Friday, April 27, 2012

End of April Musings


Since Grace, the "foster" (according to the neighbors to the west of us) chocolate lab is once again confined to the second-floor deck and is communuicating her frustration with said confinement with a massive tirade of barks and howls, I find it too difficult to plug away on Lycentia: Harrak's Scrolls.

So instead, I will allow myself to just "free associate."

A March that consisted of more than a few days of temperatures into the 80's or above had me wondering if April would have more than a few days of temperatures into the 90's. Thankfully, that hasn't happened. I can remember maybe two days this month where we had to run the A/C because of the heat. And since we've been in this house since 2001, we've had to run the A/C more than a few days each of the previous Aprils.

I'm no longer an English teacher: hung that hat up in 2005. Since then, my job title has primarily been bookkeeper. And what training have I had in the keeping of books? How about 6 hours of college accounting? Basically, when I was hired at the MFA in Freeburg, I have been learning not only what a bookeeper does, but quite a bit about agri-business that I never planned to learn. When I was in HS, my mother worked at a grain elevator close to Topeka. I think she did some bookkeeping there. And I don't remember ever asking her exactly what she did at that job. So, am I now "paying" for not wanting to know anything about her excursion into agri-business by having to be a agri-business bookkeeper?

When did I start cleaning windows? Was it 1974? The summer of 1974... the Vietnam war was not officially over but it was windiing down. Who was president? I think Nixon was still in office that summer but he was on his way out as well. I worked for Paul Nitcher who was the sole-proprietor of a cleaning business. I was already working for him as a night-time and weekend custodian, and when school was out for the summer, he asked if I wanted to learn how to clean windows. When he offered me a 10 cent/hour raise to help him with the window-cleaning aspect of his company, I couldn't turn it down! But, to make a long and boring story short, the summer of 1974 was the beginning of what now looks like to be a major future source of income for us here on Merry Lane. My boss at MFA a few weeks ago said to me that I could be grossing $70/hr via cleaning windows. I told him that even if our competitors are grossing that much, I really don't want to gouge people. So far in 2012, the cleaning of windows is grossing a bit over $40/hr for MFA Freeburg.

(I sure would like it if someone arrived next door real soon to remove Grace from that deck; I really need to get some work done on that novel!)




Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Results of the April 17 Tax Day Free Promotion

Because Ereader News Today chose to publicize that Betrovia was free on the 17th, over 2000 copies were again downloaded.

Here are a few nice images of how Betrovia fared in the historical fantasy and epic fantasy categories:


Needless to say, ENT is DA BOMB! heh...

Monday, April 16, 2012

Tax Day Free is April 17!

Tomorrow is more than the deadline for filing 2011 taxes.. it is a day to grab more than a few Historical Fantasy ebooks -- for FREE!!



Here's the list of the authors and their ebooks!

Dave King: Betrovia
http://www.amazon.com/Betrovia-Land-of-ebook/dp/B005C1K1RY

Edward W. Robinson: The White Tree
http://www.amazon.com/The-White-Tree-ebook/dp/B004O0U8BI/

Cate Dean: Last Chance Jack
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007QEEBSA

Colin Taber: Fall of Ossard
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fall-Ossard-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B0045OUDSQ/

Matthew Musser: Jadeflies
http://www.amazon.com/Jadeflies-ebook/dp/B007KU50TY/

S. M. Reine: Death’s Hand
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WZKJN6

Brendan Carroll: The Red Cross of Gold
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004O0U1II

E. Stoops: Corner of a Round Planet
http://www.amazon.com/Corner-Round-Planet-ebook/dp/B007PMNMR4

MeiLin Miranda: Lovers and Beloved
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0043EX1S2

Tristan J. Tarwater: Little Girl Lost
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007UIYEAW

J. R. Tomlin: Blood Duty
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Duty-Fantasy-Romance-ebook/dp/B005G7ZHG4/

Christopher Bunn: Ice and Fire
http://www.amazon.com/Ice-and-Fire-ebook/dp/B006O4Y2HS

Kate Danley: Maggie for Hire
http://www.amazon.com/Maggie-Hire-MacKay-Magical-ebook/dp/B005MZ1F8E/

And remember: you can read Kindle ebooks on your PC, Mac, IPad, IPhone and many Android devices!

Rejoice!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Tax Day Free Extravaganza!

Yes, you read the header correctly!

To commemorate 2012 Tax Day, a few historical fantasy authors are putting at least one of their novels up for FREE! via Amazon.com this coming Tuesday, April 17.

To help you remember this awesome event, take a gander at this banner ad:


Here are the magnanimous writers who are participating:


MeiLin Miranda
Kate Danley
Edward W. Robertson
Tristan J. Tarwater
Dave King
Matthew Musser
Kate Dean
Colin Taber
S. M. Reine
Christopher Bunn
E. Stoops
J. R. Tomlin
Brendan Carroll

Here's hoping that you will help us celebrate another Great American Tax Day by downloading our historical fantasy novels!