Wonderful weather today when I wake. The temperature is brilliantly warm, and for the first time in weeks the wind isn’t chilly. Yay.
When I wake I don’t even mind being sore all over–from being squeezed by the dogs– for a change. I stretch and yawn now that I’m not forced to keep huddled under the blankets, lest the cold hit me in the face.
The Monster Boxer is, of course, making a nuisance of herself, but I don’t care as I lunge for her collar and toss her out into my small backyard so I can let the other dogs out without her pouncing on them in her usual enthusiasm.
The pack trips over each other in their haste to get out of the cabin, the lot of them storming out into the open and heading up the sheer rock wall for a morning run. Shaking my head at their silly antics, I turn and smile at the cozy surroundings of my newly remodeled cabin…best birthday present ever…and head for the bedroom to make the bed.
Rather than start on the morning rituals, I waste some time taking pictures. I gotta post a few on Myspace to show it off, of course. I need to make pictures of the finished kitchen too, but I’m waiting until it is completely “done”.
After lingering in my cabin for about an hour, soaking up the wonderful temperatures, I head out. I’m going to wash my vest today. It’s been at least a week and what with the change in weather I decide to risk a slight chill in the evening, in favor of having it clean.
When I arrive at the house, big brother’s pack practically colliding with mine since he beat me to the main living area, I find a package for me on the kitchen counter.
I’m delighted at unwrapping it and finding a copy of my W.I. Investigations/Shape Shifter, in the Digest size. It took over a month to get here, but looking at it, I actually think that I like it better than the pocket size. The cover jumps out much better in this size and it’s looking pretty darn great.
Now I need to see if it is possible to put my ISBN on the digest, rather than the pocket, ‘cause that certainly should attract potential readers what with the price being cut in half that way. It is so horridly expensive at the moment that I’ve hardly had any buyers at all.
It is something I should look into for sure.
The strange thing is, besides the occasional feedback that I’ve messed up an occasional punctuation and oversaw a typo here and there, the overall opinion is that the stories are good, and yet there seems to be very little word of mouth going on.
I do wish I had more time to promote the works, but what with daily life, writing and doing what I am already doing…which pretty much fills the days to a point that I fear I can’t get anything done at all…there is very little more that I can do.
It almost seems as if those who read the stories forget them, no matter how much they actually like them. I’ve asked several of my readers, and they can’t explain it either (being very apologetic about forgetting to even pick it up for reading) but somehow it slips their minds to read it and then get back to me in due time.
It’s not that I mind waiting, but it does make me worry if there is perhaps something missing in the W.I.s or perhaps my name that doesn’t “click” as it were.
The same goes for publishers and the likes, really, I’ve had more than one in the past that I didn’t hear back from, and then when I send them a query letter, asking if they had received my manuscript it had gotten lost somewhere without being read, and if I’d be so kind as to resend it…only to never get back to me. It does make a body wonder.
If I were superstitious–like some characters in my stories so obviously are–I would think I was hexed, or something. No one doesn’t NOT like it, since many have assured me that they DO, and yet…well…it boggles the mind at times and an interesting premise for a book. It deserves some thought. Hah.
Enough pondering about the subject, I’ll save it for when I go to bed and my mind starts keeping me awake again with useless ponderings. Hah.
No laundry today, other than my winter vest, yay, so with that particular chore circumvented, I settle behind my computer right after breakfast and deal with the day’s messages.
Not too many, Mondays are always slow, but this is good since I only have a few hours to get some work done on the latest vampire story.
After rereading some of yesterday’s work, I get to writing and manage a page or so before it is time to start get ready to leave for town. Added to the fact that I need to get to the sports department, big brother and I need to go to school as well…hopefully with the computers working this time.
We put up the new back-light cover of the truck on, before we depart–it came in this morning–and while Dani, our driver for the day, reverses up the mountain, she promptly drives into the moped parked halfway up the road, once again breaking the very cover big brother has just screwed on. Drat! €17 down the drain. Hopefully the garage will be able to get another one ASAP.
She’s dreadfully embarrassed, explaining that she has the hardest time reversing on mirrors only. We laugh it off, making a mental note to do the reversing ourselves the next time. It is such a bore needing a driver, but until we have a valid Spanish drivers’ license going without one really isn’t a risk we’re willing to take. Since following the silly lessons we’ve found that being caught without a Spanish drivers’ license won’t allow someone to get a new one for two whole years. Yikes!
But anyways, at the sports store I manage to get my hands on the last pair of boxing gloves and we arrive at the school promptly to start our lessons. The computers have been repaired, but we have to wait for ten minutes before our teacher finds the time to give us our new codes. Fifteen minutes later we can get started at last.
We work at the computers for almost two hours, rapidly going through eleven tests and passing them with 0-2 errors on the whole. Good statistics, and by the time we’re done I feel pretty confident that soon we will be able to sign up for the exams.
After lessons, we pop in at the home improvement store for some quick supplies, the video rental for four DVDs ‘till either Thursday of Friday, and then head home, where little sister has dinner waiting.
My stomach has been off most of the day, and though I am hungry, I’m not really able to eat properly because the meal doesn’t go down well at all, no matter how tasty.
I’m nauseous most of the evening while we watch HellBoy II The Golden Army. It’s not bad, but it wasn’t as good as part one. They turned it more into a kids’ movie, which is a pity–and an affliction I’ve been noticing a lot with today’s movies. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull had that problem, and I have no doubt that The Mummy III will be worse that part II. I’ll know in the next few days.
I wonder why they do that: Take a perfectly good, serious or semi-serious story and mess it up like that? Perhaps it’s the PG13 rating they’re all pretty much striving for so they can earn more money.
Suffice it to say that I was slightly disappointed at the end. And Adam Sandler’s Zohan movie was a bit on the iffy side, too. There were some funny aspects, but they were straddling the line when it got remarkably close to being annoying.
In the midst of movie two, we find my new gloves on the floor…with no idea how the dogs managed to get their teeth in them this time. I’d put them high and back on arrival. Luckily the damage is minimal and I can still use them.
For the remainder of the evening, I try to keep my stomach calm with watered down OJ. To no avail, since the moment I get up to my cabin, I can no longer keep my stomach contents down and worship the porcelain bowl for a few minutes.
Feeling decidedly better, I settle down with my computer for some chats, messages and the day’s Blog, bringing the day to an end.
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