Drizzly Day

What an overcast and dreary day today was! Gray and foggy and just enough drizzle to be annoying. The raindrops didn't even have the energy to make rings in the birdbath. One of these days I need to go out and scoop out the leaves in there but not today.

 

Today I spied a squirrel nibbling away on the suet nuggets. At first it was hanging by its back feet, head down, and eating but then it turned around and spent some time right side up. That has to feel better, don't you think?

 

I did battle with Atticus for quite a bit of the day. It's the new formatting software program I bought. I uploaded Spies Don't Retire to play with and used the final version but still not all of the chapters uploaded. Don't know why but I was able to copy and paste them in. Most of the program is simple to understand but I touched one button on the Title Page screen and couldn't make it go back to where it started. Grr. So I contacted Support in an email and got an answer quickly with simple instructions to make it do what I wanted it to do. Whew. Getting all of my books uploaded and reformatted is going to take some time but I think I can manage it, as long as the Support people are quick and clear when I have a problem. And I know I'll have at least a few problems before I get the hang of it all.

 

Today's flower was Venus Dogwood. Never heard of it. Never saw it. But it was pretty easy to draw and color.

 

Tonight was the first night of LC's school musical, Annie Jr. It was an abbreviated version of the whole show but with most of the songs. LC was in a few crowd scenes and had one line near the end of the show. All of the kids did a great job but I thought her personality shone like a beacon. I'm so proud of her. Only three 6th graders were in the show and she was one of them. I think a few were on crew too. But she was the best. Not that I'm prejudiced or anything.

Tomorrow's my Launch Event in Sturgeon Bay so I've got to wrap this up and hit the sack. Wish me luck!

--Barbara 

Not the Day I Planned

This morning I thought I'd spend an hour or so organizing my personal and Barbara Writes tax stuff and getting it to the accountant so she could work her magic. Silly me. It took me a couple hours to get it all organized and on Excel spreadsheets then I called her to make sure she was in and available for me to drop it all off. She was, so I drove across town and handed over the envelope. She invited me into her office to go over what I'd handed her to make sure she had what she needs. Well. Once KK went through the papers, she asked me where's this and where's that, referring to last year's return. Which meant I came home and spent another few hours sorting and collating, then entering things into a spreadsheet before emailing her the information. I hope I'm done.

 

I was surprised to see a lone Sparrow on the square green feeder this morning. It was on the back side, of course, so I had to take a photograph through the kitchen window and screen so it's fuzzier than if taken just through glass.

 

Then I spied a couple of Chickadees on the same feeder. They're so quick and hard to catch but I managed a few shots. This is the clearest one.

 

It's been on my mind the last few days and today I broke down and repurchased Atticus formatting software. I bought it when it first came out, got frustrated by it, and returned it. Now I'm sorry so I bought it again. If I want to upload my books to IngramSpark (which I do), I need to have them in PDF form which is not the same way I upload them to Kindle Direct Publishing. My friend GBB has a guy who does all that formatting for her but I like knowing how to do that stuff so I'll try my hand at it using Atticus before looking at having him do it for me--for a nice fat fee, of course. That means I'll write in Word and format on Atticus. That'll work, right?

One thing I had to do today for tax prep was go through my file and write down how many of each title I bought in 2025, look up how much each one was (because they're all different), then count how many are left. I knew how many I'd sold in person all year (160 total) but the tax people want to know inventory. Sometimes I think I need a secretary or a keeper.

--Barbara 

57 Degrees

That was the high temperature today. Sunny and warm with a little breeze. You'd better bet I had a window open so real springtime air could come in. Most of the snow is gone. All that's left is the bottom of the thickest piles of snow that the snowblower blew onto the lawn. The birdbath which was frozen solid yesterday morning was all liquid by noon today. It won't last but I'm appreciating it while it does.

 

I went down to Zambaldi to visit DS this morning. He was cleaning tanks and sanitizing hoses in preparation for moving the beer he was brewing into one of the huge silver tanks to ferment and turn from brown water into beer.

 

Today's flower is Oklahoma Redbud which I have never seen or heard of so I have no idea if this is what it's supposed to look like or not. This looks kind of like the picture in the book so I guess it's okay. It looks like a cross between a violet and sweet pea to me.

 

I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday this morning and one for today this evening. Look at me getting one done on the actual day. Although I realize that I didn't include something I'm really grateful for and that's the dishwasher. I ran it after supper and should have drawn it on the page. Oh well. Next time.

 

Look at what I saw this morning. The other day I took the Christmas cactus that I repotted into the kitchen to water it in the sink so I could really water it good. I've noticed that it's perkier and today I saw that there are flower buds on it! This is the biggest one. I guess giving it a much bigger pot and new soil to grow in made it happy. Also it's now on a table in a south-facing window so it gets much better and more sunlight.

 

I read a blog post about Story Beats and came up with the idea that I needed to go back into the manuscript and look at Rose's feelings and inner thoughts. So that's what I did. I opened version 2 which is what I'm saving after cda gives her critique and worked on that. I've added a few little tweaks that bring the reader closer to Rose and I'll keep doing that. Writing was so much easier when I didn't have all this information, when I just wrote and it was what it was.

I emailed a consultant in town asking for help getting my books uploaded to IngramSpark which would give much broader distribution and allow me to apply for reviews from places like Midwest Book Review. They won't accept my books now because they're not available for bookstores and libraries to buy from Amazon and that's the only place to get them right now. Marketing is a whole uncharted aspect of the writing game, but I'm trying to figure it out. 

--Barbara 

Ouch

I got a call from the pharmacy this morning that I was due for my 6 month Covid booster. I didn't know there was such a thing, but since I've never had Covid I decided to take them up on the offer. I was going there anyway to pick up a couple of prescriptions so it made sense to do both things at once. Ever the smart one, I even wore a short sleeved shirt (under my winter jacket). The last couple times I've gotten a vaccine they've applied this target/bandage first and poked the needle through the center. I can endure a short, sharp poke so I don't get the disease. I hope.

 

They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I intended to draw a gratitude journal page last night and didn't. So I did it this morning instead. My greatest gratitude was having to pick up LC from school. She's such a swell kid, um, young lady. Did I tell you she's taller than me? If I take off my shoes, she's about a half-inch taller. She loves that.

 

Today's flower is Magnolia. It turned out pretty well. The pink outsides of the petals are a little darker and more solid than the example but I try my best. I wish I could make it the same shade but lighter. Don't know how to do that. I always press too hard.

 

Tonight was writers' guild and I might have met a couple guys who want to start a critique group. One for sure. I gave them both my card and asked them to email me. One of them has a Substack that I subscribed to when I got home. His writing is very philosophical and kinda deep. I'm nervous that he wouldn't want to read my superficial writings. But then maybe I sell myself short.

Didn't see any birds today and only one squirrel that wasn't on a feeder. I saw a rabbit crossing the driveway just now. Ooh, the moon is very full tonight. It's called the Blood Moon because the shadow of Earth crosses it and gives it a warm, coppery glow. I'm happy seeing the bright, white full moon tonight and not get up at the crack of five a.m. to witness the lunar eclipse.

--Barbara 

Homework

 It occurred to me this afternoon that I need to brush up on my elevator pitches (descriptions of my novels that are short enough to be delivered on an elevator ride) and write and memorize one for Anneke's Legacy before my launch event on Saturday. Fortunately I have a sheet of paper with them on it so I could write the new one, print it off, and carry it around with me trying to learn and relearn them before Saturday. It has been a long time since I've had to memorize something and something this important. I will be taking the sheet along with me.

 

Today's flower was Orchid. Once again I might have made the flowers smaller than necessary but I like the way they turned out and I like the coloring even though pink is not one of my favorite colors. Despite pink actually being light red. Red being my absolute favorite color.

 

This morning I had a Zoom with cda then I spent the afternoon going over her critique comments and making changes. I also copied and pasted the pages of her manuscript that I worked on over the weekend and sent it to her. Then I made a new document of the next chapter of my manuscript to send to her for next Monday. 

 

I got to pick LC up from musical rehearsal this evening and take her home. I love having those few minutes with her and OJ too when I get to pick him up. I used the waiting time to work on memorizing my elevator pitch for Anneke's Legacy. 

This morning I also ordered author copies of The Seaview, Spies Don't Retire, and Better Than Mom's so I have enough for the upcoming sales this spring. 

Oh, and I got a haircut and went to the grocery this afternoon too. Not in the same place. And I read a couple chapters in a book.

--Barbara

All Indoor Stuff

It's back to being chilly and breezy so I didn't go outside and I didn't see any wildlife today. 

This morning I took the heavy cookbook off the stack of watercolor cards, folded them in half, paired them with an envelope, and slipped them into cellophane sleeves. Only one glued itself to the one above it and only one or two imprinted paint onto the one above. I can't figure out how that paint transfer happens because the watercolors are completely dry before I cut them up and glue them. Anyway, now I have a double stack of cards ready for any occasion.

 

The flower today was Daisy. It turned out okay. I think the angle of the main flower head is off but I like the little side flower and the leaves. I also like the faint blue of shadow I colored on the petals.

 

For the first time in two weeks, I drew a gratitude journal page. I didn't think it'd been that long but the last page was February 15 so, yeah, two weeks. I struggled to think of things to draw and ended up drawing my bed because I put fresh sheets on and everyone knows how nice fresh sheets are to sleep on.

 

After supper I went downstairs to fetch my rolling backpack for books and the book display rack. I loaded the backpack with books to take along to my book launch next Saturday at OtherWorlds Books & More in Sturgeon Bay. Yes, I know it's almost a week away but I'm excited and wanted to pack. I packed 10 copies of Anneke's Legacy and one or two of the other titles. The store has copies of most of my titles and I've got a box of them in the back of my car. Just in case.

 

Did I tell you that five eBook copies of Christmas at Seaview sold on Amazon in February? It shocks me that people bought a Christmas novella two months after Christmas but I'm not arguing. I took all my titles off Kindle Unlimited so I can sell them on other sites but I get most of my royalties from pages of Better Than Mom's read on KU. So I'm debating whether I should put that one back on. Probably since I can't argue with a source of revenue.

I finished the latest read-through of Seaview 4 this afternoon. Every time I read it I change little things. I wonder if I should rearrange some of it but then when I read it, I think things are in the correct order. This writing thing is a challenge sometimes. And what am I going to do when this one is finished? That's months away but I have to think ahead. I've got one more manuscript from long long ago that I might be able to make something out of. It's actually the first thing I ever wrote. One of these days I'll dig it out and reread it. I remember when I started writing it. I'd written the characters and the plot, then the guide I was using said something like, "okay, you've got the parts, now go write the novel." What was in my head was bright and lively and interesting. What came out in the first draft was a lot like unsalted oatmeal--flavorless and bland. Maybe I can fix it.

--Barbara 

Green!

The other day my writing friend, JB, posted a picture of her daffodil sprouts on Facebook. I was jealous. I'd been checking the bed in front of my house and had seen nothing. Until today. Instead of standing on the porch to check, I stood at the living room window, looked down, and there they were! Green shoots of daffodils poking out of the wood chips ever so slightly. Yay! Daffodils!

 

Just to make a liar out of me, a Junco landed on the square green feeder today. I've only seen them on the ground before and was confident that they were solely ground feeders. But no, one had to fly up to the perch and look around. I'm not sure if it pecked at the seed but it was up there where no Junco had been before (that I'd seen).

 

And a House Finch landed on the top of a crook. It didn't sample any of the suet or the seed, it just waited there for the female which was on the back of the square green feeder. When she flew away, he did too.

 

This morning I got out the good old Elmer's glue and got to work gluing the embossed painting pieces I prepared yesterday onto blank cards. But first I autographed each little painting piece with my official artist signature--bam. 

 

Once I got them all glued, I stacked them and gently put a heavy cookbook on top of them to make sure that they glued themselves to the cards and stayed flat. Tomorrow I'll fold them and tuck them into a cellophane sleeve with an envelope so I'm ready whenever a card-needing occasion happens. 

 

This afternoon the Avery business card blanks I ordered were delivered so I tucked a sheet into the printer, crossed my fingers, and printed some. It worked! Even though the blank looked the same as the one I had, the words stayed inside the boundaries of the little cards. Now I have sales tally cards to use this year. It only took me three days, a lot of strong language, and one Amazon order to accomplish the task.

 

I also read a book today. An actual, paper book. I haven't done that in a long time, but I had this book by a local author laying around, and finally got around to reading it, or at least starting to read it. It's pretty good. Feels weird though, not listening to it or reading it on my phone.

--Barbara