Kate McVaugh's Blog, page 2

Twitter Reconnaissance

At long last, the evil censors are being exposed. Any human, with a minimum of three brain cells, knows what has been going on for the past several years. (Actually, for much longer, but that’s for another day.) Voices in opposition to government policies have been suppressed, canceled, and vilified. But then along came Elon and the narrative is changing. Free Speech is making a comeback and world owes a debt of gratitude to the electric car/rocket guy.

If I had a strong enough telescope, I could just about see Twitter headquarters from my adobe in the East Bay. So why wasn’t I over there getting a scoop on the goings on?

For one, I had not been to San Fransico in a few years. This had nothing to do with the covid fiasco. It had everything to do with not wanting to put my life on the line to travel on a BART train, and on into the hellhole that is SF. Even if one does not get robbed, mugged, or harassed on the train, it is not a pleasant trip. Nasty cars, piercing, squealing wheels, disgusting air. However, in the name of journalism, I decided to go forth and report.

The first hurdle would be to find a parking space at the BART station. It used to be that you had to arrive no later than 6 AM to find a spot. Generally, after 10 AM a few spaces became available. To my surprise, there were plenty of open spaces and I bet there had been all morning
READ FULL POST HERE

Independent Authors Beware

As an independent author, I have relied on Amazon’s KDP publishing programs and used their Author Central page to advertise and promote my books. For this, I am grateful. Without it, no one would ever have heard of Kate McVaugh, nor have read any of my books. Now it seems, that may no longer be the case.
A few weeks ago I noticed that not all of my eight books were showing up on my Author’s Page. Things occasionally go wonky in the tech world, so I let it go.
Then a few days ago I noticed that it had gotten much worse. Maybe three books would show up across the banner on my Author’s Page. Below that, where all my books had previously been listed, only a few were visible. This was not good.
I wrote to Amazon Author Central, the department in charge, expecting to hear back that it was all down to a slight technical problem. This was their devastating reply.
***
Greetings from the Author Central team!

Please note that that is no mistake or error. It is a new design of Author Pages which our developers made called Top Picks (which changes from customer to customer-including yourself- and it will change constantly based on your shopping behaviors and each customer's shopping behaviors).

The Top Picks feature allows Amazon customers to see personalized recommendations from your catalog of books. Customers will see this on your Author Page and it will suggest books based on these traits:

• New releases and pre-order books matching their interest.
• Unread books from a series they started.
• The customer’s reading and purchase history.

The goal is to help them find more books they want to read from you. Each customer will have a different recommendation, including you, if you’re logged into your Amazon account.

Author Pages currently support the “Top Picks” feature in the US and UK marketplaces.

Since this feature is updated based on customer shopping habits and changes frequently to reflect current buying patterns, I'm not able to modify it.

While changes to the feature are not possible, I hope this information better explains the way the feature works on our website.

Thank you for using Amazon Author Central”
***
Were I some controversial, well-known author, this would not be a surprise. Amazon has been playing around with such authors for a few years now. But I am not famous. Added to that, there is not one controversial topic in any of my fiction writing. True, my blog posts might possibly be a bit more on the provocative meter, but no one really reads my essays. I’m lucky if one hundred people a week dip into my blog.
FULL POST HERE

Re-Thinking Florida....Maybe

Florida was a whole lot of what I love, and a bit too much of what I hate. Now that I’m back to Crazy Town, CA, I find I need a new strategy. Do I really move to Florida, and if so, where?
The weather, as expected, was heavenly. Even in August I love it. Nights and mornings had perfect temps, thunderstorms arrived every afternoon and also a few mornings – what could be better?

Regrettably, a lot. But that had to do with the Airbnb I’d booked. I had discovered it months ago while trying to find a funky adobe on a bit of water. Situated in Matlacha, it looked perfect. A four-plex, built in the early 1950’s, and originally a small fisherman’s cottage. Most likely, only the front two units are original, with the others added a few decades ago.

The unit I had booked sat closest to the canal. Widows on three sides and, with the front door open, air circulation from every direction. I walked in and felt I was in heaven. As soon as I dumped my bags at the door, I went around to open every single window in the place so as to be enveloped with tropical breezes.

The entire cottage had louvered/jalousie windows. (Jalousie was a new word for me.) These are the ones with windowpanes that are cranked open. They are perfect for air flow in hot climates. I approached the first, raised the blind to find the crank handle, and was dismayed to see there wasn’t one.

I checked all the other windows and although the crank mechanism stood intact, no handle could be found. Maybe I could simply push them open. (I had done that in the past at other houses.) When that didn’t work, I took a walk around the outside.

Oh no! Every single window had been painted shut, and screws had been inserted to prevent one from trying to open them.
Quickly, I went back in a sent a message to the owner asking how to open the windows. Her reply, “They cannot be opened due to architectural reasons that cannot be changed by us.”

Huh? What did that mean? Later I heard that there were historic preservation codes for the older homes in Matlacha which, to me, would mean that the owner would not be allowed to nail the jalousie windows shut.
I began to freak out. It was deathly hot and stuffy indoors. There were two junky, old, noisy wall air-condition units, but I hate AC. I had come to Florida to bathe my senses in tropical bliss.

Since the owners are European and do not reside in Florida, I was not sure what else I could do. But then the manager showed up. I explained that I needed to open the windows.
Her answer was along the lines of “You can’t possibly survive in Florida in the summer without air conditioning. This is the reason the owners sealed all the windows.”
Again, huh? I have lived all over the world in hot and humid climates and never once had AC. Or if I did, it was old and junky and sounded like a jet engine taking off. I might use it to cool down the house for about ten minutes, but then it’s off.
READ FULL POST HERE

Edison and Ford Winter Estates

At last, I made it to the Thomas Edison & Heny Ford Winter Estates. It's been many years since my last visit to the Ft Myers, FL. At the time, the Estates were closed.... or possibly we were short on time. Whatever the reason, I have longed to visit this venue ever since.

A combination of homes, gardens, museum and laboratory makes for a wonderful outing. True, it was stinking hot and humid both days I was there, but there are places to cool off. Take for example that extra-wide, wrap-around porch that Edison had built. I sat on a bench, with nothing but the slight breeze in the air, and cooled down.

Or I took a stroll in botanical research garden where the plants protected me from the heat. And if it really gets bad, one can pop into the air-conditioned gift shop and museum.
I always love plants and gardens, but the high point for me was Edison's Laboratory. Over the years, I have seen photos of this lab. And now here it was, right before my eyes, looking exactly like the photos I had seen when Edison worked there. Nothing has been changed or moved. I stood and stared and breathed in the essence of this remarkable man.

If I lived here, I would defiantly get the yearly pass.

I was saddened to hear that the story of the 100-year-old lightbulb that is still in use in the lab is nothing more than urban legend. Darn. It was a good tale. Maybe I'll just keep telling it.

SEE POST WITH PHOTOS HERE

Tropical Seaside Villages - Free download

Several years ago, and I have no idea when or where, I heard about the artist Leoma Lovegrove. Once you see a picture of the lady or, for that matter, hear her name, you don't forget. Although apparently I did until I began looking for places to visit in Florida.

My first reaction had been, Oh, I remember reading about her. My second thought was, Goodness, she paints in a similar style to Lucia of Tortuga Straits.

In case you are wondering about Lucia and Tortuga Straits, both will be a bit harder to find than Leoma. Although the town and the artist are very real to me, they can only be found in my novel, Tortuga Straits and the Parrot Hotel. Which, happily, will be available for free download on Amazon, August 6 - 10.

Tortuga Straits is part of the Tropical Seaside Village Series. The other book in the series is The Many Wonders of Costa Contente. I will be available for free from August 7 -11.

Full Post Here + Photos Of Leoma's Art and Garden

Neapoliton Intrigue: Review

New review by Carmen Amato, fabulous author of the Emilia Cruz Mystery series and more.





"Letty White is a recently retired security consultant living in Naples. Her background includes stints as a linguist for the Central Intelligence Agency and Interpol. Just as she is wondering if la dolce vita in Naples is what she truly wants, local ex-Interpol friends who own a security company find a photo of Letty as a teenager in the pocket of a dead man."
RAED FULL REVIEW ON CARMEN AMATO'S website

Kooky Kalifornia Casting Ballots

The California primary election is set for Tuesday, June 7. Ballots and the State’s Voter Information Guide are already in homes. There is plenty of time for citizens to research and make their decisions before going to ballot box. But many, if they vote at all, will not bother to do so. That ballot that came in the mail this week can simply be filled out and sent back the same day it arrived. Drop boxes begin service on May 16. In-person voting begins at various locations May 28.
Why people cannot vote on election day, with paper ballots, is beyond me. Why anyone can request a mail-in ballot simply because they are too darn lazy to get their tails to a polling place is nuts. And why is it necessary to vote anytime between May 5, and election day, June 7? Should one drop off that ballot in the mailbox at midnight on June 7, fear not. Your vote will be counted even if it arrives on June 14.
I know people who voted early in 2020 with mail-in ballots. This was not because they happened to be out of town on election day. Or too ill to drive to the polling place. They simply did not want to be bothered doing what they had done the majority of their life, going to the polling location on election Tuesday. Later, when they “suddenly” realized Biden had dementia and maybe was compromised by his crack-head son, they were upset that they had not waited until election day to cast their ballot. (How any of them, who had been eligible to vote for at least 50 years, had no idea that Biden was a demented sleazebag, is for them to explain.)
We can thank Governor Newsome for the crazier-than-the-Crazy-Cali norm for all things involving voting. California is still in a State of Emergency. The man still has emergency powers that were enacted in March 2020.
The argument against all these excessive voting days is simple: it makes the election ripe for voter fraud.

FULL POST HERE

Free & .99 - Fun in Tel Aviv

FREE May 9 - 13









.99 May 9 - 13

JAZ, TALL MEN, & MAYHEM





FIND JAZ 1 HERE

AND JAZ 2 HERE

Bad Accounts - Free

Available for free - May 2-6 on Amazon.





MYSTERY
AMATEUR SLEUTH
SURFERS
CA & MEXICO



A whole lot of fun!

.99 Sale - Cozy Thriller

Mystery / Cozy Thriller - set in Italy. On Sale Now.