Oh yeah, it’s Sunday. I’m having many senior moments where I lose track of days, darn it.

The Mrs and I were going to take a walk at the zoo. We have season passes so we can do just that. My Favorite Daughter threw off the plans because the boy had to work at Sea World today. She came over early with the plan of making cookies and ice cream for a big order they have.

Needless to say, we didn’t go to the zoo. Instead we stayed home with the intention of binge watching Loki with MFD. That got derailed as we invited over my sister-in-law to watch with us. Knowing I’d have some time, I went upstairs and formatted a couple of books and got those ready. Goofed around on the computer for a bit.

We did end up watching a couple of episodes of Loki. It was late enough and we were all here so we watched Big Brother. That took us nearly an hour and a half to watch because we kept pausing for much discussion.

Now, it’s late. I feel as though I didn’t leave the house or accomplish anything, but I did and I am happy with what I got done.

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!

My head is clearer today and the neighbors had some guys trimming up their backyard at 7am. Guess who got up early!

The Mrs and I watched Coming 2 America. Lots of nods to the original. Many laugh out loud moments. No major surprises, but a fun movie anyway. A solid B+ movie.

Then I opened up Jack Kane 3 because I needed to get my next chapter done and back over to Mike Plested. Knocked out 2000 words. The story is getting interesting. 🙂

Waiting on word from friends to come and have dinner. While I wait, I’m not going to waste time. I’m off to put words down in GRPC3. I’m excited to get both of these books done because I know what’s coming next! I do! and I can’t wait to write those words.

On a side note, a fellow author friend of mine had an issue with another author making political posts. Let me first say, I follow many authors I don’t rightly agree with politically. I follow many more that I do agree with. I’ve never allowed this to get in the way of either my personal relationship with these authors or to deter me from absorbing any knowledge they might choose to put forth.

That said, I’ve also committed to NOT posting anything political or religious in either this blog or in my books. Both those topics are highly personal and very polarizing. If I ever do stray into that territory, feel free to call me out.

Now, I have mentioned that I’m reading a number of political books. If I review them, those reviews will go up on Amazon under my name. I don’t feel this impacts my brand because I’m not putting them here for regular consumption and the reviews will be a review of the writing and content, not the specific author or their political beliefs.

At any rate, when I come across a political post I don’t agree with, but I enjoy the author’s work and/or personality, I usually skip these posts. The only person I’ve ever had to stop following…no, no I’m not going to specify that here. I see no need.

I’m off to make more words happen, because that’s what I want to do!

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!

After getting a negative result back from my COVID test and just plain being wiped out by work and this darned cough, it felt good tonight to sit and get caught up on Big Brother with the Mrs and talk while the news played in the background.

Writing will happen this weekend. And getting a couple of books up for preorder.

Hey Gang, short post again tonight.

I’ve been fighting a cough for about a month and a half now. It’s wearing me out. I’m 90% certain it isn’t COVID given the symptoms I have and the fact I know others who’ve gotten what I’ve got and they also weren’t COVID. Out of an abundance of caution (again) I went and got tested. Let me tell you, that swab up the nose is weird. Still waiting for results.

This has gotten better, I had thought it was almost over, then it flares back up once more. I’ll wake up a few times each night and it’s frustrating. It’s taking away my focus, my energy, and I want it to go away already. This isn’t how I wanted to spend my summer.

I won’t bore you with the graphic details and I’ll keep you posted. Suffice to say, I’ve lost another writing week because I can’t get my brain to focus on anything beyond work right now. Soon enough I’ll get back on track and then it’ll be time to rack up big numbers and start knocking out books.

I’m off to…probably go to bed super early.

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!

Quick note to let you know that my short story, Cloak and Dagger, is now available. This started out as a short story and grew on me. This is one of my longer shorts. Enjoy!

Ok, this is rather strange. I’ve been following several hardback books these past couple of weeks. It’s not uncommon right now to see an older hardback at a lower price than the Kindle edition. I still don’t get it, but hey, I’m taking advantage to pick up a couple of books I’ve wanted to read at a lower price than the Kindle edition. That’s how I’m rolling right now.

But, a couple of those hardback titles I’ve been checking and looking at regularly because I’m interested in related titles. What I’m seeing happen now is the hardback prices are fluctuating wildly.

For example, one book I’m interested in, the Kindle edition is $14.99. In fact, all the books I’m looking at are by major publishers and the Kindle editions are all $14.99. Those haven’t moved.

What has moved has been the hardcover price. One book this morning was over $35. It’s on pre-order as the book doesn’t come out for a few days, but there’s no way I’m paying that price when I’m getting other, similar books for around $15. This afternoon I still had the page open and refreshed it. The hardback was down to $14. I checked the other books I’d bought and those prices were up from when I’d bought them.

I’m confused.

When I set a book price, normally it’ll take a LONG time for that price to change. Usually within 24 hours. To see all these books ramp up and down in a given day is strange and I’m wondering what’s behind the pricing changes. How are they getting adjusted up and down so quickly? I did set up my camelcamelcamel watches, but I don’t think it’s grabbing the prices multiple times per day.

That said, these books I’m looking at are all political in nature. Yes, I’m still reading (auto)biographies and genre books, but I’m looking at some political books for other reasons. I’ve always been fascinated by politics and reading about the goings on has been eye-opening and interesting.

As I’ve said many times before, I won’t discuss politics on this blog. If you’re curious about what books I’m digging into, drop me an email and I’ll tell you all about them.

I wish I had more insight, but these are just some simple observations.

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!

I tried watching more Simpsons. Honestly I did. The episodes are slow, not very funny, and try to have a moral. I get the joy some have with the Simpsons, but I think I’m done with watching this show. I get many of the references, but see no need to sit through episodes I don’t enjoy.

South Park, on the other hand, I will be watching. Much like Family Guy and Rick and Morty, this show is irreverent, unpredictable, and makes me laugh out loud so the Mrs will come over to see what I’m watching, see it’s a cartoon, and walk away smiling and shaking her head.

I mostly watch while working out so I can get through 3 or 4 episodes during a workout. Without commercials, it’s amazing how quickly you can get through shows.

That said, sometimes I need to put something else in my brain, so I turned out YouTube this evening and watched a few short documentaries about the deep ocean. I’ve always had a fascination with Cryptology and the exploration of the deep unknown. Sea monsters, the Loch Ness Monster, all those interesting beasts. So I have fun watching shows about giant, deep-sea sharks, giant squid, sea spiders. It’s causes my imagination to explode with the possibilities.

Speaking of imagination…

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!

I’ve read a lot of books. I still read a lot of books. I buy even more than I read, but overall, I read a lot. I’ve already read nearly 30 titles so far this year and I’ll probably read that many before the year it out. I’m currently reading 7 titles at the same time. All depends on where my interest drifts.

That said, I’m also a patient person. I love a deal. A bargain. I hate paying full price and rarely do. If I see a hardcover book come out and I’m crazy excited about the author or the title, I might grab it and devour it as soon as it’s in my hands, but mostly, I don’t.

Why?

I have a lot of book to read. My TBR is something I’m sure many people have. It’s hundreds of books deep. That’s a lie. It’s a few thousand books deep.

That means I can be patient. Very patient. When it comes to buying a new book, I’ll hold off on paying that high premium on the hardback. I’ll wait and watch until the price dips to something more reasonable and then I’ll grab it.

For example, I wanted to read a certain political book by a now infamous lawyer. There were many reasons for me to hold off and buying this book, the main being I didn’t like the person and didn’t want to support his lifestyle. I added the book to my wish list and my camelcamelcamel list to wait for the price to come down. Way down. The hardcover dropped to $9 and I thought…pfft, won’t get my lower. I bought it and started reading it.

But here’s where my concern came in. I prefer ebooks. Specifically I’m a Kindle reader. With this book, and after looking around, several political and (auto)biographies, the hardcover kept dropping in price until it was cheaper than the kindle book.

That’s right, a physical copy of the book I just bought was $9. The kindle book has never changed in price and is still $14.99.

Now, I get that the big 5 (or is it the big 4 now?) want to keep their tight control on the print market therefore want ebooks to be so expensive, no one buys them and, instead, buy the physical book. I’ll never understand that thinking. I know they make far more on the kindle books, but once the paperback comes out, I honestly thought those big publishers would come to their senses and, much like the hardcover, start dropping the price to sell more copies.

Sadly, that isn’t the case. They’re keeping the ebooks artificially high. I have no idea what they’re hoping to gain from this. Denial of the future must be strong with them.j

So, I prefer, now, to wait for a given book if I know I’ll get a good deal. This is very similar to what I used to do when visiting a physical book store. Many larger book stores used to have large tables with heavily discounted hardbacks. I used to be able to buy 3 or 4 books for the price of a new book that had come out, and many on the table weren’t more than a few months old themselves.

It’s almost like going to the grocery store and finding the rack with nearly expired goods that are marked WAY down for them to sell quickly. Only, books don’t go bad.

At any rate, I like to look for a deal and patience pays. I do the same thing with video games I buy. Why pay full price? Unless it’s something I need right at that moment, which is almost never the case, I can wait. I’ll play the game.

I’m off to go make words happen.

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!

Hijo got a job at Sea World recently. Right now, if you are a military veteran, you can get up to 4 free tickets. After the week I had, I need some distraction. Thankfully, my head congestion and cough are much better than they have been. I should probably stay home, but I need to get out of the house.

Hijo has to work, so My Favorite Daughter, The Mrs, Hijo’s twin brother, and my sister-in-law (oh, and me too) are heading over to Sea World to get some steps in, watch a couple of shows, maybe some fireworks. It’ll be nice to get out and relax.

I’m going to wear a swimsuit cuz I have a feeling I’ll be getting wet at least once while I’m there. Bringing a change of clothes also because the Mrs is smarter than I am and she suggested it.

I feel more relaxed already.

Probably two of the most difficult things to change are schedules and habits. Right now, I am stuck in a rut of sorts and I’m fighting my way out of it one step at a time.

First off, my sleep schedule has been AFU for a couple of weeks as the Mrs and I try to get back into a workout regimen. For her, it has been working. For me, my brain and body are fighting me. I am having trouble falling asleep which means when I do wake up, I’m already tired. I want to do my workouts in the morning, but have had to shift my work schedule to start earlier than normal to be in calls to take over work from a retiring coworker.

In a normal situation, I wouldn’t have quite so much going on all at once and I would have been back on track already. I have done all this before and I know I will get back on track once again.

Now add on top of all this, I’ve had a lingering cough since our trip to Cabo. It’s gotten worse, then got better, then got worse again. It is better now, but it is still draining me. All my DR appts have been over the phone. I don’t have an infection, no fever, no COVID symptoms, so Drs think it is just sinuses. I am taking various medications that are helping with the symptoms,but are adversely impacting my brain.

I’m off to get some sleep and hopefully soon his will all work itself out.

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!