It's true . . . you never forget your first . . . .

My first book, Murder on the Mind, came out on audio last summer.  Boy, was I psyched.  But I heard a snippet of it on the publisher's web site that kind of turned me off.  It was one of my favorite scenes in the book and Richard came off all wrong--bombastic, which isn't like him at all!  (So says his creator.)  So when I got my "author copy" I didn't have the courage to open it.  It has sat in the bottom of my armoire for more than a year, gathering dust.

But then last month the Booktown Mysteries came out on audio.  Because they're only being released as MP3 downloads, I was afraid I wouldn't get to hear them for years, but my publisher very graciously offered to burn me a set on CD.  Yee-ha!  I have had such fun listening to the stories.  There are parts I remember with such clarity that I can recite the dialogue along with the reader, then there are parts I'd forgotten I'd written.  (I ended up taking a LOT of notes so that I can update my Booktown Bible, the file I keep on all the facts on even the most minor characters.  Hopefully that way I won't have any glaring glitches.)

I had thought Bookplate Special was my favorite of the four books, but now I'm thinking that maybe Chapter & Hearse is my favorite.  (Thought I think it'll be eclipsed next year when Sentenced to Death comes out.

I was happily listening to Bookplate Special when my royalty statement arrived for the audio version of Murder on the Mind.  Bleak doesn't begin to cover it.  I think I should have taken a lot more interest in the book and maybe I'd be making more money--and more importantly, my publisher would be making back its investment. 

I had reason to contact the editor at Books In Motion on another subject and asked her about it.  She suggested I might want to sell copies at one of my signings.  So, I bit the bullet and ordered two copies for some future signing.  As long as I was ordering, I noticed they had used copies .  I figured I'd give a copy to my mother (who's been bugging me to let her listen to my author copy).  So I ordered one for her.  It arrived the other day and I decided that since I so enjoyed the Booktown books being read, I really ought to give the first Jeff Resnick book a try.

And ... it was pretty good. (And I can still recite the dialogue for it, too.  Kinda neat!)

I'm only about a quarter of the way through the book (it's hard to concentrate on writing when you're hearing your own words being read), but I'm enjoying Jeff's story.  (And, yeah--I love being read to.  I guess I never outgrew that.)

So, here's hoping some of you will take a chance on the book, or maybe ask your local library to invest in a copy.  It can be purchased on CD or as MP3 downloads.

From Audible.com

From Books-In-Motion

From Barnes & Noble

What I will ask you NOT to do, though, is to download a free copy from hackers who have stolen the book and are cheating me AND my publisher out of royalties.  Yes, there are nasty people out there who have no morals or care who they rip off.  They're stealing the book, and if you download it for free, you are in possession of stolen goods.

There's a reason most authors can't make a living at writing, and being ripped off is one of them.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox.  Despite that caveat, I hope you'll find a way to listen to the book.

Thanks!

Talk about a surprise!

Last week, Mr. Lorna surprised me with a Kindle 3G!  It was wrapped in colorful paper that I tore off with a bit of trepidation.  What could be inside that rectangular shaped box.  Ah!  Maybe it was another box of DVDs ... but it seemed kind of heavy.

I opened the box and there it was--a white power cord.  That's it.

Hmmm.

I wondered what the heck that was.  Then I realized there was something stuck to the top of the box.

I felt my jaw drop as I realized it was a Kindle.  MY Kindle!

That was the last thing I expected and I was a bit overwhelmed.  I mean, it wasn't even the cheapie model!

"Why?" I managed to say with surprise and delight.

"I thought you should be able to read your own ebooks," he said.

Whoa!  The only problem is -- I have not had time to play with it.  And should I read my own stories first?  Should I buy a bunch of old favorites so that I could always have them at hand wherever I go?  Or should I buy some new books--books by my friends?

So there is sits, empty.  So far I think hubby has had more fun with than me.  Okay, I'll admit it, I'm a little intimidated by it, too.  But I'm sure that won't last long. It's a new toy. 

Cool.

So, any suggestions on titles I should acquire?

Dazzled by my Duvet

Way back in 1995, Hubby and I took a trip to England and learned the joys of sleeping under a duvet.  My mother had been telling me for years I would like it, but being an obstinate daughter, I didn't listen.

Whoa!  I'm not too proud to say I was wrong.

I was WRONG.  She was right. I loved it.  No more heavy blankets. Just one light and fluffy down comforter to keep you toasty warm on the coldest winter night, and not overly hot on a summer's eve.

I've got two of them and alternate them on the bed.  I must say that the old one, which is pretty lightweight, is still the better of the two comforters.  But they both have the same problem:  the feathers get jammed in the baffles on one area of the bed.  The middle.

Why is it that a couple buys a king-sized bed because they want to sleep in comfort and then allow their pets to sleep with them.  It wasn't my idea.  For the first half of our marriage we were happily pet free at night.  But then we got George the tiny terrorist, who beat up all the older bigger cats and the next thing you know, the cat he beat up the most was in bed with us, because that's the only way he was safe.

Sadly, George was my one cat failure.  No matter what we tried, he would NOT fit in.  So we found him a forever home with a wonderful lady and her resident cat, who George has not attacked in the six years they've lived together.  Go figure!

But now that Chester was ensconced, we left the door open at night should he hear the call of nature.  And now we have THREE cats sleeping with us.  Here we two humans are forced to cling to the edges of the bed while three cats sprawl out wherever they please.  And since all the feathers in the duvet seem to end up in the middle, that's where they are most comfortable.

So, come winter, I tend to bring a big beach towel to bed with me, because at least 1/4 of me is not going to have any of that warm and (somewhat) fluffy
duvet and what I do have does not have any feathers and I feel like a Popsicle.

No yogi gave me a mantra, but I have one anyway:  I love my cats.  I love my cats.  I love my cats . . .

Goody Bags For All!

Anybody live in southern New Hampshire or northern Massachusetts?  If so, I hope you'll find your way to the Wadleigh Memorial Library in lovely Milford, NH.  I'll be speaking there tomorrow and signing books, courtesy of the Toadstool Bookstore.

Several years ago, a librarian acquaintance of mine suggested I contact the library's director to get some local color for my Booktown Mystery series.  After exchanging a few emails, Michele Sampson invited me to give a talk at the Wadleigh Library.  Since I had planned to go to Maine to meet the people who published my Jeff Resnick series, I readily agreed. 

I had a wonderful time, and was thoroughly shocked when about 35 people showed up to buy and have me sign copies of Murder is Binding.  Whoa!

With that in mind, this time I thought I'd bring along some Goody Bags.  So, with contributions from about 25 of my friends, I spent four hours the other day making them.  Aren't they cute?  I'll be giving them away tomorrow at the library.

Afterward (or maybe before), I'll be taking lots of pictures--more local color!

Anyway, I hope you can make it!

=========================

The Wadleigh Memorial Library
49 Nashua Street
Milford, NH  03055
11 a.m.

Planned Obsolesence?

Another Pet Peeve Thursday

The last two days have not been kind to Casa De Barrett.

Last week I told you how my laptop is giving me commercials to buy a new version of itself.  Well, this week my husband's iMac up and died.  The thing is barely three years old, and two days ago it started coughing up blood.  He took it into the Mac store this morning and -- yes, it's dead, Jim.  Oh, they could fix it.  And fix it.  And fix it.  Because they really don't know what's wrong with it. It might be this or it might be that, and each this or that costs at least $200.  Hubby figures it's better to cut our losses and toss the thing and get the next best Mac. (I have to add this is the is briefest Mac-lifespan either of us have had with a Mac product.  We are NOT pleased.)

Then last night, we thought we'd sit down and watch an hour of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, which we just got.  (Love that show!)  Hello!  The DVD was working fine on Monday night.  We watched the last three episodes of A Fine Romance (with Judi Dench and the wonderful Michael Williams), although I will admit I was suspicious when I turned the machine off and the little digital screen actually said OFF, which it had never done before. 

When I went to turn it on last night I thought maybe the remote's batteries were dead.  So I changed them with the remote for the old VHS/DVD machine (the DVD player died in that machine, too--and honest, we aren't all that hard on our DVD players).

I am very annoyed.  I hate that these things died without warning.  And I hate that I have to now replace the machine that replaced the last machine.  (Maybe I should go back to watching VHS tapes--that thing will probably go on forever.)

Which one of your machines has recently snuffed it?

I've got a target painted on my thumb

About six years ago, I made the mistake of trying to break up a cat fight.  Yup, put my hands between two very angry male cats to separate them and YOW! got bitten on the thumb.  Boy did it hurt.  I rinsed it under the faucet for a good five minutes figuring that would clean it out, and hoped for the best.

Less than twelve hours later, my thumb was starting to turn black.  A co-worker STRONGLY urged me to go to the quack to get some antibiotics.  I did, and they did the trick.  Except for one tiny thing.  I had a numb thumb for about two years.

"Oh, it's just a little nerve damage.  It'll go away in a couple of months," the nurse practitioner said.  But a few months turned into more than twenty four before the very annoying numbness went away.

Fast forward six years and three months.  There's Lorna standing on a ladder, hummingbirds whizzing by her head, angry she's taking up the feeder right before their long trip south, wresting with an ancient pair of pruning shears and hacking at a bunch of small branches on a tree that is desperately trying to live. 

We had this dangerous Siberian elm cut down about six years ago because it would drop big branches with just a breath of wind.  We figured we didn't want to be squashed in the middle of the night so in came Mr. Tree Surgeon.  Well, we had all but about 15 feet of it cut down.  The whole deforestation project (two trees severely pruned, one decimated) split between between three parties was $6,000+.  It was going to cost another $1,000 if we took that last fifteen feet of tree down.  So there it stands next to our cottage to this day.  We keep saying we're going to have a chain saw artist come and so something with it, but that would probably cost as much or more than having it cut and hauled away.  So every summer it tries to live by shooting out as many branches as it can manage, which we hack away every September.

So there I was on Sunday morning, hacking away at the tiny branches (the bigger ones came later) and I pinched my thumb in the shears.  It was a particularly thick branch, but it was too small for the saw, so I clenched the shears in both hands and -- YOW!!! -- got my thumb pinched.  It hurt!  And now there's a blood blister . . . right on the exact same spot where Chester bit me. 

Guess what?  I've got a numb thumb again.

And how did your weekend go?

Do I Need A Ghostbuster?

After living in the here for 17 years, I'm beginning to wonder if my house is haunted.  Or maybe it's just my office.

Sometimes I get up earlier than my husband.  (Okay, I ALWAYS get up earlier than him.)  And I'll be sitting here in the office and it's deadly quiet.  And then the noises start.  Things bumping around.  It'll sound like someone is taking the pool tools (which hang on the side of the house) off and putting them back up again.  Every so often there's a really loud CRACK that seems to come from around the window that overlooks the (postage-sized) back yard.

I've given it a LOT of thought and ... I'm pretty sure that I'm afraid of ghosts.  Can they harm you?  I don't know.  Do they want to communicate?  Maybe--that's why all the noises?  We have a farm behind us--no people--so don't have drapes on that side of the house.  But sometimes I get nervous and wish we did.  When the noises start, will there be a ghostie hovering outside my window or just a plain old burglar?  (Burglars usually don't want to be caught so are QUIET. So who's making all this noise?)

I used to babysit for a couple who had a noisy house.  "Don't worry, the house is just settling," the lady would say every time they left me in charge of their kids.  Well, it sure settled a lot when I was there.  There were all kinds of bumps and noises.  I did not like babysitting for them and was glad when I finally just stopped babysitting altogether.

So where do you think all these noises in my office are coming from?

I wanna be my own smiley face

Gums. Not wine gums or gummy bears (worms, fish, etc.), but mouth gums.

Mine are healing after my surgery three weeks ago.  I'd always heard that your mouth recovers faster than anything on/in your body, but after my last extraction, I didn't believe it.  After a crown failure, I had what was left of a tooth extracted.  Only, the dentist left some silver behind, remnant of an old root canal.  So when the bridge/crown next to it broke, the root had to be extracted and the oral surgeon went after that piece of silver, too.

It didn't hurt half as much (or even a quarter) as I thought it would, and unlike the last time I had a tooth out, this guy put in four stitches.  They nearly drove me nuts, but they came out last week.

Whoa!  Ya know that meteor crater in Arizona?  Well, that's what it felt like in my mouth.  It took FIVE MONTHS to heal for that last extraction.  I figured this would take as long.  And man, everything that went into my mouth seemed to end up in that crater.

But a funny thing happened.  In the week since the stitches came out, the crater has started to fill in.  There's no big void.  It's still kind of sunken, like a ... well ... sink hole, but it really is healing like mad.

Going around looking like a hillbilly is not fun, but I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel.  Maybe I WILL have a complete smile a lot sooner than I expected.

I feel hopeful.

Anything got you feeling hopeful?

Computer Weirdness

Back in December of 2007, I had to use up the money offered by my former employer as a "retraining" benefit.  A lot of my ex-co-workers were going through some local company to buy computers and using the "retraining" money.  It sounded like a scam to me, but I asked my accountant about it and he didn't see a problem.

But there WERE problems.  The first was, I didn't want the computer this company wanted to sell me (a Dell).  So I went to Best Buy and the salesman sold (suckered?) me on buying an Acer.  Hey, I have an Acer monitor and it had treated me well, but the thing never worked well--and the computer courses the "retraining" company offered came with FLOPPY DISCS and I ended up losing hundreds of dollars paying taxes, etc., useless training materials, and a bummer of a computer, so the whole thing was a big debacle.



The Acer had a crappy keyboard (flat--not unlike the keyboard that came with my iMac, which is why I don't use IT more often), but worse than that, the stupid thing had a cursor problem.  I'll be typing along and the next thing I know the cursor is several lines above where it should be, typing along in what I've already written.  This is not a good thing when your job is writing.

Back in May, I saw my friend Leann Sweeney's Sony computer.  I liked the keyboard.  She loves the thing (after having a lemon of a Dell that never worked right from day one), and let me try it out.  Since then, I've been back to Best Buy twice and tested it.  I decided that when the October Royalty Check comes, I'm going to get a Sony of my owny.


Not a week ago, the Acer developed a new problem.  It had never before had a screen saver, but now, suddenly, it did.  And the screen saver is a commercial FOR A NEW ACER COMPUTER.

It knows its time is just about up, and it wants to be replaced by a brother Acer computer.

Uh-uh!  No way no how.  But man, is it creepy to have this commercial playing every time I walk away from the computer.

What weirdness has visited you lately?

I meant to write it down . . .

I'm a listmaker.  I have lists all around me.  Or at least I have Post-It notes here there and everywhere to remind me of things I want to remember.  Why?  Because I'm a scatterbrain.  My Dad used to say my head was filled with Tommyrot.  It's been proven that multi-tasking is a big waste of time and that you get less done when you're trying to do too many things at once.  Well, my brain likes to multitask and then I forget stuff.

The thing I seem to forget about the most is blog topics.  Oooh...I had a beauty all planned for today.  I thought about it while I was cutting up a cold roast chicken yesterday morning--to make chicken salad.  (I LOVE chicken salad.)  But my hands were all greasy, and then I had to wash
them, and get out the Mayo, and I figured I'd write it down as soon as I did that.

Well, I was also listening to a book on tape, so when I finished with the chicken and the mayo, I was so caught up in the story that I forgot to write down the blog topic.

And so today I'm writing about forgetting about what I wanted to write about.

I also leap out of my chair several times a day, charge across the house to do or get something, and then, because I'm thinking about three other things at the same time, get to my destination and wonder what the heck I wanted to do.

Multitasking?  Forgetaboutit.

How about you?

Kindle on my Mind

I always pick the worst times to try new things.  I'm up to my eyeballs in deadlines right now, but I've joined two new groups dedicated to learning about/and promoting e titles on Kindle/Nook, etc.

I find the topic endlessly fascinating, and there are so many aspects of it.  Formatting documents to the various platforms, designing covers (and sometimes over and over again), and the most worrying aspect, how to get the word out about my E books/stories.

I've added a page on the Blogger version of this blog, but people aren't finding it.  (I don't think blog readers are used to looking for additional information pages ON a blog.)  I need to put something up on my Lorna web site as well, but just haven't gotten around to it.  (That'll have to happen when some of the deadlines are past, too.)

I know this is probably as interesting as sawdust to most of you guys, and I apologize.  But . . . I can't help but be interested in the whole new world open to me.  I'm finding new readers every day and that's exciting.

What's piqued your interest lately?

Dog or Book? What keeps me up at night?

As I mentioned yesterday, my little doggy guest was good at waking me up and keeping me awake (by snoring directly under my head--as she was sleeping under my bed).  So, rather than stare at the ceiling, I opened a book and started to read.

Big mistake.  The book was so good, I kept reading.  Got tired.  Turned off light.  Dog woke up and kept me awake.

Dog went back to sleep, I went back to reading. 

It was a vicious cycle.  I woke up at 2:05 and I never got back to sleep.  (Didn't quite finish the book; saved that for last night!)

Whatever happened to those days when you decided with a bunch of friends -- hey, let's stay up all night and watch TV/talk/eat/have fun?  (This was in my 20s.)  Um.  Those days are GONE.  I'm a teensy bit older now and I go to bed EARLY.  I don't necessarily stay asleep all night (and get most of my reading-for-pleasure done between the hours of midnight and 4 a.m.) but I don't usually read for three-plus hours during the night, either.

Sorry, I couldn't put the book down.

The title:  NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED by E.J. Copperman.

What's so good about this book?  It hits all my high spots.  Home renovation; believable characters; ghosts.  This thing has winner stamped all over it.  I could kick myself now, because I had an opportunity to blurb it before it was published but was just too stressed while being in my own deadline hell.

If you have an opportunity to read Night of the Living Deed, you really ought to.  And if you don't have the opportunity -- why not?

All I Want For My Birthday Is ....?

For quite some time, I have been campaigning to get a dog.  Hubby is of the opinion that four cats (who don't especially get along all that well) are quite enough, Thank You. 

  I'd like a small dog.  Ideally, a Scottie.  But Scotties are kind of hit and miss.  You get one with a really good temperament or you don't.  (My family has had both.)  I want a dog that doesn't smell when wet, but not necessarily a poodle.  In fact, I want a small dog that's incredibly cute who will love me even on bad hair days.  (I have a cat like that, but he doesn't think it's necessary to adore me 24/7.  Cats are like that.)

Ideally, I'd like a Bichon Frise.  They are so damned cute!  My cousin has a poodle/Bichon mix that is a wonderful little dog.  I met a a Bichon Frise at a garage
sale a couple of months ago and practically interrogated the owner, then came back to the car to report on him to my husband, who again reiterated that we have four cats who don't especially get along and reminded me we have a yard the size of a postage stamp.  (Which is actually just about the right size for a Bichon Frise.)

I've spent a LOT of time at the family cottage this summer writing.  On a number of occasions, I've brought my mother along for company.  Mum comes with baggage.  Jessie, the Westie.

Jessie is a perfectly wonderful little dog in many ways.  She's cute.  (Incredibly so, especially when she cocks her head and laps up every word you say.)  She's attentive.  (Especially if you're eating anything.)  And when she's not in her home element, she rarely barks.  (Can't shut her up when I come to visit her home territory.  She nag, Nag, NAGS for a treat and has me trained to give them uppon arrival and departure.)

But there's a dark side to having a dog.  A.) they drink water.  A lot.  Drinking water necessitates outdoor visits.  Outdoor visits necessitates sniff-a-thons.  Sniff-a-thons sometimes uncover smelly things that dogs love (especially to roll in) and people hate (see smelly description earlier in this sentence).

When she's at the cottage, Jessie goes out on a long rope.  Because she's getting on in years, she now goes out the front of the cottage because those stairs aren't as steep as those out the back.  Two times this week I let her out and went back to the laptop to work.  Two times she came in smelling like something died.

After the first time, we inspected our shoes and the back of Jessie for . . . loose objects that we won't talk about.  Nope.  Nothing.  After the second time, I went out to investigate.

Our neighbors love to fish.  The 16-year-old son of our neighbors has been coming and going, taking his boat out (honest, despite having a hoist in the water not 20 feet from the cottage, he doesn't want his boat to get scratched, so he goes down the road to the boat launch and puts the boat in (at $5 a pop) and thing takes it out (for another $5).  The boat is 3 years old and looks like it came out of the showroom yesterday.  (He's also keeping car wax companies in shape.)

Zack must've cleaned a few of his catch in the front yard.  Jessie must have found it.  Jessie brought it over into our yard.  Jessie rolled in it (twice).

See Lorna discover stinky fish skin and guts.  See Lorna remove (with shovel) stinky fish skin and guts.

Advice from brother:  give Jessie a bath.

Reply from sister:  we have no tub, just a shower, remember.

Advice from brother:  put her in the kitchen sink.

Reply from sister:  Are you out of your mind?

Instead, Jessie gets rubbed down with wet paper towels which are then put in garbage bags and sealed.

Report to husband:  dogs who roll in dead fish are not fun to have around.

Husband:  No reply.  (But thought balloon over his head screams in bold red type:  I COULD'A TOLD YOU SO!!!)

BTW, Jessie also likes to sleep UNDER MY BED, snore, get up in the middle of the night, scratch her back for ten or so minutes against the box springs, shake her tags, and at 4:20 a.m. tell me "It's time for me to go out!" (see comment above about drinking water).


So, Lorna will now refrain from requesting dog for upcoming birthday.  (At least until the memories of stinky dead fish and sleepless nights are distant ones.)

What do you want for your birthday?

Raking in the dough?

I've spent far too much of the last day looking for ways to promote my e books. 

All we keep hearing is that ebooks are exploding, and instead of people reading less, because of Kindle/Nook, etc., people are reading more.  The hard part is getting people to find one's books.

In a bookstore, you can peruse the shelves.  Like that cover?  Intrigued by that back cover blurb?  Buy the book.  But how do readers find books on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com?

That's got my knickers in a twist.

You might be asking yourself "Why does she care?  Isn't she raking in the dough from her New York Times Bestselling Booktown Mystery series?"

How do I know?  I only get paid twice a year.  That's six months between checks.  But somehow the dentist has to be paid RIGHT NOW.  (It used to be you could pay on time...not any more!)  Oops--the brakes went bad on my car.  I can stall for a month until the VISA bill comes in.  Holy smoke!  The quarterly health care bill is due on September 1st!  (Ain't no employer contributing to that bill for Hubby and me -- and it's a killer.)

Authors need a steady cash flow just like the rest of society. But, we aren't paid on a weekly, biweekly or even monthly basis.  Amazon does pay on a monthly basis -- albeit 60 days after the end of the month the sales occurred.

I, and many other authors, need to find steady cash flow just so we can live and write.

So, any ideas on how to promote my e book backlist?  (And in case you're wondering what my backlist, you can find it here.)

Listening To The Voice In My Head

I'm about to finish the second Victoria Square mystery, The Walled Flower, and I'm dragging my feet.  Why?

I don't want to let go of Katie and her friends.

I know it's only for six months, because that's when I'll start the next book in the series (which so far has no title), but I'm having fun and I don't want it to end.

Katie is up to so much trouble and strife in this book and I can't even talk about with you guys because A.) you don't know her yet (the first book, A Crafty Killing doesn't come out until Feb. 1, 2011) and B.) I'd be giving away spoilers and then you WOULDN'T want to read the book.  A real Catch 22.

Of course, Tricia and Angelica are waiting in the wings and they've been nagging me.  "Hey, we're still here--you've got OUR story to tell!"

Then there's Jeff and Richard WAY back in the back alley behind the theater yelling, "Hey, we've been waiting FOR YEARS to see Bound By Suggestion find an audience!!!" (Of course, I'm still waiting for their third adventure, Cheated by Death to find an audience via ebooks.)

And then--can you believe it--I've got a NEW character on the back burner who wants me to tell HER story, too.  When would I ever find time for her?  (Hmm...I should start taking notes....)

All these characters screaming for me to tell their stories.

(Kinda cool, huh?)

Something very special in the mail

Every day the news is filled with terrible stories of murder, wars, and violence, so sometimes we (and me in particular) get jaded.  And it isn't hard to do when your job involves writing about two of those three subjects.  (Although in my books, justice will ALWAYS triumph--something that rarely happens in real life.)

Therefore, we sometimes forget that that there are many good and kind people out there, going about their lives and doing the best they can, and being thoughtful and helpful.

Last week, I was the recipient of an act of kindness.

My friend Dru-Ann Love, who is also a great friend to cozy authors, not just because she writes thoughtful reviews on our books, sent me a special gift.  Dru quilts.  Oh, I know about quilts.  My mother is a quilter and I know about the hours of work, and care and love, that go into any quilted creation.  So I was especially touched by the little quilt Dru sent to me.

Many quilters make memory quilts.  They take photographs or signatures and have them transferred to material for their projects.  Dru took the two New York Times reports for Bookplate Special and Chapter & Hearse and had them transferred to fabric.

When I opened the envelope, I burst into tears.  (Sorry, but I did.)  It was such a special, unique and thoughtful gift.  That Dru took all that time to put it together for me made it even more extraordinary.  And like nearly all quilters, Dru signed and dated the quilt. 

Thank you, Dru.  You made my day!

Lordess of the Flies?

I am a germaphobe.  There, I admitted it. I ought to buy stock in the Purel company because it's one product I use on a daily basis.  (More than once a day.  More than three-four times a day.  And I wash my hands a LOT -- but not compulsively.)

So you can imagine my horror when suddenly there seem to be a LOT of flies inside our house.  Where the heck are they coming from?  Okay, the garage was open for hours and once a fly flies in, it seems to get stuck at the window near the door leading from the garage to the laundry room, and often they come in after us.  But we've been going through the front door to try to avoid letting the flies come in after us.

Monday I killed two flies.  Tuesday hubby killed three flies.  Last night I killed TWELVE flies!!!  (Don't get in my way when I'm holding onto my fly swat!)

Any fly that comes into this house is DOOMED.

What's bugging YOU today?

Pay dirt at a yard sale

A couple of weeks ago, I hit pay dirt at a yard sale.  An entire paper box of old Taste of Home magazines and Country Woman magazines for $5.  (We're talking less than 5 cents each.)

I first found Taste of Home on a magazine rack in Lewiston, NY.  I was on my way to England via Toronto and wanted something to read on the plane.  Wee, this was fun!  A magazine with no advertising that was all about food. It had lots of cornball--but fun--sidebars, like "My Most Embarrassing Moment In The Kitchen," stuff kids got wrong (like saying a teacher's name was Miss Salad Bar instead of Miss Salazar), ridiculous menus that could "feed your family for $1.35 a plate" (yeah, if you had most of the spices in stock and had a family of 6-8).

Every issue was good for at least an hour or two of pure reading pleasure.  And the recipes were easy, with only a few ingredients.  (And they always featured a page or two of cooking for one or two, which is great if that's the size of your family.)

We ended up subscribing to a bunch of these Reiman Magazines.  And on a business trip, we even stopped and checked out the home base in Greendale, Wisconsin.

And then, as always happens when something is successful and bucks the trends, they got offered a big pile of money and got bought out.  In this case, to Readers Digest.  It wasn't long before Taste of Home went right down the toilet--IMNSHO.

All the cute, fun, cornball stuff was gone.  Gone were My Mom's Best Meal, and the like.  Everything that made the magazine(s) charming and unique was gone.  They decided to aim at a bigger demographic than just farm wives.  (Hey, I wasn't a farm wife, and I enjoyed it.) It became just another slick magazine and I stopped renewing.  That's why I buy up every old issue of the magazine I can find at yard sales.  Okay,  I now own three copies of some issues, but when you buy them for pennies a copy, what's the difference?

This whole situation reminds me of how Coca-Cola miscalculated when they decided to dump their successful Coke for New Coke.  Consumers let them know in a hurry what a big mistake that was.  Only so far it seems like Readers Digest won this round.  They may have found new readers, but I'll bet they lost a heck of a lot of their reader base, too.

What have you enjoyed that was ruined by improvements?

Does Death Love A Messy Desk?

Yesterday I got my order most recent order from the Mystery Lovers Bookshop.  In it was a book by my friend Mary Jane Maffini:  Death Loves a Messy Desk.  If that title holds any truth, I'm doomed.

I don't know what it is, but I cannot keep my desk clear of junk.  Junk that gets in the way of my getting any meaningful work done.  Junk like a box of safety pins, dental flossers, rubber stamps, stickers, post-it note pads, wooden carvings (they're not junk; my Dad made those and I like looking at them), candy jar, candle and warmer, my sheep (doesn't everyone keep a couple of orphaned nativity sheep on their desks?), an egg timer (for when the cats go out on the enclosed porch in the winter--not that I pay attention and hear it.  Usually they're crawling up the sliding glass doors, their kitty mouths open crying "let us in--it's COLD out here!), a couple of screwdrivers, letter openers, three coffee cups filled with pens and pencils, Purell (two bottles), furniture polish, a LOT of bookmarks, envelopes for mailing, magazines.  And on and on.  And I've got another computer "desk" (well, farm table, actually) in the same condition.  (P.S.  The rest of the house does NOT look like this.  Honest.)

When I want a clear flat surface to work on, I either go into my husband's office next door or seek out the dining room table.

I keep saying I'm going to do something about it, but the truth is, I have nowhere to put all this stuff.  My closet is full of stuff.  Vital stuff.  Like boxes of books, envelopes, padded envelopes, office supplies and an entire shelf just filled with notebooks of my manuscripts, so there's no room to store any of this stuff there.  I'd love to annex Mr. Lorna's office, but I don't think that would go over very well.

The time has come to be ruthless and just start tossing stuff.

Fortunately for me, I'm heading back to the cottage to work on the book.  I'll close the door so Mr. Lorna doesn't have to look at my office while I'm gone (apparently, it gives him the heebie jeebies) and face it when I come back in a few days.

Maybe.

Is there some place in your home you just can't face cleaning?

Nature gone nuts!

We have a problem with our tomato plants.  First, they grew really, REALLY BIG.  This has never happened to us before.  The plants grew so big, they crushed their "little" tomato cages.  We started staking them with thin bamboo stakes, which snapped.  (They snapped under the weight of our bean plants, too).

The plants developed blight, but still they continued to grow big, FAT, tomatoes.  And now, they're all ripening at the same time.  Yesterday I gave a quarter of a shopping bag to my brother for him to split with my mother, but we'll have more ripe by Monday.

This was the first year we put extensions on the heavy bamboo stakes for our pole beans--they cracked under the weight of the plants.  (Which took four plantings before they "took."  They're just starting to produce beans so I'm assuming we'll be inundated any day now.

I picked about 40 jalapeno peppers yesterday.  I was disappointed that only two people entered my jalapeno pepper contest -- and if I get around to it this weekend, I decide which recipe wins.  (Yes, I'm that harried!!!)  The winner will receive a Haven't Got A Clue coffee (or tea or cocoa) mug.

It's been an incredibly HOT, RAINY summer, which is probably why everything has grown so well.  Even the Brussels sprouts decimated by Mr. Groundhog and replanted in pots have made a comeback.  But, whoa!  Can two people ate all this bounty?  Nope, so my mother and brother will reap the rewards.  After all, they both put their tomatoes in the topsy-turvey devices.  End results?  One or two tiny tomatoes, while ours in the ground went ZOWIE!

While it might sound like I'm complaining, I'm really not--just overwhelmed.  Especially since the season started out so badly and things refused to grow.  Heck, I'm already hoping next year to plant even MORE veggies. 

I must be a glutton for punishment.  How about you?

Where did it land?

Yesterday was Wednesday, a day Ive been anticipating and dreading because I'd get to know if Chapter & Hearse made the New York Times Bestsellers list for mass market paperbacks.  If it did--where would it land?

Okay, no more suspense--it hit at #19 -- that's one step higher than Bookplate Special and I am ecstatic! 

My biggest thanks need to go to my readers who bought the book.  You helped put Chapter & Hearse there through your loyalty and trust that I'd come through with another book you'd enjoy. 

Thank you all!

Alas, poor mouse . . .

 There's an old saying, "You don't know what you've got until you lose it."

I have lost my pink wireless mouse.

Well, lost isn't exactly true.  It's sitting here on my desk.  The little red light underneath shines brightly when I pick it up, but ... to quote Star Trek's Dr. McCoy, "It's dead, Jim."

I'm out of town and working on the laptop.  I do not like the mouse device/pad they give you on a laptop.  For one thing, I can never highlight anything with it.  The idea of approaching the
day's work without my wireless mouse is daunting.  But I'm out in the sticks.  Where am I going to find another wireless mouse?  The nearest Walmart is at least a half an hour's drive (if not more).

I have another mouse in my laptop case, but even with new batteries it doesn't want to work, either.

Someone on Facebook told me that dropping a mouse (which I seem to do a lot, thanks for this cute but tiny desk) will kill it.  Um...I think I dropped it three times yesterday.  But I was working along and it just stopped dead.  So I changed the battery (which I've had to do about every three weeks during the summer).

Dead, dead, dead.

Oh well, glad I gassed up the car yesterday, because it looks like Walmart here I come.  Except . . . I think I'm done with wireless mice.  I'm going get one with a wire. 

They seem to live longer.

The day sure got better fast!

I was dreading Monday, August 9th.  For the past three weeks I've had LOTS of time to think about gum surgery.  I broke my bridge back in April.  (Here's the story.)  I waffled for weeks and weeks:  Should I raid my new-car fund and get implants (and hope my car will last at least another TEN years) so I can have some pearly ... um ... not very white new (implanted) teeth, or go for a partial plate, which wouldn't last more than ten years and possibly ruin another crown that would need to anchor the thing.

I went for the implants.  But I don't have to have them done all at once. I did need to have the roots extracted where the crown broke below the gum line, and what remained of a root canal that went terribly wrong.  And have a bone graft. (That was the scary part.)


I've been losing sleep for weeks.  Yesterday was the day. I went there with Mary Jane Maffini's "Organize Your Corpses" in my hand.  (MJ's my friend, and clutching her wonderful book (which I'm in the middle of)  during the procedure was almost as good as having a MJ holding my hand the whole time.)

The worst thing about the whole thing?  The strawberry-flavored topical numb-er.  (Ick.  I loathe strawberries.)  Otherwise, they gave me LOTS of Novocaine.  Fifty minutes later, I was on my way home, with three prescriptions marking the pages of MJ's book. 

I hadn't been home more than fifteen minutes when the phone rang ... with a New York number. 

Hmmm...my editor is in New York. 

I snatched up the phone.  Bingo!  It was my editor--and he had good news!

Chapter & Hearse:  #15 on Barnes & Noble's mass market list. 

Woo-hoo!

Chapter & Hearse:  #1 on Barnes & Noble's mystery MM list!

Suddenly, the day didn't seem all that bad after all.

The Waiting Game Has Begun

Last week I FINALLY got the copyright papers for Dead in Red.  Just a mere TWO YEARS after I filed them. I'd kind of lost track of time and a few months back realized I'd never received them.

If you're a published author with a New York house, you're probably saying, "What copyright papers?"  Most large publishers register their author's books for them.  That doesn't always happen with a small press. (Or in my case a LARGE press with a small imprint.)  So I dutifully filed them back in 2008.  Except I sent them an ARC of the book instead of the REAL book.  They sat on the request for a long time -- until I nudged them, then decided the ARC wasn't good enough and asked me to send 2 copies of the real book.

By this time, the book was nearly out of print.  It's now officially out of print.

Well, not officially.  I was told back in March that if I didn't buy up all the copies, they'd be pulped.  So I did (and can now sell them at considerably less than the publisher.  In fact, $15 less than the publisher--postage included (for media mail)!  (If you're interested click here and scroll down the page.) But I'm not sure of the REAL out-of-print date, and that's where things get sticky.

You see, I have to wait 18 months until AFTER the book goes out of print before the rights revert to me and then I can do with them what I please.  Resell them, reprint the book--or just upload it to Kindle.  (I've had a LOT of requests to upload it to Kindle and Nook.)

I don't own the cover art.  But I do now own the cover stock photo (the red shoe) in anticipation of making my own cover similar to the one my publisher used. 

I'm looking forward to the day when Dead In Red will be available to a MUCH LARGER audience.  Until then . . . I just have to wait.  And so do my readers.

Oooh! I can't believe I wrote it!

Wednesday I blogged about the Booktown Mysteries being on audio.

Well, they arrived.  (Did you hear me whooping it up from coast to coast?)


This is not my first experience with having one of my books on audio.  My first book, Murder On The Mind is also available on audio from Audible.com, Books in Motion, and on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  (If you're looking for it on CD -- go to Amazon and Books in Motion; Barnes & Noble is selling it as an MP3 file for only $12.40, which is considerably cheaper than Audible.com.)  It's read by Kevin Foley.

Um ... I haven't had the courage to listen to it, although I've had my author copy for well over a year now.  Before I got it, I listened to the sample on the Books In Motion web site.  It's a scene that's very vivid for me--the end of one of my very favorite scenes in the book, so it's a pivotal moment, and I must say an excellent representation of the book. 

However . . . the performer got Richard all wrong, at least in that scene.  He came off as bombastic, when in fact he was extremely worried about Jeff's sanity.  That intonation scared me away from listening to the book.  (So much so, I've never opened the packaging.)  Still, I have had one report that the audio version was good.  (A Goodreads review.)  It made me think I ought to give the audio version a chance.  (And besides, my mother has been nagging me to loan it to her.)

I'd love it if people would find this version of the book.  I mean, in a year I've made exactly $15 in royalties.  (How's a starving author supposed to eat?)


I don't think the audio version of the Booktown Mysteries will have that lack of sales problem.  First of all, the series is many times more popular than my poor Jeff series.  (Pout!  I love Jeff, Richard and Brenda and I'd LOVE for them to find a HUGE audience.)  Cassandra Campbell performs the books. 

As soon as the Fed-X man left yesterday, I ripped open the package and ran into my office to play the first part of Murder is Binding.  Whoa!  It was great--so great, I couldn't believe I wrote the thing!

I found it too distracting to play while I'm working (even on boring stuff like emptying my spam filter--I want to listen rather than work), so I'll be listening to all the books while I do housework and cook (Why do I suddenly have this urge to do laundry, too?) or driving in the car.

I sure hope a whole new audience will find the books.  I was proud of them as books; I'm even more proud of them as audiobooks.

Any chance you'll give them a listen?  (Hint, hint--libraries are the biggest audiobook buyers!)