The weatherman was predicting a cold, wet weekend for most of the Southwest and he sure didn’t lie! The rain started falling about midnight Thursday and it rained hard off and on all night long.
Friday morning Russ and Debbie Davis came over to buy copies of the printed versions of Big Lake Lynching
It was a cold, rainy day, and as much as we wanted to go visit with my cousin Beverly, we just couldn’t get up the energy to go outside. For much of the day heavy clouds covered the mountains around Tucson and reduced visibility to just to the far side of the fairgrounds. In other words, a perfect day to stay in my comfy sweats writing or taking a nap.
I really wanted that nap, but I decided if I didn’t do something to earn my keep Miss Terry might kick me to the curb. And it was just too darned cold for that. So instead, I started working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal. I still have about three weeks before it has to be to the printer, but every issue I procrastinate until the last minute and then go into a working frenzy to get it done in time and I’m trying to break that habit. But truth be told, I think I just work better under pressure.
We love our Winnebago, but on days like this Terry and I agree that it’s not nearly as well insulated as our old MCI bus conversion was. When we built the bus we put a lot of time and effort into making it energy efficient and it paid off. Even when we found ourselves up in northern Michigan for Terry’s visits with her oncologist late in the year, with temperatures dipping into the single digits, just having our Olympian Wave-8 Catalytic Heater on low kept it nice and warm inside. The Winnebago has a furnace and heat pump, but it still doesn’t feel as comfortable when it gets cold.
By dinnertime I had the Letters to the Editor proofed and ready to go, one story finished, and a second one well on the way. And I still managed to watch an old movie on TV and spend some time chatting online with my author’s group.
I was pleased when ACX, the production arm of Audible.com, Amazon’s audiobook division, contacted me during the afternoon to let me know they have placed a $100/hour stipend on Dog’s Run to attract some of their best narrators. What that means is that, in addition to receiving a royalty on every copy sold, ACX will also pay the narrator $100 an hour, up to ten hours, for their services. Most of my books run between eight and ten hours, so that’s a significant up front investment on their part. This is the fourth book I have put on ACX for production and they have offered a stipend on every one of them.
Everybody who has read Dog’s Run tells me it is my best work yet, and I think it’s my favorite too, although so far sales have not measured up to what the Big Lake mysteries did in their first two months. All of my mysteries and most of my RV books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble as e-books, and in print on Amazon, if you think somebody on your Christmas shopping list might enjoy one.
If you have not tried an audiobook yet, here’s your chance to do it for free. This week’s Free Drawing is for an audiobook of Big Lake, the first book in my Big Lake mystery series, and all you have to do is click this Free Drawing link and enter your name in the comments section below. Only one entry per person per drawing please! The winner will be chosen at random on Sunday evening.
Apparently Miss Terry decided that I had earned my keep after all, because besides a wonderful pasta dinner, in the evening she made me a delicious batch of chocolate chip pecan cookies. Yummy!
While I was busy chomping down cookies, Bad Nick took control of the keyboard and wrote a new Bad Nick blog titled Sound Familiar? Check it out and leave a comment.
The bad weather is supposed to last through the weekend. I have plenty of work to keep me busy, but I hope the cookie supply holds out.
Thought For The Day – Be kind to unkind people. They need it most.
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Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!