Tear-Out Time

For years I have saved nearly all the decorating magazines I've received.  I'm literally drowning in them.  It's time to lighten the load.

I thought it would be hard to part with them, but as it turns out--it's not.  I'm going through the stacks and tearing out the pages that interest me, and tossing the rest.

Of course there are still some magazines that I simply won't toss out.  One of them is Victoria Magazine.  I have most of the issues from it's first incarnation and all of them from its second (and duplicates on most of those, too, which I keep at the family cottage). 


Also, I won't get rid of Teatime magazine.  The photography is just gorgeous, and they highlight lots of different china patterns with their recipes.  Nope, no negotiation on these two.

But now I have to start sorting all those pages I'm tearing out.

What magazines do you subscribe to that you won't toss out?

What am I doing in the kitchen when I'm not ready to cook?

by Guest Blogger Tonya Thomas

I don't know about you, but I'm either losing my mind or I just don't pay attention to the things going on in my life.

More than once a day I'll head into my kitchen from some other part of my house and stand there and look around wondering what the heck I'm doing there.

Okay, I'll admit it. I have a lot on my mind.  In this day and age--wouldn't you?  Worrying about gasoline prices, encroaching inflation and where the heck am I going to get my next idea for my current story ... why wouldn't I be preoccupied by something or other.

In general, writers are just plain weird. I mean, think of it. We live in fantasy worlds and get paid for it. (Nice, when it actually happens, I might add. And it doesn't happen nearly often enough.)
I primarily write short stories about women in complicated relationships. I have better things to think about than does the washer need fabric softener or should I use fat-free or lite salad dressing on my salad?

But these lapses of memory do concern me.  Am I really losing it or am I really just wrapped up in other things?  I don't know -- and until I try to drive to the grocery store and end up three counties over ... maybe I'll pretend to be like Scarlett O'Hara and worry about it . . . tomorrow.

So tell me, do you experience these same lapses and what do you think (or do) about them?

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Tonya Thomas is an award-winning author who currently writes women's fiction.  You can find her stories available for Kindle, Nook, Smashwords and other e readers.  Her box set, THE EDGE AND I, contains five stories for the price of three.  You can find her at her website/blog, on Facebook, and Twitter (@TonyaThomas1), or visit her Amazon store.

Sprucing anyone?

Monday I went on a shopping spree.  Now, if you knew me at all you'd know that shopping and me just doesn't happen much.  But I was determined.  I had a list and I stuck to it.

My goal:  stuff for the family cottage.

We have two little windows on the east side of the living room (we're talking 28 x 24 inches) and ever since we've owned the place, they have never had any kind of window treatment.  The fact that they're surrounded by a brick wall (first there was a fireplace, now a wood stove) might have something to do with that.  So I was determined to get some kind of sheers to cover them.  Why?  Our neighbor's upstairs windows look right into them.  Sometimes you don't want to be the show they're watching.

Could I find ANY kind of sheers I liked?  But I did get a couple of spring rods.  (More on the sheers later.)

I bought a new garbage pail (with a foot control!), a new shower curtain, a kitchen timer (because who knows how to use the built-in one on the microwave?  Not me--and I read the directions, too).  I broke the traverse rod on my "office" window, so I hit JCPenny to get a new one.

I'm also in the market for a new area rug for the living room (ideally I'd like something in a blue oriental--but haven't found anything like that locally and within my budget), and slipcovers for the couch (and some new throw pillows).

About those sheers . . . I couldn't find ANYTHING I liked.  Time to hit the Internet.  After looking at countless sites I asked myself, what is it I really wanted?  Victorian lace curtains.  Bingo!  I also discovered they come in what are called "tiers."  Found the perfect ones, very pretty and the exact size of the windows.  Win-win!

The next few times I'm down there, I'm going to be busy, busy, busy.  (Did I mention I need to do some painting, too?)

Okay, I admit it.  I've been watching Sarah's Summer House on HGTV and I was inspired.  Of course, I don't have Sarah's budget, and we're not doing a renovation, just a little redecoration.  But by the end of the summer (if not well before), I'm hoping the place looks spruced up.

Is there any sprucing up in your future?
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Waste not--want not!

Ever since our county initiated its recycling program they have taken glass bottles, newspapers, cans, and plastic that's labeled 1 and 2.

That all changes on Wednesday.  As of June 1st, they will now allow you to toss out ANY plastic.

Yea!

As it happens, because of the Memorial Day holiday, our garbage, which usually goes out on Tuesdays, will be picked up on Wednesday:  June 1st.

Ever since I heard of the new ruling, I've been saving all my other plastic.  Why let it go into the landfill when in two weeks it would be recycled.

Does your county recycle all plastics?
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Don't look for Booktown Mysteries in the Buffalo Libraries

When my Jeff Resnick series was published, I was really proud that so many libraries in the Buffalo, NY area carried the books.  Of course the books are SET in Buffalo, NY -- so that helped.

So I was puzzled when not one library in Buffalo carried my Booktown Mysteries.  Oh, I know that a lot of library systems don't catalog paperback books, and the series is in paperback.  But I looked up other cozy mystery authors on the website for the Buffalo Erie County Library System, and their books are there.

Did I offend the acquisition librarians in Buffalo?  I mean, I've sent them a postcard for every book in the series (and for A Crafty Killing, too.  It's not there, either).  And they haven't purchased the other two books in my Jeff Resnick series, either.  : (

I know I have at least three readers in the greater Buffalo area  because they've signed up for my newsletter.  I can thank Barnes & Noble for the only readers I have in the Buffalo area.  (THANK YOU, BARNES & NOBLE!!!)

But for some reason I can't seem to make a crack with the acquisition librarians.

I know there are other libraries in big cities that don't have the books, either--but for some reason I feel hurt that the Buffalo libraries have snubbed Tricia and Angelica.  (And Katie, too.)  They embraced Jeff (in hardcover--but not trade paperback).  I just don't get it.

So, the question is, should I throw away money by sending all the libraries a postcard for Sentenced to Death?

What do you think?
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How NOT to plant potatoes . . .

Yesterday I worked in the garden for a little while.  I planted my potatoes.

For the past few years, I've been planting my seed potatoes in a big blue tub.  Not this year.  The yield was too small, so back in the ground they go.  I have limited garden space, so they're going in behind the black-eyed susans.

Unfortunately for me, the phone rang in the middle of planting.  Since we have a wireless landline (yes, we're still dinosaurs and haven't gone totally cell yet ... maybe not for a long time), Mr. L brought the phone out to me and I had a rather long conversation with my brother.

I continued to plant my potatoes, which was rather awkward to say the least.  Everything was okay until bedtime when I realized "Ouch, my back hurts."  Only in one spot and I think it's because I was holding the phone in an awkward position for about ten minutes.

All I can say is, those potatoes better grow.  (Or maybe next time I should just call my brother back.)

Have you planted anything in your garden this year?  (The annuals go in next week.)
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Not such an ordinary week . . .

We're all in a tizzy because we've got a house guest arriving later today. My sister-in-law is coming for four days. I wish it was for a happy visit, but she and Mr. L will be looking at assisted living centers for their mother.

When company comes you have an opportunity to do things that aren't in the usual routine.  We rarely go out to dinner, but SIL wants to go out for a real Western NY fish fry. She'll probably stock up on Western NY goodies (and ship them home--she's traveling light with just carry on luggage).  Things like Zweigel's hot dog sauce, Webber's mustard, etc.

Meanwhile, I still have a few things to do before she arrives tonight.  Like finish cleaning the guest room.  It really only needs to be dusted and the bed made, but that's something that's not on my usual Tuesday list of things to do.  (Thank goodness the cleaning ladies came yesterday.)

So while I'm sad about the reason for the visit, I'm glad to have a chance to connect with my SIL.  She lives so far away that I've only seen her 6-7 times in twenty years, and our phone conversations have been brief.

Have you got a house guest coming to visit in the near future?
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Should L.L. be offended?

Like clockwork, every Monday I get a report on my website hits.  I'm not sure websites do as much as they used to in terms of readers visiting them, but we all have them just in case new readers want to know more about us, our books, and our characters.

If you're a practicing schizophrenic--that is, as an author I have three names--you get three reports.

My Lorna website report always comes in first.  Every week that site gets the most hits.  And it's consistent.  The same amount, give or take 10-20 hits either up or down.

My Lorraine website report shows interest in that name and work has been steadily growing since A Crafty Killing came out in February.  True, most Booktown Mystery readers haven't made the connection that Lorraine and Lorna are the same--even though I've been screaming that fact at the top of my lungs for almost three years . . . but I'm very hopeful.

Then comes my L.L. Bartlett report.  There's one word for that:  pitiful.  It's less than half of what Lorraine gets, and only a quarter of what Lorna gets--despite the fact that I've been writing under that name for three years longer than I have the Lorna name.
I don't know what to do about the fact that people don't know that Lorna/Lorraine/L.L. are the same person.

Skywriting?

I don't know what to do about pumping up those numbers, or finding more readers for Lorraine and L.L.

I wish I did.
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When you hate your word processing program . . .

I've been scarce this week.  Why?

Word.  Microsoft Word.  It ate my mailing list.  Luckily a few days before I had printed out labels for my postcards, but while I was updated the list, Word hiccuped as I was saving it and it was gone.  GONE.  And the last time I had backed up was in January.

Well, there was more than just the gnashing of teeth, let me tell you.  I've been working for TWO days to try to reconstruct it from various other lists, and I still have another 3-5 hours to go, and am missing over 300 addresses.

I also color code my list, so I know where the addresses came from.  Now I'm wondering if the that was too much.

A long list + color coding = disaster?

So I'm going to break the list in half by zip code and back it up every night from now on.

I had hoped to get some serious writing done this weekend.  Now . . . hello list building.

What important file have you lost on your computer?

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It's Not Just A Big Day . . .

By guest blogger Kelly McClymer

Thanks for inviting me to share a pet peeve for Pet Peeve Thursday, Lorna! I have so many (for example, you cannot crumble a piece of paper without a lot of effort, but you can crumple it easily enough: why do writers not know this?!?).

But my big pet peeve right now revolves around weddings. I love to attend weddings, but not because of the big fancy cake or band or dancing (well, okay, I do like the dancing, even though I dance like Elaine on Seinfeld). No, I love the way family and friends circle the couple and support the big step into marriage. It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes family and friends to remind a couple that the wedding day is the beginning of a (hopefully) long and rewarding journey.

My pet peeve is that all the hype around having a perfect wedding day misses the point: this is the beginning. One day of many, many days, if you're lucky. You need some ... ummm ... interesting ... things to happen so that everyone in attendance can laugh about it as they share the memory around holiday dinners and anniversaries.

But no. Everyone wants the perfect dress, the perfect cake, the flawless ceremony. I know this for two reasons: 1) my daughter recently got engaged and has begun trying on wedding gowns and thinking about when/where/how; and 2) I'm releasing my out-of-print historical romance Once Upon a Wedding Series in ebook format and I've been looking at wedding photos non-stop in order to find images for the covers. The artist and I finally decided (after lots of dresses, veils, flowers, etc.) to focus on cakes. There are some awesome (and no doubt expensive) wedding cakes out there, let me tell you. Including chocolate cakes. Chocolate. Cake.

By the time I was finished looking at all these images, even I was beginning to think about how to make my daughter's wedding perfect. Fortunately, I came to my senses by laughing with my husband about how our low-key ceremony, where a friend took photos with our not great camera, and my dad played bartender, was perfectly almost perfect. So I think as we head into June, the wedding month, it is a good time to use my guest Pet Peeve post to remind people that the wedding day is one day and perfect is the enemy of good stories to tell around the holiday table.

Can't you just see Wills and Kate laughing with their grandchildren over how Wills had to give that ring a good push to get it on Kate's finger? I can.
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Kelly McClymer started her career writing short science fiction, but then switched to historical romance for the happily ever after. Currently, she writes young adult novels (The Salem Witch Tryouts series, Must Love Black). Her backlist Once Upon a Wedding series is fatefully being released in ebook form just in time for a promotional effort to help ensure her daughter's wedding has plenty of family and friends to gather around the couple...and make sure there are some memorable flubs to talk about over turkey. And maybe a chocolate wedding cake. You can read the latest news at http://kellymcclymer.com/wordpress

And CRACK--they were gone!

So far this May we've had one lovely (warm) day.

That was Friday.

Saturday wasn't horrible, but it wasn't warm and sunny either.

Yesterday--fuggetaboutit.  It was COLD.  I realized the screen on the back door had been left up and went to put it down and CRACK!  Gone were the tips of three of my fingernails.

Now, I've probably lifted and lowered that screen a hundred times, so why would it decide to eat three of my fingernails right there and then?

It seems like every time my nails get long enough for nail polish something like this happens.  (And I have a signing on Sunday.  They won't grow much before then.)

So, what annoying thing happened to you over the weekend?

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Just another way to go crazy

Several months ago, Amazon started sharing Bookscan numbers with authors.

According to Wikipedia:  Nielsen BookScan is a data provider for the book publishing industry, owned by the Nielsen Company. BookScan compiles point of sale data for book sales.

Bookscan doesn't track ALL books sold, but it can give you an idea of what and where you're selling.

Of course, like the Amazon rankings, it can drive you crazy as you watch your numbers go down every week.  (On Amazon that's good.  On Bookscan that's bad.)

The Jeff Resnick books have been available for well over a month now, and they've suddenly shown up on Bookscan.  I hadn't been expecting this.  So far 9 copies have sold.  That means that BOOKSELLERS are selling copies of the books!!!  I'm astounded and extremely happy.  (I just wish the numbers were a heck of a lot better.)  Most of my sales have been from Amazon, which don't show up on Bookscan.  And since I lowered the price to $11.95 (just a week ago), they've been selling quite a bit better.

(So if you've been holding off--quick!  Go buy copies of the books.  Do it now.  We'll wait.)

Sentenced to Death comes out in four weeks.  It'll be interesting to see if the sales of the rest of the Booktown Mysteries pick up.  (And why doesn't Bookmarked for Death sell as well as the other books in the series???)

Okay, I admit it, I'm a numbers freak.  I love my spreadsheets and I work on them every day.  It's fun.  It's frustrating.  It's anal.  But I do it anyway.

What do you do that's fun, frustrating and anal?

To Tweet or not to Tweet--that is the question

If everybody I know tweets, how come they haven't found me and I haven't found them on Twitter?

Okay, I admit it.  I just don't get Twitter.  I mean, I've been on it for like two years, and I don't get it.  I've even taken an online class about it and still haven't picked up the intricacies.

I use Tweetdeck, which seems a lot more coherent than just a plain Twitter account, and this way I can coordinate my various personas.  Nice.  But what am I supposed to tweet?

And it seems like almost all my followers are other authors.  We're all telling each other about our books and not selling any of them.

I find people who tweet constantly to be a real PITA and I unfollow them as soon as possible.  I mean, do I need to know every time they burp or take a sip of Diet Coke?

I'm not saying I'm going to pitch Tweetdeck any time soon, but I don't even log on every day.

If you use Twitter, what do you think the greatest benefit is?

BTW, if you WANT to follow me, I'm @LornaBarrett @LorraineBartlet @LLBartlettbooks

There's no place like home!

I'm home at last after being away for six days and five nights . . . and all I can say is "There's no place like home."

Am I sorry I went away?  Heck no!  I loved seeing my friends, meeting readers, and talking with my agent and editor.  But it's too bad you can't just beam in for the festivities and beam back home to your own bed at night.

I love to go out to lunch, but I like eating breakfast and dinner at home.  Going out to eat for all three meals of the day gets tiresome.  And the portions at restaurants are way too big.  As a kid who grew up cleaning her plate, it's hard to leave something behind, but I'm learning.

"Being on" is very tiring.  I was working on the outline for a new story (that may never see the light of day), so I could retreat to my head on various occasions when things got to be too much.  And since I NEVER work from an outline, this was a new experience.  At least if I never finish the story, I know how it ends!

Weather can be your friend when it's nice, and your enemy when it stinks.  I had stinky weather on the trip home.  Continuous rain and some pretty nasty fog.  So much fog, that I pulled off I-90 and drove the back roads until I was far enough away from Lake Erie that the fog had dissipated.

There is no place like home.  After being on the road, I pulled up the driveway and saw my cat Fred's little face peering through the front door to make sure it really was me.  *Sniff*

Okay, so I now have no plans to travel again until next April for the next Malice Domestic conference.  That makes me sad . . . I like the journey and I like the destination . . . I just hate the travel home.

What's your favorite part of a trip?

(P.S. As soon as I download my pictures, I'll post them on my Facebook page.)

Coffee Klatch!

About once a month my friend Pat and I get together for coffee.  Of course, I don't drink coffee--but she does.  (I usually have hot chocolate.)

Pat and I are both authors and we talk business.  So far every time we've gotten together we've managed to fill three hours with just business talk.

What kind of business talk?  Selling books.  Selling print books.  Selling e books.  Graphic design.  Business cards. Writing.  Not writing.  Wanting to write different things.  Promotion.  Yada, yada, yada.

Now I'm sure many people would be bored silly listening to us go on, and especially for three hours, but when you're starved for conversation about your job, and how you accomplish all elements of it, it's fun and exciting.

Today is coffee talk day.  I can't wait!

Do you have a friend you meet with for coffee (or hot chocolate)?

Open wide!

Every six months I go to get my teeth cleaned. I learned the hard way that if you don't, problems develop.  Big EXPENSIVE problems.  (After I lost my dental insurance, I didn't go for two years?  Big mistake.  I estimate I've paid $15,000 since.)

I hate getting my teeth cleaned.  For one thing, no matter how much I brush them, I'll be told I didn't do it right.  I'll be scolded because there tartar on some back tooth which is nearly impossible to reach with a toothbrush, or a the crooked tooth on the side where tartar builds up in the spot that the brush can't reach.

I have been praised for my excellent flossing, but I must confess that it's not me it's my dental flossers that have turned the tide on plaque.  Regular floss (even the unshreddible kind) splits and shreds and it got stuck in my teeth and was more trouble than it was worth.  And then I was introduced to flossers.  I keep them on my work desk and when I think about it (about 4-5 times a day), I floss.  Win-win situation!  (My dentist admits she keeps them in her car and flosses at red lights.  It drives her kids nuts.)

What fun thing are you doing today?

Anybody need some ham?

The days of big family dinners are gone due to the fact that I don't have much family left.

And so Easter came around.  There were just three of us and we wanted a nice Easter ham.  Of course we waited too late to go in search of a ham and the smallest one we could find was 8.24 lbs.

EIGHT POUNDS OF HAM???  What were we thinking?

But we bought it and cooked it.  "We'll each eat two pounds of it for supper, and then you'll only have two pounds of leftovers," my mother said.

Um...sure.

Actually, after dinner Mr. L cut off most of the spiral ham and put it in a gallon freezer bag and popped it into the fridge.  I put the HUGE bone (which still had a lot of meat on it) in two freezer bags and popped it in the freezer.  (Boy am I glad we have that little chest freezer in the garage.)

So, I figured we could eat ham sandwiches, and I could make myself a few western omelets.  I'm not a fan of split pea soup, but would love to hear other recipes that where a ham bone can be used.

Got any to share?

Reserve one room at the mental institution, please

E Books are the way for mid-list authors to become millionaires.  That's what I keep hearing.

So what am I doing wrong?

Wednesday Lee Goldberg (who I have mega admiration for) said:  "any midlist author who signs another pissant three-book contract with a NY publisher (or any publisher) should check themselves into a mental institution right away."

Well, I just did sign such a contract--and for a nice chunk of change, too.  Not nearly as much as Barry Eisler just turned down.  (Did you hear, he turned down $500,000.  YES, all those zeroes are correct.)  The books I'm contracted for won't be available until 2013, 2014, and 2015.  By then maybe I will have looked like a fool for signing, but I don't think so.  Will the publishing world be drastically different in three years?  There's a good possibility it will.

Lee also said:  "It's actually possible for an author nobody heard of to become a millionaire within just a matter of months. I'm not exaggerating. Everyone talks about Amanda Hocking...but perhaps the most astonishing success story of all is John Locke. (*snip*) Locke earned $126,000 on 369,000 sales on Amazon in March alone. That's a huge uptick from the 75,000 he sold in January and the 1300 he sold in November.  John Locke went from selling 1300 books to 369,000 in four months. Holy. Shit."

(You can find the whole blog post here.)

Lee has done very well with Kindle.  He has a huge backlist and, despite a busy career as a TV and movie producer, he's also a prolific author.

Meanwhile, I have put up 7 short stories and 4 novels and I'm not seeing anything like the kinds of sales Lee is seeing.  : (

Despite great reviews, and a very small but enthusiastic audience, my Jeff Resnick books have not taken off.  Instead of hundreds of thousands of sales a month (per title) I'm not even seeing hundreds of sales per book.

Sour grapes?

Yes.  Not so much for me, but for my series.  If I hadn't believed in my characters, I wouldn't have written four books and (so-far) two short stories about them.

I've received reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, and have rave reviews from readers on Amazon and Barnes&Noble.com.

I believed I could do better when it came to finding readers than my former (small) publisher, and so I followed in Lee's footprints and put them up on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords (for distribution to other e sellers). So far, success has eluded those books.

(Man, those grapes are really SOUR!)

In the last few weeks I've:

• sent out over 2000 postcards to readers and librarians
• sent an e newsletter to over 4500 readers (although only 1675 opened it)
• offered the first book in the series for 99¢ in hopes that it would find new readers (so far it has, but not all that many), and encourage people to go looking for the other three books.

I'm at my wits end trying to figure out how this series can find a new audience.

Any ideas?

What's with the weather?

I live in a part of the US that has four distinct seasons.  Except they aren't.  Distinct, that is.  Winter eases into spring, eases into summer, eases into fall, eases back to winter.

Right now we're a month into spring and the weather doesn't know what the heck it wants to do. (Maybe that's why I like spring least of all.)  It can be rainy, snowy, windy, sunny all in one afternoon.  Or it can be incredibly hot.  Eight years ago we went to a wedding on March 30th and it was 82 degrees.  The next day it snowed.

The calendar says it's spring, but my furnace will probably be chugging along every night right into June.  (One year we were still running it into early July.)

Once summer finally arrives in July, it keeps going into October.  I like that.  Warm days, cool nights, right into mid-October.  Winter--forget it.  Ick, Ick, Ick for months on end. And then we're back to spring and the weather doesn't know what it wants to do again.

So, what's your favorite season?  And do you have a beef to share today?

Chester the Dusting Cat

Many people have pets that do tricks.

Our cat Chester dusts.

That's right.  At least he WANTS to dust.  That must be the reason that any piece of cloth not nailed down (and usually smelling of Pledge) gets picked up and moved around the house.

I'll get up in the middle of the night to get a drink and there will be a dust cloth in the middle of the hall.  Just like the one I found yesterday.  (I left it there until morning so I could take this shot.)



Of course, as a "wool eater," Chester is obsessed with anything made of fabric.  Kitty toys, dust cloths, dish towels (he's even hauled full-sized bath towels around, and for a small cat, that's a lot of work).

Chester's work is never done.  When he's not moving cloth objects around, he watches birds, annoys girl cats, takes leisurely kitty baths under a 200 watt light bulb, or jumps on my lap to rub his wet yucky nose on my hand or stand on my keyboard and disrupt my typing.

Yes, he's a busy boy.

And we wouldn't have it any other way.

What interesting thing does your pet do?

I'll miss you, little soap dish

So there I was, typing along, and I heard CRASH! and then the words, "Uh-oh!"

I like old things.  A few years back we ripped out the 1960s double sink in our bathroom, put in an antique chest as a vanity, and gave our contemporary bathroom a little charm from yesteryear.  (See, the cats seem to like it.)

Two of the accessories on my bathroom vanity are antique soap dishes.  Yes, two.  Hubby likes milled soap and I like glycerin soap.  (Although I like his soap, too.  I switch back and forth.)  His soap dish was bought at a flea market in Maine.  It's got pink roses.  Mine was bought at a yard sale in Pultneyville, NY.

Oddly enough, when I bought both of them (years apart) they each came with "sister" soap dishes.  Three of each.  Since I was a vendor in an antiques arcade, I sold the other four, and these different soap dishes have lived quite happily on the vanity.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday was the day the cleaning ladies came.  And they just happened to have two new recruits who were learning the ropes.  Guess who broke one of my soap dishes?

Ya know, there are terrible things happening in this world on a daily basis.  The aftermath of the earthquake in Japan, war in how many countries.  Little kids with no medical care.  A broken soap dish is not a big deal, but for some reason it put me in a funk.  The soap dish wasn't even valuable.  I only paid a dollar for it.  But I loved it!

Later, I told my mother about it and she said.  "You can have one of my soap dishes."  As it happened, years ago I had bought her a brown transferware onion patterned soap dish.  You see, my mother has blue onion dinnerware.  (Guess what?  So do I!  I searched for years for a dish pattern I liked and finally Mr. L said--well, what would you REALLY like, and I said, "My mother's dishes."  Duh!  I got my own set!)





I'm still a little sad about my broken soap dish (today is garbage day--goodbye china chards), but in a few weeks the new one will feel like it's been there for ages.  And it does go rather nicely with the rest of the decor.

By the way, the cleaning lady felt terrible and apologized profusely.  What an awful thing to happen on her very first cleaning job.  I hope the rest of her day went better.

So, what silly thing in your house would you miss if it broke?

Gone like the wind

Ask anyone who knows me well and they will tell you I tend to lose things.  Glasses, keys, and especially papers.

I keep a folder of address and other stickers.  Since this folder is made of clear plastic, it should be easy to spot it among the rest of the stuff littering my office.  And yet, I seem to have lost it.  It has stickers three different types of stickers for my P.O. Box (well, I am writing under three different names).  Stickers for the Cozy Chicks.  Stickers for the various book series I write.  Air Mail stickers.  Local Author Stickers.  Do-you-want-signed-bookmark stickers that I add to postcards for libraries and bookstores.

All these many many sheets of stickers and they're gone.  Poof!  Without a trace.

I spent well over an hour searching my file cabinets, every pile of paper in the office, looked in boxes, under furniture.  They are gone, Gone GONE like the wind.  (I'm thinking I may have accidentally put them in the recycle pile.  Tomorrow's garbage day, I'll go through the bin before the trash guys arrive.)

I feel like the absent-minded professor . . . always forgetting where I'm going (to the kitchen, looked around puzzled go back to my office--then remember why I went on a quest), get easily distracted, and losing stuff (usually because I set it down somewhere and then can't remember where I set it down--because I'm distracted).

This is getting really OLD.

Do you do the same thing?

Facing the Blank Page

Between one thing and another, I haven't worked on the new book IN TWO WEEKS.  Now I find I have laptop fear.  Or at least fear of approaching the laptop and staring at the blank Word page and nothing coming out.

Okay, I actually have been thinking about the WIP while I've been up to my eyeballs in other things, so I do have one ... maybe two scenes I could attack today, but what about tomorrow?  Sunday?  Fuggetaboutit.  I'm going to a baby shower in the afternoon.  Whenever I have some kind of event on the calendar, I can never seem to fit writing into that day.  I know, it's stupid.  (Sunday's aren't my most productive day, anyway.)

Next week I really have to catch up, because the week after I have two more "events," plus need to pack for the Malice Domestic conference. Yay!  I already have an appointment with my agent, will get to talk to my editor at least three times (in person), and will see all my friends.  (Double YAY!)  Not forgetting that I get to interact with readers, too.

My nerves are shot just thinking about it all -- but, it's fun excitement, too.

And still ... the WIP is hanging over my head.

So, what's on your agenda for the day?

P.S.  I'm over at the Killer Characters blog today, with a post about Bound By Suggestion.  Come on over and make a comment (or two!).

What a way to blow a diet!

Today is Mr. L's Birthday!  (Happy Birthday!!!)

Mr. L is usually a pie man, and I've made him cherry pies, lemon meringue pies, and even a key-lime pie for his natal day celebration.  But this year he requested a coconut cake.

It just so happens I have a decadent recipe that I included in one of my Booktown Mysteries (Chapter & Hearse).  This is no diet cake.  (Which is too bad for us, because we're on diets.) But it is fabulous.  Here's the recipe.

Coconut Cake
3 cups sifted cake flour (sift before measuring)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 pound powdered sugar
4 egg yolks, well beaten
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup shredded coconut
4 egg whites, well beaten

Measure the sifted cake flour into a bowl. Add baking powder and salt. Sift these ingredients at least 2 times. In a mixing bowl, cream butter, and gradually add sugar. Continue creaming until light and fluffy. Add the beaten egg yolks and beat well. Add flour mixture alternately with the milk, beating well after each addition. Stir in coconut and vanilla. Gently fold in egg whites. Bake in greased 8-inch pans at 350° for about 30 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Makes three 8-inch layers.

Coconut Icing
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup coconut milk, room temperature*
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups sweetened flaked coconut

(*You can substitute regular milk for the coconut milk, but also substitute coconut extract instead of vanilla extract.)

Using an electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar, coconut milk, vanilla, and salt. Beat on medium-low speed until blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Increase to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy.

Frost cake.  Gently press coconut onto the sides of the cake, and sprinkle the top with coconut, too.

Serves 6-8
 

That's not how you beg a favor . . .

Yesterday I got a note from a wanna-be writer.  Coincidentally, one of my best cyber friends got one, too.  Leann's note was from a young girl who had written TWO PAGES of her first book and wanted a LOT of advice on how to write and finish her book.  After TWO PAGES.  From her Facebook page, she appears to be a teenager.  So ... Leann can be a bit more forgiving.  (Although when she turned the girl down, she wasn't in the same mood.)

The one I got was a bit different.  The woman jumped right in and said, "It appears that you are a successful author as well as a cat lover."

Well, I'm no Nora Roberts, but three times on the Times list, yeah, I'd say I'm doing okay.  But that's not my beef.

Here was a person who apparently had a finished writing a book she wants to send to an agent.  But ... that first sentence told me a lot.  First, she never addressed me by name.  Second, she's never read any of my work.  Third, she wants me to give her the names of 10+ agents.  Lastly, she didn't sign her note.  I only know a woman wrote the note because her name is part of her email.

So, how does one handle these kinds of notes?

First, I'm always tempted to use the opportunity as a teaching moment.  Only in this case, I'm irked enough that the note might be harsher than it needs to be.  Starting out with something like "What were you thinking, turkey lips?"  But then I'd be just as unprofessional as she is.

Nope, in this case I employed the delete key.

Here's another time I (and just about every author I know) will employ the delete key.  It's a note that starts out:  "Our school (library, disease-of-the-week, glee club, sanitation department) is having an auction fundraiser and we would love one (or more) of your signed books."

Nowhere in the note will the hopeful fundraiser mention my work or my name(s).

I used to be a sucker and send a book.  Now?  Nope.

It's not that I don't care about schools and libraries--I do, passionately.  But I don't have hundreds of free books lying around the house.  My publisher gives me a few and I do give them away, but anything else I have--I have to buy.  Just because they're made of paper doesn't mean they grow on trees.  I receive a couple of these notes EVERY week.  There's no way I could afford to help them all.  (And that postage mounts up, too.)  And if these hopeful fundraisers can't even use my name, that means they've gotten my name from a list and are sending out blanket emails just hoping for a hit.  A little like telemarketing. I'm not a big fan of telemarketing, either.

I give to charity.  A lot.  Every time I get a royalty check I send money to at least three charities.  Yesterday I wrote out three and there's another on my list for today. I've already given money, and now that my royalties have come in for last year, I'm going to send some more to the Red Cross Japan Relief.)

I guess I should have written this for yesterday and Pet Peeve Thursday.  Oops a day late.

What do you think of these kinds of notes and the motives behind them?