Category: The Non-Writing Life

Before Brady reviews!

I’m 6 weeks out from my surgery and still have a long way to go on my journey, but I’m keeping my toes in the writing world when I can.

I’m busy updating DMARC records (gobbledegook for email deliverability rules that are coming into place on February 1st.)

I’ve done a light edit on PICTURE IMPERFECT to update some word choices and tech. Happy to report that I only found one typo!

I’m about to upload the new editions of the book and will let you know when it’s ready. Same cover, no big changes. Just minor edits.

And…

My books can always use more reviews, and because I had a medical challenge in 2023 that will be continuing into this year, I didn’t do a great job getting ARCs out for BEFORE BRADY. But some fab reviews have come in from readers around the world!

5 Stars! “Every girl wants to meet Mr. Right, but sometimes it takes a long time to figure out that Mr. Right might not check all the boxes.” CA Cindy on Amazon (not me, I promise)

5 Stars! “I loved Alicia and Brady’s story . . .great characters, sparky interaction and a little steam . . . plus terrific humor.” Laura on Amazon Canada

5 Stars! “Alicia is missing her chance with Brady. This was a really good story where Alicia needed to figure out how to “multi-task”. This was a fun and enjoyable story with some great steam.” Deb on Amazon Canada

Thank you, readers!

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It’s been nearly 4 years…

Since we went to Africa.

Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa.

I remember seeing signs about Ebola and Malaria in the airports. Going through temperature scanners. In Rwanda, the entire Jeep had to go through an x-ray machine!

And this was all before the pandemic. We had no idea what was coming.

We were so fortunate and privileged to be able to visit the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda. The price had doubled from the previous year, and I could see that it was only going to continue getting more expensive.

I took a ton of photos, but for previously stated reasons (car accident recovery), I stopped blogging about our travels.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t share a photo every now and then.

Silverback
Baby!

We hiked two different days to see the Mountain Gorillas, and both days were equally amazing. Plus, an earlier hike to see the Golden Monkeys.

I often wonder how they are doing.

If you are fortunate enough to ever get the chance to go, it is once in a lifetime.

Back to writing!

I thought you might like a picture of an elephant

I took this photo from a mokoro (canoe) in Botswana at Linyanti Bush Camp in Chobe National Park, Botswana, in late November 2019. Isn’t the elephant magnicient?

I used to to blog about my travels but haven’t done so in quite some time. It was a lot of work, and I need to reserve my computer time for writing and business of writing now that my noggin has been koko-bonked (IFYKYK).

But from time to time I’ll share some of my fave photos.

We visited Rwanda, then traveled via Kenya to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (where I bought some seemingly indestructible sunglasses to replace a pair forgotten at the Victoria Falls Hotel during high tea), three camps in Botswana, and then Cape Town in South Africa.

I adored the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda, but in Botswana the elephants were my fave. They are so graceful. They are loving. They persevere.

And so do I.

I am a turtle writer. I am slow. And a lot of that is because I’ve been in 3 car accidents that, accumulatively, have greatly impacted me physically. But I am determined. I am attending various body therapies. And I do not know how to give up, a trait I inherited from my grandfather.

This elephant reminds me of Duke. Steadfast. Resolute. Thirsty for life.

Just a note that if you visit the Duke page, it is from my original website and most of the links to articles about my grandfather on the web no longer work. But his Wikipedia page stands.

I’m updating my website, and I’m not sure how it’s going….

When I say I need to redesign my website, I mean I have to start over with completely new software. This current site is built with an ancient copy of Dreamweaver and the Fireworks software that no longer loads on the ancient PC that sits in my office ONLY to update the website. I used to have an old copy of Photoshop on there, too, and no idea where it went. This makes creating new graphics a challenge.

Here’s the thing. I’m not allowed (by C’est Moi) to rebuild the website hopefully using the How to Build a Website on WordPress course on a special template/theme/whatever they’re called I bought, oh, 2 years ago before I realized just how long my 2018 car accident was going to affect my ability to write actual books. What I am allowed to do is update this current site because I still believe in websites.

So I’m trying. My software no longer connects to my server, so I need to update and build the books without worrying that they might look horrible in Internet Explorer (which thankfully no longer exists) and then go in through the back end and upload via FTP.

So, seeing as I can’t completely start over on the website until all 5 books in Love & Other Calamities are on preorder, I’m bumbling about doing the best I can with my ancient software, and cross your fingers that when I load those pages, they’ll look reasonably okay.

I’ll post on the blog when I’ve uploaded the pages. There are a lot of pages to upload. First, I need to resize some current graphics on the iMac, zip them to the PC, and finish building the durn pages.

Meanwhile, my imagination is itching to come up with a new series but I still have to revise and edit the last two books in Calamities. But the covers and blurbs are done like a lizard burning in the Galapagos sun!

Yippee-ki-yay, mudderfugger.

I’m baaack???

My site changed servers a few months ago, and because I’ve been busy recovering from a car accident and working on updated versions of Deceiving Derek and Catching Claire in Love & Other Calamities – and also writing the next three titles in the series, Before Brady, Just Janie, and Trusting Trey – I didn’t realize my blog was broken. I kept trying to publish new posts, to no avail. I spent hours on tech support with my host, to no avail. They even switched my customized Muse Interrupted theme to the 2021, theme and I still couldn’t publish a post.

Most aggravating.

I was about to hire a website designer to fix things when I decided to do ONE LAST TEST. And, well, whatever was glitching for weeks before I went away to trek through Ireland for a month is no longer glitching!

This is good because I really, really, really need to redesign my website, and I want to move it to a WordPress-based site because my web design software is on an old computer I only keep for the software. I need to get with the times and make things mobile-friendly.

So redesigning my site is on my To-Do list for this year.

That said, because I’ve been away from publishing for so long, like 5 years, I made the decision not to put any of the books in Love & Other Calamities on pre-order until all 5 are revised and edited. I’ve learned that when it comes to my neck, skull, and shoulder injuries I just need to put my health first, and besides who wants to read a connected series with months and months between releases?

If you’ve stumbled upon this post and you’ve been wondering, What happened to Cindy? Yeah, I got whacked, multiple times, from behind. And it wasn’t as fun as it sounds. 🙂 I’m now seeing a pain management specialist, getting nerve block injections every 3 months or so, and, on top of my other therapies (of which there are many), I finally feel like I can get on the path to publishing again. I can’t spend much time at the computer. I do 2-3 hours a day of physio, strengthening and yoga just to TRY to get to 4 hour days – with breaks that interrupt my flow. I would really love to get 4 to 5 4-hour writing days a week. I’m not there yet. I can get maybe 2 hour days. I can do a 3 hour day but will pay for it the next day.

I am determined, even as I am reminded that those 6 hour days are lost to me forever. So I’m gonna go ahead with my plan not to put Love & Other Calamities on pre-order until the editing process is complete.

For my readers, that means some aggravating waiting. But I thank you for your understanding.

When the updated versions of Deceiving Derek and Catching Claire are on sale, I’ll let you know here. I won’t be creating new website pages for the series – I will just be putting the links here and/or pointing you to pages hosted on a site like Books2Read or my SleekBio. When I design my new website, I WILL create separate pages for each title, but because of my injuries it seems not a very wise use of my limited time to make 3 new website pages on an old computer with old software and THEN redesign the entire site.

Thank you for your understanding!

PS. You never know, I might change my plans and update my old site before redesigning the new site. If so, I’ll also announce that here.

Happy Friday the 13th!

A friend from high school turned 58 today on Friday the 13th! She was born on a Friday the 13th, and, guess what? 5 + 8 = 13. That’s pretty lucky. For years, until I was 13 and met this friend and another born on April 13th, who both set me straight and showed me calendars from the year of our birthday to prove how wrong I was, I thought I was born on a Friday the 13th in January.
 
Turns out I was born on a Wednesday. My mom had 3 kids close together and couldn’t remember the day of the week I was born. My dad only knew he was working out of town and came home on Wednesdays and Fridays. So I was therefore born on one of those days. Thirteen years of thinking I’d been born on Friday the 13th flew out the window! I had to console myself with being born on the 13th day of the 13th month.
 
Happy birthday to everyone born on the 13th of a month, but especially to the Friday the 13th babies! It’s not unlucky. We’re a bit weird, but, hey, weird is wonderful. Embrace it!