We were unwrapping something covered in cellophane earlier this evening. The VBC sat in the debris on the floor and a piece of cellophane got stuck to his tail.
We watched the clockwise chase, and then, when this failed miserably, the anticlockwise chase. Eventually, the aggravated and now weary cat sat down and found he could reach the offending item attached to his plume by static. He then stamped on it and had to pick it off his foot.
No, this is not a turgid retake on everything that happened before. This is a take on what happened afterwards, when the king returns. He has come back to meet the most terrible threat humanity has ever encountered. Failure isn’t an option, since it doesn’t just mean personal demise: It means slavery for the entire human species. Who will win and who will lose in this epic encounter? Find out on Halloween, when things that go bump in the nights take on a whole new dimension.
Available now on all the Amazons for pre-release orders, or from me, if you would like a signed copy of the paperback.
Diet is still working good and I have the joy of watching the numbers on the scale decrease, despite a slight lapse at my grandson’s shower.
I do miss bread, but I don’t want the scales to reverse direction, so will stay strong. I suppose it helps enormously that I don’t have a sweet tooth. Ironically, this diet allows me one square of dark chocolate a day. Most times I don’t bother with this, but it could make a difference to someone with a candy craving. I also don’t have a problem giving up milk. The coconut silk is a very nice alternative and is much the same as a specialty creamer. Given that cereal is also off the menu, it only goes in my coffee. Cheese is on the list, so I am not in danger of a calcium deficiency. Looking forward to wearing stylish clothes again. Yay!
This weekend marks the end of a very eventual year. Three daughters married, one book published, two stories published in an anthology and a wonderful new grandson. My cup runneth over. My thanks has to go out to my publishers for accommodating my spinney moments caused by joyful personal events.
With my gorgeous grandson’s shower this weekend now successfully completed, I can go back to normality, although I will be taking time out to visit my treasure and his momma.
I have work projects I need to accomplish and yes, I know I owe. I will be ramping up to full speed ahead, beginning with the publication of my second book, Shadow Over Avalon on Halloween. This is a very appropriate timing because do I ever have nasty things that go bump in the night in this books.
If anyone would like a signed author copy from me, then let me know, here, on facebook, or my personal email and I will see it happens. The price from me will be 20% off the RRP, plus the postage to wherever. I will include a postcard of the cover and a bookmark for these special orders. I also have a few author copies left of Darkspire Reaches available with the same deal.
That moment when one receives an update from Ancestry.com and finds one’s last remaining uncle passed away in June. Yes, I am in touch with family. I send them xmas cards and we have talked on email. In fact we talked in early spring of this year, when I found out my uncle was going downhill. But I found out through an update. Under normal circumstances I would have bought a card of condolence for each of my cousins and written out a letter of sympathy for their loss. As is, I sent an email expressing my belated sympathy for the loss.
On a more cheerful note, I was playing with my professional picture on Microsoft Picture Premium Plus. I really don’t like my freckles and was trying to Photoshop them out. When I reduced down the picture I found I had made myself look like a parrot. LOL. I think I will change the thing to sepia instead.
I have been working on edits for a project all day and waiting for UPS to deliver something my husband ordered from Amazon. It was supposed to be delivered today. Mmm, right. We found out they had left it in the depot so it is coming out tomorrow. I hope the courier comes early as I really, really need to get to the post office as there is something I urgently have to send.
The horrendous moment when I realized I had deleted a synopsis that I now want. No, it is not in my recycle bin. I don’t even have to go look. I deleted it from my old laptop before it crashed and the saved data therefore does not contain it. This means I will have to write the wretched thing from scratch. Wails.
Any author will know that writing one of these is comparable to going to the dentist for a root canal or two. I had a decent two page synopsis and I trashed it. Yes, there are working notes. No, I don’t like them. I guess I will have to start over. Face palm.
Bobble heads. Sigh. One would think, in light of various time zone changes across the entire world that it is not unreasonable, or particularly arduous to check which time zone a person might occupy before phoning them. I happen to live near the Rocky Mountains. Those are very large slabs of granite usually covered with snow on the top. They are quite rigid in place, do not move location and the area they occupy is know as Mountain Time as distinct from Pacific Time, when a person may eventually bump into the ocean. Most persons, possessing more than a microbe of grey matter, are au fait with the minor factiod that going west means an earlier time. I am therefore monumentally unimpressed with being woken at dark-o-clock for some piffling update because someone wanted to tell me he was the new office manager. I guess this says a lot for competence.
What do I enjoy? Something that so totally suspends my ability to disbelieve that I feel for the characters. Make me laugh or cry, feel fury, or compassion. If I am in that place, I am enjoying myself and I know I have a good book. Make me care and you have made me a fan.
Devoid of these excellent attributes, then I will start to glaze over and probably not finish the book. An author who cares about his or her work will be experiencing these emotions as they write. This comes through, loud and clear.
My pants don’t fit anymore, as in falling down. O-O. Still, this is a good thing. The diet is working really well for me and cutting out the starchy foods has made me feel a lot better. I am not hungry, or irritable and I am also not terrible active, yet the weight is falling by the day. Getting on the scales in the morning is now a joyful experience.
Yes, I am supplementing with vitamins. I take selenium, zinc and probiotic capsules. I am also drinking watered down grapefruit juice for vitamin C and eating fruit. I find I really like the coconut Silk as a milk substitute in my coffee, but it is becoming more difficult to get. Still, there is one store in the nearest city stocking it. Yay. Cheese is a protein, so fine in moderation and full of calcium. Oh, and I am allowed one square of dark chocholate a day if I feel the need. I am not a chocholate fan, so this doesn’t really bother me, but some might find this important. On a roll, here.
No calorie counting, or portion control. No special little frozen dinners, shakes or ‘health’ bars. It is a modified Atkins diet/thyroid diet, basically cutting out all processed food. I am also cooking with virgin olive oil, so I suppose there is a tad of the Mediterranean diet in there, too. I honestly expected to gain a few pounds this morning, after a supper of steamed asparagus and a baseball steak, especially after I cheated and put gravy on the steak, but no, I was down two pounds this morning. I admit I couldn’t eat it all. It was too much and I always stop when I start to feel full.
I have hated clothes shopping for a while and now I find I am beginning to look forward to getting something that doesn’t make me look like a zeppelin. Not that I was ever huge, but it is all about body image and I hated mine. My heaviest was 185lbs. Yuk, yuk, yukkity yuk, yuk. I had gotten to the state where I was eating so little that my capacity was possibly less than a child’s needs. Obviously, something wasn’t right, as the weight was totally undeserved. Here speaks a person who doesn’t much care for chocolate and candy, cookies or desserts. Nor did I browse on unsuitable things like potato chips. I don’t and never have snacked. I think it is all about finding the right diet that is also healthy.
My goal is to look darn good by the time my new book, Shadow Over Avalon, goes live on Halloween. I hope to have dropped thirty pounds by then. This is looking doable.
Very happy camper!
Someone recently said writing fantasy was easy. Let’s nix this notion right now. In the process of coming up with Darkspire Reaches I created a whole new planet and a variety of very distinct races to populate it. How? Creating fantasy isn’t as simple as calling a bunny a flubbit, or some other strange name. A bunny is still a bunny and recognizable as such to any reasonable and sane person, to misquote Mark Twain.
A new world has to be just a tad off kilter, but still easy to visualize for the reader. Still thinking this is easy to do? A world must have weather patterns and this means a north and a south pole. A world entirely constructed of tropical rain forest would never be possible in nature. Why is this important? When I read a book I need to be able to suspend my disbelief. If this does not happen, I am questioning everything else. A world is therefore built from the bedrock upwards.
This is just one book, Darkspire Reaches. Shadow Over Avalon explores a whole new world, complete with rules and structure. If anyone else would like to tell me this is easy, they are inviting a fat lip.
