Trudy Myers's Blog, page 10

A Personal Appearance

I’m gettingexcited! For the first time in a lo-o-ng time, MoonPhaze is sending both of itsauthors to make an appearance together. That’s me and my husband, John LarsShoberg. Both of us. At the same event. Namely, Necronomicon in Tampa FL.

We weresupposed to go together to Gainesville in January, to sell our books at abookfair that’s held there annually. Unfortunately, John’s health at that timewas pretty poor, and I went without him. It wasn’t the same at all. He’s theone who can talk to just about anyone, on a large variety of subjects, so Iusually rely on him to help break the ice with potential customers. I tried toengage people in conversation, but I’m just not as good at it as he is. I wascompletely drained by the end of the day.

This time, hishealth still isn’t very good, but he’s going with me. It will be up to me tosell the books, while he will wander around, attending panels and making newfriends. We are on 2 panels together: “How I Do My Job (Writing)” and “WhatInspired Me to Do This Job (Writing)”. They were the suggestions I made whenthe person doing the panel scheduling told me he had been informed that it wasnot acceptable to have authors who are not The Guest of Honor do readings. That’sso different from Mid-West cons. So that’s what I came up with off the top of myhead. And the scheduler said, “Great! Let’s do them both!”

If you come toNecronomicon this weekend (Sept 22-24, 2023), look for the MoonPhaze table. Iwill be manning that. And watch for John among the other attendees. We’d bothlove to talk to you. Feel free to browse through our books, and I won’t be averseto sell you some. Or if you prefer e-books, I have a bunch of coupons I’d liketo hand out this weekend. You can get the ebooks for 50% off or for free, andnot have to carry books around with you all weekend. And we don’t charge forautographs, if you want one of those!

Yes, I’mgetting excited. Which is different than being nervous. Nervous is me at atable, trying to sell books or at least talk to people about books. You’d thinkI’d get used to it and not get so nervous anymore. Here’s hoping thenervousness isn’t as bad this time.

One Important Step in Marketing

Most of you know that I publish books that my husband and Iwrite. It means I wear a lot of different hats. The most difficult job, out ofall the jobs that I do, is to try to convince potential readers to give ourbooks a chance. Quite frankly, I don’t know what I’m doing, in that respect. I’vetaken classes, I’ve read books, I’ve gone to seminars, and I still don’t reallyknow what I’m doing. It’s very frustrating.

One thing I did a few years ago was to set up website formy company. And last year, I set up a second website, just to deal with thee-versions of our books. That 2nd website worked well enough to getme the beginnings of an email list, but even when I ran some ridiculously pricedsales, I never sold any ebooks from that site. I finally figured out why; I hadnever set up the ‘accept payment’ part of the website.

It had a well-known e-commerce software package ready to beused, but I had never activated it. This spring, I spent the better part of amonth trying to jump through the hoops to get that software activated. And thatwas with plenty of help from the support team of my hosting company. Trying tofollow the instructions was as bad as trying to read a legal document. I was soconfused!

But I got it done. At least, they tell me I have.

But it made me think… Had I ever set up the ‘accept payment’part of my first website? I did not know. I knew I should look into that, andthe sooner, the better. But a broken arm got in my way, and I couldn’t reallydo much on the computer. When the arm got better, life in general intruded…okay, I procrastinated, because I was afraid it would have the same well-knowne-commerce software package attached to it, and I didn’t know if the supportteam for that hosting company would be as helpful. I very much cringed at thethought of going through that same confusing set-up process.

But, I’m happy to reveal, I took a deep breath earlier thisweek, and I tackled my original website. I did not find that dreaded e-commercesoftware when I looked at my website’s dashboard. I contacted the support teamto find out how I do it. The chat bots didn’t understand my question, but Ifinally got a real person, who explained how to set it up and even gave me thewebsite for doing so. Sounded simple, but was it really? I am here to reportthat it was as easy as setting up a Paypal account, and I got it done withinhalf an hour. Hooray for me!

Now, how do I get people to buy something? That seems to bemy perpetual question.

By the way, the original website is www.MoonPhaze.com, and the website forebooks is www.MoonPhazeBooks.com.One needs a drastic overhaul, and the other needs a firm tweaking. Those willkeep me busy for the next several months.

What Makes it Pizza?

Many of you may have been eating pizza a lot longer than Ihave, relatively speaking. It wasn’t until towards the end of my senior year inhigh school that those of us students who worked on performing the school playdecided after our performance to drive to the nearest big town and get somepizza. Before that, I had no idea what pizza was. I wondered if I would likeit, as we waited for it to be delivered to our tables.

I think it was a round pizza, but it was cut into squares.I can’t say it was love at first bite, but it had a lot of tastes. It had 2 or3 types of meat on it, and a tomato sauce, and probably onions and greenpeppers. I wasn’t too happy with the onions, but I didn’t make a fuss overthem. I didn’t want anybody to think I was weird. Everybody else thought it wasgreat.

I’ve had a lot of pizza since then. Mostly, it’s been roundpizzas, cut into slices, with tomato sauce and cheese. Various meats,vegetables and occasionally even fruit would be on it. (I love a good ham andpineapple pizza.)

About 2 decades ago, I started noticing a new pizza in thegrocery store freezers. It was called chicken margarita pizza, or somethinglike that. Instead of tomato sauce, it had some sort of white sauce. I couldn’ttell if it had any cheese at all. The meat was chicken, and there may have beena few vegetables and herbs on it. It didn’t look like pizza to me at all.

All this comes up because I just read a brief article inArcheology magazine. The on-going excavation of Pompeii had unearthed anotherfresco, one of a still-life on a table. There was a large tray on the table,with a slab of focaccia bread on it. There also was a variety of fruit in thepicture. The question asked by the article was, is this a picture of theforerunner of pizza? Of course, back then, they didn’t have access to anythingresembling tomatoes, so it wouldn’t have had a tomato sauce. But the scientiststhought it looked like focaccia bread covered in various fruits.

Would they have called it pizza? I doubt it; languageschange over time. But I rather like the sound of it. A slab of bread covered infruit. Maybe with a drizzle of olive oil and some appropriate herbs and spices.

I don’t think I’ve seen focaccia bread available in thegrocery store since we moved to Florida. To me, it always looked a bit like anextra large slab of fried bread dough. Maybe next time I make that delicacy, I’lltry making a ‘fruit pizza’ out of some of it. What do you think, would you trymaking a fruit pizza? Would you taste one?

Alas, I am not supposed to have bread, fried or not, so itcould take me a while to get to that food experiment. 

When Did Humans Reach the Americas?

This question has been simmering in the back of my mind fordecades. I’ve given panels on it at science fiction conventions, and I’vewritten blogs on the subject before, too. I believe the last blog I wrote aboutit theorized that an ice-free channel through the North American glaciers ofthe last ice age opened up about 14,000 years ago. And therefore people who hadcrossed the Bering landbridge sometime before that were finally able to leaveAlaska and find their way south to the plains of central North America. Andfrom there, they could have gone on to populate all the rest of North America,Central America and South America.

But even that might not be right.

The other night, we watched a documentary about fossilizedfootprints in the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. Although the area isa desert now, during the last ice age, it housed a large lake. The fossilizedfootprints recorded the presence of Columbian mammoths, great ground sloths,North American camels and horses. And among all those footprints, it is not atall unusual to find lots of human footprints.

Scientists have to work fast to learn all they can fromthese footprints, because as soon as they are revealed by the wind blowing thesand away, the blowing sand starts to erode the footprints away. For these arenot the usual fossils that have been turned into stone. Some of the footprintsare impressions in the sand, that had been filled with silt that was finer thanthe sand around them. Others are outlined with bulging sand indicating theweight of the animal. All of them dried out when the lake dried up, and littlehas happened to the area to disturb them. Except the blowing wind.

A number of scientists work the site each year, and I wasleft with the impression that each year presents a new batch of footprints, ata slightly lower level than the year before.

One year—and it didn’t say what year it was—a pair ofscientists who are experts at radio-carbon dating dug a trench in the sand,going down through several layers of human footprints. But you can’tradio-carbon date sand; you can only radio-carbon date organic material, likeplants or animals. By examining the layers between the human footprints, theywere able to find organic material, such as seeds or pollen. They packaged up anumber of these samples and took them back to their lab in Denver to date them.

Two years later, the narrator visited them in their lab toask what kind of dates they had gotten from their samples. They said they had gottendates between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago! That would have been long before theice-free trail through the glaciers had opened up!

At the very end of the show, the narrator was talking toanother scientist, and wondered how humans could have gotten so far southbefore the glaciers had started to melt. The anthropologist said they hadprobably followed the Pacific coastline, starting in Alaska and working theirway south. But, he pointed out, the sea level was much lower at that time (asmuch as 400 feet lower), with so much water tied up in the glaciers, so anysettlements they might have established would be underwater now. He suggestedwe should be doing more diving along the coastline to find them.

Okay. Who still thinks that ancient alien visitors broughta herd of humans to the Americas? (This was the last suggestion I made when Igave this talk at conventions.)

Life Goes On

Every once in a while – I’m sure you’ve all experienced it –life decides to kick you, just to see how you react. And there are times whenlife decides to repeat the experiment (ad nauseum) for an extended period oftime. It’s a real bummer, and the longer it goes on, the bummier it gets. (Iknow, ‘bummier’ is not a real word. Blame the creative artiste withinme. I think it gets the thought across.)

Well, for the past 8-9 months, that’s what this householdhas been going through; one of the bummiest rough patches I think I’ve beenthrough that didn’t involve people dying. Lots of illness in the house, some ofwhich we are still working our way through, a treasure trove of doctor’sappointments to schedule and then get to. Sometimes as many as 3 appointmentsin one day. A car accident that killed one of our cars, 2 air conditionersgoing out (one in our remaining car) and computer equipment dying.

There’s an old saying I’m familiar with, about insanitybeing to repeat the same action, expecting a different outcome. And it occursto me that in a way, that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been getting up everymorning, doing what I had to do, and expecting things to get better.

Maybe insanity wins, because I’m beginning to believethings might be getting better. I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but I’venow had 2 weeks where I did not call the doctor’s office to schedule anappointment for one of us. No urgent care or emergency room visits. Justworking our way through a number of appointments that I set up when I was ‘doingwhat I had to do’.

It’s kind of been the same in my endeavors to market ourbooks. For a lot of those same months, I worked diligently at marketing, but nothingseemed to make any difference. This past couple of weeks, I started looking at adifferent angle on my marketing. It involved laying out a bit of money, buthey, it takes money to grow money, right? (At least that’s what the rich peoplesay.) But about a week ago, it occurred to me that I could do the exact samething by making use of the outlets I already have established. Without puttingout any large sum of money. So the last few days, I’ve been designing newbusiness cards and coupons to hand out at the next science fiction convention Igo to. Which happens to be in September. Wish me luck, okay?

Life can be a bummer for a while. But at the same time,life goes on. One has to be ready for the bummerness to go away, which iteventually will. Then you can reach up for the goodness, take a deep breath,and move on in relief.

Getting Home

Sunday,4/30 - We arrived at LA, and had to find out where our gate was. We only had about1/2 hr to get there. Turned out it was down this big hallway, turn right, downthe escalator to a smaller hallway, take the elevator up to another smallhallway, then through a doorway to a small room that had 2 gates in it. Inearly missed it because I saw 'Gate 41B' before I noticed 'Gate 41A'. Weneeded 41A. We sat down in the cramped quarters to wait, and I got my sweaterout of the carry-on suitcase and put it in my carry-on bag. In case the nextplane was also cold. The boarding ramp to the plane was extra long andconvoluted, but eventually, we got to the plane. We didn't get to sit togetherhere, either. I shoved my cpap and bag under the seat in front of me, buckledmy seat belt, and tried to get some sleep. This was another 5-hr trip, to Orlando.Shortly after take-off, the staff came around with cookies and drinks. Since Ihadn't had any breakfast, I made the most of it. I think I managed to doze someof the time. Shortly before landing, staff came around again to offer coffee orwater. I should have taken the water; my sinuses felt completely parched, but Ipassed.

We claimedour baggage and went to find our shuttle for our parking lot. It took somedoing, but we finally connected with it. The shuttle driver was not the mostpleasant person in the world. Our car had been sitting in the hot sun for overa week, and the remote clicker wouldn't work; we had to open all the doors withthe key. Then as we drove home, we kept hearing the locking mechanisms goingoff and on. John finally got it to stop by hitting the 'lock' button on hisdoor handle. Our first place for stopping to eat was super busy, so we went toour 2nd choice and got something to take home with us. Watched an hour of tvwhile we ate and went to bed about 9 pm.

PS.Monday, 5/1 - we discovered we had both come home with covid.

Pearl Harbor & Getting on Our Plane

 

Pearl Harbor

Saturday, 4/29 - John got up about 5:45, having had amiserable night. Went for breakfast at the buffet, then gathered our carry-onsand made our way to the disembarkment station. Around 8, we were sent off theship to claim our luggage and find our tour bus. John nearly had a panic attackbecause he couldn't find our car keys. We were given a short tour of somesights in Honolulu, then given about 4 hrs to explore the Pearl HarborMemorial. We saw 2 short movies and took a boat over to the USS ArizonaMemorial, where we spent about 15 or 20 minutes. We didn't know if there wouldbe a place to eat at the airport, so we got a sandwich apiece at the snack shopand finished with a look through the gift shop, where I bought a tote bag. Bythen, John was getting tired, so we slowly walked back to the bus and waitedfor the rest of the people to show up. The tour bus dropped us off at theairport at about 1:30. Our plane was scheduled to take off at 10:59 pm, so wehad a long wait before we could check our luggage and go through TSA. There wasno place to eat outside the TSA, so we were extra happy we'd had sandwiches toget us through.

Getting on OurPlane

John searchedevery one of our suitcases and the carry-on bag for the car keys, which wefinally found. We discovered we could get our suitcases checked in 6 hoursbefore the plane took off, so about 5 pm, we hopped up and got started on that.TSA was its usual nightmare for John, or more so, because the x-ray machineclaimed he had metal somewhere, and they had to pat him down. Happens to me allthe time, but I think it's the first time for him. Then we started walking toour gate. It was a long walk, made even longer by the number of stores thatwere already closed. We finally came across a restaurant that was open, so westopped and had burgers and sodas. $50! Just before we got to our gate, we cameacross a news stand that was still open, though we had passed a couple that hadalready closed. We sat down and waited. Eventually, I went to that news standand bought a bottle of water. When I got back, John asked, "Couldn't youjust use the water fountain right over there?" My reply was, "Theairplane doesn't have water fountains."

There were morepeople trying to get on the plane than they had seats, including a pair ofparents and their 3 young girls. The clerk was looking for volunteers to bebumped so these extra people could get on. As we were checking in to board theplane, this family apparently figured out they wouldn't be sitting together, sothey had to go back to the clerk to get something done about that. John and Ididn't get to sit together, either. We had a 5-hour flight to LA, and I thoughtthe plane was cold, so I didn't manage to get any sleep. John tried to get somesleep, I could see him from where I was, but I don't know if he managed it.

Nearing the End in Hawaii

Thursday, 4/27 - I got up at 6:30 for our morning excursionto the 'Grand Canyon of the Pacific'. First, we made a stop at a rocky beach tosee a spatterhorn in action. That's where the incoming waves go into a tunnelin the rocks and shoots out a hole on the beach, looking much like a geyser.Very interesting.

Then we went to the canyon, which was beautiful, much greenerthan the mainland grand canyon. We weren't getting back to the ship until about2, so we made a short stop in a small town, where most people got off and got abite to eat to tide them over. John wasn't doing very well on the way back, andhe promptly lay down for a nap. I took my book back to the library and read foran hour there, then went to the bar in the lobby and got a Bahama Mama. As Isat there, a long line of people walked by on their way to the luau. I heardsome 700 people had signed up for that. About 1 1/2 hr after john lay down, Iwent back to the room and waited for him to wake. After another hour, hestirred and rolled over. I asked him if he wanted supper, and he said no, so Iwent to the skyline by myself. I was waiting for my 2 desserts (couldn't decideon one) when he walked in and found me, so I guess he did want supper, but hekept complaining the room was warm. After supper, he turned in for the night,and I wasn't too far behind him.

Friday, 4/28 - I got up at 6:30, even though I had set thewake-up call for 7. We had breakfast in the buffet, although we didn't have ashore excursion scheduled this day, then I got off the ship just far enough touse my phone to call John's ENT, but the office was closed. Was it that late?Didn't seem like it to me, even counting the 6 hrs of time difference.Meanwhile, John checked our account balance, then we started looking for face masksfor our shore excursion the next day. The Pearl Harbor Memorial, we were told,requires face masks be worn while inside. The ship's souvenir shop didn't haveany, but the medical center handed them over cheerfully. We went to deck 11 todo some reading. About 11, we went to the room to pack everything we weren'tgoing to need. At noon, we went for lunch, then John wanted a nap, but wascoughing too hard to sleep, so he went to deck 11 to take pictures. I sat inthe room writing.

About 5 pm, we went to deck 11 to try to see the beautifulNali Pai shoreline. The ship had left its dock about 2 and traveled to the eastside of the island so people could see this spectacular view before it turnedaround and headed for Honolulu. It had been a misty day, and unfortunately, aswe approached the Nali Pai shoreline, the clouds came down to sea level andobscured the view. So we went to supper at the buffet, since we were already ondeck 11. John had a couple desserts, while I had corn on the cob, celery,apricots and walnuts. Back to our room to make sure everything was packed, thenJohn went to bed. I put the big suitcases out to be disembarked for us, andwent to bed about 7:45, but because it was so early, I spent some time thinkingabout the next scene in my Work in Progress.

More Adventures in Hawaii

Tuesday, 4/25 - Hilo, Hawaii (the big island). I got upabout 6, the wake-up call came at 6:45. Went to Skyline for breakfast, where wewere warned that omelets and waffles couldtake 1/2 hour to prepare, in case we had a shore excursion. We ordered anyway,and there was no delay. Went to the theater and shortly got sent down to findour bus. Before we boarded, they handed each of us a 'box lunch' and a can ofwater. Because of my knees, we were offered seats in the front of the bus. Westopped at a Japanese garden, a statue of Kamehameha, Rainbow Falls, AkakaFalls, the zoo (where we ate our lunch), a macadamia farm gift shop and a candyshop. Had to take a detour to get to Akaka Falls, and missed the turn to thefalls, so had to turn around on a busy hiway. Got back to the boat about 3:30or 4:00, went to the talk on our next port of call. Back to our room until5:30, when we went to Skyline for supper. Long line to get in and had to skipdessert to get to the comedy show, which was good. Back to the room, read for abit, then went to bed.

 

Wednesday, 4/26 – I have forgotten the names of the restof the ports we visited and the islands they were on. My notes don’t includethat information. We’re still touring Hawaii, and probably hitting the islandsto the north and west of the Big Island.

I got up at 5:30 because I woke up. The wake-up callsounded at 6:30, and John got up. To the buffet for breakfast, then to our roomto pick up stuff for our day ashore; water, our shore excursion tickets, and soon. Went to the theater to be ready for our excursion. To get to our excursion,we had to get on a tender boat and be ferried to the shore. Once there, wefound our tour guide, jumped in his van, and we were off for a "ScenicTaste of Hawaii". First, we went to a coffee farm, where John bought anexpensive lb of coffee ($46). Then to a farmer's market, where we bought abook, 2 jars of local jelly, a facial scrub and a bottle of essential oil(TiTree). At a macadamia nut farm, John found a lb of coffee was going for $64!(He didn't get any.) Then to a park on the beach where we got a box lunch anddrink for lunch. Then back to the port for a tour of the Kona Brewing Co, wherewe sampled 4-5 different beers. Got dropped off at the pier about 4:05, and theline waiting for a tender ride back to the ship was a mile long. The lasttender was leaving the pier at 5, and they were loading tenders as fast as theycould. Once we got to the ship, we went to our room, to relax before ourspecialty dining reservation at 8:00.

I was not terribly impressed by the French food offeredby Jefferson's Bistro. Mostly, I wondered how I was supposed to eat it. Evenfor the baked pear I got for dessert, I had to ask for a knife so I could cutit up and get pieces on my spoon. 

Maui, the First Island

 Getting aTaste

 

Sunday,4/23 - At the island of Maui. We had a tasting excursion at 8:15, so we got upat 6:30 and had breakfast. Had 14 passengers and a driver/guide packed into avan, driving from place to place to try various dishes. Usually, a 'tasting' isa single bite, or maybe 2, but several of these tastings involved a completeserving. John got over-heated at 1 point, and then got full at the next stop,which surprised me. The final stop was a craft brewing company that servedfood. John tried the 2 beers they offered for tasting, but neither of us ateour fish taco. Back at the ship, John was wiped and took a nap. Then we hadsupper at the skyline, which was okay. John read for a while and went to bed. Iread until midnight and went to sleep.

Our roomhad not been made when we got back to the ship about 2. Which meant the bed hadnot been split. I complained - again - and someone arrived about 3 to clean it.We went to the library until about 4. It had been cleaned and the bedsseparated so we could use them.

 

Climbingthe Volcano

Monday,4/24 - still at Maui. Had an excursion at 8 to go to the top of the dormantvolcano, supposed to be 2 to 1/2 hours, but we didn't get back until 12:30.John tried to walk the last 500 feet to the top of the peak, but only gothalf-way there before he had to turn around and come back or miss the bus. Itwas a spectacular sight, but John was running down by the time we got back tothe ship. We were going to eat at the Skyline, but it wasn't open, so we wentto the buffet. Listened to our voicemails on our room phone. NextCruise wantedto answer John's questions, and she would be at her desk from 2 until 4. Weoriginally went to the wrong desk, but eventually found her. Then back to ourroom, where John was tired and upset. At 4, went to the talk about the nextday's port, Hilo, on the Big Island. At 5:00 was a Loyalty Appreciation party.After about 15 minutes, we left to get supper. Decided to try the CadillacDiner, but weren't impressed. John ate about half his sandwich and went back toour cabin. I finished most of my meal and went to our cabin. We talked aboutthe luau, which was an evening excursion on Thursday, and decided to cancel ourparticipation, so I went down and cancelled it. When I got back to the roomaround 7, J stopped reading and went to bed.