Wedneday Reads and Busy, Busy!

Don’t die of shock, now. I’m actually posting a book!

Here’s what I finished reading this week:

Book #2

Dates read: January 17-29
Title: “Crimson Death”
Year of publication: 2016
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: Anita Blake Vampire Hunter #25
# of Pages: 710
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from book: While on a job that takes her to Ireland, vampire hunter and necromancer Anita Blake learns that evil is in the eye of the beholder.
My thoughts: Did this novel need to be 710 pages long? Nope. Not even close. There was quite a bit of repetition, some rambling (it is told in Anita’s POV—first person) and descriptions as if I’d never picked up the other 24 books in the series. I expect the rambling and the overly long descriptions, but not the repetition. And for that I’m dinging her a bit. I still enjoyed the story, and the roundabout way she always gets to the end, and I will continue to read this series. But they aren’t the “drop everything and read it” kind of books anymore.

I was busy yesterday uploading Ghostly Interlude for pre-order. Then I created my newsletter so it could go out this morning with the buy links (talk about cutting it close!). I’m too tired to post the links here, though. Gotta save something for Friday, right? Right. Ahh.. but at least I got some writing done. Not much new stuff, but it’s a start after not opening that WIP for 10 days. Let’s see if I can create a streak of days working on it now.

So… How long do you stick with a series? Until the end or until it drives you nuts? I’ve been known to do both. Most of the times I like the series so much I’m sad when they’re over. I don’t know if I’ll be sad when the Anita Blake series ends (if it ever does), but I’m pretty sure I’ll stick with it until it does.

Happy Reading!

Stacy

One Down, One to Go!

One down: I finally, FINALLY, released my box set of Books 1-3 of the Bitten by Love series. Now I just have to wait for it to appear in the stores (which means, I don’t have any buy links yet). But whew, glad that’s over with.

One to go: I also finally, FINALLY, have Ghostly Interlude ready to go. Just have to look over the formatting (because yes, it’s actually formatted!). And I have selected a release date: February 27. Don’t know how much I’ll get done between then and now, but hey, I’ll give it a go. I’ve never done pre-orders before. I can’t imagine it’d be any worse than if I just published it right away. We’ll see…

So I expect I’ll have BUY LINKS for both books by Wednesday. Which is good. I’ve got a newsletter to write and send out this month!

Aaack! I guess I better get crackin’!

I did pretty good with the Sizzle & Sass Facebook page last week. All the data (reach, interaction) was up quite a bit from the previous week. Although at times it didn’t feel like I was doing anything worthwhile. When no one comments (and after asking questions, too), it can get a person down. But I did my best. That’s all I can do, right?

So… Did you watch the Grammy’s last night? They don’t announce all that many awards anymore, huh? But they still give out a lot. Have to say, I listen to the radio (mostly alternate rock), but didn’t know a lot of the singers on stage. Then again, I don’t listen to the R&B station. That might be why. Oh, but I do like Bruno Mars and happy he won a few of the awards.

Happy Monday!

Stacy

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