In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

My most recent novel , available at many online book sites. Kind of a serious post about self-publishing from this author who has never had to pay to release novels. All my ebooks are free, unless purchased on Amazon which charges a nominal .99 cents. That won't change as long as I can help it. But yesterday I received an email from Draft2Digital noting a new policy concerning maintenance fees. For new accounts, a one-time charge of twenty dollars will ensue, and unless one earns more than one hundred dollars a year, an annual fee of twelve bucks will be required. I read this with a slight smirk on my face; the merger between Smashwords and Draft2Digital has been an ongoing process; my account was integrated only last summer. For nearly fifteen years I have published ebooks without paying money to a company; did I expect that to last forever? As it stands, it's a dollar per month to maintain my novels within D2D's system, because it's going to be a LONG TIME before I ea...

Maybe indicative of the old quilt Trevor places over Jamey. From February 2024, sort of when this novel takes place. Sometimes I truly realize how it's not me writing these novels, but God. Because sometimes I take a break in the middle of a first draft, that of a few days perhaps, but not ten days. And actually now it's been twelve days since I last wrote. And below is the chapter that emerged this morning. And I like it. It's an answer to the cliffhanger of Chapter Nineteen, ending with a cliffhanger all its own. It's indicative of how we here in Humboldt County occasionally view our special little corner of the planet, and indicative of how I see my life lived as a child of God. And, well, here it is....   Chapter 20   After the CHP inspection, what was left of Trevor’s truck had been hauled to Harbaugh Automotive , merely as a way for those closest to Trevor to begin to grasp what seemed more than a miracle. It was miraculous that he was alive, all accepted, also ...

Not from blogging, but from my book. Grandsons are back home, a great time had by all. From their lovely visit I earned a boat-load of peace concerning my long-distance grandparent status, in the manner that life is what it is and all of it's a blessing in one manner or another. That's a concise way to put it, maybe someday I'll expand on it. Right now it's enough to know they had fun, we did too, and now it's raining and I have a mild case of shingles and again I've retreived my novel, read several chapters today, and hopefully will write on Monday. We'll see what happens with that prediction! In the meantime.... Shingles. Sigh. Just about every spring since my first case back in 2019, I get shingles. This time they're on the right side of my lower neck. Which is safely concealed by turtlenecks because it's not warm with this storm which has produced thunder and lightning for most, merely rain for us. Which if you have shingles, is fine because you ...

I didn't get around to posting this until after lunch, but it was initially written at 6 a.m. this morning....  Our grandsons are visiting this week, so blogging time is curtailed. It's still dark outside, yet frogs are awake, croaking like their lives depended on it. They are quite loud at night; my eldest grandson likes falling asleep to their rhythmic songs. Eldest grandson fashioned this space plane with additions to origami, lol.   My life as a grandmother is SO DIFFERENT, and because these interludes are far and fewish between, I tend to let my being absorb that realm, which before we moved to Humboldt County wasn't so altering, in part the kids were little and they napped, lol. Also that we saw them more often, at their residences, whether it was for several hours at a time or over a few days. Yet who I am has changed too; the sewing isn't paramount, though my youngest grandson wants a turn at the machine, and the writing is less. Less what, I'm not prepared ...

Yesterday morning I woke with a rather SORE right shoulder. A pinched nerve kind of shoulder. Sigh.... So the Rainbow quilt has been folded and taken to the office, where it will stay for the next week or two. No hand stitching of any kind for a while, as I let the upper right side of my neck and shoulder rest. It's a drag, but there's worse things in life. Like having a special supper with several friends while fully aware one is going to betray you so viciously, yet there's not a dang thing you can do to prevent it, IF you want the best outcome for everyone else. Hence today is Maundy Thursday, the day when a couple thousand years ago Christ ate the Last Supper with his disciples. So yeah, not hand-sewing for ten days or more is a bummer, but again, not the end of the world. So few safety pins left to remove! My poor hubby is actually in worse shape than me; his back has been iffy for days, then yesterday he lifted something heavy and.... A muscle relaxer has helped, so w...

Quilt is coming along and Ruthie wasn't still in a nesting box tonight! I had wanted to title this post Almost done , but that's just not applicable. I can't sew for hours like previously, and not every night either. I'll sit with this again on Thursday, then put it away for a few days, as family is visiting for Easter! Yet, this beautiful rainbow quilt has definitely turned a corner. One of the perks of going round and round from the perimeter inwards is that every row gets shorter and shorter and shorter. Slowly, of course, but little by little.... I've been threading six needles per session, but this evening I probably used eight or nine, and my shoulder feels it, lol. Thankfully my right thumb is fine; it's been bothering me in addition to my shoulder. As sixty years old gets closer, I'm truly starting to notice changes in my body that weren't there previously. Moving on from that, Ruthie the broody hen also made progress tonight, putting herself on ...