The Snow Stopped

But not the wind. It spent a few extra hours whipping skeins of snow around. I went out and cleared the driveways before the snow stopped when the wind sent snow in my face no matter which direction I looked. My snowblower seemed to be running poorly so I called my neighbor who came down and pronounced it old but still functional. I made an executive decision to get a new, slightly smaller machine without the mechanical excentricities. I'm too old to worry about whether it'll work when I need it to. I informed my neighbor/tenant that I was getting a new snowblower and he offered to buy the old one, even knowing its flaws. Of course, I said yes. Once again, I did the driveways and he did the plow drift and the final cleanup. That is not me, that's my neighbor with my snowblower. See how tall the snowdrift is behind him?

 

It's important to make sure that the furnace intake doesn't have snow piled over it so I stepped out the patio door to check. I'd forgotten how far down the first step is and the snow was so deep I was glad I held onto the door handle so I didn't lose my balance. It was deeper than my boots. And the intake was clear.

 

Here's the living room windows this morning. There was so much snow stuck to the screens that it was hard to see out. And if you look carefully you can see the snow hanging off the eaves like a valance. It's hanging over the driveway too and I hope it doesn't fall overnight because I have to go pay for the new snowblower in the morning so they'll deliver it this week. I also figure if I get a new machine that will stop it from snowing big again this winter/spring.

 

Today's flower is Double Flowering Plum. It's another tree. This one I've heard of. It was pretty simple to draw and color. I wish I had another shade of pink to use to color these blooms. Pink seems to be a dominant color lately.

 

This is the smallest Christmas cactus bud that's showing color. It posed very nicely for me when I was taking pictures of the rest of the buds. They're all bigger and showier so I thought this demure one should get the exposure today. It's about the size of a pencil eraser.

 

I spent most of the afternoon, once the high-powered snowblower negotiations were complete, on Atticus getting Better Than Mom's and Christmas at Seaview formatted and ready to be uploaded once I get the covers back from the designers. Things are going so smoothly that I fear I'm missing something or doing something wrong. I'll find out when it's time to get them on IngramSpark.

 

I'm so glad the storm is over and we can go back to real life. It's supposed to be in the 40s Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so a lot of what fell will melt. I'm good with that.

--Barbara 

Enough Already

It evidently started snowing last night around 11 o'clock. It took a break about an hour ago. So far we've gotten 19.5 inches of snow. And they say it's not done. Not only has it snowed a crap ton but it's been windy all day too which made snowblowing a real adventure and made pretty drifts on front of the garage door and hanging off the roof. I went out twice during the storm to try to stay ahead of it and then the third time after the snowplow went by and pushed up a 3 foot by 3 foot drift across the end of the driveway. My neighbor/tenant, bless his soul, came out when I was just starting to try to clear the drift and asked if he could do it. You bet! I took this picture after the first snowblowing when there was a mere 10" or so on the ground. Ooh, I almost forgot to mention that in the middle of the day we had thunder, lightning, and snow! Freaky!

 

This one was taken after the second snowblowing a few hours later. I didn't take a picture after that because the camera only focused on the snow stuck to the window and not the snow outside. I took it to send to a California friend so she'd know what she's missing by having moved away. Oh, and at one point there was a female House Finch on the crook. It didn't stay long but, holy cow, what was that tiny bird doing out in the storm?

 

Today's flower is the "Star Wars" Magnolia. I have absolutely no idea what this tree flower has to do with Star Wars but that's the name in the book so I'm going with it. It was pretty fun and easy to draw. I'm especially happy with the stem.

 

Speaking of flowers, the Christmas cactus is still showing off. The first flower is fully open now and the second one is hot on its heels. There are two others behind that one and a couple little nubbins with potential. This whole thing is rather thrilling. Who knew that a bigger pot and fresh soil and better light would make all this happen? 

 

When I wasn't battling snowmageddon today I was exchanging emails with GetCovers. For some reason their understanding of what I wanted done to change the covers from JPGs with no text on the back to PDFs with text on the back got lost between the first four and the last four. Whoever sent me the second invoice charged me four times as much for the simple cover changes so I asked what changed. I had to reiterate what I wanted done and they came back with the correct charges. Of course I've already paid too much so now I have money "on account." That's okay. The next Seaview book will be ready by autumn so that'll take care of one. Then I've got the first book manuscript I ever wrote when I was just getting started on this novel quest. It's a cozy mystery and getting it tidied up for publication should be a lot of fun. And quite a challenging learning experience.

It's actually a good thing this storm came this weekend because next weekend I have an event on both Saturday and Sunday. A snowstorm wouldn't be a good thing at all. One is in DePere, about 5 miles south, and the other is in Pulaski, about 18 miles west. Naturally they both start at 9 instead of 10 like the ones we did last fall, so I'll be setting my alarm and dragging myself out early. I have to keep reminding myself that I want to do this. That I need to do this. It's fun. (Keep telling yourself that, Barbara.) 

I spent time, between bouts of snowblowing, working my way through the rest of the latest Seaview manuscript and seeing if I couldn't figure out where to put a little bit about the police arresting a guy who murdered a departing guest. But the murder's not "on camera." The police come to interrogate another guest and end up arresting her on very flimsy grounds. I have got to quit adding scenes, the book's getting long.

--Barbara 

The Power of Suggestion

Last week I worked on the next book in The Seaview Series. In one scene, Rose makes chicken tacos for supper and I even put in the simple recipe. I couldn't stop thinking about them, wanting to eat them, so today when I went to the grocery (again), I got chicken breasts, a jar of salsa, and low-fat shredded cheese. I microwaved the chicken breasts, chunked them up and made chicken tacos. Naturally there's a lot more than one meal's worth so I ate one, put one serving in the fridge, and tucked three servings into the freezer for later. So good.

 

Once again, I've never heard of the tree that produces today's flower. It's called American Fringe and, according to the book, it grows in the eastern US. It was a bit of a challenge with all the petals crisscrossing each other but I managed.

 

 I finished re-editing The Seaview this afternoon and uploaded the last four manuscripts to Atticus. I had a little moment of panic when it wouldn't load one of the files, but it didn't take me long to realize that it wasn't a .docx file which is the only one Atticus accepts. Easily fixed. The funny thing was the uncooperative file was for the newest book, Anneke's Legacy. It should tell you how old parts of that story are that they're in a 2003 version of Word. Yikes.

 

A copy of Anneke's Legacy was delivered today. I'd thought I was one short but then thought maybe I'd miscounted since it'd been a couple weeks but here it was on the porch today. Oh, and all of the books from yesterday's festival of packaging were printed and shipped from the same place. I sorted through the piles and checked. I don't understand but I'm just happy that they're all here and in good shape. 

This morning I got brave and signed up for a 5-session Novel Intensive online seminar in April. I've taken this before and it's very helpful and I get valuable critiques from the participants and the leader. As soon as I paid for it, I thought that maybe I'd made a mistake because each person submits 25 pages for critique every week which means up to 75 pages to work through before the next session. I'll be focused, I can tell you that, but I look forward to the input of other writers. 

I got an email from GetCovers with the invoice for the last four covers--three that they're calling corrections (just adding the blurb & author info and converting to PDF) and one full cover design. They only designed the audiobook cover for Island Dreams so they've got to basically start from scratch and build off that single design. To be honest, I like their audiobook design better than the eBook and paperback one that The Book Publishing Solutions designed so it can only get better.

No rain, freezing rain, or snow yet. Maybe it'll miss us? We can only hope. They keep pushing the blizzard warning back. Now it's from Sunday 4pm to Monday 4pm. Only time will tell.

-- Barbara

That's Just Nuts

Earlier this month I ordered 25 author copies. Yesterday I got emails telling me that they would be delivered today. And they were--3 in the top box, 1 each in the five white and blue mailers, and 17 in the large bottom box. Really? There are cartons that fit 25 books in just fine. What were they thinking? Don't they say they're reducing packaging? They had to all be packed and shipped yesterday. ????? Whatever. I got them all signed, stickered, and bookmarked, then stacked them in the cartons where I keep all of the inventory.

 

I want to show you the Title Page. This is the first batch of books with my publisher name and logo on it. I'm inordinately proud of it. These are the first ones with my own ISBN too. Little by little, I'm taking control of my destiny, leaving less and less up to chance. 

 

I spent most of the day working to re-edit The Seaview, shifting from manuscript in Word to manuscript in Atticus. I'm up to Chapter 35 out of 44. I'll finish up tomorrow--if my eyes hold out. I'm so focused, my eyes get really tired. 

 

And the Christmas cactus is going crazy. Well, crazier than ever before. I think there are five or six buds that look like they'll survive and bloom, one flower bloomed, and a couple of tiny little nubbins of buds. It likes its new pot, new soil, and more light. Evidently Christmas is just its name, not its season. 

 

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I added a few more inches to the Vienne cardigan back. That makes about five inches knitted on the way to eleven before I have to do something different, like pick up stitches for the fronts (one at a time). It's the perfect knitting for Friday Night because it's just knit a row, then purl a row over and over. Very little thinking necessary.

 

It occurred to me as I lay not falling asleep last night that if the booths at the Lakefly Conference & Book Fair went so quickly, the hotel rooms might go that quickly too. I didn't want to get up and call the 11 P.M. desk clerk so I rolled over and went to sleep. I called this morning and reserved a 2-queen bed room. We've got plenty of time now to think of how we want to work this fair. They've got a 48 hour cancellation policy so we've got close to six weeks to figure this out but now we've got a room if that's what we decide we want. I'm always thinking ahead and working the angles.

The weather people are threatening us with a whopper of a snowstorm Saturday night to Monday morning. The last I heard they're talking about 18-24 inches of snow. Gak! Good thing I have a big, powerful snowblower and plenty of gas. I bet schools will be closed on Monday if the storm fulfills the predictions. Probably lots of things will be closed. Already the Catholic Diocese recommended that people go to Mass on Saturday because Sunday is supposed to be snowmageddon.

--Barbara 

Shiny

I looked at the tree in the back and saw that the branches were shining in the sunlight. Evidently the ice from yesterday didn't melt off like I thought it had. I tried taking a picture but it didn't turn out. Then I noticed that the tree across the street was shining too so I tried that one. It worked a little better. You can see the ice on the tips of the branches and twigs. My writing friend, JB, got better pictures of the trees on her street and posted them on Facebook.

 

How come all the birds fly away when I pick up the camera? There were six birds in the yard--two House Finches, two Goldfinches, a Mourning Dove, and a Sparrow. I picked up the camera, looked, and they were gone. Then this lone Sparrow showed up and crouched in the shade of the feeder so I had to adjust the brightness to get it to show up even this much.

 

The flower today was Prunus Kanzan, a flowering cherry tree. It's okay, not great. I don't mind the open flowers too much and the buds are okay, but the leaves, meh. Can you tell I just wasn't in the mood?

 

I finally found out today how much royalties I earned from the Freebie Friday promo. I'm not telling the amount, let's just say it's a lot more than I thought it'd be. Now if only they had a similar promo for eBooks I'd be all over it in a heartbeat.

On Facebook this morning I saw an ad for the Lakefly Book Fair in Oshkosh in May and suggested to GBB that we think about doing it. She thought about it for a few hours and said yes. When I read her email, I went on the site and registered right away because there were only 8 slots left. Whew. Just made it. They provide tables, chairs, and table coverings so we don't have to haul any of that stuff along which is a blessing. That way we can car pool because Oshkosh is about an hour south of Green Bay so it doesn't make sense for us both to drive.

I spent a lot of today working my way through The Seaview, chapter by chapter, letting ProWritingAid point out the typos and missing commas, and then copying and pasting it over to Atticus until my eyes got tired. I'm almost halfway through. 

This evening I watched a webinar about character emotions. It was pretty interesting and gave me some things to think about when I'm writing.

--Barbara 

Icy and Snowy

Well, they warned us. I woke up this morning and looked out the kitchen window to see these pretty little icicles on the wind chimes. I thought it looked like chandelier crystals. I was glad I didn't have to go anywhere today because I'm sure the side streets were slick. And I didn't even want to think about my slanted driveway.

 

After lunch I glanced out and saw that it was snowing. But the snow only stuck to the flat yard places, not on the hill up to the retaining wall. I do not have any idea why. Around four o'clock the sun came out and the little ice balls and tiny icicles started falling and hitting the house and the windows. It sounded like someone was throwing marbles at the house. And most of the snow melted away. The weather guessers are saying there's more snow in our near future. According to the weather on my phone, it'll be over the weekend. I don't have to go anywhere then either.

 

This determined squirrel spent some time working to get up to the suet nuggets. It leaped onto the suet cakes feeder roof and slid right off. It stood on the ground shaking its head and glaring up. After a few more tries, it made it.

 

The biggest Christmas cactus bud is beginning to open. I glanced at it as I walked by and saw that the first petal had peeled off the bud. More to come!

 

Something GBB's book guy, MD, said yesterday was a very good idea. He suggested making a page for each book I want to upload to IngramSpark with the blurb, author bio & photo, and a short description like something for a catalogue. So I fixed up four of them for The Seaview Series and Horizon which are the first four books I'm working on on Atticus. And I got in touch with GetCovers this morning and emailed back and forth about getting the PDF covers fixed up with those things on them. Just before I got on here I got the invoice, paid it, and emailed back attaching all the info. So already those pages he suggested making have come in handy. I'm a big fan of GetCovers. They do good work and they're very reasonably priced.

 

Today's flower is called Paul's Scarlet. I think it's a tree but I've never heard of it. It was easy to draw the spray of flowers and I didn't have much trouble drawing the leaves. I wonder where the author is coming up with these unfamiliar flowers.

 

Yesterday after my oil change I went down to Zambaldi Beer to visit DS. He was moving around a lot not holding still long enough for me to take a picture. I complained about it and he turned around and stuck his butt out at me. He didn't drop trou, though, thank heavens. I almost wasn't quick enough to snap it but got the very end as he was straightening up. He's a funny guy.

 

I made the decision to take out the spiciest scene in The Seaview today. It's kind of too much and none of my other books had anything half as graphic so I yoinked it out, making sure that there's still a little spice but nothing too embarrassing. And I also made sure I didn't leave a glaring hole in the story. So I'm rereading it, using ProWritingAid to find typos and punctuation errors, and generally sprucing it up. It'll take me a few days or maybe a week but it'll be worth it.

Aunt B, I was so happy and relieved to see your comment this morning. I've been thinking of you and hope you're recovering from your adventure with gravity. 

--Barbara 

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