I’ve posted a number of ideas for leftover turkey in the past: turkey fried rice, curry turkey (on tonight’s menu), turkey with Alfredo sauce and so on. This year? I invented the turkey salad wrap made from leftover smoked turkey!

1/2 to 3/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 to 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped pecans
2 cups chopped turkey
2 to 4 heaping tablespoons mayo
2 to 4 heaping tablespoons of this Caesar Dressing
(chopped gala apple chunks are optional)

On large tortilla, place lettuce leaves down the center. Place a nice layer of the turkey salad on the lettuce. Add diced tomatoes. Roll tortilla. Eat with a side of soup or potato chips.

I am always looking for small gifts that can be sent easily–and cheaply. I recently sent a package via USPS — 3 pounds cost 11 dollars. So, I’m even more eager to find ways to avoid postage! This year was tough to find bargains so send in your ideas!

This year, here is my number one find:

Personalized Amazon Gift Card What’s so great about these? Best thing is that I can put a picture in the card! The cards are videos or little animated stories where you can insert a picture of yourself or your favorite nephew, etc at some point in the card. This makes a boring “gift card” a LOT more fun for kids. I know many people don’t like to do gift cards for holidays because ‘There’s nothing under the tree.” In this day of computers, I don’t think kids mind finding a cute little animated card via email (no complaints yet…) You choose the gift amounts when you create the card. There are the typical cards to chose from: Holidays, birthdays, Thank you and Just Because. You can set the date ahead of time so it gets delivered on the day you specify–thus you can do a lot of shopping all in one place and never leave your arm chair…

I mentioned the personalized 10 dollar calendars last year–these are available from almost any office store or places like snapfish, kodak–wherever you send your film. They take your photos and use them as the pictures in a calendars. The cost depends on what you order, but you can generally create one for about ten dollars.

Next best bet is to make peanut brittle, cookies or other favorite snacks and send those. These are always the best kind of gifts, although they to take the most time. Next year I am really hoping to create some dry dip recipes that I can make and send. My SIL sent us some–salt free–that made wonderful dip. The only problem was that the brand she sent runs about 5 dollars a packet and by the time you add shipping from the place that sells the dip, you pay almost 10 bucks for one packet of dip. The obvious solution is to come up with my own recipe. If you know of one, please post it!

If you are giving a gift to a gardener, a 10 dollar gift certificate to Home Depot, Lowes or a local garden/seed store–fabulous gift. Ten dollars buys just enough dirt for seedling planting and getting started. Or mulch, or seeds!

If you are giving a gift to a cook, dish towels, pot holders or a collection of nice chocolate chips, baking chocolate and good vanilla extract or beans is always appreciated.

And a couple of favorites that can run more just a bit more than ten bucks…socks! My favorite are Smartwool socks. These are cushy, last long–and best of all, you can find them in varying lengths, thickness, colors and styles. They aren’t cheap, but anyone getting Smartwool will know they have been given a very nice pair of socks! (Smartwool is not a bargain. Most socks run 12 to 15 dollars on average, just under 10 if you get them at a discount place such as Sierra Trading Post or Backcountry. This year, as in times past, the best time to buy them is probably after the holidays.)

Cheese — This gift is always appreciated and prices are actually down a little this year (locally, not mail-order). Check around for a local cheese shop, buy several pounds and create your own gift boxes. Waxed cheese makes a nice colorful gift–but those small, cute shapes can get expensive, so watch out!

Our local store has some good deals on cheese, but only in two pound blocks, so I ended up ordering from my favorite place. I order 5 pounds or more of cheese every year from Wisconsin Dairy Company (715 435-3144). They come in one pound blocks. WDC doesn’t take credit cards (must send a check) but their prices on dry cheese such as Romano and Asiago are very good ($6.50 per pound shipped). They do have a five pound minimum per address shipped, but you can order waxed cheeses (which look very nice and keep extremely well) so it isn’t hard to order a large amount of cheese, especially if you’re doing multiple gifts. A pound of waxed cheddar is 6.25 shipped (I can actually find regular cheese cheaper locally this year, but they are not usually waxed). For someone nearby, various cheeses can be arranged on a simple plate and wrapped with plastic and tied. If you have to ship, cheese as a gift it is not as economical, but in that case, you can buy two or three pounds of different types of waxed cheeses and ship in a plain box. Cheese always comes in handy during the holidays!!!

If you are lucky enough to live in Wisconsin or another state that produces maple syrup, you can find some wonderful maple syrup in the 10 dollar/quart range at local stores. Again, if you have to ship, you’ll be looking at much closer to 20 per gift, which is a darn shame. This is a gift I used to give, but now with shipping costs up, I tend to only order once a year and take some to my parents when I visit. If you don’t live near maple syrup–a good substitute is locally “grown” honey.

Last, but not least, fresh roasted coffee beans makes a nice gift–and you can usually buy it and ship it for darn near that 10 dollar mark. It helps if your husband buys green beans in bulk and roasts his own…

Okay, your turn! What are the bargains you’re finding this year???

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May your turkey be stuffed, your potatoes mashed, your cranberries sweet, your buns warm and your gravy smooth!!!

Unleashed is the third book in my favorite Urban Fantasy series and is released into the wild, today, Nov 24. The first in the series is Dog Days (Ace Fantasy Book) and the second is New Tricks. If you haven’t read the first two, they are a great place to start.

I reviewed Unleashed for BSCreview–my last review for them! Here’s the review:

From the San Francisco aura described in the first paragraph to the magic on the last page, this book never let up. It’s action-packed danger, a see-saw between clues and just staying alive.

Not only did the characters grow and change in Unleashed, we get some unfinished business cleaned up. There were a few loose ends from novels one and two, but nothing that seemed major until this book, where we get to see what has been festering in the background. Mason has accepted that as a practioner of magic, he has some responsibility to the community. He’s more willing to look into problems and help clean them up. He’s still impatient and impulsive, but he’s also getting smarter.

Levitt uses his respect for and experience with music to describe magic and its traits, an analogy that really works, especially if you’ve ever heard someone play that has an indescribable talent, something beyond the mere human touch. His world-building is subtle; many times magic doesn’t even seem magic. It’s just another color or iridescent hue across the pallet. It’s a dog being a dog–is it magic, intelligence, or both?

Levitt’s biggest strength in world-building is his ability to create depth in characters–from the monsters to the people and everything in-between. There’s a subtle message that big, ugly and mean don’t always equate to true monster. There’s even a case made that those hanging on to what we view as sanity might be just a horse of a different color–a dangerous horse, but of value nonetheless. When dealing with something beautiful, be it a person or a place, you never know whether to expect poison or peace. The constant mixing of the world adds a realism that is unexpected, but delightful.

The mystery plot in Unleashed is very strong, probably the strongest of the three books and certainly the most tangled. There were enough red herrings to keep me guessing all the way through the book. Who was the guilty party? Who??? Every time Mason and Lou came close, there were more clues–and more false trails to be explored.

I could nitpick a character flaw or two and definitely pick on an area where I didn’t love the logic, but the plot moved so quickly, a minute detail here or there wasn’t important enough to hold me back. Magic isn’t always logical, and neither are monsters–be they human or other.

There are very few books I want to read twice. Unleashed made me want to go back and re-read books one and two. And before I was even done with Unleashed, I wanted to read it all over again.

Note: There are Kindle editions for “New Trick” and for “Unleashed,” but not “Dog Days.” The Kindle edition is about a dollar and a half cheaper than the 7.99 paperback. However, “Dog Days” and “New Tricks” are both available as part of the “order 4 books and pay for 3.” It’s possible Unleashed will be added to that deal…but if you need recommendations for how to fill out that order to 4 books, let me know. More than happy to help!

I know. It’s easier to open a can. BUT, it isn’t as good as this recipe–which is made the day before, so is well-worth the quick effort. Thanks, Renee, for sharing your fabulous recipe!

Frozen Cranberry Salad

Ingredients:
12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
1 can of crushed pineapple in its own juice (about 20 ounces)
16 oz bag of miniature marshmallows
1 pint whipping cream
½ C sugar

Directions:
Chop cranberries in a food processor or blender. Mix with sugar and put in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix pineapple and marshmallows.

Refrigerate both bowls for an hour.

After the hour is up, whip cream until it’s nice and fluffy. Mix in the contents of both bowls. Pour everything into a 9×13 pan. Freeze.

Remove from freezer about 30 minutes before serving. It is supposed to be served partially frozen.

Barcelona is BIG. The cruise docked early and allowed us off right at 7 a.m. Well, they delayed slightly while they stood around trying to figure out whether we were supposed to get off ramp A or ramp B. It was barely light when we got off and the blue buses that go from the port to the Columbus statue were not yet running (had to ask a policeman). So, we took a taxi directly to the train station so that we could catch a train to Montserrat. The taxi was not expensive and he ran the meter (about 10 euros for three of us–direct to the train station drop-off of our choice.)

There was someone at the ticket machine to help us purchase the correct ticket (Always a nice feature when train stations are aware a ship is coming in and have someone around to offer assistance!) We learned that using a credit card would result in a slightly higher fee so we used cash. We had a little trouble locating the correct track, but kept asking and people kept pointing!

The train ride itself was nothing particularly special. We missed getting off at our correct stop. We wanted to get off, but the doors didn’t open. We did not know we had to press a button to have the doors open–apparently not too many people get off at the first Montserrat stop–the one with the cable car ride up the mountain (as opposed to the train ride up the mountain at the next stop.) The ticket we had purchased was not interchangeable so we had to catch a very short train back to the first stop and then walk a short distance to the cable car station to the get cable car.

The cable car ride was very nice–good views of the river, the mountains, the works. On the way up, we could see the “stations of the cross” — spots along a mountain trail where various monuments had been set up. Oooh, how I wish we could have hiked that trail, but with mom’s bum knee, we settled for touring the church and then taking another mountain train all the way to the peak. There were more trails up there. Dad and I hiked a sort distance along one of them to check out the overview. Again–we would have liked to have hiked, but in this case, we decided it make more sense to head back to Barcelona to see some of the city.

We regretted that decision later. Barcelona is much like any big European city. Yes, there are things to see; lots of shopping along Las Ramblas–lots of people and generic, overpriced tourist goods. We struggled to find anything worth buying. We went to the famous Barcelona market, but it was almost entirely food items–uncooked and for those staying with a stove/kitchen. It too was crowded and not exactly a pleasant stroll. I had hoped to buy some Spanish olive oil and some of the famous sheep’s cheese (like a Romano). I didn’t see the olive oil. The cheese was more expensive than the imported Spanish cheese I can buy in my local grocery–by a large enough dollar amount, that I passed.

We scurried about to see one or two churches from the outside and then caught a taxi back to the ship. We all agreed that staying at Montserrat for a few extra hours would have been better. If you go to Barcelona and you’ve already seen your fill of monuments/churches, take a tour to Montserrat–or head north. I understand a couple of hours north of Barcelona there are some wonderful coastal towns and coastline. More research is required of course–if you’re on a cruise, you only have so many hours, so you’ll want to make sure that you can get to and from wherever you go in enough time to enjoy yourself. I heartily recommend Montserrat. It was easy to get to by train, cheap (about 20 euros round trip per person and it included the entire train ride–cable car–and peak train.) It was very nice to be outdoors and Montserrat is quite beautiful.

Here are some very good review sites:

Lesa The Librarian This is a great review site–Lesa covers YA, teens and adults. She reviews a lot of cozies, thrillers and other mysteries, although she does the occasional non-fiction, mainstream and fantasy. She also has a couple of book drawings each month and gives away free books!

Cozies! and other favorites – A really nice list of cozy authors, interviews, reviews, discussion–all about mysteries and cozies.  I was very pleased to find this one as there just aren’t a lot of mystery sites where I feel at home.

Red Adept Red reviews books that are out on Kindle. She also offers a Kindle subscription to this service if you happen to have an iPod touch, an iPhone or a Kindle! She does very detailed reviews and covers many small press and unknown authors.

Books on the Knob – Brings reviews, Kindle deals, free book deals, Kindle news/releases and general book talk.

Debut and Reviews This is a fun site. Instead of just a review after she reads it, Tia, the host, intros the book, talks about the website, any tidbits she hears about the author and then starts reading. She puts out a post or two as she reads and then finishes with a longer review. A number of authors stop by to comment.

The Book Smugglers – Two very fun book addicts talk all about their love of books. It’s a great site with plenty of reviews, free give-aways, interviews and just a nice atmosphere. They cover romance, paranormal, urban fantasy, fantasy…young adult…probably the back of cereal boxes…

Scott Pack has been in the business for a while and seen it from many angles–book buyer, publisher, editor.  He reviews many an eclectic book, does book giveaways, music discussions, magazine reviews and just your general “what do you think of that.”  It’s a fun site and because he lives in the UK, it often contains a slightly different viewpoint and different books than you might hear about in the US.

Marleen’s Journal Covering all parts of the world, Marleen brings you book thoughts from Ireland. She reads a very wide range and posts all her thoughts–good, bad and otherwise!!!

Mysteries in Paradise, Australia Just what the name says, ma’am. Kerrie covers all kinds of crime!

Remember that book, “Recollections” by Jim Chambers that I told you about? Well, he’s giving away a couple of copies of his book! Just go to the LLbookreview site and enter a comment (something you are thankful for or something that you remember from your childhood.) And you might find yourself with an early Christmas present. Chambers’ book is the kind that makes a nice gift–nostalgic, quick fun read.

In celebration of a new novel, a great review, good friends…and Thanksgiving about to arrive…I present…Pie.
Let the eating begin!

Junior likes to garden. Me, I like to grow things. Sometimes, it appears all I grow is…a cat. Junior has discovered that clay pots stay nice and warm in the autumn sun.

Ah, Nice. The second stop of the cruise was to be “VilleFranche,” also labeled, “Nice.” Little did I know…where we would land. Well, actually we didn’t. The ports along the French Riviera were either too small or too expensive to dock at so the cruise parked out in the water and tugboated us in. I’m sure Royal Carribean has no idea how this docking annoys the passengers. For one, we had no idea what time we’d be allowed off. The day before the docking, we were informed we’d have to get tickets (free) for the tugboats. We would be assigned a time for getting off. Those getting tickets first got off first.

I won’t go into boring detail, but getting the tickets was a disorganized mess–and the first passengers off didn’t happen until just after 8 in the morning. For those of us planning our own day, this was rather later than I needed/hoped to be off. The other confusion was that “VilleFranche” is actually about 40 minutes from Nice by bus. It’s also about 30 to 40 minutes to Monaco. This was not at all clear until after we were onboard the cruise ship because when looking at the cruise itinerary, it was always listed as Villefranche (Nice.) Silly me, I assumed this meant that they were the same, very close or a shared port of some sort.

I had planned to take the Train de Pignas to Entrevaux for the day. (The train goes further, but it runs two hours apart and there is no other way back to Nice the further you go. Entrevaux was actually pushing things. If something happened to the train–we missed it or it stopped running–we would have had to take a taxi to Puget-Theniers and catch a bus to Nice.) At any rate, with the late dis-embarking and a bus ride into Nice, there was no way to make the correct train.

Even with plan B, the cruise could have made our life easier by telling us the name of the bus stop at Villefranche (this helps on the way back), providing an accurate and detailed map of how to get to the bus stop (it’s a good ways up a winding hillside through a few different streets.) Everything was doable, but the lack of information was noticeable and extremely annoying. I had some idea of the bus information because I had assumed we would need to take a bus to the train station. Of course, we didn’t dock at the bus station I thought we would, but that was not a major deal.

We took the bus into Nice and took another bus (bus 400) out to St. Paul de Vence. This was plan B–more touristy than Entrevaux (which, by the way, would be a great trip if the train ran more often so as to accommodate us tourists!!!) but a lot cheaper and better than many of the other things to do!

We made it to the main train station without a problem. It didn’t take long to figure out the bus to St. Paul. Each trip cost only one euro per person (each way). You can pay the driver as you get on the bus. The ride to St. Paul de Vence wandered through Nice, along the coast a bit and up into the mountains. We had to ask the bus driver to tell us when we were at the correct stop in de Vence–hint: Look for the old castle/citadel as the bus is climbing through the mountains. The bus stop isn’t right at the fortress, but you’ll get an idea when you’re close and you can ask for the de Vence (citadel) stop. It’s a little confusing because it isn’t end of the line, and I couldn’t figure out if there was another town called “St. Paul” after “St. Paul de Vence.” I wasn’t even sure what to look for in de Vence, but the bus driver was great. He told us when to get off and then it was merely a matter of wandering around until we figured out where the castle was located (fairly close to the bus stop–just up the hill a ways).

The Citadel is very much a tourist attraction, but we were lucky; there weren’t many people that day. Prices for the art, clothes, perfumes, spices and food are high, but the old citadel is a wonderful example of an old French town hanging on the side of a mountain. I understand that Eze, another what-used-to-be small town, is similar. We didn’t go there and it is closer to the docking area so there were likely more tourists. Either one probably provides a touristy sample of the towns that are further back in the Alps. (We were able to drive to such towns on a previous visit. Getting a car in Nice is not worth dealing with the horrendous and dangerous traffic, but if you have time, taking a bus or train around is very nice. The car was great once we were outside of Nice, but again, not really worth the stress of the incredible traffic. We aren’t likely to do it again. Ever.)

So here are some pictures from the lovely citadel:

Nice is a huge city; difficult to get around unless you are very good with the bus system. You can waste a lot of time trying to get to the beach (which is a rock beach, not a sand beach) or the old town area. Old town area has a market most mornings and is very nice–but touristy. And expensive. The tour from the cruise will take you to Eze, Monaco or St. Paul de Vence, but they are priced at 100 or more per person. We did both St. Paul de Vence and Monaco for about 4 euros per person. (Warning: To get into the Monte Carlo Casino, there is a ten Euro charge. You must have your passport. There are dress codes for most of the high-end casinos. The casinos are beautiful buildings both inside and out. They are along beautiful (crowded) coastline.)

The ultimate tour would be to hire a driver to go back into the Alps, but drivers I contacted started at around 300-400 euros per vehicle. If I were going again, I’d try for the train I mentioned above, or even try taking a bus back into some of those smaller alpine towns.

AnthologyBuilder is having a fifteen percent off sale. Any Build-it-Yourself anthology ordered between now and December 5, 2009 will be discounted 15%. There’s a nice library of books already built for you as well. You can select one of those books as is, make changes to the stories or you can start completely from scratch. There are mystery stories, humor, sci-fi, fantasy–just about every kind of story possible.

Iif you are doing early Christmas shopping and planned on ordering an Anthology, now is a good time!

Here’s one I created that I think had some awesome stories in it:

Dragon’s Wings

I have several others created that I haven’t ordered. Guess I’ll need to get clicking!

Executive Lunch went live at Amazon last night! Thank you again to all who voted and helped with the cover.

Executive Lunch is also available on Smashwords.com. You can download a format for your laptop (see here for information on downloading a free reader), for the Kindle, the Sony, the Nook and in other formats.

Here’s the back blurb for Executive Lunch.

Sedona is given the opportunity of a lifetime: play an up-and-coming executive with all the trappings of wealth with someone else footing the bill. The catch: find out who is stealing company funds before the criminals find out that their program is being debugged.

Sedona runs into danger, the corporate glass ceiling, and an occasional chance at romance in her quest to figure out who is stealing money from Strandfrost.

Click for an excerpt.
(First chapter).

The first stop for the cruise ship was Florence. The ship offered day trips to Florence, Tuscany wine country and Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre would have been my first choice, but all the cruise offerings were over 100 dollars a person and some neared 200 dollars per person to take a bus to whichever local. You then had x hours on your own (generally between four and six hours.)

I tried to find a private driver to no avail. I think the cheapest I found was 400 dollars for the day to get us to our choice of locations. This was a pretty steep cost and after figuring out just how little time there is in each port, I’m really glad we didn’t spend the money. The cruise ship did not post the times we would be let off ahead of time. That time was different in each port, which added to the stress of trying to make plans. Luckily for Florence, we planned on grabbing a taxi to the train station and then taking the train to Florence. The train left once each hour.

Finding a taxi was easy–they were waiting right outside the ship. The first driver I talked to wasn’t interested in taking the three of us to the train station–he was hoping for a day excursion to Florence and offered to take us to Florence for forty euros a piece. Of course, he intended to fill his 8 person van before leaving.

We opted for a different taxi and found another couple headed to the Livorno train station. The taxi driver gave a price rather than use the meter, but twenty euros between our two groups wasn’t likely to get any cheaper so we hopped in. The train station was a little confusing, as are all train stations. We had about a half hour to get a ticket for the hourly train to Florence and with the long line, we weren’t certain we’d make it, but we did. We never saw the little yellow machine where we were supposed to stamp our tickets, but a helpful tourist sent me back where I jammed all three tickets in and then caught up with my parents.

The train cost just under 13 euros round-trip per person. Pretty good deal. The train ended in Florence so there was no worry about when to get off. The Florence train station was rather large, confusing and unfriendly, despite an information office. The tourist office would not give train information and before we left the station, I wanted to have an understanding of where we had to go in order to catch a return train. I ended up walking around and just getting more confused so we finally headed out. The reason for the confusion cleared up later–the Florence train station doesn’t post trains/docks until 15 minutes before that train is scheduled to leave. Thus, trying to prepare ahead of time isn’t very doable.

We hit the street–or it hit us. Wow. Construction, confusion…I had a map–again the delightful MapEasy’s Guidemap to Florence, but since I didn’t have a street marker…it took a few minutes and some wasted walking to figure out where to go.

Then, we were off! Our first stop was the San Lorenzo street market, an alleyway of shops and tents with lots of leather items. It turned out to be a highpoint of the day. The guidebook said to skip it and come back later–don’t! It was by far the best market we found. Dad bought a change purse and we looked at a lot of other goodies. I staved off buying because I expected to see two other markets during the day.

We went inside the San Lorenzo church (The pictures I took didn’t come out well due to the darkness inside the church so none are posted, sorry!). We then stopped outside the famous Duomo, but frankly after all the churches and statues in Rome, we were a bit monumented out. The outside of the Duomo is spectacular, but it’s smack in the middle of busy tourist intersections and other tall buildings. The building itself is incredible (see the picture with the detail of some of the carvings on the side of the building), but there’s not enough open space to come upon it and really…get a sense of it. The surroundings are quite distracting.

I understand the real beauty of the place is inside, but there were lines and in any case, my parents could not climb any part of any tower. We made quick work of the plaza and then continued down some side roads to other churches and so forth. In hindsight, given that my parents were having a slow day we would have done just as well to stand in line and see only the Duomo. By the time we walked around for another couple of hours, they were just too tired out.

Frankly, a few hours is not the way to see Florence. We did go inside two churches. They were beautiful to be sure, but…Florence was a blur of tired walking, nice statues (the replica of David is in one of the plazas. We saw it, but didn’t realize until we were on the train on the way back that it was the Michaelangelo copy, uneducated folks that we are.) I think we would have been more awed by Florence had we not just spent three days in Rome seeing some pretty impressive monuments, churches and museums. We actually could have stayed another full hour, but we went back to the train station, got a soda and milkshake at McDonalds and spent the time figuring out which train track we needed to be at. Just for the record, milkshakes are cheaper than soda. The milkshake was one euro and the soda (Coke) two. It doesn’t matter if you get the European soda or the American one. Soda is one of the highest priced drinks. It’s cheaper to get bottled water, coffee, tea or…milkshakes!

One thing is for sure. I am glad we did not spend a lot of money on the day excursion. If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably pick one or two things near the train station (such as the San Lorenzo market–the other markets were much more expensive and had fewer items. The leather school was a nice, quiet and quaint stop, but it was in no way a bargain.) We enjoyed what we saw and I would have liked to see the famous museum across the river, but it was too far to get to and I don’t think it was opened on Mondays in any case (the Palazzo Pitti).

If you are on a cruise and you take a day trip to Florence, be aware that the scenery on the train ride is not all that exciting. You are not cruising through the Tuscany countryside; you will see mostly a few backyard gardens and train stations. I think that is also the case if you take the cruise ship bus. If you want to see the countryside, you’ll want to book that tour specifically or hire a driver to take you around. I can’t say if it would be worth the price. For me, I don’t think I could see two or three hundred dollars worth of scenery in such a few short hours. Cinque Terre, Lucas and the countryside probably need to be enjoyed as leisurely day trips from a central location where you have time to explore. Cinque Terre in particular offers fishing/snorkeling trips, what looks to be great hiking opportunities and small shops and restaurants, but you’d probably have to be staying nearby to enjoy the atmosphere and all that it has to offer.

If I had to schedule this trip all over again, I’d take a train to Lucas. It’s smaller and also is supposed to have a market and a few churches worth visiting. Lucas is closer to Livorno so the walking/sightseeing would probably have been more leisurely. Of course, getting there did require a change of trains, so that would have been an added hassle to figure out. But the trains were far more reasonable than any of the tours in this port. Nothing I saw convinced me that paying the tour prices was worth it.

It’s here! The beta version anyway. Yes, I’ve downloaded it and yes, I’ve tried it! Not bad, not bad at all. I still lean towards mobipocket, but I’ve had it longer so I’m more accustomed to the commands. (Here’s my review of other readers.)

One complaint I read about elsewhere is that during the install, Kindle Reader will change your file associations such that .mobi will automatically open the Kindle reader when you double-click a .mobi file. Thus if you had file associations set to open a different reader, you’ll have to change it back. I hadn’t done associations yet, so it didn’t matter to me.

The thing that did catch me was that I didn’t “register my device” right away. The Kindle Reader and the laptop on which you use it have to be “registered” with Amazon in order to download books or samples. Once I had closed that screen, I had to pretend to re-install the app before I could find it again. So, if you get the change to register, go ahead and do it. It will save you time later. All you need is your Amazon email/account information. The registration is basically so that Amazon knows how you will pay for items you buy.

Yes, I’m sampling away! And looking for all those 2 dollar and free promos that the Kindlers have been enjoying for months! I’ve also found a few formatting changes I want to make to my own titles. “Sage” could use some better spacing I think. Of course, I don’t know what it looks like on the iPod or the actual Kindle device…hmmm. Much to think about, much to do!

Okay, the vote was pretty much even. Since there was no clear winner, I ended up choosing the one that had the most positive, enthusiastic comments. I threw the votes for Cover C in with Cover A since C is an ‘improved’ version. This gave the edge to the winner by 6 votes or so. (The extra Cover C votes don’t show in the poll tally; I added by hand.)

Next year, next cover, I will offer choices earlier just in case an entirely new portfolio needs to be developed. You readers have been awesome! Thanks for the votes, the private emails, the encouragement and all the suggestions!!!!

Executive Lunch is available on Smashwords.com. You can download a format for your laptop (see here for information on downloading a free reader), for the Kindle, the Sony, the Nook and in other formats that support all other readers that I know about.

Executive Lunch will be IS NOW up on Amazon !!!! It will take a little longer to appear at Barnes and Noble and the Sony store!!!

Executive Lunch is priced at $1.99.

Thanks again, everyone!

Here’s the back blurb for Executive Lunch.

Sedona is given the opportunity of a lifetime: play an up-and-coming executive with all the trappings of wealth with someone else footing the bill. The catch: find out who is stealing company funds before the criminals find out that their program is being debugged.

Sedona runs into danger, the corporate glass ceiling, and an occasional chance at romance in her quest to figure out who is stealing money from Strandfrost.

Click for an excerpt.
(First chapter).

Based on the great feedback I’ve gotten so far (and the neck and neck tie) I’ve added in the most popular suggestion to Cover A. To view it:

Third cover. To vote for it specifically, mention that you like it best in one of the the comments trail!

	Book covers are important. They are the window into the book, they are the first impression. Covers help sell books and sometimes, just seeing a cover from a book you enjoyed brings back that great feeling of “what a good book.” So here is the challenge! My latest cozy mystery, Executive Lunch is almost ready for release. But it needs…a great cover. I have two cover possibilities here and need your help narrowing the selection to the final cover. You may like them both. You may hate them both! You may hate the color green and wish to tweak it to…orange. Vote in the poll. Leave comments with details if you like.
Executive Lunch Cover A		Executive Lunch Cover B

Not sure what a cozy mystery cover should look like? Here’s the back blurb for Executive Lunch. It might help you decide on the tone you’d like to see on the cover.

Sedona is given the opportunity of a lifetime: play an up-and-coming executive with all the trappings of wealth with someone else footing the bill. The catch: find out who is stealing company funds before the criminals find out that their program is being debugged.

Sedona runs into danger, the corporate glass ceiling, and an occasional chance at romance in her quest to figure out who is stealing money from Strandfrost.

Not enough information? Click for an excerpt.

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Executive Lunch will be submitted to Amazon Kindle on or around November 12. It will then go live 5 to 10 days after that. It will also be available as an e-book via Smashwords and at a later date Barnes and Noble as well as Sony e-reader.

Thanks everyone, for coming to my party! (And for voting!)

It’s been a while since a Junior and Scamp update. I know you’ve all been wondering what the two fabulous felines have been up to! Well, first off, little Junior got fleas. How did this happen, you wonder? I thought with the cooler nights that maybe the fleas were hibernating, dead or gone on vacation. They weren’t. So on went the Revolution. Cured him right up! We still can’t pet Scamper, so…what to do? Some research on the internet provided a couple of “oral” flea medication options. We had to buy two–Capstar to kill adults and “Program” to kill the eggs and whatnot. So far, we easily hid the Capstar in her liver treat. She never guessed.

We gave her about half the Program tablet this morning in her treat. She’ll get the other half later. Yes, I know you’re supposed to give it all at once. But have you ever tried to give a feral cat anything???? She’s not really all that open to our suggestions!

We also had to take little Junior for rabies shots. Oh, we were not looking forward to that! We decided to take him to a vaccination clinic instead of his fabulous regular vet. This was only because his regular vet charges an exam fee even if we don’t want an exam. The clinics just do the vaccinations. The only problem was that the clinic ran from 2 to 4 and Junior was often hiding and asleep somewhere outside during those hours…

When all was said and done, Junior did very well and we were so proud of him! He cried on the way over, but behaved like a champ during the short exam by a trainee. He took the shot without a whimper and as soon as it was done, he hopped back in the carrier like it was his trip home–he knew where he wanted to go. Not a peep out of him on the way home; he curled up and relaxed (at the BACK) of his carrier. Thankfully we got the three year shot so he doesn’t have to go back for a while.

He’s doing so very well. Happy Birthday, Little Junior. You’re just over a year old now!

I planned on doing heavy editing this morning on my latest work-in-progress. BMHusband had other plans. He decided it was time to install the new washer and dryer we bought Friday. Little did I know that he was already done changing out the dryer plug to match the plug we needed. Ergo, it was time for the install.

After we took the old ones out, I had to clean the spots (Wow. Dust bunnies that big will give you nightmares…) Then while the spots were drying out, BMHusband decided it was time (past time) to take the window air conditioner out of the bedroom. Sigh. This meant window cleaning for me. Believe me, the window cleaning has been put off long enough.

I wish that our house had a larger roof overhang like I remember granny’s used to have. With such a small overhang (a foot?) the dust and grime and splash from rain is…well grimy. So I cleaned windows. And low and behold, just as husband planned, he was done in time for the football games. Me, I’m doing a load of laundry, testing out the new washer.