Getting Reamed

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Linda Andrews

I always am horrified by the amount of paper I run through per book. After all, I publish mostly ebooks, no paper necessary.

Except there is.

I print a copy for my critique partners. I print a copy for me to review before I give it to my critique partners, and I print a copy while it’s at the editors to look over once more.

That’s at least 3 copies per book of double spaced lines. So that hundred page novella is 450 print pages.

To cut down on waste, I do print on both sides of the paper before disposing of it in the recycle bin, which to me is a good thing.

My printer hates it, and to show it’s displeasure it will spit out two or three blank pages, print one page on two pieces of paper or just jam and make me pay for being environmentally responsible.

Why does doing the right thing have to be so annoying sometimes?

Posted in Books, Life Observations, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

13 Years Old This Month

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Linda Andrews

My puppy is 13 years old this month. Although we still go for our daily walks and Bear is starting to swim again, I am concerned that is limping is more pronounced.

imgsvr.ashx

Bear is my dog. He chases all cats away and didn’t let anyone take him for a walk but me.

Mr. BearHe is also very emotional, should I allow a cat to sit on my lap or pet them too much, he sits with his back to me but occasionally looks over his shoulder to make sure I know he’s avoiding me.

imgsvr.ashx-2

Happy birthday, Bear. You are the best gift.

IMG_0260

Posted in Life Observations | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A Writer’s Life

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Linda Andrews

There are times I wish I never started writing. It’s a bit like learning magic, suddenly you know all the tricks and the illusion is lost. Of course, I have favorite authors who make me forget I know the tricks and inspire me to write better. But being a writer is really a full time gig. There’s not even time off for good behavior:/

I still have my escapisms in romances, Scifi,  and mysteries. I still watch copious amounts of horror, Scifi, and apocalytptic stuff. THere’s a slew of documentaries Netflix kindly scopes out for me and recommends because I watched Degrees of Evil I might like Mr. Puffer’s Penguins. And I did, too.

But, lately it seems all roads lead back to writing. Here are some of the books I’ve recently purchased. Yes, I will enjoy reading them all, because who wouldn’t, but I think you can see where my next books are coming from:

  

So that picture sucks. The books are Skyrocketing sales, High Tide, Poisoner’s Handbooks, Shameless self-promoters, the mesh, Women in World War 1.

 

This one is of course more about human behavior and how civilizations collapse. Perfect bedtime story.

 Then there’s contact with alien civilizations, Women Workers in the First World War (set in Britian), and something I’m excited to read: the Sixth Extinction.

I do have a slew of romance novels, mostly on my kindle to stop me from acting on such information (hey, I’m a scientist, I wanna try some of these theories out). 

So basically my next book will be about a man-made ecological disaster where alien’s arrive and women have to work after society collapses by launching a media campaign to help save us all before we go extinct:D 

Who’s in?
  

Posted in Books, Life Observations, Promotion, Science | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Fun Olde Tymes

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Linda Andrews

This past Saturday, we managed to take our two daughters and one’s boyfriend to the Ren Faire way over on the other side of town. During the drive, we managed to talk about health insurance and, of course, there was the Samuel L Jackson jewel which our eldest played on her phone.

 

It did remind me of my husband waking for those midnight feedings and promising the children all sorts of things to get them to go to bed. Our oldest recalled our son telling my that he wasn’t going to sleep that Nick should go to sleep. Which the hubby did;)

After such adult conversation, it was nice to arrive at the festival for some good raucous fun.

We watched the jousting, the drumming, visited a few shops, ate some stuff on a stick, and watched these acrobats:

Coming back after the pleasure feast to watch the fire show.

Although we didn’t wait in line to see the living mermaids, we did go to the petting zoo:

IMG_0302

I don’t know why someone fed dirt to the sheep, but I can assure you we fed them the corn/feed that we purchased.

Until next time.

Posted in Life Observations, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Friday Funny

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Linda Andrews

Alas, i have gone to the cupboard and there are no more jokes.

So starting next week, I’ll think of something fun and exciting to post on Fridays.

It might be pictures of cats:D

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Beware the Crocs

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Linda Andrews

Spring arrived early this year. I was disappointed that the promised godzilla el nino fizzled and turned into sprinkles and clouds. Still, the cassia bushes in our front yard have blossomed nicely:

IMG_0299

With the temperatures flirting with the nineties, I had to purchase new crocs. Yep, during the summer I only wear crocs. These are my summer buddies, until fall arrives in November:

IMG_0301]

Nice beautiful crocs that haven’t learned to bend or be stretched. So I almost took a dive into the pool when the dog banged into me while chasing a bird and the Crocs went one way and I tried to go into the deep end.

Moral of the story, take it one step at a time until I remember how to walk in sandals.

Until next time.

Posted in Life Observations, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Look at Me! Look at Me!

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Linda Andrews

I just wanted to show off my new covers for the Syn-En series. Although the last book, Home World, is missing. Here they are, in order.

syn-en1 copyculture clashregistrationplagueworld-1pillar worldsyn-en6 copy

Posted in Books, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Have Money Will Buy Books

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Linda Andrews

I have a wish list on amazon. It used to contain 45 items. Now, it contains 16 items.

Some of those books were bought for me for Christmas. But others I bought myself. For me.

I’ll admit I became a writer so I could buy books. I love books. I love opening them and discovering new things.

But having that list drives me nuts. I want to finish that list. I want all those books on the list. And when I tried to purchase one of those items… Amazon wouldn’t let me buy it. Too many complaints about the quality of the book. Wha???

I think my heart broke. I love books. I don’t need them to be perfect. I would take that book from the island of misfit books and still read it. Yet, I was denied.

I know it was for my own good. Obviously there were egregious problems with the book, but I still want it. So  now I must wait while a book sits on my list and I can’t buy now with one click.

I think I might go a little nuts while I wait. Just a little…. Okay a little more crazy than I already am. Even though I’ve bought 10 books, that one is still in the back of my mind waiting…

I hope I’m not kept waiting long. This is an election year. I need a little escapism.

Until next time.

Posted in Life Observations | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

My Pet Peeve

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Linda Andrews

I write in a variety of genres. Not coincidentally, they are some of my favorite genres to read and watch movies in. Aside from zombies, there is one genre that I love that I don’t write in and that is mysteries. Sure I’ll have a little mystery in my books, like in my current work in progress, but for the most part I like to read mysteries.

And while I love the forensic aspect of mysteries, I do love cozy mysteries.

Except… except when you give me every bit of red herring evidence but when it comes to the actual evidence that points to the killer, the writer announces that she’s found it but doesn’t tell the reader what it is.

What?

I mean if we have to learn about the heroine’s dysfunctional family, if we have to learn about her bizarre love life, if we have to learn about her pets, and if we have to find out all the reason why someone could have done it but didn’t, don’t you think we should be able to read about the actual killer.

I just finished 2 books by a promising author. In the first, the killer was in the first couple of chapters then didn’t appear again until the last minute. The two clues that identified the killer were not on the page but announced, then at the last chapter they were exposed and quite frankly they could have pointed to anything. I read two books to give the author the benefit of the doubt. The same thing happened in both books.

Not my style of mystery, so I won’t be reading her again. But there are plenty of cozy mysteries out there.

Mysteries with dysfunctional families, bizarre love lives, pets, and red herrings. Mysteries that bury the clues through out the stories so that when the book is over and the mystery is solved, I get that sense of satisfaction of being part of the story.

Because keeping clues to yourself is just rude in a mystery, and that’s my pet peeve.

Posted in Books, Life Observations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sock it to me

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Linda Andrews

I love socks. Not the plain white or black kind that grown-ups have to wear. No, I like the kind with designs or characters or something on them. That is why like my socks, I have a pair of dresser drawers to house them.

The socks are sorted into the big fuzzy socks for winter. With this goes the Halloween and Christmas socks.

And since we are approaching 90 degrees in February, I decided it was time to tuck my big winter socks away and prepare for our two weeks of spring.

Out came the Valentine’s Day socks (i found a couple more), the St. Patrick’s Day socks, and the red white and blue for all the summer holidays.

Of course there are some socks that stay out year round—The minions, the Disney characters, Nightmare before Christmas, and the zombie socks.

A girl has to  have some old standbys to make the transition easier.

And a girl also must go through the basket of mismatched socks to start pairing up the left sock that made it home and the one that got left behind. The sock basket collects for 6 months before it is sorted.

IMG_0295

Those that find a match are returned to their owners. The others… Well, let’s avoid any unpleasantness and just say that the basket goes back empty.

Posted in Life Observations, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment