Jude Stringfellow's Blog, page 38

I Am On The VERGE of TikTok!

     I am one of the LAST people I know who are on TikTok, and I'm not technically really on it yet, but I will be. I guess, since I have uploaded one video to my account, I am actually ON it, but I don't consider myself on it yet. I'll be on it when I learn how to do it correctly. I'm a little behind times; just...you know, a little.

    So, I had a very famous dog, and my daughter decided to give Faith a TikTok account by using my email address. Turns out, I have decided to use TikTok to promote my books, and I guess that means I need my own account. I don't want to do my book promotions under my dog's account. They are mutually exclusive. I do have a book that I wrote about my dog, and I'll certainly promote it on both the dog account and my book account, but there are other books I want to promote that have NOTHING to do with Faith. 

    Anyway, I'm new, and you'll certainly be able to tell that I'm new once the videos go up on the thing, but for now I'm just learning how to do it. I need to be cool, fun, and all that. I don't want to look too ignorant. I mean, a little ignorant is OK, but I don't want to really set off any buttons or whistles that indicate that I'm an absolute loser; you understand.

    Wouldn't it be really cool if my books took off to the degree and level I hope they do? I mean, that would really be something!! I could stay at home all day and write, promote, and just do it all over again. I could be so creative, and so into it  -- I want this. I do. I don't know if TikTok is the way to go, but you can't know until you do it. I have seen my friends YouTube subs going way up because they also do Reels and TikTok. It's going to be something to learn and work; hopefully I'll become pretty good at it. I have a good tutor. I should be OK.

    I'd say wish me luck, but we don't do luck - - we pray.

Photo Credit: ME

Seven Minutes a Day (Well, 10, but whose counting?)

     The Seven-Minute workout challenge is all over TikTok, it's all over the internet, and I decided to try it. Mind you, when I go to the gym I work out for about 20 minutes or so before I get exhausted, so the seven-minute challenge wasn't hard for me. Well, I was wrong. it is. It's hard because it's a particular routine, and you do seven things for 1 minute at a time with only 10 seconds in between sets so the whole thing takes about eight minutes when you do it correctly.

    Because I wanted to do it correctly, I bought myself a one-minute egg-timer that I could turn over during the 10-second intervals to be sure I was doing the exercise for a full minute. There are two exercises I really don't mind doing more than a full minute, but there are two when I hope the timer sands pour a little faster! Here's what I do.

    I do cheat and I stretch first. I think you should do a warm-up before you get started. It's just a good idea. If you need to consult your physician do that too; and always use protective gear for your joints if you need that. I don't want people saying I was irresponsible and telling them to do something. I am NOT telling you what to do, I am telling you what I am doing. There is a huge difference.

    I warm up by walking around the complex and rolling my arms, my shoulders, and my head. Then I come back to the apartment and I walk up and down the stairs 2x before going into the apartment to do stretches such as forward-doggie, and a few other bendy types to get the lower back prepared before doing the seven 1-minute exercises at full force. If you don't do them at full force you may not feel the burn, but it's still good for you. Start slower and build up; that's the ticket for me.

Jumping Jax....right out of the shoot. Do those first, get them over with. High Knee Step ... sounds easy, but really high, really fast, and a full minute.Wall push-ups...this one is really easy for me, so I try to make it more difficult.Sliders (with 5-pound weights in each hand) and I do them to each side of the center.Lifting 15 or 20-pound bar - just lifting and curling nothing fancyLifting a 15 or 20-pound bar - over my head and behind my head onto my shouldersSit-ups with my legs over the couch so I can have a goal for the process.    Then, because I can, I do the whole lift of the hips and waist turns after that. I do a cool down. I go back down the stairs a couple of times, and sometimes I even jump rope. I didn't do the rope jumping today because it's still really hot outside. I have to jump rope outside because I live upstairs and the neighbors below me don't need to think the ceiling is caving in on them. I go outside to do the battle ropes too, but seriously, not until the weather is a lot cooler than it is right now. 
    This evening I'll go walking with my buddy, and we'll clock 2.5 to 3 miles around the lake area. We love it. We thought about smoking a couple of cigars afterward, which I KNOW is not good for me, but I'm not a smoker, so it's not as bad as it sounds. It's just two ladies having a good time at the lake; we can do that, right?
    Supposedly, and I have ZERO concrete evidence of this, you're supposed to lose an additional 3-4 pounds a month by doing this seven-minute workout. We'll see. I have no way of knowing whether it works because I'm not really keeping that close of tabs on it. I'll eat well, drink my 100 ounces of lemon water, and I'll do the exercises. If I die I die, and if I get thinner and feel stronger, there's that. I just like feeling as if I've done something to make myself look and feel better. I have too many issues to try to make it to perfection. I can try for best as I can! Goals!

Photo Credit: FactsCrush.com

Focus!!

     I've been unwilling to admit it, but I do finally need to wear reading glasses and that fact really bothers me. I'm going to be 62 in November, which in and of itself amazes me. I didn't know 62 even existed when I was younger. I thought you died before that time; for sure only really really old people were over 60. Well, turns out that I was wrong. I'm still very young, and I don't mean "young at heart"; screw that, I'm young. I don't feel old, I don't do old-people things, I don't complain about my body aches...and now, damn it, I need glasses to read. 

    I don't need glasses to see, I see fine, but when I read I need them. I can see things in the distance, it's the close-up things that I can't really focus on, so what do I think I can do about it? Well, turns out there are some pretty interesting exercises you can do to improve your eyes and the muscles and/or veins, or whatever it is back there in your brain, that can help you see better. It's working, so I'm going to keep doing it. I don't care if people laugh at me. I'm having fun.

    Here is what I do now. I sit up straight because somehow sitting up straight helps you no matter what it is that you're doing. Without moving my head, I look forward at something pretty far away, and then I look at something really close, maybe my thumb or something. Then, I do it again and again and again. Next, I keep my head immobile, but I look as far as I can to the right, then the left, then the right, then the left for about 10 sets. 

    After the left/right thing, I do it again looking upward and downward, not moving my head. I do this about 10x and then I close my eyes. I rub my eyes lightly, and I heat up my palms by rubbing them; then placing my palms over my closed eyes. I repeated the exercise a couple of times. The whole thing takes maybe 5 minutes and I can feel it in my eyes for sure. I think it's working. I know I still have to use the glasses to read the fine print, but it does feel better than it did two weeks ago when I put them on all the time. I'm using them less and less now.

    Anyway, that's what I have, and that's what I'm doing. You don't have to do it, and you may think it's crazy, but let me just say, I don't know if it's fail-proof because we do get older, and things do fall apart, but why not try and make things better if we can? We stretch, we move around, we keep our bodies moving, why not do the same for our eyes. You can do the same thing with your chin too, your teeth and jaw, you open, close, go to the right, the left, etc. You can stretch your jaw, and you can feel better about yourself; it really does make you feel more in tune with your own body.

    Hey, it's your body.  You may as well like what you have to the point of doing all that you can to make it the best body you can have.  Just sayin'...do it if you want, I do, and I love it. Maybe in a few weeks, I'll report how it's working. I'm also trying to focus on what goes into my body and how I exercise. I've been in an ongoing battle for years with this one; I am so normal when it comes to being normal. Maybe I'll find a way to be successful instead!!

Photo Credit: EyeDrawingTips.com 

Why Must it be a HASSLE (Because it's my life)

     I came so close to having an average and normal day once - - but that was so long ago, that now, the normal is so far from average. I woke up this morning feeling bloated and I had no idea why. The lemon-lime water I've been drinking for three days is definitely doing its job; let me just say that. I think I've pooped 10 times in the past three days and yes, I can say I'll keep drinking this stuff. If it's cleaning me out this good, I don't want that to stop anytime soon. Bloat gone! All is good.

    I decided to make breakfast for myself. I do that from time to time. I grabbed the flour, the butter, the baking powder, and the milk, and I made myself biscuits, only to find out afterward that we were out of all the jams and jellies because my kid cleaned out the fridge and she threw them all away...she does that. Notice would have been GREAT. OK, no worries, I'll use the honey - nope. She took that to work. People, I had to eat my biscuits without gravy since I didn't make sausage or bacon. I used maple syrup....First World Problems. 

    Then, just because I live here, and it is the way that it is, the communal washing machines decided to both quit at the same time. Now, I know it's a major First World Problem, but we have to be honest about it; they were old. They needed to be replaced years ago. For both of them to quit at the same time seems really suspicious to me, and I'm going to put the blame on my crazy neighbors because I know I didn't do it. There's a 3rd washer that we use if we have to, and I had to. It took 1 hour and 43 minutes to do the one load. Tell me you live in an old complex, without telling me you live in an old complex.

    The clock hadn't struck 8:30 a.m. yet, and there was a fraud alert sent to me on my debit card by my bank. I love my bank. They take such good care. The problem was that another hacker decided to take $99.00 from my account when I purchased something online. CRAZY how that works, because the company I bought something from had ZERO clue that they were being used as a mule; it happens. I hate it, but it happens. It's happened to me about four times now. The bank closes my card, and issues me a new one, then I have to write or call the places that take money out on a monthly basis to let them know I have a new card number. GEEZ. 

    While I was blaming a neighbor; another neighbor came out of his apartment to tell me that one of our other neighbors had been in a really bad car wreck. She's a Lyft driver, so I thought maybe she had passengers too. She did not, so that was good; but she's not expected to live, and that's really sad. I truly hate to hear these types of things.  

    Before lunch, my publisher wrote to me to let me know that the book I tried to release (Faith Walks) has a spine width that is .511 and it should be .481; they want me to redo the cover. WHAT? The book was in production at another publisher and printed for Amazon sales for 12 years, but suddenly it's the wrong size? And did you see the difference? Literally .03 inches!! NO.  Just use it the way it is! I don't know if they will but I asked them to. Then, I redid the thing when I didn't get a response from them, but the thing is, I had to edit the PDF the original publisher sent to me, and I couldn't open it to make that change. I had to redo it through CANVA and when I did, I had to adjust things and it didn't turn out the way I wanted.

    Not only did it change a few things; but I made a mistake on the back and I already uploaded it!! I have to wait for them to reject it before I can upload the corrected one. If they don't reject it, I'll have to resubmit it, and that takes another 2 or 3 days. I can't imagine them even thinking it's OK to say it's .03 inches off in the spine so we're going to not print it, even though it's been printed over 50,000 times, and yes...it has been printed over 50,000 times, so yeah, there is NO REASON to change it. 

    I went to the store to get the cat litter, cat food, and dog food, and there was only one cashier with about four of us in line. Again, First World Problem; so I waited. I said to myself, it's OK, you'll survive this. I was doing really well until the lady buying whatever she was buying was looking for her cash, she didn't have enough, so she went for a card, but it was declined. I thought about my card, so I kept patiently waiting...for another five full minutes. C'mon, call another cashier at this point. I didn't say anything, but my mind was squawking!

    The man in front of me asked her if she could call someone and she said they had all quit or just not showed up today. There wasn't even a full moon, so I don't understand. I was finally checked out, but you guessed it, her drawer wouldn't shut so she couldn't ring up my purchases. We had to wait another several minutes for someone to come up to the front from the back; someone with more authority than the first lady had.  BREATHE....so I did.

    I picked the kid up from work, we went home, we got to our front door, and found that the managers had taken off the number plates of all the doors, and had taped off everything. I guess they're going to paint. Notice would have been great...another First World Problem. I began counting my blessings and saying them out loud. It always helps me when I do that. I have a home, I have food, I have water, I have a car, I have gas, and money to pay my bills. I have three great kids, 2 grandkids, and a few animals. I have written 9 books, I have an education, I have friends who know me and they still love me. I am a very very blessed woman...but you know what, more than all that, I have Jesus in my soul. That makes all the difference in this world and every other world to come.

    We're gonna have issues. We're gonna have problems. We're gonna face nasty situations, bad people, and just stuff....but we don't have to face it alone, and that is the best news I can give you. On the flip side, Michael's had candles on sale 2/$7 and they all smell like Autumn....this week, next week I'm sure they'll have their Christmas candles out, but for now, it's Flannel and Football, baby!! 

    

See if you can find the mistake. I did correct it already, but I put this up so you can feel my pain.

FAITH WALKS (The Book) Is Re-Released

 Back in the day, I released a book titled "Faith Walks, A Memoir of a Beautiful Life". It was about 2011 I think, not too long after I had moved to Indiana. Faith was alive then, and she was the star of so many shows. She had already become world-famous, and she was just about to retire. We knew she was getting to the point where she wanted to rest up a bit more than she had in the past. Though in 2011 she was only nine years old, she had just about started to think about slowing down. We did a few expos that year and the next, but by December 2012, she had decided to keep things more local. We canceled only one or two shows, and since we hadn't been paid for them, I didn't feel too badly about it. I knew they could either Skype with us, or they could use film from another show; I always allowed teachers and others to use her story in their lesson plans.

    Faith was just such an amazing animal and an amazing friend. She showed the world that you don't have to look a certain way to be wonderfully created. You can be who you are, and do what you need to do. She was never, and I do mean NEVER in a mood where she didn't want to see people. There were times when she was less energetic perhaps, but that smile was still there, and that hard-hitting tail of hers would be swinging! You had to watch out for that tail, let me tell you. She could do some damage with it.

    Well, I wrote the book FAITH WALKS and released it. It got mixed reviews, but I didn't have the money to promote it like it needed to be, so I was unable to really do more than just write to folks and say I'm human, there's gonna be some misspelled words and no, the grammar is not going to be up to par. Yes, I'm still a professor of English, and when I write for a grade, or when my students write for a grade, I will consider grammar, but not when I'm writing a book for fun and entertainment. Now, if the book had been a book about writing a book or using proper grammar, sure. The book is a good book. It's not fancy. It's not wonderful. I did actually pay for editing, but as you may see if you buy it, the folks that edited it are as normal as the rest of us. It happens. I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

    I did pull the book from iUniverse who didn't promote it, didn't edit it correctly, and they didn't do squat for me when I had a team of folks wanting to do more with it. I decided to pull the book from them, and upload it myself with Ingram Sparks, and that way I have a bit more control over it for the future. I think the book will be made into a movie, and I don't want or need a middle-man-type publisher thinking they have any rights to it. It is MY book, MY story, and I'll make all the decisions about it. (Can you tell where the dog got her courage to stand up on her own? She had a bit of it herself, but I did force her to give it her best.)

    When I was a teacher I'd tell my students that if I can make a dog walk upright I can expect them to do their homework. Faith, just like my students, pushed the envelope as often as she could...but...when the doors of the house opened, she was the first one flying out of them to get into the car to go somewhere. She didn't really even care where she went. I will say this, if she saw me pull out her Army jacket she was more than excited...she knew what that meant. SOLDIERS!!

    Well, the book will be available again on Amazon with a new dedication. Mike Maguire is the man I decided to dedicate the book to, and there is NO ONE who deserves it more than him. He did so much for us...Mike, I love you, buddy. I wish I had dedicated it to you in 2011. My bad. You are the best!  It has a new ISBN number, so the one that is for sale now on Amazon is the old one. They have some copies they need to sell first. The new ISBN is 978-1-0882-9063-7 and you can look for it that way. The cover is the SAME.

Mike Maguire and Faith:  Photo Credit: Carol Guzy 

Faith Walks, the book. 

Edinburgh (The Book) is RELEASED to the PUBLISHER!!!

     Woot!!  It is there, and I am happy.   It ended up being right at 83,000 words, and 338 pages in a 5x8 book. I didn't want to make it a 6x9 because it would have been 240 pages and that's just not a good-sized book for charging what they charge. I only get to pretend I have some control over it.  When you write a book and upload it to the publisher they basically give you options as to what they are going to charge for the printing of it, and that's based on the page count. This book will cost them, the publisher about $5.62 for each book they print. They have to charge that, plus the postage if I want to buy my own copies, but they do add a bit for their trouble. I could, if I had the capital to do so, buy 10,000 books, and become an instant "Best Selling Author" but I don't think that's the right or fair thing to go. I don't have the $60,000 some odd to spare, so it's not going to happen.

    That being said, I wrote a really nasty, hard-hitting, former-husband-bashing book that did actually sell more than 10,000 copies, so when they send me the proof of that, I will start adding the tag "Best Selling Author" on all of my books and advertising. Sad that it took a nasty poop book to make that happen, but it did, and that's just how the cookies crumble, folks.  I took the book out of print about two years ago; it was just not worth the emails going back and forth trying to explain myself to readers who had a particular dislike for some of the things I said. It didn't matter that it was MY experience, and I said so very clearly, that they wanted to argue. I took the book out of print. It was just about done anyway.

    EDINBURGH is done!!  I'm not going to say that it's the end all of books, not by a long shot. It was just a lot of fun to write. It took me 11 days to write it. That's a record I don't think I'll try to outdo. I like that I did it so fast, but it didn't leave a lot of room for creativity. I had to think on the fly, and I did a pretty good job, I think. It was certainly enjoyable to do; otherwise, I would not have put myself through it. I had to redo the cover from a 6x9 to a 5x8 today. That takes a minute. I use Canva in case you're wondering.

    I just think it's soooo cool that you can write a book, edit said book, format it, and upload it to be published for NOTHING. FREE...it's 100% free when you know what you're doing. I could still make it better by adding more fancy designs. I'm really going to have to look into that. Each chapter heading could be really awesome. You can play around with page numbers and all sorts of things that make books really neat. I don't know how to do the front pages yet. I won't go back and change the ones I've done, but I'll look into the others in the future. I don't use the whole Roman numeral thing in the front; I could. I may. You just never know.  I set the price at $16.00 but I know they'll end up charging $18.00 probably.

    PINBALL is next. I've written about six chapters of it so far. I don't know why I didn't just crank that one out, but Edinburgh was in my head banging on my brain asking to be written...so I wrote it. Fun times!!  If you really know me, you'll recognize a lot of my own personality and storyline in the main character. Elyenor Leigh Fletcher could very well be me, but she wasn't married, didn't have kids, and she lived in Texas...boo!!  I thought I would give it a shake-up, and I did. I added my three good friends with their permission, and they seem to think living in Texas isn't so bad; not when you're only a fictional character. 

    Hope you LOVE IT.  It will be on sale next Monday the 11th. I will go over the galley when they send it to me on Thursday, to be sure it doesn't need to be changed. I know there will be a mistake or two. I'm not going to worry about it. It may end up being my signature now that I know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did it, and Erle Stanley Gardner did it too. Woot!! Great writers.

    

Health Kick Restart. Here we go!

     Now, because I have the book behind me for the most part, and I'm about to be employed by someone, I've decided to get back on the health kick bandwagon to see if I can lose a few pounds, shape up, and feel better. Here we go.

    I sort of started last week with the copious water drinking again, and the walking. Then the index decided to go back into the 105 range; making it too hard to walk even in the evenings.  I had to wait until 10 p.m. to do any good walking and then you can only do a mile or so. I could have woken up at 5:00 a.m. too, but that sort of thing is rare for me....my body refuses to listen to my brain at that hour.

    Today, however, because I can, I decided to eat only good things. I do this to myself from time to time. I don't 100% go crazy with it; it's not safe to do that. I did that once and lost a gallbladder. Not kidding. Gonny no dae that again. Today, I cracked open an acorn squash, dug out the seeds, and set them to the side. I added butter and spices to the squash and I baked it. It will be ready in a few minutes. I took the seeds, added half an apple, some pineapple juice, two slices of pineapple, some vitamins, milk, and protein...and then blended it. Done. Breakfast in a cup.

    I have a 10-minute workout session that I do, and I'll do that. Then I'll lift weights for 5 minutes and box for 10 minutes later on. I may walk if I can find the best time to do it. It's 90 out there right now, and with the sun bearing down on me it's uncomfortable. I have to wait until about 8:00 to see it settling. I can wait. I'm good at that.  

    Dinner will be chicken and rice. I also have...you guessed it....copious amounts of water with lemon and lime. When I go back to the store today I'll pick up some natural ginger root and add it to the water. I could do the drops I guess. I may do that. I want the fat to be burned away as well as the hydration. A good dose of lemon, lime, ginger, and mint can make a good belly fat reducer. I threw out my mint, it was nasty. I had it hidden in the fridge for too long. Can't do that in the future. 

    The day will be spent reading through the novel "Edinburgh" to make sure all the spacing is good, and that I don't have a bunch of misspellings. Then, again, because I can, I'll do the 10-minute workout. I do doga every day -  you know, yoga with dogs. It's only to stretch my back really, but Ginger likes it. She feels like she's helped me with all my daily routines. Right now, you can see it, but she's sitting in my lap while I type. She is just so useful. Very very useful.

Photo Credit: Me.   Ginger dog.

Edinburgh (The Book) DONE!! (Except)

 It's OVER for the most part.  I always do that, I write that it's over when it's just ended. There is such a huge difference. It has ended in that I am no longer writing the book It is done, but it is not FINISHED because I now have to go through it to add this or that. When you add this or that, you also have to consider removing this or that. You find mistakes, you overlook mistakes, and you set it all aside for a day or so before going back over the pages to see if there are those mistakes you were looking for.

    I am not going to add another chapter. I am going to only check to be sure that the ones I've written are complete. I'll run through them quickly for spacing, then begin editing them using the best-case scenarios I can. I don't care about grammar because when I write a book, especially a novel, there will be a license for not using proper grammar. Some of the characters speak like me...yeah, not all that proper.

    So, the book is done in that I've just finished. I won't give away anything, but I will need to go back and add a couple of descriptions of clothing, or hats, something to make the chapter pop. That's what the next tweak is. I go back over it, find room for descriptive words and I fluff it, stuff it, brand it, make it pretty, make it lively, and change the word count all at the same time.  I'll end up with 82,000 words I'm sure. I typically try to get 86,000, but we're good.

    I won't format the book until I'm dang sure that it's about finished. I have a cover already made, so I'll need to see if it's crafted to the right size. If I need another 2000 words you can bet I'd rather write them than go back and change the cover! It's a mess trying to do that over and over again. I can dang well better come up with words than try and manipulate a book spine. Nope. Not fighting that dog. 

    Tonight I'll go through it for spacing. Tomorrow, Sunday, I'll go over it for misspelled words, any words that I need to add to the dictionary or words that could be spelled one way or another. I'll try to add a few quirks to Arran's accent. He's Scottish, I haven't been paying much attention to his voice. I need to go back over everything he says and add a bit of brogue to it. That'll be fun. I won't go all Gaelic on anyone, but I will use colloquial terms such as using "no goin' there" for "not going to go there" and that sort of thing. Elyn describes a garbage disposal to Arran at one point, and his eyebrows lift to think of what could happen if he made a mistake in the kitchen after drinking a bit.  

Good times.  I'll catch you in a couple of days after I've gone over it. The book took less time to write than any other full-sized book I've ever written. I started it around 1:00 p.m. on 8/22/2023 and finished it around 2:00 p.m. on 9/2/2023 so that's what, 11 days and an hour? Not bad. I don't think I'll do that again -- it was just something I was doing between jobs. 

Tying the Knot!!  (Guess where that idiom came from, folks.)

Photo Credit: TheKnot.com 

Edinburgh (The Book) 80% GOING GOING....

 OMG....I am literally on the last few chapters, there are maybe 4 left. I may have to make it 5 but one will be smaller, as it is just one of those tie-up-the-loose-ends sort of chapters. I'm working on the end, making sure I have all the people where I need and want them.  I have the flat being remodeled, the dog meets a new friend, there is so much to think about with the wedding...what? THE WHAT?

    Oh, yes, well, it is a romance novel. There is love involved. Sometimes when there is love there is marriage, and you know...that baby carriage. (Spoiler alert, where a baby is born during the book, it isn't Elyn.  She's 42 and that would be a bit scary for both her and her Bohemian lover.) Someone has a baby though. She's a little girl, and I named her Aurora; there was a reason for that.

    With the book being titled "Edinburgh," I wanted the reader to understand that the main character in the book is the city of Edinburgh. I haven't gone over yet how one is to properly pronounce the word, but I will do that, I promise. I'm thinking of adding it either tomorrow when I write 3 of the last chapters, or on Saturday, the day I finish the book. I will read through it online on Sunday and Monday. I will make changes, add things, take things out, revamp, fluff, and stuff, and I'll approve it for publication either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. 

    All in all the book took 12 days to write. I began on the 22nd and I will finish on the 2nd. I don't think I'll finish tomorrow. I may have been able to, but Jeannie is coming over tomorrow night and we'll be too busy for me to write. I have to be alone when I write. I can discuss things with people, but I have to be alone when I do the actual writing. Dogs can be in the room, even cats. I had a gecko in my room for a little of the writing, but no humans. If one comes into the room I immediately stop my typing and converse with it...them.

    So, today I have 68,000 words more or less. Tomorrow I'll add 10,000+, which will put me at 78,000, and on Saturday I'll top the thing off with another 3000 words. That will be 81,000 total, but that is before I go through it to tweak it. I tend to add a paragraph or two, remove one or two, add another, and this goes on for a minute or so before I say to myself "Enough!" I do that. I could tweak it for weeks if I had to; or wanted to. I don't so I won't.  I'll end up with around 83,000 words and I'll be a happy camper. It will be a 6x9 book, so it's about the same size as "Of Kilted Pleasure" with about as much fun and lovemaking - - maybe more if I'm honest. 

    I'll be sure to send copies of the book to some rather important people in the city of Edinburgh so they know it's out there and maybe I can use it as a catalyst for them to invite me to the city to promote the book -- my dream. I'll then stay a few years to write more books; invest more time, words, and money into my adopted land, and who knows, maybe I'll die and be buried behind a few cobbled stones or in a seldom used close; another crazy but plausible dream of mine.  LOL

    Hope you enjoy the book when it's available. At this rate, it should be around the 10th of September or so. I have to approve it first, which is what I will do once I send it off on Wednesday the 6th.  They take a day or so to send the file back to me as a download, and I take a day or so to go through it and say yes or no. If I approve it, it will show up IMMEDIATELY for purchase. That's fun. That is so much fun to go onto Amazon and see your books are up for sale!! I don't care if anyone actually buys them, but they are there!! That makes me smile.

Photo Credit: unknown

Edinburgh (The Book) Last Leg.

 I am now 66% done with the book. You can look at it a couple of ways. I have written 20 of the probable 30 chapters, and I have also written about 56,000 of the 84,000 words. I don't think I'll hit 86,000, but if I do I'll still probably finish by Sunday.

I have 10 chapters to write and will be doing that over the next 5 days. This is Tuesday. Tomorrow on Wednesday I have 2 or possibly 3 to write, and then 2 or 3 on Thursday, and the same on Friday. I will pick up whatever slack is needed over the weekend so that by Sunday night, the 3rd, I'll have finished the book. I started on the 22nd, so that will be an 11-day writing spree - unless I'm miscalculating and it could be 12. Whatever, it was (is) fun and I'm probably never going to it again. I thought writing "Of Kilted Pleasure" in a month was something, and it was. I hadn't done it before. I think I'll let this be my shortest period of time because it's really hard to focus and make yourself be creative when you're under a heavy self-imposed deadline. In reality, there is no deadline...I'm just being weird.

    I'll take Monday to read it, go through it to see if I have all the spacing correct, and see if I have any red or blue lines in the manuscript that need to be addressed. I'll check the sizes and the fonts. I'll see if it looks good enough to format, and then I'll format it on Tuesday, so I'll know how to redesign the cover. I made the cover but by absolute mistake boo-boo time, I made it a 5x8 book, when it needed to be a 6x9 book. I decided that the murder books would be 5x8 and the romances would be 6x9. I don't know why. I can change that anything I choose, but I decided it, so there you go.

    The 5x8 is my favorite size of book to read if I'm going to read one, but I use my Kindle now so I really don't care what size a book is. I will eventually have all of my books on eBook format and I'll have them produced by Ingram Spark to sell on Amazon for something like $8.00 or so. I hope I can do it for even less. I want to. It's not really up to me. It depends on the size of the file I think; I could be completely blowing smoke; but I think I have little choice. I know I have little choice in the print books. That much I do actually know. If I can charge less on the eBooks I really will do that. I like buying $4.99 books for my Kindle. I think it's really awesome. 

    The novels don't have pictures so they don't cost as much as books that do have photos in them. However, my new Blog Book 2 has a bunch of photos and they're only charging $18 for it, so maybe they don't charge that much for those that have B/W photos. I made all the photos Black and White for that book. The original Blog Book has colored photos. I think it's slightly higher. I don't remember. I just want to write. I don't keep up with the costs. I want them all to be affordable. That's my goal.

    So, tomorrow I write about Nikki meeting Emilio, their whirlwind romance, and/or decisions they will make about their future. I'll write about Elyn's past, her childhood haunts and wishes; which will include her friend, Robyn, as she and Robyn grew up together. I'll talk about those who seem to be rooted and those who seem to have either cut their roots or allowed them to become unearthed. This is the reality and truth for some and it certainly is for me as a real person, so it will be reflected in the life of my character Elyn, who often takes on my personal traits.  

    After she decides to move forward I'll show her creating a new life for herself in Scotland where she'll use the Foreign Exchange market to substantially create a needed nest egg for herself, and she'll be in a position to be the anchor that her new lover Arran needs and deserves to have as well. He'll appreciate it, and there will be an entire chapter devoted to appreciation of oneself and of the ones they love. Such a cool thing.

    A few chapters later she'll find the answers to some questions that bothered her as a young adult, but that can be buried and safely locked away without hurting anyone in the process; which is often what happens when secrets creep to the surface. Family can be really really good and it can be really really sad too; she learns this. We all know this to be true; nothing is tidy and nothing is expected to be. We are humans living with humans, and we all create our own havoc along the way. Sometimes it's best to keep things locked up and other times it's best to set it free.

    In the end, we'll see that love wins. Isn't that the way all good romance books should end? I think so. 

Photo Credit: Unknown