promo and other stuff
Let's get the promo out of the way. The SAMMIES are happening and my Summer Devon book, Unnatural Calamities, is up for best ebook cover and best ebook. You should vote for here:
THE VOTING LINK!
There are a lot of really good books up on that list. I had a hard time deciding who else to vote for. But I did pick Sandy Blair because she's a sweetie-pie. Too many great books to choose so I went with the fabu one by the doll-faced sweetie-pie.
In other news: my book that I tried to make free with a coupon is now just plain free. Here's the link at Smashwords. It's over at All Romance Ebooks too, but it's not free at Amazon yet.
Why am I making it free? Because the newsletter I wrote turned into so much gibberish that the special code to make it free was gone. Also because I'm following the herd. Everyone seems to make books free and just as the books are catching on, they zip over and jack up the price to a buck or so. This ebook world is one wild and woolly place, I'm telling you.
I suspect that the next step, the book catching on, won't happen with this book, which is a shame. I like it.
What with the gibberishy newsletter (I have NO IDEA how that happened) and the fact that I keep breaking the local chapter's yahoo loop's rules (twice in two days) and the fact that I spend hours trying to fix something that I used to fix no problem, and the fact that I'm getting a lot of wrong numbers, and the fact that I left my keys in the door for a day or so....the truth is dawning at last. I'm hanging on by the skin of my teeth but I know any second, I'm going to drop down into the pit of pure, full-time ditzy dame.
Every group has a couple of us. We're the ones--bless our hearts--who just don't understand the rules. We speak up at meetings and what we say has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. You can explain something to us and we smile and nod and you know it's gone right over our heads and that you'll have to correct the mistakes we made. What I hadn't understood, before I became one, is that DDs are self aware. We know we're clueless PITAs but we really can't do anything about it and god knows we're tired of apologizing for it.
This isn't the first time I've been put in the corner when it comes to brains. I grew up in a family of people who went to Harvard and Cornell--a lawyer, an inventor, yada yada. I got meh grades (failed Algebra 2) worked as barmaid, a parts manager in a garage and in day care. I was a butter knife stuck in a drawer of sharp blades. I smeared things around on the surface while they cut to deep into the meat of the matter and . . . and I think we're done with that knife thing. Out in the world, I'm about average so I function fine, but now. OH lordy, my kids are so much brighter than I am for one, and I don't just mean the snotty way kids are always so0000oo much smarter than their parents.
And there are all these little stupid things I'm doing. I'm slipping back into the dull knife section of the silverware drawer.
I'm not going to apologize, dammit. But I don't think I'll get on my high horse and say "THIS is the way such-and-such works, I KNOW." anymore because chances are, I'm completely out to lunch on the subject.
This could be filed under self pity--okay, it is. But I think I feel worse about the other people: the husband who has to help me find the keys, the secretary who has to explain the rules again. Me? I'll just keep chugging along.
THE VOTING LINK!
There are a lot of really good books up on that list. I had a hard time deciding who else to vote for. But I did pick Sandy Blair because she's a sweetie-pie. Too many great books to choose so I went with the fabu one by the doll-faced sweetie-pie.
In other news: my book that I tried to make free with a coupon is now just plain free. Here's the link at Smashwords. It's over at All Romance Ebooks too, but it's not free at Amazon yet.
Why am I making it free? Because the newsletter I wrote turned into so much gibberish that the special code to make it free was gone. Also because I'm following the herd. Everyone seems to make books free and just as the books are catching on, they zip over and jack up the price to a buck or so. This ebook world is one wild and woolly place, I'm telling you.
I suspect that the next step, the book catching on, won't happen with this book, which is a shame. I like it.
What with the gibberishy newsletter (I have NO IDEA how that happened) and the fact that I keep breaking the local chapter's yahoo loop's rules (twice in two days) and the fact that I spend hours trying to fix something that I used to fix no problem, and the fact that I'm getting a lot of wrong numbers, and the fact that I left my keys in the door for a day or so....the truth is dawning at last. I'm hanging on by the skin of my teeth but I know any second, I'm going to drop down into the pit of pure, full-time ditzy dame.
Every group has a couple of us. We're the ones--bless our hearts--who just don't understand the rules. We speak up at meetings and what we say has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. You can explain something to us and we smile and nod and you know it's gone right over our heads and that you'll have to correct the mistakes we made. What I hadn't understood, before I became one, is that DDs are self aware. We know we're clueless PITAs but we really can't do anything about it and god knows we're tired of apologizing for it.
This isn't the first time I've been put in the corner when it comes to brains. I grew up in a family of people who went to Harvard and Cornell--a lawyer, an inventor, yada yada. I got meh grades (failed Algebra 2) worked as barmaid, a parts manager in a garage and in day care. I was a butter knife stuck in a drawer of sharp blades. I smeared things around on the surface while they cut to deep into the meat of the matter and . . . and I think we're done with that knife thing. Out in the world, I'm about average so I function fine, but now. OH lordy, my kids are so much brighter than I am for one, and I don't just mean the snotty way kids are always so0000oo much smarter than their parents.
And there are all these little stupid things I'm doing. I'm slipping back into the dull knife section of the silverware drawer.
I'm not going to apologize, dammit. But I don't think I'll get on my high horse and say "THIS is the way such-and-such works, I KNOW." anymore because chances are, I'm completely out to lunch on the subject.
This could be filed under self pity--okay, it is. But I think I feel worse about the other people: the husband who has to help me find the keys, the secretary who has to explain the rules again. Me? I'll just keep chugging along.
OK but I don't think ditsy-dame-ness has anything to do with intelligence. I'm smart (it's pretty much the only thing I have no self-doubt about) and I've been the DD on more than one occasion. Usually it's because I'm not paying attention or just don't care enough about whatever the rule or procedure in question is, and/or because I've frozen up about it because something about the situation makes me anxious. I actually before this very moment never thought about it as a smart/not-smart thing. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but....
ReplyDeleteI usually want to get the details right. I care about the fekking newsletter--and it still ended up a horrifying mess.
I'm missing the indifference factor (a fabulous excuse and one I used for math for years and years) which I think means I exist in the derp DD category.
I wasn't always so deep into DD. I could wake up the snoozy part of the brain to, say, figure out how to work the remote control.
. . .oh, and there are all those different ways to be intelligent (emotional intelligence is the only one I can remember) I believe them, often. But I'm pretty sure those came along after my school days so I wasn't raised with them.
ReplyDeleteI think a really good memory is a basis of what we considered intelligent, but I can't recall at the moment.
My brother used to say i had "blonde roots". I'm a brunette, intelligent, hard working and creative. i think it's the creative part that has me in the DD club. if there is a hard way to do anything, I'll find it. I have to everything wrong at least once before i learn to do it right (and sometimes more than once). So don't be too hard on yourself, Kate. There is a super big learning curve in this business and as soon as we get to know the rules, someone changes them. Be gentle with yourself and focus on what you do right. It'll take the edge off all the little stuff that falls between the cracks.
ReplyDeletePJ, you had me nodding until you got to the "learning curve in this business"--I had my first books out in 2004 (a couple of historical with Kensington). Even college students only get 4 years for the learning curves and straights.
ReplyDelete(now shaking head) ;-)
You have been shamelessly plugged on my Twitter feed! And I voted for you! I mess stuff up all the time. So unless you find yourself in your underwear mumbling to yourself on a street corner - don't worry about it!:o)
ReplyDelete