The First Book

The first copy of Sailing the Seas arrived this afternoon. It looks just like I hoped it would, except for one thing. I forgot to ask them to put The Seaview Series on it. Oh well, I'll email them tomorrow, have them add it, and it'll be on the next shipment of books. No biggie. LC suggested I write it on with Sharpie in my best penmanship. I think I'll just wait.

 

I got to spend most of the day with LC. We hadn't had a Meemaw day in months and today was the day. We went to lunch at Home Town Cafe, then spent an hour or so watching DVDs of DS playing his trombone in high school band and jazz band and show choir concerts. LC plays the trombone too so she was very interested to see him. Especially since she's never seen him with a full head of hair. Or any hair for that matter. She spent a lot of time reading Christmas at Seaview and asking lots of questions about th characters. She said she liked it and thinks I'm a pretty good writer. That made me feel good. I knitted while she read. But we were together and that's what counts.

 

The gratitude journal page for yesterday was an easy draw. I was excited to see a squirrel investigating the horse head feeder and disappointed when the pictures didn't turn out at all. Oh well, I can draw what I saw. Sorta.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Tulip. Tulips are easy flowers to draw and the teacher had interesting versions of them to demonstrate. She drew six of them but I ran out of room after four, so I turned back to a blank page I'd skipped by accident last week and drew the rest there. I didn't take their picture.

 

The other day when I was trimming back the greenery around the horse head feeder I must have scraped something along my arm because I woke up this morning with a very itchy bump on my right forearm. It's been bugging me all day and I'm trying not to scratch, but it seems like a losing battle.

After I returned LC, I spent a little time playing with the manuscript. I can't leave my hands off it. I'm excited to read it and excited to make the changes suggested by the Manuscript Analysis. Hopefully I'm making it better.

--Barbara 

One Out of Three

Squirrels wasn't too blurry. One was so blurry I didn't even edit and save it. The least blurry squirrel spent quite a bit of time on the suet nuggets. It gloms onto the feeder and holds it like a lover, chomping away while crumbs fall to the ground.

 

Up on the retaining wall the second squirrel was a little blurrier contorting itself around the cob corn. It would reach up for a kernel and then hang from its hind feet while it held the kernel in it front paws and nibbled away at it. It too dropped kernels for the ground feeders.

 

I caught sight of a squirrel with its head in the horse head squirrel feeder for a nanosecond. I took a picture, but all of it was one green and brown blur. I don't know how or if I can get a picture from my perch at the table all the way across the yard to the feeder and squirrel.

 

This morning I remembered to make more Jello. Lemon-lime Jello. One four-serving box of each for a big bowl of jiggly green goodness. It's my favorite flavor. Yum.

 

Yesterday's gratitude journal page wasn't hard to draw. The weather was perfect--cooler and less humid--and I filled the feeders, did yoga, and worked on the manuscript. A good day.

 

Broom was today's drawing prompt. It seems like a silly thing to draw but making the jagged bottoms and drawing the lines of the broom straws was good practice.

 

I knitted a couple inches of sock cuff tonight at Friday Night Knitting. It's slow going because I'm using size US2 needles. I usually use US3s but my yarn is pretty thin so I went down a needle size. The yarn looks white but I think it's a very very pale green. At least it looks that way in real life. I can't wait until I get to the self-patterning part and have some colors to look at.

 

I added a lecherous landlord to Three Cheers for Murder today. When I was doing yoga (while I was supposed to be meditating), I thought I needed to add another character to give the main character/sleuth a bit of trouble. So I came up with Arnold "Call me Arnie" LaGrange who thinks he's God's gift to women and drowns himself in Brut cologne. If I'm going to write more than one book about this town and these people, I need more population to fill the pages.

--Barbara 

There Were Bees!

I went up to the retaining wall this morning to weed around the horse head squirrel feeder to see if I couldn't lure some squirrels there. While I was there, I looked at the bronze sedum and there were bees! Hooray! Lots of them but I only caught this one in the act. 

 

And right where I stood admiring the bees, I saw a spiderweb and there was a big brown spider in another part of the web. Pretty cool. I wasn't sure I captured its picture because I was using my phone and had to zoom in and couldn't see well but I got it. Hint: the spider's in the shade to the left of the white web right under the flower head.

 

When I cleared out some of the weeds around the horse head squirrel feeder, I noticed lots of mushrooms. I thought they only grew on rotting wood and I don't remember wood being there but whatever. It was fun to see them and two colors of them.

 

I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday and ended up putting the book cover and publishing the book on the same page. I was so happy to get those cover files and be able to publish the book that I wouldn't have been surprised to have put it on three or four times. Hooray!

 

Speaking of mushrooms, that was the drawing prompt for today. I enjoyed drawing them and it wasn't until I looked at the picture I took of the page that I realized that they're all leaning to the right. Must have been windy when I was drawing.

 

I don't know how I can get a clearer picture at the distance I am away from the horse head squirrel feeder but I saw one investigating this afternoon. Maybe when the Hummingbirds are gone, I'll move that feeder down closer to the house so I can get a better picture. Today I spread a little peanut butter in the opening of the feeder to try to lure the little tree rats to it. It might work. I filled the birdseed, suet nuggets, and cob corn feeders today too, but didn't take pictures.

 

Just on the off chance that it'd work, I opened last night's blog post and, lo and behold, Blogger let me put on the pictures. So if you want to see last night's pictures, scroll back and check them out. 

I cast on a sock tonight but only managed to knit two rounds so what I did is barely visible. I didn't take a picture of it. I'll do that tomorrow night after Friday Night Knitting. Three hours of knitting should give me something to show for it.

Writing went pretty well today. I'm following the suggestions from the ProWritingAid Manuscript Analysis and feel good about it. I've taken out big chunks of writing that don't really advance the story and suspect there's more of that to come. I also sent the police after another suspect. And I took out the three small scenes from the murderer's point of view, letting the sleuth make some deductions to sneak up on the info instead of overplaying my hand and giving away too much to the reader. I'm learning a lot from doing it this way. Much more than I'm learning from the how-to book. This somehow feels more like my own idea and my own writing even though the analysis is basically coaching me.

--Barbara 

Still Woohoo-ing

Edited to add: Blogger won't let me put any photos on this post. I've tried everything I could think of to make it do my bidding to no avail. Sorry. You'll just have to read without pretty pictures. Dang. 

Edited again: I decided to try again on Thursday night and it let me put on the pictures. *sigh* 

Just now I figured out how to find out how many books total and how many of each book I've sold on Amazon in 2025 and also since I started selling books there in 2022. Last year I sold 80 books, more digital than print. Not bad. Over all, I've sold 369 books, more digital than print. I'm very happy with those numbers.

 

And to toot my horn even more, I checked on Chirp and have sold 58 Horizon audiobooks in the last few days for $1.99, and 9 each of Island Dreams and Anneke's Legacy for $3.99 each. All these numbers make me very happy indeed. I am not figuring out how much I've spent having the audiobooks narrated. That would only make me sad. Very sad.

 

I took a little time this morning to draw yesterday's gratitude journal. I was most grateful to get the first corrected Sailing the Seas cover to approve.

 

I was even more grateful to get the final files this afternoon which allowed me to go on Kindle Direct Publishing and publish the digital and paperback of Sailing the Seas. As soon as possible, I ordered author copies hoping against hope that they'd arrive before my shows on September 25, 26 & 27. When I first filled in the number of copies, it said they'd be shipped in 10 days and arrive in time. When I made my order, it said they'd arrive between Oct. 1-6. Gah! Let's hope they come sooner rather than later. I can't afford to buy more than the first one at full price.

 

This afternoon I was waiting for a phone call to tell me when my new fridge was on the way. It never came. The first thing I knew about it was the backup beeper of the delivery truck in my driveway. Yikes! I was relying on that phone call to give me a chance to empty the fridge and freezer. So when the delivery guy knocked on the door, I'd just started unloading it. Man, I had a lot of stuff in there. Way more than I thought I had. Luckily I'd carried up my three big laundry baskets, some blankets, and big beach towels so I could line the baskets and cover them to keep the cold in a little better.

 

This is the new fridge. It's just a freezer up top and fridge below basic model in white. It was on sale. The fancy colored ones weren't. I don't need a colored fridge, just one that works and doesn't turn the fridge shelves into wading pools. When I called Whirlpool afterward to register it, the guy asked me about the fridge it replaced. He was impressed when I said that it had been 22 years old but he was blown away when I told him that my clothes dryer is 48 years old and still going strong. He said he wished he was 22 again but I was 53 years past 22 and didn't want to go back. He tried to flatter me into buying the extended warranty but I resisted. Us old broads have sales resistance, especially when we'd spent 42 years married to a salesman. 

 

Here's one more Dad's rose picture. The rose bush is having a bit of an explosion lately. I don't mind.

 

I met my writing friend, GBB, at Legacy Hotel for lunch today and DIL1 came down to show us where the Untitled Town book fair would be held. We had excellent food and then I got to show off my beautiful daughter-in-law. Win-win!

--Barbara 

More Woohoo!

This woohoo doesn't have my name on it but an editor who critiqued the first 3 pages of my last The Seaview Series manuscript asked a few weeks ago if she could re-edit my pages on her new podcast. I said yes. She's not sharing the name of the author but those are my words and my pages being dissected on a podcast. I didn't remember her being quite so... thorough when she edited the pages the first time but it was an education to watch it happen again. I learned a few things, mostly that I tend to overwrite dialogue. I can fix that--or not. (I entered a 24-hour contest on Writers Helping Writers blog to have the first 3 pages of a manuscript edited for free and I won. That's how she came to have my words to dissect in the first place.)

 

Today's drawing prompt was Bird. Something I'm much more drawn to draw than cats. I like the one in the lower left the best. Because of its tail feathers, I think.

 

I went out this afternoon and lowered the horse head squirrel feeder a few inches. Now it might be too low but at least it's at a height that the squirrels can reach it. I could tell that no squirrels had found it yet because some corn kernels fell out when I was moving it around. I also definitely need to go out with the clippers and clean up the greenery (weeds) around it so I can see what's going on and maybe take a picture.

 

Would you like to see a slice of a delicious chocolate mousse cake? This is what LC baked for me for my birthday. All by herself. There were little silver stars sprinkled around the edge of the cake. It was so good and so good looking it seemed like a shame to eat it. But I managed.

 

When I was rehanging the squirrel feeder, I took the camera out to take pictures of the sedum flowers and noticed a single flower stalk of a perennial purple salvia I thought the weeders had pulled out. Evidently there was a tiny bit of the plant left to struggle toward the sun. Hooray!

 

On to the sedum. The bronze sedum is more subtle and I'm so disappointed that there weren't any bees on there. Lack of sunshine? A rainy morning? Too many pesticides in the neighborhood?

 

The pink sedum is brighter. Still no bees.

 

I went to a Catholic funeral this morning. I hadn't been in church in years but I mostly remembered the rituals. Stand up, sit down, stand up, kneel, stand up, kneel, sit down. It all pretty much came back to me. Although I confess, I still miss the Latin Mass. And lightning didn't strike me. Plus we sang Amazing Grace, my favorite hymn. It always makes me cry. 

In the afternoon, I worked on Three Cheers for Murder. Working my way through the ProWritingAid Manuscript Analysis recommendations. It's helping me get the right parts of the mystery in the right places and preserve the mystery part better. Maybe I'll do a better job on the next one. And there will be a next one because I already have an idea about it.

The most exciting news of the day was the response to an email I sent to GetCovers this morning about why it was taking so long to get my finalized cover design. When I got back from church, there was an email from them with a cover design with the offending shadow removed so I approved it and am waiting for the final files. Then I can publish Sailing the Seas and maybe maybe maybe have copies to take to The Clearing the first week in October. Fingers crossed.

 --Barbara

Woohoo!

I couldn't wait to open the Chirp Books email with the list of Featured Deals this morning because my audiobook Horizon was supposed to be on there. And it was! Right there in the list of other books. I hope somebody orders it. A whole lot of somebodies.

 

A squirrel was on the suet nuggets this morning. It twined around the feeder, head up and head down, until it fell off and scampered away. 

 

And this rabbit peeked shyly around the trash can where I store birdseed. I was lucky to get its picture because it looked like it was ready to dash away at any minute. And it did just as soon as I snapped this.

 

I was nearly stumped when I drew the gratitude journal this morning. I could only think of two more things after drawing the weather report.

 

When I was drawing I looked up to see a grasshopper clinging to the patio screen. I haven't seen a grasshopper in ages and was happy to have one visit.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Cat. I'm not a cat person. I'm not a dog person either. But she said to draw cats so I drew cats. Tomorrow will be better, I hope.

 

I was invited to DS's house for supper tonight for my birthday--a little late. He made ribs, corn on the cob, salad, and DIL1's mom brought some potato wedges to bake. LC baked a chocolate cake that was to die for. I got cards, homemade and purchased, an Amazon gift card, and H & JZ gave me one of those cute kitchen towels you hang on your oven handle. It was a fun celebration.

 

cda and I did a critique zoom this morning even though it's a holiday because I'm busy tomorrow morning. She had a lot of good comments on my chapters and I hope I helped her fill in some holes in her manuscript. Then I spent some time putting new little scenes in to flesh out the story and expand other characters so the murderer isn't so easily figured out. I have a lot of work to do on that score.

--Barbara 

Not So Far

I saw a squirrel near the new horse head squirrel feeder but it didn't investigate the horse head. I didn't go  out to clip away the greenery underneath it or untie and lower it today. I just wasn't in the mood. Sorry the picture is dark and blurry. It's far away from the patio door and if I open the door the squirrels run away.

 

I did draw the new squirrel feeder on the gratitude journal page for yesterday and also that I got the Covid booster I wanted to get on Wednesday but they didn't have until Saturday.

 

It surprised me to see leaves changing color on one of the trees I pass on my walk. The humidity was much lower today so I walked. I don't walk if the humidity is over the moon, I just don't. But anyway, that tree is always the first one to drop its leaves. They kind of look like they're skipping the colorful phase and going right to brown and crunchy.

 

Dad's rose keeps opening new buds. I took pictures with my phone and see that the focus isn't good. Sorry about that, but now it's too dark to go out to take a decent picture so we'll have to make do with the blurry one.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Pitcher so she drew five different ones and I copied along. They're okay. Not very exciting but pretty simple to draw. I sort of signed up for a watercolor tutorial online but it looked like I had to download WhatsApp in order to join and I didn't want to do that. But evidently I was in the class because I got a replay. Haven't watched it yet but I will.

 

Tonight's supper was the last homegrown tomato in the larder. And it was yellow! I don't think I've ever eaten a yellow tomato before. It was good and juicy. Not quite as sweet as the red one I ate last night but way better than a grocery store tomato. 

 

I cashed in a credit on ProWritingAid this afternoon for a Manuscript Analysis of Three Cheers for Murder. I did it because I felt stuck for what to do to make it cozier and got lots of suggestions which I'll go through one by one and see what I can fix or change. 

In the afternoon I finished putting 2025 and 2026 book purchases and sales on Excel spreadsheets. Then I added up sales for all 4 years I have numbers for. It looks like I've sold 459 books since January of 2023. I didn't keep track of any sales I made from September 2022 to the end of that year so I know I sold a few more but don't know how many. To be honest, I thought I'd sold more than that but I guess not. And I haven't got a clue how many I've sold on Amazon. I wonder if that's something they keep track of. Next I'll count how many books I have on hand and subtract that number from how many I've purchased, that might give a more accurate number. All of this math-ing makes me tired.

--Barbara