A fast update about what’s going on

Okay, so I’m back. Sort of. I figured I’d give you all a break from me pushing A Girl Named Cord on you. (You could buy the eBook , though. Oops, sorry about that, couldn’t help myself.)

Anyway, life as an author is going alright. I’ve sold four eBooks through Amazon and one through Smashwords. Here is the part I’m a little grumpy about. I know a lot of people who love paperbacks. They have no idea what a Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or eBook is. Never heard of them. So for those people, I publish all my books as both eBooks and paperbacks. I buy several of the paperbacks and sell them to my friends and relatives, which is by far the most profitable. Up until this last week, no one has bought a paperback off Amazon or Createspace (whom I use to format my paperbacks). And thank goodness for that! I have the paperbacks priced at $7.99. The royalty I will receive is o.32 euros. (the book was sold in Australia.) For my 99 cent eBooks, I get 0.36 euros in royalty. (I really have no idea how many euros equal a U.S. dollar, but still!) Somewhere there, that seems messed up.

Fine, moving on. Rancher life is okay. Here in Colorado (actually, I think most of the states are the same way) there is a drought. We only have 1/5 the normal amount of irrigation water, and, well, I’ll suffice it to say we’re a little parched. W-e-l-l, last week we got hit with a huge rainstorm! Yah! But ‘Yah!’ only lasted for a few minutes before I realized my sheep/goat enclosure had four inches of water standing on the floor. Yep, that’s not a good thing. So, in the middle of the pouring rain and lightning storm right above out heads, my sister and I start bailing water while my brother starts digging trenches. For whatever reason, we weren’t gaining. The water just kept coming. We finally had to throw in the towel. So to speak. So we moved my animals to the backyard, where we thought we could fit them into the doghouse. (Just so you know, the doghouse is my sister’s and my old playhouse.) They didn’t all fit. So, our only other option was to put the poor, soaking wet, crying babies in the trailer. It stunk, was damp and cold, but they were out of the worst of the storm. After it stopped raining (two days later) and the water soaked in (another two days) we planned to wait for the ground to dry, then we were going to haul in more dirt and mix it with the hay/bedding that was already on the floor. Scratch that idea because the hay started to rot and it was crawling with worms and maggots. Fast-forward, and we finally have the sheep/goat house clean of the grossness. And the floor is muddy. (About this time, the baby milk goat I’ve been waiting on arrives. Yah! But sadly, after having her for only three days, she became an ornery, five-month-old escape artist who would not let me catch or pet her, and I had to return her.) Wait another couple days. Give up waiting because it is getting to be a pain trying to shove my 70 pound sheep into the trailer where they just DON’T want to GO! The next day is spent filling up the 10X20 foot enclosure with another four inches of dirt. (Yeah, that took awhile.) And finally, today was spent taking off the door and fitting it with new hinges and latches. We got the feeders set up and put out fresh hay. The babies are finally back home. And guess what, it started raining this afternoon. Oh boy. And to top it off, the horse I sold my sister (my mom’s favorite horse) got colic and died this morning.

So life in general is a mess. I apologize if I’m absent, because I’m trying to deal with a lot, and I don’t know how often I’m going to be around. I don’t know when everything will get straightened back out (if ever), so just bear with me. I’ll schedule a few posts, do some book promoting, and try to pop in from time to time. But if you don’t hear from me, just know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth (maybe I have, but I’m sure someone will feel sorry for me a throw me a rope or something) and I should be back to my regular, happy self soon.

But until then, take care!