My Novels

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Hot, Steamy August

Though we've had a fairly uncommonly cool summer in Dixie, the heat finally caught up with us this month. And the humidity -- terrible. On my morning walks with the dogs, the humidity seems to be thick enough to cut. Makes my skin prickle, even with a light breeze through the wooded park.

I've finally resumed writing the serial story I'd described earlier in this blog. Still juggling possible titles, but for now the work-in-progress will just be called "Star Child." There will be three novels, each with ten chapters, word count uncertain at this time. I've been writing a chapter a day, editing in the morning, new chapter in the afternoon. Hope I can stick to that schedule. Here is a link to my Pinterest site where I've been posting pictures as inspiration for my series: Star Child

I have two promotions scheduled for my novels, Quest for Destiny and The Secret of Crybaby Hollow at the end of August. Both are via online Kindle ebook marketing sites, but cost very little. Every time I do a promotion, I usually keep sales of at least several copies each day from then on. Trying to build regular sales -- kinda like a snowball rolling downhill, gains momentum as it goes.

I also signed up for a digital marketing course in September; that should help me learn other ways to market my e-books online.

In other news, I am looking for a futon for my den/study; unfortunately, as usual, my bad timing is causing problems. Kids off to college are apparently big fans of futons, and stores here as well as online, are running out of stock. Especially for the ones I like, fake leather and maybe arms with cup holders. Nothing expensive, just something fairly comfortable to lie on at night and watch TV. The dogs are always on it as well, and the "fake leather" is easily cleaned. Maybe I'll find one soon.

I did get quite a lot of  maintenance issues taken care of -- even it if it was scorching hot when the workers did it. New planks on the back porch, painted; new full-view storm door on the back; new, larger pet door in wall; lattice section added to fencing in front; back fencing thoroughly inspected, new posts/planks where needed; mimosa limbs from neighboring yard cut off top of my garage; new door for crawl space built; and some minor work on what used to be the cat porch. I have a utility sink out there, and I now use it to give the dogs a bath. So much easier.

Here's a few recent pictures of the work:


New pet door, storm door and a loveseat from my living room; it will be replaced with a futon

 Oscar on freshly painted porch, soaking in some sunshine
                       
        Rambo on guard, as he always is!       


Muffin is camera shy, mainly because my new camera makes a sound when it comes on. Need to turn that off. 

Family are all doing well, everyone enjoying the last summer days. School starts back here next week. It just seems the summer vacation days get shorter and shorter... Way back when I was in school, we had  longer summers and didn't head back until early Fall (September).

The warm weather has really helped my arthritis, so much so I can hardly believe the difference. When we have rainy, damp days though it does act up a little. I dread winter, because last year I was miserable with aching joints!

All in all though not a lot to complain about. Life goes on...

(Edited to add that Oscar's biopsy of lumps was benign, thank goodness!)