The Ballad of Monday

Otto wanted to get up at 5:00 this morning. I walked him, but convinced him to go back to bed for another hour or so. Sometimes it works, and I got lucky today.

I ran through my favorite blog sites, checked and answered emails by the ton, and flipped through a cool magazine my mother sent me. I may save the magazine for inclusion in a future Idea Mill post.

I started a special project with a fellow author, but it really requires a minimal effort. We're still working on it, but it won't require a ton of time.

Sean Harrington shared a book cover he made on his Deviantart site. This one is for the Zombie Zero series, and the specific title is The Zombie Killers. I want to share it here, but respect that the art doesn't belong to me. Therefore, I'm including the link. (Link)

Sean is good at his job. I love the contrasts between light and detailed vs dark and foggy. The allocation of space makes the girl feel more trapped. The thin door, the look on the character's face, it's just wonderful.

Along about mid-day, I'd played about four rounds of pumpkin ball. The bottom is nearly torn completely off. I put Otto's harness on and we both went to PetCo. It's about a 40 minute drive, and another 40 to get home again. (Depending upon the traffic.)

He really enjoyed everyone who wanted to see the bulldog, and the smells of the dog food aisle. He checked out a plush toy in one of the bins, but never got too excited … until we found the bin of pumpkin balls. This time I grabbed two, and a squeaky rat just for good measure.

I'll hold one pumpkin ball in reserve, and gave him the other one right away.

I don't know if it shows up, but there is a flashing light inside a new pumpkin ball. It activates with motion, and makes Otto pretty crazy. The old one wore out after about a week. Turns out, he really likes the rat too. He keeps bringing it to me, but doesn't seem particularly interested in fetching it. Apparently, that activity is reserved for pumpkin ball. I don't know what the rules of rat play are, but am trying to learn.

After a few more rounds of pumpkin ball, and being required to squeak the rat, I decided to check my Amazon Giveaway. I set this up to last two weeks as a way of supporting the blog tour over at The Paranormal Bar & Grille. It isn't going to work out quite that way.

As of a moment ago, I've already given out four of the five available copies, and expect them all to be gone tomorrow morning. If you want to try winning a copy of Will O' the Wisp, you'd better enter PDQ. Here is the link.

The giveaway worked better than expected. It's hard to complain when something exceeds my expectations. Five new people will get a copy of Will O' the Wisp, and the giveaway netted exposure.

So what amazing stunt can I pull to bring my promos up to Halloween? The blog tour is ongoing, and I entered a book blast on Halloween day. The blast requires a discount of some kind, so I need to figure out what I'm going to do there. I don't feel inclined to run another Amazon giveaway. It worked, and it worked out better than the 99¢ sale did.

I really don't have any Thursday guests for the immediate future of Lisa Burton Radio. I may shoehorn something together with Patty Hall just to keep the posts going, but it might spread the love for Lisa Burton Radio and for Will O' the Wisp.

One of the takeaways here is to contact me if you want to have a character interview on Lisa Burton Radio. The spots have been growing in popularity, but you have to step up.

Back to the paycheck job tomorrow. I goofed off compared to my normal weekend routine, but I managed to read some short stories and wrote one of my own. I had a lot of fun with Otto, and I worked on several Lisa Burton Radio posts for the November timeframe. Not a lot on the writing front, but I kind of needed a weekend like that.