Nearly three years ago, I expressed my resolve to never try filet mignon. My reasoning was as follows:

I know it’s expensive and that I’ll rarely be able to eat it and I’m so afraid that I’ll really like it and then come to the sad realization that I’ll rarely be able to eat it. “What if I get addicted to it?” I ask myself. “Would I then be forced into a life of crime in order to support my filet mignon habit?”

Well, I succombed to temptation on New Year’s Eve. My hubby and I went out to supper, and I ordered filet mignon. Sadly, I enjoyed it very much. It was seriously the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. Nothing else quite compares to it. I want some more. I want it right now, but can’t afford to get any. So far, I’ve resisted turning to crime to get a fix, but it’s only been a few days. How much longer will I be able to resist its siren song?

I’m truly afraid for my future.

Kids, let this be a lesson to you. Stick with meatloaf.

You may remember my story about Franny and Jack, the squirrels who took up residence in my backyard a couple of years ago and became dependent on our handouts. They have, unfortunately, since passed on (damned logging trucks), but their spirit lives on in their progeny who, as predicted, live on subsidized food as well. 

Today, I was able to take this picture of Jacqueline Squirrel as she braved the minus-20 degree wind chill to eat her lunch.

Every year, I make about half a dozen New Year’s Resolutions. By February, I’ve managed to break all of them. So this New Year’s Eve, I’m making half a dozen resolutions I know I can keep.

1. Eat more chocolate.

2. Drink too much coffee.

3. Tell my kids “I love you” every day.

4. Ditto my hubby.

5. Gain ten pounds every odd month. Lose them on the even months.

6. Write and/or edit every day.

Speaking of writing, today’s my day for posting at Publishing Renaissance. Check it out.

aka: This post is brought to you by the letter H

Today was going to be the day I announced that Waiting For Spring is available to purchase at amazon.com. I was going to be pretty excited about it. Then I took another, closer, look at my latest proof copy at work last night (while filling in – yet again – for the pinhead who took my place on third shift, after already having worked a nine hour shift yesterday morning) and discovered that there’s a typo. That’s right. A typo. To be more specific, the “H” is missing from the word “He” at the beginning of a sentence. Not just any sentence…it’s one that begins a paragraph.

I don’t know how it happened (although I’m guessing it was when I was fixing the indents). I suppose it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I need to fix the error, upload the corrected copy to CreateSpace, buy another proof copy, then approve it once it arrives. All this will take about another week. And almost $13.

I realize that every book, regardless of how it’s published,  has at least one mistake in it. And I’ll be honest, if the missing “H” was just in some random place in the book, I’d grit my teeth and flinch every time I thought about it, but I’d probably let it go. I mean, I know I wrote a blog post at Publishing Renaissance last week about indie authors making sure our work is as perfect as we can make it, but really…$13 for the letter “H”?

However, this error is smack dab in the middle of an important, rather emotional, part of the book, and would – I know – rip the reader right out of the story. And preventing that really is worth the thirteen bucks. To be honest, it would be worth twice that much. Probably more. Even to someone as cheap frugal as me.

Check out two scenes from my latest work in progress, very tentatively titled “Rick and Wendy.” (WARNING: There be Waiting for Spring spoilers there.)

https://rjkeller.wordpress.com/waiting-for-spring/sneak-peek/

aka, Can a post title made up of only initials bear anything good?

Well, my living room is rearranged and lookin’ good (although now I need to repaint my walls once it’s warm…good thing I love my hubby). My computer and I are plugged into the outside world once again. And the FAQ section of the Waiting For Spring page is now up and running. Here it be: https://rjkeller.wordpress.com/waiting-for-spring/faq/

Naturally, I’ll add to it as new questions become asked frequently, or when something catches my fancy. My fancy is easily distracted, though, and quite fast, thus a rather difficult thing to catch…

Once every winter, my hubby gets the urge to remodel a room in the house. This year it’s the livingroom, where my computer lives. As a result, I’ll be offline for at least today, and possibly tomorrow, depending on how long said remodeling takes.

I think it’s time to invest in a laptop.

I spent most of yesterday in front of my monitor, watching reruns of “The Office” on Netflix instead of writing and editing my new book or responding to emails or working on my website or finishing up my post for the Publishing Renaissance blog. I wasn’t too worried about my Day Of Unmotivation and Unproductivity, because I figured I’d have the evening to do all of that grown-up, responsible stuff. Instead I ended up at work.

“E” (aka The Cute One) called me yesterday evening to ask if I’d finish her shift, because her hubby (I know I originally said  she had a boyfriend, but I was originally mistaken…he’s her lawfully wedded husband) was in a snowmobiling accident. Naturally, I rushed over to finish the shift so she could be with him. Imagine my relief when the two of them walked into the store about three hours later and he appeared to be in one piece, without cast or bandages of any kind.

“Are you okay?”

He nodded a little sheepishly. 

“What exactly happened?”

“The sled caught on fire. So I jumped off.”

Since he’d obviously made it out of the incident alive, I asked what I knew was the second most important question: “Can you repair it?”

“Nope. It’s toast.”

“That’s too bad.” I looked over at E. “Is he really okay, or is he just embarrassed to admit he’s hurt?” It was hard for me to imagine that he’d jumped off of a flaming snowmobile without so much as a bruise.

“Yeah, he’s alright,” she said. “His crotch is just a little toasty, that’s all.”

And then I did it. Yep, I did. Before my brain could tell my eyes not to do it, I looked down toward the guy’s crotch. Thankfully, the region was covered with a rather long winter coat. Still. I looked down at the guy’s crotch! I suppose it was just reflex, and that if she’d said he’d burned his hand or ear or foot, my eyes would have darted to those regions before my brain could figure out it was okay to do so. Still.

I looked down at the guy’s crotch!

And that means I’ll never be able to look him in the eye again.

~~~~~

The good news is that I finished my blog entry for Publishing Renaissance. Check it out here!

aka: count your blessings before they’re hatched

~~~

I had to work this weekend, and it was a crazy-busy one. Everyone had to stock up on their “holy shit, we’re gonna get 20 inches of snow!!!!” liquor. It was like they’d never seen snow before. Or liquor.

This one guy who’d just moved up here from Florida was bitching about the cold on Saturday. And I do mean bitching. I don’t understand it, personally. I mean, yeah, it was -4 degrees (F) outside, but come on! He was going on about it like it was a surprising thing. Moving to Maine and being surprised about the temperature being -4 is tantamount to moving to Florida and being surprised at seeing a scorpion or three in your backyard. (My mother-in-law spent some time in Florida and loves to regale us with scorpion tales.)

Still, I wanted to cheer the guy up, so I said, “Cheer up!”

“Why?”

“Well, look at the bright side. At least we don’t have any scorpions up here in Maine.”

“I suppose so,” he said, not looking too cheered up.

“Or any tarantulas.”

“Tarantulas?”

“That’s right. Tarantulas. Texas is crawling with them.”

“Oh.”

“No rattlesnakes up here either.”

He didn’t ask me which region of our great land is infested with rattlesnakes, and I was glad. To be honest, I’m not 100% sure. I just know that in True Grit, a movie I first saw at the age of nine, Mattie fell into a pit of rattlesnakes and it made a big impression on me. By “big impression”, of course, I mean “instilled within me a great and abiding fear of rattlesnakes”, and it’s a source of neverending relief for me that Maine is rattlesnake-free.

“Mosquitoes and snow. That’s what we’ve got,” I concluded, because I could see that he was getting a little tired of my geography lesson.

“And coffee brandy,” he answered, getting back down to business.

Yep. Coffee brandy. Maine’s got plenty of that.

and, “I’m back.”

The Internet Connection Fixer Guy came. Turns out there was something wrong with the modem, so he replaced it. Problem. Solved.

You may have noticed I took down the “Indie Books I Like” page. It’s not because I don’t like them anymore, it’s because I’m working on a new page that incorporates said indie books along with other Things I Like. I’m not sure exactly when it – or the promised Waiting For Spring FAQ page – will be done. Hopefully soon. I’m still getting used to the whole WordPress thing. Bear with me.

In the meantime, here are said books. I highly recommend each one of ’em. (Click on the cover pictures to find out where you can read and/or buy them.)

Steal Tomorrow – by Ann M. Pino

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The Proviso – by Moriah Jovan

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Kept – by Zoe Winters

Also, here are some awesome movie sites I dig: