Mourning? Not exactly

My Arizona Diamondbacks lost last night. They did so without their frontline staff, but that’s the hand that was dealt after the wildcard game. Gave me a good excuse to polish off a growler of Elysian Nightowl pumpkin beer. One of my favorite ones.

There was a time when I would be upset about something like this, but I just can’t be this year. This isn’t quite a worst to first transformation, but it’s pretty darned close. I remember what they were like last year, and am proud of what they’ve accomplished. I don’t want it to end, but if it does I’m still going to be happy about it.

It was one game. We have more of an ace pitcher tonight and maybe we can leave a mark in this series. It’s best of five, but they really need to win one before the series moves to Phoenix. Arizona can’t win without winning one game in LA. Might as well claim that one tonight.

I spent some minimal time this morning getting one of the interview posts hacked out and mailed off. I also posted a review for a friend. Beyond that, I nailed down some details for a visit Lisa Burton will be making this week, and scheduled Macabre Macaroni. That was it on the productivity front.

We ran our errands today, and I stocked up on four different pints of pumpkin beer. Most of these are from Elysian brewing too and I’ve had them before.

I also fell for a trend today. My daughter told me the hot new thing is coconut oil, and said I need some for my beard. We were at Whole Foods and I picked some up. I’m such a sucker sometimes. Daughters to that to fathers.

I’m checking on the Cubs and Nationals game then I might play a video game for a while. These West Coast games start late so I’ll probably be up all night, you know, unless I drink four big old bombers of beer.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

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I’m partying, and you win #Freeby

I skipped a day this week as far as blogging goes. I could have trotted out some more word metrics, and talked about all the promo work I did. While those posts have some value, they can get a bit stale too.

I changed the wallpaper up for September. This is a brindle bulldog coat in closeup. This time it’s Frankie, and she’s darker than Otto. Otto shines like a new copper penny in the sun, but it’s hard to get a calm photo of him. I have to catch him sleeping and sneak up or he thinks it’s playtime.

Let’s talk some baseball today. My team, since the year they announced a team, is the Arizona Diamondbacks. Prior to that I followed the Cincinnati Reds. When you live a thousand miles from a Major League team, you go with who’s popular. When I was a kid, the Big Red Machine was pretty darned cool.

Anyway, Arizona had a pretty dismal summer. They started strong, and the National League West held the best teams in baseball at one time. The top three would have all won a division if they hadn’t all been in the same one. Right now, it’s looking like one division winner and both wildcard teams will come from the NL West.

Just recently, Arizona seemed to work their way out of their funk. It hasn’t been pretty, but they’re looking good again. The LA Dodgers are so far ahead of everyone that nobody will top them, but my Diamondbacks just swept LA three in a row. I feel like celebrating.

It may be the last good thing they do all year, but today is their day.

 

To celebrate, I’m making The Enhanced League free all day tomorrow, September First. Since this is an international world, your timezones and even dates might vary.

I’m not going to do a huge promo over this. I’m posting it here, and it will auto-feed to various social media sites. You can help with the heavy lifting if you like. I have all those sharing buttons at the bottom you can use.

If you want your free copy of The Enhanced League, click right here on September First.

Do you like the new wallpaper? Are you cheering for a baseball team this year? I need a pumpkin beer; found the first one and it’s habanero enhanced.

And I’ll never have that plan again.

I took a vacation day today to finish a couple of projects. While the bookmobile tour was on, there were still projects that needed tending.

My truck needed to be serviced, so I made the first appointment of the day – 7:30 AM. I decided not to change my alarm clock, and left it like any regular work day at 4:00.

I have a party post to write for the Rave Reviews Book Club's month long blog party. I also have a couple of fresh new Lisa Burton Radio posts to work up. I decided to route home past Staples to buy some shipping boxes. I'm going to be giving away a couple more coffee mugs during my party stop, so I decided to buy extras.

There is also a book I want to finish reading. Besides that, I promised a friend a beta read, and another friend an ARC read with the intent of a review. I only mention this to illustrate that I need to kick it in gear. New writing has come to a standstill, but manuscripts don't spoil. They'll be there when I get back.

My whole life seems like one broken plan after another, and today was no exception. After enough broken plans a guy gets experience at dealing with it somehow. The only smart thing I did was to take my iPad with me to the dealership.

Turns out, my truck was overdue for several odd pieces of maintenance. You know the ones I'm talking about; flush the brakes, power steering, etc. They were available to do it right then and there. The desk kid said it would take another two hours. He was wrong, it was more like three.

I managed to finish Type & Cross, by Staci Troilo, while I waited. I left her a five star review about an hour into my wait. Staci did a fabulous job on this book, and I recommend it to all of you. Tell me if I'm unique here, but as an author, I tend to read more critically these days. I intend it as a compliment to her writing that I haven't been so absorbed in a book in years.

Hey, not just the finished book, but the review too. I still had hours to wait, but didn't know that at the time.

The dealership had absolutely terrible wifi. This seems to be a trend with businesses, and I don't understand it. It's like they offer it, because everyone else is offering it, but it feels cheap not to have it functional. It can't cost them any more to have good wifi, but it feels that way. Some commercial wifi will not function with email either, and this was one of them. I wound up linking to my phone's signal and working that way.

Never underestimate the hours that correspondence and social media takes either. This involves trying to support those who support me on Twitter, Facebook, and others. Eventually, I moved on and managed a partial shtick for one of the radio interviews. By pigtailing into my phone, I got it sent to the author too.

That's about it. I should have worked up the other Lisa Burton interview. I could have started my RRBC post, but I just didn't.

I stayed up until midnight playing video games with my son, then got up at 4:00. Quite honestly, I ran out of gas.

When I left the dealership, I headed for Staples to get my shipping boxes. About half way there, I realized I'd forgotten my coffee cup. This is one of those metal thermos style cups, and I didn't want to abandon it. I called the dealership and they promised to hold it for me. I decided to go to Staples and loop back for it.

Things are spread out in Boise, and I wound up spending a lot of time on Eagle Road. Eagle Road is always bumper to bumper, and the loop was about twenty miles. I pulled into the garage at about one o'clock this afternoon.

Funny thing, the last time I had my truck serviced, I left the exact same coffee cup and had to loop back for it. Maybe I should buy one of those belt loop things to keep track of it.

At the paycheck job every single day is like that. I commute while forming a plan of attack. By the time I boot up my computer that plan is out the window. It really stresses me out, and I think it's part of the reason I have high blood pressure. When it comes to my vacation time it's intolerable.

One of the things I try to do is avoid days like this in my writing career. The only deadlines are the ones I set. I vow not to start another manuscript after I finish Yak Guy. The Enhanced League has a cover and promotional posters are in the works. I need to edit, seek betas, make adjustments, and get it out the door. Yak Guy is right on its heels. The realistic time to start the next project seems like once those books are available on Amazon.

I give you permission to kick my butt if I post about writing The Hat prior to that time.

I have the two promised reads to get through, and I'll start the beta project right away. After that, I need to read some things of my own choosing. Every book I've read for nearly two years has been something for a friend and supporter. They support me – I support them, that's how it's supposed to work. I fear the day when I have to say no. Does anyone else out there struggle with that?

So here I am, updating my blog while watching a baseball game. The Diamondbacks look like they're in trouble this time, but I took great glee in seeing them in first place this morning. That hasn't happened in years, and it's probably fleeting, but it felt nice. I think I'll take my own Lisa Burton mug, make some grandfather style tea, and start formulating a plan for those two blog projects.