Checking in

I’ve been pretty quiet here for the past week. (For me) It was the work week from hell, and it really had nothing to do with work. I had my critique group on Wednesday, and never got home until about 9:00. For a guy who gets up at four AM, that makes for a long day. I ate some leftovers and stayed up until they had time to settle. I don’t do well eating and going straight to bed these days.

Critique group went well. Everyone likes The Hat. They thought Lizzie was a character they could get behind, and it seems to be off to a good start. I have some written critiques to address, but I’ll get to them this weekend.

Whereas; Wednesday and Thursday all felt like one big day, Thursday night was great. That’s when my baseball team swept the Dodgers out of town, and I got home at a reasonable time. On the spur of the moment I decided to do a free day for The Enhanced League. It moved some copies, and did about as well as I expected it to. It was mostly in fun. This happened though:

That tells me that under these specific categories there isn’t much competition. Either that, or there isn’t much during the late summer. Either way, I’ll take it. Who knows if I checked at the peak time or not. It could have gotten higher at some point in the day. I sincerely hope those of you who grabbed a copy enjoy it.

Honestly, I may do this again if my team manages to win the wildcard game or something. It was kind of fun.

Last night was another super long day. My parents, along with my brother and his family, came through town. They flew out for Alaska today. Everyone wanted to go to dinner last night. It was great seeing everyone, but made for another long day. I think I got home at 9:00. I also couldn’t have a drink, since I had to meet everyone after work, then drive everyone back to the hotel. They didn’t stay with us this time, because we aren’t close enough to the airport.

My brother is a home brewer. He brought me a jug of apple cider, one of mead, and a beer he made. He wants me to test drive them for him, and who am I to argue.

Frankie, the alarm puppy, went of about 5:30 this morning. I’m counting it as sleeping in, because I need the positive perspective. They both wanted a lot of poodle time with Dad today, so typing was slowed down a bit.

I added new words to The Hat, but not in bragable numbers. I spent more time going back over what I have. It’s a plants and payoffs type thing. If I want something to happen in chapter nine, I have to set it up in chapter four. It’s all forward movement, but that’s where typos happen too. Cut half a sentence, add a new half, and months later when rereading it makes no sense. That’s how it works for me. Does anyone else run into that?

This morning, Lizzie got fired, crashed her car, saved one of six babies, shot one guy then tortured him later. She also destroyed the upright bass that belongs to the hat. They’re at about their lowest point, but things are about to take an upward turn for them. I need to look at it with fresh eyes and make sure their emotions are suitable.  There was a lot of action, so some reflection is appropriate for my next blast. You know, after I go over it a bunch of times.

Speaking of the upright bass, these things must have more names than any instrument in existence: Upright bass, contra bass, double bass, bass fiddle, etc.

I’m typing this at Peterson Toyota. My truck needs serviced, and they have these little work stations I can use. These folks have always treated me well, until today. There is a service representative here today that is an absolute bitch. She acted like I was interrupting her day, and I had an appointment. She made some rude and condescending remarks, and it kind of pisses me off. Just in case anyone from Peterson reads this, her name is Bobbie Jo. I will also note that my wife and I bought two very expensive cars here, I brought my father here from Nevada to buy his Tundra, and sent a co-worker here for his Toyota. My Tundra is a 2013, and I may be replacing it in a couple of years. Peterson isn’t the only dealership in town. They don’t have to kiss my ass, but some common courtesy would be nice. I can do without the eye rolls, sighs, and snotty remarks.

My wife has to work tomorrow. I have some serious editing to do on The Yak Guy Project, but I need a table to set up both iPads.  It’s our plan to assemble about a half ton of table when I get home. After that, the big flooring project of 2017 will be complete.

Hope you guys are having a great weekend so far.

I’m tired, but happy

It all started back when I made the work trip to North Idaho. I got to not only work, but drive everyone eight hours each way.

Then we went on vacation which involved much more driving, but with a camper in tow.

Then I decided to release my book of short stories, and that involved a lot of emailing. I set up some book review sites, and had to write a few things for guest spots. I tried to keep up with the comments on the sites that did cover reveals, and the reviews my advance readers posted. This won't end for a couple of weeks. If I missed some comments on your sites, please tell me and I'll remedy this PDQ.

Today, Old What's Her Face* wanted us to go to town. I got a hamburger, yay! She got this:

2015 Toyota Sequoia

This isn't the color she wanted, but these things are hard to come by. You kind of have to take what is available. The dealership had two 2016 versions in white, and this 2015 version in grey. In fact, this may be the very last new 2015 in captivity.

I like to tease her, but her old car was ten years old. We were courting disaster by pushing it much farther. I hate car shopping, but we got a decent price because it is last year's model.

I'm nervous as a cat now, but it was time to bite the bullet. I figured it out, and I need to sell about 140,000 copies of my new book to pay for it. Therefore, feel free to preorder, Amazon will deliver your book on September 15th.

All joking aside, I am seeing a few preorders. I'd like to see a few more and get into triple digits somewhere. There are some reviews coming for those of you who are reluctant. There are a few guest spots coming where Lisa Burton is doing her promo job too.

I'm trying to watch Boise State vs Washington, but Old What's Her Face is trying to program her garage door opener. I have a hunch I'm about to get paged.

PS: It was a good hamburger.

*Not my wife's actual name.