The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ―Edmund Burke
Camptown Races’ second “Family at the Holidays” book just surfaced at Amazon. This is a fun (and yes, erotic) series about a large family heading back to Mom and Dad’s house for Thanksgiving, some with kids in tow, some with new partners. Genial & pleasant romantic reading.
Love it if you’d download Sofia and Rico in the Bakery; love it even more if you’d leave a review at Amazon! ♥♥♥
Have you ever noticed that a doctor can cure whatever ails you simply by making an appointment with you? Amazing, isn’t it?
My theory: I’ve become so scared of doctors that the very thought of having to see one — let alone having to talk with the critter — scares the peewodden (and the ailment) out of me.
Exactly one-half hour before I have to revisit the gastroenterologist, who was not happy to hear the vast quantities of omeprazole she has me swallowing have made no dent whatsoever in the GERD that arose after the last Adventure in Medical Science. I personally think I have esophageal cancer (of course…who wouldn’t?), but she seems not to be very ruffled by that possibility.
Whatever it is seems to have gotten significantly better since she had her underling call and demand that I come in to see her.
Magic!
Before I forget, in the half-hour before I have to fly out the door:
We’ve LAUNCHED the new “Family at the Holidays” series. It will run through the month of November, right up to that wonderful, scary, fun, hassle-filled annual rite, Thanksgiving Day!
This is the story of a large Latino family whose grown children are summoned (as usual) to the family homestead for a big Thanksgiving reunion. Some have to drive a long way. Others live close-by and so are called upon to show up with food in hand. All of the kids are interesting characters. All of the grand-kids are…well…kids and teenagers. You know what that means. First story is Ruby and Frank in the Bedroom.
The author of this series has quite a nice sense of humor: low-key, mellow, and charming. It’s the kind of thing that leaves you chortling quietly as what she’s saying begins to dawn on you. I really love reading her stories. And yes, they are explicit, that being the nature of erotic romance. But funny.
Feeling reasonably pleased with the cover layout for this one. I think I’m getting better at cover-line design. If I get around to fiddling with it (probably won’t: too much to have to do), I might pull “in the bedroom” up tight against “Ruby and Frank” so that the descender on the “y” in Ruby appears to “hook” one of the letters in the second line.
But maybe not.
I thought making the font shadows pick up the shadowing in the quilt was freaking genius. 😀 Definitely, I missed my calling.
And one last thing: watch this space over the next couple of weeks. I’m going to run two give-aways: one for a fun little business book I picked up, a good and fast read with lots of practical advice; and one for a chance at an expensive gift, either for yourself or for a Christmas present.
Details to come!
Holy mackerel! It’s been TWO DAYS since I last posted here. How two days passed in an hour and a half escapes me… Just now I’m engaged in preparing and preposting two months’ worth of bookoids for the Publishing Empire. {heh…maybe that’s what I should’ve called the current enterprise!} That is a much larger job than it seems.
It entails creating covers for 16 books (plus boxed sets, which just now are on-the-side jobs); obtaining ISBNs for each one (a truly time-consuming nuisance: you’re doing well if you can get one ISBN registered in under ten minutes); reviewing, correcting, and updating copy for each book; and posting cover image and contents for each book to Amazon.
I’ve learned you can enhance efficiency and reduce distraction by doing all of these tasks for a bunch of books in one sitting (actually, it’s going to take about three or four days…), rather than breaking in to whatever you’re doing to jump through the endless hoops for one book at a time. And you can post the completed MS and cover art at Amazon and “save as draft.” If you’ve done every step but the last one (and done each step right…), all you have to do on the scheduled “publication” date is go back into your Amazon “bookshelf” and click “publish,” thereby saving yourself a lot of time-consuming hassle on that date, when you might want to be doing something else with your time.
So, here’s an OPINION POLL:
Which of these do you prefer: the one with the black Roberta Stuart byline, or the one with the red?
The question is, which “Roberta Stuart” byline would be most visible in an Amazon thumbnail? Black? or Red?
Demonstrate the POWER OF THE HIVE MIND and cast your vote for one or the t’other! Tell me in the comments to this post which one you think is more effective.
§
You’ll recall the last time I visited these precincts, I was considering whether to get rid of the fancy Christofle silverware in favor of some stainless flatware that can go in the dishwasher. Well, my friends, the deed is done. And, after traipsing all over the Web and all over the city, I finally found a set that’s not too cheesy and not too expensive at…so obvious, why didn’t I think of it before this morning?…Williams-Sonoma!!
I did indeed go over to Sur la Table. Total wasted trip. The one set that looked like it might be OK when viewed online had all the heft of plastic. Just junk. And they way they had their flatware displayed — jammed upright into random containers — confirmed that the proprietors regarded the stuff as junk, too.
Revisit Crate and Barrel’s: unappealing, lightweight, not so very junky, but junk.
Across the city, driving driving driving… Arrived in another mall that hosts a Williams-Sonoma and a Pottery Barn. At the Williams-Sonoma, in addition to scoring a couple of tasty snacks, I found two sets that appealed. One — the coolest of them — had heavy handles that unfortunately were made of pewter: “hand-washing recommended.” Saleslady said that translates as “handwash, period.” Defeats the purpose. The other was this brushed steel retro design reminiscent of the set my ex- and I bought shortly after we were married, yea verily way back in 19 and ought-67. It was moderately weighty and not displeasing in appearance.
And marked down 20 percent.
Just in case, it was over to Pottery Barn to check out their wares.
Forthwith, BACK TO WILLIAMS-SONOMA. Pottery Barn had a couple of attractive designs but they were…oh yes. Silver plate. Purpose defeated again.
So I purchased the following:
Not too awful, eh? These little gems can go straight into the dishwasher. And, although they’re not as elegant as a set of fine Christofle, they have a decent heft to them and they’re distinctive without being obtrusive.
Kind of interesting, this flatware safari. If I’d ordered the stuff online that appealed to me, from Sur la Table, I’d have been very unhappy and probably would have ended up traipsing to Scottsdale to return the junk. Overall, I went to five brick-&-mortar retailers plus an unknown number of online sellers before finding a design resembling what I wanted. And really…I don’t think I’m that picky! There’s nothing extraordinary about these pieces. Well…except insofar as they display a modicum (and I do mean modicum) of quality.
Think of that.
So yesterday I didn’t sit down to actually work until around 5 or 6 p.m.
Because… A friend asked if she could camp in the Funny Farm’s spare bedroom during a transitional period in her life. Her DH landed a very fine job in the Bay Area and has already launched himself there. She, meanwhile, has a teaching contract that she’s loath to walk out on — because she’d like to get academic work in California, she’d like not to burn any bridges — and she’s in the middle of her first semester of a master’s program in her profession.
We propose, therefore, that she’ll stay at my house for a month or two while enjoying the thrills of a commuter marriage (hooboy! lucky kids…). I’m pleased about this idea: it’ll be nice to have some company for a change, and it’s also nice to be able to do something for someone else. For a change.
She’s moving in on Thursday, so before than I need to shovel out the unholy mess that is my dwelling. Number one: the piles and piles of unused clothing in that bedroom’s closet!!!!
In the normal course of events, that closet would hold winter clothes and dressy stuff, and the one in my bedroom would hold summer clothes. Events, however, have been far from normal.
After the deboobifcation surgeries, I tried on all my tops and dresses and put the ones that definitely we re still wearable in my bedroom closet. A bunch of shirts and knit tops were too uncomfortable against the still-healing wounds to wear. Plus I still had some size 10 and size 12 jeans, which I figured I’d better not get rid of because I’d need them if I got fat again — which indeed has come to pass since the accursed gut surgery.
So I took all the uncomfortable clothes that I thought I might be able to wear in the future and hung them in the spare bedroom closet, with a PostIt note reminding me to try them on in May, when I expected to be more or less functional again.
In May I did go through those, try them on, and retrieve the ones worth wearing in the summer heat. A whole bunch of long-sleeved knit tops, sweaters, vests, and jackets remained in the storage closet.
So yesterday, by way of emptying out the closet for my friend, I went through all those, folded everything truly wintery and stored them in a suitcase, and moved stuff that I might be able to wear now that it’s cooling down a little bit into the bedroom closet.
The closet is now chuckablock full… Read “I have got TOO MUCH STUFF!
Really, I need to get rid of it. Because I rarely throw anything away, clothing items drift up like snow or sand dunes or dog hair… But you know, every time I shovel stuff out, within about two or three months I’m searching all over the house for it and I really need it and then I’m upset because I can’t find it and then I’m even more upset when I remember I gave it to the Goodwill! So on top of my innate laziness, I tend to be kind of conservative about getting rid of stuff I paid to have.
I did, however, haul a big pile out to the car to try to peddle at My Sister’s Closet when I’m near there next Thursday morning.
Interestingly, at least half of that came from My Sister’s Closet!
We’ll see if they’ll take the stuff back. 😀
While I’m at the Closet, I’m going to drop by their home furnishing store and see if, by any chance, they have a decent set of stainless flatware at a decent price.
One never knows. Miracles do happen. If (as I expect), they don’t, then I’ll drive straight up Scottsdale Road to the Sur La Table at Kierland Commons and pick up a plain, manageable set there.
As you know, I’ve given some serious consideration to packing the Christofle away, now that it can no longer be washed in a dishwasher. But then decided it’s not such a big deal to wash a few pieces by hand each day.
But y’know…when it’s just me, that’s fine. (Well…it’s not fine, but it’s eminently survivable.) However, when there are two people trying to use the kitchen…no. I think it would be asking altogether too much to expect another person to keep the silver and the cheapo stainless (a Chinese knock-off of my Christofle pattern) separate and to remember not to put the silver in the washer. There’s a limit. So, I’m going to pack away the Christofle and get another set of stainless flatware, which will provide plenty of utensils (because I cook a lot and only run the washer every couple of days, I’ll often run through the entire supply of forks or spoons, just on my own!).
If I like the new stuff, then I’ll just keep it and never have to wash another fork by hand. But if I pine for the Christofle, I’ll break it back out after my friend goes west to join her husband and use whichever stainless set I prefer for cooking and knocking around.
Anyway, even though I had to work until 1 a.m. to catch up with publishing stuff left undone, I felt very pleased. A lot of shoveling-out got done. The spare closet is pretty much empty (except for a few hanging linens), so she’ll have plenty of room to stash her stuff. Next: shovel out the bathroom so she can find room to park her make-up. Then we’ll be good!
🙂
Wait! I forgot to show you this. How do you like this cover I designed last night?
Heee! Hafta to ask you: how about that! I think I’m getting pretty good at this. In fact, I may have missed my calling: I should’ve been a graphic designer.
This book is part of the Travelers frame story that will go on sale through November and possibly into December. We have two sets of stories for the holidays: Travelers probably is best for December, because it’s premised on a bunch of airline passengers becalmed overnight in an airport. The other, Family, is focused on Thanksgiving: the stories of brothers, sisters, and hangers-on making the annual trek home to Mama’s house for the big family reunion around Thanksgiving dinner.
So: watch for these stories, all of which are upbeat and fun and probably tell stories that resonate with your own life. Onward!
🙂
Hey! Readers have given the first three books of Fire-Rider FIVE stars! How amazing IS that?
Don’t forget the new “boxed set” is out: a collection of six five-star books for less than the regular price of two!
A collection of shorter works is called a “Boxed Set” in Amazonese. Isn’t that…annoyingly virtually cute? WhatEVER. We just put our first one out, and it looks pretty good. It collects the first six books of Fire-Rider, from the time our hero Kaybrel comes into possession of the captive Tavio to the time the traveling war bands decide which way to go next after leveling an enemy city. Along the way, we meet some colorful characters, learn what drives the warriors’ thirst for blood, examine Kay’s misgivings, and nearly get into a fist-fight.
The first three books have received five-star reviews. Apparently lowering the price to 99 cents causes people to buy it. Must mellow them out, too, which would explain the nice things they’ve had to say. 😉
Fire-Rider REALLY NEEDS those reviews. At $3.99, the set of six books is two bucks less than you’d pay if all six were priced at 99 cents, the lowest figure Amazon will allow me to post. It’s five dollars less than the present total cost of the six books, combined.
So, dear readers (♥♥♥♥), would you please, pretty please with sugar on top go to Amazon and get your copy of The Saga Begins? And then especially please with ice cream and chocolate sauce review the gilded prize at Amazon?