Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/18/25

 I confess I didn't read much this week.  I think part of the problem is that I'm just not that into the book I'm reading.  I really need to DNF it and move on.  Except it's a Victoria Holt and I usually love her books.  :shrug:  I don't know.  Anyway...

No new books.

No Books Read.

No DNFs... yet.

Currently reading... The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt.  Like I said, it's not thrilling me.  So far, it's more like a soap opera than a gothic romantic suspense, like the others of hers I've read.  I'll probably DNF it, but I might give it one more chance.  We'll see.

What have you been reading lately?

What's Sincere and What's Scam?

I've gotten a few emails this week in regard to DYING EMBERS (which is still free through the end of today).  Most of them have been obvious - people trying to get me to pay them to market my book.  One of them, on the other hand, was someone wanting to use my book in their book club.  I've been on the fence with that one re: sincere or scam.

I mean, he seemed sincere enough.  He talked about my book like he'd actually read it.  He said intelligent things.  Unfortunately, so did several of the scammers.  (In all fairness, the marketers may not have been scammers, but for brevity, and because it's so hard to tell the difference, I'll call them that.)

It's a minefield out there.  How does one tell the difference between someone who is sincerely interested in a book and someone who's trying to part you from your well-earned and miniscule profits?  (I'm averaging about $18 a month here.)  

The idea that I may be ignoring someone who is sincerely interested in my work wrecks me.  I lay awake at night thinking about it.  I'd be willing to interact with them.  (I almost said like or love, but the idea of interacting with strangers makes me nauseous.  Hell, most days, I don't want to interact with anyone but Hubs, but that's on me.  The older I get, the more hermit-like I become.)

On the other hand, interacting with scammers - even just a little - is bad.  You even bother to tell them 'no thanks' and suddenly you're inundated with crap.  Who needs that?

So, I sit here, torn between knowing I need to interact with fans/readers and wanting to stay as far away from scammers as possible.  It's a slippery slope to hell either way.

What do you think?

(For the record, I deleted the 'book club' email, but didn't send it to spam like I do with all the others.  If he emails again, I'll think about this some more.)

Thursday This n That

I located my gumption.  It was hiding behind the TV.

Okay, so we all were taught there are three states of matter - solid, liquid, gas.  Years ago, I read something about there being a fourth state - plasma.  It's like fire.  Fire exists but previously had no assigned state of matter, so Voila! plasma.  I thought it was cool and seemed logical, so I taught that to my daughter.  Of course, she mentioned it to a teacher, who immediately told her she was wrong.  I had to talk to the teacher and explain where Owl came up with that and I provided sources.  Derp.  Which reminds me about my 6th grade science teacher who marked me wrong during our lesson on blood types.  We pricked our fingers, applied it to the paper with some solution, and watched for the reaction.  I already knew my blood type and the types of my parents, so it was easy enough.  Once the thing dried, though, the teacher said I didn't have what I had and said I had a blood type neither of my parents had.  I backed her down by pointing out that she was basically saying my dad wasn't my dad, and she changed my grade back to an A.  Silly git.

For the record, there's no way I could be adopted.  Sometimes, when I was a kid, I wished I was.  Sometimes, I felt like I was.  Mom explained it to me the easy way - we already had four kids, why would we adopt another one?  Harsh, but true.

I watch a lot of Long Last Family (the UK edition).  It's like a mystery show, and y'all know how I do love mysteries.  But it's real.  People finding kids they gave up for adoption, or adopted people looking for their birth parents, or siblings searching for each other.  Usually there are happy endings, and I love those, too.  

Is it just me or does Venus look brighter these days?

This morning, a barred owl was hooting out there in the woods.  They make a sound people liken to 'who cooks for you'.  The last time I heard it, it was just one big HOOT.  I tried to make squeaking noises to draw it closer, but nope.  Aw, well.

Which reminds me of this exchange I saw about people incorrectly correcting other people.  Someone had posted about a barred owl and another person corrected them by saying they meant BARN owl, not BARD.  ROFL

Okay, that's enough out of me.  Got any this-n-thats for me today?  What thoughts do you have on mine?

Marketing Monday - Dying Embers

 It's that time again.  Marketing Monday.  AND it's time for DYING EMBERS to hit the free lists at Amazon again.  

Starting today, DYING EMBERS is free.  (It's always free with Kindle Unlimited.)  Get this fast-paced, fiery suspense novel today!  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TEQK7OU

Sunday Update - 2025 Week 41

Hey Everyone.  It's Sunday again and it was a pretty boring week, but I'm a pretty boring person, so thanks for being here anyway. ;o)

No writing again this week.  I'm falling farther and farther down the hole, and I'm not sure how to climb out.  No editing either.  I did do some marketing, so I've got that going for me.  I moved 27 copies of Project Hermes, which ain't great, but it's better than nothing.  I also sold a copy of Dying Embers and had someone read DE, too.  Unfortunately, I'm only averaging about $18 a month.  Not exactly a living wage, eh?  

I did do some reading.  I finished one book and made it partway through another.  Woot.

On the baking trail, I made banana muffins.  Yummers.

In the activity realm, I walked three times for a total of 2.75 miles.  I'm up to 62.4 miles for the year, which ain't bad.  I still would like to reach 100 miles for 2025, and it's possible, but not likely.  I'd have to up my game, hope for good weather for the remainder of the year, and find some actual gumption.  Gumption supplies are at an all time low right now, unfortunately.  Weight?  I would rather not say.

We watched a rather pointless movie yesterday.  Literally, it had no point.  And no plot.  It kept throwing hints and promises that there would be a plot, and then the movie was over.  It was called Northern Borders and it had Bruce Dern and Geneviève Bujold in it.  It was pretty new, so they were old.  I kept joking with Hubs that the reason Bruce Dern's character was so mean was because he spent his youth getting his ass kicked my John Wayne.  (We both laughed, but we're weird that way.)

The fawns have no spots, so other than being small deer, it's hard to tell they ARE fawns.  I haven't seen Lumpy lately.  I hope she found a lovely spot and passed away in her sleep.  Nature's a bitch.  So's getting old.  

I think that's it for me today.  Look for a marketing thing tomorrow.  Other than that, I'm not sure what I'll be doing this week. (Update: Dying Embers will be free this coming week and Rumor Has It will be free the week after.)  I'm over the jetlag, so it's not that dragging me down.  :shrug:

Have a great week, wherever you are.  :hugs:

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/11/25

 Hello!  I know I'm not doing these as regularly as I used to, and thanks for stopping by anyway.  I didn't do much again this week.  It's been a slow reading year.  Things like this happen.  I'm woefully behind on my reading goal, of course.  It is what it is. 

No new books this week.  I did stop at a thrift store, but all I got was a bookshelf.  This particular store has jacked the prices up on all their used books and they're being such snots, I don't buy books from them anymore.  And after the experience buying the bookshelf, I won't be buying anything there anymore.  So sad, but them's the breaks.  The new-to-me shelf is only a two-shelfer, but it's holding my omnibuses, my Phyllis A. Whitney collection, and my Victoria Holts.  (This will mean more as you read below... I have a lot of both. LOL)

Books Read:

33) Dream of Orchids by Phyllis A. Whitney (10/9/25) - romantic suspense - 5 stars.  Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Picked up from a thrift store for 50c.
Review: "I read it again, but only realized partway though that I had. Still just as awesome the second time around."

No DNFs.

Currently reading... a Victoria Holt I picked up from the thrift store.  I only just started it, but so far, so good.

What have you been reading lately?

Cold Case in the Country

If you know me, you know that I am interested in true crime stories.  (Natch, since I write fictional crime stories and true crime is a great resource for ideas.)  What you may not know is that I am especially interested in cold cases.  I'm a 'justice for all' kind of gal, and the fact that crimes like these have gone unsolved for years... decades even... just pisses me off.

Recently, I came across this story from a rural newspaper (https://www.cassville-democrat.com/2025/10/09/murder-on-the-tracks-who-killed-justin-hocutt/*) of a 14-year-old boy who was murdered and left on the train tracks - either to hide evidence or to hide the nature of the death.  I expect the killer(s) wanted the death to look like a suicide.  

From parsing through the article above, it looks like this murder involved a troubled kid with troubled parents in a troubled area, investigated by a police force that didn't have the skills or the resources necessary to solve a crime of this nature, presented to a prosecutor who wasn't really interested in anything but a slam-dunk.  

It sounds like they have some good evidence to go on, and several worthy suspects.  They just need a shove to bring it all together.  

Personally, I'd love to see Kelly Siegler from Cold Justice take this one on.  I think all the pieces are there - they just need to be put together by a competent person to make a cogent picture.  She's good at that.

Hubs was joking just now that 'writer B.E. Sanderson breaks the case wide open... solves 26-year old cold case'.  Wouldn't that be something?  But I'm just a writer.  What this needs is a seasoned team of investigators and prosecutors.  

The only thing I could do is write a book about it.  Hmm...

*It's hard to read... not because of the gruesome nature of the crime, but because it isn't as well-written as one would hope.