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.

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…

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.

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.

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!

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.

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???

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.

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.

He’s always been partial to flowers.