Miranda Davis's Blog: So the thing is

Third book is out

The amazon link is working, all is well.

Amazon may take it's time to release it...

I'm just about cross-eyed from lack of sleep, friends, but I have published on Amazon.

HOWEVER, they can take up to 3 days to review it and given the holiday I don't know if it will come sooner or later. Since I wanted it dated 12.24, I had to wait till 12.24 to punch the button.

I'm still working on the Nook ePub format, there is weirdness I cannot unscramble at the moment.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy holiday!

Okay, I'm almost ready to publish

I'm putting the (last, I hope) finishing touches on the third book about Seelye. Yes, finally. It's been shameful--shameful!-- how long it's taken. (Note the sentence structure that does not involve a personal pronoun accepting responsibility for the LOOOOOOOOOOOONG gestation period. We writers can be slippery, sly shirkers. Though in my defense I have fretted over this a whole heck of a lot.)

In the past, I published on a holiday (Valentine's Day, April Fools Day) so I can keep track of when I did it. (I've been blessed with the short-term memory of an invertebrate. And not an octopus, they are quite intelligent, I understand. I'm thinking earthworm.)

Anyway, it takes me about a week to figure out the whole formatting thing and recheck the book yet again so let's say it'll be live by Christmas Eve. I'll put it in the AMazon system 24 hours earlier but it can take up to another day to show up.

Thank you all for asking me about it long after I'd have forgotten all about it if I hadn't been writing it.

I hope you enjoy it.

Best wishes for a wonderful, happy holiday!

So much for positive thinking...

I hope anyone reading this is about to have a rollicking, joyful and/or peaceful and restorative holiday.

As for me, I'm still at work and have finally admitted to myself that I won't get this published by the end of the year.

I try very hard to be a woman of my word, but I want to get this right and it still needs work.

Very best wishes for 2017!

So I'm doing it again, I will publish in 2016

This time it's going to stick. I've completed a draft of His Lordship's Last Wager and am well into the awful, tiring, dispiriting task of editing it. On the upside, having let enough time pass, I'm reading it like it's new to me and I do find parts that make me laugh aloud, so at least one of us finds it funny.

In compensation for the missed deadlines and long wait, here is a recipe for a not-too-sweet chocolate snack cake that is a proper afternoon reward for accomplishing whatever you find difficult:

Oven: preheat to 350
Butter a 8" round pan or line it with parchment and spray with non-stick oil stuff.

2/3 cup stout -I look for Chocolate stout, there is never enough chocolate in one's life.
10Tbls unsalted butter (one stick +2Tbls)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/3cups all-purpose flour ( I sub some almond flour in)
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 large whole egg+ 1 yolk
2/3 cup sour cream
confectioner's sugar for dusting if you like

Bring butter and stout to simmer in heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder, whisk till smooth. Let cool slightly.
In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt, set aside.
In second bowl, beat egg and yolk and sour cream with electric mixer--I use a hand mixer--to blend, then add stout-butter-cocoa mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine.
Add flour mix, beat 30 seconds on slowest speed. Fold batter with spatula until completely incorporated. Pour into pan.
Bake for 50-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from center.
Cool on rack for 10 mins. Run knife around to loosen from pan and turn out to cool completely.

Ahem, it's August 2015, and I've still got a long way to go

Should've kept my mouth shut about publishing #3 this year.

However, I thought it would be wise to set a goal in the new year. Publicly.

It might still happen -- do note the passive, 'mistakes were made' tone of that.

I'd hoped to be deep into editing the finished draft by now, not still trying to get the action down in order. But no.

May I blame it on menopause and mind fog? If not, I'll blame it on wrist surgery.

However, an encouraging number of recent readers have emailed me to goose me along, for which I am very grateful. It's working.

I'm close to finishing the first draft, after which it's knives out to edit, a 2-3 month process for me.

If you've read a great Regency, plug it here so others can enjoy it, too.

Let it not be said that my blogging serves no earthly purpose.

Oh, Maggie Fenton's #2 due out in Oct. Can't wait.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I resolve to eat many more fruits and vegetables and to publish Seelye's Story,His Lordship's Last Wager.

How about you?

I finally did it and got a brand spanking new MacBook, god help me and my peripherals

Time to face facts: I am an analog gal in a digital world.

Not that I'm complaining. Even a troglodyte can appreciate the blessing of self-publishing, if she cannot quite accomplish it without much sweat, knuckle-dragging and gnashing of teeth.

But why is buying a computer SUCH an ordeal? I bought a CAR faster and with less anxiety! (The combustion engine's been around for a century or so, guess I've made my peace with it.)

First issue, when to buy a computer. Being cheap by nature, I hate finally taking the plunge only to discover a month later the bigger, faster, crisper thingy is the price I'd paid for the now-meager, malingering and fuzzy-looking one. I stumbled onto MacRumor.com. That helped, in that they didn't say, "Don't even think about buying that now" about the one I was thinking about buying. In fact, I stumbled onto a deal on a nifty one, or at least, I think I did. But what the hell do I know?

Which brings me to the whole headache of what to buy.

I am not, as mentioned, tech savvy. Tech-resentful, yes; savvy, no. I do not speak to Siri. I do not play online post-apocalyptic video games requiring a Cray mainframe's worth of random access memory. I may have used computers since the days before word processing programs--yes, really--but I walked barefoot to classes in the snow, too. (Wrote my senior thesis on the college mainframe, torturing my advisor with a dot-matrix print out of a long, continuous accordian-folded feed of my thoughts on something old and Chinese-y.) I only get gushy about software and apps, Scrivener being every aspiriring writer's best friend (Literature and Latte.com).

However, I've been a Luddite long enough. Even though I don't trust 'em, it's time to accept a terabyte of flash storage and 16GBs of RAM, damn it. Maybe, I'll even dip a toe in that newfangled iCloud or stow something in a drop box.

Then again, maybe not. No need to overdo it. Getting the new computer to talk to the printer without leaving my older computers out in the cold will be challenge enough.

Wish me luck.

And I'll wish you a merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy new year and very happy reading!

So before I get back to work writing, a bit about my favorite podcasts

I have just lived through a sad time, so sad, that I've felt guilty for smiling, or laughing. A time so grim and exhausting, I could not for the life of me think of anything amusing for the third book I've been writing about Lord Seelye. (It was, however, a prime mood for editing the draft.)

But enough about my petty woes, there is very good news if you haven't been exploring the world of podcasts.

Since you're here, I can safely assume you find English history interesting and that's why you are in luck!

There are two delightful, hilarious, historically accurate (as far as I can tell, but what the hell do I know?) podcasts to give a listen to:

1) The History of England by David Crowther (who, when differing with academic historians' theories, says, "but I'm just a bloke in a shed.") Mr. Crowther is meandering his way from Anglo-Saxon times and has reached the 14th century so far. He takes fascinating detours to discuss fashions, or European history at the time. Mr. C. has a Monty Pythonesque approach to the mayhem of the past and his dry, wry wit is a constant source of pleasure, as is his take on history and who did what to whom and why. He's flat-out wonderful. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

It's available FREE at the iTunes store;
and

2) Rex Factor, a cheeky biographical takeoff on X-Factor talent show, involves two guys, Graham and Ali, who review all the monarchs of England from Alfred the Great to dear and dour QEII. Graham, the historian apparently, summarizes the challenges and events in the king or queen's life, with Ali offering his commentary, then the two hunker down and score each on criteria: Battliness (success at war, fight-y attitude, etc.), Scandal (juicy, raunchy and renowned- instigate an archbishop's hacking to death at the high altar? High scores for you, Henry II), Subjectivity (would you want to be a subject during his/her reign), Longevity, Dynasty (surviving heirs, not the TV program), and finally whether or not the monarch deserves the ultimate accolade of having that je ne sais crois, the Rex Factor. The premise alone is hysterically funny and the guys are brilliant while handicapping the week's royal subject. Please skip the first intro, the sound is terrible and not a true representation of their output.
Free on iTunes, too. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/r...

The boys of Rex Factor have completed their entire survey, have conducted several rounds of play-offs among the 18 Rex Factor monarchs to identify the single, ultimate Rex Factor Sovereign. I won't ruin the suspense but every show but the first is well worth listening to. They are very, very funny fellows.

I may also post an outstanding recipe for chocolate stout cake, that is superb, easy peasy and not too sweet.

If you've come across a worthy podcast on any subject, please share the what, who, when, why and where's here.