Tues. Feb. 18, 2025: Mostly the Good Kind of Busy Weekend
uncredited image from pixabay.comTuesday, February 18, 2025
Waning Moon
Mars Retrograde
Cloudy and bitterly cold
Good morning! I hope you had a terrific weekend. It’s back down below zero, with even worse wind chill.
The Community Tarot Reading for the Week is up on the Cerridwen’s Cottage site here, using the Cozy Witch Tarot and the Shadows of Light Oracle.
Friday morning, I wrote the three book reviews, sent them off, and invoiced. I received my money, transferred it to my bank, and received the next two assignments. I followed up with promised information to the colleague, and had a good exchange with the mayor’s assistant. I bundled up, loaded the rolly cart with books and humped it across the ice and snow to the library, where I exchanged one big pile of books for another. Got everything home, mostly walking in the street, because the sidewalks were too treacherous. Unloaded everything.
I’m called for Jury Duty again! I thought I’d been called last year, but it was two years ago, so I’m up again. It’s for the day after Memorial Day weekend, so it should be fine, down in Pittsfield. I know the drill now. I have my favorite parking spot, the walk to the courthouse isn’t bad, and if I’m there for a few days, rather than dismissed on Day 1, I can explore downtown Pittsfield a bit on my lunch hours. On Cape, I was only called up once in the decade I lived there. Here, I go into the regular rotation, like I did in NY.
I don’t mind jury duty service. It’s a vital part of citizenship, and I always learn a lot. Plus, great background material for my work. When I served the month on Grand Jury service, way back in NYC days, our group of 22 got very tight and hung out together for over a year after service was done. One definitely learns the flaws of the system, but one also sees the strengths. And something to discuss with my elected officials, as far as the overall experience and balance or lack thereof of flaws and hope.
How that will work in this day and age, who knows? But I guess I’ll find out.
Did some background reading for a project in the afternoon, worked on slides for my screenwriting course, worked on the textile/text design, and had a quiet evening. Bea now shares the couch with me when I read, as long as I don’t make any sudden movements. Progress. And she loves to play with Tessa so much. Tessa now sleeps in the sewing room, on the dinosaur blanket most nights. I suspect Bea curls up with her at some point, after I go to bed.
Up at the regular time. Fed the cats, did morning meditation, and did some planning work on the Nina Bell series. I need to get back into a regular schedule with that. I really let the Mars retrograde “stuck” energy kick my ass this time around. I have to handle it better when the next Mars retrograde comes around, in about 2 years.
Housework, paid bills, wrote some cards. Switched out the door décor from the red heart to the green shamrocks.
Headed down to the post office to mail some birthday cards and some bills. Then headed to the store where I usually get the puzzle books for my mom. They didn’t have the ones she usually likes (Find-A-Word). I picked up a couple of others, but she doesn’t like them. Next time I go to tarot, I will drop them on the community shelf, so someone else can enjoy them. Swung by the liquor store to pick up wine.
The sidewalks were treacherous, and it was not fun coming or going. My lower back hurts a lot.
Home to read the next Elizabeth George book for pleasure, and read an autobiography of Eve Arden as background for a project.
The city declared a snow emergency and asked people to stay off the roads. It started snowing around 4, and boy did it come down. Cooked dinner, read, played with the cats. Looked over the Deviant Moon Tarot, which I’ve had for a few years, but haven’t used to read. Someone gave it to me, because it was too disturbing for them. It’s very stylized. You can read about it here.
Slept well in my cozy bed and did not want to get up on Sunday. But the cats needed to be fed, and the day begun. Good morning meditation.
I did the community tarot reading of the week, which was more complex than last week’s, but also ties in and builds on it. Cards are in conversation with and have context with each other, and readings do, too.
Got the print edition of TAPESTRY finalized and it’s going through the channels. It should be ready in a week or so, and will be added into all the various sites. It means I need to update the ads, which is fine. The print price is $13.99, which is a good bit more than the digital ($4.99), but that’s reality. I have the print price as low as they’ll let me set it, and still make a small royalty. And I don’t want the digital price to be the same as the print price. I’m sure some of the distributors will give pushback. Got to work on the print proof of MURDER BELLS. Managed to finish it, make the necessary changes, and put that through. I’m putting the cover fix through on everything. And we did another go at the cover for THE VICIOUS CRITIC. I think we’ve got it this time. That cover’s been a magilla.
Set the prices for the Smashwords sale. The first book in each of my series (TAPESTRY, PLAYING THE ANGLES, TRACKING MEDUSA, SAVASANA AT SEA) will be 50% off. The other books in the series and the Topic Workbooks will be 25% off. Let’s see if anything sells. I know a lot of people offer their books for free during Smashwords. I’m hoping a discount will move the needle.
I hope, as I continue to work on the series, that the digital and print editions will release closer together. I need to get into a better rhythm for it, but the print proofs are more complicated. If I’m going to sell any of these at the reading in October, I have to order the print copies in early August. And hope for the best. I might order some print copies earlier, for myself and to use for contest giveaways. We’ll see how things are financially in the next few months, with all the chaos going on.
I’d slacked off on the necessary marketing the previous couple of days, so I caught up with the content calender.
Spending so much Nina time makes me excited to get back to finish VICIOUS CRITIC, though. I did a readthrough/light editing pass on what I have (approximately 2/3 of the manuscript). I have to fix a logic problem, but the rest of it holds up pretty well (needing, edits, obviously, but in better shape than I thought).
As of Monday morning, MURDER BELLS was available to order author copies, but not TAPESTRY. And I’m not sure what that means for distribution, or when copies will be available through Amazon and Ingram. I’m hoping everything will be available through bookshop.org soon.
Slept well and didn’t want to get up on Monday morning. It snowed on and off all day, and got colder and colder.
My day was on hold, since I’d been promised the ghostwriting notes. Mid-day, I was told “a couple of hours.” Later in the day, I was told there was another delay. Which again, puts pressure on me because I HAVE to finish everything in order to get paid, and I HAVE to get paid by the end of the month or I’m going to be in big trouble if there’s an issue with my mom’s Social Security payment thanks to teenage incels who don’t understand accounting illegally interfering with social security.
The library cohort was interesting. Good conversation, and I picked up some good ideas for tools that I can apply to work beyond the cohort. Seriously, though, the homework is like being back in college. I don’t really mind, I’m just surprised.
The problematic client is now 3 days late paying me. So far. Again. Which is one of the reasons I want the ghostwriting to work out, and I’m looking for other clients to replace this one. Not that I’m expecting much money for this client. I had one project in the past two weeks, earning me 1/8th of what I would normally earn in the pay period. Unsustainable, on so many levels.
I did some work on the next book for review. I spent some time marketing. Supported the “No Kings Day” protests as much as I could. It’s been good to limit my news intake for a few days.
Read THE BLACK CROOK, named as the first musical, back in 1866. Um. . .? Definitely kind of out there, takes place in the Harz of Germany, very over the top. I have a feeling the stories around the show are more interesting than the script itself. The copy I read is part of another book, borrowed from the library. I will have to track down a copy of the script for myself. Because I need it on my shelf, even if I don’t yet know what I’m going to do with it.
My back’s been bothering me for a couple of weeks, and it got really bad on Monday. Between the snow shoveling and hauling stuff in the rolly cart over ice and snow, it’s done a number on my body. Too bad for me, though, right? It has to get done. This week, I’m limiting errands; I think I only have to go to the grocery store tomorrow and the library on Friday. I’d like to push off the grocery store until Friday and go to the library on Saturday, but we’ll see if that’s possible.
I did some restorative yoga, using props, to try to get some relief for my back. It helped, but I’m going to be hurting for a while.
Tried to sort out a logic problem I’m having in VICIOUS CRITIC. I’m reshaping the last third of the book quite a bit from the original outline, so it’s taking more time than I’d like.
Slept reasonably well, although I was up by about 3:30, between worrying and being in pain. It’s bitterly, bitterly cold out, so I don’t plan on going anywhere. I’m going to work on the anthology story and the slides for my class until I get my ghostwriting notes, and then dive into that. And finish the next book for review. And do the rounds of my elected officials. That seems like a reasonable plan for my Tuesday!
Have a good one!
