Hello again, world. It’s me. Howdy do? I published another book. No, not another! Yep. Black Ribbons. It’s a vampire novel. I think it’s good. That link will take you to a description and an excerpt, and links to all the many places it is available. It’s not a free one, though. It’s my first “not free” novel. Woo. Sold 2 copies so far. And, oddly, one copy of Mandra, even though it’s free… I put my free books on Amazon, but Amazon won’t let me make them free there, so they cost 99¢. Bwahaha.

Anyhoo. Where were we? December of 2009 my hours were reduced at work because of lay-offs, aka “reduction in force”. Bummer. On Unemployment for 6 months. Then a co-worker left, who also had a part time job, and I got a full time job trying to combine our 2 part time jobs into one job. Woo. Collectively we worked 9 hours a day, and I had to cram that into 8 hours. Not cool. With no assistance. Just me and my wits! Well, eventually, I had assistance. But then we had a super huge supreme volume of records requests come in and I had almost every other department in the building helping me print records! So, yeah, no brain power left after that for blogging. Then the surge of requests died down because the clinic was dying down. We were almost bought 2 times, then someone finally bought our building. Then I was laid off. Then I got a job working for the people who bought the building, but it’s a temporary job that will last 12-18 months. Which is awesome because Unemployment was offering me MUCH less money this time because I was part time for half of last year.

Phew! I like it better when my day job is stable and I can just concentrate on books books books. You know, instead of survival. So that’s where I’m at. I start my new job next week. So, I have some days off. Which I used to publish my books and post about them here and there. Learned all about Amanda Hocking, self-published success. Read J.A. Konrath’s blog, all about self-publishing success. So, I know it’s possible! It just hasn’t actually happened to me yet. I put my free books on Smashwords too, by the way. Got a very nice review of Mandra. I had to break it up into chapters to publish there. Which is weird because it wasn’t written in chapters. So, I hope the breaks are in appropriate places. My brain is full of books. My books, other people’s books, blah blah…

I just ordered Supernatural seasons 4 and 5. Because I didn’t have them. And because I got all my vacation time paid out at once with my last paycheck. Seven weeks’ worth. Yum! I’m trying not to spend it on anything besides living expenses. But sometimes you just have to splurge. I am THISCLOSE to buying myself a Kindle. Yayhoo! A Kindle! But I have resisted so far. I’m used to being poor. Not comfortable being able to buy things. My new job will pay better (infinitely) than my old job. NICE. I’m saving as much as I can. Since it’s a temporary job.

I’m wondering if I should have stuck with one genre for all of my books. I’m wondering if I should have written many books in a series, even when no one was reading it. Instead of starting new series all the time. Paranormal Activities Unit, Fugue, and Black Ribbons are all first books in a series. But then I stop. ?? I think I was waiting for one of them to get popular. Duuuummmb. Maybe they can only be popular if I continue them, eh? Duh. I have other series I want to start. It’s all I do! But I’m pretty sure I’m done doing that. My next writing plans were to write more romance novels for my pen name. In addition to that, I guess I should continue these series. Right? Hmm.

Intriguing. Then I could publish them in paperback form too, three novels per book. Since they are so short. I feel like I’ve said this before! You know what’s funny? I don’t read fiction. I read non-fiction. Mostly articles. Sometimes books when I can afford them. But reading fiction is not relaxing. Because it reminds me of work. I can’t believe people read fiction to help themselves fall asleep at night. Fiction gets me revved up. It would put my mind into hyperdrive if I tried to read fiction before sleeping. Shite! But, yeah, it’s weird to me that other authors are voracious readers of fiction. How can they stand to do that? I get all caught up in how things are written, dialogue, plot, typos, characters, etc. I think things like, “Whoops, faux pas, that should have been written like this…” or “that was awesome, should I be writing like that?” or I can see how the book will end when I just start reading because writers think like writers, and it can’t be helped. I do that with TV too, but it doesn’t bother me as much. I can predict dialogue and how the plot will go, because that’s how most writers would have gone. Sometimes you can see there are only a few options for dialogue and/or plot, and there is a best choice, and so they choose it, and I predict it. Sometimes I’m wrong, which I find pleasantly surprising. Being a writer is weird. It’s weird when I’m watching something with someone and start quoting along with it and they say, “Have you seen this before?” “No, it’s new.” Sometimes you can just tell! I would only talk along with a TV show if it was bad and no one in the room was already engrossed in it, by the way. I’m not rude!

I’m feeling pretty weirdly melancholy today. Bored, but…. yeah, I don’t know. Maybe I should buy that Kindle. There are plenty of free ebooks out there. If I just don’t read before bed, maybe I’ll be fine. I just finished watching Being Human, the US version. So cute when the werewolf looked at Nora under the door. Sorry, that was mildly spoilery. Here’s some major spoileryness. I can’t believe how many characters they killed! Some of them I would have thought would be there for years. Wowsers. Interesting. See, for fiction I seem to prefer TV over books. Hmm. In the past year, I’ve gotten into True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Being Human, you see a theme there? And recently Glee. I’m on the verge of renting Mad Men, but I think it might bum me out. Being based on reality. But it’s not like it’s a cop show. It shouldn’t bum me out too much, right? I have to catch up on Smallville at some point too….. I’ve read spoilers. Woo hoo!

Yep. That’s where I’m at. To order the Kindle or not to order the Kindle, to order the Kindle or not to order the Kindle. It’s so funny that I can’t get enough of vampire stories. Even funnier because in real life I have a blood phobia and have panic attacks when I see surgical photos at work. But fictional blood? Okay. Well, the idea of fictional blood. I still look away if gory things are going on on the TV screen. Blaaahh. I miss Sookie Stackhouse. Sigh. Hey, new season of True Blood comes out on DVD on May 31! Whoop! I’m a vampire nerd. If there be such a thing. Eep!

So, enjoy my first vampire novel. (That would be Black Ribbons. Though, vampires make an appearance in PAU….)

Later.