Dodged a Bullet

I got an email today from Ingram Spark (a book publishing site) with a proof of The Seaview from my submission of a week or so ago asking me to approve it before publication. I started looking at it and realized that there wasn't a title page or table of contents or any of that publishing stuff that makes a manuscript look like a "real" book. I had a momentary panic until I remembered that all of my books are on an app called Atticus, which is a formatting app that lets you get things all organized and then exported to a file that you can save and upload to make a book. Whew. I reloaded the manuscript, they sent it back for proofing, I found things that needed changing, and am in the process of going over the manuscript again. I'll spend tomorrow working on tidying up and then send it back in for the umpteenth time. I realized that in some chapters the paragraphs are indented and in others they aren't, some are half and half, so I'm going through to fix that. It has to be right and I'll get there eventually.

 

This morning I was lucky enough to see three Sparrows on the suet nuggets feeder at the same time. I snapped the picture and immediately one flew away. Whew. Got it.

 

And this female House Finch landed on the orange half and had a few pecks at it. It's been a while since I've seen a bird on there.

 

The carnation's alien appendage is still growing. I don't know how this is happening since these are cut flowers and shouldn't be growing. I don't understand.

 

The irises are opening. The blue/purple ones first. These are so pretty and are probably lying down now because we had a hard rain this evening. But they were standing up when I took their picture.

 

Today's drawing is a Puffin. It was easy and fun to draw and I got to use a white paint pen to make the feathers on the wing. So, yay, another art supply used. And speaking of art supplies, I got a text from a former neighbor who also paints with watercolors and we're going to lunch next Wednesday and on a little road trip to an art supply store and gallery about 30 miles away. None of us need more art supplies but we need to check it out.

The third Christmas cactus flower is opening. I love the brighter color of these last flowers.

 

Tonight was supposed to be OJ's first soccer game of the season but it was raining and thundering so they cancelled it. Naturally they didn't cancel it until I'd driven across town and was at the park when I texted DS and got the news. Oh well, I always wanted to drive across the tallest bridge in town in the pouring rain with trucks alongside. Slightly scary. 

--Barbara 

I Tried Again

I tried to do nothing again today but sitting here thinking about my day I failed. For supper (for the next eleven nights) I grilled six big chicken breasts, cut them in half, and steamed cut broccoli in the microwave. It was so good, I could have eaten a whole breast, but then I'd have been too full and short changed myself.

 

I saw the female House Finch on the grape jelly and thought she was out alone, but then I saw him on the birdbath. Didn't get his picture, but he was nearby. 

 

The Sparrows appreciated that I refilled the suet nuggets. At one point there were four of them on the feeder, but when I got the camera up, two of them flew away. Ah well.

 

Today's drawing is a Goldfish in a bowl. I like the way the goldfish turned out, the bowl not so much. I went too fast when I was inking the lines and got off so they're squiggly. 

 

Here's the little (so far) volunteer fern that's growing in the middle of a bare spot in the flower bed next to the patio. I suspect the ferns spread underground.

 

Yesterday's iris buds turned into today's iris flowers. They're so pretty, I might have to paint them in a day or two. If I can find the page in my watercolor notebook that gives hints on how to paint irises.

 

These yellow iris buds won't be open tomorrow but I'll be watching for them to blossom. Maybe I'll paint a yellow iris instead of a purple one. Or maybe one of each.

 

I saw the first tiny buds on one of the Stella d'Oro lilies too. It'll be quite a while before they bloom but I was glad to see them.

 

And here's another Oriole just because I can and because I have seven more pictures of him.

 

Instead of just sitting around listening to an audiobook (which I did for a lot of the day), I folded sheets I'd washed, dried, and just wadded up. Then I washed another set of sheets, dried them, and folded them. I tend to leave sheets balled up downstairs because I have two sets of sheets that I can alternate and today I put both sets of flannel sheets away for the summer. I also sorted the dirty clothes but didn't wash them. I'll do that another day.

Tomorrow evening is OJ's first soccer game of the season so I dug out my bag o'chair and put it into the wayback of my car so I'll have it for sitting in and cheering from. I also made sure my water bottle is full because it's supposed to be near 90 tomorrow. Ugh.

Let's see. What else did I do? I unloaded the dishwasher, tried to unstick the garbage disposal, and attempted to clean off the patio table. I was unsuccessful with the disposal and did a bad job of the table. I should have used the hose to wash off the 409 and dirt, but I didn't want to get the chairs wet. It wouldn't have mattered because I didn't sit out there anyway. Oh yeah, I read through a few story starts and added a few lines to one of them.

And that was my day. Happy Memorial Day!

--Barbara 

Much Orange

There was a lot of Oriole orange in my backyard today. I saw the male Oriole three times and took pictures every time so I ended up with eight Oriole pictures today. The last three as the light was changing are a little blurry but the first five are pretty darned clear. I don't know if it was one bird or three different birds, but it went for the grape jelly every time, even after I replaced the orange half with a fresh one. In this shot, he's just getting ready to fly down to the grape jelly.

 

I had a quick Hummingbird sighting. Just as I was about to go out and fill the birdbath, I looked out the patio door and there was that tiny flash of green at the nectar feeder. It isn't as though I don't enjoy looking at the Sparrows, Mourning Doves, and House Finches, but I see them every day. The Orioles and the Hummingbirds are special.

 

Speaking of House Finches, the pair of them visited the jelly this morning. She comes, then he follows. She leaves and he takes off right afterward. I never see just one.

 

The baby bunny stopped by to nibble on the grass under the feeders. It's growing fast.

 

Today's drawing is a Luna Moth. One of these days I'm going to get the wings on the left side to match the wings on the right side better. It seems like I can draw one side and then can't follow the same curves for the other side. It's alright. I'm sure that the moth's wings aren't perfectly symmetrical in real life.

 

These iris buds are just about ready to pop. There are two blooming and these are going to be next.

 

I was going to try to do nothing today but I just can't do it. I ended up hauling the patio chairs out of the shed and then tried to put up the umbrella but it's too heavy for me to lift up that high. My neighbor was out digging up thistles from his lawn and graciously came over and, boop, popped it in like it weighed nothing.

After lunch I went to the grocery because I was out of bananas and grapes. I bought a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I have marinating in teriyaki marinade. I plan to grill them tomorrow so I'll have twelve suppers of yummy grilled chicken breasts. It'll be amazing. Also delicious.

Then I looked at a couple of the story starts I uploaded this week and decided that one was finished flash fiction, then spent some time expanding another one so I've got two new stories to let settle before giving them a once over before posting them. I also went through a couple chapters of my Seaview manuscript but decided to wait until cda looks through more of them before editing any more. I really love writing.

Ooh, some of the new Amazon ads I made yesterday are already producing results. No sales yet, but Impressions and Clicks. Well, one Click. It's a start and waaaay better than zero. 

--Barbara 

Big, Medium, Little

Birds. I had all three today. When I went out to check the mail, this Turkey hen was sashaying across the front yard just as casual as can be. I was afraid she'd spook and run off when I opened the door but she didn't. She just kept up her pace and angled toward the side yard. I don't know where she went from there.

 

And of course, the little bird is a Hummingbird. It was the male, as usual. He's got my feeder on his radar and makes a couple stops a day for a sip. I didn't sit at the table much today so I was lucky to see him once.

 

For the day's medium-size bird, I have a Bluejay. It landed on the suet nuggets but stayed on the back so it was nearly invisible, but then it landed on the ground and finally hopped out from behind the crooks. It's in the shade and looking away but you can see it and that's good enough for me. 

 

The first iris bloomed! I looked out the kitchen window and there it was up on top of the retaining wall, and there are more buds getting ready to burst open. 

 

Yesterday I scrolled down to look at my Amazon ads which stopped producing Impressions and Clicks a couple months ago. And I had no idea why. Many many of them were blank. No activity at all, just the most recent ones are producing anything at all. I woke up this morning having figured it out overnight. I realized that the books I linked the ads to were the ones I unpublished so the ads had nothing to advertise. So I spent the greatest part of the day archiving the unproductive ads and making new ads linked to the republished books and eBooks. I went from 115 ads, down to 25 ads, and then back up to 68 ads--so far. Following the instructions I saved from the last time I did the Ads Profit Challenge (thank god I kept them), I made Auto ads and Category ads. Next I'll make Keyword ads which are the ones that always performed best for me. Luckily I also saved the Excel worksheets I used when I collected book titles and author names from similar books to use in the Keyword ads so I don't have to start from scratch. Whew.

 

Today's drawing is a Water Lily. I always have trouble drawing the petals that face the front, the perspective usually eludes me, but today I didn't do too badly.

 

Then I took my red shoes for a walk up to the stop sign and back.

 

When I came in from walking I saw that another Christmas cactus flower had opened. Isn't it pretty? I love the stamens and that purplish thing in the center. You can see another bud to the left of the flower too. It's pretty small so it may not blossom, but it might. 

 

I had convinced myself that at least one of the story starts I typed into the computer yesterday was almost ready to be published. Went looking for it after my walk. Nope. None of them are ready for publication. And none of them are any longer than the previous story starts I'd uploaded. Oh well, that gives me more room to maneuver. 

--Barbara 

They Came!

My latest marketing idea became reality today. LL and another one of the members of the Novel Intensive critique group commented on the muffins Rose makes in the Seaview books. So I worked to fit the recipe on both sides of a postcard, sent it to KM, my assistant, for refinement, and ordered 100 from GotPrint. They came today. I plan to hand them out at vendor and book fairs. Across the bottom of the back side is all of my contact info. Hopefully people will make the muffins and buy the books.

 

The other things I got today are seven 10-13 second videos to post on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. I don't know if I can put one on there but I'll try. Otherwise go on my page on Facebook because I posted one there this afternoon. (Well, that didn't work so follow this link to my Facebook page and watch there.)

 

One surprise flower in the yard is the tiny white flower clusters on the dogwood bush on the corner of the house. I don't remember ever seeing flowers on it before but I noticed it when I was outside the other day and snapped a picture.

 

A pair of Mourning Doves landed on the edge of the patio table this afternoon. They perched there surveying everything before deciding to fly over to the edge of the birdbath for a drink. Were they on a date?

 

The male Hummingbird showed up today. I was sure this was a female until he turned to the side and there was his ruby throat. I'm determined to get a picture of her one of these days. At least this picture is in better focus.

 

Today's drawing is a Chicken. I was running out of time because I spent so much of the day trying to figure out how to download the videos from my email onto my phone. Never did figure it out so KM texted them to me. I downloaded them but didn't know where they went. Finding that out took another hour but I finally tracked them down. Whew. Anyway, here's a brown chicken. Meh.

 

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I worked on Melt the ICE toque (hat) #3. I was nearly done with the long ribbing and decided, instead of starting something else, I'd work on finishing it. I finished the 6" of ribbing and started on the crown decreases. KE wants a red hat for a friend and I've got one done that she can have. When I finish this one I'll have one on hand, just in case I need a rebellion hat.

 

And just because I can, here's another picture of the male Oriole that stopped the other day.

 

I took a walk up to the stop sign this afternoon. I didn't drive anywhere today, but I could have.

--Barbara 

Back To Humming

I was lucky enough to see the male Hummingbird a few times today and get halfway decent pictures. I saw the female once or twice and got nothing. She's smaller and a lighter green and doesn't have that ruby throat but I was still thrilled to see her.

 

The squirrel was all over the suet nuggets this afternoon. It wrapped itself around the feeder and got to nibbling. The Gray Catbirds have learned that there are crumbs that fall from the nuggets so they spent a good amount of time down there. Naturally, they were behind the crooks so not very visible. I didn't keep any of their pictures.

 

I refilled the grape jelly this morning, much to the satisfaction of the House Finch pairs. They come together and leave together. Usually she flies off first and he follows.

 

The bleeding hearts are all abloom. It was kind of windy when I took their picture so they were bobbing around some but they aren't blurry. For which I am grateful.

 

The ferns are unfurling. Some of them are in the middle of the lilies of the valley and others are in the middle of nothing. There's an expanse of plain, empty dirt with a volunteer fern popping up in the middle of it. Maybe more ferns will fill in. That would be nice.

 

The lilies of the valley are starting to bloom. Those little, arching stems of white bells are so sweet and smell so good. Every spring I send a sprig of them to DD in Kentucky because she's always loved them so much and I love her. I wish she lived closer.

 

Today's drawing is Bugs & Such. That's the name on the page in the book. I like drawing bugs, I really do. And I like all of these, especially the bee and the grasshopper.

 

Last night I finished knitting Scrap Hat #4. I think I'm going to take a break from knitting them and find a pattern for a chemo hat. I've got some cotton and acrylic yarn that would be good for them downstairs that's calling my name.

 

I spent a lot of the afternoon typing in the rest of the story starts from the 2016 prompt notebook I unearthed from the carton downstairs. Fifteen yesterday and twenty-one today should give me a lot of things to work with for making into short stories. A couple of them are almost short stories already but most of them are just a couple paragraphs. They won't all turn into stories but I've got lots of raw material. 

 

I got my car back! Hooray! And all of the door locks work! Hooray! Thanks, JR and S! Two days without wheels is torture. Not that I had anywhere I needed to go but because I couldn't go anyplace I wanted to. Now I can go places and lock the car when I get there. Yay!

--Barbara 

Orange You Glad

I was so excited to see a male Oriole land on the feeder and stop for a few bites (sips?) of grape jelly. Finally. I managed to snap three pictures so you can expect to see them all in the coming days.

 

And the male Hummingbird visited twice, too. I thought the female came around suppertime, but when I looked at the pictures I could see the ruby throat and knew it was the male. Maybe he won't share the location of the feeder with the Mrs. 

 

I went out with my leather gloves and some lopping shears to cut back all of the dead rose canes so you can see how Dad's rose is growing. The sprouts have really shot up in the few days between photos.

 

This morning I had an email from GetCovers that included the final files of the Horizon
cover redo. I really like the change. It's so much brighter and attractive than the old, moody one. In the old one, the clouds were dark purple and the people were nearly invisible because it was so dark. Hopefully the new cover will attract more readers too. 

 

And I sat down to load The Seaview on to Ingram Spark for wider distribution. It took some doing to figure out how to work the website to get all the info they want entered but I used the Help pages and got it done. When I tried to load Horizon, it told me that the ISBN number is already in use which means the Extended Distribution through Amazon is still in effect. Dang it. It's a good thing I bought the 100 pack of ISBNs because I'll assign a new number to the paperbacks to get them uploaded and out there. Honestly, sometimes I'm my own worst enemy, but I can be good at fixing things too.

 

When I gave up on Ingram Spark, I took the laptop to the kitchen table to start typing in the short story starts from the prompt notebook I went through yesterday. I think I got about 15 of them on the computer with at least that many yet to go. They aren't long, the longest are 2 composition book pages, so it goes fast.

 

While I was working on the story starts, I heard a lawnmower rev up and knew that the mowing service was here. I was wondering when they'd come this week because the dandelions were getting pretty tall. The mower guy picked up the trash that blew into the backyard and even took away the branches and rose canes from the front yard where they were piled for the stick truck to collect. 

 

If I didn't have two vases of flowers from Mother's Day, I'd have cut lilacs to bring in this afternoon. When I went to take their picture the aroma enveloped me. So sweet.

 

JR, my car guy, called late this morning. The mechanic, S, had three of the four doors working but the back driver's side door needs a new actuator. I don't know what that is, but it's necessary if I want the automatic door lock to work and it ain't cheap. I told him to go ahead and install it because I'm hoping the HHR is my last vehicle and I want everything to work if possible. Naturally the part won't be in until tomorrow so I'll be without a car again tomorrow. Fortunately I don't need to be anywhere. However. If for some reason the part doesn't show up and S can't fix it tomorrow, JR'll bring my car back so I'll have wheels over the weekend and then I'll take it back after the Memorial Day holiday on Tuesday to be finished. I love cars.

I have more flower/plant pictures from today but I don't want to make this blog post too long. I'll save them for tomorrow.

--Barbara