It's a Monday

I did not get all the proofing and editing done over the weekend that I'd planned. But I made DH happy by taking him to Dietsch's, a hometown shop where the ice cream is made on the premises! It's amazing what a caramel cashew sundae do for a man's mood. I also made scallops and spaghetti in a lemon garlic cream sauce for Father's Day/Litha.

Today, I'm trying to finish the final proofing for the paperback version of A Barrel of Vintner. I thought I had a fairly clean manuscript when the ebook was published in April. Alas, I was wrong! But I'm trying to make things right!

Unfortunately, today was also the semi-annual dental exam. I'm always paranoid that the dentist will find something expensively wrong. But it was an observation that I had a LOT of caffeine staining on my teeth.

Hey, I admit I have addiction, but sometimes, I also need something to sip on when I'm going through a manuscript for the umpteenth time. Not even my own action-adventure stories can keep the eyelids open when the entire text is nearly memorized. And there in lies the reason for the caffeine. I need to be awake to smash the typos with my shoe!

(Not literally, but I view them as the spiders I do not want crawling into my mouth while I'm sound asleep.)

At least, I don't have to cook tonight since there's plenty of leftover scallops and spaghetti for dinner tonight.

Now, back to the proofing!

Busy Summer Day

I don't remember having a lazy summer since my sister was born. Then came my brother. The summer after kindergarten, we moved to the family farm. Fifty-four years later, I still haven't had the proverbial lazy summer day.

This morning started with mailing bills and a 90-day notice to the storage unit place. We're getting the last of our boxes out, come hell or high water.

I then went to Starbucks for two hours to get words in on Death Goddess Redeeming.

Got home for DH to point out I forgot to drop off the Grandpuppy's stool sample at the vet's. Which was still sitting in the fridge. Don't worry. It was double-sealed.

On the way home again, I stopped for gas so DH can drive to the stadium up in Toledo for the Flag City Phantoms last home game. I also bought a lime to make the pico de gallo for tonight's dinner.

Seriously, there's nothing like fresh, homemade pico de gallo!

The rest of tonight will be spent editing Death Goddess Fighting and proofing the paperback of A Barrel of Vintner around dinner and catsitting. A visit with the Niece's cat Miss M with require allergy and decongestant meds a half hour prior to attending the Dark Queen.

When we get home, I'll probably spend the rest of the evening working on beaded bookmarks for the upcoming Kickstarter while a movie plays in the background.

I hope the rest of you can enjoy a lazy summer weekend!

Fast Trips, Editing, and Proud Parents

GK was officially promoted to sergeant on May 1st. DH and I drove down to his base on Sunday, the formal ceremony occurred Monday morning, and we dove home yesterday. Thankfully, DH did most of the driving so I could get some editing done on a completed book. (No, it wasn't A Sprout of Wild!) The whirlwind trip took a lot of planning and extraneous minutia, but it was totally worth it!

For various reasons, including the COVID pandemic, DH and I've never been able to attend any of GK's ceremonies. The kid kept saying we didn't have to come to this one. But I insisted, telling him I wanted to attend ONE adult recognition ceremony.

You see, he didn't graduate from high school. He dropped out for reasons DH and I understood and supported. In our white-collar town, something like this was a major scandal, but none of the three of us cared. Not every person is cut out for cookie-cutter classroom bullshit.

During the ceremony, his 1st sergeant and captain said some wonderful things about GK's service. Their words were genuine and sincere. At the end of the ceremony, GK was called upon to make a speech. GK thanked those who had mentored him and recognized the efforts of his fellow soldiers in getting the job done. It was a humble and sweet speech from an accomplished young man who had failed his public speaking class in his teen years because of severe anxiety.

To say DH and I are proud of the man our son has become is an understatement.

When the unit was dismissed at the end, GK said he needed to take care of a couple things and then he'd meet us for dinner. His captain overheard, came over to us, and said, "Harden, you're done for today. Go spend some time with your parents."

Sarcasm, an appreciation for SF&F, and a love of chocolate are pretty much the only things GK inherited from me. He got everything else from DH. However, we both love him and are proud of him. He's everything we could want in our progeny.

And now when he calls, I'll say, "Hey, Sarge! What's up?"

Another Manic Monday

Last week, Darling Husband and I spent a few days in Georgia visiting Genius Kid. The spring weather was wonderful, though the amount of tree pollen in the air left something to be desired. However, I ALWAYS take my allergy meds when I travel. Overall though, the people in Augusta are incredibly friendly, and we had a lovely time.

On the way home, we stopped in Columbia, SC, to visit the friend who originally set us up. We spent the night with her before heading back to Ohio. We stopped in Cincinnati to have dinner with DH's best friend and his wife.

All in all, a good trip with too much good food.

It wasn't all fun and games. I wrote and edited on the trip. Prior to leaving, I placed A Barrel of Vintner and Death Goddess Walking on preorder on Amazon. A Barrel of Vintner is also up on the other retailer sights. So I need to set up Death Goddess Walking on the rest of the retailers.

One of the books has been fully edited and delivered to my formatter. I'm 75% through the second book and hope to finish it up today.

I also need to get some bills paid, correspondence sent to our hospital (they forgot to bill me for a check-up back in 2024!), and wade through all the e-mails and snail mail I've received while on the road. Then there's the piddly domestic stuff like picking up prescriptions, washing the laundry from the trip, and putting away clean dishes.

To top everything off, our brand-new roof has a leak, and we need to make some phone calls about that!

However, I have taken a few minutes to admire the spring flowers that were blooming when we arrived home, and I'm giving extra snuggles to the Princess Pup and the Grandpuppy. They both detest the Doggie Hotel even though the staff spoils them rotten.

 I hope everyone is whittling though their own to-do list and enjoying a wonderful spring day! 

Editing! Oh, Yes, I'm Editing!

Monday morning,  I started editing Death Goddess Walking.

For the third time.

 Why? Because I kept getting interrupted with life stuff. I did my first round shortly after finishing the manuscript and sent it to my alpha reader. Then, somehow, I had partial second-round edits in two different files.

Whoops!

So, now I'm picking through files to make sure all the second-round edits are in one file. And I'm finding a few more typos in the process.

I'm really hoping to get it done today. I'm ready to jump back in to working on A Barrel of Vintner.

Why? So I can get back to writing new stuff. As necessary as editing is, it can be incredibly boring.

YMMV! 

Thank God It's Friday!

But not Joe Friday!

Guess you need to be a Boomer or older GenX to get that joke.

Anyway...

It's been a bit of a crazy week. Taxes were completed, filed, and...

Can you believe DH and I already got our refund back? It shocked the crap out of both of us. It means the IRS is rubberstamping returns, and I really, REALLY hope that doesn't  come back to bite us in the butt once the current fascist regime is, um, gone. (I was about to say "overthrown", but I know some asshat or Google itself will report me as unpatriotic.)

Tuesday I jumped back into A Barrel of Vintner, only to realize I'd dropped two subplots that need to be woven in since they relate to the last two novels. Once I finished cursing myself, I started cycling back through to add the text needed and straighten out some issues with this story's timeline. So, if you check the word count on the reader blog, it will be lower than usual because I was doing a lot of editing as I went through the chapters. Which is fine because it means less work when I do the actual copyedits.

Then I went out to dinner with DH and some of his old friends. They get together once a month at my favorite restaurant in town. Usually it's an enjoyable hour or two. This time however, I discovered just how bigoted they are. One person was complaining about one of their children cutting off contact with her. The truth is that the child (who is in their 30's) in question is non-binary and the person cannot accept the child as they are. While everyone else was cooing about how the child will come around, I nearly bit through my tongue to keep from telling the person how hurtful they were being to their child. Luckily, I kept it to one margarita, or else I probably would have unloaded on the person.

On the way home, I told DH I probably wouldn't go with him to another one of these dinners. There's a couple of his friends I really like, but it's not worth hearing someone who sounds just like my own mother getting all self-righteous. There's not enough tequila in the world to trade for my peace and sanity. *sigh*

I've managed to attend yoga class three days this week. My body isn't sure whether to thank me or curse me. Why? Because every time we have a weather front come through, my knees complain. Rather loudly, too.

On the other hand, Ohio's February fake spring arrived, and it has melted a good chunk of the 13+ inches of snow on the ground. Hopefully, the weather stays sunny and nice over the weekend so the pups can get some outdoor exercise. We haven't been able to take walks or play for fear of frostbite because it's been that effing cold for the last four weeks.

Today, I need to pay bills and make out a grocery list since it's the middle of the month. Tonight is an early Valentine's celebration and catsitting. The rest of the weekend will be cleaning the house interspersed with watching the Winter Olympics.

And I need to finish cycling through the last ten chapters I wrote. 

So what about you guys? Any big plans for the weekend, or are you just relaxing?

Writing and Editing

I opened a new post for this blog yesterday, and...

Totally forgot to write it. LOL

The check engine light came on in our everyday vehicle while DH drove up to Detroit to pick me up at the airport eleven days ago. Yesterday was the first opening our mechanic had. So, I needed to be up early. I followed DH over to the mechanic. Thankfully, it was not a worse case scenario when they called later in the afternoon.

However, I skipped yoga class because I had a massive to-do list. I got some breakfast, started on my list, and...

Yep, I fell asleep on my recliner.

I woke up in a bit of a panic because I needed to run two errands before the facilities closed at five p.m. After I got those done, I went to Starbucks for some serious writing. I'm closing in on finishing Feline Navidad in another day or two.

When I got home, I made dinner, watched some Jeopardy, wrote some more on Feline Navidad and edited a Alter Ego story that needed a new cover before I republish it. Basically, I worked until the Princess Pup nagged me into going to bed.

Never did look at this blog again until this morning.

Well, part of the massive to-do list is running and verifying reports before I take the mass of data to the meeting with our new CPA on Friday.

 Thankfully, there's four more days to get stuff done! I'm not underwater yet!

Gaining Traction

Our little town has a huge number of restaurants per capita. That also means we have an equally huge number of coffee shops.

I had really looked forward to the end of the pandemic so I could go back to the George House near the University of Findlay campus. Unfortunately, it has gone out of business. The Timmies near our house had reduced their hours. The staff at the Timmies across town glare at you if you dare to sit and eat at one of their tables, nevermind being in your laptop. Cafe Amici has excellent coffee and no parking since it's downtown.

Why am I talking about coffee shops? Because sometimes, I need to get out of the house in order to write.

DH and GK used to laugh at my because I'd circulate from room-to-room on the first floor. When that didn't work, I go to the neighborhood Barnes & Noble or one of the nearby Starbucks.  I know it's such a cliche. Also, I don't know why a change of scenario works to unstick my writing, but it does.

Best of all though, we now have two standalone Starbucks in town.

I've been stuck since the beginning of the year. Normally, I'd have half a novel done by now, but I'm struggling with edits since November. The cataract surgeries didn't help. Neither did my normal trigger of cleaning the bathroom. We bought this house so I could have my own office for crying out loud! And all I do is stare at the boxes I haven't unpacked yet.

So this morning, I grabbed Baby Blue and my Kylo Ren flashdrive and drove to the closest standalone Starbucks.

It worked! Solutions started clicking. My grilled cheese sandwich even got cold as I fixed the issues on the current manuscript. I came home feeling pretty good. I may have to go to Starbucks every day next week to keep up the momentum, but it'll be worth it.

I Should Not Write the Two Months After a Parent's Funeral

I was doing one last proofing pass on Invasion! before formally launching it. And I got to the last four chapters and wondered, "What the fuck was I thinking?"

When I checked my calendar, I realized they had been written shortly after my mother's funeral back in October. *facepalm* Seriously, there were sentences in there that made absolutely no sense. And none of this registered in my brain when I did the first editing pass back in November.

So I've spent the last couple of days, well, not really fixing the book. More like re-writing the last quarter of it.

I know there are times I don't hit the mark with readers. But despite some people's reviews, I do try to put out a quality product. This is one of those times where I needed to take a step back, kick myself in the ass, and fix the damn book.

It's going to be another week or so before Invasion! is released.

More Drizzles, More Editing

Most of our spring flowers survived Monday's snow. The first bunch of daffodils to bloom were already on their way out. The heavy slush merely accelerated the process. And I found decongestant in stock at the grocery store this week!

*damn allergies*

It's feeling more like spring. Warm drizzlies were just starting as Bella and I stepped outside for her constitutional. However, she got her hair and nails done yesterday, so she had no desire to sniff around after her business was finished. She's a princess pup after all.

I'm trying to wrap up the last proofing of some things. Later tonight, I'll be loading the stretch rewards into BookFunnel to send to the backers. And then for the rest of the weekend, I settle into the last scenes of A Measure of Knowledge.

I've been debating on whether or not to end it on a cliff-hanger. I'll probably write both endings and have my alpha readers let me know which one they prefer.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

A Drizzly Day for Editing

Mother Nature is running the gamut of weather this week. On Monday, it snowed. Yesterday was chilly, but bright and sunny. Today's a lot warmer, but the rain we weren't supposed to get until after sundown arrived a little early.

Which means it's an excellent day for text-to-voice editing and proofing with a peppermint mocha to sip. Even though it's 4/20, caffeine is still my drug of choice.

Despite the picture, I'll probably make my own here at home. I don't feel like putting on my shoes to go out.

Enjoy your day wherever you are!

Brain Power!

I overslept today. The alarm played P!nk's "Raise Your Glass". I turned it off and rolled on my back, contemplating everything I needed to do today and...

Next thing I know it's 11 a.m.

Oops!

However, sleep is a necessary component of keeping your brain strong, especially when you've been doing a lot of editing lately.

Another component is eating right, which DH and I have tried really hard to do since January. He's lost some pounds. I did, too!

Until the pandemic. All my old bad habits regarding stress eating came right back, and I put all the weight back on. ARGH!

But one of the things I'm learning over the pandemic is how to properly cook seafood. It's brain food, right?

I can roast catfish, bluegills, and bass over an open fire, but I had a tendency to overcook seafood on an indoor stove. I've tried salmon, scallops, and tilapia so far, and everything's turned out pretty good.

Living on a farm as a kid, I was so used to cooking the shit out of everything, especially pork. If you were in 4-H, you learned about all the potential parasites in your animal. And even though Dad helped with the medicines and our pigs were pretty darn healthy, the worm thing kind of sticks in your head.

And the real trick in cooking scallops is three minutes per side, else you end up eating hockey pucks.

Unfortunately, the scallops I was looking forward to for tonight's dinner will not arrive today. So I'm cooking with what I have in the refrigerator: bruchetta chicken, roasted asparagus, and bacon mashed potatoes. Those should get me through the editing I need to finish today!

Editing in Brain Fog

Normally, I do my own editing. That drives readers and a lot of other writers damn near psychotic. I'm not sure why. I had to edit any tech manuals or legal documents I wrote during my other two professional incarnations.

In indie publishing, I'm also the first person to advocate do what you're good at and hire out the rest. I can edit. I still can't quite get the hang of covers. I'm practicing, but I simply don't have the eye my cover artists do.

However, I didn't realize how deep my brain fog from the COVID-19 pandemic was until I started to come out of it a couple of weeks ago. I'm in the process of re-editing Hero De Jure. Holy Cthulu! What a mess. I am usually much, MUCH cleaner than this.

That damn brain fog is also the reason I pulled the Millersburg Mystery series from Amazon.

Now, I could sit here and berate myself, but is that really doing any good? That's the reason I advocate being kind to yourself right now. We're all going through some variation of brain fog with our jobs.

Even the rare times we've done carry-out for dinner over the last couple of months, our orders have been screwed up more times than not. The poor kids working at the local restaurants are having as much trouble with brain fog as the rest of us.

However, life goes on, and I'm working on fixing my work. Luckily, the story I'm releasing for July is already written. Hopefully, that will give me a little time to clean up shit and get back on track with my writing.

Editing! Oh, Yes, I'm Editing!

Sung to the tune of "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story.

Another short post just to say, I'm neck-deep in editing Resurrected. So back to work!

(Now, where did I put those bite-sized Snickers...)

Back to Work

Yesterday wasn't as bad pain-wise as I had feared. I got a bit done.

The trade paperback of Hero De Facto was uploaded to Ingramspark. It should start showing up on retailers' websites soon.

I got some work done on Hero De Novo, but tomorrow I need to buckle down and finish reviewing the print galleys of Hero Ad Hoc.

Then there's Dory's advice:

Party Time!

I got the final print version of Hero De Facto back from my formatter yesterday. For once, the print version of a title will be available, if not at the exact same time as the e-book, within a couple of days, instead of several months.

Yay!

It's the little things like this that make me happy. My business is solidifying into a regular tempo. I feel like for once I'm keeping up with what I should be doing. I WANT to get the edits on Hero De Novo done so I can get back to writing A Matter of Death.

Maybe it's the warmer weather and longer days improving my mood, but I'm going to enjoy this feeling of accomplishment while I can.

Typos Are Lifeforms...

...and I swear to Cthulu, the little bastards are having crazy bunny sex in my files.

Oh, and I'm trying to battle them while the cold virus from two weeks ago is having a major hot tub party in my sinuses.

So while I edit, I'll leave you with this funny for the day...

F***ing Riptide!

I was on a roll Wednesday morning. The second book in the 888-555-HERO series was delivered to my formatter. I sent the blurb and info to my cover artist so she could do the print cover on Thursday. I jumped into the edits for Book 3.

Except I started winding down during the afternoon. Which is totally unlike me. This is the point of the day where I'm usually the most productive. Then came the sinus headache.

Crap. It's too early in the season for spring allergies. Heck, we still have pockets of snow here and there.

DH and I tried to get our evening walk in. I hadn't even made it a full mile before the tickle started in the back of my throat, so we cut it short. By the time we picked up dinner (which we'd planned on because of some additional errands that evening), my nose gushed like Niagara Falls.

So he's slept on the couch to hopefully *fingers crossed* not pick up my germs.

In the meantime, I'm working, but it's at a crawl instead of the steady jog I was on. I should be glad that this is the first cold I've had in two years. And I will be.

Once my eyeballs decide whether or not they will explode.

I Can See the Shore!

Still working on edits for the 888-555-HERO series. Here's another cute animal picture to make your day bright!

Drowning in Edits

Seriously, I'm trying to get edits finished for the second and third books of 888-555-HERO so I can get them to my formatter. And she just sent me the print galleys to look at.

So in the meantime, here's a cute puppy picture to "Awwwww" over while I slave away!