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!

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

Ready for pre-order at long last

Song of the day…okay, screw that. Let’s do it different today. I’ve got news! Haha

I got THE news!

We have a DATE!

 A PUBLISHING date! I kid you not.

Remember that teaser pic I had a little while ago? Well, here it is for real, along with links and everything where you can pre-order the actual book…if you were to be so inclined. * wink *

I’m excited, I am jubilant, as you might expect. It is finally happening. All the hard work coming to a long awaited conclusion. Gawd, I can hardly believe it. How long have y’all who’ve been reading my blog, been hearing about me and big brother editing and rewriting the book formerly known as Saving Nina? Hmmm? Many a years past with me writing, it, then joining forces with big brother and rewriting it time and again until finally, finally we came in the quarter finals of the ABNA competition, and then, bolstered by the publisher’s weekly review started sending it out for real, and getting all those big publisher’s interested enough to have a look at it, only to hear the dreaded “no” again and again, until finally FINALLY last year Entangle LCC took it.

The editing this last time wasn’t easy by any means either, but we managed, survived the ordeal if you will, and now we’re there. A couple of weeks  before the book is out there for real, but already available for pre-sale HERE, or directly at the publisher HERE and I am psyched, naturally. Also in Goodreads where you've got links to all the retailers

Here are some other links for you to check out like the awesome review by USA Today bestseller, Naima Simone.  CLICK HERE She's awesome, and definitely worth a look if you're looking for suspenseful, hot romances.

And I finally figured out how to open an author Facebook page, which is HERE. Likes and follows will be vastly appreciated. Ha

Other than that, I have been delving into the promotional plan for the book, which is daunting in many ways, but also strangely fascinating.

Next Big brother has been working on our website, which will get its own blog at some point, so keep an eye out HERE. I would love to see y’all there, if you can manage it. Soon there will be a Newsletter where I’ll be sending out news and tidbits, along with teaser scenes that will, in the future wrap the entire “No Escape from Rising Sun” series up in a neat package. These will be scenes that won’t be in any of the books, but rather background happenings that will be referred to in the actual novels. But from different perspectives, explaining mysteries that we couldn't deal with in the stories, but wrote down anyway. It should be vastly interesting, to say that least. I’ll let you know when I set up a proper place for this all and post a link for that too.

So here are some pics, with the most important one being the actual cover!

Gorgeous, right?

Teaser for GitM

 As for life in general? Well, things have been busy. I’m dragging my butt through long days again. Work (finally some shorter days again) takes up 4 to 5 days a week, which can take up to 7 hours in the average day due to commuting…with on Fridays a whopping nine hours away from home because at the moment I am working at the cafeteria of a school up North, which takes more than an hour to get to. It is interesting, though. A solo spot, meaning that you’re nicely busy right up until the final moment of the day when you have to clean the whole mess up and get the heck out.

My other spot in the big town less than 20 mins away from my place is starting to be a lot more fun now that I fully know what all is involved. I’ve stopped making constant mistakes and that makes it all a lot less frustrating. Yay. Who’d have thought, eh, that I could get a job in a branch that I actually enjoy. With the way things go over here, I was very much afraid that cleaning would be my lot until the books become a success…that is the hope anyway, haha

Teaser for GitM

Getting to know more locations in the area, which was what I was hired for, of course.

But anyway, getting back to the point I was making before work distracted me…making long hours. First the day job and then when I get home behind the computer, doing all the necessary stuff like setting up more network stuff, putting up links, writing descriptions, you know, all the promotional stuff that I had so hoped not to have to do…unrealistic of me, I know, right? But I guess I’m old-fashioned that way. I still hoped that writing good stories was the thing that was really the big thing.

Alas there’s more to it than that, so now I’m learning promotion from the pros over at the publisher.

I do need some sleep fast, though. Not getting more than 6-7 hours a night, and although I can manage that quite some time, I need an occasional catch-up.

Cooking…yes, I’ve been doing that, of course, just nothing fancy, but rather quick fixes that are as nutritious as I can. Including loads of pumpkin soup. Yummy.

On the sad note, my aunty died a few weeks ago, meaning there was the whole funeral bit, and sad relatives and people we hadn’t seen in ages, and…well. It was a private affair for most part, so I think I’d best not say too much. Forgot to ask permission and everything. However sad the circumstance, it was lovely to see all the relatives gathered together, and the afternoon spent at our niece’s  place, meeting her kids and husband. And our nephew wife and daughter, a sweet little girl that reminded me of me that age…but without the backtalk. Hahaha.

I did a review for another writer the other day, which I will post here soon. Check her out HERE because I am very pleased to let you know that I am at liberty to offer a free copy of her book of a raffle that I am planning to do really soon. Just send me a quick note with your name and email, and I'll add you to the proverbial hat. I will pick a name sometime next week, and get the copy to the winner ASAP.

And that’s about all…of the interesting stuff, anyway.

I’ll keep you posted.

The revision/edit done and sent!!!!

Song of the day: “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran. Lovely song. It’s been tumbling through my mind frequently lately.

So, let’s make this a quickie. Been a long day, what with work and stuff…and with the past few days having been incredibly busy, catching up with friends (lived like a hermit for the past month or so, delving into that revision edit with an average of 8-10 hours a day behind the computer) which was very necessary. Luckily for me, stuff got cancelled by others during the whole work thing, some get-togethers I was forced to cancel myself, but on the overall timing was splendid. The manuscript actually got done in time…well, only five minutes, over the deadline we had set, so sorta on time anyway. Hah. Technically the edit was done exactly on the deadline, but the actually sending was five minutes late. *sigh*

It was pretty stressful, though: the hours, the weeks, and then that last night, big brother so worried that he woke me up two hours after I got to bed, so we could go through the last bits and pieces, six hours before the deadline. Aaaargh. Seriously, I had the idea that I’d just fallen asleep, and the next moment my door opens and big brother is saying, “we gotta get started, Sam. We only have six hours left. Get up.” Startled me straight up in bed, my head pounding, my stomach protesting (about three hours in I puked out my porridge…I know, TMI, TMI, but there you have it) and bleary-eyed on bad coffee while we read through the last few chapters, checked the key-words that we’d kept track of throughout the edit, (found one, despite all our efforts of taking them out) ran the whole thing through the spelling program, just to be sure, which took an hour!!! And every little thing we could think of before sending it off.

Felt really weird afterward, like deflated, or something, and just gazed blindly at the computer for a while, skimmed through Facebook and finally just gave up and went to bed, rather than risk feeling miserably tired for the majority of the day. Slept several hours and then went outside so we could work on fixing the Daihatsu. Yes! We did it! The little zit is fully functional again, all the broken parts we exchanged for new (2^nd hand ones, naturally)…although we still have to find a new hood, but that has no rush. Anyway, it works, it drives, and the garage who checked the poor thing over, declared it hale and healthy. Yay.

So, on the news part…there’s going to be some changes. Moving time is coming again…asap. Big brother had a rather good job offer, thankfully, so we’re planning on moving back south…at least a little bit, just as soon as we can manage it. Already looking, mind you, but such things take more time than I would want them to…but on the other hand, there is still a deadline for the book, and there will be at least two more edits before it can get the okay at the end of the month, so…I’m hoping that the actual move won’t be until next month. Seriously, can imagine me having to do the previous mentioned hours, while packing and loading most of our stuff, because big brother would be working full time at his new job. Aaaaaaarrrgggghhhh

As for the social business lately. We had some parties, b-days, from neighbors as well as friends, which was fun, if time consuming. Hah. Also visited friends with new babies, or babies underway. Five cases of that, just so you know, and just so you know, I’ve heard of two former colleagues who are having, and have a baby. Seriously, everyone seems to be procreating. I do hope it is not something in the water. Cute babies, though. I’ve been cooing over more babies the past few weeks than I did in the past twenty years. I kid you not. It sure is different, suddenly all the conversations are about babies and stuff about babies. Hah.

The car had a sudden problem the other day. We were preparing to bring away a load of old cartons, and the next thing you know the stupid thing just stopped functioning. Turn the ignition, but nothing happened, so I went straight to the garage, who offered to come back with me to see if he could get it started anyway. He could. Turns out the battery had completely died, so we had to replace it. Good thing that it was only that, because it seemed like it was a bigger problem. Was already seeing the disaster looming. Thankfully that wasn't the case.

Did quite some cooking, and baking. Have a divine chocolate cake, according to my volunteer tasters anyway. Personally I’m okay with them, but not the biggest fan…it being chocolate and everything. Also experimented with some dishes, which I think I’ll save for the cooking blog at a later time.

What else…well, not much else. Since the manuscript has been sent out I feel like I’ve been hit by a freight train and have been taking some naps, when the days allowed it, cleaning the house because it was a mess, doing laundry to catch up, and  doing my exercises approximately 5 days a week for more than an hour, if for no other reason than making up for the computer sitting time. If I hadn’t done that throughout the edit, I think I would have been a physical mess for sure.

The weather is finally improving. Everything is green again, which is a vast relief. The winter was incredibly long and I’ve had enough of it. Pity that now that the time to move has come, it’s a pity that it’s happening while everything has finally become pretty at last. I’ll keep you informed.

And that’s it for now. I’m leaving out stuff, of course, but I don’t want to get boring anyway. I’ll be back…as always. The question is just when. Hah.

Another blog bites the dust

Song of the day: “Symphony” by Clean Bandit and Zara Larson. Gorgeous song, been listening to it quite a bit, and it is sticking.

So it’s going to be a shorty today. I know it has been quite a while since the last blog, but I’ve been up to my elbows into revision/edits, and the clock is ticking. In fact, I should be working on that right now, and yet, here I am. Hah . What can I say, I’m nuts.

At the moment, I am feeling the pressure. Got about six days to go (at most) and all the big stuff has been done, but everything still needs to be checked. Meaning that roughly 300 pages need to be read semi-intensely. Can you feel the pressure yet? No? Well, imagine that you already went through that same material some odd 22 times and that you’ve changed so much already that inside your head the story is about 500 pages long because all the extra stuff of scenes that were added, removed, altered and whatnot is still tumbling through your head? How ‘bout now? If not…well, lucky you.

Besides all the editing, which takes up an average of about 10 hours a day, five days a week, I have been managing some Qi gong workouts, thank Gawd. Also managed to do cooking, cleaning, laundry and all that other shaite. Hah.  Do need to wash the windows one of these days. They’re a mess, and they[re annoying me.

Some of the seeds I sowed are finally coming up. Am seeing chard, beets, some broccoli and probably a cauliflower. At this stage they are difficult to distinguish. No beans yet, which is a pity. Maybe I’ll try putting some more into the ground soon.

Then there is the job on the side for the cleaning company. More cleaning, naturally. Got the offices that I now maintain in pretty good order, thankfully. Now it is all about keeping up and making sure that it doesn’t get out of hand again. One isn’t all that easy,  considering it is a gardening company, meaning lots of dirty boots on the floor, every single time.

Big brother is having some issues with his temp agency. They suddenly changed his contract, which makes no sense, so he’s going to have to make an issue of that. Very annoying, but if that doesn’t work the way he wants it to, we are seriously going to consider moving down south a ways and look for new work there in the near future. No sense in staying in this area if the work is not sufficient. Actually think that I am rather looking forward to that move. Am missing woods somewhat fierce, and though the house is lovely, the surrounding area is more important, I think. Can make a house a home anywhere, but can’t change the surroundings, can I. We’ll see how that goes.

There’s been good news, there’s been bad news, but now is not really the time to get into that. It would take too much time to explain it all, and I am not entirely sure if I want to…now that is mean of me to say, I know. That is like whetting your appetite for some big mystery, but it really isn’t. It’s too personal to bother anyone, really, so, don’t worry.

Spent Easter with family down south, which was interesting…despite me being distracted by the fact that the deadline was approaching. We actually left on time…only to end up with a friend calling underway and asking if, since we were near anyway, if we (that’d be me and big brother) wanted to stop over for coffee…so we were late coming home regardless. Grrr.

I’m so jealous. Littlest brother is in the States at the moment, and I soooooo wanna go there…which I can’t , of course. Not yet anyway, despite tickets being pretty reasonable at the moment. Can’t afford to spend money on that just yet while we’re earning a bare minimum to pay the bills. Maybe when the book is out and we’re getting some decent earnings…besides, when I go to the States, I wanna be there at least three months and just travel around and see everything. Wouldn’t that be grand? Why, for me that would be a dream come true. Let’s see if I can achieve it, huh.

Now it is very late, and since I don’t have anything remotely interesting left to tell I’m going to leave it at this and promise to be back a little sooner than this time.

PUBLISHED!...at last.

Song of the day:…who gives a bloody heck? I’m getting PUBLISHED!!!!

Yes, people, it has finally happened, a brilliant editor at a genuine publisher has recognized the awesomeness of Saving Nina! Yay!!!! Do you sense a certain elation here, some enthusiasm? As in Sammi bouncing through the old drafty farm, ploinking from one wall to the next like some loony toon…not far off, it was pretty much that from the moment I woke up and saw the light on my phone blink that there was a message on my mail. Bleary-eyed, still pondering whether I was going to turn over and catch another 30 mins of zzzzzzs, or haul my tired butt from bed. I mean, seriously, no work to go to, and what with long evenings behind the computer it is not as if I am on any regular schedule other than get up at the crack of dawn, prep breakfast for big brother (that way he can also get an extra half hour of sleep on work days) and then going back to bed until I’ve reached my daily hour quota.

Anywayssssss…the light was blinking and I saw that it was about Saving Nina, and spent another minute or two if I could handle another disappointment this morning, and finally decided to open it quickly and then slip it into the rejection file asap. Now imagine me, eyes puffy with sleep, squinting at the screen in the gray morning light, going back half a dozen times to look at these two sentences: “I really liked this story, and would love to work with you.” And “I just wanted to make sure it's still available?” That’s about when my heart rate went up and I started bouncing out my room, down the way-to-steep stairs as I read it again and then texted big brother with: “Dude! Dude! DUDE! You there? Come on! Answer! Dude! They want Nina! An editor wants to work on SAVING NINA!” Did some more bouncing around, giving little scary giggles and the occasional, “Yes! Yes! Heck yes!” frustrated as heck that I was home alone with no-one to tell it to. Grrrrrr. That is so friggin’ frustrating! Anyway, it took big brother about and hour to answer and guess what it was: “Cool! A bit busy now.” Aaaaaaaargh. Seriously? Cool? Regardless, I spent the majority in a buzz…after sending a semi-calm message back that the story is still available and that working with said editor would be lovely. *sigh*

So, of course, this message was before Christmas, so we had to wait, and wait, and wait, and wait some more, for the final okay of the publisher which didn’t come until my B-day. I mean, seriously, isn’t that the best friggin’ b-day present ever? To get the news that someone has seriously agreed to publish a book that you started the concept of in 1998 and worked on numerous times through a series of mind numbing edits that go up to a whopping dozen, or more? Well, it is stupendous, I assure you. All that work, old those hours, the wooden butt sensations, the varicose veins surgery, the endless arguments about word choice, grammar, punctuation, shlogging my way through the Chicago manual of style, eats shoots and leaves, and popular (not my style) commercial fiction just to see if a particular sentence I wanted to use but that we couldn’t stop arguing about, became worth it because of this totally awesome b-day present. *double blissful sigh*

So I didn’t write about this stupendous news before, because, basically I didn’t want to jinx it, and waited until the contract arrived, which brings us to now, naturally. Contract here. Yay. Am totally psyched about going through the next step of this thing, to learn, to see what is required, to see how the story will turn out after it gets nipped and tucked, made up and perfumed, so to speak. It will be incredibly fascinating, of that I have no doubt, so I’m going to hold onto that, and hope that I can when the frustration of cutting into my baby seems to become too much to handle. Keep yer fingers crossed, my friends.

What else? Well, life is going on as usual. Nothing quite lives up to the above-mentioned, I know, but what can I do. Need to stay grounded a bit, don’t I?

Finally found a proper kickboxing bag. Yes I did. It’s going to have a spot of honor in the living room where I do most of my daily exercises now. Was psyched when big brother pointed it out at the gift store this very morning. I can get back to my boxing, Yay!!! I’ve been missing it somewhat fierce lately, partly because we haven’t been able to go to the gym much lately due to a persisting flu. Grrrr. No matter, though, I can get back to the fitness I love the most: Kicking the carp out of a heavy bag! Hah.

Did some food experiments lately, too. Some different type of dishes, but also all-time favorites, of which one or two are definitely going to end up on the cooking blog one of these days…I know, I should be posting more there, too, but what can I say, I can get distracted a lot, especially at the moment.

Been working on the Banshee story quite a bit lately. Almost halfway into the story, meaning that the sequel to ATOL is almost there…in my mind anyway. Hah. I wonder how much actual writing I can get done once the actual editing with the publishing company starts, but whenever I get a free minute, I’m definitely going to try. Brendan and the Banshee need telling that much is a fact in this convoluted brain of mine.

Went to visit a friend from our last job last week, which was really nice. She is seriously pregnant now, and ecstatic about it. Hah. Nice round belly, which she calls being fat, when it is clearly only in her belly and nowhere else. She’s still tiny, but looks like she swallowed a soccer ball, poor girl. The presents I’d found for the baby were their theme was animals so a fish shaped mirror with a blue and white frame went really well with everything, and the ceramic nightlight, too.

Been working on “breeding” some more plants out of the ones that I already have, partly because I lost a house plant to lice, and because the fern Cousin Ed and tenant gave us when we moved to the Netherlands is now really giving the spirit. Poor plantsies.

Which reminds me, tenant and Cousin Ed came for a visit one afternoon last week, which was nice for tenant. She had been so curious about our new place, and so we finally set a date where she was brought by special taxi company for disabled people. She really liked visiting, especially looking through pictures and such, but she tired quickly and was seriously pooped when it was time to go home. Poor girl.

And that is about the end of my update today. I told you the last time that I might have good news (was hoping, but had to be sure,  you see) and here we are. Another step further in the life of an author, shall we say, eh?

Have a good one, y’all and I’ll be back soon.