The cake is not a lie

The sixteen-year-old made her own cake this year. She specifically wanted a Portal cake, based on the video game, and alas for her, I don't care for baking, and believe cakes are all purchased at Wal-Mart. So she threw herself into the task of baking herself a real, honest-to-goodness Portal cake, and although she's never baked before, she produced a really nice cake-- see the picture. It is in fact (to make a Portal reference) delicious and moist. I'm impressed by her mad cooking skillz!

Sweet sixteen

My oldest turned sixteen yesterday. She wanted to go to Busch Gardens and see the Miranda Cosgrove concert, so (after some whining from yours truly, who was having serious Crohn's issues and would have preferred just dropping her off instead) we all went in the afternoon. The concert was free, and they opened the gates at 4:00. We were there by 4:30, just in time to get a seat. Not long after that, the place was full up.

We sat in the blazing sun till six, when thirteen-year-old Greyson Chance performed (and the sun thankfully dropped behind the trees), and then Ms. Cosgrove came on stage from seven to eight. She was pretty good (I know some of her songs from stuff the daughter has loaded onto the iPod, so much of it was pretty familiar to me) with an enthusiastic, bouncy stage presence and a solid voice. The younger boy enjoyed the novelty of it all; the older boy read books the whole time. Both girls seemed to have fun.

After that, we walked across the park (with whining from Mom, but none from the kids:-) and watched the closing fireworks at 9:30, and then drove home. The traffic wasn't as bad as I feared, and we were home by 10:30 or so-- to the immense joy and relief of the dogs, who wondered where on earth we were all afternoon!

Bleah

The full story of the author who was fooled by someone pretending to be a major agent is here at Writer Beware. My sympathies to the author, and kudos to her for providing the details so that others are warned. It's a good reminder that we need to be very cautious, and look before we leap. Yes, a few indies have been approached by major agents, but in general, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Twenty years later

Wben VH and I got married twenty years ago, we bought a house. We didn't live there too long-- we moved when the oldest was a baby, because VH was sick of his consulting job, which required massive amounts of travel-- but it was a nice little house. It was in the middle of a field, as was the entire neighborhood. So we planted three maples (one in the front yard and two in the back), referred to as the Q-tip trees, because they looked like toothpicks with a tiny ball of leaves on top. We also planted two crepe myrtles in the front yard, and a ton of azaleas, which were only about a foot high when we moved out. I haven't seen the house in a long time, and last night I thought, "We ought to drive down and see what it looks like now."

Silly thought, as the house is six hours from here. But it occurred to me that I could look it up on Google Maps, so I did. The Q-tip trees are now massive. The backyard is all but covered by their canopies, and from the road you can only see the house's garage, because the rest is hidden by trees and shrubs. It's no longer a new house in a field, but a nice older house in an established and well-treed neighborhood.

Meanwhile, the child who was a baby when we moved out will turn sixteen in three days. Time marches on...

Work and not-work

I've gotten lots done on Seeing Spots in the past few days. Unfortunately, today I have to go see Dad (and take his car in for inspection and maintenance), so I won't get any writing done today. I hope I'll get back to it tomorrow.

John Carter!

I've been spreading this around Twitter, but if you happen to be an ERB fan, here's the first trailer for John Carter (formerly known as John Carter of Mars, based on the book A Princess of Mars). It will come out in March 2012, when A Princess of Mars will be a hundred years old:

Twitter

I didn't like to do it, but I unfollowed someone on Twitter because they posted a whole bunch of political tweets in a row. I don't follow people in the publishing industry because I care about their political views, and that kind of thing just aggravates me. I don't know if it irritates others that much, but before you start making repeated, highly politicized entries on your Twitter feed or blog, I think it's good to remember that no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, you will probably piss off fifty percent of your readers if you get political:-).

Wow

KND has a list of highly-rated humor books, and Isn't It Romantic? is listed. How exciting to have them spontaneously mention one of my books!

Sales...

...seem to be spectacularly dead, not just for me but for a lot of other indies as well. Sales seem to have been dropping off all month (and are not being helped by Amazon's latest big sale). Many of those who were doing well on B&N are complaining about the same drop in sales, too. Hopefully this is just a seasonal variation, and no doubt there are exceptions to the rule, but right now a lot of indies are crying the blues.

Right now I'm giving books away pretty well (I've had Isn't It Romantic? downloaded over 830 times on Smashwords), but sadly, that's not spilling over to the other book I have available on Smash, which has made two sales:-P.

If you don't know the answer, don't answer

It seems like every time an author asks about the legality of using song lyrics, he's met with a chorus of "sure, that's okay, I've done it," and "well, it's okay until they ask you to remove it." No-- it's not okay. It's a big violation of copyright, and it could get you in all sorts of legal trouble. What worries me is that the OP might see the "sure, go for it" responses and not come back to see the later responses explaining why it's not a good idea.

In general, when you're responding to questions posted on boards, don't rely on your own experiences if the question deals with a complex area such as copyright law. At the least, Google first, before you post. You really don't want to hand out incorrect information and possibly lead someone else into trouble.

Seeing Spots...

...is coming along very nicely. I think I have the story in its more or less completed state now, though it needs to be polished and edited carefully, and possibly expanded a bit more. I'm pleased with how it's coming along. Looks like it'll wind up at fifteen or sixteen thousand words, which is about what I was aiming at.

I believe I'll call this one a "contemporary romantic comedy with a paranormal twist," because the paranormal part of it really isn't all that major.

B&N again

There is some evidence offered here on Kindleboards that B&N may be screwing around with the rankings or bestseller lists again, this time targeting indies or books priced below $2.99. It's something to watch out for, at any rate.

One-star reviews

Konrath has a blog post up about bad reviews. He says "for the sake of this argument let's assume a base level of professionalism," but then goes on to say, "If you've ever given a one-star review to anything, you're probably an idiot."

Those two sentences don't match up. You can't assume a "base level of professionalism" with regards to "anything." Sure, there are plenty of good books out there, but there are also loads and loads of crap on Amazon (which Konrath should know as well as anyone, considering that he's read slush for contests, according to his blog). Some of that crap finds its way onto Amazon in an unedited and dreadful form.

Some people insist that every book can find its audience, and that one man's one-star book may be another man's five-star book. But I'm talking about books that are just bad, bad, bad. There are many excellent indie books, but there are also indie books out there that read as if they were written by a third-grader for whom English is a second language. These books deserve one-star ratings. They are atrocious, and should never have been uploaded to Amazon. They're an insult to the readers who spend money on them, and those readers are entirely justified in giving such books poor reviews.

To pretend that books like this deserve more than one star is to undermine indies who actually edit and proofread and craft their books.

Borders...

is officially liquidating, according to this article. Pity. I used to love visiting the Borders in Virginia Beach.

What not to plant

I left the big holly on the side of my house alone this spring when I trimmed back my bushes, because it was flowering and swarming with bees. After that, I was too sick to get it done, and so it became badly overgrown. The AC guy came the other day, because my downstairs AC wasn't working, and said they needed to check the unit for coolant leaks, but that I'd have to trim back the holly before he did it, because he couldn't get at the unit. I've been trimming back this sucker for an hour now, using clippers, hand clippers and a saw. It was literally twenty feet high in places, and I had to really massacre it on the side, because it was impossible to make the AC accessible otherwise.

The moral of this is, don't just buy cute little plants at your local garden center and plop them down anywhere. Read the label and see how big they're going to get before you plant them. A shrub that will grow to twenty or thirty feet high has no business being planted a foot and a half away from your air conditioning unit!

RIP, little keyboard

My second daughter met me accusingly at the door this afternoon: "What did you do to the keyboard? I'm typing gibberish!"

I observed my desk and pointed out that while playing on Neopets, she'd spilled a cup of water I'd left on the desk. The keyboard is officially deceased (all I could get out of it was jwwjww, no matter what keys I hit) and has been replaced by a newer, sleeker model. I will be more careful not to leave water around in the future, and have reminded her to please check for beverages before sitting down at my desk.

This kid is not helping

Why is it that when I'm working industriously on getting a new title up, the six-year-old finds it necessary to run up and down the hallway just outside my office, "flying" his spaceships with lots of buzzing and zooming noises?

An anniversary that would have been

If Vulcan Husband had lived, today would have been my twentieth wedding anniversary.

Accomplished...

Today I:

1. Got the van fixed (it's got new belts, so no more squealing noises!)

2. Edited over half a book

3. Got more organizing done in the library-- we're almost done!

Not a bad day, accomplishment-wise!

Things keep breaking *sighs*

This morning I was up early to drop off the van at the dealership. It needs a checkup, but it's also making a weird squeaking noise (probably one of the belts). Meanwhile, it's going to be in the high nineties today, and my downstairs AC is not working. I don't have time for the AC guy to come out here till Thursday, so we're all just going to have to hide out upstairs, I think!

Isn't It Romantic?

Isn't It Romantic? is now available for free on Smashwords.

Some accomplishments...

Today I got an omnibus of short stories under my other name put together and fixed a few formatting issues. It still needs proofreading, but I hope to have it up in a day or two (considering the shorts have already been proofread!).

My oldest got one of my books up on Smashwords. She's got the wrong cover, but hey, it's a start...

Also, the kids and I worked on getting the library straightened out. Today, we got all our history books together on two shelves. It looks great, and very organized. Now we just need to get the rest of the shelves that organized!

Busch Gardens, yet again

The kids and I went to Busch Gardens again today. Though it was very pleasant (86 and sunny), it wasn't nearly as crowded as I feared. We had a nice time, skipped the rides that had excessive wait times (for some reason you could walk onto the Griffin, but there was a huge wait for Alpengeist), and generally took it pretty easy. A good time was had by all, despite some feuding between the girls (one of whom was trying to harass the other into riding roller coasters, without success). I didn't get to ride on too many rides today, but I've done a lot of theme parking this summer, so I was happy enough to sit and babysit, for the most part.

Hee

While driving kid #2 to her horseback riding camp today, I noticed a little house at an interesting intersection: Peaceful Road and Battlefield Boulevard. Having four kids, I sometimes feel like I live on that corner myself:-).

Cat, I am not amused

My daughter was late for her horseback riding camp this morning. She left her glasses on her nightstand, as usual, and when she got up they were gone. After a long hunt (through a room that badly needs cleaning, I must add) we finally found them, all the way across the room. Apparently her cat had gotten bored in the middle of the night and had carried them off to play with them. I told her to keep them IN the nightstand from now on!

Yay for fireworks!

Tonight we got to see the delayed fireworks. It was a beautiful show, and the six-year-old was enraptured. All's well that ends well:-).

Boo on the weather

Unfortunately, the Fourth of July didn't go so great. It was a beautiful afternoon, but when we got to the fireworks show, thunder began to rumble. An immense storm rolled in, and we took refuge in tents and buildings, but alas, they eventually decided to delay the fireworks till tomorrow. The six-year-old wailed, and was further distraught when his face paint was damaged in the rain. But he was consoled by shiny glowstick necklaces and bracelets, and came home happy.

This makes me sad

My dogs' breeder has decided not to breed Aussies any more. I had planned on getting another Aussie from her when my boys were a little older (five or six), because my dogs are so totally awesome I really wanted another one from the same lines. But I guess I'll have to find a new breeder. Bummer!

Work, work

Yes, it's July 4th (happy Independence Day, everyone!), but it's also a free morning. So I've been working on Seeing Spots. I got quite a bit done, though I think there is definitely some expansion left to do, and some characterization left to fill in.

Later we'll be going to see fireworks with Gammy and Pop-Pop, and tomorrow I'll be driving Kid #2 to horseback riding camp and then visiting Granddad, so I won't get much more done on it till Wednesday. I'm glad to have had a nice, peaceful morning to get some writing accomplished!

Kitties

My daughter took this video of our new kitties, who were snoozing and really not all that much fun. But they are cute:

June in review

This was, once again, my worst month since January. I did not quite make my mortgage this month (though it was close!). My newest (under my pen name) did okay, selling almost a hundred copies since mid-month, but that's pretty bad compared to how my pen name used to do on B&N (I had books that were selling a couple of hundred copies a day for a while). I'm not sure what to do to get that level of sales back, though. Maybe write some more paranormal? Meanwhile, my Ellen Fisher sales were down quite a bit, too-- in fact, I only had one EF book sell more than four hundred copies.

Here is my plan to get sales going again:

1. Release at least one, and possibly two, Ellen Fisher books (Seeing Spots and True Blue) this month

2. Get some books up on Smashwords and make one EF book (Isn't It Romantic?) free in the hopes that Amazon might pick up on it as a freebie. Isn't It Romantic? is closely related to my upcoming book Summer Breeze, so I'd like as many people to read it as possible.

3. Redo the cover and blurb for Farthest Space. I have resisted doing this, because I love that cover like crazycakes, but Farthest Space only sold fifteen copies this month. Not good enough. I don't think a sci-fi spoof will ever be a huge seller, but I think it can do better.

I hope your June went well, and that sales go up this summer for all of us!