Geekiness

So I'm currently listening to the Scarlet Pimpernel as my audio book and am really enjoying it.  I'm also thinking about how geeky you have to be to be enjoying a book from the early 1900s while simultaneously thinking about how much it reminds you of Batman.

We Have a Garden

Today Tracy got the dirt filled into our raised beds and this evening we planted them.  We have two 4 by 8 raised beds along the back of our house and we've planted:

-6 Tomatoes (Yeah, that's a lot. But I bought a cherry and three regular ones and then found two other varieties I wanted and Tracy MADE me by them :-)
-3 Peppers (red, yellow, green) 
-2 Cucumbers
-Celery
-Carrots
-Green Onions
-Spinach
-Basil
-Rosemary
-Dill

We will also be planting green beans when it gets a little warmer, and I planted some mint in pots because if you plant it in your garden it will apparently take over the world.   We had to cover them because tonight might get too cold, but after that we should be good to go.  

Honestly I was worried we wouldn't know what to plant, but if anything our beds are a bit crowded and we didn't even use all of our seeds.  We are really excited about it, here's hoping we stay excited and have lots of fresh veggies.

Tiny Writing Bright Spot and My Unintentional Pen Name

Shocker...I'm posting twice in one day.

The digital short story collection I'm in was the #15 bestseller for Amazon Kindle Short Stories today (they did a big publicity push).  Now I know this has almost nothing to do with me considering all of the big names attached to it, but it's still fun to know people are actually reading something I wrote. 

Oh, and if you look it up on the Amazon page my name is listed as Jenel Copeabout.  Somehow the "about" from my word count formatting got pushed over onto my last name in some versions of the table of contents.  I did try to get it fixed, and luckily it's right in the book itself, but just for the record, I'm not planning on having it as my pseudonym - though it does make Tracy laugh.

Jobs

So I ended up applying and/or interviewing for three jobs this week, in and around having either food poisoning or stomach flu.  The jobs run the gamut, one is a short-term contract position here in the valley with a small new business doing research (which I had an informal phone interview for), one is a 30+ hour a week paid internship doing document editing for the Church, and one is a full time, completely awesome sounding public history/library/archives gig in Washington.  Just hope one of them pans out so I'm not freeloading, quite so much, off of my very sweet and patient husband. 

Dark Chocolate and a Laptop

So supposedly dark chocolate is supposed to be healthy, and given that I've been trying to learn to like it.  My first experiment with Ghiradelli Intense Dark Sea Salt Soiree was a pretty good experience, yummy enough to be a treat but not so much that I wanted to eat a ton of it.  Then yesterday I bought something else because it was on sale...yeah, bad idea, all I taste is the bitterness and the stuff doesn't melt at all.  I will finish eating it but I don't think it serves the purpose I'm looking for, especially when, in solidarity with Tracy's new goal, I officially quit drinking soda this week.

Also, I got a new laptop last week.  It's about the same size, measurement wise as my old laptop but is much lighter.  I'm definitely enjoying the better sound and video quality and it's nice to constantly be worried about if the computer I'm using is on it's last legs.  My old laptop lasted us six years, so I feel pretty lucky about that and hope this one does as well.

Gruff Variations

Hey, if anyone is interested in buying the collection The Gruff Variations which features my short story and work by a bunch of amazing published writers you can buy it on Amazon at

http://www.amazon.com/The-Gruff-Variations-Anthology-ebook

This format takes requires the Amazon Kindle App  which you can download for free and use on your computer.

You can also get it in a bunch of other formats (including a regular PDF which can be printed) at Smashwords.com, that link is:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/142643

It's 7.99 and all of the money goes to two charities that are involved in getting books into the hands of kids who otherwise wouldn't have them.   Ok, pitch over.

You win some, You lose some Part II

So this round of the Amazon contest was based on scores from two expert Amazon reviewers reading an excerpt of your book.  Part of getting through the first round of the contest is that you get to read the reviews on the excerpt, and this afternoon those reviews became available.

One reviewer REALLY didn't care much for my excerpt.  After making it clear that they think nothing happens in the first eighteen pages of my book they ended the review by saying, "I don't see anything in this story happening, other than will Rell become bored and return home." Uh...ouch.

Here's the funny...and somewhat heartening thing...the second reviewer REALLY liked it.  After saying that I "excel at world building" and that I "poignantly captured" Rell's feelings, this reviewer ended by saying, "I think this is a strong example of young adult fantasy fiction. The writer skillfully gives a picture of the world, and provides some nice foreshadowing. The reader is piqued by the hints at Rell’s future and the role she may play. This was good writing that made me want to read more." 

Hopefully, someday some agent or publisher will have the same feelings that the second reviewer had.  Until then, it's enough to make me smile for today. 

Also, I made a point of sending out a query letter today.  It was my concrete way of battling that "Maybe I should just give up" feeling.  

One more thing, amid the writing drama, I did actually work on my dissertation today.