Last Blogger Blog Post

I finally did the work and set up a web page.  Blotspot has been an excellent resource the past few years, but with both of my books out in virtual and physical forms, I felt it was time I had a full website for my work.

It's been an excellent run. I just noticed that I have had 11K views on this blog.

But you can now find me at Sara.Stark.Writes.  I hope you'll follow me there.

Down Time...

Today marks three months since I've written a post. I've often thought about writing something, but I have felt so apathetic lately that mostly what I do [in my spare time] is read or watch TV.  I've always been an avid reader, but to just sit and watch TV all day on a Sunday is abnormal to say the least.

And though I'm not participating, the world goes on around me, and that fuels my apathy. I often contemplate what the point is, why get up and go to work, why record my thoughts, why write stories? And to be honest, I can't come up with one good reason. Why strive for anything? It's all so tiresome. My stories tire me, and yet these characters, these people never leave my head.

Beryl keeps pestering me, but I can't find her voice. I'm not sure I relate to Beryl. I purely made her out of cloud-stuff, ether and imagination. Is she an angry young woman or resigned? I can do resigned, as that's what I'm feeling right now, but how is that the least bit interesting? It's not. It's boring. Capital B, Boring.

And I can't keep writing my story over and over again. To a degree, I've done it twice already with Janice and Maggie. I was thinking today that Maggie's ending was what I wanted for myself. Yes, there is a bit of autobiography in her story, the handsome man and his daughter that I wanted for my own. But it didn't happen. Life isn't like fiction. There are no happy endings, or at least, not many. There's just existence. Moving forward each day because there's nothing else to do.

I feel as though I have fallen into a dark crevasse, a sump hole full of foul-tasting water in which I'm drowning. Okay, that's a bit dramatic, but sometimes it does feel that way, that just making it through another day requires all my strength.

Don't get me wrong. As whiny as I sound, I have a good life, an easy life, but when I look around me, I still wonder what does it all mean. If I were to die today, nothing would change... Well, nothing except for me.

So I accomplished something today. I wrote a blog post. Yay, me! And I'll keep working at life, because there's no other option. I'm not a quitter.

Physical Cover for Couillon

This is the physical cover, or very close facsimile to what I'll use when I run Couillon through CreateSpace.


The pink is the bleed/trim part, and I left it in this jpeg for you to see where the spine will be. Since it's only 46 pages, the spine will be too thin to add any text, even the title. So I pulled part of the back onto the front and added the "instruction".



If you can't read the back, it says at the bottom: "Couillon is a women's literary fiction novella which advises you to watch what you wish for because the scariest monsters in this world are human."

I included this because I want people to understand that this is not an urban fantasy. I had a woman (probably a young woman, I suspect not older than early twenties) post on GoodReads that she had read darker "recipie" books. But instead of throttling her, I did good. I didn't reply to her post. I didn't rationalize anything because in my opinion that's just bad form for an author. 

But if I had said something, I would have said that she must have a very good life if she doesn't realize that the real monsters in this world are not zombies or vampires, that they're human. I also would have suggested that before she gives a bad review for a book not being an urban fantasy, she pay attention to the genre it's listed under. And because I'm snarky most of the time, I would have recommended that she learn how to use a dictionary before she berates a good piece of writing. Finally, I would have said, Really? You read a book all the way through, a book that only costs .99 and then you returned it? Now that is bad form. 

Anyway, I didn't do any of that. And she'll never know unless she manages to break out of her "dark" fantasy world. But I doubt that will happen. And honestly, I hope her life is easy enough that she never realizes the truths portrayed in Couillon. As for returning a .99 book after reading it, I so hope karma catches up with her on that one.

Okay, enough ranting for one evening. Back to writing.

To quote Anna Nalick, "If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me, threatening the life it belongs to."

Major Milestone - 10K Views

While I was watching a movie earlier this afternoon, the blog view count went from 9994 to 10004.  What a milestone!  In a little over two years, I've had 10,000 views.

Now you're probably thinking some blogs get that in a week, maybe even in a day. I say f'them. :-)

But seriously, I didn't expect it to be a well trafficked blog because it's about me and about writing and about the pains and pleasures of becoming an author. I'm not writing it just to get views. I'm writing it, mostly for me, as a diary of the process, one that I share with the whole world.... or anyone willing to read it.

An Untold Want, the physical book

So the cover failed the first review because it wasn't sized correctly. I ended up pulling down a free tool [after paying for a month of Adobe PDF creator, which didn't do what I needed] called PrimoPDF. It's Norton approved, and suggested by one of the techs at CreateSpace.  And it's free.

So the cover passed the review the second time through, but because the DPI wasn't over 200, they're saying the cover will be blurry in spots. I submitted it for a physical proof anyway, because I need to read through again to check for typos. Yes, a friend pointed out several after I published on Amazon.

So I'm re-doing the cover again:
(1) to raise the DPI level
(2) to do a better job on matching the colors
and
(3) to re-do the barcode.


Why re-do the barcode you ask? Because if I use my own ISBN, CreateSpace won't distribute to libraries. I must use their ISBN for that capability, and I want that. Contrary to what you might think, libraries buy a lot of books, and if someone checks out my book from the library, they may buy one next time. Plus the CreateSpace ISBN is free. So other than re-doing the cover, it won't cost me anything.

So here are the three new building blocks. I'm posting them in several places, including FaceBook to see what the colors look like. Believe it or not, gimp (the Photoshop-esk tool I use) displays one color while MS Photo editor displays another, and so on. 

Physical Version on An Untold Want is in the Works!

Tonight, after much work, I submitted An Untold Want for review by the CreateSpace reviews. 

I learned a lot of lessons along the way, but the most recent one is that if you want to distribute to libraries [and this is a very good idea], you must use a CreateSpace ISBN.  At this point, I'm not sure why I purchased ISBN numbers, because it seems that everyone is giving them away for free.  Who knew?  I didn't, at least not till now.


I learned that formatting physical books, especially the headers and footers, is not nearly as easy as you would think. In fact, it was a huge pain in the hiney.  I learned about margins and bleed space and trim sizes. That the spine [which makes sense once you think about it] is based on the number of pages.

I learned that covers have to be submitted in PDF format, which means I had to subscribe to Adobe PDF generator [for $9.99 a month], after I used gimp to create a cover [which was also a lot of work].

And that the royalties are way better on Kindle than on CreateSpace.  Their estimated manufacturing costs are way off.


So, you may be thinking, why do all this, especially considering my novel is published on Kindle. The reason I went down this path is to be able to submit An Untold Want to the Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Competition, which requires a physical copy.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that even though I love my Kindle, I really would like to have physical copies of my books to display on my bookshelves. It's one of those look what I did!! feelings.

Anyway, enough about how great I am.  I've included images here of what the cover and pages will look like.  BTW, the dashes around the text on the pages won't be there in print.  They're just there to indicate where the margins are.

Please let me know your thoughts/opinions on the formatting.  I may not change anything, but you never know. I'm still pondering whether the image with the text and crows should be more yellow.

Not My Week...

Wow, I totally got out voted this time in the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction competition.  There were a lot of good stories submitted. 

[sarcasm alert]

Mine was the obviously the best story. So, apparently not everyone recognized how brilliant I am. 


Here's how it went:

 

 

Another Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Entry

I guess I'm subconsciously doing everything in my power to not write about Beryl, from playing with CreateSpace to entering another Flash Fiction Contest at Indies Unlimited.


The prompt:

State Trooper Tom Dewitt pulled up on what he thought was a vehicle that had gotten stuck in the snow and abandoned by its occupants. The vehicle was no longer running and he couldn't see anyone inside.

He didn't want to stop, fearful that his own car might become stuck as well. He drove slowly by, and craned his neck to look into the other car.

The two occupants were slumped toward each other, and from the blood splattered on the headrests, Tom knew the serial killer they called the Snowman had returned. What Tom did not know was that the Snowman was still there...



My entry:

Tom enjoyed working with his partner Tommy. They seemed to share something, some deeper understanding he'd never had with other partners. Tommy, normally called Tom, went by Tommy on the job so it wouldn't be so hard for the other officers to differentiate between them.

But even having Tommy in the car with him didn't make what Tom was seeing any easier. Two bodies bathed in blood and frozen stiff, yet clasping each other as if seeking solace in their final moments, a sight gruesome enough to turn the most seasoned officer's stomach. The Snowman, that bastard, had claimed two more.

"You okay?" Tommy said.

"Just makes me queasy. They're the first ones I've had to report."

"You want me to—"

"No. I got it. Thanks."

Suppressing the urge to puke, Tom called it in. With the knee deep snow, they'd need a truck to haul the car to the station.

"What kind of person could do this, Tommy?"

"Dude, maybe it's an illness. Like maybe the guy's a schizophrenic or someth—"

"That's no excuse. There's a world of difference between being a psycho and being a monster."

"I'm just saying. He could be sick, inside. Yet... Yet, look totally normal, like us, on the outside—"

"Give it a rest, alright."

Tom turned the radio up, and the two waited in silence.

Forty-five intolerable minutes later, Jameson tapped on the window.

"Tom, you okay?"

Tom nodded.

"Man, it must have been creepy sitting here all by yourself."

Print On Demand

I've been playing with CreateSpace lately, for print-on-demand. I originally started down this road because I want to enter a Writers' Digest Competition for self published fiction. Problem is they want a physical copy. So I decided to create a physical version of An Untold Want.  Besides, it would be really nice to have a few copies on my bookshelves. I will probably end up doing Couillon as well.

This is what I've been working on:

The image to the right of this text is very close to what the cover will look like. Of course with a physical cover, a back and binding image is required.  The image below is a new chapter page.











This whole process has been interesting and entertaining because it allows me to play with visual stuff. Plus I've learned a lot about publishing. Everything is different. Some of the formatting... Well let's say that formatting the page numbers and headers was a real lesson in patience. But the up side is that I can use images within the text, which is near impossible on a Kindle due to the fact that the reader can change font sizes.

Yay, for Me!!

An email went out today to all Indies Unlimited subscribers, one titled Sara Stark Wins Flash Fiction Challenge.   Yay, for me!! 

The text was as follows:

"Congrats to Sara Stark, the readers’ choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. The winning entry is recognized with a special feature here today and a place in our collection of winners which will be published as an e-book at year end."  Followed by a link to the story. [Same story listed on my last blog post.]

It feels great. It really does...

... but I have to be honest.  It felt more like a contest to see how many friends I could pressure into voting for me.  A lot of them did so before I asked, but I did ask several people to "go vote for my flash fiction entry". So to me it was a bit like cheating. Not that everyone doesn't do the same. If I didn't broadcast it, most of my friends would never know about it, because they're not writers. 

I know, I know. You're asking yourself why I can't just be happy about it? Trust me, I am!  Inside, I'm turning cartwheels.  Outside, [regarding cartwheels], I'm too old for that stuff now.  So instead I'll have a nice glass of wine and bask in my own glory. 

Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Contest: Death for Sale

I just submitted an entry to the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Contest: Death for Sale.


Here's the prompt:

The car was a 1954 Pontiac. Her first owner was Bill Keenan, a newspaper reporter for the Kansas City Star.

Bill drove the car home and his wife met him out on the front steps and shot him dead. She’d found out about Bill and his secretary.

Now, you can say that didn’t have anything to do with the car, and I guess you’d be right. Still, it seemed to have gotten the car off to a bad start. Over the years, she was owned by 13 people. Every one of those folks was murdered.

I don’t really consider myself to be superstitious, but I don’t see no reason to tempt fate, neither. That’s why I tried to talk Eric out of buying the car. It was useless, of course. He was in love with the thing.

In 250 words or less, tell us a story incorporating the elements in the picture.

~o~

It took me longer than I expected because I needed to do some research, but the research is a huge part of what I enjoy about putting together a story.  Anyway, below is what I wrote in response to the prompt.  I titled it Bit of a Poke.

"For Christ's sake, Eric, as if this old heap isn't bad enough, the steering wheel's on the wrong side," Fiona said. "What could possibly have possessed you to buy it?"

"The seller told me a great story."  Eric smiled the smile, the one that, long ago, had beguiled her into marrying him.  "Get this.  All thirteen owners died, uncannie like.  Murdered."

"And dunderheid that you be, you believed him. I dinnae ken what gets into you sometimes."

"The original awner, a guy named Bill from Kansas, well, his wee wife shot him the day he brung it home.  Apparently ol' Bill was giving his secretary a bit of a poke on the side."

Fiona felt her face burn.

"The seller swears a brollachan possesses this here motorcar.  Swears it pops out every now and again and enters a human's body. Poor awners always seems to get the warst of it."

She clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms. "Really?"

"The second awner, another damn American looking to live in the Highlands, brung it over and, get this, he ended up being killt by an axe murderer. In the garage. Right beside it.  It's wickit.  A brollachan makes sense." He smiled again, darker this time. "And the murderers either weren't caught or convicted."

"So why the f--  Why would you buy it, you eeejit?"  She watched Eric's eyes go dark, then glow red.

"Did I forget to tell you, you unfaithful cow, I put the car in your name?"

I'm Back!!

First time ever, well since the inception of this blog, that I went a whole month without creating a single post.

What was I doing?  I've been sleeping a lot the past week because of  (1) getting over a bad cold, (2) going through withdrawal from cancer meds, and (3) a trip at Christmas to Georgia to visit my brother [who doesn't have internet access because of his youngest son].  Did I mention that my brother has four grown kids and a gaggle of grandkids.  And in-laws.  I don't do well in crowds.  But I love them all.  So I needed to rest when I came back. Fortunately, I wasn't doing all three at the same time.

But I'm back.  I just finished posting a story for an Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Contest and I've been thinking a lot about how to structure Beryl's story.  Beryl's story, in my head, has undergone some major changes.  [That's what happens when you don't have the internet late at night for a week.]

You can see my entry to the contest in my next post.

Rumors of my Demise...

... have been greatly exaggerated. [Stolen from Mark Twain.] But it's true that I haven't written anything, anything toward my new novel, since I released An Untold Want. Done a lot of research, yes, but no writing.

I guess today, Thanksgiving Day, is a good day to talk about why.  I have a good friends, a wonderful family, a secure job, and heath care.  So if I want to take a month off from writing and just hang out with my friends or watch movies or read books, or go to Portland or some other such place. I have that option. And I am thankful for that.

I am going to take a page out of my friend Sherry's book [her blog post, actually] and list some of the things I'm also thankful for.

I am also thankful that...

• I have the writing gene, so I can express myself without it being all about me. [Even though it is.]
• I have a writing community, of both close friends and acquaintances whom I've never met in person.
• I have my vision [with the aid of glasses these days] and my hearing.
• I have good health in general.
• I am intelligent.  [Okay, stroking my own ego, but it's true.]
• I don't have to work outdoors in extreme temperatures.
• I am no longer too skinny because of the Williamson poverty diet that was a staple in college. In fact, at this point, a little less food would be better for my health.
• I am not afraid ...
•  of losing my job, not because it's secure, but because I know that I will work at whatever job I have to, no matter how menial, in order to support myself.  
• of people disliking me because I realized a long time ago, that no matter what I do, not everyone is going to want to be my friend. I try very hard to let everyone carry their own baggage, and not make it about me.
• of expressing my opinion, for much the same reason; I know that not everyone is going to agree with me, and I'm okay with that.  
• in turn, of keeping my own counsel, of keeping my opinions to myself, mostly because I don't like arguing just for the sake of arguing.
• of being different.
• I  can live without TV. I gave up cable TV about a year ago, and haven't missed it.  It has become the opiate of the masses.
• I can afford to eat out when I want to.
• I make a good salary, almost cushy, and certainly better than most of the people in the world these days.
  

• I am not allergic to dogs or cats.  I love pets, and a life without one seems incomplete.
• I love to read.  As with a lack of pets, a world without stories, without books, would be a poor life indeed.
• I have been able to travel to foreign countries, to see the world, and yet, to appreciate what it right outside my door.

And there are so many more. 

Finally, because I can't write something without throwing in some snark, some sarcasm, I'm really thankful that I finished the memory quilt.  I will never put that much pressure on myself again, trying to finish something that complex in less than a year.  

I am especially thankful that my friend, Kim, gave up a weekend and helped me put all the blocks together.

With that said, I hope you'll take time to count your blessings too.

Reviews: An Untold Want

Wow, I've gotten some really good reviews on An Untold Want, and I can't help but brag a little bit. I did get one two-star review, but what the person wrote wasn't so awful. The other review more than make up for one unhappy reader.  My favorite is "best book I've read in a long time" which was written, BTW, by someone I don't know, not a friend.

So here goes, starting with the two-star review:

[one two-star review]

"It was an interesting read. But I didn't keep my attention. Glad it was free I would have not been happy if I paid for it."


[no three-star reviews, yet]


[four four-star reviews]

"A book by New author spins a riveting tail, set in a southern town. I liked the quick pace and life like story line. Just a touch pagan and interesting inter-dependencies."

"Didn't want to put this book down, and I hope there is a sequel. I can't wait for more books from this lady."

And two very long reviews that I won't add here. But you can find them here.


[nine, count 'em, nine five-star reviews]

"This is a great tale highlighting the value of women's relationships with other women, the depths of support we bring to each other, the passing on of wisdom and insight.The characters are well developed, interesting and likable. I'm hoping there is a sequel because I want to find out what happens next. :)"

"Love the interspersed diaries & how they your together. I kept going back to reference them. Well developed characters. Would have liked to see something happen to jerky boyfriend but guess that would have been too pat. Nicely interwoven plot."

"Great book. Best book I've read in a long time. Great writing skills by author. Can't wait to read her other books."

And six others you can find here.

In a future post, I want to write about how everyone brings something to the story, how everyone has their on slant on what's happening. That's the real magic of books, that I can read the same thing as someone else and get a totally different message from it.

NaNoWriMo Begins Without Me

Yes, NaNoWriMo started today, but if you had the day I had, well, I'm just not up for writing anything meaningful.  I could easily write a couple of gory murder scenes, but that wouldn't fit my new novel, hence doesn't fit into NaNoWriMo. What? you say. No bizarre murder(s) in this story? Yes, I say. Maybe I'm getting mellow in my old age, although probably not. What I do know is that if my days keep going the way they've been going, that could change. I could decide to change and write a serial killer story, one where the killer gets away with the murders.

Funny. It really is a stress reliever. When I was working at IBM, I made a friend who had a mother as mentally abusive as mine. We decided then that we'd write a series of murder mysteries, stories where we killed our mothers [in every novel] and got away with it. I never took it to that extreme, because I tried to love my mother, but writing brutal scenes sometimes helps me vent the stress.

Anyway, I've been bad. About writing. I haven't written anything since I published An Untold Want, over a month ago. I have been thinking a lot about Beryl and her situation.  And I had plans to write this evening, really. But writing isn't just typing. I can do research and mentally layout the plot. You know, right now, I don't even know her last name. So lots of stuff to do, without ever typing a single word, without a word count.

Also, I haven't written in the past month, mainly because I needed to finish the memory quilt before Christmas.  I finished it this past Tuesday.  Yay!! Tomorrow, via a friend, it's on it's way to the quilter [the person who takes the top and backing, puts some batting between the layers, and sews it all together] and should be done in plenty of time for Christmas.  [photo to the right]

With that said, life is complicated and my main goal is to enjoy it.  So if I don't write 50K words this month, I'm not going to be upset about it.  I want writing to be a joy not a job.

e-book Cover Design Competition

So, last month I submitted the cover of An Untold Want to the e-book Cover Design Competition looking for feedback on my cover.  BTW, there is a wealth of information in the past competitions on how to create a good cover for an e-book.

Here's what I wrote as an explanation:

Nellie Williamson submitted An Untold Want designed by Nellie Williamson. “An Untold Want is a women’s literary novel. One of the motifs running through the novel is crows. Although the story takes place in modern times, there are diary sections from ancestors of the protagonist. The text on the cover comes from one of the diary sections.”


And here is the comment (understand the he doesn't comment at all on a lot of book covers):

JF: The bit of crow running off the top distracts more than it adds.

And yes, I can see that.  But I was pretty happy that there wasn't more of a criticism.  He typically doesn't hold back.  As with writing, if you put yourself out there, you need to be able to take the critique.

With that said, I probably would have still left the "bit of crow" at the top.  But I have learned a lot from his reviews, and appreciate his comments.

Maggie Sleeping, Beryl Rising

Now that An Untold Want is out there and being read, Beryl in the story I started working on last year around this time has made her presence known.

Several people--one in a Amazon review--have suggested that I write a sequel to An Untold Want, and I may do so sometime in the future, but right now I want to think of other stories.  And I'm not even sure where I would go with a sequel for An Untold Want, maybe follow one of the girls around.  But that's for later. 

The past few weeks, I've been working on Beryl's story,  on the structure, and details, have been letting backstory and life events percolate in my head, while finishing the memory quilt [will post photos when the quilt is done] I'm making for my sister-in-law's Christmas present.  You can't really watch TV while sewing, but you can think about stuff like plot lines.

And I had almost forgotten the joy of creating new characters and new places.  I want to explore where Beryl and Sinclair [potential love interest?] will go with their friendship.  Her background has expanded immensely in the past few months and I've figured out what I think is a clever way to bring in much of that backstory.

Anyway, I'm starting to enjoy writing again.  Not that I'm not loving the excitement of publishing, but for me it's always been about creating. 

So watch this space...  I don't think it will take me seven years to write this one.

Free Promotion Results are In

Sorry I haven't followed up sooner, but last week was crazy--work wise, book wise, and quilt wise. 

About the free promotion.  In the US, in four days, I gave away 4006 books.  During that time, I made it to and stayed consistently in the top three for free literary women's fiction/sagas.  I also hovered in the top 100 free the last two days. 

What I didn't know--until I stumbled across it last night--is that Amazon.com sales reports don't account for foreign sales/freebies.

Downloads in foreign countries:

85 on amazon.co.uk
6   on amazon.de
3   on amazon.fr
2   on amazon.es
2   on amazon.it
1   on amazon.co.jp
12 on amazon.in
23 on amazon.ca
2   on amazon.com.br
0   on amazon.com.mx

A grand total of 4142 books downloaded in four days.

Good, right?

Well, at the end of day two, I read a blog post that stated that free promotions are a waste of time.  Needless to say, this post had me a little down for awhile.  It said that people who pull down free books usually don't read them.  So I did some arithmetic [on my calculator because I can't add/subtract/multiply/divide] and found that even if only 5% of the people who pulled the book down for free read it, that's 207 people who I hope will enjoy it and talk about it to their friends. [I omitted the 0.1 person of 207.1, because s/he is probably distraught and not very well rounded.] 

So, contrary to what the blog said, I think this was a great opportunity to get my name out there.  And people are reading it.  I've already gotten several really good reviews from people I don't know, comments like "Great book. Best book I've read in a long time. Great writing skills by author. Can't wait to read her other books."

You can not imagine how good that made me feel.  And the other reviews, though longer, are just as nice.  Don't believe me? Go check it out yourself. 

So, with that said, I feel really good about the promotion and the fact that I've sold 24 books this month (paid for books).  It's a start.  An execellent start.

An Untold Want - Free Promotion October 7-10

Starting tonight, soon after midnight, my novel, An Untold Want, will be free until midnight on October 10th or until it reaches #1 in free books.

An Untold Want is at http://goo.gl/LD9Wfm

It's only on Kindle.

Don't have a Kindle, you say. You can get free Kindle apps for your PC/tablet/smart-phone at http://goo.gl/O0YNvR or read it in the Amazon Cloud. I read on my smart phone all the time in doctor's offices or waiting for a tune-up on my car, you know, stuff like that.

Free promotions like this are a marketing tactic. Every free book looks like a sale after the price goes back to $2.99. So don't worry about it being free.



Please share this information with friends and family, so that I can start building a name and a financial cushion for retirement. Or I may have to come live with you when I retire.

An Untold Want is Live!!!

Just a short note to let you know that An Untold Want went live yesterday on Amazon.

I would write more, but I spent fourteen plus hours on Saturday reading for typos--and I still missed one, dammit.  It was hiding behind the cover page.  Yesterday, I made the changes (fixed the typos, except the one I missed) and uploaded it to Kindle Direct. [The nice thing about Kindle, I can reload the image after fixing the stupid typo I missed, and will this coming weekend.]   I thought I would be all excited, but right now, I'm just tired.

But don't get me wrong, I am excited.

You can buy An Untold Want now for $2.99 or wait until mid-October when I'm going to put it up for free for a couple of days.  Either way, please pull it down.  And if you don't know, you don't have to have a Kindle to read Kindle books.  There are free apps for smart phones, tablets, and PCs.  So, see, you got no excuse.

For the next few weeks, I'll be working on marketing, starting with an author spotlight by Serena Akeroyd [erotica author] on her Naughty Nookie News (Blog).