Balancing Work and Home

Right now, I'm juggling the writing of A Very Hero Wedding and organizing the kitchen and baths, i.e. unpacking the boxes I haven't touched since March.

Which means I'm very tired.

I'm going to need to focus on the book the first half of October since its release date is the 15th. And then scramble with the unpacking since GK and his family will arrive the following week.

I'm so excited to spend Adorable Spawn's first Halloween with him.

Even better, I found a replacement for my skeleton dragon lawn decoration, and it should be here on Friday!

Pain, Presents, and Pinwheels

It's been a crazy month at the new Casa Harden. I'm learning the hard way I can't do everything I used to do. My joints and muscles are barking with my immuno-compromised issues. And worse, my CBD has been back-ordered for over a month. Even when the shop gets it in, I'll be lucky to get it before the new year.

That's not a slam on the shop, their supplier, or the delivery folks. Every business is having some sort of trouble thanks to COVID-19. For those of you trying desperately to do your work plus that of your ill coworkers, I salute you.

It's simply that the naproxen isn't making it's usual dent, acetominophen does nothing for me, aspirin aggravates my acid reflux, and ibuprofen interferes with my high blood pressure medicine.

And this is why old people are grumpy. LOL

Unfortunately between the move and the shipping delays, I didn't get presents out to everyone I intended. So a lot of friends will be getting New Year's presents this year. Even the people for whom I did get orders out may not have their present before Friday. Alas, the poor delivery people have a zillion packages that everyone wants to send theirs NOW!

I'm glad I got the presents for the small children in my life sent back at the beginning of November.

The best thing is GK is home. I have fresh dates to make date pinwheels. So I have some cookie baking to do now that I know where the mixing bowls, the rolling pin, and the measuring utensils are.

And that's the thing I have to remember through this year's holidays. My family is safe and healthy and we're all working. May your own gods be watching over you.

The Week Before Christmas and All Through the House

...it looks like a chaos bomb went off.

I've barely made a dent in the unpacking, I can't find my address book to save my life, and my mind's so frazzled I've had to reset most of my internet passwords.

Well, the passwords needed to changed anyway. A lot of them were pretty old.

So my house is filled with moving boxes instead of wrapped boxes, and the living room looks more like a warehouse depot than the pretty picture above. It's okay. The important thing is all the COVID-19 precautions we've been taking means we're together and healthy this holiday season. For that, I thank all the gods.

Also, Genius Kid will be arriving sometime this weekend. He's being super careful--to the point he refuses to stop and spend the night in Memphis which is the halfway point. "I'm not taking the chance of bringing COVID home to you and Dad by staying in a hotel."

If you see people sleeping in their cars at rest stops along the freeways, that's what their trying to do. Keep their family safe.

Pfizer's vaccine was rolled out this week, but we have a long way to go before the pandemic is over. A Sgt. Esterhaus always said, "Let's be careful out there."

Learning to Say No

One of the hardest parts of owning my own company is learning to say no. There's always some cool new thing coming down the pike, and there's a part of of me that's worried about missing the next big idea. But at some point, there's simply not enough time and/or energy to do everything I want to do.

 

Of course, the hard part is figuring out which offers to take up and which ones to leave by the wayside. Let's start with my current situation. Darling Husband and I just moved into out new house over the weekend. We haven't totally cleaned out the apartment yet, mainly because my comic collection is a bitch to move, and I trust third parties to touch it even less than my couple of pieces of nice diamond and gold jewelry.

Add to that is the upcoming holidays. Even though there won't be a huge gathering of the family, Genius Kid has three weeks of leave, and he plans to come home for Yule and Christmas, assuming his car is fixed. (That's a story for Friday.) So everything is already chaos at Casa Harden.

I've got my regular publishing schedule, which the December release has to be moved back two weeks because of the aforementioned move. I tried to get everything done on time, but there was too much packing to do at the apartment.

And in the middle of all that, I got an invitation to participate in an anthology for next year. I was going to graciously decline, but as I lay in my recliner, eating pizza while watching the Steelers-Washington game and waiting for the naproxen to kick in, an idea for the anthology sparked in my brain.

Then yesterday, a friend sent a proposition concerning his new venture. As much as I wanted to participate, I hit a wall. My own work was languishing. I still hadn't read and returned a novel someone else asked for comments on back in June.

And dammit, I really needed shower!

I should have said no to some other stuff much earlier than I did. I'm achy and exhausted. And I have to admit I can't do things or stay up all night to complete a project like I could in my twenties.

So, learn from my experience. Decide what's important. You can't do everything. And that's okay.

Your mental health and physical well-being are more important than anything. You can't do anything if you've burned yourself out.

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 272

As I type this on Monday morning, most of last week's snow is gone except for a few splotches here and there. Official infections in the U.S. have reached 14,879,831 and official deaths have reached 285,564.

Why do I keep track of this stuff? Because in twenty years, I want to be able to look back at everything and say, "We survived."

 

In the meantime, life plugs on. We're in the new house. I've got a space heater for my office, but I'm still in my recliner. Partly because my body is still recovering from the stress and physical exertion, and partly because Bella is used to napping in my lap as I work.

The moving stuff got in the way of several projects I was in the middle of, including the stories for the Bloodlines Shorts Anthology, so the next few days will be me playing catch-up between unpacking a couple of boxes.

You know how it is with a move. No matter how carefully you pack and label, things get lost in the process.

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 265 - The Winter Holidays

As I type this, the United State has officially reached 13,506,766 known infections of COVID-19, and 270,520 known deaths. Even as we face numbers not seen since April, people had their Thanksgiving gatherings despite recommendations not to do so for fear of spread.

Yet, everyone is looking forward to the winter holidays. Kind of.

In the meantime, we're moving into the new house this week. And of course, Mother Nature decided to drop 2-4 inches on us today.

We've been so careful. We haven't made more than one appointment a day with folks delivering appliances, connecting services, or cleaning the place. The carpet cleaners are supposed to come today. I'm waiting to see if they will be able to come. In the meantime, I'm still laying shelf liner through the house and putting things away.

 

We'll see if the snow is gone by Friday for all the big furniture to get moved.

Thanksgving Prep

I'd hoped to announce a holiday project I'm involved in. Unfortunately, it's been delayed a couple of days.

Instead, I'm working on packing up our house. Tomorrow's big project will be Genius Kid's room. Fortunately, he packed up his gaming consoles before he left for the Army. We shipped his TV and PC to him once he was allowed to have them. Most of his clothes will go to Goodwill because he no longer fits in them.

In the meantime, I cleaned out the refrigerator at the new house and loaded it with Pepsi Zero and water. I just need to take a box of granola bars over with me tomorrow. I'm happy having my own office, but I'm at the point I never want to move again.

Other than cooking, I am definitely taking Thursday off!

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 258 - Moving During COVID

As the U.S. closes in on 12.5 million infected with COVID-19 and over 260,000 deaths, most of the state of Ohio has gone red. Columbus (i.e. Franklin County) is firmly in the purple range as far as infection rates and hospitalizations go.

Yet, in the midst of this chaos, Darling Husband and I found a darn near perfect house. We're in the process of moving, i.e. taking boxes over before the moving guys haul the big furniture to the new place.

Once everything is inside the new place, we won't be going anywhere for quite a while. Not while the 'Rona rages around us.

Amidst the insanity of moving to a new house during a world pandemic, we will find what comfort we can. And I'm especially thankful for lamburgers and cherry cheesecake!

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 201 - What the Hell Was I Thinking!

 7.2+ million infected and 208+ thousand dead are the known numbers in the U.S.

These numbers are staggering. And yet, we pretend life goes on.

Case in point, DH and I are in the process of buying a house.

Back in July, we kind of given up on looking between the buyer's market and finding something that would work for us. Our primary criteria is having home offices on opposite sides of the house. When you both work from home, it can get disruptive. Especially in an apartment where I'm stuck working in the living/dining room and DH has to go through it to get a soda refill in the kitchen.

(Before anyone suggests it, yes, we do have a mini-fridge. No, we don't have any space in the apartment to put it.)

So,with all the pandemic crap, we resigned ourselves to living another year at the apartment and saving our money to build the type of house we need.

And then this house just kind of dropped in our laps. DH got the notice two weeks ago. Listing indicated this place met most of our criteria. We looked at it two days later with a super-critical eye. Man, this could actually work for us.

We called the bank to renew our pre-approval. We put in a bid, and six hours later, we had an agreement. Technically, it took that long because our realtor had a ton of stuff lined up, and it was a Saturday.

Now, I have to pack the apartment and make arrangements for various maintenance things once we have possession. Frankly, having a bunch of strangers in and out of the house worries me.

Okay, it worries me a lot.

But my new office will be the Florida room. All kinds of natural light and a space that's all mine. And we're only going across town, not 1200 miles across the country.

I hope it's worth the risk.

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 194 - Moving again

6.8+ million cases. 202+ thousand dead. Those are the REPORTED numbers in the United States alone.

 

I say reported because some governors (looking at you Florida Governor Ron DeSantis) and White House representatives are doing their damnedest to hide just how bad things are. Most citizens are doing what they can to slow the spread. But between those who STILL claim the disease is a hoax and the lack of a cure or a vaccine, more people will get sick.

 

More people will die.

 

And yet, the earth spins on.

 

A weekend ago Sunday, DH got an alert on a house for sale. Last month, we'd pretty much given up looking. We hadn't found anything that worked for us considering we both, well, work from home.

 

Like I've told several friends, arthritis is starting to become an issue. I'm going to have to switch to dictation sooner rather than later. I can't be dictating a sex scene while DH is on the phone with a client, walking them through journal entries. So, we need offices on opposite sides of the house, or sufficiently distant our devices can't pick up the other one.

 

But yeah, we'd given up last month, renewed our apartment lease, and planned to save up to build exactly what we needed. And this house pops up, so DH said hey take a look at this while we were watching the Steelers game.

 

I looked, not expecting a whole lot. But damn. This one could work. I mean, the only thing I could nit-pick on Realtor.com was the white stove in a refinished kitchen with hickory cabinets, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. So, we made an appointment to see the house on Wednesday. I was absolutely sure there would be something wrong.

 

The only thing I could bitch about, besides the white flattop range, was the puke yellow paint in the master bathroom. An easy fix. But most importantly, it has rooms on the opposite sides of the house for our offices. Heck, DH and I can't even see each other when we go to the kitchen for drinks or head to the bathroom.

 

We got the financing pre-approval arranged on Thursday and Friday and put in the offer on Saturday. Six hours later, we had settled on terms. I swear that was the fastest negotiation on real property I've ever been involved in.

 

So yeah, we're moving again. In the middle of a pandemic. GO TEAM HARDEN!

Getting Back into the Groove

If you're a regular reader, you've noticed my blogging has become a little erratic. Since I use my posts as a warm-up exercise before settling down to write for the day, it definitely reflects my work habits right now.

It's weird living in a new (old) place. I'm not quite comfortable in the new apartment because...boxes. Boxes everywhere still even though we've unpacked three or four dozen of the essentials. I'm having a problem ignoring them because yes, I am that anal when it comes to my living space. Not to mention the incredible need to find my razor blades because my legs are hairier than the husband and teen son's legs put together.

Back in Houston, if something bugged me at home, I would grab my computer bag and head out to a coffee shop. But as I told a friend last night, most of my usual haunts are gone in this town. (It has been nearly twenty years since DH and I moved to Houston after all.) So it comes down to finding an appropriate new place.

The closest Starbucks is in Bowling Green, which is twenty miles away. The place with the best coffee here in town is the Caribou kiosk in the middle of Great Scot grocery. A little noisy and one table.Tim Horton's coffee is okay, but the doughnuts are too much temptation. Bob Evans and Denny's have a terrific staff, but there's no slow period to stake out a table.

Seriously, I swear half the population in this town is over seventy! They spend hours at the diners gossiping. Not to mention, they all know my in-laws. I can't write with half the town looking over my shoulder. Especially not the erotica!

Coffee Amici has decent coffee and is pretty slow during the day, but downtown parking is limited, as in two hours max before you get ticketed by the friendly local constabulary. (Nighttime parking is a different matter, but you'll want to go in for Coffee Amici's live music.)

Which leaves the local Panera's. I haven't checked them out yet, but DH says they have the same, um, clientele issue that Bob Evans and Denny's have.

If I only had the money for my own private Starbucks...

When Real Life Gets in the Way

I hear a lot of writers bemoaning their lack of writing time. The ones I feel sympathy for are the ones dealing with some serious life issues. Chronic diseases such as fibromyalgia or MS which limit writers' mobility and energy. Providing care for special needs children or parents nearing the end of their lives. Or maybe they're working two or three jobs in order to put food on the table.

I haven't published anything under my name since last November. It doesn't mean I haven't been writing. Time is grabbed here and there. Standing in line at the post office. Waiting for my take-out order. The last few minutes before bedtime.

Why? Life's been crazy trying to get our house on the market. Then trying to get moved into our new apartment. A lot of things went wrong. A lot of things didn't. But through it all, I kept plugging away. And I honestly can't complain. DH and I made some hard decisions of what would be best for the family.

Sure, it's been slow on the publishing front. But things are looking up. I met with a graphic artist over breakfast this morning about the new logo for Angry Sheep Publishing. I've got a tentative agreement with a formatter for updating the Bloodlines novels and issuing print versions. I've narrowed down my prospective list of artists whose work I like for the new covers.

Now, I have to finish reviewing Zombie Wedding and Blood Sacrifice for typos because I found a couple in Blood Magick, and I need to finish the last four books of the series. Then it's on to the Justice series, and a couple of special projects that I'll tell you more about soon.

You should have a lot of new things to read from me in 2015.

Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes

If everything went according to plan, we closed on our house Friday, and I'm sleeping off the drive from Houston to Ohio.

Or DH could be dragging me around Toledo right now to furniture shop.

I'll let y'all know on Wednesday.

The End of an Era

No, I'm not quitting the blog. I'm talking about the place I've lived the longest in my entire life. Eighteen years, three months, and seventeen days.

DH and I moved in June 23rd, the day before our first anniversary. Our son took his first bite of ice cream in that kitchen. His first step in that living room. His first bath. His first swear word.

Part of us expected him to learn to drive on our street, too. But it wasn't meant to be. We needed to be elsewhere.

And I think my in-laws needed Genius Kid on an emotional level. Maybe more than they needed the help around the house that both DH and GK provided.

Leaving is bittersweet. In my heart, I know it's time to leave. GK is afforded educational opportunities in Ohio he wouldn't get in Houston. DH needs to spend time with his parents before the inevitable happens. I have new business opportunities that I need the peace to focus on.

But we all are going to miss this place. The Houston Museum of Natural Science. Our favorite Mexican restaurant and their margarita nights. The soccer league GK played in and DH coached.

Several people have asked if we're buying a new house. Not yet. I'm exhausted from getting this house ready for the market, and I've spent most of the summer sick from that same exhaustion and stress. DH and I need to think about GK's college and our retirement rather than plunging into another money sink that property ownership can be. Frankly, I want someone else to take care of things for a while.

And as much as I'm tired of dealing with our old house, I'm still going to miss it.

The Home Office

I thought it would only take me three days to finish cleaning out my office. Boy, was I wrong!

There were still a dozen boxes from our last three moves sitting in the corner. Both DH and I had forgotten what was in them, but I didn't want to drag them back to Ohio (AGAIN). So I went through them. From Friday the 5th through Tuesday the 9th, I went through them.

I really don't want to end up on an episode of Hoarders, so I threw out quite a bit, but I still had four packed boxes that needed to go to the garage and another five that were half packed. On Wednesday, I had to take a break and deal with yard work.

So of course yesterday morning, I got the text that someone wanted to see the house.

PANIC!!

I ran through the house and tossed boxes into closets, hid dirty dishes in the broken dishwasher, and took the fastest shower in my life because I was too exhausted to take one the night before. But here's how my home office looks with everything hidden in the closet.

This room started as GK's nursery. Since I had such a difficult pregnancy, I hired a lovely woman named Mona to paint the room for me. She took my Egyptian theme and ran with it. Instead of mint green walls, she plastered and painted them to resemble antique plaster. Then she carefully hand-painted the figures and hieroglyphs along the ceiling. Frankly, these pictures don't do the paintings justice.

The south wall depicts Horus and Thoth, the east Isis, and the west Hathor. There are statues of Anubis and Bast on my desk and one of Thoth (the patron of writers) on my bookcase.

I'm really going to miss this room!

Why I Haven't Been Writing

The sign is finally up.

Yesterday was insane, and my muscles ache in a good way. I had to get the house cleaned and boxes hidden because the realtor was coming by to take pictures.

I've barely been writing for the last thirteen months since I've been trying to get this damn house on the market. However, as Tiffany says in Blood Magick, Murphy is the one true god. So many things went wrong that my friend Ro calls the last thirteen months a "comedy of catastrophes."

Even yesterday, I got the yard spruced and the driveway and patio cleaned off in preparation for the photo shoot. Only to have a thunderstorm whip through and deposit more leaves and debris on the drive. *sigh*

Oh, and the dishwasher decided to spring a leak on Wednesday. I'm going to head over to Home Depot and beg for credit. If that doesn't work, we'll have to wait until DH gets paid on the 15th.

But my new stove is very pretty and bakes a mean lasagna!

And that tile? Yep, I did it all by myself! In the back hall, utility room and half bath, too!

In the half bath, I tried my hand at sponge painting. The picture doesn't do it justice. The base coat is the same Precious Peach that covers the kitchen walls. Then Shamrock Green and Doric White were sponged over it.

P.S. There's a brand new American Standard toilet in there as well.

I can't take all the credit for the hardwood in the family room. Genius Kid did the majority of the work. I measured and DH cut, but GK busted butt on laying down the wood.

The fireplace normally doesn't have my plants on it. It has gas logs, and does a nice job of heating up the family room on those rare cold days in Houston.

(Poor empty bookshelf though! Harry Potter has been packed!)

We have a living room/dining room combo area with cathedral ceilings. I had to hire someone to paint this room and the master bath. I don't do heights. LOL

The carpet's fairly new (we bought it in 2008). Like the rainbow afghan I crocheted? I had to cover the couch and loveseat. I bought them new in 1989, but they were showing the love from the multitude of dogs and kids that have used them.

The hardwood flows from the family room, next to the staircase, and to the entryway.

At the head of the stairs is a loft that overlooks the LR/DR.

The loft was originally my office when I was in law school and first started practicing, so of course, DH decided he HAD to have it when he switched to working from home.

He also decided his desk needed to be bigger, too.

And he absconded with and ruined my good leather office chair in the process.

(No, I don't hold grudges. *wink*)

GK's room started out as the guest bedroom, but he outgrew his toddler bed before he was four so we moved him in here.

I originally had painted the room Twilight Blue (long before I got pregnant) with Viking Blue trim and doors because I loved the colors. Cool, soothing colors.

Our realtor Norberto suggested (rather strongly) that it needed to be repainted to something neutral, aka Doric White.

Have I said how much I've come to despise Doric White?

Okay, maybe not so much. It looks better than the crappy blue-flowered wall paper the builders originally put in GK's bathroom. And look at that beautiful tile!

I refused to compromise on the master bedroom (my bedroom!). No, Doric White here!

The walls are Inspired Lilac with Bright White trim. Matching vertical blinds replaced the godawful Laura Ashley curtain.

Lovely French doors guard the entrance. The reason our waterbed looks funky is we drained it in anticipation of the carpet being stretched and cleaned. It wasn't worth the water bill to refill it since we probably won't be here much longer.

The painter fought with me over the master bathroom. Can you believe he wanted to paint it *gasp* Doric White?

But I won (since I paid for the paint), and the walls and trim match the master bedroom. Unfortunately, you don't get a good view of the lovely tile.

Plus, there's a garden tub, which is excellent for those insane days when you just need to relax with a glass of wine and a good book.

What's not on display are my collection of essential oils and candles. (And no, those won't be sold with the house.)

The only room that wasn't photographed was my office (originally the nursery). I still have a a dozen half-packed boxes sitting it there. Today's project is to finish cleaning out that room. I'll post pics of it on Monday.

Next week, fingers-crossed, I may actually be writing again! Yay!

Bitching and Moaning - The Home Repair Edition

For those readers who haven't figured things out between the lines, I haven't gotten much writing done lately because we're trying to get the Houston house ready to put on the market. There were cosmetic things that needed to be done, of course. Tree trimming. Flower planting. Room painting. Tiling the baths and kitchen

Our original target was February 1. That came and went, so we picked another deadline. And another. And another. Why? Starting with the week after the moving truck pulled out of the driveway last August, more and more shit hit the fan as each month passed.

- Master bedroom light/fan died
- Bottom dropped out of the hot water heater
- Garbage disposal developed a leak
- Toilet in master bathroom developed a leak, subfloor needed to be replaced
- Kitchen faucet broke
- Hot water faucet in master bathroom tub leaked
- Honey bee invasion
- Electric ignition on gas range stopped working, cheaper to replace unit than to fix
- Downstairs A/C unit died
- Cold water faucet for washing machine leaked

None of these have been cheap, easy, DIY fixes. I can paint and tile and lay hardwood and plant petunias in large pots, but I know when to bring in the experts. And every month I managed to save money for the painting and tiling and flowers, whichever disaster happened that month chewed up the cash, sometimes putting us back more than that particular month.

These are the reasons I'm still dealing with this stupid-ass house. These are the reasons my blood pressure has skyrocketed despite my seven years of keeping it under control. These are the reasons I haven't had time to write, other than working on Book 7 of Bloodlines on my iPhone while standing in line at stores. These are the reasons why I understand home owners walking away from their property and letting the bank foreclose.

When I mentioned the last one, DH pointed out we'd done too much and come too far. Then I started crying, but he's right.

My perspective would be a little better if I could get more than four hours of sleep a night.

And if the blister on my thumb from scrapping linoleum glue off the bathroom floor didn't hurt so damn bad.

A Hell of a Week...Oh, and Apple

Well, the moving truck pulled out of the driveway at 10:30 a.m. this morning. Three and a half hours behind schedule.

Fortunately, one the few aspects of mine GK has developed is the desire for organization and sticking to a schedule. Unfortunately, DH has neither. Add in his heavy dose of sentimentality and both GK and I were ready to kill DH this morning.

I was at least prepared for DH's meltdown, having experienced it seventeen years ago when we moved to Texas. GK is like, "What the fuck is wrong with my dad?"

In addition to the actual moving BS, my laptop died, our shredder died, and there was a fubar regarding our moving truck reservation. Everything was dealt with, but it sucked unnecessary hours out of our already tight schedule. But we still would have left late today anyway because of DH.

*sigh* Anyway...

Three interesting personal things about Apple:

1) Apple finally decided to pass on numbers for free e-books. My giveaways for Zombie Confidential are 494, which brings my total to 3,370 as of June 30, 2013. On a side note, every time I think the book will drop out of the top 100 in the Amazon Women Sleuths category, it jumps right back up.

2) Apple has some very odd standards when it comes to cover art. They are refusing to sell Book #4 of Alter Ego's BDSM series because it has a naked woman in handcuffs on the cover. Apparently, they did not notice the naked woman in chains on the cover of Book #1. In both cases, you cannot see any of the naughty bits. I haven't decided what I'm going to do just yet, but I'm leaning toward replacing the current cover with a Victorian woman.

3) As I mentioned, my Apple sales have been matching or surpassing my Amazon sales this year. Here's the breakdown of percentage of total sales:

January: Apple - 0.9% Amazon - 24.9%
February: Apple - 11.4% Amazon - 12.2%
March: Apple - 14.2% Amazon - 14.8%
April: Apple - 23.3% Amazon - 12.3%
May: Apple - 8.6% Amazon - 22.4%
June: Apple - 21.3% Amazon - 11.8%

It'll be interesting to see if this trend continues through the rest of the year.

Where the Hell Did My Summer Go?

No, I didn't forget to post on Monday. I didn't have time. DH took a six-day weekend, and we tackled his office. We got a lot of stuff thrown out or packed for the move, but there's still a ton of work that needs to be done. And I have barely touched my office, much less the current wip.

Today, I made the mistake of looking at the calendar. It's already the last week of June, and my page production sucks the big one. Yeah, I'm packing. Yeah, we're moving. Yeah, it's got to be done by August 5th.

That's our target because public school starts two weeks later. That would give us enough time to get settled and GK enrolled.

Yep, the kid's heading back to public school. I have mixed feelings, but overall, I know it's the best move for him. Plus, I'll have more writing time, right?

Unfortunately, my sales are starting to reflect my lack of writer productivity. Hopefully, I can make it up this fall.

As long as my readers forgive the delay.

I'm definitely ready to strangle that stupid little voice in the back of my head.