My New Toy

I had to set my alarm this morning so my neighbor could come over early to claim the old snowblower. Then not even an hour later a truck pulled up and I heard another snowblower and it was my new one being delivered. It looks very fancy and it's going to take me a lesson or two to learn how to run it. But I told the guy that the main reason I bought it was to keep it from snowing big again this winter. He laughed and agreed that was a good plan. My only disappointment is that it isn't red. It's orange but that's the color of this company. My neighbor, LJ, called me within five minutes to say he'd seen "your new baby" delivered. LJ will come over on Saturday afternoon to help me learn the ins and outs of the new machine.

 

Two more Christmas cactus buds flowered today. Naturally they're on opposite sides of the plant so they can't be in the same photo. I'll show one tonight and the other one tomorrow.

 

I spent a very frustrating time trying to upload The Seaview to IngramSpark only to discover that Amazon Extended Distribution made it available to them already. Which means I can't use the ISBN I've assigned to it again. Luckily I bought a 100-pack of them because it was cheaper than more than two 10-packs and with 8 books already published, another one in the hopper, and one in waiting I'm going to need plenty of them. So then I pulled up the next Seaview Series manuscript and went through it with ProWritingAid to see all of the suggestions for punctuation and grammar, and decide which ones I'll take and which I'll ignore. That's the manuscript I'll submit 25 pages at a time to the Novel Intensive group I've signed up for in April so I wanted to tidy it up before then.

 

This afternoon I painted. I fired up the iPad to the next flower in the 31 days course and it was a Chrysanthemum. I added the background. I like they way they turned out. Maybe I'll cut it up and make two cards.

 

After supper I watched a little TV and knitted a couple rows on the Vienne cardigan. Slowly but surely I'm adding a couple rows a night because a sweater is a big thing to knit and I don't want to be working on it for a year. But it's possible I might be. It just depends on my endurance and dedication.

 

Haven't seen any birds or squirrels since the big snowstorm which, by the way, is the heaviest in Green Bay since 1888 at 26.6 inches, 17.7 inches fell on Sunday alone. It beat the previous record by at least a couple of inches. The last record snowfall was in April of 2018 which was just under 24 inches. I talked to DS this morning and he said that he had to shovel out the furnace on the roof of the brewery yesterday. It was snow covered and wasn't running because it was being suffocated. Luckily once he had it cleared the furnace started working. He said it took him hours and he got so hot that he was down to his t-shirt.

 --Barbara

Being Careful

I had to drive maybe five miles to the store I'm buying the snowblower from to pay for it this morning. The streets were snow covered and slippery. The snow is the wet, packy kind of snow that's good for snowballs and snowmen but not so great for driving on. The plows worked all day yesterday and probably most of the night to clear all the streets but they couldn't clear them down to the pavement so there were a few places where I felt the car sliding instead of driving. And I had to back into the street and take another run at the driveway in low gear to get over the slick snow and into the nice dry garage. Whew. This is the view from my front door. A nice deep snow pile.

 

This Christmas cactus bud decided to shoot off to the side of the leaf it's growing out of. I wish all of the buds and flowers were closer together so I could take a picture of all of them at once but I'll have to be content with pictures of them one at a time.

 

Once I got home from the hardware store and got off the phone with my credit card company so they didn't think someone stole my credit card and charged a big-ticket item, I settled down to working on Atticus. I got the rest of the parts of each one into the file, made sure that the right words were on some of the pages, and generally worked to get them ready to be downloaded and then uploaded. I was tempted to upload one of the ones I have the correct format cover for but then I chickened out. I've got to read the how-tos on IngramSpark to make sure I have all the info they want before I start. 

 

Then I decided to schedule three more short stories on Substack. The most challenging was finding a stock photo to use with each story but I managed to find adequate ones. I'm so glad I realized that I can schedule posts ahead so I'm not scrambling each week to find and post a story. 

 

I got so caught up with writing I didn't leave time in my day for drawing. I thought about painting but then I got distracted by Substack so I didn't. Maybe I'll paint tomorrow while I'm waiting for the snowblower to be delivered.

--Barbara 

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