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.
Social media
for the useless bits of info, and chatting if you feel like it.
Goodreads,
if ya wanna check out the awesome reviews (give the reviewers some love while
you’re there, please).
And, very
importantly, the buy links, hah. (How is that for shameless self-promo, huh?)
