Check. These. Out. Plush, fuzzy, WARM sheepskin slippers!!! Custom made for *my* feet!!! Yes, I know. It’s 85 in central Texas, but that isn’t the point. Good slippers are hard to find. High quality slippers for a reasonable price? I had almost given up. It’s especially hard to order something like this online. Too many “sheepskin” slippers have “other” furs added to them these days. I’m not sure how you “add” fur to sheepskin unless you use glue, but it doesn’t sound like the result would be very high quality. And it can’t possibly be as warm.

But just LOOK at these! Beeeeeeautiful.

Most sites I checked, real sheepskin slippers were prohibitively expensive. When I found a company in the US–right in Vermont that makes them to order for a reasonable price…I couldn’t resist. Best of all, I didn’t have to wonder about the quality or craftmanship. Shepherd’s Flock website goes into great detail on where they get the skins and how they make the slippers. There are great pictures and not only that, the stories on the site are entertaining!

Next year…I’m gonna have to get the hat. There are three or so styles. Adorable!!! I’ll probably be practical and get the one with the ear flaps because when I go out in cold weather, there is simply no substitute for a hat with ear flaps. But just *look* at this fabulous shearling hat! It’s fabulous, isn’t it??? Just adorable. Can you imagine how cute I’d look in such a great hat???

I’ve been interviewed! Reviewed! No, not an interview about Junior (He is a lot cuter than me, isn’t he?)

Socrates does book reviews. Yvonne was kind enough to cover Executive Lunch.

I don’t do much facebooking, but my relatives are all out there so I check the pages now and then. (Like I need more distractions…but it’s a good way to keep up with family.) Anyway, two favorites from my facebook today:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, lemonade in one hand, chocolate in the other..body thoroughly used up and screaming “WOOHOO…What A Ride!”

(Okay, I changed a few words from the original to reflect…myself.)

Here was the other:

“I don’t understand why bacon gets pigeon-holed into breakfast. Bacon should be available for all meals. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, late-night snack. I dream of a day when I walk into a restaurant and under “Entrees” it says: “Plate of Bacon – $6.99″”

Wouldn’t be spring without a couple of flower pictures. This year we have more evening primrose flowers than I’ve ever seen. The ditch is full of them, the park has pockets all over and our yard has a whole section.

I can’t remember the name of the purple flower. I knew at one time. There are deep purple ones, light purple ones and white ones. They look like a daisy at first, but then sort of look like a cornflower type flower later. Very pretty and they pop up everywhere. Junior was sitting in a section of them in his last photo op.

The melons went in yesterday. Today it might rain. A snail ate its way through a cucumber stalk. That snail was caught in the act and was…destroyed. Utterly.

Picked a few snap peas. If this keeps up, I’ll have enough for a side serving in another four or five days…

One Question: Will someone explain to me why WEEDS never freeze????

Rats. We’re under freeze warning for tonight. The only good news is that it should hit 60 today, which *might* keep the cucumbers alive. They are not cold tolerate. Not one bit. I’ve had them die, covered, at about 35. Last night got to 33 or so. Everything was covered. A few blueberry blossoms bit the dust (hard not to knock them off when you cover them and the wind is a million miles per hour.) Goldern it!

The bean plants had a few stalks bend and twist off in the wind. Goldern it. They were doing very well too, putting out beans. The wind is fierce again today, knocking the plants all over the place. I swear I need to build a greenhouse. This farming stuff is very difficult without one.

I have one cucumber plant still inside. All the other melon plants are also inside, and two emergency backup tomato plants. Looks like I’m going to be needing them. Looks like I better think about planting a couple more cucumbers so long as I’m at it. Goldern it.

Maybe not *only* in Austin, but it fits. This castle was in the works before we moved to the Austin area nine years ago. In fact, it was almost finished. It’s in a rather nice, upper-middle-class neighborhood, sitting next to nice normal looking homes. We always wondered how in the world the guy got permission from the neighborhood association to build this addition to the front of his house.

Maybe he started building it before the neighborhood association had a chance to setup certain bylaws. Who knows? But this guy–his home is his castle.

He must not have had the property (money? permission?) to put in a full moat so had to settle for a rather large fountain that resembles a moat. The picture doesn’t do justice to the gargoyles and the light isn’t right to capture the fabulous gilded doors, but you get the general idea.

Okay, whoever runs for political office on a platform to abolish changing the clocks in the spring and fall–I’ll vote for that!!! I hate the time change. I can’t get up on time, I don’t eat lunch on time and I wander around all day “feeling” I’m in a different time!

Today I finished the draft of “Executive Retention!” It’s off to the first beta reader and I couldn’t be happier. Any writer will tell you that manuscripts way overstay their welcome. That thing has been giving me fits and starts so it’s good to push it to the next stage. It’s not ready to leave the nest quite yet, but I’m still glad it’s on the next leg.

Now I can go out and get some serious gardening done. A nasty worm tried to eat one of the cucumber plants last night. There’s a few beans to be picked (We’re talking one or two) and there’s a lot of weeds…

I love caves. They are very inspirational, not to mention beautiful. Inner Space Caverns in Georgetown, Texas is only a few short miles from where we live. We’ve never gone there because the signs near the area are so cheesy, we figured the caverns were small and nothing more than a tourist trap.

Well, the signs are misleading! Thanks to regular blog-reader, Max, we decided to go visit the caverns and my! what a great surprise. The cave is very much a living cave with fabulous formations. It’s been a nice, wet winter too, so there were some great water flows, making for just a magical place. The cave costs about 18 dollars per person to tour and takes about an hour. It’s well worth it if you’re in the area. Beautiful formations, knowledgeable guides and a lot of fun.

As always, click on the thumbnails to view a larger picture.

We had company this weekend. Ohboy. Feral cat and feral kitty don’t really understand *us* never mind additional household humans. Strangely Scamp did better than Junior. Of course Scamp lives outside and does not view the house as a safe haven so finding dangers in it not only doesn’t shock her, she’s always in the mood to bolt out the door anyway. “Door bolting” is a badge of honor for Scamp, something she practices on a regular basis even when the only sign of danger is a slowly moving sunbeam.

Junior was very disappointed when strangers arrived. Luckily the weather was nice for the entire weekend. I did nab him once and brought him inside to introduce him to the two friends. Sorry to say that he was not impressed. He made a big show of trying hard to escape by climbing over my head, shedding copious amounts of hair and when finally released, ran for his life as though dire threats and actual promises had been delivered.

We were gone most of Saturday touring this and that. I thought it would give Junior plenty of time to get over the shock that we actually have friends. But nooooo. When we arrived home, he and Scamp were out on the porch. That little stinker *ran* from me. No, not Scamp. She sat there and waited for her food bowl like a polite little domestic cat, while I attempted to pet little Junior. Stinker refused to let me near him. I was *very* hurt.

Of course I brought their bowls out so they could eat without panicking. As dusk came around, Scamp left to go wherever it is she sleeps. Junior followed her, but I knew he’d be back. He isn’t allowed to go to her spots or doesn’t feel he really belongs there anymore. He checked at the door a couple of times, but wouldn’t come in.

Eventually the guests were safely in bed. He did come in, but he still eyed me suspiciously. Stinker.

We made sure he stayed in both nights; I didn’t want him running around getting into trouble. He has a shelter outside on the porch, but I was afraid he’d be too nervous of the house to use it. So BMHusband nabbed him and made sure he was safely inside at night. Once inside with no activity going on, Junior was fine. Skittish at times, but fine.

Sunday morning, Junior was content to run in and out as usual. The guests weren’t up yet and Junior has many appointments in the morning (one assumes from the going in and out). On one such trip inside, Junior had just finished a sample snacking at the food bowl when our young guest (7 years old) came trooping out of the hallway, cleverly wrapped in a pink blanket that trailed out behind her…Junior took one frozen look, jumped straight out of his fur and ran for the nearest…kitchen was the best opening he had. Young guest didn’t really notice Junior so she hopped right into the dining room, scaring him further round to the opposite side of the room. He took one last good look at the pink apparition–the look on his face was a cross between, “What in all God’s glory is that thing??!??” and “I think I swallowed my tail!” before slinking as fast as his little legs could scamper–into the safety of the bedroom. He planted himself under the bed and did not come out again until the guests had gone.

Now, really. Our guests were wonderfully behaved and nice people too. I really think he could have given them more of a chance. Hmph. He was such a naughty kitten.

I’ve been waiting to write this post for at least a month. When I started out publishing on the Kindle, one of my goals was to sell well enough to publish a second book. That didn’t take me long. Sage: Tales from a Magical Kingdom is a set of novellas–and short stories don’t sell as well as novels, but from the get-go, I was pleased with sales.

From research, I used these two statistics to set my goals:

1. Self-published authors rarely sell more than 75 copies and most of those copies are to friends and relatives.
2. Small publishers sell 20 to 30 copies of each title per month.

Given those two points, I figured selling 10 to 20 copies of Sage per month was a good goal. I’ve only published a few pieces in online zines, so my name is completely unknown. Since I was selling into the Kindle market, I didn’t have to worry that relatives or friends would be buying significant copies–no one I knew had a Kindle!

Sage made the 10 copies per month pretty easily and hit twenty plus–in fact, it averages twenty copies per month. It took me less than six months to reach 75 copies. So from that standpoint, I think we could say I reached the bottom tier of self-publishing pretty easily.

Sage will never be a blockbuster, nor will it generate significant income–it’s priced at $1.00. What it does do is generate interest and serve as a cheap way for readers to sample my writing style. It did well enough that I decided to publish a novel, Catch an Honest Thief.

My goals for Thief were to sell 20 to 30 copies a month or get close enough to figure out if the market was receptive to my work.

Thief had a rocky start. It made the twenty and then sagged for a couple of months. The reviews and feedback on both Thief and Sage were good, however. By November 2009, I still didn’t know whether the model made sense. Sage was meeting expectations, reviews were meeting expectations but sales were under expectations with Thief.

I decided to go ahead with Executive Lunch. My goals were the same as for Thief: twenty to thirty sales per month. If sales for either of them didn’t get there, Lunch would probably have been my last Kindle edition. (Keep in mind that while all of this was going on, I did have a completely different series subbed to regular publishers.) I’m a big believer in attacking from different angles to reach my goals.

Executive Lunch was what I will term my Kindle “break-out” novel. It averages over 100 copies per month. It helps sales of the other two books as well, pushing them into the 20 per month since it went live. Some of its success is probably due to the good reviews on the other two, plus some good early reviews for Lunch. Some of the success is probably due to the fact that it came out in November, very near the big Christmas shopping season.

I used the success of Lunch to tweak the book description of Thief and also to improve the cover.

The bottom line: My goal was to sell 500 minimum within 18 months to declare any kind of success. With Executive Lunch, I reached that number today, after four months. My audience has been kind–maybe because I don’t charge much for my novels, maybe just because they are kind people. At any rate, the second in the Executive series will be out this year. My goals are a little higher now that I have some numbers. Realizing the whole thing could fall apart due to the economy or fate or alien zombies, I’m hoping to sell a thousand copies of Executive Lunch by the end of this year–and five hundred of Executive Retention, which I expect out in July, priced at $2.99.

It’s been a lot of fun, a lot of work, but I’m enjoying myself. Watch the blog–I’ll be having a cover contest to choose the covers for my next two books!

At long last! OverMyDeadBody has published Secrets in the Sand, a short story about…well, Secrets. In the Sand. This was a themed contest with “Back to School” as the theme, but don’t let that fool you. It’s quite possible there is murder and mayhem involved!

I noticed that the story displays much cleaner on Explorer than it does with Firefox (I haven’t tried other browsers). For that reason and because I’m into e-readers, I’m thinking of making the story available for download in an e-reader format. What do you think? It is short enough to read online, but it might be more convenient to read on the go!

Since it isn’t yet converted for download, feel free to go read it, but let me know if you would like a version for your e-reader.

As always, with my published short stories, after the exclusivity period is over, I also make them available over at AnthologyBuilder where you can add any of the very large inventory of stories into a print book and have it shipped to you.

I’m nearly certain that I single-handedly keep plant businesses and seed businesses profitable. Despite planting seeds, I needed to go to the plant nursery because some of the seeds didn’t do that well. Most of the plants are alive, but they are lagging. The tomato plants are a bit purple (from the cold? or lack of phosphorous?). I decided to be on the safe side, I had better go get some backup plants.

It is soooooo hard for me to not take one of every kind! Or two. Or…flowers. Or…okra??? I’ve never grown okra!

I did better than in years past because last year was so hot, it was difficult to take care of the garden (read: little produce and lots of backbreaking work, an expensive watering bill…) The thought of the heat from last year made me put two plants back. Oh sure, I still have more than I need. I’m counting on the neighbors. There must be a neighbor on my block who needs a tomato plant or…five. Cucumber plants anyone???

Despite the gray day, I moved the cilantro plant that had sprung up next to the driveway in the front to the official garden in the back. No, I’ve no idea how that plant got there. I’m sure I dropped seeds, but I have no idea what I was doing in that part of the front yard with cilantro seeds in hand. The cilantro seeds that I planted in the back never came up–of course. Hey, I’ll take what I get, and if that means moving the plant round back to where the watering happens, then that is what I will do.

I put the sad looking cucumber plants outside and planted some more. They were left too long in pots and just wilted. Not the best looking plants I’ve ever tried to raise. Hopefully the new seeds will come up looking perkier.

There are weeds all over the yard, in the garden…just calling to be dug up. I pulled a few, but it’s starting to drizzle which is a good enough excuse for me to come inside and post rather than do actual work. It’s supposed to rain for the next couple of days. We could really use some sun, but I suppose the plants want the water too. Spring is here, but it’s not in the best of moods.

If you are going to send me a pizza ad, tell me the price of your pizza. No, not a two dollar off coupon without a base price. Two bucks off 10 dollars is a good deal for pizza. Two bucks off 25 isn’t so great. Do not send me to your website to check and then tell me I must pick “my store location” to get prices. When I go to “my store” and pick the menu, Do Not show me a menu WITH NO PRICES. Do not tell me to place an online order to get pricing. I do not want to place an order when I have no idea what your pizza costs.

I can only assume that your prices are so ridiculously high you are ashamed to print them in the ad that you sent. You are so appalled at your own pricing, you won’t even admit to the price online IN THE MENU. Save yourself money and save my time. If you are going to spend money sending me an ad through the mail, I guarantee that you need to tell me the price of your pizzas in that ad.

In your case, game over. Will not play.

Junior said so.

He’s always been partial to flowers.

Am I the only person in the world who wants to create my own green tea cream??? Probably not. Sure, lots of places sell green tea. Lots of places sell green tea cream. BUT, how many of those places tell you the percentage of green tea extract in the cream? I haven’t found any yet.

Green tea cream is supposed to be very good for the skin. It helps with dryness, redness and inflammation. I already have several creams that help with these symptoms and have had moderate success with most of them. But for a few years I’ve wanted to try a green tea lotion–one that didn’t cost 40 dollars an ounce with no label to tell me just how much green tea I’d be getting.

I’ve finally decided to do a white tea/green tea infusion. This is a method of soaking tea leaves in an oil to impart the properties of the leaves into the oil. I thought about using the crockpot (heat on low for a couple of hours, stirring often, strain with cheesecloth) but decided on the “sun tea” method. It takes longer, but I don’t have a lot of time to monitor the crockpot temperature today. I’m, well, supposed to be editing my manuscript, not concocting tea leaves!!!

So tea leaves and oil are sitting in the sunny window. I used wheat germ oil, even though olive oil is the standard oil of choice. We’ll see how it goes. At the rate I try different creams, I should look 2, not 60.

Okay, a couple of daffodils have managed to bloom. I can even smell the three hyacinth–because it’s so darn windy that every time I go on the front porch, I get hit with a strong breeze.

I have at least three tomato plants that would like to be transplanted outside. Too bad we still have a couple of nights this week when it might freeze. And since it is only 50 out, I’m not feeling particularly enthused about going and digging in the cold, wet ground. Sigh. Spring. It’s sort of here, but it’s hesitating.