New Releases Start This Week

I feel much better and much more productive this year, and it's good to feel relatively normal again.

On Friday, Feline Navidad (Millersburg Magick Mysteries #4) will finally be hitting retail stores. Yep,  Christmas story on Valentine's Day. That's assuming everybody goes live at that time. I'm still uploading to the files to the other retailers, but Amazon has been on pre-order for a bit.

I'm also getting Alter Ego's books reissued on Amazon, again FINALLY. I made the mistake early in my career by releasing my books under my personal account rather than a business account. Same with a couple of other retailers. I started switching titles over to the business account back in 2016, but I didn't get everything moved before I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So, while I update the back matter, I'm updating the covers before I upload them. It's been years since I looked any of them over, it's been interesting how my style has changed.

Plus, I'm assigning the copyrights to the company, so when I pass, the administrator of my estate won't have to do much paperwork for the company to change hands.

83 books takes some time to update and move. So, I'm glad I'm glad to finishing up that portion of the business changes.

After nearly two years, I also glad to release Feline Navidad into the wild.

BLURB

After a horrible, traumatizing autumn, the Wilson family panics when a holiday tree mysteriously appears in their living room. As the twins search for their benefactor or foe, neither Kaley or Kristen bothers to ask their familiars. And Teller and Penn know who the real culprits are.

Enjoy this light-hearted tale of friends trying to make the holidays special for the people they care about, the cats who face a major translation problem, and the fae-blessed man in a red suit who can fix anything.

Amazon
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Still More AI Thoughts Mixed with Estate Planning

After I posted Monday's blog, I went to an appointment with my attorney. I'm in the process of changing my business's structure from a sole proprietorship to a limited liability company (AKA an LLC).

Why? Because I'm putting my estate in order to make it easier on DH and GK when I pass.

Don't worry, folks. Nothing's wrong. At least not wronger than my usual stuff. LOL

Once upon a time, I used to be an estate planning and probate attorney. Having your ducks lined up isn't about being morbid. Nor will estate planning bring about your death just because you thought about it.

(Good Goddess, you wouldn't believe how many times I've heard that one!)

The idea is to make things as easy as possible for my loved ones.

By the way, there's nothing wrong with your estate going through probate per se. But it means delays for your family in getting their property. And if your joint bank accounts are tied up, how is your spouse going to pay for food? Probating my mom's estate took fifteen months even though all she had left was her SUV and her checking account.

Back to Monday. While going through the paperwork and signing various documents, my attorney asked if I used AI in my writing. I firmly denied doing so. As I pointed out, I can't copyright AI-generated text.

Needless to say, we then had an interesting conversation about art and the law. Basically, we both agreed tech had grown light-years behind developments in the law, and that was going to cause bigger problems until some this gets sorted.

Ironically, when I got up this morning, I saw an online article where an artist was pissed about people stealing "his" art online. His lawsuit was kicked out of court. Why? Because he "created" his art using the AI program Midjourney.

The federal courts have been pretty consistent that any art created by a non-human cannot be copyrighted. Not the paintings done by elephants. Not the photo selfies taken by monkeys. And not a damn story written by AI.

The whole point of my appointments with my attorney is to protect my work. Copyright is for the artist's lifetime plus seventy years. My family could conceivable benefit from my stories and character into the 22nd century.

And this is why you want to line up your damn ducks now.

A Crazy Day

Yep, it's technically Thursday, but this is my first chance to sit down to blog, much less work on one of the novels on my plate.

Darling Husband and I spent most of the day waiting for texts from Genius Kid to confirm he made through the European and Middle Eastern legs of his journey. It's hard to accept Uncle Sam owns GK's ass now, and there's nothing I can do to help if GK gets into trouble. Yes, DH and I remind ourselves and each other constantly that GK is a grown-ass man. But to us deep down, he's still the red squalling newborn who peed all over the doctors and nurses.

In the meantime, I wrote a list of questions for my attorney before I met with her this afternoon. I'm finally updating my estate plan. It needed to be done once GK turned eighteen, but now, it's imperative to get it done. Probate courts are all over the place in how they are valuating intellectual property. So I need to protect those assets by staying out of a probate court.

And, damn! I've got a lot of IP now.

With my plan of opening an online store later this year/early next year, I need to change how my business is structured. After talking with my attorney, I need to call my CPA, and review the plan for tax implications before I set everything in motion.

Since DH had a loaded schedule with his job, I had to chase down Grandpuppy's anti-itch meds. The poor thing has serious food allergies, and without his meds, he loses his hair and gets a scabby rash that he'll scratch until it bleeds.

I also finally disposed of the father-in-law's pile of meds that had been sitting in our house for two years. I love that the police department and the sheriff's office have bins for the general public.

DH needed his own prescriptions picked up. He also needed more caffeine. He's turned into more of a addict than me with his Death Wish coffee and Cherry Coke Zero.

And since I ended up at the pharmacy for Grandpuppy's meds in the same shopping plaza where my favorite salon is located, I took a chance to see if they had an opening. My head feels so much lighter now that I've had three inches of hair chopped off.

Tomorrow, I need to return some towels. JC Penney is obviously on the verge of collapsing. Even though they say they have the tan towels I want, they send me white towels every time I try to order the tan ones. *facepalm* Sears and JC Penney used to have such marvelous catalog systems. My parents relied on them for decades. But I guess all good things come to an end.

As must this day. Good night, everyone!

All's Quiet, Maybe Too Quiet

Don't expect another post from me until Monday, except music videos on Saturday nights. We received the last of the 1099 documents I'd been waiting on, and I've got to get the tax info sorted and to our CPA.

And to top things off, our CPA sent out an e-mail to his clients today that he'd been diagnosed with cancer, but we are in capable hands with his staff.

Don't get me wrong. DH and I trust his staff implicitly, but it prompted a discussion of what do we want to do should our CPA's firm shut down.

We're simply at that age, and most of our professional contacts are, too. Two dentists have retired on us in the last ten years. I'm trying to figure who to name as my alternate trustee to my literary trust should something happen to DH. GK isn't interested, at least, not now. Most of the friends I trust are my age or older. That leaves two younger friends, one an attorney and one a CPA, to name as alternates. But what happens if they both say no?

And don't even get me started on looking for another doctor! Or three, in my case.

But on the good news front, and depending on the results of my upcoming mammogram, I will officially hit the five-year mark for my breast cancer in April. And if I'm still cancer-free, that will be the end of having to take tamoxifen as a preventative.

So, DH and I are sending a "F*ck Cancer" mug to our CPA. From two cancer survivors to another. Cancer sucks!

A Rough Week

This week has been insane on so many levels.

- Russia's invasion of Ukraine has turned into a war of attrition.
- We haven't heard anything from GK for two weeks. So either the shit's hitting the fan at the Pentagon, or GK's social life is picking up. I pray it's the latter.
- The stacked Supreme Court is making its first play to turn minorities into non-citizens.
- DH's dad has been officially moved to hospice care.
- Bella was sick all day Wednesday, to the point I almost took her to the doggie ER.
- I'm behind on proofing several things.
- I'm behind on finishing A Measure of Knowledge.
- I'm still working on getting Kickstarter rewards ready for the mail.
- DH asked me to go with him and his oldest sister to the attorney's office next week to make sure they've asked all the right questions about handling the FIL's estate.
- Spring allergies have been a killer, so the constant headaches haven't helped.
- The tornado that developed from last Tuesday's t-storms didn't touch down in the county, but there was a lot of straight-line wind damage on the west side.
- DH was on the way to the stadium for the girls' lacrosse game when the tornado sirens went off. Yep, the high school is on the west side of town.
- Installing the cabinets in the primary bathroom will be delayed again with the pile of work DH and I need to take care of this weekend.

So, yes, there's definitely a reason I was exhasted when I woke up this afternoon. I also begged him not to plan anything for Mother's Day, which bless him, he didn't. But I might ask him to pick up brunch, so I can finish A Measure of Knowledge.

I hope you had a much more relaxing week!

I'm Moving....Sort Of

One of my major projects for 2019 was moving all of my books under the same publishing umbrella. As in, the company would own the publishing accounts for the various retailers rather than have them under my personal e-mail addresses.

Why? Why the hell do all that work when I'm so behind in my writing?

Because my cancer diagnosis clashed with the common sense former probate attorney. The one who told her clients to be prepared before the worst can happen.

Now that GK is legally an adult, he could, in theory, take over the publishing aspect. In fact, we've had a couple of talks already about passive income and copyright.

GK: So let's say you live to eighty-four like Nana. The extra seventy years on a copyright doesn't kick in until then.

Me: Yep.

GK: I'd be over a hundred before it was done!

Me: Yep.

GK (with a gleam in his eye): How many books do you think you'll have published by the time you die?

Yeah, he's already doing the income calculations in his head. LOL

The point is I want to make the transition for DH and GK as seamless as possible should I die sooner rather than later. They know where my account list and passwords are. I just want to make it easier for them, and for me.

I'd planned on starting the process of consolidation during the fall dead time in publishing, but a badly behaving model forced me to start the process now.

That's not necessarily a bad time. I just need to pay close attention to my writing production and juggle the tasks as efficiently as I can.

Why Writers Need Estate Planning

Genius Kid has his first job. He's got definite plans for his money, one of which is investing it so he doesn't have to fret about income down the line. So during a discussion concerning passive income, I asked both DH and GK if they wanted to manage my intellectual property once I died, or if I needed to find someone to manage it for them.

GK's immediate response was that I was obsessed with death. To which I replied, "I was a probate and estate planning attorney. I know how fucked up things can get if you don't plan things ahead of time."

You see, if I died today, the copyright on my works would end in 2088. That's right. My son would be older than both of his grandfathers when ALL my copyrights expire and still potentially collecting income on the stories.

Despite my own body's efforts to kill me, I could potentially live for another twenty to forty years. If I do, my copyright will continue well into the 22nd century. You know, about the time Jonathan Archer would be born if he were real.

This is what is meant by the long-tail. I'm still reading books written over a century ago. The odds are someone will be reading my work a century from now.

Fictional life will continue long after you're gone. It's something to think about if you're a writer. Your work has more value than you realize.

I'm Away from My Desk, AKA End of Life Things You Don't Want to Think About But Need To

Blogging may be sporadic for an unknown amount of time. My mother-in-law is in the hospital, and DH and I are taking turns assisting my father-in-law with patient advocacy.

I am going to point out a few things based on my previous career as a probate and estate planning attorney and our current situation:

1) When you get to your later years, your spouse/partner may not be the best person to act as your medical representative. He or she may have theirs own health problems, or the emotional impact of their potential loss of you overwhelms them.

2) Whoever you choose as the person authorized to make medical decisions needs to be strong enough to support you and to make those decisions. Frankly, two of DH's sisters are supposed to be the decision makers for their mother in lieu of their father. One of them is scared of the possibility of her mother's death; the other is in total denial concerning the severity of the current problem. Which leaves me as the one acting as my mother-in-law's advocate, i.e. asking questions, consolidating information, weighing treatment options.

3) When a third party is forced to make decisions, this can cause fractures in family relationships. I'm lucky right now in that both of my in-laws are of sound mind. The problems for me happen when my mother-in-law is on painkillers and my father-in-law forgets to wear his hearing aids. Thankfully, no biggie, especially when my husband is a phone call away (or ten minutes from the hospital).

However, when I was practicing law, there was an instance where the daughter who was supposed to make decisions was camping for the weekend. The father had a heart attack, and the other daughter had to make end of life decisions because no one could get a hold of the first daughter. Last I heard the first daughter was still refusing to split the estate per the father's will because she accused her sister of murdering their father for his money.

So my not-legal-advice-or-representation suggestions are the following:

1) Have a clear-cut medical and estate plan.

2) Make sure you've chosen people who can follow through on your wishes.

3) Make sure everyone involved (especially immediate family members) is aware of the plan. Ask your attorney about ways to deter inter-family squabbles when you're gone.

As the late, great Benjamin Franklin said the only sure things are death and taxes. No one gets out of this world alive, so do what you can to make things easier for your loved ones.