In the past I’ve posted about my one to three or sometimes four favorite ads. This year? We are talking commercials that might as well have been on AM radio only many AM radio commercials are shorter, to the point and not as annoying. Dockers: I had no need to hear a bunch of men singing about their pants–or lackthereof while traipsing around without them. Beer commercials: Yikes. Those were bad. Worse. And then bad again. Go Daddy: Must you always have some chick ripping her shirt off? Get over the Hooters type commercials and get some class. Even Budweiser with their horses went rather wild and weird by having a COW as the “cute.” Hmm. That didn’t work for me. Cows and horses as friends? Hmm. A giant Longhorn cow?? I was worried the five-foot horn was going to spear a Clydesdale.

As far as car commercials went, seeing a bunch of guys stand around in a coma while we ‘heard’ them make promises to do laundry so they could own the car of their dreams…no. The guys looked like idiots–just like the guy following around his girlfriend while shopping. Zombies. They all must be part of the zombie invasion.

Volkswagon had a fair commercial, but nothing standout. At least they didn’t embarrass themselves like Coke did. I have no real idea what any of those coke commercials was supposed to be about, but the one seemed to be a spoof of Madoff (or some wall street thief) losing their billions and being stripped of his belongings. The idea that handing a suicidal wall-street type a Coke would somehow make everything better…huh? There were other coke commercials, but they were so painful, I finally turned the sound off and just went for more snacks. And no, I wasn’t inclined to grab a Coke while I was in the kitchen.

There was another commercial with office workers running around without pants…something about casual Fridays. This was possibly the best of the commercials (as in mildly funny) but I don’t remember who did the ad. And since there was virtually no competition for “Best of” it’s hard to say how this commercial would have fared against a better field.

These are a little messy to make, but they freeze well and are great snacks! This is a modified recipe–I used less margarine (half) and I substituted ground oats for some of the breadcrumbs.

Spinach balls

1 16 ounce bag of frozen spinach, thawed and drained (press as much water out as possible)
1 1/4 cups shredded Asiago or Romano cheese
1.5 cups shredded breadcrumbs
1.5 cups ground oats (take regular oats and grind them in a food processor)
1/4 cup butter or margarine
4 small green onions chopped fine
1 clove minced garlic (optional)
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
1 egg

Mash everything together, form 1 inch balls and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Spray your cookie sheet or used sprayed foil! These will try to stick to the pan.

That’s it! The recipe makes about two dozen.

…Because it’s not just about the game! This year is colder than most at the Texas home of BMBooks. I really wanted sushi, but who wants to eat cold fish and cold rice on a cloudy, cool day???

Rather than make a stupendous meal, I prefer to nibble my way through the game:

Spinach Balls (I thought the recipe was on my site, but obviously I forgot to post it. I will post this recipe soon. In the meantime, you can check through other recipes and see if there is some dip or snacks to your liking!
Deviled Eggs
Potato Chips — Sour Cream and Onion, of course. You may think this is a lame choice, but us cholesterol, low-salt diet people don’t get to eat chips very often. We will try not to consume the entire bag during the first quarter, but no promises.

For the entree, I made a simple pasta dish. I like it; BMHusband tends to think it is on the bland side. It has Italian sausage in it. How can it be bland, I ask?? But if you find it bland, I recommend adding fresh chopped basil when the tomatoes go in.

At any rate, here is the recipe for Sausage Pasta:

Boil about a pound of pasta (bowtie, macaroni or other)

In skillet saute:
3 cloves minced garlic in olive oil
three to four crumbled sweet Italian sausage — about 3/4 of a pound

When the sausage and garlic are almost cooked, add:

sliced green onions (about 5 to 6–one bundle)
1/2 tsp pepper flakes (to taste)
sliced fresh mushrooms

When the sausage is completely cooked and the veggies tender, add:

2 cans of diced tomatoes (or fresh–close to four cups diced). This dish is actually a little better if at least one can of tomatoes is drained of excess juices.
1 cup of cream

Stir and heat through. Mix in the pasta. Serve with garlic bread and grated Romano cheese.

I’ve been following a few forums and blogs concerning the Amazon/Macmillan and pricing of ebooks. What amazes me is not the argument itself, it is the hatred some have for ebooks. Okay, I get that not everyone wants to read digital. But why be angry that others do? There’s also some very angry people that authors are republishing their backlist (books that are now out of print) to Kindle and other readers. They’re angry about people like me, pricing my books at 5 dollars and under.

Seriously folks. A few thousand books at 99 cents, two and three dollars is not going to cause the world to end.

I’ve seen posts that rage about low prices–”You’re ruining the industry. Your stuff is sub-standard!” Well, again, if you don’t want to buy or read it, don’t. It isn’t as though paper books are going anywhere. Ebooks aren’t even at fault for the rising costs of print books. Ebooks aren’t the cause of lower author advances either. In fact, one might argue that ebooks could result in more sales (to a different demographic) and generate interest in books that isn’t there for heavy hardbacks, trade paperbacks or POD or other printed versions. But even in the creation or catering to a new market, ebooks are not exactly a threat to the quality or longevity of regular books. The only threat to the existing structure is not giving the customer what she wants at a price she can afford. If publishers can’t or won’t produce books (in hard copy or digital) at a price people will pay, then yes, the industry will fail until someone does. If small publishers produce a satisfying book at 5 dollars and customers like it and buy it–then a market has been created for those books at those prices.

The industry is changing. Save the anger for something that matters. If ebooks become the new sliced bread, mankind will endure. If an independent author or three put out good books and the public buys them, it isn’t going to mean that existing authors suddenly go broke. There will always be formats if there are buyers. There will always be newbies that come in with a lower price that give the big guys a run for their money–no matter how temporarily, no matter how good, bad or otherwise in quality. That’s the nature of the beast.

I’ve mentioned before that BMHusband shares some cool qualities with Q, the James Bond character. Namely, he tends to solve problems by inventing things. Where you and I might hang a bell on a door so that when the cats try to get in, the bell would rattle, BMHusband looks at the door and sees wires, lasers, lights and…a fancy, hi-tech doorbell. Which is what has now been invented and installed!!!

This is your basic…well, okay, NOT so basic garage door opener style device. When the cat crosses the beam on his way to the door, a chime sounds on the wireless (yes wireless–why would we even consider a boring old wired speaker???) speaker in the bedroom. “Ding!!! Junior is home!” Well, it doesn’t really say “Junior is home,” it just chimes. And we can then investigate to make sure it is, in fact, Junior or Scamp and open the door. When it is one of the invader cats, we tell it to go home (the neighbor cat is still trying to convince us to let it move in.)

“Our” cats took less than a day to figure out that they don’t even have to tap on the cat door anymore. They simply sit in front of the door and wait. Magically the humans appear and let them in!!! Junior was convinced that he could now send us mind-messages. He was so pleased! Except we still don’t give him treat every time he sits at our feet in the kitchen. And this morning when he hopped on the bed and began “the stare” we did not immediately shower him with food, let him out or otherwise give in to “the stare.” But when he wants in on a rainy morning, we hear about it.

Working Girl Reviews has reviewed Executive Lunch! What a thrill! Okay, anytime someone reviews my book, my first reaction is a bit of tummy-roil. What if…they hated it? What if..they liked it??? What if…they meander around and talk about their dog, their cat or their raincoat and somehow people think my book is about walking the dog in the rain???

Of course, I do try to be choosy about who I offer the book to for review purposes. I like a review site that is thoughtful, has reviewers who know how to spell and of course, has reviewers who love to read!!! It’s also nice if I like the same types of books they do–that way I also find new gems to read. Working Girl Reviews fit the bill for me, so I sent along a review copy and lo! I got a four-shoe review!

Here’s my favorite part:

To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this book by self-published author Maria E. Schneider. I work from home and I’ve never been in the corporate world. Mysteries aren’t my favorite genre and I’ve never been much into sleuth capers. So, why did I even decide to read this book? I took a peek at Maria’s blog and online postings at bearmountainbooks.com. After a little reading there I felt like I knew her and wanted to give her book a chance. She is down to earth and realistic. She isn’t expecting her works to be on Oprah’s next book list but rather is writing for the enjoyment it brings to her.

That pretty much sums it up. All most authors want is a chance to be read!

Amazon has announced that they will bring Macmillan’s books back online–at the higher prices that Macmillan has demanded be charged. I think the new pricing will happen in March (which is when Amazon’s current contract agreement with Macmillan runs out). But that was not clear. Amazon may just throw in the towel and price them as Macmillan has ordered. I mean negotiated.

Here’s the post from Amazon:

Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.

Sadly in my case, I wasn’t even willing to pay $9.99. Best sellers are pretty easy to get at the library, which is where I read my copies (although I should point out that I don’t read all that many best sellers.) My reading habits are pretty…eclectic. My shopping isn’t. I look for bargains whether it’s onions or books.

Amazon accomplished a lot this weekend–they got a lot of press on the issue of pricing. There were lots of Kindle discussions as well. Probably most important to them: They made it clear who is at fault for the higher prices about to be encountered.

I’ve talked about Inkmesh before–a nifty little search engine for finding ebooks online. Gives you pricing, tells you where to find the book, and lists a short blurb. You can quickly find books by any author and then find out where the book is sold–and which store has it for the lowest price. Or maybe, as you can see from the example below, the price is the same. But if you already have an account at, say, Amazon, you would see that the book was available there and go happily clicking away without having to register at a new site.

Maybe you only want to search on books that are under five dollars…Inkmesh lets you do that as well. And lately, because they are cool, they have provided a widget for sites that are interested in bookish things. Hmm. I might fit that description.

I’m thinking about adding this to my sidebar, just in case people come here. Just in case they are interested in books.

Well, well, well. Retailer wars. Hearing this morning that MacMillan (very large publisher which includes such imprints as St. Martins, TOR, many, many others) has pulled their books from Amazon–both print and Kindle versions. I think the New York Times is saying Amazon did the pulling, but other blogs are reporting that it appears MacMillan pulled them. I don’t know who pulled them, but it may be due to an upset over what price the end customer is being charged for the books. MM wants ebooks to be 15 or more. Amazon wants them at 9.99. I don’t get the problem. MM charges Amazon X–whether that is 15 or 9. Amazon, in turn, sells to the customer at whatever price they want. Either MM took issue with Amazon taking a loss or Amazon decided to…pull books and make no profit? Or perhaps it is all just a computer glitch and no one is mad at anyone over anything.

But if either party pulled the books on purpose, the whole thing is absolutely bonkers. Reports from people who contacted Amazon did not get information about the missing books. People who work at Amazon are blogging and saying they do not know what is going on. MM hasn’t released any statement either. Official sources (newspapers) are *guessing* that Bezos/Amazon is at fault. Me? I’m guessing the opposite. MM’s CEO is reported to be very anti-ebook. Of course if he were going to pull books from sales…you’d think he’d only do e-books and you’d think he’d wait until Apple actually had their product for sale so there were more alternative places to buy online. But I’m not a CEO. I don’t get paid the big bucks for decisions like that.

And for those of you looking to buy a book this morning, mine are still up on Amazon. I have no intention of pulling them from there or anywhere else (Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Sony…)

AND I recently made two best seller lists on Amazon with Executive Lunch:

Hot New Releases in Comics

Hot New Releases in Action and Adventure

And for Sage:
Top 50 Ghost Stories

Here’s an update:

Ad taken out by MacMillan

What MacMillan doesn’t make completely clear in the statement is the “windowing” statement–which others have clarified to mean: “If you don’t price the way we suggest, we will not allow you to release the ebook until 7 months after other companies have it.”

I don’t know if the clarification is correct. There’s lots of folks who say, “Amazon was cutting us a break on prices, let them do so,” while others say, “Give us the books, we’ll decide if they cost to much.”

Me? I’m glad I have a place to publish. I feel for the authors stuck in the middle of this battle.

Have you noticed (yet) that when you were younger, you could sometimes thread a needle even if the thread had a frayed end? Then when you got older, you couldn’t *see* the frayed end, so you always cut a fresh start anyway? Then there are the days that there doesn’t seem to be an eye in the needle…

Yes, I’m quilting again. A fresh, new pattern, which means…lots of planning required. I quilt on the pattern and then as I go along, I think of a better way to do the pattern. But that’s quilting. Every stitch is different. Even if the underlying design is the same, the stitches don’t have to be exactly the same around each part. Good thing to. Quilts are about life; random patterns, random stitches that turn into a whole.

Is it just me or is google not doing the job it used to??? Recently I was hunting prices on some merino wool stuff–wanted to get mom a nice sweatshirt type jacket for her birthday. Of course, when I mentioned it, mom wanted a nice, pretty sweater instead. Never mind that she has a closet full of sweaters–it’s an around-the-house piece she lacks, but it’s her birthday…

Multiple searches with multiple terms (hoodie, hoody, merino wool, brand names of merino wool makers…) almost always turned up the same five to ten big-name retailers. Hmph. What happened to the little guys? The ones running clearance, the small guys with maybe one shop in one state? Seriously, I found more retail links in the top ten that were OUT of the product than I did small stores or stores I hadn’t heard of. I got rather suspicious when I ran the search through a site that only returns stores that pay them for click-throughs–same stores appeared with no unique little guys.

I searched back several pages into the google items, but I did better when looking for individual brands or individual stores. I know those stores are out there, but it takes hunting to get them to show up. Ebay was mysteriously absent from the searches many times. Used to be ebay took up the entire first page when searching for something like a sweater. Maybe ebay cut back on advertising. Or something.

Meanwhile, hunting continues. It’s hard to find a bargain these days.

Executive Lunch is now available at B&N for the Nook–with the correct cover!!!

The weather has turned nice for a few days, so it’s time to garden! No, I wasn’t really ready. Still a lot of weeds in that there garden…work to be done. The onions starters I ordered came in yesterday, though, so I had to prepare a section and get them in. If you’re planning on doing sweet onions this year…they don’t look that great. I checked them at various stores and decided to order online in hopes that fresher ones would look better. Maybe they’ll do okay, but some look as though they may have some pink to the roots–is it pink rot? I don’t know. But I discarded any with even a hint of pink. Of course if they are infected, that’s bad news–pink rot lingers in the soil for about five years. Last year’s crop didn’t look great either. I only planted a few and actually avoided the 1015Y starters because they didn’t look very good. The white granex I planted did best, but even they were small compared to what I consider normal for my garden. I may plant some more green onions to compensate for the small planting of yellow 1015s.

If you’re up north and still have time to do seeds or bulbs, it’s probably better to go that route. Longer day onions are planted up there though, and starter sets may be in better shape. I think I’ll try seeds next year, although 1015Y seeds are hard to come by.

If you’re in Texas you should be thinking hard about getting snap and snow peas in the ground. Mine from November made it through the 18 degree cold (buried under leaves and blankets.) There was some damage, but most of the plants are looking good again and starting to grow. I started 6 new plants inside about a week and a half ago. The ones that sprouted have been moved to their new home outside and are looking good. Fingers crossed for a decent crop!

The tomato starters are still in the window. The middle batch is starting to come up. The very latest batch, ones I’m anxiously awaiting because they are my new varieties–hasn’t shown a leaf yet. Soon…

Smart-alec that is. Scamp figured out her exit within a couple of days. Now when that exit isn’t available, she gives us the eyeball. One day she checked, but it wasn’t open. She went outside, sat on the back porch and stared inside at us as we walked by the door. She came in. She checked. Not open. Back to the back porch where she stared. And stared.

Not speaking cat language, but feeling those eyeballs…I opened the door. Pretty soon she came in. Checked and exited the escape hatch…I’m sure she was pleased to have successfully trained the humans.

This morning BMhusband got to play the game. She came in to eat breakfast and of course checked the escape route, but alas, it was not available. When she was eating her treat, BMhusband took the opportunity to open the door. She was very pleased! Used it immediately! And then came around the house, onto the back porch and inside to eat more food.

As you know, we have a cat door. As you may not yet know, apparently a few other cats have learned to use it–sneaking in when we weren’t watching. We began to suspect something was amiss when the food bowls were going down rather quickly. The other clue was that there would sometimes be a tap at the cat door and then nothing. The “nothing” usually happened when we were talking, meaning the invader realized we were close and didn’t come in. Until The Black Cat. Black Cat got brave and started blowing through the cat door like it wasn’t there, attacking the food bowl with such vigor that one might believe he was mere seconds from starvation. Blackie had tag and collar however, so we were quite certain he was owned. Abandoned? Perhaps, given the way this cat went at the food.

It took a few tries to get friendly enough to read the tag, get a number and call the owner. It took a few calls for us to believe the cat was, in fact, getting fed. The owner even went and bought the same kind of cat food we have — hoping that Blackie would stay home more often.

Blackie and Junior get along GREAT. They play outside–chase, wrestle, tag, smack, whatever. But…yeah. Scamper. We don’t know if Scamper is truly afraid of Blackie, but Blackie chases her like he’s planning on running right through her and on into next week. Scamper *hates* Blackie. Passionately. She saves her best hisses and growls for him, but ultimately, she takes off faster than any domestic cat can run.

It’s been a problem because, although the owners are keeping Blackie inside more often, Blackie comes over here the minute he is given free time outside. If Scamper happens to be in the yard, he chases her away. Two or three times Scamper was in eating and Blackie tried to get to her. We tried to stop it. There was a rather crowded scene at the cat door. Scamp didn’t want us too close, and she sure didn’t want Blackie anywhere in the same cat universe. There was much yelling and cat screeching. In the end, she bolted through the door and over Blackie out into the yard. A rather nasty chase ensued.

This was not a scene we wanted repeated. For one, Scamper began staying away from home–her place of safety. For two, she wasn’t coming and eating as often. For three, she started limping. We don’t know that Blackie had anything to do with it–she easily could have landed wrong from a jump–but we blamed him anyway.

Scamper has been coming in, eating and leaving as fast as possible. We needed A Plan. Or Two.

One plan is a cool device my husband is making–basically a doorbell that will “ring” when the cats pass across a beam. Yeah, BMHusband is kind of like “Q” in James Bond only younger and better looking. The doorbell will provide us a warning that an object is trying to get in (whether the door is open or closed.)

My contribution is more mundane. It is my job to explain to Scamper that we will provide a second exit. I’m sort of like the behind-the-scenes tester that you don’t see in James Bond, the one that might get her fingers singed or in this case growled and howled at if I can’t convince Scamper to try the other exit.

It’s been hard to convince Scamper that there is a second, secret exit (the old, laundry room/garage exit). She hasn’t spent enough time inside lately to find that when she comes in, we open the escape door.

E…ven…tuall…y she took a short look in the kitchen. Nope. Too scary. Left.

After a few tries, she figured out the door was there, but even after the first exploration where she discovered the garage and the light at the end of the tunnel, she was unconvinced. She left in a hurry–through the back door.

Today, she came in again, ate and then took more time looking around. Once again, she inspected the garage and the slightly open door. After five minutes or so, she came back in and boy, can that cat do *smug.* You should have seen the happy little smile on her!

I’m fairly certain she’s most of the way there. If she ends up cornered inside, she will at least check the garage escape hatch. If it isn’t open, she already knows that if she waits patiently, one of the humans always opens the back door–chances are good the humans will open the front. Then, sneaky Scamper can go out the front while Blackie is scratching at the back!!!

Yeah. There’s some possible holes in these plans. But I’m telling you, we’re almost there. And if it doesn’t work…anyone have a plan C???

So I found this great place to order tomato seeds: WinterSown. Among other kinds, they specialize in heirloom seeds, which I don’t plant often because many don’t do well in Texas. (If you have never grown tomatoes, do not start with heirloom. They can be more difficult and many varieties don’t produce high yields.)

When ordering seeds, I always research and get the ones that are most disease resistant and also can handle heat. Tomatoes don’t much like the heat here.

Anyway, I put in my order with a five dollar donation to cover the Burpee Better Boy, which sounds like a Must Have for the home garden. I’m always wanting to try at least ONE new variety each year. I also selected the Cold Set because I think I can grow it outdoors in the Texas winter (not this year, maybe, but most years.) I’ll wait to plant Cold Set in the fall and give it a try. I selected four or five others that I know my mom can grow in New Mexico. Since I’m due to visit there shortly, I figured it would be great to take the seeds and help her get them started.

WintersSown came through. In a BIG way. 15 lovely, lovely varieties. Oh my. It’s like looking at a buffet. Where to start??? So many great varieties…one that is a cross of an heirloom and a purple (sometimes called black tomatoes). It was grown down in Conroe Texas so it should do well here…oh, and a LOVELY sounding paste tomato, the Chico III that can stand high temperatures! You know I’ve been looking for the perfect paste tomato to grow here in Texas. Many of them struggle in the heat…

I do NOT have room for all of these. They MUST go to my mother. Well, except for one or two. I mean, I cannot ignore such generosity. Just one or two. Not all 15. No, I must resist planting all 15…

Down to about 25 last night…woo! We’re warming up! Most of the snap peas…had lots of frozen parts. It’s possible the base of the plants made it through the cold, but I’ve peat-potted 6 new plants inside. The seeds won’t germinate outside because the soil is too cold. Once they germinate, I’ll move them outside because beans don’t transplant well. The peat pots should make it possible to get an early start.

The tomatoes are all up in my sunny window except for a variety that should come in the mail this week. I also replanted the Juliet tomatoes because when I transplanted them to a large pot…I think I damaged them. Too early to move, apparently. So the spring plant is on–sort of. Now the water barrels need to thaw out. Seriously. They are good and frozen. We’ll only see 50 today and the barrels are in the shade. I’m guessing it will be several more days yet.

I’m hoping to plant a little less, but get a little more. My garden has grown each year since I moved to the Austin area and after nine years…it’s bigger than I can comfortably care for without buying a gas-powered tiller. I still have a whole section that still needs weeding and another section that needs to be turned over. Gone are the days when I dream of canning tomatoes. I’m happy if I have a few bags to put in the freezer.

I’m late getting onions in the ground this year, but the stores haven’t had them in yet–too cold. Probably this week. For now, I’m huddled under my blanket, waiting for those temps in the 50s…

At 5:30 a.m. it was around 15. An hour later it was 14.2. Brrrr. Junior got antsy at about 5:30. We got up and checked for Scamp, but she wasn’t out there. Junior ate some breakfast. We went back to bed. At 6:00, Junior “checked” to see if it was time for him to go out. We told him it was too cold. At 6:30, he checked again. He was very polite about it, so I told him I’d open the door, but it was too cold.

I opened the door and the little stinker went right out! Fourteen degrees and out he went! I left the inside door open so that he could use the cat door to get back in. I figured he’d potty and come back in. We waited. And waited. About five, maybe 10 minutes later, I heard the cat door. Since it was so cold, I decided to get up and close the inside door. Guess who I found??? Junior went and got his mom! Both of them were sitting in the doorway–Scamp hissing at him to get his butt out of her way so she could come in and eat–and Junior just planted there looking at me blinking in the low light.

We were delighted that Scamper came so early. She seemed completely unaware that it was fourteen degrees outside. She ate her breakfast and out she went. We closed the door to trap some of the heat inside. Junior popped around the house, eating, drinking water (he drinks a lot of water when the heat is running) and generally going about his morning.

We’re always telling Junior to go get his mom. It’s about time he listened!!!

It’s 27 out. And almost 11 o’clock–in the DAYTIME. Yes, I’m still in Texas. What happened to the sun??? And global warming for that matter???? (Don’t try to spin this guys. This is cold. It is not some offshoot of it being 105 for 7 days in a row this summer.)

Of course, being cat owners, we’ve been trying to convince Scamp, the feral cat, that she could stand to spend a night or two indoors. She thinks we’ve lost the one brain cell she gives us credit for. (She concluded we have at least one between the two of us because we are good providers of food.) We did see her this morning so we know she has eaten. These feral cats either have somewhere warmer than I can imagine or they hibernate underground somewhere. We’ve opened the garage a tad, but we never see her around there, so I doubt she’ll use it. With our luck two opossums and a skunk will move in.

We’re “scheduled” to stay below freezing for 3 days and nights. The nights will supposedly hit the teens. I buried the snap peas under leaves and blankets, but do not hold much hope for them, especially with the wind. More leaves maybe?? Sometimes you just start over.

Meanwhile, Junior isn’t thrilled with the weather, but he did help batten down the hatches before it set in. BMHusband had to fix the fence so that it didn’t blow over in the 40mph winds. (He wisely worked on this BEFORE the winds started.) Junior helped by spying on the neighbors. (He didn’t want anyone sneaking over to actually help with the fence!) He’s a good lookout, don’t you think???

This sales data provided by Tobias Buckell is older info (2005) but it does mention an interesting trend–advances were bigger in the 90s (as reported by authors in the survey.) Halo Encyclopedia is one of Buckell’s books.

It also shows that over time, agents tend to help authors get more.

These links came via author Jim Hines. He also posted this link to Kimberly Pauley, author of Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (maybe). Some excellent information in there as well. (And the book sounds interesting too, doesn’t it???)

A few generous authors have been putting out informative posts about their books sales. Jim C. Hines has done this a few times over the years, as has J.A. Konrath. Here is a post about Jim’s latest leanings and learnings. This sort of post really helps all authors.

EDIT: The great Jim Hines updates his blog with an even more detailed money post–worth checking out!!!

From the self-published world, I thought this post (and comment trail) from V.J. Chambers was informative and helpful.

In my small opinion, Kindle and Amazon have made a huge impact on self-published authors. I suspect that Kindle has also had a pretty large impact on regular publishers as well, but I don’t think regular publishers are anywhere close to admitting such.

I’m pretty sure that I don’t yet have enough data to extrapolate much useful information from my own sales. Executive Lunch has been out for about seven weeks and is doing very well. Sage: Tales from a Magical Kingdom has been out six months, and Catch an Honest Thief about five months.

I can say that I saw a definite Christmas bump in sales across all three titles just as other authors are reporting. The two weeks before Christmas and the week after are NOT the time to ignore forums and message boards. The forums were busy looking for book recommendations. Because Executive Lunch was just released, I can’t tell what is “new release” and what is “Christmas bump” but the other two titles doubled their normal monthly sales.

The other piece of data that I found in my trolling is probably too old to be of use, but I have seen at least two articles mention that the average number of copies sold for a self-published author is 75. This number is before Kindle days (I think) and refers to print copies that include “sales to relatives.” It’s an often touted number used to discourage authors from self-publishing. I’m not going to get into that argument or list the pros and cons. It is what it is. But the one thing I can say is that two of my books are above that average and hit the seventy-five number fairly easily. Most of my relatives do know that I write. Most of them do not visit my website, nor are they Kindle owners (even the free download to PC version) so I can be fairly certain that the majority of sales went to complete strangers.

I don’t make much money from my books sales, partly because they are all priced under two dollars. The other piece of data that affects sales: I’m new and unknown. Gaining a readership is difficult and it’s not a sprint, it’s a tally over time. I will say that I’m thrilled with the reviews and sales that I’ve mustered so far. My goals are fairly small–I’d like to sell enough books to match the numbers from a small publishers. The good news is that ebooks don’t go out of print. The other good news is that I’m keeping my expenses extremely small.

I’m learning a lot, I’m having FUN and most importantly, I think self-publishing is helping make me a better writer!

Here’s wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!!!

I’ve finished all the main stops, posted all the delightful pictures, complained about this and that…but what were the highlights?

Scavi Tour: This was the best tour and quite possibly made the Rome trip worth it all by itself. In retrospect, probably because we had the most time there, Rome, Italy was the best stop on the trip.

Glandeves Saffron: I actually obtained the saffron *before* the trip and planned to buy more while there. I also *planned* to stop in Entravaux, France, near where this saffron is grown/sold. As you know from the summary, we weren’t able to make the train there so I didn’t get to meet the delightful Lucile in person. However, we emailed back and forth, exchanged recipes–and she sent me saffron and a wonderful white tea to try. I highly recommend both the tea and the saffron. Despite several tries, I’m fairly certain we never ate saffron while in Europe, which was a shame. We also didn’t find it for sale, another shame. Luckily, I found Lucile and her shop on the internet or we would have missed that part of the experience. I just made saffron chicken rice yesterday–yum! Highly recommended. The saffron was, by far, my best souvenir from the trip!!!

If I return to Spain, I’ll try the northern areas (and pack emergency food just in case…)

In the past, I didn’t think I’d ever return to Nice, France. This time, I learned that I haven’t seen all the places worth seeing. I’d definitely head into the alps if I land there again. As for Italy, I’m glad I went, but with the hustle and bustle and the expense, I don’t see myself in a hurry to return to either Florence or Rome. Perhaps the Cinque Terre will call me out one day, but it better hurry. I’m not getting any younger!

For now, I think the mountains are calling me. Or maybe Hawaii. Yellowstone. The coast of California…so many places to dream about!!!

For all you B&N Nookies…Executive Lunch is now available over at the B&N site!!! Sadly…the cover is not the correct one. (One wonders about the pointers used in the database…How DOES This Happen???) At any rate, the cover that is showing isn’t a bad cover, it’s just not the one that really goes with the book…

Which cover do you like better???

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).

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.

It’s not snowing here, but it is cold and very windy. We’re snug in our house with a ham and potatoes ready to go in the oven. I hope that you and yours are snug and have a wonderful celebration planned. I wish all of you good health, good friends and lots of love in your life. Merry Christmas!!!!