Gardening with Deer - A Metaphor for Life

Life is a long string of challenges. Sometimes it's more like a braid than a string. 

Three months ago I spent thousands of dollars to have the yard at our new house planted with a wide variety of drought tolerant, deer resistant plants. Drought is a way of life in Monterey County, and our water bills are frightening, so choosing drought tolerant plants was a no-brainer. Deer resistant has been much more challenging. 

I love deer and was excited the first time I saw a family strolling through our yard. That was during construction, and there wasn't much here for them to eat. They looked around then moseyed on over to the next-door-neighbor's yard for dinner. That same neighbor had told me he gave up years ago worrying about what the deer ate. He simply went about his business and let them go about theirs. His yard is thickly planted native trees and shrubs, making it hard to notice the occasional nibble. He warned I would end up hating both gardening and deer if I went to battle against them. 

George is a wise man, so I decided to take his advice. I decided to forgo erecting a tall fence and chose deer-resistant plants instead. I have since learned there's no such thing. If the plants are unfamiliar or have tender, young leaves, the deer will at least try them if they're hungry, or merely curious. Our omnivorous deer have astounded both the landscaper and the owner of the local garden center with what they're willing to eat. Lately I've been told, "I've never heard of deer eating that" more times than I like to say. 

These flowers are an example.

Before

After

And these.

Before

After

Fortunately, I was able to enjoy both for a few weeks before the deer discovered them, and all the plants have new buds. If they're willing to try again, so am I. I've learned to enjoy the beauty around me while I have it, without expecting (or trying to force) it to last forever. There's always something new and beautiful around the corner. Like these spectacular Kangaroo Paws. They're from Australia, and the tiny florets look like fuzzy kangaroo paws. So far, the deer have shown no interest in them.

Kangaroo Paws

See the fuzzy, red feet?

And then are are the moments of unexpected delight, like this little volunteer succulent. It sprang from a piece broken off one of the larger plants and dropped, possibly even by a four-footed marauder. 

So far, I'm staying pretty Zen about sharing my garden with the wildlife. I don't know how long that attitude will last, but I'm trying. Hopefully, by the time I'm George's age, I'll just smile and take it all in stride. Gardening, like life, is most satisfying if you can learn to go with the flow. Yesterday around dusk, a doe and two tiny fauns ambled through the back yard without so much as a nibble. Maybe they've called a truce and I just don't know it yet.

The Value of Book Reviews

Many writers claim they never read reviews of their books. They are sufficiently confident in their own abilities and their editors' insights not to seek validation in the comments of readers and reviewers. Of course, by doing this, they also avoid contact with the dreaded Internet book trolls. I've been lucky, so far, never to have attracted the attention of one of those beasts. I can certainly understand refusing to allow baseless negativity to affect one's creativity and drive. However, I do think there's a lot authors can learn from their readers.

Reader response was especially important to me for UNWRITTEN RULES. I was changing genres from Western historical romance to contemporary romantic suspense. I also decided to try self-publishing for the first time. I asked a multi-published friend who writes in the genre to edit the manuscript for me. She was tough and pushed me to make substantial improvements prior to publication, but editing is not her primary occupation. I was basically relying on our combined writing experience to "get it right". Reader reviews have been the best way to judge if I succeeded.

My first three books garnered only a handful of reviews, mostly from people I know. This time I wanted more. Based on the advice of other self-publishers, I added a polite, personal request for a review to the Kindle version right after the end of the story. That did the trick. After my KDP Free Days, the reviews began pouring in. To date, UNWRITTEN RULES has garnered 67 reviews on Amazon, many times the number I've received for any other title.

So what have I learned from these reviews?

1. Many men have read and liked this book. This was a shock to me. As far as I know, I've never had a male reader before. Now I have to consider the possibility that my work has become more mainstream and choose whether to pursue that.
2. Readers overwhelmingly enjoyed the "mystery" aspect of the plot. I had never attempted suspense in any form before. I'm not even sure why it worked in this book. I'll have to study what I did and try to replicate it.
3. Readers would enjoy reading more about these characters. I had held off on putting the time into writing a series until I saw whether UNWRITTEN RULES was a success. Now I've decided to pursue the Phoenix, Ltd. series, although with a different hero and heroine for each story.
4. Graphic love scenes are neither necessary or expected in this "crossover" genre. Not one reviewer mentioned wanting more or less sex. I'm actually relieved by this. At some publishers, romance editors pressure writers to make their writing hotter. I'm glad so many ordinary readers were satisfied with the heat level I'm comfortable with.

Without the feedback from reviews, I would have wondered and worried about all these aspects of UNWRITTEN RULES. Reader comments have allowed me to make adjustments and move forward with confidence. 

Fellow writers: do you read your reviews? What do you get from them? Readers: do you ever write reviews? Do other's reviews help you choose books?

The Opposite of Easy

For the last two decades, one of OG's favorite observations of life has been "it isn't easy". This applies to minor daily annoyances as well as boulders in the path of progress. I usually agree politely then dismiss these comments as whining. I'm a "cinch up your belt and scale the boulders" kind of girl. However, the past couple of weeks have given me pause.

After a year of major remodeling, we moved into our new house four weeks ago today. Moving is always stressful, but we've moved ten times in the past, so I wasn't terribly concerned. Unfortunately, OG (who has always been a mountain of moving strength before) succumbed to the stress of this one. In the months leading up to the move, he allowed every complication and uncertainty to pile on top each other until they crushed him. After the move, he worked himself into a frenzy by trying to conquer his self-imposed to-do list faster than his mind or body would allow. The result was the worst headache of his life that ultimately landed him in the hospital for 3 days. 

OG has always jokingly referred to himself as a sufferer of DFS (delicate flower syndrome), but nothing could be further from the truth. He tries to do everything himself and ignores the fact that he'll be sixty-five next month. This hospitalization brought that truth home with a thud.

Because of his age and the fact that he has no history of headaches, the doctors had to rule out everything from a brain tumor to an incipient aneurysm. After he had a CT scan, they insisted on a spinal tap to make sure there had been no bleeding in the brain. OG fainted, and I don't blame him. I would have run screaming from the building. Even after that was clear, the neurologist insisted on an MRI. 

OG has crippling claustrophobia, and has physically broken out of an MRI machine in the past. We warned everyone, and saw that it was written on his chart. He needs massive sedation. However, on the morning of the test, the nurse missed the note. I'm glad I wasn't there to see the result. On the next try, they gave him a little sedation and let me go in with him and hold his hand. No go. By this time he was completely traumatized. However, the next morning he was willing to try again - anything to get out of that hospital! They gave him more drugs, I went in with him, and he psyched himself through it. Ten hours later, I finally got to take him home. 

To top it all off, he picked up a horrible respiratory bug in the hospital and gave it to me. No, it hasn't been easy.

Why were the doctors so insistent on the MRI, you might ask? Because they had seen the scar from a previous stroke on the CT scan. We had no idea. However, it does help explain some of the neurological symptoms he'd been complaining of for some time. We were actually relieved to know the cause wasn't some ongoing disease process like MS, but now we're both coming to grips with the fact that he may not be able to do everything he wants, the way he wants to, in the future. That's very sobering, especially for him. The adage "aging isn't for sissies" has come home to roost.

I'm very proud of OG for the way he's approaching things now. He's making a strong, and so far successful, effort to remain calm in the face of frustration (not like him at all). He's prioritizing his projects and completing them with my help. He's accepted that it makes more sense to hire people to do some difficult tasks. And he's looking at his bucket list to make sure he gets to do the things that really matter. Life doesn't come with guarantees.

As difficult as it's been, this experience may have taught us an important lesson about aging gracefully. We'll see if the lesson sticks.

Moving Day is Finally Here!

After one long year, moving day has finally arrived. Tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m., two men and a truck will arrive to whisk us away to our new house.

If you've been following this blog, you know that on March 29, 2013, OG and I set out on our grand adventure--moving from the Twin Cities in Minnesota to Carmel on the central California coast. We bought an uninhabitable wreck of a house with glorious views, moved into our vacation condo, and commenced work. Now, nearly one year later, we're finally ready to move in. We've sold our condo and are happy to be turning it over to a young, single woman (first time buyer), to begin her adult life as a homeowner. She's thrilled, and we hope she enjoys it as much as we have.

The house turned out to be a much bigger project than we initially anticipated. If I had it to do over, I'm not sure I would. Due to vermin, dry rot, and asbestos, we had to strip it to the foundation and studs and start from scratch. The upside is that we have a completely new house. The downside is that we had to pay for a completely new house. 

"Before"

As with any new house, there were hundreds of decisions to make, both large and small, and we didn't always make the right ones. For example: neither we, the designer, nor the contractor properly envisioned the laundry room door until it was hung and blocked half the cabinets. They were able to re-hang it to swing to the right instead of the left, but now it blocks the utility closet door. If we'd been thinking, we would have asked for a pocket door instead. As it is, OG will probably take it down and store it in the garage. Also, the master shower is enormous. We could have added a foot to the toilet room on one side and the linen closet on the other and still have had a plenty large shower. OG thinks the fireplace is out of proportion to the living room and we should have switched the locations of the guest bath and the laundry.

"After"

Oh well, live and learn. I'm sure we'll adjust to most of these things over time. The others will undoubtedly be changed (at great additional expense). However, I plan to concentrate on what we do have--a lovely, new home in a great location with a fabulous view. I'm excited to learn how to garden in this very different environment. Due to the daunting size of the project, I hired a landscaper to install the paths, irrigation, and basic plants, but I'm looking forward to adding things and tweaking the design over time. The deer came in the first night and stripped eight of the allegedly deer-resistant plants, so my first task will be replacing them with something less appetizing. 

Finished Back

The plants look tiny in the photos, but with the near-constant sunshine and twelve-month growing season here, they'll grow fast. I plan to post pictures of my progress, so stop back by from time to time and catch up!

Welcome Guest Author Liz Flaherty

I'm delighted to welcome fellow author and good friend Liz Flaherty to The Second Half. Liz's latest novel, 

The Girls of Tonsil Lake is free on Amazon from March 4-8 http://www.amazon.com/The-Girls-Tonsil-Lake-Flaherty-ebook/dp/B00HJESTYO Stop by and pick it up. I hope it gives you a few hours of pleasure.

Blurb: Four women whose differences only deepen the friendship forged in a needy childhood…

They were four little girls living in ramshackle trailers beside a lake in rural Indiana. They shared everything from dreams to measles to boyfriends to more dreams. As they grew up, everything in their lives changed—except their friendship. Through weddings and divorces, births and

deaths, one terrible secret has kept them close despite all the anger, betrayal, and pain.

Now, forty years later, facing illness, divorce, career challenges, and even addiction, the women come together once again for a bittersweet month on an island in Maine. Staring down their fifties, they must consider the choices life is offering them now and face the pain of what happened long ago.

Secrets are revealed and truths uncovered, but will their time together cement their lifelong friendship—or drive them apart forever?

Excerpt: 

I wanted Andie to come to New York, but she didn’t feel up to it. I felt a little shudder go through me when she said that. Andie’s always been so strong, and she’s cancer-free, so I found it startling and frightening when she admitted to feeling less than wonderful. But, as Let There Be Hope shows, cancer changes one in sometimes indefinable ways. Maybe this is one of those changes.

Mark and I visited some islands off the Maine coast once, in our early days. I was so enthralled that he bought me a house on one of them, a little strip of green called, appropriately enough, Hope Island. It reminds me of Bennett’s Island, the fictitious utopia of Elisabeth Ogilvie’s books, except that Hope has all the mod cons.

I love to go there. It’s a place I can be myself with little regard to what anyone else thinks. I sit in my bathrobe on the wraparound porch of the Victorian horror that is my house and drink coffee with Lucas Bishop, our neighbor. I read Jean’s books without worrying that someone will see the covers.

I’ve never taken anyone else—it was Mark’s and my private getaway—but I wouldn’t mind if it was Andie who was there. Or Jean and even Suzanne. Andie and I could work on her book. Jean could cook and keep house since she’s so crazy about doing that, and maybe even spin out one of her romances placed on an island. And Suzanne could...do our hair or something.

We would all be together as we are that single night every year when we drive to the lake and pretend we’re facing down our ghosts. I am a little afraid that the day will come that we’ll have to face them down for real.

I wonder if they’d come.

BIO: The Girls of Tonsil Lake is Liz Flaherty’s eighth book, and it is no less thrilling than the first one was. Retired from the post office, she spends non-writing time sewing, quilting, and doing whatever else feels good at the moment (like drinking wine on Nan’s boat). She and Duane live in the old farmhouse in Indiana they moved to in 1977. They’ve talked about moving, but really…30-some years’ worth of stuff? It’s not happening!

She’d love to hear from you at lizkflaherty@gmail.com or please come and see her at:

http://lizflaherty.com

http://www.facebook.com/lizkflaherty

https://twitter.com/LizFlaherty1

http://wordwranglers.blogspot.com/

The Evolution of a Title

Titles are important to me. I've never been able to throw myself into writing a new book until I've come up with a title I love. I'm just not inspired by "WIP" (work in progress). At the beginning of each new story, I brainstorm and tweak until I settle on a title that conveys the right tone. It keeps me true to my original vision and gives me something to write towards. 

The title of my first book, Harvest of Dreams, came easily. I struggled a bit more with the second, A Man Like That, but The Treasure of Como Bluff was really the only choice for my dinosaur-hunter novella. Unwritten Rules was a different story. With it, I was changing sub-genres from Western historical to romantic suspense. I needed something sharper, more contemporary. Also, I was planning a series for the first time and wanted something I could build on for additional titles.

Initially I had planned to call the second book in the Phoenix, Ltd. bodyguard series Boiling Point. In this story, the heroine goes undercover as a personal chef but doesn't know how to cook. As a title Boiling Point is short and punchy (which I like), and connects to the cooking aspect of the plot, but to me it sounds more like a serious thriller than my sassy, romantic version of suspense. So I've been working to come up with something I like better.

I brainstormed a list of thirty possibilities with cooking references: everything from Out of the Frying Pan to Up in Flames. Then, because I learned a few things with Unwritten Rules, I checked Amazon for similar titles. That knocked out many of the more cliched titles. I'm willing to accept a few other books with the same title as mine, but not a few dozen. From there I whittled the list down to five:

Cooking up Trouble
Up in Flames
Fuel to the Flames
Undercover in an Apron
Sauteed, Not Stirred

Then I chose my two favories:

Undercover in an Apron
Sauteed, Not Stirred

I think both suggest sassy suspense. I'm leaning toward one of them but would appreciate any feedback. What do you think? Which is your favorite?

My KDP Select Free Days Results - Part 2

In Monday's post, I gave you the straight skinny on my experience during my recent KDP Select Free Days promotion for my romantic suspense Unwritten Rules. If you missed it or would like a refresher, I suggest you read the post below then come back. Today I'm sharing the numbers you really want to see - the reviews and sales figures - as well as what conclusions I can draw after little more than a week.

I ended my Free Days on a Friday night with 19,651 free downloads, so let's look at what happened over the course of the next week. Keep in mind that when I started the promotion, I had just six reviews for this book. I took all counts first thing in the morning.

Saturday
16 sales, less 3 returns (Fortunately, a friend who had recently gone through this program warned me about the returns. A few people will download the book before realizing it's no longer free and ask for a refund.)
Sunday
24 sales, less 5 returns
24 reviews; 19 5-stars, 4 4-stars, 1 3-star
Monday
31 sales, less 5 returns
27 reviews; 22 5-stars, 4 4-stars, 1 3-star
Tuesday
35 sales, less 5 returns
28 reviews; 23 5-stars, 4-4 stars, 1 3-star
Wednesday (I started to get a bit concerned here)
36 sales, less 5 returns
28 reviews
Thursday (still concerned, but this was Thanksgiving Day)
39 sales, less 5 returns
28 reviews
Friday
44 sales, less 5 returns
31 reviews; 25 5-stars, 5 4-stars, 1 3-star
Saturday
47 sales, less 6 returns
33 reviews; 26 5-stars, 6 4-stars, 1 3-star
Sunday
55 sales, less 6 returns
33 reviews

Also during this time, Amazon Prime members borrowed 4 copies. Since I will receive almost as much per copy from Amazon's special "pool" for these borrows as I do for a sale, I'm allowing myself to add them to the total count.

So, was it worth it? I think so. Fifty-nine sales are not very many compared to almost 20,000 free downloads, but I'm convinced they're 59 sales I probably would not have had otherwise. The most encouraging factor is that momentum still seems to be growing. During the first day and a half of December, I've had another 6 sales and 5 borrows, as well as another 5-star review. 

Now let's talk about reviews. I know many authors say they never read their reviews. I'm not one of them. I always read my reviews. I take great satisfaction in knowing I've delighted or entertained a reader - particularly a stranger - and this free promotion was my first opportunity to reach a significant number of strangers. I've never had more than 5 reviews for any of my previous books, so 34 good reviews tells me I've achieved one of my writing goals - connecting with readers. I pay attention to the elements people say they particularly enjoyed and will use that information when I plan and write my next books. 

One of the most gratifying aspects of these reviews is that many of them obviously come from non-romance readers. When they tell me the pacing and suspense elements worked for them, it means something. I've also received three great reviews from men, which tells me my writing may be even more mainstream than I hoped. Here's my favorite:

"As a guy I never thought I would read a romance novel but my wife had this out and the cover did catch my attention. My taste in fiction is pretty much John Grisham but he does not publish enough for my reading. The book will definitely keep your attention to the last page as one clever and mysterious plot line after another leaves the heroine and her entourage in dangerous and endangered situations. The only thing predictable in the book was the eventual romance. As someone who has lived in Chicago, Texas and the Central Coast I loved the detailed descriptions of these three places. The book alternates between writing from the male and female point of view so when I tired of reading about shopping trips I was quickly taken to the male point of view. I will look for other books by this author. This might make a good movie."

How can I not feel good about a review like that?

I know the numbers so far are minuscule for a successful author, but they're huge for me. None of my small-press published books did this well in such a short period of time, possibly because the publisher wasn't taking advantage of this program at the time. However, I have seen a definite bump in sales of my backlist, even though they are Western historicals rather than contemporary romantic suspense. In the week after my free period, I sold 16 of the older books, including 6 copies of a novella that hadn't sold a single copy since January. 

Although none of this is going to make me rich, it's a validation that I'm doing something right, and sometimes that's all we need to keep going.

Cover Reveal - Charlene Raddon's new book Taming Jenna

Please join me in welcoming Charlene Raddon back to The Second Half. Today she's sharing with us the cover for her brand new Western historical romance, Taming Jenna. 

It's gorgeous, Charlene. Congratulations! Please tell us a little about the story.

THE WRONG MAN  

Deserted by her father at the tender age of seven, Jenna Leigh-Whittington had taught herself to ride, shoot, brawl…and steer clear of the opposite sex. But now, in a lonely Utah canyon, the Pinkerton agent has drawn her gun on a rugged stranger—only to discover that, far from the dangerous outlaw she’d been tracking, he is Branch McCauley, hired gun…and the most irresistible rascal ever to tempt and torment a woman!

THE RIGHT WOMAN          

If there’s one thing McCauley trusts less than a female, it’s a female who packs a six-gun. But what a woman! Vowing to bring the sensuous hellcat to heel, McCauley has no inkling that their passionate battle of wills has just begun. Taming Jenna will be the most seductive—and satisfying—job he’s ever taken on.

Don't miss the video for Taming Jenna! http://youtu.be/ejkEtuTUp8c

Charlene will be  holding a drawing for a $30 amazon gift card for all those viewers who visit each stop on her blog tour and leave a comment with contact info. She will also be awarding three copies of her new book to randomly chosen participants. 
Here's her tour schedule:

http://wordwranglers.blogspot.com/ 11^th

http://www.charleneraddon.blogspot.com/ 12th

http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com 12th

http://elizabethdelisi.blogspot.com/ 12th

http://susanhorsnell.com 12^th

^{http://peggylhenderson.blogspot.com/}

http://writingdreams.net/?p=1360  12th

^{http://katerobbinsauthor.com/  12th}

^{http://sheiladeeth.blogspot.com  12th}

http://alisonhenderson.blogspot.com  12^th

http://vintagevonnie.blogspot.com/ 14th

http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com/ 14th

Charlene Raddon began her fiction career in the third grade when she announced in Show & Tell that a baby sister she never had was killed by a black widow spider. She often penned stories featuring mistreated young girls whose mother accused of crimes her sister had actually committed. Her first serious attempt at writing fiction came in 1980 when she woke up from a vivid dream that compelled her to drag out a portable typewriter and begin writing. She’s been at it ever since. An early love for romance novels and the Wild West led her to choose the historical romance genre but she also writes contemporary romance. At present, she has five books published in paperback by Kensington Books (one under the pseudonym Rachel Summers), and four eBooks published by Tirgearr Publishing. 

Charlene’s awards include: RWA Golden Heart Finalist, Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award Nomination, Affair de Coeur Magazine Reader/Writer Poll for Best Historical of the Year. Her books have won or place in several contests.

Currently, Charlene is working on her next release. You can find her on the web at:

htp://www.charleneraddon.com/

http://www.charleneraddon.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/CharleneRaddon
http://www.twitter.com/CRaddon

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1232154.Charlene_Raddon

http://www.amazon.com/Charlene-Raddon/e/B000APG1P8/

Thanks for visiting us today, Charlene. Taming Jenna looks like a real winner, not to be missed! 

Have You Hugged Your Husband Today?

Husbands are fragile, especially at our age. I have received several reminders of this fact during the past few weeks. Within days of each other, the husbands of two friends began chemotherapy for advanced cancer. Their families are determined and upbeat, but terrified nonetheless. Then just this week, another friend suddenly lost her husband to a heart attack at age sixty-three. OG is sixty-four and reminds me daily that he's a delicate flower. That was funny when neither of us believed it; it's not so funny now.

The hardest lesson of aging is coming to grips with your own mortality. I think this is especially difficult for men. For the first few decades, they live as if there's no tomorrow, as if they're immortal. When youth and strength begin to fade sometime in mid-life, the process can be slow at first and easily ignored or discredited by excuses, but by sixty it's impossible to deny. That piece of furniture or machinery they once lifted with ease seems to have doubled in weight. They can no longer run that extra mile without gasping for breath. Aches and pains show up with increasing regularity.

I don't know about your husband, but OG is not going gently into that good night. He's resisting with every fiber of his being. As a result, he's racking up injuries that will likely be with him for the rest of his life, and that's hard to accept. Last spring, we bought him a new (very heavy) barbecue. Instead of asking a neighbor or waiting for me to help, he unloaded it from the back of his truck alone and dragged it up the sidewalk to the patio by himself. The result was bilateral rotator cuff tears that have resisted physical therapy and my not be amenable to surgery. Last month, he replaced the glass door in our shower. To get it to fit properly, he had to reduce the width of one of the long, metal pieces with his grinder. He was too angry and impatient to wear hearing protection, despite my pleas, and now he has relentless tinnitus that may never improve. 

I'm frustrated because he refuses to take care of himself, but I understand. It's very hard for a man to admit he's no longer young, strong, and immortal. All I can do is love him and do my best to make the transition to this new phase of life easier and more palatable. It isn't easy and is only likely to get worse. Maybe that's why the stereotype of grumpy old men continues to ring true.

What about you? Have you got any secrets to aging gracefully? 

Those Devilish Details

The phrase "the devil is in the details" is generally attributed to German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a man who understood the importance of fine-tuning the creative process. We writers recognize that details are essential to vivid writing, but they also bring life to our physical environments--our homes, gardens, and public spaces. 

OG and I have finally reached the "detail" point in our remodeling project. The bones of the house are complete: the structure, plumbing, heating, and electrical. The carpenters are finishing the exterior trim details that will turn the house from a big, flat-sided box into a charming cottage. Inside, tile has been laid in the bathrooms and laundry room and doors and trim are stacked in the living room and kitchen while the plasterers finish the walls. The project is barreling ahead at full speed toward the promised finish date of December 15th.

The first few months were easy. We watched and waited while footings were dug and walls went up. The roof color was the only choice we had to make for quite a while. That's all changed. Now it seems we have to make several choices a day, each of which will affect the others and our ultimate enjoyment of the finished product. Wall colors, counter tops, backsplash, and hardware must all coordinate in satisfying ways.

After so many months and so much money already spent, it's tempting to scrimp on the small things toward the end of a big project, but OG, in his wisdom, has  convinced me it's these details that will bring us small flashes of pleasure every day we live in the house. In that spirit, I've chosen these knobs for my kitchen and master bath cabinets. The beautifully detailed grapevines speak to the region and remind me of the vineyard across the valley that I see from my kitchen window.

For the guest bath and laundry room, I chose these rust-colored iron knobs. They're supposed to be some sort of flower petal, but they remind me of the artichokes growing in the fields of the Central Coast. 

Sometimes the volume of choices seems overwhelming, and I worry that I'll regret some decisions. But if I can keep my head and focus on the details, I hope the "whole" will take care of itself. Wish me luck!

A New Cover Project - A Chance to Learn Something New

My latest personal project was to make Unwritten Rules available in paperback. To do that, I had to learn how to format the interior for CreateSpace. I also had to to design a cover with a front, back, and spine. CreateSpace has an easy-to-use template, but I needed to learn how to rotate and move text for the spine as well as create a back cover image that would allow adequate legibility for the book description. Online tutorials answered the text question, but the back cover design required some artistic experimentation. I settled on using a different section of the image I used for the front and reducing the opacity. However, that meant I also needed an opaque fill layer underneath the image to cover the markings on the template. The final result was exactly what I hoped for and I learned several new techniques, so I consider the project a resounding success!

Fresh off the success of my own print cover, I felt confident enough to undertake a print cover for another author. If you've been following this blog, you've seen the three ebook covers I designed for the Secrets of Ravenswood series of novellas by my friend Jannine Gallant, We'll Never Tell, She'll Never Rest, and He'll Never Know. Recently Jannine decided to offer the novellas in a single print book and needed a new cover. 

She was looking for something that captured the suspense feel of all three books and featured an image of three women, representing her heroines. We weren't able to find a good image with three women, but we did find this wonderful image with a single figure. My challenge was to turn one woman into three. What do you think?

For the back, she had the idea of using the same scene but with no figures, as if the women had vanished into the mist. I reduced the opacity and was able to erase the figure. The result is perfect for her book.

 

We were able to take one beautiful image and manipulate it to create the perfect front and back--a cost-effective solution for the author and a wonderful learning experience for me. I consider that a win/win all around!

My Monkey Mind

I didn't sleep much last night, again. Before my head hit the pillow, I knew I wouldn't. Yesterday was just one of those days. If your monkey mind works overtime like mine you know what I'm talking about. The Buddha said the human mind is filled with drunken monkeys, chattering and running around, unable to focus. Mine certainly felt like that last night.

There's so much going on in my life right now I have trouble turning it off to sleep. On the writing front, I released the Kindle version of my first indie book, Unwritten Rules, last week and am waiting for the letter carrier to deliver my proof copy of the print version this afternoon. If it looks good, it will go live on Amazon next week. The project of publishing this book has consumed so much of my energy during the past few months I almost feel at loose ends now that it's wrapping up. 

But of course, much of the work is just beginning. I feel guilty for not having done more promotion for this new book, but I need several more reviews to make the most of the free days on KDP I'm planning for next month.  All this and much more spins through my brain as soon as the lights go out. There's always something more I should be doing. 

On top of my work, OG is remodeling our shower, so every morning is full of swearing, tile sawing, mortar mixing, and more swearing. Fortunately it's looking pretty good so far, as I knew it would. Unfortunately OG is not one to suffer in silence when faced with a problem or obstacle on a home improvement project. It can be more than a little distracting.

Additionally, our daughter is teetering on the edge of landing her first full-time job. After five years of grad school, she decided not to continue pursuing her PhD in Ancient Egyptian Art and Archaeology. The situation in Egypt has become untenable for scholars, and there are no teaching opportunities in Western universities. On top of that, she's looking forward to a more "normal" life after having been in school for most of her twenty-seven years. She began looking for a job several months ago with no luck, which has been supremely stressful for all of us. Finally in the past couple of weeks the tide started to change. She got first one interview then another, with a follow up scheduled for Monday. We have our fingers crossed, but nothing is certain and it's enough to give any mother sleepless nights.

And then there's the new house. We're about three months from completion, and things are happening fast. Yesterday we solved an anxiety-provoking problem with the siding, and I met with the landscaper for the first time. I can't wait to see the design he comes up with for my new gardens. It's also time to choose the colors and a lot of the final finishes. As a result I lay awake at 2:00 a.m. with visions of cabinet knobs and flowering shrubs dancing through my tired brain. 

In truth, although I was tired this morning, it was a good tired. Things are happening, and none of them bad. It's an exciting time. Six months from now I wonder if I'll be bored. I doubt it. But maybe at least my monkey mind will settle down for awhile.

OG is Bored - Heaven Help Us!

Hopefully by now you are well enough acquainted with OG to grasp the importance of that statement. Before we moved to California, he had an entire sixty-year-old house to work on. There was never a shortage of projects to keep him out of trouble. Since the move he's been cooped up in a condo half the size where most of the work has already been done by professionals.

You'll note I said most. Until last week, there remained one potential do-it-yourself project--the shower in the master bath hadn't been touched in forty years, and the tile was starting to buckle. No longer! Our daughter visited us for Car Week on the Monterey Peninsula in the middle of August, and two days after she left OG ripped out our shower. It turned out to be a very good thing.

Beneath the tiles, we discovered plywood--nothing more. No waterproofing of any kind, just soggy, moldy plywood. If you know anything about construction, you know this was not an approved method even forty years ago. OG cut out the plywood, re-plumbed the shower with a non-scald balancing valve (yaaay!), and is putting up concrete backer board. Next comes the tile, then a new shower door. 

I have no idea how long this may take, but I told him I'd like it finished by my birthday the first week of October. He laughed, but I have enough experience with his home improvement projects to be cautious. When he remodeled the master bath in our last house, it took six months. He's quite skilled, but (oddly) not quite as young as he used to be. Besides, with any construction project things happen. They just do. You might as well expect it and make peace with it.

Since he started this project, OG has taken a bit of a physical beating. The shower stall is small, and it's hard on the legs to spend a lot of time working in a crouched position. His hands are scraped from cutting and screwing the backer board, but having a project with a goal is well worth the aches and pains.

OG retired a number of years ago and has always struggled to keep himself occupied. In contrast to the many years he spent working in an office, he prefers to work with his hands on projects that produce a tangible result. Since I retired from insurance and we moved, I've been very busy with my career as a writer and designer, but OG hasn't had much to do. The shower project has been good for his psyche, if not

his body.

Our contractor is building him a workshop under the family room in our new house, where I hope he'll find enough interesting things to do to keep boredom at bay for several years to come. If he can't stay busy at home, I might have to resort to renting him out just to preserve my sanity.

My Biggest Project Yet

In January, I began the journey to a new portfolio career comprised of writing, book cover design, and editing. My first several projects were cover designs I've shared previously on this blog. I really enjoyed the challenge of learning a new set of skills and applying it to a new creative medium. I'm pleased with the results and look forward to enhancing and refining my graphic design skills in the future. My current project, however, has been a much larger undertaking.

I'm thrilled to announce the release of my fourth book Unwritten Rules. After publishing three books with a wonderful small press, I decided to take the plunge into the world of independent publishing with this new one. For a number of reasons the time seemed right. I was switching sub-genres from Western historical romance to contemporary romantic suspense and would no longer be able to work with my previous editor. Also, after designing several book covers for a friend, I wanted the opportunity to design my own. In my new business, I will be helping other independent authors realize their dreams, so I wanted to be familiar with the entire process.

It's been an exciting journey with a few bumps along the way (formatting is not my friend), but I'm satisfied and proud of the final product. And after all is said and done, that's the greatest reward.

Here's a blurb about the story:

Things aren’t going Madelyn Li’s way. Her bodyguard agency is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, her grandmother keeps hatching plots to marry her off, and someone is trying to kill her latest client. All she wants is to safely escort thriller writer and former CIA agent Carter Devlin on his cross country book tour and collect her check, but two obstacles stand in her way: a shadowy assailant and her own growing attraction to her dashing client.

Carter Devlin has agreed to accept the beautiful and determined Ms. Li as a bodyguard primarily to appease his publisher. After all, who would want to kill a beat-up, retired ex-spy on a book tour? But when the attacks turn deadly, he soon learns there’s more to Madelyn than a pretty face and tempting body. Will the spark become a flame before a killer snuffs it out?

What have you been up to lately? What projects are you most proud of?

Switching Gears - Another Benefit of a Portfolio Career

For the past few weeks, I've been working hard on the edits for my contemporary bodyguard romance Unwritten Rules. It's now with one of my beta readers for what I hope will be a last read-through before I publish it later this month. Even when I'm satisfied with the text, I still have a major hurdle ahead. I'll need to format the manuscript for ebook publication--something I've never tried before. I've read articles on the subject and taken an online course, but I know I'm in for several days of hair-pulling frustration. 

To give myself a break before tackling the challenge of formatting, I decided to switch gears and work on cover designs. After living, breathing, and dreaming words for weeks, spending time with visual images was a welcome change. I came up with a couple of preliminary options for a Christmas novella I hope to publish this fall. If I don't finish it in time for the holidays, I'm not going to beat myself up. It will still be a wonderful story next year. That's one of the best things about self-publishing--I write to my own schedule.

I also started work on samples for pre-made covers I hope to offer through my new business, Creative Author Services, once I get it up and running. Although I expect to custom-tailor covers for each individual author, I want to give potential clients an idea of my artistic vision and graphic style. Ebook covers need to make a strong visual statement to attract readers even in thumbnail format, so I've tried to put together simple, striking images. By the time I open CAS for business, I hope to have a full array of examples. Here are a couple of early mock-ups.

 

Some people create a portfolio career from multiple jobs out of necessity, as a way to achieve full time employment. That wasn't my objective. After retiring from my full time job, I was looking for a satisfying variety of pursuits. I love being able to switch gears and engage both sides of my brain, and I expect to continue to enjoy it for years to come.

Progress at Last!

I promised to keep you updated on the progress of our mammoth remodeling project, and I'm proud to report that I finally have something to report! After weeks of delays, Monterey County approved our building permit for the additions last week, so work on the master bath and family room additions has begun. The contractor had told us he planned to dig the footings yesterday, but when OG and I went out to the house Sunday afternoon, this is what we saw:

Here's a picture I took yesterday of the foundation guy jackhammering into the rock for the footings for the family room off the back:

And here's my new office:

A big mound of lumber has been delivered, the roof has been removed, and carpenters were framing the skylights this morning. The contractor assures me they will now make record progress, but he tends to be a very optimistic fellow. We're a few weeks behind schedule, but I plan to remind him regularly how much I'd like to be in the house by the first week of December. After 24 years of living in Minnesota--where no one in their right mind would consider moving in December--it sounds funny to even talk about it. However, as long as I have time to unpack the Christmas ornaments and decorate the tree before our daughter arrives, I don't care.

This week is Car Week here on the Peninsula, and our daughter is flying out from Chicago this evening to attend several auto-related events leading up to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on Sunday. She and OG are both car nuts (I have minimal interest), so they should have lots of fun together.

I'm Not as Young as I Think

How can that be? I'm pretty active, and like all baby boomers, I think I look younger than my age. Why do I feel like an old woman today?

You may recall I reported I'd taken up yoga a couple of months ago. I loved it, and things were going well. For some unknown reason, this week has been different. Tuesday, I couldn't stretch as far, and my hamstrings were unusually tight. No problem, I thought. I'll just stretch them out, and they'll be fine. Thursday, they were a bit tighter and threatened to cramp when I did the same routine I've been doing painlessly for two months. Today I couldn't even make it the whole thirty minutes. The muscles and tendons felt like they were tearing loose from the bones. Yeow!

Fortunately OG is an old hand at athletic injuries as a result of running track and playing football in high school. He diagnosed over-stretched hamstrings, slapped an ice pack on the worst one, and prescribed ibuprofen. Ever the good patient, I complied and it seems to be working. I can climb stairs, and I successfully managed to shave my legs in the shower. I'll take a couple of days off to heal and see how I do.

I have no experience with sports injuries (can you count yoga as a sport?). I've never broken a bone or even sustained a serious sprain. As a result, the pain took me by surprise. At first I simply chose to ignore it. I'm used to discomfort going away if I ignore it. After all, I'm young, fit, and flexible. Right?

Not so much. For the first time, I have to face the fact that my body is aging and learn to listen to it. I need to accept it--maybe even learn to like it. More important, I need to learn to take care of it. One of the most sobering realizations of reaching the mid-century mark is that we only have one body, and we have to live with and adjust to whatever happens to it. I'll keep exercising every day because I want to remain as active as possible for as long as possible, but I'll treat my body with the kindness it deserves. We have a long way to go together.