No Wednesday Reads and Vertigo is a Bitch

When you read a 700-page book and are lucky to get 300 pages read in a week, don’t expect to get it finished in a week! Good news, I’m past page 350. Bad news, I have nothing to report this week, because…700 pages!

At least they’re a GOOD 700 pages. So far, anyway. Although, I don’t know if I’d have read this far if they weren’t.

I’m also behind in the final reading of Ghostly Interlude. Well, not the final-final reading. I’m sure I’ll have another one once it’s formatted. This is the final reading before it gets to the formatter. It might not have helped that I came down with a roaring case of vertigo on Monday night.

Wish I knew where THAT came from. Needless to say, Tuesday was a little…tough. I was basically afraid to move my head. I did get some reading done on Ghostly Interlude, but not near as much as I wanted. Because when the world around you spins, you just want it to stop spinning.

I do have a wellness doctor appointment coming up next week, so I’ll make sure to mention it. Hopefully it’ll just be that one time. I don’t want to go through that again. Vertigo is a bitch!

I think our internet woes are finally fixed. Third time might have actually been a charm. But I’ll hold off on the celebration until at least a week has gone by.

Hey, but we did get some good news through all the visits from Spectrum. Seems we can take our current plan with us to the new house. Spectrum doesn’t actually sell the Signature Home that Time Warner sold us, but will continue to support it since we’re grandfathered in. I was afraid we’d have to change when we moved. Glad to know we don’t have to if we don’t want to.

And even better, the last tech that came by noticed Hubby’s dismantled fish tanks. Hubby told him he could have them if he wanted (for free—he doesn’t want them and we weren’t going to take them to the new house). The kid (yes, he was younger than my kids) was thrilled. So are we. Means we don’t have to haul them out to the trash!

So… Have you ever had vertigo? I had it once before, many years ago (when I was working as a cost accountant). Doctor told me it wasn’t anything serious, so that’s what I’m going with this time. Except this time was way worse than last. I swear, I thought someone had slipped me a micky during dinner. Made me nauseous. And I hate feeling sick like that. Blech.

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Well, That Was Awful

Neither football team I rooted for yesterday won. Ugh. And I bet that when the Eagles play the horrible patriots in the SuperBowl, they’ll get skunked. Because that’s how it always seems to go. I have hopes someone, ANYONE will beat those horrible patriots and they never do.

I posted on Facebook and will repeat here: I don’t think I’ve hated the Cowboys as much as I hate the patriots.

And I really, really hate the Cowboys.

And yes, I’m intentionally not capitalizing the team name. That shows you how much MORE I hate them.

I suppose that’s how some people feel about the Penguins, although I don’t think the Penguins have ever been caught cheating. And maybe the patriots didn’t cheat THIS year, but they have before, so I’ll never EVER like them. Never. Ever.

As if the football games didn’t make yesterday crappy enough, I remembered (too late!) that I started hosting duties for the Sizzle and Sass page (Facebook). Oops! But when I went to post on my PC, I discovered I couldn’t. I could do it from my phone, but it’s kind of hard to post the pictures I have on my laptop from my phone. Plus, I type better on my laptop than I do on the phone (why can’t Apple have a BACK SPACE key anywhere??).

I tried everything, checked everything, and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I finally contacted Facebook (with a screen shot, even).

And while I was going through all that, we were constantly losing the internet (an issue we’ve been experiencing lately). Last weekend Spectrum came out to check our router and we were told the signal was too high, causing it to short out. They supposedly fixed that problem and left the router alone.

When the internet/wifi went out yesterday (after having gone out a few times on Friday), Hubby called them again. They sent someone out again. Seems the router was going bad (no, really?). Technician replaced it, and after Hubby got the wifi up and running, guess what? I could post to the Sizzle and Sass page.

I can’t imagine our router was the cause, and I’ve never known Facebook to react so quickly, but hey, whatever. I almost thought I wasn’t going to be able to host this week.

I certainly hope the week goes better than yesterday did. I don’t like feeling grumpy!

So… What sports team (any sport) do you hate the most? Or are you the type of sports fan that just likes watching the game with no emotion whatsoever? I can’t imagine ever doing that. Why watch if you’re not going to get emotional?

Happy Monday!

Stacy

Ghostly Interlude Video

I took a class on using Canva after learning about making videos on Lumen5.com and bam! Figured out how to get my cover on the video.

So… I edited the original. Not too bad. Then I created one for Ghostly Interlude.

I had some issues with that video, though. Frankly, it was too long. I used the blurb as is and realized that just wasn’t cutting it. It took my feeble brain to figure out that the blurb used for the My Sunny Vampire video is only the middle section, not the whole dang thing. D’oh! So I tightened it up and this is what I came up with. What do you think?

Hey, am I getting to be a pro at this stuff or what?

If it’s the “or what,” I don’t think I want to know.

Ghostly Interlude is SUPER close to being released, though. I’ve printed it out and will read it aloud before giving it to Hubby to format. Which means, I need to come up with an actual release DATE (with Hubby’s suggestion) so I can get pre-orders out there.

So... Any plans for the weekend? Hubby and I are attending a travel something-or-other that AAA is holding in Columbus. We’re going with our Columbus friends, then going out to dinner after. Should be fun. And wet. Yep, supposed to rain. On top of all this snow. I foresee a mess ahead.

Happy Friday!

Stacy

Wednesday Reads

I was determined to have a book to post today, even if that meant I wasn’t writing. Here’s what I finished reading this week:

Book #1

Dates read: January 2-16
Title: “Illumination”
Year of publication: 2017
Author: Susannah Sandlin
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series: Penton Legacy #5
# of Pages: 356
Paper or plastic: Trade paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from book: He came to Penton seeking peace. Nik Dimitrou joined the Army to escape his family curse, only to have his psychic abilities exploited as a weapon. Now, as a civilian, he turns to the bottle to veil the images that come unbidden whenever he touches anyone—except vampires. With them, he has finally found a respite. But as Penton moves into open warfare with the Vampire Tribunal, Nik finds himself deep inside the conflict, not to mention fighting a transformation in his own body more frightening than anything he’s faced
    She wanted to change the world. Shay Underwood watched her Peace Corps parent move from one third world country to another, helping others—until both died following an outbreak of Dengue fever. Driven to pursue a career in tropical medicine, Shay works in New Orleans to cure the disease that killed her parents—until a careless weekend outing draws her into a world far more dangerous than the diseases she studies: a desperate vampire society engaged in human trafficking.
    Two cities, two strangers, one world. With Penton rebellion leader Aidan Murphy making risky choices and chief lieutenant Mirren Kincaid forced to take a leadership role for which he is unsuited, it will fall to two outsiders, Nik and Shay, to find a way for Penton—and themselves—to survive in this much-anticipated conclusion to the award-winning Penton Legacy series.
My thoughts: I waited awhile for this book to be written and released (I read #4 nearly 3 years ago!) and it was worth the wait. A little less romance in this one than the others, but since it was wrapping up a rather complex storyline, all is forgiven. I wouldn’t have minded a longer story, but only because I enjoy reading about the characters and longer books don’t always scare me. At least not in series I enjoy. If you’re looking for a vampire romance series, this one is only 5 books long and very enjoyable.

So, yeah, writing has been going slow. You’d think with the cold and snow I wouldn’t have a problem (’cause I’m certainly not GOING anywhere!). Sometimes I really need to stay away from the Internet. That thing can be evil. Don’t you agree? Oh wait, don't answer that. You're here, reading me! Stay!!!

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Lumen5.com

First off, I have to say… Damn, Steelers! Of course, I always thought they’d been super lucky with some of their wins. Guess their luck finally ran out. Looks like it’ll be another year I won’t care about the Super Bowl. Boo.

Now on to Lumen5.com.

A friend from my RWA chapter recommended this site to make videos. And it’s free (as long as you don’t mind it's not HD and that their name & logo shows at the end, and I don’t). You can base it on a blog post (or other URL) or add your own verbiage/blurb/whatnot. So I thought I’d play around with it. Here’s the video I came up with based on the blurb to My Sunny Vampire:

Hopefully it plays (I wasn't able to verify that in preview mode). I thought it turned out pretty neat, even though I don’t show my cover or website (I could have uploaded a picture I created showing my cover (from someplace like Canva), but I didn’t realize that until after I made this). I can easily see myself getting lost in making videos. Like I need another distraction. But it’s something to check out if you’re looking for a free, simple video.

I mean, it must be simple. I was able to figure it out! Haha!

So… Is your team still in the playoffs, or have you turned to hockey (or basketball, I guess that’s going on, too) now? And what do you think of Lumen5? Does it look like something you might play around with?

Happy Monday!

Stacy