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!