Tiffany Shearn's Blog, page 10

My First Book Signing

One of my goals for 2022 was to do at least one book signing this year. Whether that was the Rennaisance Faire for which I applied, a local convention I somehow managed to get into, or partnering with a local bookstore for a spot for a couple of hours, I was going to make something happen. I thought it would take most of the year to reach this point. With a little luck and a lot of initiative, my first ever book signing event happened yesterday evening. 

Preparation

Much of my preparation was researching what other authors’ booths have looked like and finding the stories they have shared about what works well and advice for other authors (like me!). I also had to adapt to my budget, which is minimal at the moment. Here are some of the key items along with some of my takeaways: 

Books: The general information I found was 50-100 of each book for one (day) event. This was a smaller event, and I am still unknown. I brought 50 and did not come close to selling out. Signage: Big, eyecatching, genre-specific. I got an 11×17 foam board of an image I created using my cover art and review quotes. It worked well for the space given to me. I might add a cloth banner to go on the table cloth and hang down in front. I will add a picture of me to the foam board when I upgrade to a larger version. Many people were surprised I was the author…which surprised me, so lesson learned. Giveaways: have some, and have something that includes your author info on it. Fairy wings are my logo, so I had butterfly stickers for the kids and some simple bookmarks with a cover image on one side and my logo and info on the back with a QR code for my ebook link. The wax seals were also a draw. I sold those 2 for $1 and gave one for free with each book sale. They are more supply- and labor-intensive, so I decided not to give them away for free. Booth buddy/transportation: recommend having a booth buddy and hand cart if possible. Books are heavy, so are tables and chairs and all the other stuff you will bring. I borrowed my dad’s collapsable hand cart.My husband came with me as my buddy. He is better with people than I am, so he helped me get started with the whole “interaction” thing. He also covered for breaks and completed purchases while I signed the books. My niece also came as my cashier. Taking notes on my sales and helping make change. She stuck out the entire four hours too!

Check out this cute frog my niece made for me!

Meeker Street Nerd Party

The event itself is still pretty new and growing. I think it started with only one or two businesses on Meeker Street in Kent, WA doing a “nerd party” for their patrons who love fantasy, sci-fi, retro, comics, and other great nerdy things. It has grown to include most businesses on the street with special guests, exhibits, and events. There was cosplay, legos, trivia, artists, authors, and a couple of power rangers (actresses) doing autographs and photos!

While my niece was with me at my table, my nephew checked it out and enjoyed himself. It had pretty good traffic for most of the evening, and people had fun dressing up and participating, as well as patronizing the various businesses. I hope I can attend again and build a partnership with the bookstore. 

Execution

Now you are asking, “If you didn’t get close to selling out, how did you do?”

“Pretty good, I think,” is my answer. 

My guess and target for sales were two, so my bar was relatively low for this first event. I exceeded my target by a fair percentage, selling two in about seventy minutes, with my best hour coming in the middle. I appreciate all the support for local artists from the people stopping by my booth and others!

I practiced my stump speech the two days leading up to the event, so I only stumbled over it a little instead of constantly and stayed out in front of my table nearly the entire time. I consider that a victory in itself with my people-nerves. 

Me with wings on and holding some of the little cakes from the participating bakery. Thanks for sharing them with me, family!

The experience and learnings were also invaluable. I’ve done it once; next time won’t be so scary. I also know what I need to work on: 

Push for sales more. It is not “pushy” to tell them that I’m offering to sign any books they purchase at the event. That is, in fact, a great way to let them know they are talking to the author. Push the newsletter sign-up. I forgot to do this too often, and those contacts are important. I need to offer this to every person who seems even remotely interested. Put my card/bookmark in each book I sell. I started doing this later in the day. It is a great way to get my website and other such info into the hands of people who will hopefully be enjoying my book soon and might consider following me at a later date. My Favorite Part

It happened early into the evening with my first sale of the day. A young lady with her family stopped to talk with me, and my book was in her genre. She was interested in the book and got so excited to find out I was the author and would sign it for her. I ended up suggesting we get a picture together because this enthusiasm means so much to me. I wanted the picture as much as they did, if not more. I’m never sure about preferences for me using names; I will call her “B” here. 

Hi, B! I hope you enjoy the book!

Ship in the Void – Pt. 7

Welcome back to my sci-fi short! If this is your first time visiting, I recommend starting with part 1. You can find all of these posts collected on the Dream Journal page. 

The story continues…

I spent hours in front of the terminal sifting through data pulled on both the light and door glitch and the gravity shift. The initial conclusions Flash relayed held up under deeper scrutiny: all systems reported normal operations. Everything came back clean when reviewing the programming, and it was the same story with the interfaces. All systems appeared fine and responsive. 

“I’ve run through the life-support logs for this section for the last month,” Magic said, breaking our companionable silence. “There are no recorded anomalies.” 

“That’s encouraging.” 

“I would find it more encouraging if we knew what caused the other issues,” he said, tilting his head for emphasis before stretching his arms out and back. 

I was feeling the strain of too long at a comp screen myself, but the sling prevented me from executing a similar move.

I huffed out a laugh, “You and me both.” 

“What about you? You got anything?” 

“Maybe,” I said, twitching my nose in consideration. “Come take a look at this. It might help me to talk through it out loud.” 

As Magic settled in behind me to look over my shoulder, I tried to organize my thoughts. Some things were not lining up, and I wasn’t sure which version of events to believe. 

“This is the log from the automated lighting,” I said, pointing to a few lines of the data records. “You can see here how the light receives a signal to turn on from the motion detection system, here.” I flipped through to another wall of data. “Same here for the door. Aaaand here for the gravity shift from the docking bay terminal.”

“But no one was in those locations to initiate the signals from our team,” he said. “Do we have a stow-away intruder?”

“See,” I said, pointing a stylus in his direction, “I had the same thought along with wondering about aliens.”

Magic snorted as I continued.

“Until…” I pulled up yet another dataset. “I looked at the records for the systems where the signals originated and cross-referenced the timestamps.”

“And?” he asked as I paused dramatically. 

“No input received, “I said with a smug grin. “No signal sent.” 

He shook his head and peered at me sideways. “What do you mean? You just said those were the sources of the signals.”

“Yes, The signals were received and recorded with all relevant data, including source, but there is no record of the signals being sent. We have incoming calls with no corresponding outgoing calls.”

“Huh,” he said, leaning back in thought.

“Exactly,” I agreed with the sentiment. This was basic operating stuff. Send, receive. On, off. We both frowned at the comp screen, thinking. 

“So, what are you looking for now?” Magic finally asked.

I sighed and bit my lip before swiveling around to face him. 

“I have two current theories,” I began, holding up a finger. “One, an unknown entity or entities is aboard and has messed with the systems or data to cover their tracks. I need Flash to look into that one. The skill needed for a hack so nuanced is beyond me.”

Adding a second finger, I continued, “Second theory, there is something like an electrical short connecting in ‘TBD’ ways triggering signals. Somehow, those ‘TBD’ ways are mimicking what would be sent by the alleged source systems.”

Magic gave me a teasing grin. “It sounds like you’ve narrowed it down to either aliens or robots.”

I blinked, momentarily distracted by the smile, and felt a blush blooming on my cheeks.

He is so yummy.

Pushing that unnecessary thought aside, I cleared my throat and responded as though I was not imitating a cooked lobster. “Har-har. while aliens remain a possibility, I’m putting it far down the list. I also think an intruder is a less likely alternative. There is little reason for someone to hide their presence in the area where I found the light on.”

“That leaves you with ‘TBD’ option,” he said, making the air quotes.

“Yes,” I said with concern. “And the ‘TBD’ is unlikely to be easily determined because of how the signals are recorded. We need to manually track down the source, which fits the definition of needle-in-a-haystack. It means we need to find an electrical short in a robot the size of a small moon.”

“So, what’s your plan?” 

I took and released a deep breath. “First, I’m turning Flash onto theory one. He can figure out who is checking the programming for manipulation. I will hunt for the short, beginning with a thrilling search through timestamps!”

“You have fun with that,” Magic slapped the back of my chair. “I have plenty of life-support system records of my own to review.”

I smiled and shook my head as I called Flash to report my findings. Then, I started a run on all system activity with the same timestamp of that first anomaly.

To be continued…

Big Cat Problems

Big Cat is unofficially seventeen years old. I say “unofficially” because I celebrate his adoption day in early March rather than his birthday. Every year, he gathers more old-cat problems.

His kidneys have been slowly worsening for a few years now, but the vet thinks it is still relatively stable based on his numbers. He has difficulty “concentrating his urine,” which, in our case, means he drinks more and uses the box more often.

Not too bad. We have an automated litter box, so I only need to change the bag out more often. At least, until I periodically start finding puddles in front of the box.

The mystery begins…

He is not spraying or peeing all over the house. It is just in front of the box. Also, while we think it is Big Cat, there is a chance Little Cat developed some inappropriate bathroom habits, so we decide we must identify the problem to find the correct solution.

Brilliantly, we move the indoor Ring camera I received for a work anniversary to dangle over the boxes, trying to catch the piddler in the process. Days pass and puddles happen, but the camera picks up only a few jumps in and out of the box, no damning evidence. Its sensor is not sensitive enough to trigger with their sneaky little bodies.

Time for the next level: we borrow my father-in-law’s nature camera, stringing it up with rubber bands and twist ties. We catch the piddler in the act not even a day later! Big Cat sticks his head in, sniffs around, and proceeds in no further. With his front half inside, Big Cat lifts a leg to make a horrendous mess on the floor.

I have a theory…

Little Cat had just gone, and the machine had not turned yet. I’m thinking he does not like to use it dirty. I shorten the time between going and turning. Then, today, we spent an hour dismantling and scrubbing that machine down to get it nice and clean again.

I bring this thing in, calling out in a sing-song voice, “kitties!” Big Cat comes running. He eagerly jumps in the clean litter box, all four feet in, his butt still sticking out… and pees all over the floor.

*Pained sigh* It looks like he also has arthritis. It can cause them to no longer squat when they pee.

The vet talked about some gummies many people are raving about working well for dogs and cats, so I will reach out about getting some of those. Mr. Picky Pants (Big Cat) will probably turn his nose up at them, meaning I’ll need to get creative.

I love him still, and I continue to hope I have him for many more years, but cleaning up cat urine is getting exhausting. Fingers crossed we have this resolved soon with meds and intensive remedial litter box training.

Hope you all enjoy the weather this weekend!

And the Winner is…

Thank you to everyone who signed up for my newsletter and especially to everyone who entered the paperback giveaway! Please join me in congratulating the winner of my first-ever giveaway.

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Congratulations Joni!

Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com

There will be more opportunities to win in the future, so be sure to sign-up for my newsletter and follow me on Facebook to stay in the know!

Signing Preparations

Another great way to get your copy of Hidden Memory signed is to bring it to the Meeker Street Nerd Party. If you happen to be in the Kent, WA area, stop by and visit. I will have copies for sale, just in case yours does not arrive in time.

In the weeks since booking this signing gig, I have been planning like crazy. Books were only the first order on the agenda. I ordered fifty, just to be safe. Taking guesses on how many I will sell from my darkened corner of the store? I said two, while my brother guessed highest at thirteen. If I sell fifty, the fiftieth will only cost that person $5 in celebration!

In addition to paperbacks, I will have bookmarks and cool wax seal stickers as giveaways.

Look how great the seal stamp turned out!

I also designed a poster to display on my signing table. It will have my cover art along with some quotes from early reviews. (If you haven’t left a review on Amazon yet, it’s not too late! *Wink*) My only concern about the event is it goes through dinner time. I will have to remember to bring snacks along. I hope to see some of you locals there!

Ship in the Void – Pt. 6

Welcome back to the ship! If this is your first time visiting, I recommend starting with part 1. You can find all of these posts on the Dream Journal page. 

The story continues…

I floated in cotton. My mouth was dry, and my head stuffy. 

Muffled voices drifted toward me. “Do… any leads… shift?” 

“No, sir.” That was Flash, so the muffled person must have been Tryss. 

My hearing cleared up at the same time the pain returned. It was only an echo of what put me out, but I groaned as my eyelids fluttered in wakefulness. 

A hand rested gently against my forehead. “Easy, Bitsa. How are you feeling?” 

I blinked my eyes open to see one of the most cherubic baby faces on or off the planet. With big, blue eyes and a cap of golden-blonde hair, Magic Hands appeared like a grown-up version of a Rennaisance painting angels. 

He was the unit’s medic, and I had the biggest crush on him. It was no secret among the unit. I’m pretty sure even Magic was aware, but we kept things professional, and both ignored my uncontrollable blushing. 

“Arm hurts,” I said, smacking my parched lips. 

He held a cup and straw to my mouth. “I can give you a stronger pain killer, but it will put you off duty for 24 hours. That’s my recommendation, but it’s up to you.”

Pain and help the team, or get loopy and bored for a day? I thought.

This latest glitch increased the threat level. Too much more risk and we would need to abort the mission. If I went off duty, we would be stuck until my status changed. In the end, it wasn’t a tough choice.

“No.” I shook my head slowly. “I’ll stick.” 

Magic sighed and pursed his lips. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Let’s get you up and put the sling on.”

My head spun only once before settling, and I looked over to where Tryss and Flash stood watching.

‘Did you find Juicy? What happened to him?” 

“Juicy is fine,” Tryss answered with a smile. “He was clinging to you when help arrived, but Party and Block secured you both with anchors, giving us time to correct the gravity shift.”

I let out a gusty breath and felt tears well in my eyes. In my head, I failed him. He fell to his death when I couldn’t lift him high enough or stay conscious long enough to save him.

My breathing was shaky as the relief flooded through me.

Tryss squeezed my free hand, “You did good, Bitsa. You saved his life.”

I closed my eyes against the tears and nodded sharply. Letting out a deep breath, I was relatively calm again when I opened them to look back at Tryss. 

“Do we know what caused any of the malfunctions yet?” I asked.

She turned to Flash, who had already shaken his head in response.

“No.” He released a frustrated breath. “All preliminary tests are returning ‘systems normal’ responses.”

“But the gravity shift was recorded and responded to commands to revert to the prior settings,” Tryss added. “which indicates the errors are not related to reporting or interface assets and programming.”

Flash shook his hand in a “maybe”‘ gesture. His twitching eyes meant he interacted with his HUD as he spoke to us. “Likely, but it does not eliminate the possibility of problems with those systems. I’m pushing them down the priority list for now though.”

Magic finished hooking up my sling as Triss acknowledged Flash’s point. Her focus then returned to me with enough intensity to have me leaning back slightly.

“I reported our situation and initial encounters to Command. Our mission stands, but they’ve authorized a medical drop if necessary. It’s up to you.”

“My recommendation as your doctor,” Magic offered, “is to take the drop.”

“Can they do anything for my injury you haven’t already done?” I asked him.

He pursed his lips and snorted in frustration. “No, but with your injury, you are most at risk of further harm up here.”

Regulations required at least five people in a medical drop to ensure optimal assistance for the injured person on the descent. It would mean Tryss would lose more than me, and we would not even be on the ground to assist for twenty-four hours. It was not an option.

“Noted, but I’m staying.” I stood before my unit leader, pretty sure I hid the wince of pain as I rose. “Where do you want me?”

She pointed to a terminal across from where Magic worked. “Right over there,” she said with a jaunty wag of her eyebrows. “You get to keep Magic company in the infirmary. The data from your prelim runs is on the terminal. I want your assessment on those glitches.”

Lovely, I thought. I’m benched and given homework. Well, at least I would get to spend the day with Magic. Maybe I could finally convince him to fall in love with me.

“Yes, sir, “I said, and got to work on both missions.

To be continued…

Signing Event of the Century

…and by that, I mean my first signing event ever, and we are in a century. If you follow me on Facebook, you may have noticed the event I set up this morning for an official book signing! 

The broader event is called the “Meeker Street Nerd Party,” and is organized by a group of businesses located on Meeker Street in Kent. 

The Nerd Party promotes downtown local, small businesses by highlighting nerd culture in a street-wide event.  Small businesses between 2nd & 4th Ave on W. Meeker will host local makers, artists, and authors who specialize in nerd culture, science fiction, fantasy, horror — books, games, toys, and more.

– from the Nerd Party event page

With my paperback released—and looking amazing—I reached out to the event organizers and asked if they had any spots left I could fill. The answer was a resounding “well, all the good spots are taken, so you will probably be in an out of the way location.”

I jumped all over that. I’m calling it a “find Tiffany” scavenger hunt. As a prize, you can have a bookmark or wax seal, both of which I have ordered supplies to create these giveaways. I will also have copies of the paperback for sale if you have not already ordered yours from Amazon. 

If you are in the Seattle-Tacoma area on the evening of February 26th, 2022, then come to Kent and visit me in my corner of the bookstore! More information on the Party is here, and on my signing is here. I hope to see some of you there!

(Related note: If you received my newsletter on 1/15/22, you still have until the end of January to reply with your entry to try to win the signed paperback giveaway!)

Advertising

Also this week, I took the “5-day Author Ad Profit Challenge.” It is a free course via videos and social media put on by the Ad School. I’m only recently starting my advertising journey, so I thought a crash course was a great idea and signed up. 

I watched the videos during my lunch break and worked on the homework assignments in the evenings. The class focuses on creating Amazon Ads via their website and writing better ad copy (the hook lines you see on ads). I found the latter most helpful because I had already explored the ad website to some extent, but the tips for using the different types of ads Amazon offers were also beneficial.

Time will tell if the class can help turn my advertising profitable instead of what I’m calling a loss-leader. Overall, if you are interested in learning about Amazon ads and writing better copy, then I would recommend the free class, but make sure you have enough time to put into the assignments. As for the paid class, I am still undecided. Probably not this year, but I might consider it part of next year’s growth and training after Hidden Sanctuary is released on time. 

Happy Saturday all!

Paperback and Progress

I feel like I have been playing catch-up lately, and it has been forever since I have done a general status update, so here is all the stuff that I have not shared since the holidays began!

Holidays

I spoke before about seeing family for the holidays, which was great. I also received some great gifts from everyone. One was a cool cover for my ReMarkable2 notepad that can support it in different positions. It makes me feel better knowing it has something to protect the screen when I’m not using it. I’m currently wearing a blanket/poncho thing my parents gave me. Big Cat enjoys it as well for his lap time. A third thing I’m excited about is my new minimalist wallet arriving in the mail this week. I purchased it with a gift card received to pick one I liked. 

After Christmas, I was cat-sitting for my parents during their visit with my brother and family in Florida. That mission was complicated by the week of snow we had in the area. They live within walking distance, so I made the trip every day. Footing became a bit treacherous on the ice and more effort than usual tromping through the snow, but the cat was not without company. 

Going without trash service for three weeks during that period due to snow and ice became a bit more daunting. We don’t usually have too much trash, but a mix-up on recycling dates a month earlier meant we were already two weeks behind on that pick-up. Boxes were piling up in the kitchen with recyclables. When the bin emptied this week, we immediately filled it again. Hopefully, this catches us up for good this time. 

Business

You may have noticed some picture changes on the website already. If you did, you may already suspect I had some professional pictures taken, and you would be correct. I contacted a photographer to take a handful of “casual, professional headshots” for my author materials. A couple of the pictures are on the website, I changed my Facebook profile photo, and one is on the back cover of my paperback. 

This one is on another page, but Big Cat wanted to make an appearance here too!

That’s right! Hidden Memory is also out in paperback as of this week! I ran through a couple of author proofs to make minor formatting adjustments, and my first few author copies are on their way—probably still in the printing stage—now! If you signed up for my newsletter, you should have seen it in your inbox earlier today, and it includes a chance to enter to win a signed paperback! If you did not sign up in time for this giveaway, do not lose hope. There will be more in the future, so go to the home page and sign up now so you don’t miss out!

With the paperback complete, I’m focused on finishing up the current draft of Hidden Promise. I will pass polished chapters to my alpha readers and then revise Hidden Sanctuary in preparation for beta readers. On the business side, I’m learning about advertising on Amazon and hoping it does not cost me too much for the education!

I will end on a celebratory note this week. It has been just over a month since the book was released. I had a relatively successful launch, thanks primarily to word of mouth through my friends and family network to their networks. My advertising has resulted in eight additional sales. I have five reviews on Amazon, and I have two preorders for the next-in-series! Thank you all for your support!

Ship in the Void – Pt. 5

Welcome back to the ship! If this is your first time here, I recommend starting with part 1 and continuing from there. You can find all of these posts on the Dream Journal page.

The story continues…

“Why ‘Juicy?'”

I looked over my shoulder and smiled at the current owner of the name in question.

“Few units choose call names,” I replied. “What makes this one so bad?”

Sighing, Juicy followed me through another door into a wide hallway. The lift was to my right. To mix things up, I intended to walk down to the ship docking bay at the far end, accessed from this central floor, before we made our way through the rooms on the opposite side.

“It reminds me of that underwear company that came back in style when I was younger.”

I had to wrack my brain for a minute before what he was talking about came back to me. Laughing out, I stopped and put a hand on his arm.
“The ones with the words across the butt?”

“Yep.”

For a moment, the image of Juicy with the word “juicy” written across his backside flashed in my mind. A grin split my face. When Juicy saw it, he pursed his lips, rolled his eyes, and shook his head at me.

With a final laugh, I started walking again. “While hilarious,” I said, “That is not the origin of the ‘juicy’ name. The original unit commander had a thing for old movies. It’s from some monster movie from back in the day and means you are new like a freshly made corpse.”

He stopped and stared at me, blinking in confusion. “A fresh corpse?”

“Yeah,” I paused. “You’re still juicy.”

“That… I’m not sure that’s any better.”

I laughed again, but before I could form a response, the floor tilted beneath our feet. My head slammed against the floor as gravity shifted, sending us sliding down the hall, picking up speed as it continued to shift from horizontal to vertical.

“Bitsa!” Juicy yelled as he clawed at the carpeted floor.

Activating my boots had no impact. Instead of generating a charged connection with the floor, I continued my slide down. That meant the structure no longer carried a charge.

The automated doors in this hallway were flush with the walls, meaning there was nothing to grab to stop our descent. At the end was either a long fall through the force field and out into space or to the bottom floor far below. It depended on the direction of the pull once we left this hallway.

“Bitsa, the boots aren’t connecting!”

But the gloves might! I thought.

“Gloves!” I called out. We had less than 30 seconds, “use your gloves!” Even as I said it, I grabbed mine off my belt and put them on.

“I left them in the room,” there was terror in Juicy’s voice. “Bitsa, my gloves are back in the room!”

Ten seconds. I rolled closer to him. “Grab my hand! Juicy, grab my hand and hang on!”

Hands grasped wrists. As we shot off the ledge, I activated my gloves through the HUD and slapped my free hand down on the floor. The built-in sticky property activated at full power, and our combined weight tore my arm away from my body. I couldn’t tell if the suit was the only thing holding me together.

A scream ripped from my throat and tears fell. “Mother firecracker,” I whisper-moaned as we dangled there. “Juicy, stop moving.”

He looked up at me. “Are you okay, Bitsa?”
“No,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’m going to either puke or pass out, so you need to hold on.”

I activated the comms. “Mayday, Mayday. Bitsa and Juicy in need of immediate assistance in Lima dock. I repeat, immediate assistance needed in Lima dock.”

“Bitsa,” Flash’s response came nearly on top of my words. “Party Bus and Block Head are inbound. what is your situation?”

“We experienced—” I paused to breathe through a dizzy spell, “a sudden gravity shift 90 degrees. Entire structure of the hall—is not charged. Boots are no-go. I repeat, boots are no-go.”

“Are you injured?” Flash asked from far away as I closed my eyes. “Bitsa, Juicy, are you injured?”

“Bitsa is injured,” I heard Juicy say. “We are hanging over the docking bay by Bitsa’s glove.”

“Copy, Juicy. Magic Hands is also heading your way. Full-gear and anchors everyone. Take no chances.”

I faded in and out.

“Bitsa, I’m slipping.” The words held no meaning through the pain. “Bitsa.”
Juicy flailed, sending a fresh wave of searing agony through me.

“Juicy,” I mumbled, unsure if he could understand me.

“Bitsa, I’m slipping.”

I could feel his hands sliding down my wrist, over my hand.

“Can you pull up and grab my waist?”

“I don’t know.”

“Let’s try, Juicy. I’ll help.” I clamped my fingers around his larger hand as best I could without shaking him loose. “Now, Juicy!”

I screamed as I pulled up on my lower arm while Juicy curled up from below. He needed to be higher, but he was too heavy for me to lift. Darkness tunneled my vision at the edges. It wasn’t going to work.
His hand brushed my hip as I blacked out.

To be continued…

Ship in the Void – Pt.4

Welcome back to the void of space!

This is part four of my short story series loosely based on the bits and pieces I remember of a dream. To help navigate the story, I have created a page collecting all of these posts together in one place so you don’t have to search, which you can find here.

If this is your first time coming to the story, or you just want a refresher on what has happened so far, I recommend checking it out first!

Today’s piece is a little shorter than some as we meet a new character, but I already have most of the next part written, so you will not have to wait too long for another installment.

Another quick reminder: I will be doing a raffle for a free paperback copy of Hidden Memory in my newsletter this month, so if you have not yet signed up, please take a moment to do so on the home page for your chance to win!

The story continues…

I reached out toward the lever handle of the door. My hand was stable despite the pounding of my heart.

Steady, I told myself.

My fingers brushed metal.

“What are you doing?” said a voice from behind me.

“Shittolee! “I screamed and swore as I spun around.

Juicy was standing at the end of the hall, his eyes widening at my response. He was a big man. Three hundred pounds of linebacker muscle contained in a racial melting pot of a man diligent with his exercise and with zero interest in football. He graduated high-school early–much to the chagrin of the school’s coach–and went to MIT on a full-ride, scholastic scholarship.

A grin spread across his face, flashing white teeth before he burst out laughing. “What…was…that?” he asked between bouts of laughter and heaving breaths.

I sighed. “You startled me. And my mom taught me not to swear.”

It took him another moment to settle enough to respond and even then he was still chuckling. “I hate to break it to you, Bitsa, but that was pretty much a swear word.”

I scrunched up my face in confusion. “Isn’t it a mushroom?”

“I think you mean shiitake.”

“Hm,” I grunted and shrugged. “I don’t like mushrooms. But I thought it was one, so it doesn’t count as swearing if my mother ever asks you.”

Juicy held up his hands and pursed his still-smiling lips. “Mum’s the word,” he said. “so, what had you so worked up you screamed like a horror movie victim?”

“I will vehemently deny it ever happened, BUT, I may have freaked myself out a bit with the mysterious open door and creepy flickering lights.”

He leaned to his left peering past me at the crack in the door. His eyebrows rose in surprise before his brow furrowed in thought.

“Okay,” he said. “That is a little creepy.”

“Right?!”

“It’s also intriguing. There are still no reports of any issues out here, which indicates the cause is more pervasive than we hoped.”

“Yep.” I blow out a breath. “We are doing a standard run on these systems. Data grabs and cursory reviews only. We’ll do a deeper analysis later. You can take the creepy lights. I’ll take the mysterious door.”

“Yes, sir. “Juicy laughed again. “Thank you, Sir.”

I shook my head at him, and the two of us got to work.

To be continued…

White Christmas

Snow on Christmas day is rare in the Puget Sound area. We’re more likely to see it in January or February, but there was some falling yesterday and has collected a fair amount as of this morning. We opened the back door for the cats. They are both indoor cats, but they find padding around in the snow intriguing. By “padding around in the snow,” I mean that if we carry them out they might slowly move about, and when we open the door they cautiously creep around on the first step. Either way, they are cats, with snow on their fur, so they are adorable.

“It’s so cold out there!” – Little Cat back from her snowy adventure.

I’m glad the snow held off yesterday though because it meant we were able to visit both parents and in-laws. This is the first time we sat down with some of them in a couple of years now. It’s challenging because not everyone is able to isolate as well as we can, and we are still trying to do our part by being careful. Our intent is to mini-quarantine for at least the next week just in case. Any risks we took should end with us.

Yesterday morning when my sister arrived with her kids, I just about–did–freaked out at them when my niece walked in saying nonchalantly “I got COVID-19 for Christmas.”

I looked at my sister with fire in my eyes. “Then what the F are you all doing here?!”

The two of them shared a look and started cracking up. I, of course, am unamused. They are not that selfishly irresponsible. I know they are not. But, there are so many people who are, and you hear stories like that all the time. For that moment, I believed they would do it.

It turned out my niece received a GiantMicrobe plush toy representation of COVID-19 in her stocking. The two of them conspired their little scene thinking about how hilarious it would be to get a reaction out of me. I can’t say I was sorry to rise to the occasion, and I’m glad they, and others, got a laugh out of it. As I said on Instagram, “well played, little one. Well played.”

We are big fans of Giant Microbes. The regular size plush tags always include interesting facts about the microbe in question.

Publication Update

My book was released just under two weeks ago. After the initial surge, sales have dwindled to a trickle. This is both expected, and not as bad as it sounds. You expect an initial surge driven by preorders, followed by a reduction. The sales still coming in are primarily due to social media sharing by friends and me. I have also had three of my ARC readers post reviews in various places along with one “verified purchaser” review. Through it all, I maintained a reasonable star rating.

I also set up a targeted keyword ad on Amazon Advertising, and I got my first sale from that effort on Friday. The cost per click and advertising cost of sales are…not great, but for my first book, it is going to be more about volume and bringing people into the series and along for the ride. I’m hoping for a preorder for book two to come in from one of these initial sales. I will have another little celebration at the sign someone likes the first enough to immediately sign up for the second.

Sales might see another little surge when I finish the paperback version. I have all the formatting done, and I’m going to try to order an author test copy in the next couple of days to see how it looks once actually printed. Barring any issues, I might have it out by the middle of January, ahead of the February target.

Reminder, I’m going to be doing a paperback raffle of sorts in my January newsletter (around mid-month), so if you are interested in trying for a free paperback and have not already signed up for the newsletter, you can do so below or on my home page.

For now, I’m back to editing and writing. Come back next week for another installment of the dream journal short story!

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