The road trip!!!

Song of the day: “Never be the same” by Camilla Cabello. It tends to linger in my mind. Wonder if that means something.

So, yeah, it’s happened. The big road trip has been over and done with for several days now, and already it seems like an eternity. It was an exciting event, involving so much new adventures in just 20 days.

It started early on the 2^nd of October, with the three of us heading for the bus station around the corner, and leaving behind a running dishwasher, because, of course it somehow didn’t run the night before. Aaaaargh. Hate that, but what can you do. Housesitters were going to have to take care of it, right?

Anyway, we headed to Amersfoort by bus, then by train to the airport in Amsterdam. Were nicely on time, too, meaning we had quite a bit of waiting to do before we were going to board the plane. But we did, naturally. Firs the connecting flight to Zurich, which went fine, except that we were running late, which meant that we literally had to run to make our flight across the Atlantic. Because, of course, our flight left from across the friggin’ airport! My poor foot was not amused. And here I thought my foot was going to have a well deserved vacation to get better after all the running around at work the past few month. Grrrr.

Be that as it may, the flight was interminably long, the seats small, the food good, and the staff friendly. I didn’t manage to sleep a wink, mind you. My knees were literally squeezed between the seats and practically everything hurt by the time we finally arrived in Boston, and had to take the shuttle bus to the car rental agency. Luckily it wasn’t too far.

Since we had basically taken all safety precautions in regard to insurance and whatnot, they tried to have us upgrade to a bigger car (which would increase the price by “just a bit”, naturally) but we decided to be frugal and stuck to the sedan…good thing, too. Because when we got up to the parking area they had two cars left, of which would could take our pick. We took the massive (twice the size of what we paid for) red Nissan Pathfinder in a New York second, and didn’t regret it for even one second. I mean, seriously. We had head space, legs space and luggage space. And to think we had almost paid for that but didn’t have to…it was bliss.

The first bit of the drive went a little iffy, partly because the TomTom app we had hit the occasional snag. But we reached the booked hotel before midnight, just barely. Not the best of hotels regarding maintenance, but the service was good, and it was clean, which are the most important aspects in my book.

We drove through some gorgeous areas those first couple of days, which included The Pioneer Valley, the Mohawk trail and the mountains bordering on New York State in General. Loved that bit…and Niagara Falls, for that matter, which we managed to reach just before nightfall, meaning that the light was awesome. I was very impressed with the sights.

There was lots of traveling involved, yes, in the end we travelled more than 5250 miles (8000km) and despite being tired, and sore from all the sitting, and the fast food, and the microwave food, it was still something I wouldn’t trade for the world.

There were friends to visit. Long-time friends that I have been chatting with for ages and ages, and whom I’ve been wanting to meet for years. There was Terry in Michigan, which meant a much-anticipated detour on our route to Detroit where we would meet for a wonderful dinner with her and her husband. Terry was…well, Terry as I’d imagined her over the years, although her photo doesn’t do her justice. Regretfully we got in a bad traffic accident on the way back, where someone died, so that was kinda rough.

The driving is a little “looser” over there. Everyone drives at least 10mph over the speed limit, when stuck in a traffic jam, some folks will just drive over the shoulder of the road, to cross to the other direction lanes, and try to integrate there while cars are speeding past at a 110. Downright scary, I tell ya. In fact, at some point I saw this fella in an old beat-up truck, on the phone, and one foot sticking out of the driver’s window. How he even managed that, is a mystery to me.

Then things got flat, and that flatness stayed a long, long time.

There was an area in Indiana that was absolutely lovely. And the climate was mild there, so in regard to places to live, it was definitely worth another visit in the future. This is where we visited the lovely Archer, whose cedar cabin was perched on this lovely spot in the middle of the woods, so far out that we would never have been able to find it if she hadn’t met us at the local Wendy’s. We might have found the road through maps, but it kept going so far, that we would definitely have started doubted about the accuracy of the direction within the first fifteen minutes. I got to know Archer for real, and it was grand. We petted dogs, petted horses, and went out in a big 4x truck so we could travel over dirt roads, creeks and whatnot. It was great…followed by a crock-pot meal that did well in filling the empty corners of our stomachs. Hah. We were all sorry to say our goodbyes that evening, and head on over to our motel, which was downright dirty compared to the ones we had visited in the days before. Not recommendable, that one.

Our next visit was near Kansas City, where C.W. and her husband lived, and who kindly invited the three of us to spend the night there. It was awesome to meet her finally, too. And the plans they had for us…oh my. So much to see in the area. We went to Union station, visited the Hallmark company, toured around the city a little, and then went to the local shooting range where we got our first shooting lesson. I kid you not. I shot several guns that day, and I was pretty darn good with several of them. Woohoo. I so need to see about learning more about that. Had a wonderful time, getting to know C.W. better. She was just like I imagined her, too, which is an odd realization to make…but also something that implies that somehow you’ve managed to become true friends, even through the internet. Oh, and they took us to eat real Kansas City Barbeque, which sure was something. Big brother and Lisa (our companion) actually tried most of it, while I managed to enjoy some of the grilled chicken. Woohoo. Seeing as our hosts were so great, and the place lovely, I was sorry to leave there the next day…did see live buffalo, though, which was awesome

I friggin’ loved the Ozarks! Seriously. If you’re a nature buff, and if you like the hills, it is a place you HAVE to visit. It is gorgeous. You have towering trees, flowing pastures, winding little rivers. It was so beautiful, even in the cute little towns with its old Victorians and colonial buildings, that at times it absolutely took my breath away. The Wandaroo lodge is definitely a place you want to stay when you go there. Nothing fancy, but a lovely atmosphere. They’re still working on it, but have reasonable pricing. Really enjoyed our days there. Went on several hikes, near the lake, through Eureka Springs, the trail to King River’s overlook, which was grand. So beautiful there. Even took the car on some dirt roads (which wasn’t really allowed with the rental, but what with the TomTom having gotten us lost several times already, on dirt tracks too, we figured what the heck. A gorgeous place to further explore, for sure. Missouri was beautiful.

Our next big stop was New Orleans. There we met JR and her son, who once again, was exactly how I expected her to be. It was awesome meeting her too, especially the second day when she, her son and his girlfriend took us out on the town for a proper look-see. New Orleans was nice and warm. In fact, for a while it seemed like we were right back in Spain on a humid day. Some beautiful sights in the Big Easy. So much history in the French Quarter, lovely old buildings, friendly folks and many places where you could stuff your face. JR, in fact, took us for a late lunch at the Gumbo shop, where big brother tried gumbo, and I had black grilled chicken with garlicky mash potatoes and creamy spinach. Yummy. We saw quite a bit of the town, and though I still find it fascinating, a big city is just not my thing. I would have liked to explore some more, for sure, but I also looked forward to heading east.

Farther than we planned for the first day after New Orleans, actually. We had decided that we wanted to see Maine after all, which meant skipping one planned stop and driving straight through one time. So, the motel in Birmingham, Alabama got picked, and the others we had already booked rescheduled, which didn’t go as easily as we’d hoped due to the approaching weekend. But big brother persevered, and they all worked out in the end, thankfully.

After New Orleans there was a really, really long drive, through Missouri, Alabama and straight to the Smoky Mountains, a place we have all wanted to see a long time. We had an old motel near Sevierville, from where we could head on up into the national forest and truly see some of the nature there. It was so beautiful. I wanted to get lost in those woods. They were haunting and amazing, doing their name justice with narrow tendrils of clouds drifting between the mountains like smoke. Gorgeous! We also visited the reservation of the Cherokee nation there, which was just as special as the rest of the area. And amazing place…where we spent quite a few hours driving around before the end of the day approached and we had to return to the hotel.

The day after, was another long drive, but this time there was a bit of time limit, because we were going to meet Elsie at her place. I LOVED the Appalachian Mountains even more than the Smoky mountains, or maybe just in a different way. The area east of Boone, I want to explore that further some day. The plan had been a late lunch at Elsie’s, but by the time the TomTom app finally got us there, well, by then we had given into the inevitable and opened up maps, it was close to four o’clock. Luckily she didn’t mind.

It was so nice to finally meet her, too. We’d been chatting for quite some time online, and now we got to while away the afternoon talking of her wonderful home, perched above an old quarry, and comparing notes about publishing books. We had so much fun doing it that we completely forgot about the time. In fact, while we had planned to leave around seven (we still had some distance to travel that day) we didn’t actually get on the road until almost ten in the evening. * sigh * Can’t say I regret it, though. It was a great afternoon, where I got to meet some wonderful, wonderful people.

It did make getting to the booked motel of the night not all that easy. We rushed our way through North Caroline and Georgia at top speed. Still it took a long time. In fact, I could barely keep my eyes open, navigating those roads, but we did manage before midnight, so all was well.

The next day we hit Washington DC, which was an experience on its own. We had some business to attend there, and regretfully that took longer than expected, so guess what, we got stuck in traffic, which was absolutely horrid. Seriously, I think it took about an hour to navigate out of the city, making us late in reaching New Jersey, where we planned to spend the night. Did the Pentagon, and the Washington Monument, the obelisk, and the of course the Smithsonian and the Senate, which were all grand sites to see…if only from a slight distance. * sigh * The loss of time did cause that we could only see Philly by night, however impressive that still looked with all its lights and towering buildings.

Alas time was limited, and our aim, Maine. New York came next, and we didn’t even bother with the poor TomTom app by then. Heck, even maps had trouble in New York, and even though we had planned to stay out of the city entirely, we saw Queens, we saw Harlem, and swore like the heroes in a Tarantino movie. Impressive city, and I got some gorgeous pictures of it along the way, but it took so friggin’ long to get out that by the time we finally exited the city and found a place with a restroom, I was ready to slap both big brother and Lisa on the back of the head if they missed that turn. Aaaaargh! It felt like an eternity, and then when I went into the “Dunkin Donuts” the restrooms were closed because they needed cleaning. What’s worse, there were already four women waiting, and while I joined the wait, another three arrived. The poor guy who had to do the cleaning got so worried about the glares, he told us to go ahead, he would clean up after us. Haha.

With some difficulty we reached our destination that day just after nine, because the privately owned motel had a closing time of 10. Not an easy thing when navigating the horror traffic around the big cities like New York and Boston, but regardless, the nature started becoming beautiful as soon as we reached the outskirts of the city. Oh the colors it was astonishingly beautiful to see fall already in full swing.

The last hotel was a lovely spot to spent our last day in the US. It was nothing fancy, and they definitely needed a boost in income in order to improve on the accommodations, but I loved the old bits of it most. We went for a walk our first day, the weather still good enough, even though the sky was overcast. Went to this small wildlife preserve, along the salt marshes and it was great. Got to talking with three lovely ladies, one of which ran a girl camp up in Vermont, and she wondered if I wanted to check it out and see if I might be interested in a summer job cooking for the girls that would come there in summer. Everything, including my trip and stay would arranged, which sounds very tempting. I will have to give it some thought, even though I think it won’t be possible what with my job. Still, it was nice to be asked.

The next day we left early, leaving our supplies at the hotel, with a note saying we hoped they knew someone who needed them. And then we were on our way, with regret in our hearts, to Boston and our flight back to the Netherlands. It was a Sunday, so traffic was light at least, and we made good time along color flanked roads back to the big city.

Reach our gate went nicely fast, too. Delivered luggage, went through friendly, if somewhat impatient customs, and still had an hour and a half to spare when we got there. Of course, after an hour we discovered that our connecting flight had a delay, and when that went over an hour, I headed for the steward to talk about making our connecting flight from New York to Amsterdam. It took him but a minute to figure out that we weren’t going to make it, and decided to rebook us on a direct flight from Boston instead. This, I didn’t mind. It would shorten our journey by at least three hours…but it did mean fetching our luggage from baggage claim and going through the whole check-in progress once again. Including customs, who were, at this time, starting to get a little frazzled with the increase in passengers. Still, they remained friendly enough, and the lady patting me down even laughed with me when I told her this was the second time I was going through this procedure. She sent me on my way with a smile, and then we were through.

We were boarding our direct flight at the same time our connecting flight departed from Boston, and half an hour before our original flight left New York. Added to that, the seats were better than on the way to, the meal not as nice, but doable, and the flight less than six hours in total. It was amazing, especially since the way too almost took eight hours and was so very uncomfortable. Before we knew it, we were back in the Netherlands, going through customs, picking up our luggage again, and then rushing through our goodbyes with Lisa, who needed to go a different direction, because we all needed to make our trains.

Ours got us to Amersfoort within 45 minutes, and there we had to wait another thirty for the bus to drive us home in 40 minutes. At the break of dawn we were walking down the road to our house, and entering the clean and wonderful house that I call home at this time. It was lovely to be home, if surreal.

Puttered around a bit, and held out until 9 in the morning, local time. Slept for several hours, then did some groceries after picking up the keys of big brother’s fixed car, and then came home in time to greet our friend and big brother’s colleague, dropping of our laptops and keys. Had a nice chat, talking about work and the trip, but we were both fading fast by then, so we cut it all short asap. More than enough time for that when we meet up for real in the near future.

But that about sums up the grand road trip for now. It was amazing, it was special, and I want to do it again some day, but until that time, I’m going to have to focus on work, the books and life in general.

If you want to see a, basically, day by day report of the trip, with pictures and everything you can check it out on our website where I maintained a blog. You won’t regret it. The pics are lovely! http://www.samayatyoung.com/blog

I hope you’ll go and read it…and enjoy.

Late now. Gotta go. I’ll be back.

Road trip coming up!!!!

Song of the day: “Bad Liar” by Selena Gomez. Such cute song. Am not at all bothered by having it in my head.

So this is going to be a real quickie post, even though I owe you guys more than that, after the “radio silence” of the past couple of months, but what the heck. I promise I’ll make it up to you…in part with the news that soon you’ll be able to follow my upcoming trip, with, hopefully daily updates of the where and hows and whatevers of the road trip through the USA together with big brother. Yay!

It’s been and incredibly busy couple of months. I know I have said that before, but besides the vacation coming up, there’s quite a few changes that have been starting to take route.

First off, big brother got some good news, which involves him finally getting a permanent contract at work. Yay, for him. He likes the job. It’s varied, a challenge, and he knows his thing. Can’t ask for more than that.

Second bit of good news is that our book “Girl in the Misty” Finally became a bestseller at all the big outlets online.  It hit various number spots on Amazon.com (in multiple countries, thank you very much) and managed to get as far as #37 of all their books. Wow. On iTunes we got to #10, I kid you not and B&A we actually got till #2 Yay! Was all very exciting for a couple of weeks and an absolute pleasure to see that it was indeed was possible. We didn’t make the USA Today bestseller list, especially because the sales didn’t shoot until two days before the list was made up, but it was close, I think…or I like to think. Hah Received some wonderful reviews, too, not to mentioned tripled our ratings on Goodreads, which is always a good thing.

Thirdly, another job change lies ahead of me. Nothing wrong with the catering one that I had, but an opportunity came up, another offer was made, and I felt I had no choice but to take it with both hands. I’m gonna be a cook. Yes, you read that right. I, am going to be a cook. A paid one at that. And not badly paid either. And it’ll be a challenge, and I really enjoyed it on the occasions that I worked over there, combined with my other job, which was a pain in the behind, not to mention exhausting. Two jobs, and then trying to get another book ready to start sending out? Practically impossible. Got one more day…what do you think? Will I make it? We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?

The new job will involve live cooking, which is a lot of fun, considering you get to talk with people and cook at the same time. Of course that is not all. There’s also prepping work, and cutting and mixing and making desserts…sooo many desserts. That’s the least favorite bit for as far as I’m concerned. Way too much sweetness.

Well, everything is ready for the trip. Bags are packed, house has been cleaned and organized for the house sitters, paperwork taken care of, everything triple checked, route completely set out, stops planned, people to see (at last), places to see and even a big part of our rooms already booked. Starting to get a wee bit nervous about the whole thing. I mean, this is the biggest trip I have done in ages, and to the other side of the world, no less. Exciting and scary a the same time, if you know what I mean. On the one hand, can’t wait to see it all, and on the other hand…OMG! OMG! OMG!

Car has been having some trouble. Both of them in fact. Had to call triple A myself once, because the engine stalled. Thankfully it wasn’t anything serious. Regretfully big brother’s is now also having trouble, so that means we have to deal with that as soon as we get back. Darn it.

Did quite a bit of experimenting with cooking, but the greatest part of that was that I was offered to arrange a big dinner for the CEOs at the company I now used to work for. So much fun. Got to set up a 3 course meal (well, I made a 3 course with three options per course so they could chose) and then serve it, which is not an easy thing, since there were products to order via places that only had order numbers and descriptions, rather than pictures, not to mention a limited amount of time to prep and actually cook before it was serving time. But it worked and everyone was happy and liked the food, so all went well…which was a relief. You know how I can stress about stuff like that. Hah

Well, that about sums it up for me this time ‘round. I hope that internet won’t be a problem for me over there, so I’ll be able to post blogs about the entire trip and let you all see where I’m at.

Looking forward to it.

Another blog bites the dust. ;-)

Song of the day: “Clearly” by Grace Vanderwaal. Gorgeous song. Absolutely lovely, so I don’t mind at all.

It’s been both quiet and busy at the same time since the last blog. Had some days off, but filled them up with at the computer, naturally. It was very deliberate, and successful, considering I managed to add the necessary 6500 words throughout the story, and even managed to overshoot by 3500 words, meaning I’ll have to ruthlessly edit, too. I hate it when that happens, but it can’t be helped, some of this stuff had to be added to have the right effect, so I’ll have to see what I can remove later on. Hope it doesn’t take too long. Really want to start sending this one out, putting the eggs in different baskets, you know.

The negotiations for book two to Girl in the Mist are going well. Might have some good news in regard to that, soon. Am looking forward to digging in there. It’s been a long time, and while negotiating, we got to mess around with the first 4 chapters already, which was awesome. Can’t wait to get started on all the planned changes and will in fact start working on the outline today.

The local temps have been uncomfortably high recently. There were times that it felt like I was back in friggin’ Spain. Even the grass in the paddock around the house has turned yellow because of it. On the variety of work locations, I had temps going up to the high nineties, which was not something folks around these parts enjoyed. Thankfully they dropped again since yesterday, staying mid-eighties, which is just lovely. Especially with the fierce winds and even some rain that was vastly appreciated by nature.

Latest problem at the house is a clogged kitchen sink. Darn it. We battled the problem with a variety of techniques. Tried a de-clogging spring, garden hose down the tubes, de-clogging liquid but all to no avail. We’ll have to try again because this is just ticking me off.

Visited with friends, of course. Not often, but a few times, which was nice, especially since I might do a joint effort for a fashion photo shoot in the near future. Will be fun. Especially since the clothes will be worn by kids. Will keep you posted on that.

Also helped friends out moving this massive new couch into their apartment. Not an easy thing, although I didn’t get to do all that much, except re-attaching the paws and carrying up a small box, because the fellas insisted on doing the heavy lifting. Hah

Had a couple of sleepovers from a close friend with her three dogs, which was nice. She likes the peace and quiet here, especially since her apartment is in the middle of town with noisy neighbors. Considering she doesn’t require entertainment it didn’t really impede any computer work for me, while still having cosy dinners together. And the dogs were lovely to have around…even if they do make me miss min. * sigh *

Been doing some experimenting in the kitchen. Tried out quite a few omelets, and quiches, which are working really well.  Had one with onion cheese, a broccoli quiche, a cauliflower quiche, one with a variety of Italian veggies and herbs and so on. What can I say, I am liking the quiches and omelets. Also experimented with a green bean vermicelli, which is apparently from China. It went really well with wok veggies and satay. Made a lovely homemade pizza the other day, and that was yummy. Then there was the lentil soup with fresh cottage cheese to top it off, definitely worth a remake in the near future. And lastly there was the red beet and basmati rice dish on a bed of raw arugula that I absolutely loved.

Did run into a spot of car trouble recently. Was on my way to work when my car started sputtering and complaining on a deserted back road. Had to have triple a come pick me up. The guy checked everything over, added oil, just to be sure (wasn’t necessary, mind you, but that was something he could do) and then followed me to the garage, which was only six miles back the way I’d come. Left the car there, while the Tripple A guy was nice enough to drop me off at work. Was only an hour and 10 mins late for work, thankfully.

There finally was a good deal at the fitness club for a member ship, meaning that I can drop in at any time before closing, every day, without restriction, for under 20 bucks a month. Definitely a bargain I couldn’t say no to. Already went four time in the 10 days since signing up, which were wonderful. Loving it.

Did catch some bug the other day, which resulted in a nasty little cough again. And that with this heat. I hate that. When I have to work in particular. Seriously, can you imagine anything worse than coughing like a lunatic while you’re trying to serve folks food? Yeah, me neither. So I dove into the dishes instead. Grrr.

And that sums up this rather short update. Like mentioned before, the plans for the big vacation are in full swing. Slowly gathering more supplies and settling firmer goals as to what we’re planning on seeing and what we are willing to skip in case anything doesn’t work out and we need to gain time. Getting very excited about that prospect.

It is happening!!!

Song of the day: “Shine” by Aswad. A classic that has been in my head for several days now. Nice song, but not so good to have stuck in your head this long. Hah.  Before this, I was a little luckier, having the “Never Enough” song from the Greatest Showman in my head, but okay. Earworms are not something you can really steer, can ya?

So, here we are again…later than planned, but here anyway. I would like to say that there were exciting things to get in the way of doing a proper update this time around, but basically it is all about life getting in the way, the way it tends to do on many occasions. If it helps, I often think, well, crap, I should write about this in the blog…and then forget when the time comes. * wink *

The good news first: I finally found a new (2^nd hand) bike and it rides like a dream. Have it now for little over a week, and already went on three rides…admittedly one was to get eggs, but beggars can’t be choosers, right? After selling my first bike (got that when I just arrived in the Netherlands) several months ago, I looked and looked, but didn’t get lucky, darn it. Then one day I had this thought, “hey, let’s just go to the store where we bought the first one” and behold, he had the right one, right there. We haggled the price a bit. He took off a whopping 75 bucks from the price, put on a new saddle, oiled the chains and before you knew it, I had a new bike that only cost me 75 bucks on top of what I got back from the old one. Not a bad bargain at all, thank you very much.

Have worked quite a bit this last month, but now I have blocked my Tuesdays, because I simply couldn’t muster much energy to work on the books, which is something that I find vital, especially for my future. Can’t be tired all the time if I want to get another book out, can I?

Not to mention that “the voices in my head” are clamouring to get out. Like, just the other day, I was responding to something on Twitter, talking about an actress, and WHAM, I got a new idea of a book in my head. Not smart, considering I am working on two at the moment already. HahTechnically the ones I am working on are done already, but that doesn’t matter. They still require the time and effort they deserve. Especially because one of them, the prequel to Girl in the Mist, is still under negotiation with the publisher. Once they say yes I’ll really need to dive into that, so before that time comes, I really have to finish the other one, which we plan to send to Harlequin in the near future. Could probably offer it to our present publisher, too, but it is always smart to not have all your eggs in one basket, isn’t it?

Cooking has been dialled down to a minimum at the moment. Gotta save the minutes where you can, you know. Meals are nothing too complicated, even though I miss complicated. I might get sick of that in a little bit, and end up doing something elaborate soon. We’ll see

Since the last blog we’ve had two weekends “interrupted” by friends spending a night or two. On the one hand great. Always nice to spend time with friends, but on the other, you can’t get much work done of the computer when you’re entertaining, can you? Ah well, can’t only work in your life. You need to stop and enjoy the roses every now and then. Hah. Also visited with friends, played with babies and pets alike, so socially things can be a tad busy too.

So, the big thing today. Y’all will be the first ones to know right here! Yay!

It’s finally gonna happen. Yes it is! It IS!!! We (finally, finally, finally) managed to coordinate our vacation time to the same date and…We. Are. Going. To. America! Yes!!!

We saved and saved, scrounged and scrounged, and finally popped that wishing balloon…so to speak. Hah.

We’ve got incredibly cheap tickets (seriously, they’re only a little more expensive than our short trip to Finland a few years ago), we got permission from Homeland Security and come October, we is gonna road trip through a whopping 19 States in less that three weeks!

That’s about 5000 miles, I KNOW! But we’ll be with the three of us (to save money), and we’re renting a car, so it should absolutely be doable.

We’re gonna meet up with family there, and finally meeting some friends that I have been chatting online with, like, forever! Seriously, I’ll be going face to face with folks that I have been communicating with since at least 2009! OMG! It’ll be grand, I assure you.

The fun bit is, they’re spread all over the place, which makes the road trip such a splendid idea.

I mean, we could have planned for some famous trip, like route 66 (this held a massive appeal, I kid you not) but then we thought, like: No! We’re going to do it our way and just pick our roads and see where they take us! Well, they will take us the direction of the folks I’m going to meet, of course, (duh) but the how of it will be an adventure.

That is the plan anyway. Who knows, maybe we arrive at some amazing spot and suddenly decide to not do all those States and just spend some time right there before rushing back to the airport at the last possible moment. You just don’t know.

Whatever it is going to be, I intend to do a daily blog (or at least as often as possible, considering I can’t give a 100% guarantee that I will have wifi everywhere along the way) of the trip. With pics, of course!!! I will be putting up a link to my official website (www.samayatyoung.com) in case you haven’t got that already, and then you can basically come right along with us…if you’re so inclined

Am so excited about the whole thing. I have been wanting to see the States for decades, and now it is finally happening. Will be traveling incredibly light, so basically, I will be washing things at every stop, hah. But the idea of hauling luggage along the entire way doesn’t appeal much to me either, so I’m picking motels with laundry facilities.

So, there will be just some basics (yes, I am already gathering stuff, haha) jeans, yoga pants, a skirt for special occasions, bathing suit, some underwear and some spares, and that is going to be it.

I do plan on doing some shopping there, so I might end up with taking more home than I left with, hah, but who gives a fig? Am curious as heck about US fashion.

As for a few of the highlights we’ll be seeing, in particular since we are going to try to not take highways: Niagara Falls, which is just a must, naturally. Chicago, even if only in passing, we’ll see how that goes. There will be nature reserves we’re stopping at along the way. YES! There will be the Ozarks, which has been on our list to see for years (long story, but it had to do with research for Girl in the Mist, duh). New Orleans is on the list, in particular the French Quarter and parts of the bayou. Yes, that is partly due to books we read, and movies we saw. We gotta see them in real life!

From there on, we are going to make our way back up to Boston. We had wanted to do Miami too, partly because book two to Girl in the Mist happens there, and on the Keys, but we’re afraid we just won’t be able to make that.

Next time! Heck yeah!

We’ll be passing through DC, of course! Can’t go to the State and not at least drive past the White House! I mean, seriously! It’s been in a gazillion movies, you have to have seen it if you go to the States, right?

We’ve debated New York, and finally decided to just pass it, rather than actually go in, but who knows. I do want to take a pic of the Statue of Liberty, and definitely a New York city skyline, so maybe we’ll venture beyond that and brave the city streets after all. In the end it will depend on time, of course.

So that makes for this blog’s big news. The trip will be extremely low-budget, and folks have been telling me horror stories of low-budget motels/lodges/B&Bs and whatever, so we’re going to just see how bad it’ll be, right?

Above all, it is going to be a huge adventure, and that’s what is all about in the end.

What else? Well, I can’t really beat what I just wrote, right? But here’s some more:

Did have to phone with the company through which we have the house, because recently (thank gawd that was in the days that I was dog sitting) while I was walking the dog at night, there was a prowler near the house, and, if I am to believe the dog, who kept going from window to window to bark afterward, around the house. Also, the barn on the property has a door in the back that someone pried open. The dog did not appreciate the nightly visitor and tried to go in pursuit, until the fence stopped him.

But anyway, it shows exactly why folks like us are asked to take residence in these buildings. After discussing it with the company, we’ve all agreed to put padlocks on the barns. In regards to this little incident, I am very happy to often have dogs staying over. Any entrepreneur-ish prowler will have to think twice about thinking that there are none there on the night they want to get adventurous and break in. No alarm system is quite as discouraging as a possible massive dog behind the locked door.

Would like to have a permanent dog, of course, but then events like the trip would, of course, pose a problem. Asking the friends who are going to be taking care of our plants, and feed the cat to also take the burden of a dog, just goes a little too far. Besides, there would still be the problem of this cushy place falling through in the near future, and then I’d have to get rid of the pooch, which would be so impossible just when you get attached. Grrr.

So, for now frequent dog-sitting will just have to do the trick.

The summer so far has been disappointing. We had a couple of steamy weeks, but the month of June on itself has been autumn-ish in regards to temperatures and sky cover. Grrr. It has been friggin’ cold at times, for crying out loud. The only advantage is that everything is gorgeously green because of it, and the biggest disadvantage? Mosquitoes! A gazillion of them! I look like a friggin’ pin-cushion. Dratted little creatures. Apparently there is a plague going on, I heard on the news. But I finally gave in and filled the house with a variety of mosquito repellents. I still feel pricks every now and then, but on the most part that is just my skin being upset in general. Poor skin.

Is there anything else to share? I’m sure there is, but for the moment it eludes me. I’m going to have to get into the habit of jotting down stuff when they happen, because my brain just refuses to retain memories of daily stuff that could be very interesting to write about.

Which means that I am going to wrap it up here. I’ll be back!

Relatively early update, yay!

Song of the day: “7 years” by Jasmine Thompson. I know that originally it’s someone else’s but this is the one worming in my head right now. Hah

Yes. I made it here earlier. I did it. I’m here without a solid month having passed since the last blog. Yay!

Not that a lot happened since then, naturally. But it’s the thought that counts, right?

Anyways. At the moment I am enjoying a few days off. What with having worked pretty full time the past few months, my region manager and I agreed that I would work a little less this month, which suits me just fine. Been behind with a lot of stuff on the computer, and in most cases I was too tired in the evenings to do more constructive stuff than the bare necessities.

Well, still working on the finer details of the book that we’re pitching to our editor. Though she likes the idea, some elements in the first chapter don’t work for her, so we’ve been brainstorming and working on adjusting it, and came up with an idea she would like to see in writing. Which is what has been keeping me busy for the past couple of days since my days off started. Got most of it rewritten, deleting big parts, and replacing it with over ten pages of new material. Personally I think that it will work, but of course Big brother has to go through it too, and we need to discuss, argue and probably fight about the finer details before we can send it back and await the editor’s verdict.

For my part, I have been enjoying the writing bit a lot. Actual writing (rather than editing) is such a rare thing these days that when I actually get to do it, something inside me actually sings a little. Hah. Gawd, nothing feels quite like having a scene playing in your head like a HD movie, and then writing it down, hopefully in the way that you see it. First only flow of consciousness, which can be confusing at times, but after one or two tweaks afterward it definitely starts to get close. Then another edit of two together with big brother and I get pretty psyched by the result. * sigh *

I sure hope I get to do more of it in the near future. Wouldn’t that be grand, earning enough with writing so I won’t have to keep up the part-time day job.

But that would mean that the book(s) would have to sell really well, and I doubt that will be the case with the first one, or two. Would be nice, sure, but I doubt I’ll be that lucky. We can hope though.

It is reassuring that we managed to think of a solution to the thing that the editor didn’t like in the 2nd book. Basically we went farther back to the original idea for the story, with a backflash as the prologue. I like how the tone is getting more different from Girl in the Mist, every time I work on it. The drama is way heavier. So much sadness from the heroine, and so little chance that she’s going to make it in the end…and I will have to leave you to wonder about that, rather than spoil the end for you. * wink *

On ascension day we had friends over for the afternoon, which was fun. Got to make some special stuff for lunch and dinner. The first involved a rather wonderful broccoli puff pastry with a carrot salad on the side, and the second a lovely saffron rice, topped by baked chard and a sweet corn and bell pepper salad on the side. Added to the good food, the company was fun, with a promise of another visit soon. Which we should keep to. Time goes so fast, and before you know it you run out of it, right? Anyway, we all promised to see each other soon again, so let’s hope that we can make that work out in a decent amount of time.

What with having a little more time off, I have also been gradually increasing my workouts. The normal qigong that I have been doing for more than a year now—still love it—followed by and interspersed by bodyweight exercises, and some weight lifting, just because. I still haven’t got a spot to hang my kickboxing bag, but I really and determined to think of something soon. I miss boxing like crazy. Soon, very soon.

Finally found a nice new (2^nd hand) rug for our work area. The old one was really starting to wear from our office chairs’ wheels, so I took that one from there to the kitchen, where it looks rather nice along with the rattan chairs at the white table. It is also very similar to the one that I have in the kitchen, so it really lightens up the whole room. The one that is now in the oven is a nice dark blue, which separates it a little more.

Rearranged some of the plants, which was necessary too, because a few of them were not really flourishing in their allotted spot. Hope that the new spots do better. Did find a wonderful new plant, a Pachira aquatica. We already had one of them, but this one was way bigger. It was standing in the corner of the supermarket, and, if my guess is correct priced wrong for such a big plant. It was really a bargain, and so gorgeous. Neither of us could resist. So basically we bought ourselves a present.

Talking about presents, also went to Decathlon, a big store for all sort of sports apparel, and got us some necessities. Yoga pants, because mine were really starting to be worn down. I still have two from Spain that are basically threadbare now (use them as PJs) and a couple that I bought two years ago before we moved up north. So, high time. Also got socks, a bathing suit (also still had the one from Spain) and a few more assorted sports items. Was strange to buy something new. Hardly ever do that anymore these days, so I would say it was well deserved.

Did a fair amount of cleaning in the past few days too, as usual a necessity after several weeks of work. You don’t really feel like vacuuming the house after you have run around at work for hours on end. But got it done, and that’s what matters…until the next time anyway. Hah

The tension between big brother and me has lessened a little, thankfully. I think that the pressure of the book proposal was weighing on us, and now that the pressure of work has let up a bit too, seems to have helped. Neither one of us is about to go off with a short fuse when we work on something now. Thankfully. Maybe it was something in the air. I for one am relieved.

We have been having some absolutely lovely weather. Sunshine, warm temps…heck today was a rainy day and what with all the green even that was gorgeous. Driving through the woods today, with all the new spring growth, shiny from the downpour was almost magical. Wish I’d taken a picture, but regretfully that didn’t occur to me.

Had a huge computer crash the other day, which totally freaked me out. Took big brother most of the day to solve it, involving some serious reinstalling of programs, leaving the computer with some problems still, but functioning at least. It seems that the last update went wrong for some reason, which totally ticked me off. Seriously! There is nothing I hate more than a computer that doesn’t work. Well, cars, too. And plumbing. And…well, anything that can malfunction I guess. Hah.

That about sums it up, I guess. Tomorrow is an in-between working day for me, despite me being off until Friday. They needed an extra hand on Monday, so I agreed to come to work anyway. Do have to get to bed on time if I want to be worth anything afterward, though. Been getting way too little sleep again lately, despite having slept in the last couple of days.

Gotta go. I’ll be back, with hopefully some nice news in regards to the new book, eh?

April already. Where does the time go?

Song of the day: “Paradise” by George Ezra. A very strange song to have stuck in your head due to the beat that seems to ever increase throughout, and yet doesn’t. Give it a listen when you get the chance, it’s a cute song regardless of the earworm qualities.

Right. It’s been a month and a half, or so since my last blog. I know, bad Sammi, but as I am sure you can guess, life has been so busy that a lot of basic stuff like blogging…and grocery shopping time has eluded me. Hah.

So let’s get you updated in Samaya’s world, eh? You know you want to, considering my famously boring way of life. Have you noticed that the blog of a work-aholic can be a tad boring? I have, but I’ll try to keep things entertaining at least, okay?

First, let’s get the book stuff out of the way, shall we? Things have been quieting down a little, respectively, thank gawd! Although, I was up until the wee hours of morning the other night due to an exciting take-over at Entangled Publishing, together with a group of my fellow authors, allowing us a chance to chat with each other and any readers that felt comfortable to join in. It was fun. Not incredibly busy, but that was good considering it was my first time at such an event. Popped my cherry gently, so to speak. Hah.

Did a few guest spots at different websites. Some serious, going into the hows and whens and whys of Girl in the Mist’s main theme, which was nice to describe. At the end of today’s blog I’ll post some links so you can go check it out, if you’re so inclined. There was another guest spot about an Author’s life, which was more fun than informative since it had to be done mostly in GIFs. Another spot was an excerpt of the book. A different one, no less, just to keep things interesting.

I did an interview with a fellow author too. As in me interviewing her, which you can check out here: www.samayatyoung.com it was a lovely book, too, so be sure to check out the review for it in the Review section. Such a nice writer, too, all the way from Australia. I love getting to know so many people all over the world.

Had a splendid review of a big reviewing sight, yay! Not that it beats the ones from readers on Goodreads, mind you, it’s just that the extra exposure from such a big website is bound to help some with the sales…I hope.

The proposal for book 2 of the No Escape From Rising Sun series gained some interest from our publisher, but there were some changes. Regretfully, due to the too big amounts of work lately, applying those very changes took embarrassingly long. Seriously, the changes were positively minor, but we both were so tired in the evenings that we could get very little done. Did manage to finally finish those changes in the first 3 chapters, which we sent back to the editor last night. Keep yer fingers crossed that she likes what we did and that it will be a “go” for book two, now dubbed “Woman with a Past” so it’ll match “Girl in the Mist” a little better.

What with work having been somewhat demanding lately (I too have been doing close to full time due to vacations of colleagues) tension between big brother and me has been high. Not surprising of course. Too little sleep and too much work can have that effect on everyone. It gives tempers short fuses, makes toes long and patience a myth. Hah. Nothing too serious, I assure you,  but let’s just say that I am looking forward when my hours go down a little again. It hasn’t been easy the last few weeks, especially since I was sick as a dog a couple of weeks ago.

Seriously, I thought I came through winter without any serious illness, and wham! It hit me. I was out for the count, and even had to call in sick for almost a week…even Big Brother had to, who got hit about a day after me. There were chills, there was massive fever, followed by a cough that is  now finally going away with the return of better weather.

Which reminds me, Spring Is Here!!!! At long last. The country side is turning green again. Most of the trees have their canopy bursting out of the seams, and there’re flower absolutely everywhere!!! I love it. Especially the four-day string of sunshine that we enjoyed just recently, and the much milder temperatures. We’ve had a barbeque with friends out on the terrace, which was lovely, and definitely worth a repeat in the near future.

Getting better at work, thankfully. Lots to learn about the whole official catering business for sure. Am also being allowed to experiment a little, which is what keeps things interesting. Also being taught about banqueting, which is exhausting in a building that size. Seriously, the amount of food your have to bring away on food is daunting sometimes. Will make my feet hurt like heck at the end of the day, but thankfully not in the old “plantars faciitis” way, just in the “gawd, get off us now” way instead. I’m fine the next day.

Went to visit dad down south for littlest Brother’s birthday, along with the birthdays of Aunt R and Grandma J (stepmom’s mother and sister) who’re all celebrating their day of birth in the same week. Had a lovely dinner at a restaurant. Wonderful food, especially for Germany. Hadn’t expected that at all, but it was probably due to the fact that they often cater to vegetarians…which we all basically are, except for Aunt R. Hah. Also had the chance to admire dad’s new place, which is finally finished and looking grand, despite it being a relatively small house.

Did bake a massive chocolate cake to celebrate all the birthdays, but regretfully everyone was way too stuffed from all the food to have more than a taste. Hah

As for other stuff, I diligently do my qigong on every free day that I have, along with a couple of times during the work week when I can muster the energy for it, so in that regard I’ve been a good Sammi. Haven’t managed to eat a lot of red meat (bad Sammi) , but chicken has been a relatively frequent occurrence in my diet for the past few weeks at least. Not perfect yet, but working on it.

Have only managed a little of experimenting with my own food lately. After having worked in the kitchen for several hours in the mornings, and then the afternoon clean up, I often don’t really feel like diving into the kitchen and making another mess that I have to clean. So most of the meals consist of oven dishes that need little work and is easy to consume.

Only two real grocery trips since the last blog. Keep postponing because neither Big Brother nor I feel like making that effort, but it’s not like we’re starving or anything. Just lazy.

At the moment I am enjoying a three day weekend. It’s the King’s day here, meaning that most anything (except, of course, Big Brother’s workplace kind of establishments) is closed for the day so people can celebrate. There’s a lot of orange all over the place with people partying, drinking, eating and doing the traditional flea market/garage sale kind of thing throughout the country. Very cozy, but I am giving it a pass this year in favor of relaxing at home. Yay.

Well, that about sums it all up. Do check out the links below…such a time consuming thing to gather them all. Hehehe

Gotta go. More to do today yet. I want to make every minute of my weekend count!

Just Romantic Suspense Excerpt

Behind the Book "Entangled"

#AuthorLife Entangled in Romance

And, finally, we are on Fantastic Fiction!!! Which has been a long-lasting dream. Yay!!!!

Fantastic Fiction Page

A March Update

Song of the day: “Shut up and dance with me” by Walk the Moon. Awesome song. Always thought it was a cover from some song from the 80s, only to discover last night that it’s from 2014. Hah. Anyway, not that it matters. Still a great 80s song. * wink *

So, yeah. Life’s been busy as usual. Not particularly exciting, or anything, but busy regardless.  I’ve been working too much, naturally. There were some seriously unexpected expenses last month, so when the extra hours popped up it wasn’t in me to say now, despite everything that needed doing outside work hours…you can imagine what the house looked like after a couple of weeks of that. * sigh*

But anyway, it wasn’t bad, or anything. Learned a lot more about the business, about general catering, all the stuff you have to keep track of, banqueting and general customer service, so it was all good…especially for my bank-account, which was rapidly depleting.

My temporary doggie is gone again * sob *. It was so cozy to have a four-legged one around constantly again, but his owners found him a new home with a couple that lives near the beach, loves to go for hikes and jogs, so it would seem that he is all set for the future. I have said that if it doesn’t work out, he can come right back here, sweet baby, but I doubt I’ll see him again.

Luckily in May we’ll be dog sitting Puk (the Labradoodle) again, so the quiet won’t be for too long.

Cooking has been going on as usual, duh. Can’t really do without that, can ya? Anyways. Had some successful experiments that included a Bundt cake quiche, Italian style, a nice veggie and chicken satay, a sweet potato, arugula mix, and a variety of oven dishes…which reminds me, going to do the latter tonight, I think. Hmmm

The book. Yeah. Been doing the promo thing a lot lately. Which isn’t necessarily hard, just time consuming, meaning that I’d come home from work, do the absolute necessary, maybe a 30-minute powernap, and then dive behind the computer for the remainder of the evening until way too late in the evening. I am aware that you can schedule posts and such, saving on the “I have to get on there every day” thing when we’re talking Social Media and such, at this point in my life that still sorta feels like cheating, ya know? I mean, the way I figure, social media presence is all about actually being present, so… I’m sure that I’ll think about that differently in the future, but for now it just takes up a lot of time.

Also got my paperback stack from the publisher in, so I now have physical copies of the books. Yay!

Future book. Been putting together a book proposal pitch for the publisher (around all the “real life” stuff that just keeps popping up. Like, I still gotta do my taxes, Aaaaaargh! I don’t want to alienate ALL my friends for disappearing for long stretches of time. You know what I mean, right? So hard to balance everything.) and the package is coming together nicely, I think. Been going through the first few chapters, doing some editing and tweaking because that is something that would need doing if we want to get the prequel for “Girl in the Mist” out there. But I’m liking what I’m reading so far. The pacing is different from GitM. Heavier, I think, than the action-packed bit in the debut. Leaning more toward psychological drama, rather than the high paced thrill of GitM. That doesn’t mean there’s no action in it, mind you. There is. Loads, it’s just that the characters are more enduring, rather that explosive, if that makes any sense. Like the heroine, Morgan, is a strategist, someone who will got through the most awful of horrors if that serves the purpose of her plan. It’ll be a marvelous challenge to make that work fully, you know…but it will also make it necessary to explore something lighter, more positive in the next project, because my mind-set can become rather moody when I work on dark drama a lot. We’ll see how it goes, and I’ll keep you posted.

Been a bit under the weather for the past four days or so. On Friday my whole mid-section started hurting really bad. Think I caught some sort of bug, or infection, which has been slow in recovering. By now, thankfully, I am having moments where the pain is gone, but it got pretty bad at times. Almost like constipation (I know, TMI, sorry) and yet not that. Hah. I still have occasional twinges, which made work yesterday more than a little uncomfortable (which was why I asked to do dishwash duty in the back, rather than having to face customers) and had me deflating with relief when it was finally time to go home where I collapsed on the couch and slept for an hour or two, feeling much better afterward. Had I been in Spain, I would have been popping buscapina, but this is the Netherlands, and getting medication without an actual prescription here is practically impossible.

As for the aforementioned unexpected expenses: The care needed a big check-up. It was just that time, but jeez that hurt the wallet. First off the check-up which cost more than 300 bucks, the back breaks which did need replacing this time, the handbrake and some bits and pieces which depleted a lot of my savings. * sobs * I am so hoping that some money will be coming in from the book. Need my savings back!!! Hah

The weather. Well, it’s been interesting. We had some lovely spring weather for about a week…you know, after the icy Siberian wind that raged across the entirety of Europe for about a week. Eeeewww that was cold. The change was sudden, and absolutely lovely with bright sunshine and wonderful temperatures. I was thinking that finally winter was over, but then the cold returned, and with it my stomach ache for a solid four days, right up until now when the air is still crisp, but the sky wonderfully blue and the sun warm! So gonna go outside in a bit and work on repotting some of my houseplants.

As for the fun parts. My bestest friend T (Tiina) came over for a wedding, so I got to spend an afternoon, evening and morning with her, which was lovely. Though her last visit wasn’t all that long ago, it was so nice to chat the evening away, have dinner together. But then had to drop her off at the airport, of course, and say our goodbyes again. Darn it! Gotta do the whole real visiting again soon. That was way too short.

Once she was on her way, big brother and I drove on to visit our dad, down south. Had planned it before, but since we were both having a cold two weeks ago, we had to cancel again. Last week, big brother was working in the weekend, so we finally decided on last Sunday. Had a very nice afternoon with our dad and stepmom, admiring the new house, talking about the book, life in general, and then going out to eat, along with littlest brother, as a really, really late celebration of my birthday at a rather nice German restaurant. They served some GOOD food. Definitely combinations there that I’ll be playing around with in the kitchen in the near future.

Had a friend coming over for coffee a few weeks back. Partly to celebrate the book being out, and of course to catch up on everything, which meant one coffee turned into three and it was already dark when she finally went home. Hah. Am fully up to date on the previous job-site where things went from bad to worse since I quit. Not surprised.

And that about sums up the update for the today. I would promise to be back soon, but I hate promising and then not being able to, so I will just promise to post another blog when I can and hope that y’all will bear with me until then…

If you want to keep up to date via different sources, here are my links:

The new website, which is awesome!!! Please share and like if you can.

http://www.samayatyoung.com/

Social media for the useless bits of info, and chatting if you feel like it.

https://www.facebook.com/authorstyoung/

https://www.facebook.com/samaya.t.young

https://www.twitter.com/samayayoung

https://www.instagram.com/samayatyoung/

https://nl.pinterest.com/samayatyoung/

Goodreads, if ya wanna check out the awesome reviews (give the reviewers some love while you’re there, please).

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38226722-girl-in-the-mist

And, very importantly, the buy links, hah. (How is that for shameless self-promo, huh?)

https://entangledpublishing.com/girl-in-the-mist.html

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079LDL521?tag=entangpublis-20&name=Girl%20in%20the%20Mist

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/girl-in-the-mist-4V

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B079LDL521?tag=entangpublis-20&name=Girl%20in%20the%20Mist

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079LDL521?tag=entangpublis-20&name=Girl%20in%20the%20Mist

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B079LDL521?tag=entangpublis-20&name=Girl%20in%20the%20Mist

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/girl-in-the-mist/id1344886681?mt=11

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/girl-in-the-mist-st-young/1127921825;jsessionid=4952E6264EC4BB514AE5299D48F9559C.prodny_store02-atgap02?ean=9781640634671

Buy now!!!

The moment is there, the book…is…available!!!

So let’s get this over with all the necessary links for the where to buy, where to read reviews, the picture, the promotional stuff and of course the address for my new website where I will be blogging as well, so if you want to sign up for a newsletter, where in the future you’ll be able to get sneak peaks into the world of Girl in the Mist, read deleted scenes and  anything I fun I can think of.

For a more personal blog, the way you’re used to over here, with stuff about my life, work, hobbies, writing, ya know, just stick around. Here nothing is going to change in that regard.

Do try out the book. I would love to hear all your thoughts on it

Here we go:

Website S.T. Young

Social media:

https://www.facebook.com/authorstyoung/

https://www.facebook.com/samaya.t.young

https://www.twitter.com/samayayoung

https://www.instagram.com/samayatyoung/

https://nl.pinterest.com/samayatyoung/

For the reviews: Goodreads

Buy links:

Entangled Publishing LCC

Amazon.com

Amazon.au

Amazon.uk

Amazon.ca

Kobo

iTunesstore

B&N

So, that dealt with, let’s get down to the regular stuff...

Song of the day: “Ophelia” by the Lumineers. Not the most pleasant earworm, considering it is mostly the Ophelia bit that keeps tumbling in my head, rather than what is otherwise a very nice song.

On the most part it has been work for the past few weeks. And when I mean work I mean that in the broadest of sense. Been doing full days at the catering company, partly due to people calling in sick, family leave for someone, and a colleague up for vacation. It makes for plenty of work for me, despite the fact that at the moment I don’t really have time for it.

There is just so much to do for the whole promotion bit of the book. It means that I am out at work for at least 7 hours, and then come home to do the necessary stuff at home, and get behind the computer to do the proverbial homework that involves networking, writing to people about the book, asking for reviews and interviews, guest spots and anything else possible, and all the while checking up on reviews that are done of the book, and seeing what folks think. Scary stuff, ya know. Hearing what folks say about your headchild. But so far I have been able to handle it. In fact, readers have been absolutely brilliant in their reception of the story. They’re calling it a twisty plot, a story that messes with your head, amazing unique characters…simply said, it is wonderful to hear.

The weather here has been icy, albeit sunny. Some Siberian wind blowing in, apparently. Icy. Which isn’t nice at all, considering I actually have to go out in the cold several times a day. Because, for the moment, I have a dog. Yes, a dog! A foster dog, you understand. He was in need of a temporary home, while a new family was looked for, which means that I’m having some wonderful company while at home. He’s a 6 year old Border collie, well trained, and absolutely adorable. Am so tempted to keep him. But of course, I can’t. Just not smart, living the way I do. If the decision comes that I have to move out, and the new place does not allow for pets, I’d have to find a new home for him again, and that would simply be heartbreaking…for the dog and me.

Kitten is not at all happy with present company, naturally. Poor baby has exiled herself to the pantry, where they spend their time staring at each other through the cat door. Hah

Which basically brings us to the end of today’s blog, because, let’s face it, nothing really exciting happened since the last post, if for no other reason than the fact that I simply haven’t had time to do anything but work on all ends.

So we’re going to leave it at this, and see if I have something a little more exciting to share the next time. I’ll be back.