Garage Sale!

Nope not here!

Our neighborhood is having a multiple-house garage sale today, including Casa Harden. I admit I'm on an unpacking and cleaning binge now that A Cup of Conflict is out in the world.

(For those of you waiting on the paperback edition, I literally just received the cover wrap. I'll uploaded the files to the printer later tonight. Depending on how fast they review the book, retailer sites should start poplulately in a week.)

Anyway,  I'm sitting in the shade of our Japanese maple and getting words done on Death Goddess Fighting in between customers.

I'm still planning on a Kickstarter for The Books of Apep series in October, which Death Goddess Fighting is Book 2. It's jamming along and I'm feeling pretty good about getting close to done over the next two weeks. The only change might be moving the Kickstarter to the middle or later part of October rather than the beginning. The monster doorstop that A Cup of Conflict became took longer than I'd planned.

Indian summer is upon us after the last three weeks of cooler temperatures, and the trees are changing their outfits before dropping their dresses entirely. Time to put up the Halloween decorations!

P.S. If you want to be notified when the Kickstarter goes live, sign up for my mailing list. (Your informationis never, sold, bartered, or traded!)

If you want to read the sample chapters of the first book of The Books of Apep, Death Goddess Walking, start with Chapter 1 on my website!

When Things Go Weird and an Update

It's the last week of August, and it's normally hotter than heck.

Instead, it's been cool and rather rainy. I'd hoped to use the dog days of summer to dry out the last of the flooded paperwork so I could shred it. But alas, Mother Nature had other ideas.

Not that I'm complaining! We really needed a good soaking rain if the cracks in our yard's soil were any indication.

This morning was so chilly I broke down and made a cup of coffee for my morning caffeine fix instead of my usual summer ice tea or Pepsi Zero. But this cool respite won't last. It's supposed to be back up in the 80's next week.

In the meantime, I finished putting together all my files necessary for A Cup of Conflict Monday and sent them to my formatter. Tuesday and Wednesday, Google was acting a little wonky so I didn't trust it to post any updates. I focused on getting back into writing Death Goddess Fighting. Today's the first time I've been able to post to the blog without it doing weird stuff. However, I'll get back DGF this afternoon after some other administrative minutiae are dealt with. The writing is going smoothly for now, but then, this series has been simmering in my head for over fifteen years.

In the evenings, I've been putting together the pieces for the Kickstarter for The Books of Apep series. I think this will be a fun and entertaining campaign. At least, I'm having fun doing it! Plus, you'll get the series for a little bit of a discount.

But if you prefer to buy the new series via your favorite retailer, The Books of Apep will be released through to the general public starting in January.

Editing Through Annoyance Trials

It never fails. As soon as I put in my earbuds to edit, someone in the house needs something. *sigh*

Despite the DH and the puppies' neediness plus having GK home, I managed to make some progress on A Cup of Conflict edits. Just not as much as I would have liked because it's a fucking huge novel. Not to mention wrapping up a ton of loose threads along the way.

In the meantime, the son's visit was a rather pleasant affair. No bitching about Mom's cooking this time. (I think having to eat MREs during the twelve-day prick-waving contest between Israel and Iran had something to do about the lack of complaints.) No dude-bro attitude. I managed not to ask him what he needed because that's maternal interference in his male autonomy according to him.

In particular, I didn't say a damn thing about getting him a AAA card, making sure his debit card was reactivated by the current bank, or getting him some cash for just in case on his drive to the next base.

Anyway, GK left for his new duty station in the early morning hours. This is the first time he's less than a two days' drive from us, so he's already said he'll be home of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

At eight a.m., DH got a call from GK just before DH jumped into the shower. (I was awakened by Darling Husband's voice. He does not know how fucking loud he is when he's on the phone.) From his tone, I knew he was talking to GK and something bad had happened. My first thought was "Shit! He's been in an accident!"

Well, he sort of was. He hit a pothole an hour outside of Knoxville, Tennessee and got a flat tire. He managed to make it to the Pilot at the next exit. He didn't have a AAA card with him. No cash. And the computers at the Pilot refused to recognize his VISA card. That's when he panicked and called DH.

There's not a whole lot we could do since we're 300 miles away.

Somehow, GK limped his car to a tire retail place. Except when they got it on the lift, it wasn't the tire. The rim had bent when he hit the pothole. The very sweet guys at the tire center managed to find a rim for the wide-body version of GK's car, and managed to make it work. The kid's on his way to his fort, and all's semi-well with the universe.

But I was wound for sound because it annoys me that our relationship is still at the stage where I know nothing because I'm a parent and a woman. And DH was expecting me to wave a magic wand and miraculously fix everything.

Which, even if I could, I'm not coherent after four hours of sleep. *sigh*

So after another five hours of sleep, I fled to Starbucks to get some words in of Death Goddess Fighting because the Subconscious is good at relaxing me when she can go play.

It helped. It helped a lot. So, now I can spend the rest of the week editing. 

Hump Day Already?

This week is going too fast. There's a list of things to do that I've been chipping away at as well as splitting my time between editing A Cup of Conflict and writing Death Goddess Fighting.

 The dogs have been bathed. The Princess Pup is easy, but the Grandpuppy needs an extra pair of hands since I can no longer lift fifty-five pounds, much less in the form of a wriggling black mixed breed who detests baths with a passion.

All bedding has been changed and washed since the puppies are clean. I started cleaning bathrooms, but only got as far as the toilets yesterday.

I'm down to the last box of paperwork that drowned in the basement flood in May. The rest have been dried, shredded, and disposed of.

I still need to repack GK's kitchenware in the plastic tub I bought. Thankfully, he doesn't need that stuff right away since he'll be in the barracks at his next duty station.

Ironically, I've been cooking a lot. GK is tired of DEFAC food and MREs. However, he doesn't seem to understand that I am not a DEFAC, nor do I open at five p.m. But having a healthy, physically active, twenty-something male means cooking greater amounts than usual and no leftovers.

And he'll have to wait for cheeseburgers until after DH and I get home from yoga class tonight. LOL

I hope y'all are enjoying the last vestiges of summer!

Computers, Ice, and Naps

Time got away from me over the last couple of days.

First, the hard drive caddy for Baby Blue 2.0 arrived. I bought a replacement for Baby Blue because I can no longer update her. Baby Blue 2.0 is a rebuilt, higher end version of the same computer model from Dell. Even though a decent solid state drive ("SSD")and a new battery had been installed, it was missing the caddy and some essential screws, which meant the SSD kept sliding out of its socket. So, Tuesday morning was spent installing the caddy and screws. I now have a working travel laptop again!

Tuesday afternoon was dedicated to fixing the cover and a typo on the interior of the paperback version of Magick and Murder (Millersburg Magick Mysteries #3). I didn't leave enough dead space next to the edge, so the trimmer at the printer was whacking off part of the three. I'm waiting on the author's copy to double check the spacing. I'm waiting for my formatter to return from a trip before the typo in the ebook is fixed.

(Hey, I know my limitations with tech.)

On Tuesday evening, I sprinted with writing buddies in Boise, so I got a couple of pages written on Death Goddess Fighting (The Books of Apep #2).

Wednesday morning, I went to yoga class, and...

...fell asleep in my recliner while I was going through email. *sigh*

I woke up shortly after 5 PM. DH and I had ordered new phones because several of our apps on our old phones were no longer working. We both rely on our phones for business. A fully functioning phone is necessary.

Anyway, both phones had arrived, and we went over to the AT&T store for assistance in setting them up and transferring our data from the old device to the new.

(Even DH admits to his limitations with some of the newer tech.)

We picked up dinner and spent the rest of the evening installing the necessary apps, syncing with our other devices and accounts, etc.

After DH went to bed, I started writing the first chapter of Divination and Distribution (Millersburg Magick Mysteries #5) to include it as a sample on Feline Navidad (Millersburg Magick Mysteries #4).

As for today? Well, it depends on whether the ice from last night's storm has melted sufficiently for me to safely pick up my drugs and the Grandpuppy's.

And for the rest of the day, I need to finish that first chapter for Divination and Distribution and edit Feline Navidad since my formatter should be back by tomorrow.

I'm making progress on my stories, just not as fast as I would like at times.

It's Been a Busy Monday and I Can't Shut Off My Mind

I know, I know. Monday is usually Movie Mania Day, but DH and I haven't gone to the theater in a while. That will probably change after the Super Bowl. We're cutting out a streaming service.(We've already axed Apple+.) Plus, we've got the monthly deal at our local AMC theater. The subscription pays for itself in just two movies, and there's a few new flicks coming out this month I absolutely want to see. (Hint: Captain America 4 starts to lay the groundwork for the X-men to join the MCU.)

Our 2024 returns were electronically filed tonight. Seriously, this is the earliest I've ever had my taxes done, but dammit, I want my refund before a certain douche bro raids the IRS.

After I dropped off the check for out new CPA, I finish the first draft of Feline Navidad this afternoon in a rush of mad typing at Starbucks.

Tonight, I worked on Death Goddess Fighting while sprinting with gal pals in Idaho.

So, tomorrow will be my breather day. A day between writing and editing where I work on some other creative things. I sorted through dolls and came across some original Jem & the Holograms dolls.

These figures were the reason I started into repainting and rerooting dolls. These poor toys were ones I'd stripped for clothing and accessories I was missing from my collection. I couldn't throw them away or resell them. The animated show meant too much to me.

As I was working, I got to thinking. It's been ten years since the disastrous Jon Chu big screen adaption failed on its first week in theaters. Seriously, when DH and I walked out of Wicked two and a half months ago, he asked me what I thought.

The first thing out of my mouth: "At least, Jon Chu didn't fuck up this one."

I can't blame everything on Mr. Chu. Hasbro threw an easy nine figures to do decent versions of Transformers and G.I. Joe, but only threw a measly $5M into the Jem production.

Anyway, Jem & the Hologram's fortieth anniversary is this year. I think it's time to give the girls a makeover.

And that, gentlefolk, is the hamster wheel of my mind.