Marketing Monday - Early Grave

Good morning!  It's time again for another Marketing Monday.  Today, we're doing Early Grave - the third book in the Serial Crimes Investigation Unit series.  It's a third book, but like all the SCIU books, it can be read without reading the others.  (Although reading the others does enrich the experience, imo.)

Starting today, EARLY GRAVE is free. Come along on this suspenseful hunt for serial killer before it's too late. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CGYBSST

Speaking of marketing and free books, I am actually ahead of the game and have set up freebies for the next three weeks.  This week, it's EG, next week will be Blink of an I, and then Natural Causes.  Enjoy.

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 2

Well, here we are again at Sunday morning.  I wanted to sleep in today, but my bladder had other ideas.  Derp.

No writing this week - it's editing time.  Unfortunately, not a lot of that was done either.  I think I'm at 13% on my edit notes, which works out to like 2.5 pages worth of notes.  Better than nothing, but I need to get my act together if I want to reach the goal of being done with this by the end of the... oh crap, it's the 18th.?!  Really? Well, crap.  It would take a miracle to get this book finished in 12 days.  So, let's say this book's deadline is February.  Sometime in February.  Before March?  

I did marketing.  UWC was free and it moved 38 copies.  I also moved 2 copies of WIOH at regular price, so there's that.  I also moved one copy each of DE and of FG, which I assume is from previous marketing.  Yay.  And someone's been reading PH in KU.  woot.  I'm up to like $9 for the month, which isn't gravy, but it's better than a sharp stick in the eye.

I'm still reading The Night Manager.  It's slow going because I'm also trying to read my book for edit notes.

This week, I made beef stew, which turned out awesome, and biscuits to go with that (also awesome).  Then I made a pineapple upside-down cake.  Yummers.

On the activity front, I did a couple days out in the woods throwing logs.  Those kicked my ass, which led to not doing anything for a day or two (or five) after each session.  I'm not as young as I used to be and I keep forgetting that.  So, doing nearly 2 hours in the woods hits me like a 200-pound boxer hits a weakling with a glass jaw.  Derp.  Let's not talk weight, eh?  It was 177.8 last Sunday and I don't expect it's gone down any since.  Did I mention the pineapple upside-down cake?  Yeah.

Speaking of throwing logs, Hubs is most of the way through moving the piles of firewood he's already made with the chainsaw.  And I'm making good progress creating other piles of not-firewood - better known as taking all the crap lying around and moving it to centralized locations.  (Can also be known as creating wildlife habitats, but that's tertiary.)  The hope for me is to create a glade down there in the woods, with wildflowers and pretty trees.  Maybe a gazebo... you know, if I win the lottery or something.

We're trying a new high-protein food for Lumpy.  I think she's looking better, but that could just be wishful thinking on my part.  This cold snap could be the deciding factor on whether she lives through this winter.  It's 10 degrees out there.  :shudder:  

Speaking of 10 degrees... Umm, yeah, I won't be going in the woods until the air can't hurt my face.

I went to the thrift store this week.  No books, but I didn't find a really nifty posthole digger for $7.  Woot.  Yes, I am a redneck who gets excited about cheap tools.  We'll be using the posthole digger to make holes... naturally... which will be used to plant trees.  Or at least to get the ground here broken up enough to maybe plant trees.  We have a plan.

And on that exciting farm implement news, I think that's it for me.  What's been up with you?

Amusing Myself

Here's a little sea-shanty I cooked up this morning.  Sing along with me...

What do you do with a slothful writer?

What do you do with a slothful writer?

What do you do with a slothful writer staring at a blank page?

Chain her to the keyboard until she writes words.

Chain her to the keyboard until she writes words.

Chain her to the keyboard until she writes words until she gets to THE END.

Yes, I am a slothful writer.  Although, to be honest, I'm editing right now not writing.  Still, the song amused me.  I hope it amused you, too.

Thursday This n That

I went to Wallyworld yesterday.  They've already put out a bunch of gardening stuff, including seeds.  It's too early!  Oh, and I got an email from Tractor Supply about it being time to start planning my garden.  No.  (Okay, yeah, I've already been thinking about it, but it's too early to actually do anything about it.)

Wow.  You can really see the dark side of the moon this morning.

I love the internet sometimes.  Oh, sure, it's rife with misinformation and morons abound, but it's pretty cool, too.  For instance, Hubs and I were talking about something the other morning and I mentioned how I babysat 3 kids when I was 13.  Which got me to thinking about those kids.  Which led to me running a search on them, starting with the oldest.  And well, shit, he's a clinical psychologist now.  Good for him.  He was a good kid and pretty smart at the time.  And now he's 50 and life seems good for him.  Yay.

What we were talking about is, on the off chance we have to both go out of town at the same time, we should get the neighbor girl (age 13 almost 14) to watch the cats - give her a key and instructions, etc.  He was worried that she was too young to cope in the event of an emergency, which was when I pointed out that I watched 3 children ages 8, 6, and 4 when I was 13.  Of course, times have changed and 13 ain't what it used to be.  Hell, in the olden days, some girls were married at 13.  (Jerry Lee Lewis married a 13-year-old, for instance.  I mean, ew, but it happened.)

Mom and I were talking the other day about swearing.  She never swears.  (Okay, every rare once in a while, she'll say ass or bitch, but that's it.)  She feels it shows a certain amount ignorance and laziness, and if you're smart / not lazy, you can find other words to use.  My standpoint is to use the best word for the situation and sometimes a swear word fits better than any other.  She had to admit my point, but she's still not for it.  For the record, Hubs doesn't swear much either.  Although, if certain situations arise, he can belt them out with the best of us cursers.  (Yeah... about that... I'm a foul-mouthed chick sometimes.)

Night before last, we were just falling asleep when something in the backyard started barking.  LOUD.  And it wouldn't shut up.  Even after I went to the window and banged.  Even after I walked into the bathroom, opened that window and told it to shut up.  It was only slamming the window shut that encouraged it to move off - but not to stop because I could still hear it barking as it moved off into the night.  We think it was a fox.  After doing a little research, foxes bark for three main reasons - defining their territorial boundaries, alerting others to a predator, and looking for a mate (which generally happens in late winter... which is now, I guess.)  

Okay, I think that's enough out of me for now.  Anything good in your this-n-that basket today?

Marketing on a Tuesday, etc.

 First off, UP WISH CREEK is free starting today.  

Starting today, UP WISH CREEK is free! (Always free with Kindle Unlimited.) Get your copy of this snarky, paranormal suspense today. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LVU03BV

Now that we have that out of the way, what should we talk about today?  World news?  Nah, you get enough of that already.  The woods?  You've probably had enough of that.  Personal shit?  I don't have any drama llamas hanging out here.

I guess that's why I don't post that often anymore.  Nothing to talk about. My life is pretty boring and the world doesn't need my input on its events.  I write books and try to sell them, I have cats, I get my jollies throwing logs in the woods, I read a little, and I watch way too much TV.  There's me in a nutshell.

I did get started on editing DN3 (tentatively called Justice: Past Due, although I'm also kinda attracted to Taint in the Blood - which may or may not also be a Bones title*), so yay.

So, I put it to you this morning... is there anything you'd like me to talk about?  

*Nope, not Bones.  It's the 14th book in another popular suspense writer's series.  Derp.  There's no book called Justice Past Due as far as I can tell, though, so yay.)

Sunday Update - 2026 Week 1

Well, we wrapped up the first week of the new year and lemme tell ya, I didn't have this stuff on my bingo card for the year (i.e. the Venezuela stuff, the Iran stuff, the Minnesota stuff).  Wow.

Anyway... Writing didn't happen, because I just finished a book and I took the week off.  Editing was supposed to start yesterday but, while I did email the book to my Kindle, I didn't do any.  I did write a short blurb.  And I think I have a title - JUSTICE: PAST DUE.  (Sucks, doesn't it.  Titles suck.)  I do hope to have this book done by the end of the month, so I'd better get cracking.

Marketing happened.  I moved 30 copies of PH.  I also sold a copy of DE and someone read pages of both TTW and PH, so yay.

I finished that book I was reading, so I have a new Books Read post for 2026, and I'm currently reading The Night Manager by John LeCarre.  It's pretty gripping.

In baking news, I made Raisin Pecan Quick Bread.  It's super yummy.  Yesterday, I did a vat of pulled pork.  Also yum.

On the activity front, I did three days of woods work and one day cleaning.  Woot.  Hang on, I have to go weigh myself...  Ack... never mind, you don't want to know.  I know I didn't want to know.  Weight: 177.8

Speaking of woods work, I moved the summer clean-up pile to the permanent pile.  (Summer clean-up pile is for any crap that falls in the yard during the hot months when we don't go into the woods due to ticks and snakes.)  Hubs went through all our old firewood and threw out anything that was roached, then reorganized the pallets for more efficient wood use, which gave us a couple of empty pallets for the newly sawn wood.  That black cherry tree is probably going to be a couple cords alone.  (Don't ask me.  I never did figure out how many chucks a woodchuck could chuck or how many logs are actually in a cord.)

The Boyz are currently fighting in what I've begun to call The Box Maze.  Some days.  Ugh.

Other than that, not much going on.  It's pretty same-same here.  How are things in your world?

Oh.  It just occurred to me after I hit Publish that this is the 11th, so I had to come back to add this.  It's my accident anniversary.  32 years today.  :shrug:  Ya know, this used to be a bigger deal, but now I'm kinda over it.

Thursday This n That

Working in the woods yesterday, moving one pile of crap to another pile of crap, and I went to move a rather large hickory limb.  I stood it up and tipped it over to get it out of the way, but I neglected to account for the way the limb was weirdly twisted, so when it hit the ground, the thick end bounced up and hit me in the thigh.  Talk about ouch.  It's going to be a glorious bruise once it blooms.

You ever have a dream so happy that you were sad when you woke up?  

I'm driving myself crazy trying to think of a title for DN3.  I mean, I had settled on The Deepest Cut, which would be right for the MO of the killer, but all wrong for the timeframe (plus, it's been done to death).  Maybe that's why every other title sounds lame by comparison.  I need to get over it.  I'm laying in bed running the Title HamsterWheel and not getting any sleep.  I thought I had a good title - Green-Eyed Murder - but the next morning, it was lame.  Then I came up with a couple last night which I got out of bed to write down, but they seem lame this morning.  The best one out of that lot is JUSTICE: PAST DUE - I think the colon helps.  :shrug:  (And a big hug to Silver, who sent me a list of suggestions.)  Oh, well.  I'm in the between place right now, so I have time to ponder it.  I'll start editing probably this weekend.  We'll see.

I had a neat idea for a SF short story.  Whether I write it... eh.  

I think I need to bake a cake.  I've been jones'n for baked goods lately.  I really don't need the calories or the carbs, but mmmm.... cake.

I also want pizza.  I made a passable substitute for lunch yesterday, using leftover spaghetti sauce, rolls, and mozzarella.  Still, it wasn't enough to get rid of my craving.  I'm going to have to bite the bullet and make real pizza soon.

The bird of the day is a Great Blue Heron.  Love those birds, but they do make the most unholy of noises.

The other day, I found a neat new-to-me show called Exhibit A with Graham Green.  It's a half-hour show where they go over a true crime, present the facts, and give you the solution.  I like that I don't really have to think too much about it.  Wham, bam, thank you forensics.  I am all about the crime sometimes.

I'm almost out of ice cream, which is a crime in itself.  Yay for Dollar General being like 3 miles from the house now.

Well, that's it from me.  What's on your list today?