Windy and Colder

Sunday and yesterday it got up to 70 degrees. Today it rocketed up to 37 degrees and I think that was in the morning and the temperature went down from there. Right now it's 32 degrees with a "feels like" temp of 20, and I can hear the wind roaring. I noticed this morning that trash was blowing into the back yard along with a whole lot of leaves. At dusk I took a picture when it all laid down for a minute. Yesterday there was no trash in the yard. Today it looks like we've stopped raking and let ourselves go.

 

Two days of summer-like weather encouraged the daffodils to really sprout. There are also tiny thin leaves of crocus around but I expect the bunnies to chew those off almost as soon as they peek out of the wood chips.

 

The Christmas cactus buds are filling out too. One looks like it's almost ready to open and the next biggest is doing its best to catch up.

 

Today's flower is Red Robin. Also called photinia. I've never heard of either of them, but I copied the picture and tried to color it like the book showed. I like the red twigs.

 

 

I called GBB's formatting guy, MD, this afternoon to talk about whether he can help me get my book covers fixed up to submit to IngramSpark. The short answer is no. He said the quality wouldn't be good if he tried to add the author bio and blurb to the cover files I have. So I emailed GetCovers to find out about getting started sending what they need to do the job. I'm not worried about the cost. They're very reasonable.

This afternoon I paged through one of the books I uploaded to Atticus only to discover that there were three chapters under one chapter number. Oops. So I fixed that. Then I realized that one chapter in another book was waaaaay too long. So I fixed that too. It's a good thing I keep going over them because by the time I'm ready to upload them, maybe by then I'll have them all fixed up and as close to perfect as I can make them. (There are a lot of "them"s in that sentence, but I'm leaving them. And there's another one.)

I had my oil changed and my left turn signal fixed this morning and forgot to take my checkbook along so I had to go back this afternoon to pay my bill. On my way in, I grabbed a copy of Anneke's Legacy for JR. He said he was hoping I'd bring one. He's a fan. That makes me feel great.

-- Barbara

I'm Driven

Once I start working on Atticus, I can't stop. This afternoon I sat down after I got home from the grocery and didn't get up until after suppertime. Today I learned that I can make pages that are the same in each book, like Books Also By and Author Bio, what they call Master Pages. Those are in a separate place so I can go get them and slot them into each book in turn instead of having to type them over and over. I think I have the 3 novels of the Seaview Series done, so I uploaded Horizon but it took me three times to get the right document file and still four chapters didn't transfer. Don't know why but it pays to look at every page. I'm really having fun learning new stuff.

 

There was this squirrel on the suet nuggets this morning and it was at such an angle that I could see it was holding onto the Slinky instead of the crook or the feeder. Saw another squirrel on the ground later but no birds.

 

Today's flower is Crab Apple. It turned out alright, I think. I like the way I colored the leaves. I wish I had a darker maroon colored pencil but had to make do with a purple-y pinkish one.

 

My Zoom critique session didn't go like it should have this morning. We were just getting into our stride when my internet went out, so fortunately we could talk on our phones and look at the manuscripts just on our computers, not needing the internet. I finally ended up calling Spectrum and having them send a reset command that got me back online. I have absolutely no idea what happened, but I hope it's a one-time deal.

It got up to 70 degrees yesterday and today. Wildly unusual for March. It's supposed to be 40 tomorrow and colder on Wednesday which is more like it. Tomorrow morning I get to go have my oil changed. It's only about 5 months overdue but I don't drive enough to get to the mileage needed. Oh, and my left turn signal light bulb must be burned out because I get that fast clicking sound instead of the regular clicks. They'll fix that too. I need to pull out the Owner's Manual and read how to change the time in the car too. Can't forget.

--Barbara 

Well, Dang It

I woke up this morning to hear the antique clock chime seven times. Seven o'clock, perfect timing. I could eat breakfast and do the Wordle, and still be on time to watch CBS Sunday Morning from the beginning. Not so fast. I turned it on and it was already in progress. Somebody forgot to Spring Forward last night before bed. I am so over Daylight Savings Time. It doesn't save anything. It just takes an hour of light from one end of the day and puts it on the other end. Okay, no ranting. You all know how I feel about "fast time."

 

There must have been some open water in the birdbath this morning because this squirrel was very focused getting a drink at the very edge of the ice. It got up to 58 today so the whole thing thawed out but it looked all frozen this morning.

 

I spent a lot of time on Atticus this afternoon. First I worked on the front and back matter, you know, the dedication, books also by, acknowledgement, and about the author. Then I watched a YouTube video about how to use Atticus and learned a few things. The most valuable thing I learned was to look at each and every page. That's where I found the chapters I thought hadn't transferred over. They were there, just attached to the previous chapter. I must not have put a page break at the end of the first chapter so the next one just tagged along. Not finding that stuff would have been a disaster.

 

I also learned how to format the pages. For example, choosing the font and first chapter page style, picking the scene breaks style (with an image like asterisks or without), and making sure to choose the correct trim size. It's interesting that when Atticus first came out they touted it as a place to write and then format your books. Now most of the talk is the other way, all about formatting after your manuscript is written and sort of preformatted on Word. I still don't know what I'm going to do about book covers since only one of them has the blurb, author bio and author photo already on it. The others don't. I add those in Kindle Cover Create. Maybe I'll have to take advantage of GBB's guy after all.

 

Today's flower is Cherry Blossom. I colored them with two shades of pink but in the photo it's kind of an orange pink. Also the paper is really white. Maybe I'm growing more confident but I didn't get all bent out of shape when I saw it, I just buckled down and drew.

 

I had a very difficult time resisting diving into the Manuscript Analysis I printed off yesterday. That was the impetus for spending so much time on Atticus. I even buried the pages under another sheet so it's not right there in front of me when I'm sitting here. Although I did do a little research and found someone I can make a murderer so that storyline doesn't just dangle unresolved like it does now. I picked the guy who just about burned Seaview down in the first book of the series. I never liked him anyway. I can totally see him sliding into more serious crime. Now to figure out how Rose learns about it or figures out that it's him. No big deal, right? I'm making this up as I go along.

--Barbara 

A Foggy Morning Drive

Man, it was foggy this morning when I had to drive to Sturgeon Bay for my book launch event. When I raised the shade at first it didn't look too foggy but when I got on the road it was foggy. And not just a little foggy, a pretty good foggy. Not so bad that I couldn't see other cars or where the road was going but I kept to a comfortable speed and let other vehicles pass me. We had a rain shower before I left but it stopped before I drove away. Today the raindrops made rings in the birdbath water.

Here's my book launch table. I was glad I had my lighted palm tree because they had me tucked into the space under the stairs. There wasn't a lot of traffic today.  A few people stopped and let me give them my spiel and they took business cards, but no sales. I did sell a few books to the hosting bookstore so I came home with fewer books than I left with. Always a good thing. I even got brave and made a short video of myself touting my book launch and posted it on Facebook.

 

While I sat there in Sturgeon Bay I thought of a shorter and more enticing elevator pitch for Anneke's Legacy. I took this picture in case the bookstore owner wanted to keep the sheet of book descriptions. 

 

The Christmas cactus bud is getting bigger. And the other four buds are getting bigger too. Who would have thought that repotting it would bring out more flowers. I thought it'd sulk for a while but it hasn't.

 

I got home around 4 o'clock and, while driving, I had an idea about the next Seaview Series book. I went through the manuscript and made sure there were Chapter breaks marked, then I asked ProWritingAid to run a Manuscript Analysis to see what it thinks. I'll use these 21 pages to gauge where my story is, what I can do to improve it, and which of its opinions I will ignore. For now I'm going to keep working to reformat my current novels on Atticus, but I'll let you know how this goes.

 

The funniest thing happened this afternoon. Just as I got the car loaded and stuck the key in the ignition, my phone rang, and it was my Malcolm sister-in-law in Michigan. It was her birthday this week and I sent her a watercolor card. She really really liked it. We talked for a few minutes and then she had to get ready for church. I drove home, it takes about 45 minutes, and just as I was getting out of the car in the garage my phone rang and it was my other Malcolm  sister-in-law in South Carolina. It was her birthday today and she also got a watercolor card and liked it. We chatted for a few minutes, catching up on kids, the remaining Malcolm boys, and health. I only talk to them about once a year because I remember their birthdays and they both called today. I should call them more often but when I do it's always the wrong time. It was good to hear from them.

--Barbara 

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