Something stupid, but I fixed it

I’ve been a little disappointed in the performance of Wreck of the Lanternfish. There were a lot of people who loved the first book and encouraged me to turn it into a series. Book two did fine, and Serang picked up a lot of fans of her solo story. Why didn’t the final volume draw those same readers?

I mentioned both here and at Story Empire that most of my action has been via pages-read on Kindle Unlimited. Sales are kind of rare these days, but readers love being able to read for free.

I don’t check Amazon stats all that often, but I cruised through the other day. A friend said he was enjoying The Hat, and I thought I might find a review eventually. That’s when I noticed my error. Wreck of the Lanternfish was not available via Kindle Unlimited.

I don’t have any idea why not, I always try to set my books up there. Admittedly, some of the older ones aren’t, but Lanternfish absolutely should be. It is now. If you’ve passed this one up because of this, never fear.

Look at the sidebar.

Click on that cover and enjoy a bit of piracy. I have no idea how this happened, maybe the root monsters were “helping” me that day.

In other news, I got a manuscript back from my formatter. If I can glean it this weekend, I could publish at any time. I’ll take some time to write promotional posts, and I have to consider three new Lisa Burton posters that should be shared somewhere.

Here’s a little hint as to what might be coming…

Welcome to My Nightmare

Last night fulfilled a bucket list item for me, kind of. I’m not a huge believer in bucket lists, but I’ll just say I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.

The final tour for Motley Crüe came to Boise, and my wife wanted to go. I moaned about the ticket price, and the fact that I’d already been to one of their concerts. She said, “But Honey, they’re on tour with Alice Cooper.”

That was all I needed to know. We bought our tickets about six months ago. Last night was the night.

Waiting for the show

Alice Cooper was phenomenal. I first stumbled across him in the early 1970s, and my eight track player was always loaded with one of his tapes. I’ve always heard that he put on the best, and most theatrical live shows. Until last night, I’d never seen one.

I Googled it, Cooper is 67 years old now. I wish I had gone out of my way to see him sooner. It would have been worth a trip to the coast, or Phoenix to take in his show.

He’s had a long career, and the show was a mixture of older and newer music. He chose well. I still lamented the songs I didn’t get to hear.

I never got to play with the Black Widow, or Go To Hell, there was no help from Nurse Rosetta, or a trip to the Quiet Room.

There are just too many songs for him to cover them all in the scope of a concert. I still knew every song, and had a great time.

His choices ran the gamut from oldies like Under My Wheels and Eighteen, to his newer hits like Poison and Feed My Frankenstein.

 

How could he not include Frankenstein. It just screams to be part of a live show. This included some cool electrodes, and a fifteen foot monster running around stage chasing the band members. My picture is crap, but that’s Frankie behind the band members. That ought to give you an idea of scale.

I may have been to over a hundred concerts in my life. I’ve seen everything from country to acid rock. There are some things that become staple items. I’ve seen fog, lasers, fireworks, and all the usual things before.

This show had swords, straight jackets, electrodes, a working guillotine, and a fifteen foot monster. (Did I mention the monster?)

I am one happy dude today, and I bought the tee shirt. I’m going to spend a portion of my day downloading those songs I didn’t get to hear last night.

Oh yeah, and Motley Crüe played last night too.

Slacker!

I skipped my normal Sunday post this weekend. It isn't that I had no topic, we were just busy. It didn't even involve writing related stuff.

My wife earmarked the spot where my deceased apricot tree was removed. She's also a sucker for a good promotion. A local nursery gives away what they call “bucks” during the Spring and early Summer sales period. If you save these bucks, you can use them after the season winds down to purchase items they didn't sell during the rush. (I was thinking tools perhaps. Silly me.)

It's a great business idea. People who don't care where they buy petunias go out of their way to shop where they get bucks. They return toward the end of the season to spend bucks on junk the nursery could not sell.

This time, we got lucky. My wife picked out a magnolia tree that was over $100. We paid less than $40 because she had so many bucks to spend. That means I got to plant a rather large tree on Sunday. Our soil is rocky, and this takes a bit of effort. I even screened the soil to remove the rocks before it went back in the hole. (I didn't need dynamite, but it was close.) (Also, can I get some bucks for a back massage and some muscle relaxers?)

Immediately after finishing it was time to clean up, and dress up. We made a mad dash to The Morrison Center to watch The Book of Mormon. This is the Broadway play that was put together by the fellows who brought us South Park. We wound up getting there about fifteen minutes late because a stoplight was out.

Sometimes even I get lucky. So many patrons were blocked by the light that they held up the curtain. All was well. The play was hilarious. We grabbed a sandwich and a beer on the way home, and that about did it for me.

Tomorrow, we have tickets to the final tour for Motley Crüe. My wife is way excited, but I saw them live before I ever met her. They will be excellent, and I'm not worried about being bored. I'm looking forward to Alice Cooper who is also part of the bill. I've never seen him perform, and always wanted to.

We almost never buy tickets to the big stuff. It's kind of once per year, or less. It just so happens this year we have tickets to two events in three days. If I consider the play as last year's event, and the concert as this year's event, can I go to something fun again next summer?

Oddly enough, I need a tie for work tomorrow. Sunday, I went from shorts and a tee shirt to putting on a tie for the play. Tomorrow, I'll rush home to get rid of the tie and pull on shorts and a tee shirt.

So I was a slacker in blogland. I may have missed a post or two that I should have read. I didn't write, edit, or promote a darned thing. I had a pretty good time though. I may even see some interesting people to make up stories about tomorrow.