for the short stories I have up. I’m trying out a new genre and a new pen name, but still working on the other stuff I had going on. I’m also getting to some more pure romance stories, though science fiction and horror are still my faves.

After reading a recent Dean Wesley Smith blog post, I'm going to work towards achieving what he called Pulp Speed One, which is one million words this year. It sounds like a lot -- well, it is, really -- but broken down into a daily word count it's reasonable and I'm sure I can get there, if I keep working. I picked my One Little Word for 2015: "consistent". My word for last year was "persistent", and I strove to persist in reaching my goals. All in all, I did pretty well.

I’m not sure how much I’ll do on this blog, though I’m hoping to post regularly. I have a blog about Gothic romances that I really want to do something with, and the publishing site I set up earlier. That will be getting the majority of my attention, because business.

The family is doing well, both parental units are maintaining their health, my siblings are doing pretty good, all things considered. And my boys are fine. Number One, Second-of-Three and Sk8monkey say Hi! See them behind me, waving and grinning? Yeah. They’re so cute. <3

And there you have it, folks. You’re all up-to-date on my exciting life, with a promise to write again soon, and I swear I will start taking pictures to post. It's no wonder I still have so much scrapbooking stuff, the way I take pictures.

Ta for now!

An open letter of appreciation to readers from writers.

You may have heard or read about a letter from some authors, about the contract negotiations between Amazon and Hachette, a publishing house. There’s a lot of wrong information, some nasty allegations and flat-out untruths in that letter, and in response many other authors have written their own letter to you, the readers.

You may not have heard anything about this, and maybe you don't care, but I’ll let those who can explain why it's important better than I do so, such as Joe Konrath, who responded to the letter written by the other authors here. Are you confused yet? I know I am.

I signed the letter linked above, but I wanted to also say here on my blog how much I appreciate each and every person who reads anything I write, whether here on this blog, wherever I post around the Internet, and those who read my fiction. Without you, nothing I say would be heard, except in my own head (and that can be very scary, let me tell you).

There’s battle going on between the traditional world of publishing and self-publishing (or indie publishing, if you prefer) and there’s no reason for it. The way we get our work out to the reader shouldn’t matter, just so long as it gets to you. Readers are the only gatekeepers that matter.

Part of this battle is showing up in the way Hachette -- and the other publishers known as the “Big 6”, though there are smaller publishing houses involved as well -- is fighting with Amazon over the price the Zon wants to sell books for (there's probably other stuff as well, but it's being kept secret). It seems Amazon wants no part of the collusion that these publishers have already gotten into trouble with the Department of Justice over. Imagine that.

To get back on track on the subject of this blog post, however, let me say again that I really do thank you for taking time to read anything I write, and if you buy my work that’s good too.

Coming up in future posts are the long-dreaded — I mean, long-awaited! Long-awaited!— post about why I’m going to pen names for my fiction, and I think I need to write about my beans and chickens again, since I got chided for that by somebody who doesn’t even know me. humpf The nerve!

At long last, Zombie Town is here!

After much struggle and a few naughty words, I’ve finally gotten my short story collection, Zombie Town, up on Amazon and Smashwords, where you can download various formats (except for .epub, which I’m having a little trouble with at the mo). The book should filter through and be at the other major and minor retail sites Smashwords distributes to within a few days, I hope.

Rather than publish the stories one-by-one, I decided to make them into a collection. Some of the stories are rather short to put up on their own, unless I do it for free, which yet may happen. I’ve got a couple or three novels to finish first, though.

Those of you who are Constant Readers may notice that the author name is different. I’ve got a post coming up that explains my reasoning in detail (hey, don't be like that! it’s not that bad), but the short version is that I’m using pen names for various genres and keeping my real name for my nonfiction work.

I’m pretty excited to have published another book. It’s been a while, and I’m surprised at how much of the publishing process I’ve forgotten! I got pretty frustrated with getting Smashwords to accept the .epub, and still have to get that uploaded, and both Amazon and Smashwords took forever to load the files.

So that’s the latest news from my world. Upcoming blog posts will cover my re-branding as a writer, an open letter of appreciation to readers, and a program to get books into the hands of prisoners, so stay tuned to this channel.

Meanwhile, back at the chicken coop...

Well, it's going in to week two of being a chicken mama, and the little ladies are growing and doing well. They've begun losing their down and replace it with real feathers, a sign they are getting to the stage where they can be outside. Which won't happen until the coop is built, sometime by the end of next week. I've got to get a materials list so I can hit the big box store for supplies.

Next up:  garden preparations. My brother and Second of Three put up the fence yesterday, so now we need the raised beds built, and soil bought. I'll do that this week, along with another seed and plant buying spree. I can't wait to get my hands in a garden again. Oh, fresh salad greens, how I long for you!

Sales of the charity anthology I spoke about are doing well. I'll graciously concede that it's due far more to the famous authors who contributed, and not my fantastic story. But in my heart, I know it's all about me. It isn't? Wait, what do you mean, I had nothing to do with it? Wah! Sob!

What do David Gerrold and I have in common?

How about Kevin J. Anderson and Ron McLarty? If you guessed that we all have short stories in a charity anthology, you'd be right. How awesome is that? Pretty awesome, if you ask me. Isn't the cover gorgeous?

The collection has all kinds of stories, at flash fiction length (1000 words or less), so there's bound to be something of interest to just about anyone. On sale at Smashwords and Amazon right now. It's edited by Stella Wilkinson, and the cover is by Gale Ramage. If you'd like to read more about the book and the authors, Frank Zubek has some interviews up on his blog. He's also a contributor.

My story, Whither Time, is about a woman betrayed by her husband and trapped in a world just beyond our own. Like a lot of my short stories, the idea for this one came pretty much intact and ready to go, though I did finesse it a bit. It started as a time travel plot, but I just wasn't happy with that idea; I knew it wasn't quite the "vibe" I was going for. After thinking about it for a while, the solution came to me.

Here chick-chick chicken!

I have been a proud chicken mama for more than a day now, and I haven't killed them yet! I'm so proud. The little darlings are actually looking pretty darn good, eating and drinking well and making the cutest little cheep cheep sounds. Sa-weet.

I got three red and three yellow pullets. They are a mix breed type thing. I wanted specific breeds, but since I didn't order from a breeder (what do they call people who raise chickens to sell? Mind is blank.) I had to take what my local Tractor Supply had left. I'm not too disappointed, as I wasn't sure I wanted to spend too much money to start out. Next year I plan to order more layers and some meat chicken breeds.

Belated Happy New Year, and random ramblings.

I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful New Year, and if you're superstitious, that you ate the traditional black eye peas, greens and ham. We had everything but the greens. Yech.

We did do another superstitious thing, though:  I put all the cash I had in an envelope, wrote what we wished for in the new year, and placed it outside the house before midnight. Then Second-of-Three (aka my middle son) brought the envelope in after midnight, as he is the tallest and has the darkest hair.

I forgot to do this last year, and needless to say, money did not come rolling into our house. So I didn't take any chances this year. Sound crazy? Maybe so, but it doesn't cost anything, or hurt anybody, so I'm good.

Despite my best efforts, I still haven't gotten the habit of regular posting on the blog down, and that's one resolution I'll be working on this year. I need to shake things up a bit. I'd been working on a new header, and that will probably get up in the near future. I've been contemplating a new color scheme as well. Who knows what I'll end up with? Well, you will, if you stop by, I guess. har har

I'm continuing to work on the resource page for writers. Thanks to some great and patient help from Second-of-Three, I managed to get links that work, so you can go directly to the subject you're interested in rather than having to scroll down. I've found a few new things to put in. Maybe a "new" icon would be helpful, too. I'll look around for one. And figure out how to make it work with blogger, which can be extremely annoying for me at times.

My writing has suffered over the past couple of years due to issues with my parents' health, as you'll know if you've read here any length of time. I've semi-committed to a challenge over on the kboards, which has the lofty goal of one million words this year. Yes. I am crazy. I'm just hoping to be inspired/shamed/goaded into doing a fourth of that.

I also will be getting back to a low-carb eating plan -- I'm not looking forward to the carb withdrawal, but I'll deal. The first time I did this, I cut down rather than do the famous -- or infamous -- induction levels, and it wasn't too bad. I really need to get some pounds off, and following Dr. Atkins' plan is the only way I can do it.

I've tried just about everything else over the years, short of surgery, and that's not going to happen. And no more repeats of that whole vegetarian thing. I gained 60 pounds! Egads. There's a post on kboards about writers who want to lose weight, too. I spend a lot of time over there, it's the best forum I've found for self-publishers.

So, there you have it, Gentle Reader. The first awesome post of 2014. Aren't you glad you stopped by? I know I'm glad you did. Best wishes to you all for a safe, happy and prosperous year, take care and come back soon.

Thursday Thoughts: Turkey day, and stuff.

So, one week until we here in the USA gorge ourselves with turkey and all the fixings. Oh, I can't wait! Some people will roast (or fry) a bird throughout the year, but I really only like to do it during the holidays.

I'm going to put up the recipe for the dressing I make on Monday, in case someone wants to try it this year. It's pretty simple to make, and doesn't need a bunch of stuff. It's a savory dressing, and it's not stuffing -- I don't like stuffing cooked in the bird. But I don't judge!

I'll also talk about the other stuff we like to have, which I'm warning you is so simple and boring it's insane. I make cranberry sauce from whole berries, very easy and so good! Another thing we do is get the turkey a bit tipsy before he goes in the oven. Yep, a little white wine does amazing things for that old tom.

I'm stunned at how fast the year is coming to an end, and how little writing I'm managing to get done. I feel better about my whole family situation, and I do get in a few word now and again. As I mentioned in the last post, I wrote a short piece to submit to an anthology for charity. Still waiting to here if they accept it. Cross your fingers. :)

I've got some story ideas for some shorts set in a fictional North Carolina town, in the horror genre, that I hope to get to work on soon. Not a zombie in sight so far! And I love writing zombies.

I really want to finish the novel I've got going, and the rewrite on the previously published book, so I can get them out before the end of the year. I just really needed to stop stressing out over stuff so I could get my mojo back. It's coming, but slower than I like.

There you have it, Gentle Readers, another installment on ye olde blogge. Take care, and rest up for T-day!

Recovering from the turkey overload.

Well, folks, it's been a week since we Americans stuffed ourselves into Tryptophan comas and spent the rest of the day lazing around the TV. I'm pretty much recovered, and praise the Pilgrims, no more left overs!

Now I get to do it all over again in twenty-six days.

Don't get me wrong. I love the big turkey-and-all-the-fixings meal. But I can't bear it more than twice a year. After a week of left overs times two, I'm done with the big bird and ready for a cheeseburger.

I've got writing to do, the print version of the novel to finish and publish, and I'm working on redoing my crafting blog and planning on what to put up on the Zibbet site my sister and I have. The shop is currently empty, but with Sis3's own health problems, and our mama's cancer, we haven't put any effort into it.

We closed our booth as well, because we just couldn't squeeze any more time out to keep it up. I miss having the booth, though. I liked arranging things and looking for new ideas for crafts and decor items to put in it. But if I want to make it as a writer, I felt I had to focus more on that in the time I had this year.

So there you have it, Gentle Readers. Keep calm and in case of the zombie apocalypse, hide behind Darryl Dixon.

Witchy books for Halloween promotion.

I'm going to be participating in a special promotion with some other writers over at the kindleboards.com forums, starting October 30 and running through November 1, 2012. If you like books about witches, check out the Facebook page, or the blog. There will be special deals on the books--either free or reduced price--and some giveaways.

I'm in the final stretch of finishing my book, need to tidy up some parts, and send it through a proof-read. I may have mentioned that this book is under a pen name, which I hadn't planned to make a big secret about. It's just different from what I usually write (no zombies! ha ha), so I wanted a different name associated with it. Some day, when I'm famous, the book will be reissued with the "writing as..." tag line.

Hey, a girl can dream, right?

I've been working on the cover--a lot. I couldn't begin to tell you how many different images I've gone through! Finally I decided to go simple. It can always be redone later--one of the joys of self-publishing is how fast changes like that can be made.

Here's what I settled on:

By the way, I made this in my new obsession, Photoshop CS6. I'm amazed how nice that program is. I used to work in GIMP, which is a free program that is totally awesome, but I've wanted to do the 'shop for a while. Someone was nice enough to give the program to me, and I just love it.

The book should be available by Wednesday (depending on how long Amazon takes). I'll have it up on Smashwords as well, where there will be a code to get it free for the three days of the promotion. If you aren't aware, Smashwords has various formats available to download. I will probably have it at Amazon for .99, since you can't go free there (at least, not without a lot of time and hassle to get around the rules) if you aren't in the Select program.

I will be working on formatting the book for print, but that may take a week or so. I have to research the Createspace guidelines some more before I feel confident enough to upload it there. After it's done, the print version will be available at Amazon.

Check back on the first day of the promo for updates. I may be inspired to offer a little giveaway of my own. wink wink nudge nudge

Until next time, Gentle Readers. Keep calm and get your spooky on.

One computer crash later...

So, it finally happened.

Yep. My computer died. Well, actually something on the motherboard died, and I couldn't boot up. Luckily for me, my sons are computer nerds--and I mean that as a compliment, really--and they worked on the problem for me.

At first we thought it was just some bad capacitors, but after replacing them the drive still wouldn't come on, so Number One took the motherboard to his friend and they tried several things, including a new powersupply, but nothing worked.

So my dear boy bought me a second-hand drive, which also has a graphics card, and I am back in business. Sort of. We still need to transfer over the stuff from my harddrive, which fortunately was not affected by the crash/burnout/whatever-the-heck-happened.

Hooray! All my great literature that the world was slavering for is saved! snort

And I know what you're thinking:  Oh, no! How I'd hoped that woman couldn't keep up her soul-wrenching posting schedule from July! Well, the joke's on you, because I'M BA-ACK! ::::insert evil horror movie laugh::::

One good thing about being without my computer was the amount of other things that got done. Like that pile of sewing that's been sitting around for months. It's all done except for one pair of pants to repair for Number One. I fixed some shirts for SecondofThree, and my father has five work shirts that were long-sleeved but are now a more comfortable short sleeve version.

I still have some ideas and prototype patterns for some clothes I want to sew for myself--I've become infatuated with a sort of Bohemian/urban prairie/Victorian grunge style lately--but that's gone back to the to-do pile for now as I have writerly things to catch up on.

Well, that's all for now, Gentle Readers. Take care and remember to backup your data.

Oh, no, she's blogging again!

I really tried to restrain myself, and let all the excitement from my outrageous posting streak die down. But I just can't help myself.

I know. I'm so horrible. Subjecting you poor readers to this rambling mess I call my life. So sad.

BUT I have writing news, and the world must hear it! I finally got off my butt and put up one of my stories, which has been on Smashwords for like over a year now, on Amazon.

The big news is I changed the cover on my suburban zombie tale. I like the cover much better now, really gives it the creepy vibe I was trying to get the first time.

My GIMP skills have improved a lot over the last year--thank you, youtube--plus I found an image that was awesome. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I had to make it work, even though it was an odd, narrow rectangle shape.

Add in a really nice rustic wall image, and I had the basic cover. The two images were close in color and tone, so I didn't have to work too hard matching them up. I colored the eyes, but left the rest of the image alone.

The erase and smudge tools got a lot of use this time, and I got an unexpected grunge-look overlay by partially erasing a layer that helped blend everything together.

Here's a comparison of the two covers. The original:

And the new one:

I still need to update my slideshow, there's more rewrite on my novel to be done, and I have a couple of short stories to finish (and find cover images for), but it's early and far too hot already to go outside.


Well, there you have it, Gentle Readers. Another tale of a struggling author in this brave new electronic publishing world. Take care and read on.

News about Mama, and just me stuff...

Hello, from the world's worst blogger! HA! Okay, so I'm probably not the worst, but my posting frequency sure leaves something to be desired. In my own defense, I will say that I was sick all week (again).

It seems I had some infection in my sinuses that just had to come out, which resulted in swollen lymph glands, sore throat, fever and just general yucky feelings. Between the pain, not sleeping and not eating, it was pretty rough.

But, I am on the mend, so... hooray! My mother will be happy, because I've been hidden away in my little cave since the last thing she needs right now is to be sick like that. It would probably put her in the hospital, and I certainly don't want that. She has enough going on with the chemo.

Mama has now lost all of her gorgeous, thick, salt and pepper hair. It went quick, in about a week, beginning shortly after her second round of chemo. I'd meant to get a picture before it was all gone, but with one thing or another didn't manage it before she was bald.

A friend of Sis2, who had fought her own battle with breast cancer, gave Mama some turbans and caps to wear, and my father brought home some of those caps like food workers wear, which helped contain the massive amounts of shedding hair--I mentioned she had thick hair, right? Yeah, really thick.

Those are fine for when she's at home, but Mama had been wanting a wig for going out in. Though she really rocks those turbans. Seriously. So about a week before I got sick, we went to the local Hospice's thrift store, where Mama had seen some wigs before. We like to support Hospice whenever we can, as we've had family members and friends get good care through the organization.

We hit the motherload that day, let me tell you--all kinds of nice-looking, well cared for, quality wigs for the whopping big price of $15. Including the wig stand.

So that's where I've been lately. I did have enough energy at the first of the week to redo my novel's cover, and I decided to go with my alternate title. I'll have more details about the book later, with a cover shot and a blurb--also called the back cover copy.

Take care, Gentle Readers. Until next we meet.

I'm baaa-ack! I think.

So, you may have noticed I've been away from blog-land for a while. It wasn't planned, at all, I assure you! What happened was, Mama went in for a one-day surgery to remove a couple of cancerous spots in her breast, and things went downhill from there.

This was a week ago Tuesday. All seemed to go well, and we took her home around 4:30 p.m. Around 7:30 she called Sis2 about some swelling and tightness in the breast. By 9:30 she was feeling very lightheaded, and fainted twice. My father called and said he needed help getting Mama to the hospital, so I came over. (I may have mentioned before that we live next door to each other.)

It seemed like we would be able to drive her to the emergency room ourselves, but when Mama passed out again we knew we were in trouble and called 9-1-1.

Our local emergency people are great, by the way.

Once at the hospital, we thought things were improving, with her receiving some IV fluid, and thought we would all come home. Then Mama's doctor decided she should stay overnight, and we waited for her to be moved to a room before we left.

Well, you know how this is going to go, don't you? Right.

We waited, but no room movement was forth-coming, and around 3:30 a.m. Mama suddenly turned to Sis1 and me and said she was starting to feel "woozy" again. We got a nurse in, and within moments Mama was having a seizure. Yikes! That was new.

As the two of us squeezed behind the door out of the way, we watched about eight people work on our mother, whose bed by that time was tilted head-down. She was pretty much out of it, though she could feel everything they were doing. The last reading on the monitor showed a blood pressure of 60/30, and the ER staff was having a hard time finding a vein they could use.

Anyway, to cut out a lot more crazy-making details, the doctors and nurses got her back, and she ended up spending what was left of the night in CCU, being moved to a regular room later. We brought her home on Friday the 13th! I guess thirteen really is her lucky number.

Things are going better--barring the other night, when Mama had a spell which Daddy described as "bleeding all over the place", which as you can imagine sent me over there in a panic (turned out to be normal but rather scary seepage from the surgery site).

After her visit to an oncologist, she found out she has a bad type of cancer and will need chemotherapy, which we had hoped we could avoid. But she's alive, and with any luck, I can start to sleep at night again.

It should come as no surprise that I haven't made much progress on editing the book, although I did get most of a short story down the other day. It's another one about zombies, which considering the last two weeks probably shouldn't surprise me.

So, Gentle Readers, this was my family's tale of woe, hope you weren't bored. Remember to kiss your loved ones, and make them get those mammograms!

Smashwords summer/winter sale!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm participating in the sale over at Smashwords. For the month of July both of the short stories I have there are free.

Yes, that's right--you can download the stories for free (they're usually $0.99 each)!

The links to the left go directly to each story's page, just click on the cover. Then use the code SSWSF at checkout.

The anthology is of course not included in this sale (for one thing, it's on Amazon, and for another, it's not my anthology, I'm just one of the included authors).  

There are lots of authors participating in the sale, with prices ranging from free to 75% off cover price. To get to the sales, on the Smashwords home page click on the link on the left. Each book/story has its own coupon code, depending on the discounted price.

I hope you go check it out, and find something good to read!

Have a sparkling good Independence Day, and stay safe, Gentle Readers.

The world has not ended.

Well, it's been two weeks, as of yesterday, that Sk8monkey got his driver's license and I have survived! I've had to do some painful apron string cutting, but I think I'll get through it.

All kidding aside, Sk8monkey is a good driver, and with a few exceptions when he needed minor directions, he is getting around the county--even going to Roxboro with his girlfriend--really well.

I'm so proud of this boy, my "oops" baby, who is smart, funny, and kind. Don't know where he gets that from, cause he's nothing like me! snort

In other news, my writing is coming along in a pleasing manner. I have the following to report:

• finished a short story, ready to edit
• almost done with another
• about halfway through a novella
• making progress on my novel

The short stories I think will be self-published on Kindle, and the novella is for a contest on the Absolute Write horror genre board.

The novel I'm not sure about. I may submit it to a print publisher and see if it's accepted in the usual way, or I might just jump in and put it on Kindle and Smashwords. I haven't decided yet.

I'm still awaiting the publication of the anthology I'm in, just all jiggly with anticipation. I hope my story stands up well amongst the others, and that readers like it.

Well, I'll keep this short, since I overloaded everyone with the last post.

Until next time, Gentle Readers.