Unrealistic Expectations

BookBub Ad Update

This ad is finishing the year having spent $1.39, with 3,864 impressions and 9 link clicks.

Unrealistic Expectations

It's 8:30PM and I just drugged the dog. There's nothing like illegal fireworks to make me wish some of humanity to perdition.

WMG Publishing (which is Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch) is hosting a challenge next year: Write 2024 words (on average) every day for the entire year. It's $600 to join, but if you lose, you get $600 credit toward classes plus a t-shirt and mug. If you win, you get a lifetime subscription for workshops (or whatever) and a trophy. So there's not really a downside as long as you plan on taking classes anyhow.

Part of me is thinking "hell yeah, let's go!" And the other part of me (the saner part) is remembering how many days during 2023 that I wrote over 2000 words in a day. I think I can count them all on one hand.

I may sign up anyhow.

Pet Picture of the Day

Let's end the year with the best boy!

Accomplishments of the Day

• Blocked out the next dragon episode and wrote 400 words. (Okay, see what I mean about expectations? I didn't even write 2000 words on the day I considered signing up for the challenge!)
• Finalized (?) two of the three new covers for the Jackpot Drift trilogy. I'm still rendering the scene for the third cover — it may take a few iterations until I get something I'm happy with.
• Yesterday's total step count: unknown since I forgot the pedometer at the house when walking the dog. But today's will be over 10k. I need to get back into a good routine.
• Remembered Holidailies! (I think there's one more day? I'm always confused. I'll try to remember to make an entry tomorrow, just in case.)

Infrastructure

BookBub Ad Update

Currently sitting at $1.39 spent, 3,721 impressions, and 9 link clicks. If I could scale that up, I'd be happy, but since it's not spending my current budget, I would have to increase my bids if I want to scale up. Why can't people just magically find my books? I wish it worked that way.

Infrastructure

On our last day, Georgie and I walked in the intermittent rain and I took infrastructure pictures. My brother was talking about how the pumps in the neighborhood can only handle a maximum of 1" rain/hour or else the street at the end floods, and that rate is only when the tide is in the right place. However, apparently none of my pictures turned out to be of the pumps that (might) keep the neighborhood from flooding.

These machines are (maybe?) to pump treated water underground to keep the saltwater from infiltrating the water table when they suck all the water out of the ground to water the lawns. (Seriously. Everyone has a lawn. It's a desert.)

FYI: I was very proud of the composition of this picture. But is it really that great? Meh.

Next, we have wires. So many overhead wires...

I had to ask about this one. It provides access to the natural gas line that runs under the trail.

Pet Picture of the Day

Georgie was the perfect dog during the entire trip! He's definitely invited back in the future.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Drove for seven hours. I feel like that's a pretty big accomplishment.
• Yesterday's total step count: 10,105. Today's is going to be a mystery because I left the pedometer at the house when I walked the dog.
• Remembered Holidailies again!

Just One Coyote, But Up Close and Personal

BookBub Ad Update

With this ad, I've spent $1.39, 3,514 impressions, 9 link clicks. As always, it's a little hard to tell if any of those clicks are leading to actual sales, but they may be — I've seen some sales on Google Play that I don't normally see.

Just One Coyote, But Up Close and Personal

Georgie and I walked along the riverbed this morning and we saw a coyote watching us from about 10 feet away. It didn't look particularly bothered by us, but it eventually turned away when I waved my arms and shouted at it.

We had a good walk and came home safely. This picture is from the pedestrian bridge at the midpoint of our walk. It was a very gray morning, but you can see the riverbed. Keep going another mile or two in that direction and you reach the Pacific.

Georgie looks thrilled, doesn't he? He hates pictures.

Pet Picture of the Day

I really have had the most gorgeous foster kittens this year!

Accomplishments of the Day

• (Note to self: do the Roth conversion earlier next year. Or better yet, earn more money from books so I don't need to do a Roth conversion. Either way, there was no accomplishment with the finances today.)
• Remembered Holidailies yet again!
• Yesterday's total step count: 13,389. Today's will be less, but still not terrible for vacation.

Coyotes

BookBub Ad Update

Still sitting at $1.21 spent, 3,071 impressions,  8 link clicks.

Coyotes

Sunrise before coyote sighting

My sister-in-law and I took the dog back to the riverbed early this morning. Going earlier meant there were fewer off-leash dogs, which was a bonus. But we did see two coyotes, which was fun. A bicyclist had warned us there were coyotes farther down the trail, but we had both forgotten about it by the time we got there. Then my dog gave me his usual "there's a dog there" alert. At first, I thought it was an off-leash dog, but then I saw the second one.

We decided to take the trail exit and go back on the streets. I doubt it would have been a problem — my dog is 65#, which is bigger than even two coyotes are going to take on — but there was no reason to go closer when the exit was right there.

Other fun moment: my not-quite-two-year-old niece tried to eat the dog kibble and got very upset when I took the bag away. (My dog, of course, did nothing. In every interaction with the kids so far, he's been perfectly behaved.)

Pet Picture of the Day

The shelter has kittens that need fostered right now, but I'm hundreds of miles away. Oh well. For now, I'll have to be content with this picture of newly arrived fosters from earlier this year.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Tried to get the Roth conversion going but ugh. Hopefully it goes through tomorrow...
• Yesterday's total step count: 5,588. Today's is higher.
• Remembered Holidailies again!

Wandering the Neighborhood

BookBub Ad Update

The current ad has spent $1.21, had 2,864 impressions, and 8 link clicks. BookBub keeps sending me email telling my campaign isn't winning many impressions. "Our auction takes the click-through rate (CTR) into account for ads using CPC bidding, and unfortunately the CTRs of these campaigns are low enough to impact their competitiveness in the auction." Basically, they aren't spending the amount I've given them, but that's fine as long as I don't want to scale up.

Wandering the Neighborhood

Georgie and I went for a walk in our temporary neighborhood this morning and took some pictures. My two main complaints are the number of people who don't have their dogs on a leash (extreme eye-roll) and the sheer amount of trash in the Santa Ana Riverbed, which otherwise would be a beautiful spot for bird watching.

I think this is a no trespassing sign (maybe?) but it's kind of beautiful this way.

Georgie's not a fan of having his picture taken, but he's still gorgeous.

Look closely at this car — there's a skeleton looking at you!

My dog was very good around two small children today, another win for the road trip experience.

Pet Picture of the Day

Sometimes, I have a supervisor...

Accomplishments of the Day

• Remembered Holidailies for the 27th day in a row!
• Yesterday's total step count: 6,429. Today's is even lower. Let's hear it for vacation!
• No writing happened. Again, vacation.
• Figured out my gross and net earnings for the year (so I can do a Roth conversion before the end of the year — yes, I have left it for the last possible minute...)

Road Trip!

BookBub Ad Update

Spent  $1.04, 2,179 impressions, 7 link clicks

Road Trip!

Traffic was kind of terrible, but I made it. My dog handled the trip really well, and the three cats in the household are getting used to having him around.

Pet Picture of the Day

Look at this mini panther!

Accomplishments of the Day

• I spent almost 10 hours driving, so that's pretty much all I did.
• Yesterday's total step count: 12,789. Today will be much less because, again, I sat on my butt for 10 hours.
• Remembered Holidailies for the 26th day!

Worth It

BookBub Ad Update

As promised, I changed the ad again and set it up for cost-per-click (CPC) instead of cost-per-a-bunch-of-impressions-even-if-everyone-ignores-it (CPM). So far things are going much better. Here's the new ad image:

(Yes, this is a quotation from a real review.)

Does anyone under 50 know who Nick and Nora Charles are? That's debatable, but it could work in my favor — my cozy readers skew older. So it could work in my favor if only older readers click on the ad.

Anyhow, so far, so good. I've spent $0.58, which gave me 956 impressions, and 4 clicks. I doubt this is entirely because of my new ad image — CPC ads look like the clear winner here.

Worth It

I pretty much don't text people, because if it's an emergency, I'll call, and if it's not an emergency, I'll send email. Typing on my phone is a skill I don't possess, and having everything I've ever talked to anyone about in one long stream is just a bad way to organize things.

Group texts add another layer of pain on top of it all. You can't remove yourself from the list, and now you're at the mercy of the chattiest person in the group.

But...

IPhones have a "tapback" option, which just allows you to like/heart/thumbs-up another person's message. For some reason, it doesn't work for me, so if someone "hearts" a text, I get a second text saying Person B Loved "<The original text message>"

Honestly, it was just one more reason to be irritated by group texts, until my brother Jeff complained about it because he doesn't use an iPhone.

Now that I know it irritates him, it's my duty to tapback on every message. The group texts are much funnier now, because I can just tapback on anything and know that it will bother my brother. Petty? Yes. But totally worth it.

For the record, we're 55 and 58 years old.

Pet Picture of the Day

All kittens love to climb into my backpack. It calls to them.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Only 269 words on the urban fantasy, but hey, it's Christmas.
• Cleaned and collapsed my dog's crate so I can put it in the car tomorrow. I hope it fits. When I bought it, I had a different car.
• Yesterday's step count: 16,853. Today's will be a bit lower, but probably still better than the rest of the week.
• Packed the dog's stuff.
• Remembered Holidailies for the 25th day in a row!

An Adult Lives Here

BookBub Ad Update

Yeah, this is going great... Spent $6.13, 2,551 impressions, 1 link click.

An Adult Lives Here

I finished my yearly house cleaning for the pet sitter one whole day early! Maybe I'll wander around tomorrow and do some random cleaning just to make it extra sparkly — or, you know, get more of the cobwebs down.

Spiders are kind of neat, and I really don't care if they stay in the house. I even have black widow spiders come inside on rare occasions, but they always leave again within a day or two. But I do wish the spiders cleaned up after themselves. They leave webs everywhere and then it looks like I never clean the house...

Anyhow, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. Happy Clean House Day to everyone else!

Pet Picture of the Day

Look how cute the AI kittens were! And I nearly got all five in the same shot!

Accomplishments of the Day

• Cleaned more stuff
• Dusted off the new dragon serial episode and uploaded it to Kindle Vella
• Added ~200 words to the urban fantasy novel. Not much, but I'm on holiday.
• Remembered Holidailies for the 24th day in a row!
• Yesterday's total step count: 13,533. Today's will be a bit higher.

Bring Back the Guillotine

BookBub Ad Update

$5.26 spent, 2,188 impressions, and 1 link click. As cheap entertainment, it's fine. As advertisement, it's a loss. I'm going to let it run through Christmas and then switch ad images and use a cost-per-click ad to see if that changes anything. (I mean... It's not like it could really get any worse.)

Bring Back the Guillotine

In general, I am against the death penalty. It's barbaric, expensive, and it doesn't even work as a deterrent. But I'm willing to make an exception for billionaires and the executives —  past & present — of Wells Fargo.

A few days ago, I got a letter in the mail saying I had been enrolled in some sort of identity protection program for a few months back in 2012. Though it never actually came out and said it, I assume this was one of those things Wells Fargo got fined for, in which they signed people up for things without their knowledge or agreement. I haven't had a checking account with them for decades (because they are horrible), but at one point my mortgage was sold to Wells Fargo so I'm assuming that's when this happened.

(My mortgage has been through... seven companies? ten companies? I have no idea. It was originally with Countrywide, and I knew they were up to shenanigans because they gave me a mortgage after I told them I was going to quit my job in two months and I wouldn't have another for at least four years. Countrywide, of course, was famously part of the housing crash because they gave mortgages to people who had no hope of repaying them. On the other hand, I've never been late on a payment, so it turns out I was a good bet after all.)

Anyhow, the letter said that if I thought I had been signed up in error, I should call some number. So I did what any sane person would do and I looked it up online. I learned two things:

1. The letter probably wasn't a scam and they were going to send me some amount of money, and
   
   
2. The script the people at the call center were following allowed them to immediately add $250 to the amount if the caller pushed back at all.

Honestly, if it hadn't been Wells Fargo, I might have just ignored the whole thing because calling people on the phone is the worst. But getting money from Wells Fargo is worth having to call. Yes, my life is 80% powered by spite.

So I called and the woman said they would send me $80. Then I asked if they were going to compensate me for having to use the telephone, which was about the most gentle of all push-backs, and suddenly, they were sending me $330.

The check isn't supposed to arrive for another few weeks — if it does arrive, I'll have to fritter that money away on something fun.

Pet Picture of the Day

I have a screen door in front of the kitten room. When the kittens get big enough to jump past the cardboard, I see this sort of thing from the hallway. (Look at that kitten bod!)

Accomplishments of the Day

• Spent a chilly morning outside the local coffee shop and I wasn't even the only one there!
• Wrote an episode of the dragon serial (~1200 words). I'll do a quick edit and upload it tomorrow.
• Remembered Holidailies for 23 days in a row!
• Yesterday's total step count: who the heck knows? Probably somewhere around 10k. Today's will be more accurate and a little higher.

The Chelsea Detective

BookBub Ad Update

Sadly, the Canadians have abandoned me. $4.38 spent, 1,823 impressions, and 1 link click. Definitely switching to cost-per-click ads with the next experiment.

The Chelsea Detective

Extending yesterday's rant about the series I've been reading: Am I surprised that the old white dude author (Peter Grainger) has put his (white, cis, hetero, male) main character in peril by having a crazy female coworker unjustly accuse him of sexual assault? I swear, all those old guys love the #MeToo movement for giving them another way to put their totally innocent characters in danger and show how straight white guys are the most mistreated group of people ever.

Anyhow, it's a bummer, and now I need to find a new series, because advancing through this one is starting to feel like a hate-read.

Anyone have any mystery book recommendations?

How about a better example?

Let me switch to a good series — television, this time. Have you watched The Chelsea Detective?

Though everyone knows I'm a sucker for British police procedurals — and the lineups on Acorn and Britbox say I'm not alone — I resisted this one because... honestly, I avoid shows that look like Yet Another White Dude as the main character. I feel like I've put in my time on those shows.

But this one is different.

There's teamwork. There's flawed characters I'd still love to spend time with. The cast is interesting. In a way that American shows never manage, there is a Deaf woman in a professional setting, and her disability is acknowledged in the way people interact with her, but it's never the focus. The main character rides his bike everywhere. He lives on a houseboat.

Also, the soundtrack is fantastic.

Give it a watch. The first two seasons are fabulous.

Pet Picture of the Day

This is Pumpkin, of the Muffin Gang, from back in July. A gorgeous kitten!

Accomplishments of the Day

(Did I actually get anything done today? Yikes.)

• Blocked out what happens in the next dragon episode
• Cleaned the kitchen pretty thoroughly
• Yesterday's step total: 20,515. Today's is all messed up because I realized halfway through the day that the pedometer was still on my bed. It would have been lower anyhow.
  

Did You Lock the Editor in the Closet?

Kitten Update

No kittens. I'm officially pausing the daily kitten update because I won't be able to take any in until I get back from my trip to hell Orange County.

BookBub Ad Update

After yesterday's impressive efforts by Canada, things have dropped down to the usual comatose state. $3.51 spent, 1,458 impressions, 1 click.

Did You Lock the Editor in the Closet?

I'm listening to a series of traditionally published British police procedurals that are mostly okay, or at least okay-ish, but occasionally go off the rails, making me wonder what happened to the editor. What the heck, since it's traditionally published, I'll even name the author — Peter Grainger.

Things I like about these novels:

• Teamwork. This is the main thing I find lacking in other police procedurals, where the main character often wanders around until they single-handedly catch the perp. In these books, the hierarchy is clear, different characters are assigned tasks by the person running the investigation, and there is enough office politics to make it all believable.
  
  
• Most of the main characters have flaws but are still people you would want to work with.

And then there are the things that make me cringe:

(We'll ignore the copaganda, since that's sort of hard to avoid in this genre. This is all the stuff that could have been fixed.)

• Holy shit is this series written by an old white guy.
  
  
• Some conversations are plagued by a coy style that I last saw on TV in the 1970s. Instead of just saying "oh yeah, this guy is gay," during a briefing, there's an extended series of misunderstandings about whom he had an affair with because the other person assumes it's a woman and the person with the info can't think of a good way to tell her it's really a man. But... this was written in 2018. Surely nobody in a major city murder squad would have any trouble saying right off  "actually, guv, it was another bloke" or whatever the correct slang would be. There's an undertone of "tee hee, isn't this uncomfortable!" that doesn't really fly in a modern story.
  
  
• Then there's the book where the main character falls in love at first sight with a blind woman. And all of his thoughts are "but how would she do this?" and "oh, it's so sad she can never do that." At the 60% mark, literally all I knew about this character was that she was pretty and that she was blind. For a while, I thought the author might just be intentionally showing a character screwing up, but no. That was where it stayed.
  
  
• By the time the next book starts, this main character has rearranged his blind girlfriend's life so that she now has a different profession even though she'd shown no signs of being unhappy with her previous profession. It's just... apparently if you're a blind woman, you should be grateful for your lack of agency. Fuck that bullshit.
  
  
• Another book consistently refers to "Down's Syndrome" instead of the correct "Down Syndrome." It's minor, but how many people went through the manuscript and missed it?

My point here is that traditionally published books go through at least two or three rounds of editing.  There is no reason any of those problems should be in the final manuscript. At least one of those editors should have said "Oh, hey, this is a problem." So either the editors were incompetent or the editors were ignored. Someone wasn't doing their job.

Okay. I guess that's enough ranting for the day.

Pet Picture of the Day

This was taken the day I brought the reluctant weaners home. I'd been told they were eating solid food, but it turned out they just wallowed in it and screamed at the skies because they were hungry. It was a long two weeks before they would reliably eat on their own.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Lots of cleanup in the front yard. The volunteer tomatoes that were blocking the path to the front door have been yanked out, and I trimmed a bunch of bushes.
• Remembered Holidailies for the 21st day in a row!
• Yesterday's total step count: 16,826. Today's will probably be similar.

Walking in the Dark

Kitten Update

My house has no kittens, but Nightingale and Peter are no longer on the shelter's adoption page, so they found a home! That makes me happy.

BookBub Ad Update

Exciting news today! $2.63 spent, 1,092 impressions, and... ONE LINK CLICK! Thank you to the Kobo user in Canada. I hope you enjoy the book.

Walking in the Dark

Between the rain and the darkness, it's been harder to get up in the morning lately. It's 4:45 PM now, and my dog has already gone to bed. But the solstice is... tomorrow? Something like that. So things will get better soon.

In the meantime, if you, like me, enjoy walking outside even when it's not the middle of the day, make yourself visible. Really. Pedestrian fatality rates have been increasing in the US — this is quantifiable and is directly related to the insanity of increasing car and truck size — so the only chance you have is to make yourself so bright that all those jerks in gigantic trucks see you and drive off the road into a ditch because they think aliens have landed. Or at least, they don't accidentally run you over.

This is my latest purchase:

(Picture stolen from Noxgear website)

I have the Noxgear Tracer2. It's super bright and lightweight enough that you could jog without noticing you have it on.

In the past, I've had the Lighthound harness for my dogs (and I still would if Georgie wanted to go walking at night). They're rechargeable and last a long time between charges. I automatically plug mine in when I return home, so I don't know. The dog versions lasted about a month between charges, so maybe 20-30 hours of use? I don't remember for sure.

(Noxgear also has great customer support — I emailed them once to see if I could buy a new charging cable because Effing Scooter (RIP) peed on the one I had, and they sent me a new one free. The support person also asked if that was really my cat's name, or just what I called him.)

It's probably too late to get one for whatever December holiday you celebrate, but if you or a loved one walk or run or bike, consider getting this or something like it. They aren't that expensive. Definitely cheaper than an ambulance ride.

You might get a discount if you use coupon code "ShareThis". I have no idea. It's worth the full price.

Pet Picture of the Day

This is the late, lamented Effing Scooter, the cat who peed on everything, including anything paper or plastic. But not limited to those, since he also destroyed a WiFi router and my down comforter. And the USB cable that charged the LightHound. He was a little jerk, but I loved him.

Accomplishments of the Day

It's one of the darkest days of the year. It's a wonder I did anything at all.

• Went to a write-in at Crepeville in Davis to hang out with friends.
• Added 637 words to the urban fantasy and figured out how to fix the scene that was just dragging.
• Braved Michael's, which is right next to Target, despite it being December 20th and got some supplies I needed.
• Yesterday's total step count: 21,062. Today's will be much less.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Kitten Update

There are still no kittens.

BookBub Ad Update

Well, I changed the graphic from this

to this

and so far I have spent $1.76, for 741 impressions and... zero clicks. I'll give it a week and see if cost-per-click ads are any more effective. Clearly, I am not an advertising genius.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

A week from now I'll be driving down to southern California. And depending on how many people cancel their boarding reservations between now and then, my dog may be coming with me.

If that happens, it will be an interesting trip. I'll be bringing his crate so he has someplace safe to hang out, but he's definitely a dog who likes his personal space. He doesn't really like being touched, he shies away if anyone puts their hand near his head, and I've never had him around children. (And he won't be around them without heavy supervision this trip, because I trust him to a limited extent, but I don't trust children.)

On the other hand, my brother lives near the riverbed, so my dog might get some nice walks out of the deal, especially if the weather is good.

And I will have an excellent reason to bail on any discussion I don't want to have to listen to. "Oh, hey, looks like the dog needs to go for another walk!" Which may be a thing. So maybe it will be better if I bring him along...

Pet Picture of the Day

Aw, it's my former foster kittens, the Infinite Voids!

Accomplishments of the Day

• Updated my website to include the new book
• Cleaned up the Sherlock Holmes story and sent it to my Patreon supporters
• Mastermind meeting
• Decluttered (partially) the living room. (Oh, that's where that sweatshirt went!)
• Came up with my (probably unrealistic) author goals for 2024, which include releasing four books and four audiobooks.
• Yesterday's step total: 19,409. Today will be about the same, I think.
  
  
  
  
  

Very Very Frightening

Kitten Update

The kitten well has run dry. Rather unbelievable, but there we have it.

BookBub Ad Update

$6.57 spent, 2,736 impressions, 0 clicks. I think I can safely say that ad has been given a fair chance and absolutely does not work. I'll create a different one this afternoon.

Very Very Frightening

My dog had a restless night, which means I, too, had a restless night. After we go to bed, he basically has one move to indicate he needs something: he stands up on the bed next to me and stares.

Now, you might imagine this is completely ineffective when used on a sleeping person, but I've been well trained. During fig season — when his diet is roughly 90% fiber and he poops approximately ever fifteen minutes as a result — if I don't get up in time, there's a mess to clean up in the morning.

We're not in fig season anymore, and I think he's already eaten all the persimmons that fell in the ivy, but sometimes things go awry. So I never ignore him when he's standing over me.

Last night, it was raining. Not only did I get up to let him outside multiple times, at least one time he was thoroughly soaked when he climbed on the bed afterward. It was a great night.

What I didn't consider — and I'm blaming this on the fact that I wasn't really awake — was that his stare-at-me signal is the same for every problem. I assumed he needed to go outside because that's usually what he wants.

It wasn't until I saw a friend's post this morning about the thunder that I realized what the problem had been. Not that I heard it, but I can sleep through noise like that. My dog doesn't.

Hopefully I'll be a little quicker next time so I can knock him out with Benadryl and we can both get a good night's sleep.

Pet Picture of the Day

Former foster Funky Moe says hello!

Accomplishments of the Day

• Made three phone calls to strangers, which is a big deal for my Gen X soul. Honestly, if that had been the entire list, I would be satisfied.
• Finished the short story (rough draft) for my Patreon supporters. (Added 837 words.)
• Edited and uploaded the dragon episode to Kindle Vella.
• Remembered Holidailies for the 18th day in a row!
• Yesterday's step count: 23,424. (Would have been even higher, but it started pouring so I skipped the walk to the grocery store for Diet Coke.) Today's will probably be lower.
• Still to-do (since it may be dark but it is only 3pm): Create the paperback wrap and load the new Penelope Standing paperback version to Amazon & D2D, create a new BookBub ad graphic, watch as much as I can stand of a FB ad presentation.

Broken

Kitten Update

Nothing.

BookBub Ad Update

$5.63 spent, 2,352 impressions, 0 clicks. I think I'll switch the ad image tomorrow just to see if I can get anything to work with CPM ads. Then I may change to CPC or... just stop wasting money?

Broken

I have a bunch of things that aren't really broken, but they also don't work like they should.

For a while, every six months or so my refrigerator would freeze everything. Just completely frozen solid. And the only way to make it stop was to unplug it for 24 hours. After that, it would go back to normal, except for all the veggies that didn't handle the freeze-thaw cycle. It was annoying, but I never called a repair person because I'm 99% sure they wouldn't be able to find something that happened every six months.

It hasn't done that in the last few years, which is a little weird (though no more weird than it doing that in the first place.) But a few months ago, it stopped freezing the stuff in the freezer section. It's cold, but definitely not frozen. I thought I was just catching it during the self-defrosting thaw cycles, but no. It doesn't freeze things anymore. Which is actually less annoying than the old behavior.

And my oven doesn't measure the interior temperature accurately. I thought I was just a terrible baker, but it turns out when I measured it that it was about 100 degrees lower than it should be. It explained a lot of my problems over the last five or more years.

But... I only cook for myself, and it's far easier to cook things in my air fryer. And I don't really keep frozen food (at least not in the winter), so if I buy four veggie burgers and they defrost over the next few days until I eat them, eh, it's fine.

Anyhow, someday I'll leave this house and whoever is trying to get it ready for the next person will wonder why I lived with a bunch of messed up appliances.

It's still better than having to deal with sales and repair people.

Pet Picture of the Day

Here's a glow up for you: The kitten in the front is the same one from yesterday's tragic kitten photo. It's amazing what a few weeks will do!

Accomplishments of the Day

• Finished the dragon episode. I'll give it a quick polish tomorrow and upload it.
• Added about 1500 words to the short story for my Patreon supporters. I'll finish it up tomorrow. Is it working? I don't know. But that's how it always goes.
• Remembered Holidailies for the 17th day in a row! (I'm really enjoying all the other blogs, so if you are writing blog entries, good job!)
• Yesterday's step count: 15,072. Today's will be higher.

Release Day

Kitten Update

The drought continues. At this point, I may not even pick up a litter since I'm going to be out of town in another week and a half. We shall see.

BookBub Ad Update

$4.69 spent, 1,963 impressions, 0 clicks. Going great.

On the other hand, I received a lovely email this evening from someone who happened to see The Chaos Job (a book I'm not advertising, written under a different name so it's not even cashing in on brand awareness) in a "you might also like" recommendation and he emailed me to tell me how much he was enjoying the series. You may begin to see why I bang my head against the wall when marketing comes up.

Release Day

More than once, I have threatened to write a non-fiction book titled Chuck It over the Wall and Run: A Beginner's Guide to Stress-Free, Ineffective Releases. Because I'm an expert at that.

Some authors (... authors who are successful at marketing...) plan their releases carefully.

But before I go there, let me just say that the whole "sending the author on a book tour" thing they show in the movies is a) strictly for traditionally published books, and b) mostly a thing of the past. Some of the huge names still do book signing tours, but it's not common. Sometimes authors do signings at local stores, though.

Okay, so back to indie book launches. Some authors line up advertising and, I don't know, Facebook takeovers and that sort of thing, with the idea that if you can get your book selling with a big push, the Amazon algorithm will notice and start showing it to people.

It's a great idea and it works well for some. I've also seen people spend thousands of dollars on a book launch and the book sinks without a ripple.

I have a book out today (Death Paints a Picture) and you can probably guess that my launch plan pretty much consisted of forgetting today was the release day until Kobo sent me mail yesterday evening saying "Congrats on your new book!" (Time zones are a thing. When you say the release date is December 16th, they take that to mean midnight in the local time zone.)

I did send out my monthly newsletter today with a reminder, so this might qualify as the most organized I've been yet. (Yes, I picked the release date based on when I would send out the newsletter.) Except I just realized I forgot to send out a reminder email to my ARC team with links so they can post their reviews, dammit.

On the other hand, this is book five in the series, and most people recommend pushing the first book in the series. And we all know how well that is going... (See BookBub Ad Update above.)

Pet Picture of the Day

Normally I would say it's a terrible idea to let kittens climb all over the bird cage because birds get stressed. But my cockatiel loves kittens. It's very odd.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Went to a write-in at the coffee shop (though I was the only one who came, which is not totally unexpected — it's mid-December and people get busy or ill) and wrote 770 words of the next dragon episode.
• Sent out my monthly newsletter. Want to see it? Here it is!
• Came up with an outline for the short story I'll be writing for my Patreon supporters. I'm a bit worried that it's going to struggle to become something longer, but I shall be firm!
• Yesterday's total step count: the pedometer reads 13,013 but that's probably about 3k lower than it should be since I forgot to wear it when I walked the dog. Today's will be a bit lower.
• Still to-do today: send mail to my ARC team with the links to the new book on all the retailers so they can post their reviews.
• Cleaned up most of the back room and mopped the floor.

Rendering

Kitten Update

Still nothing. It is very sad.

BookBub Ad Update

$3.75 spent, 1,575 impressions, and 0 clicks. I think the next ad image I try will have a (fake) button so people click on the dang thing.

Rendering

One of my goals this week was to finish doing the new covers for my Jackpot Drift series. As I've said before, the current covers look professional and are exactly what I asked the cover designers to do — I just don't think they're giving the right vibe for the book.

I'm using DAZ Studio (a 3D rendering program) to make the new covers and the first two are pretty much ready, but at the last minute I decided to add something to the first book. So now I have to wait for it to render the final scene again. It's not that long in the grand scheme of things, but it will take a couple hours.

The smart thing to do would be to let it run in the background while I write, but for some reason I thought it would be done in twenty minutes, so I've been messing around with other stuff. I'm reading The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression because someday I'm going to get my act together and get better at showing my characters' emotions.

Pet Picture of the Day

Kittens often chew each other's whiskers off, leading to this especially tragic photo of a former foster. (The kittens are fine! The whiskers grow back!)

Accomplishments of the Day

• Worked on the Jackpot Drift Covers
• Added 469 words (so far) to the urban fantasy WIP, but it's only 4pm.
• Yesterday's total step count: 18,276. Today's will probably be lower, but the pedometer reading is going to be messed up because I wasn't wearing it when I walked the dog. Oh well.
• Texted my pet sitter since she never responded to my email. I don't think she reads her email. Luckily, she is better at taking care of pets than technology. Anyhow, she can take care of the cats and the bird, so that's set.

Routine

Kitten Update

Still no kittens today. But I did drive four Husky mix puppies up to Auburn (about one hour away). There's nothing quite as wonderful as four little voices singing AWOO in the back seat. They fell asleep about ten minutes into the drive and were perfect (if a little stinky) passengers until I handed them off to the humane society volunteer who met us at the halfway point.

BookBub Ad Update

$2.82 spent, 1183 impressions, and 0 clicks. This ad is really going swimmingly! Perhaps I should switch to a cost-per-click ad. Or maybe I can just pretend that I'm gaining brand awareness...

Routine

All my life, I have struggled with sticking with a routine. Sometimes I find something that seems to work and I think "Aha! This is it! This is the perfect way to structure my day!" And it is. For about two weeks. And then the routine starts to grate. More time goes by and it gets increasingly hard to follow, until I give it up completely and float a bit until I find another routine that seems to work and the cycle starts all over again.

A couple weeks ago, I was watching this video (Elizabeth Filips How I Study with a Full-Time Job: My Strategic Scheduling). Part of what she's talking about feels like the problems I have with maintaining a routine. But since I don't really make up a set schedule, I haven't really figured out how to implement her suggestions properly.

I don't know. Maybe I'll try making a schedule just for Mondays or something and see how it goes.

Do you have a routine that works for you?

Pet Picture of the Day

Hello!

Accomplishments of the Day

• Drove some puppies to Auburn. Awoo!
• Finished writing the newsletter that goes out on Saturday.
• Remembered Holidailies!
• Added 111 words to the urban fantasy WIP (okay, yeah, that's a little pathetic. Still better than zero.)
• Yesterday's step count: 12,378. Today's will be a bit higher, but not much.

Judging Chai

Kitten Update

No kittens, though it looks like two of my last group of fosters have been adopted.

BUT...

Tomorrow I'll be driving a big box of puppies up to Auburn (about an hour away), so that has to count for something!

BookBub Ad Update

791 impressions served, 0 clicks. Thus far I have lit $1.88 on fire. On the one hand, it's cheap entertainment. On the other, it probably means I need to change my ad graphics or something. I may wait until after the weekend to change it up, just in case people hold off on reading their mail until Saturday (which is apparently a thing).

Judging Chai

Two important things:

1. I enjoy drinking chai lattes.
2. I am lazy.

Yes, you can make your chai latte at home by boiling water and adding tea and a bunch of spices and milk. I have tried this many times.

You know what that makes? A big mess. I cannot pour from any of my pans into a mug without having it dribble all over the stove or counter. Also, my efforts have produced some pretty mediocre drinks, so I'm not incentivized to get new pans. Plus, I tend to get distracted while waiting for things to boil, and it's a wonder I haven't burned the house down yet.

So what I'm saying is the chai concentrate they sell at the grocery store is my kind of thing. Mix it with milk and pop it into the microwave and you're done. But not all chai concentrates are the same. Here's my ranking in order of worst to best:

Oregon Chai: It's sweet and it's brown, but that's about all it has going for it. This is the "Taco Bell hot sauce" of chai concentrates. Might as well stay at home and dump honey into a mug with a Lipton tea bag. I've even tried the less sweet version to see if I could taste anything other than "sweet", but then it was just less sweet and brown. What's the point of this stuff?

Rishi Masala Chai: This is new at my grocery store, but I bought a carton yesterday because my new favorite drink at the local coffee shop is Rishi Mystic Mint tea, which is an amazing blend. (No, my grocery store doesn't carry their mint tea. Oh well.) The chai concentrate is not bad, but it has a weirdly floral flavor. Black tea, cinnamon, ginger root, cardamom, black pepper, molasses, lemon juice concentrate, clove — none of that should be giving me a floral taste. I don't understand.

Tazo Chai: This is definitely my favorite, though it's inconsistent. Some cartons are much stronger than others. The bigger problem is that my grocery store runs out constantly. (This is an ongoing problem at my grocery store. I love them, but I wish they would look at what sells out every week and take that into account.)

Are there others? Do you disagree with my ranking? Wanna fight about it in the comments? Come at me!

Pet Picture of the Day

Oh, to be able to sleep like a kitten...

Accomplishments of the Day

• Met up with friends at a write-in and was pretty productive.
• Added 919 words to the urban fantasy novel.
• Remembered Holidailies for the 13th day in a row!
• Worked on the newsletter. I still have one section to write and then it will be almost ready to go.
• Yesterday's step count: 21,935. Today's will be less because I was sitting at Crepeville instead of walking on the treadmill.
  

Marketing 2023

Kitten Update

Nothing to report. I haven't even seen an email from the shelter in a week.

Marketing 2023

If you want to be a professional author, writing the book is just the start. Granted, it's a rate-limiting step, in that you can't publish a book if you haven't written it yet, but it's only the first part in the long chain that is publishing. Depending on how masochistic you feel, you may then go the traditional publishing route — which means you probably won't see the book ever published and even if you do, it will take at least three years — or self-publish.

If you decide to do it all yourself, you have to do it all yourself. That seems really obvious, but there's a pretty steep learning curve. Eventually you figure it out and move on to the next step: letting people know your book exists.

Gone are the days when you could just upload a book to Amazon and it would magically be offered to people who read similar books. The next time you go to the site, take a look at how many ads are placed in front of you on every page. At this point, they don't need to sell books — they're selling ad space.

So what do you do? Options include running ads on Amazon, Facebook, or other such places. There are paid newsletters, which send email to thousands or hundreds of thousands of people who are looking for book recommendations. There's your own author newsletter, which hopefully consists of people who might buy your books. And then there's a bunch of other random ideas which generally waste a lot of time and money and don't sell any books.

Anyhow, right now I'm trying a trickle feed using Bookbub CPM at $1/day. (CPM ads just mean you pay for the number of times they show your ad to people. The other option is cost-per-click (CPC) ads where you only pay when someone clicks.) Bookbub sends out email to subscribers with recommended books and new releases,

and some of those emails will have the following image (and a link).

Am I just lighting money on fire? We shall see. At least it's not like Facebook where all the experts suggest running ads at $5/day for at least a week before changing anything. That gets expensive very quickly.

Pet Picture of the Day

Former fosters Sabrett and Oscar Mayer, the reluctant weaners.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Added 1220 words to the urban fantasy WIP
• Created an image and set up the Bookbub ad
• Had a meeting with my mastermind group
• Yesterday's step count: 29,225. That's a lot. I'll probably only hit about half that today.
• Still to-do today: add 500 words to the WIP

Steps

Kitten update

No kitten sightings reported. Alas.

Steps

Just when I think I'm going to have to sift through my brain to find another blog topic, along comes an email from my sister (K-Poo Weak Hands) asking how I get so many steps into my day. Full disclosure: Walking the dog adds about 3500 and I often walk the mile to the grocery store in the evening to buy a Diet Coke, which adds another 6k, I think. Those both depend on the weather.

Most of my steps come from this:

Yes, this is a treadmill converted to a walking desk by means of placing a board over the arm rails and using a gooseneck thingy to hold my laptop higher up. (This isn't the gooseneck thingy I have, but it's similar — I have two legs hooked over the back of the treadmill display, and two legs sticking out as a laptop shelf.) In the past, I just put my laptop on the board, but I found I was craning my neck too much. The screen is still a little lower than optimal now, but it's not bad.

With a 2% incline and the speed set to 2 mph, I can do pretty much anything other than very fiddly photomanipulation work. Plus, it's in front of a window, so I can look out and give my eyes a break on a regular basis.

It's probably a health and safety nightmare, but I've used it like this for a few years and I have yet to hurt myself. (Yes, I may be jinxing myself by saying that...)

Treadmills are expensive, so let me give you some affiliate links so I can share in the wealth. I have the cheapest Nordic Track, the T Series 6.5S — it goes faster than I will ever need, but the ability to change the incline is nice and I've had it four years now so it's pretty reliable. I didn't buy the monthly subscription and it works just fine without it. (It takes two people to assemble, or one very stubborn person who refuses to admit they need help — I'll let you figure out how it went at my house.)

For a third of the price, you can get this Sperax under-desk model (which is the one my friend, H, is using, I think). Something like that is probably a better choice if you don't have much room. (My Nordic Track can fold up to take up less room, but it's still pretty big.)

So, yeah, that's about 6-7k per hour. Really, the only question is why my step count isn't higher.

Pet Picture of the Day

Former fosters Anne Bony (left), Captain Davy (center), and Blackbeard (looking at the camera) on their emotional support sweatshirt.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Edited/loaded the dragon serial episode
• Remembered Holidailies. Eleven days in a row!
• Added 635 words to the urban fantasy WIP.
• Yesterday's step count: 15,988. Today's will probably be a little higher.
• To-do still today: Add another 1k to the WIP.

Famous

Kitten Update

The kitten drought continues. (Objectively, this is a good thing, because kitten season should not extend through freaking December and the shelter doesn't have the budget for this, but it still makes it very quiet in the house.)

Famous

I was quoted in an article today — Indie Author Magazine, no less. But before you get too excited about my career taking a huge leap forward, I should mention that the person who wrote the article is one of my critique partners, so it's not like a total stranger sought me out for my expertise.

And let's just say that's a good thing, because here is the first quotation by me in the article:

“Vellum is idiot-proof, and that’s what I needed,” says T.M. Baumgartner, a Speculative Fiction author.

This is very much the truth, but also, it does not make me sound like a genius. Oh well.

If you want to read about different options for formatting your novel or just want to laugh at me, the article is here: https://indieauthormagazine.com/an-inside-look-at-formatting-software-options/.

Pet Picture of the Day

The stand-off between former foster Sabrett (1 pound) and Georgie (65 pounds). Sabrett won because Georgie refused to come into the room.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Wrote an episode of the dragon serial (1500 words). I'll re-read it tomorrow morning and upload it to Kindle Vella.
• Figured out some plot stuff in the WIP — how one character's betrayal will be revealed and how another character accidentally contributes.
• Yesterday's total step count: 9,142. Not great, but I refuse to be obsessive about this. Today's will be half again as much.

Bookstagram

Kitten Update

We are in the middle of a kitten shortage. It is still very quiet here.

Bookstagram

Of all the social media sites I've tried, Instagram is at the top of the list of the ones I don't understand. Maybe it's because I'm such a terrible photographer, but the whole image-based posts don't do it for me. I'd be fine with text based posts everywhere, especially if it meant people wouldn't just post the same memes all over the place. No matter how funny something is, I'd still rather read something original.

But Instagram also has book reviewers, and I'd like to head in that direction, both to get my books in front of a different audience and also to find some new books. Amazon's recommendations used to be helpful, but that ended years ago. These days I find new authors by stumbling over them in one way or another, and the process is very inefficient.

Anyhow, my friend L compiled a list of reviewers on Instagram who look at SF/F books. It's time to check them out.

(TikTok also has book reviews, but I can't handle TikTok long enough to tell it what sorts of accounts I'd like to follow. It's like monkeys flinging shit at you. I hate videos that autoplay.)

Pet Picture of the Day

This is Sabrett's brother, Oscar Mayer — another gorgeous foster kitten who has since been adopted.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Went to a write-in at my favorite coffee shop and it was very chilly, but nice.
• 344 words on the WIP + I worked out what will happen in the next dragon serial episode
• Listened to more audiobooks
• Yesterday's total step count: 10,989. Today is probably going to be a bit less. Tomorrow I'll get back into the regular routine.

Arcadia

Kitten update

Still no foster kittens. It is very quiet here.

Arcadia

I've spent most of the day screwing around and listening to audiobooks of Peter Grainger novels. I first listened to Arcadia (Book 3 in the "A Case For Willows and Lane" series) earlier in the week and it was pretty solidly written, so I'm listening to the rest of his catalog as I can — I get my audiobooks from the library and a bunch are already checked out.

The first half of Arcadia follows two timelines, set a month apart, and it took me a bit to get accustomed to it and then to realize why the author made that choice. (Short answer: because one of the main characters doesn't appear in the second timeline, so it would have weighted the novel oddly if the story had been told linearly. Also, all the action is in the second timeline, so this way it punches up the beginning quite a bit.)

I always read a lot, and most of the time I don't have much to say about the structure of a book, but it's kind of fun to get one that makes me think a bit — like in Arcadia, weird structures are usually solving a problem, so the puzzle to solve is to figure out what would go wrong if the same story was told linearly.

If you have novels with odd structures (whether they end up working in the end or not), let me know in the comments!

Pet Picture of the Day

This is Sabrett, from the litter I fostered in September. Isn't she gorgeous?

Accomplishments of the Day

• Honestly, I feel fine, just completely unmotivated. So I spent the afternoon playing solitaire and listening to audiobooks. Hey, I set my own schedule.
• Wrote 900 words on the urban fantasy novel.
• Yesterday's total step count: 12,470. Today's will be a bit lower.
• Still to-do today: nothing.

Chilling

The kittens left more than 24 hours ago, which means I've had no excuse to heat the house above 55. (I have a space heater in my office, so it's not that bad.) Even knowing that there are no kittens in the bathroom, I have checked the browser tab with the kitten cam multiple times. I know I'm not alone!

In other news, all the trees dropped their leaves last night and we've had some rain. The street sweepers were waging a hopeless battle against the leaves this morning, but I think it's going to take more than one attempt to get things under control. (Did I take a picture of the battle? No, I did not. Oh well.)

Pet Picture of the Day

Nightingale is ready for any trouble!

Accomplishments of the Day

• Relaxed and read Paladin's Faith (the new T. Kingfisher novel) because I've been feeling a little off for the past 24 hours. Is it a cold? Is it just a bad night of sleep? Is it lack of caffeine? Is it too much caffeine? (Okay, it's not that last one. I often have a bunch of caffeine right before bed just so I can sleep.) Honestly, I have no idea what's going on, but I'm fine with just throttling back on doing things for a day or two. Ugh. I suppose I should take a Covid test just to be sure, though my risk is pretty low.
• Added 427 words to Theoretical Magic.
• Worked on the newsletter a bit. (No rush — it's not going out until the 16th.)
• Yesterday's total step count: 10,623. Today's will be about the same.
• To-do still today: a trip to the grocery store. Normally I walk there, but I need to buy dog food and carrying a 17-lb bag for a mile is a pain in the ass, even when I'm feeling fine, so I'll drive.

Drama

 I took the Rivers of London kittens back to the shelter today and the house is currently kitten-free for the first time in... maybe four months? I can't actually remember. Normally, I take one group back and bring another home with me, or have one group in the bathroom and another in the office. It's been a while since the bathroom has been empty.

My friends, of course, are funnier that I will ever be:

Anyhow, I make jokes about how there's DRAMA happening at the shelter every time I go in.

The last time I was there, they nearly had to call child protective services because some guy refused to give them information about his daughter who was bitten by a dog. (Don't mess around with the state when rabies is on the line, friends. You won't win.)

A previous time, someone's estranged uncle had taken the owner's dog and dumped it at a park. Another guy works on oil rigs and the people watching his dog let it run loose, but he still owed money for the last time his dog had been at the shelter.

So, today, the appointment was for a time before the lobby was open, and I made a joke about missing out on the drama today. The woman behind the counter started laughing, and that was when I found out why there was a sheriff's SUV and a detective's truck in the parking lot. Some guy had an appointment to come in and he had threatened to "slaughter" all the staff in the past, so they were taking precautions. (There were mental health issues complicating all this.)

Anyhow, the kittens are at the shelter and if you know anyone who is looking for an adorable addition or two to their house, let me know!

Pet Picture of the Day

Lady Tyburn really wanted to get onto my desk.

Accomplishments of the Day

• Took the kittens to the shelter
• Write-in in Davis where I only got 500 words written but had a great crepe.
• Cleaned & disinfected the bathroom where the kittens have been sneezing for two months. This took a while.
• Remembered Holidailies yet again!
• Yesterday's total step count: 26,155. Today I will be lucky to hit 10k, but I am exhausted after spending two hours scrubbing kitten snot from the bathroom walls. (Yes, fostering is glamorous!)
• Still to-do today: Write another 1200 words on the urban fantasy novel.