Just Another Manic Monday

I spent the weekend putting all the little pieces of my upcoming Kickstarter campaign for The Books of Apep series together. Today, I'm finetuning everything before I send the project to the Kickstarter peeps for approval. It's been three years since I did the Millersburg Magick Mysteries Kickstarter. A lot has changed since 2023.

Besides the fact that I no longer need glasses to drive. LOL

The Kickstarter peeps have added a ton of new tools to make things a lot easier for campaigners and backers. I'm trying a couple of the new things with this campaign. And I plan to use a few more with the October Kickstarter for the Justice 10th Anniversary hardback editions.

If you've never done a book campaign on Kickstarter or haven't done one in a while (like me) I highly recommend Anthea Sharp's Kickstarter for Authors. The second edition lays out all the recent changes in an easy to understand format.

(And yes, I stole her name for my Justice series heroine.)

Unfortunately, the many problems I've encountered have nothing to do with Kickstarter itself. It has everything to do with ordering certain crafting material from foreign countries and sending physical rewards overseas. The ongoing trade wars the U.S. president started when he took office has done a ton to hurt small companies like mine, even though he claims to be pro-business. That's why I'm starting over with a very simple, no-bling campaign. E-books are easy to send anywhere in the world, but physical goods have gotten ridiculously expensive to ship.

*sigh*

We'll so how things go with the two campaigns I've planned for 2026, and look over the data before I map out next years production schedule.

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

No words. Just the beat.

Mother Nature Is a Tease

So much for the low 80's that were promised after Monday's rain. Yesterday, we were back up in the 90's. And again today.

So, I've been hiding at Starbucks to work on Death Goddess Redeeming. Yay for trenta ice tea with a free refill!

I thought this story would be easy, but Isis's avatar is dealing with the emotional trauma of her original husband's death and her own flight to save her unborn son while protecting her charge.

It's bring back my own fears of when I was pregnant with Genius Kid. I thought I'd dealt with that shit, but apparently Subconscious feels the need to dredge up all the pain, grief, and anger in order write Reyna.

Thank goodness, I passed the book's halfway point yesterday. Things will get better during the downhill slide to the finish.

I hope! 

A Rainy Monday That's Perfect

Climate change is a bitch! Last week, it was near 100 degrees in Northwest Ohio. That's just not normal!

Thankfully, it's been raining off and on here, and it's 25 degrees cooler! The plants outside already look a lot greener than they did yesterday under the massive heat dome perched over the eastern portion of the continent.

Seriously, it's hard to think, much less write, when it's that hot. Which was why I spent two and a half hours a Starbucks under their blessed A/C and a extra-large cup of their ice tea and got more words written in one day than I had the previous week.

I'm roughly at the halfway point of Death Goddess Redeeming. The info for the paperback covers for Death Goddess Walking and A Barrel of Vintner have been sent to their respective cover designers.

So, I'm off to get some words in before we meet the Niece and  her parents for dinner tonight at our favorite diner. The food's relative cheap and oh-so-good!

All in all, a much more pleasurable Monday than the last one. 

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

Hard to believe this song came out over twenty years ago!

Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale!

In my efforts to edit and write yesterday, I totally forgot to post this announcement!

Yes, I'm participating in this year's Smashwords July sale! Every novel and novella are half-price! All short stories are free!

This will probably be the last time I do a sale on Smashwords, so grab what you want while you can. Especially if you're inside during this magnificent heat dome covering the eastern side of the North American continent.

(Not even our dogs want to go outside in this Mad Max hellscape!)

Here's the link to my books! 

Monday Got Away from Me

Yesterday was just f**king busy.I finished putting together a bookcase. The plan is to finish cleaning out the storage unit. Which means I need to get the home library's bookcases out and cleaned up, as well as putting together the new cases so I have enough room for everything. Anyway, yesterday's job would have been done a lot faster if the Princess Puppy and the Grandpuppy didn't insist on supervising the process.

I also FINALLY got the Outlook Groups for my publishing e-mail lists pulled from the previous laptop to the new one. UGH! I hate Microsoft sometimes. "Let us handle the information transfer, but we will leave out random shit!" Anyway, the newsletters will be out later this week.

I reviewed everything I need to do for the Kickstarter that's supposed to launch this month. I'm a lot closer to being ready tan I thought. The last things I need to do for the campaign are to draft the story portion and take photo of the swag that will be offered.

I attended last night's yoga class and managed not to cry. Our instructor is closing her studio at the end of the month thanks to the current economic crisis. I wouldn't have been able to go if my readers hadn't graciously bought lots of copies of A Barrel of Vintner and Amazon hadn't paid me early. Tonight is the last night, and I may lose it at the end.

And last night, I took a much needed break since my sprinting partner wasn't available since she was babysitting her niece. I watched The Last Stand with DH and then resumed reading Jonathan Moeller's Ghost in the Hunt.

None of this may seem like a lot, but every niggling thing takes time, effort, and concentration.

But hey, things are getting done! And in time, it will all turn into something beautiful!

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

A power anthem to end LGBTQIA+ month! Thanks for joining me!

I Love an Artist Who Doesn't Take Himself Seriously

How can you not love Mark Hamill? He has the best Star Wars jokes in the galaxy!

Real Summer Is Here!

I got spoiled with last week's super-pleasant, super-sunny mid-70's weather. Mother Nature ratcheted the temps back to the 80's today. The A/C has been running most of this afternoon. Tomorrow morning's rain front will cool things back down to the 70's for a couple days. And then...

It'll be in the 90's, baby! With lots of fireworks in the neighborhood!

I'm glad I grabbed a bottle of calming chews for the Princess Pup and the Grandpuppy during last month's dog supply run! Neither of them shake in sheer terror like poor Haley did decades ago, but they feel the need to reply to every little crack and boom with three times the barking. Honestly, the calming chews are for mine and DH's sanity, not the dog's.

In the meantime, I finished proofing the paperback of A Barrel of Vintner in the wee hours of this morning. My lovely formatter has already sent the final files back to me by the time I rolled out of bed and grabbed my first cup of coffee. Now, it's just a matter of getting everything uploaded and letting the retailer process roll through.

Which means paperbacks should be available for order late next week. Not in time for the July 4th festivities, but definitely for any other vacations for this summer.

In the meantime, I'm trying to wrap up edits on Death Goddess Fighting and getting words in on Death Goddess Redeeming while taking occasional forays into A Sprout of Wild for a palate cleanser.

I hope the rest of you are enjoying a lovely slice of summer sun and fun!