Behold the pretties!

So. These are the new covers for my Tudor Court series and I can honestly say I didn't expect anything like this when I set out to do new covers. 

I liked my old covers. Or so I thought.

No. I did. But they weren't these.

And of course, the old covers weren't the original cover, which I also liked when I first saw it. Because it's my book and it has a cover and people are going to see it and maybe (?) buy it. Of course I liked it.

But these... The designer has knocked it out of the park. I'm so so so happy.

Where I started/where I'm going

Moving along

Things are moving along this week. I'm not quite keeping up with them. 

My husband started a new job on Monday after being laid off back in February. Severance package was good so no worries there but it's good to get back to normal. 

Tomatoes are still threatening to take over the house. I'm watching a neighbor's cat in the afternoon so I took a big batch to her house to process in her (larger, air-conditioned) kitchen. 

Work is going well on the next book, and I just finalized a set of new covers for the Tudor books with the designer. A proper reveal is coming soon. 

Speaking of Tudors, I found this lithograph of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn recently on eBay. I'd first seen it years ago and lost the auction at the very end, but this had a solid 'buy it now' price and so I did. Once I find an appropriate frame, it'll go up in the bedroom with the rest of the family. 

I'll check the basement. There's a very good chance the perfect frame already exists and is just covered in dust.

It's tomato season again, both my favorite and least favorite time of year.

After a start that was both slow and late, the tomatoes are kicking in and giving me far more than we can possibly eat. With larger tomatoes, like plums, I would score them, throw them in boiling water, and remove the skins before cooking them down. With the Juliet tomatoes which are primarily what I grow, the skins are very thin and the tomatoes are very small, which makes the job both pointless and a royal pain in the butt.

I cut them in half and deseed them, and then cook them down overnight in the crock pot before hitting them with the immersion blender. There may be tiny shreds of skin left, but they're almost too small to notice and that's good enough. 

On Monday, I reheated the batch I finished over the weekend, scalded my half-pint jars, and canned a small batch at home. When the sauce gets out of control and I need to bring out the quarts, I'll borrow a friend's kitchen. Ours is too small to keep water boiling for almost an hour when the stove is right next to the fridge (which makes rude noises when it gets overheated).

Of course when I woke up Tuesday morning, it was 65 and breezy - the perfect day to can. But I did it Monday, because I've learned not to trust the weather report.

 

Technical difficulties

Argh! Amazon!

I'm not sure if you know this, but part of my business model is advertising my books on Amazon. It works pretty well, as a rule - who knows what we like better than Amazon? 

About 10 days ago, however, that changed. Amazon had what they're calling a "glitch" with their US ads. They claim it's been fixed and will just take some time to trickle down, but I'm skeptical. Forgive me.

Normally 75-80% of my sales are in the US; currently it's 40%. And that's not because the other countries have stepped up. 

Right before things crashed, I started a new automatically-targeted ad for my Ava and Claire books. When it spent my full ad budget for 3 days running without a single sale, I checked the targeting (the search terms Amazon applies to the book) and WTF??

Dog training. Furniture refinishing. Psychological thrillers. True crime. 

Umm, no. That doesn't come close to my 1930s sister stories about hard times and resilient women. 

Anyway, this is a long way round to say if you've ever been interested in buying one of my books, now would be an excellent time because my income is going to be around my ankles this month otherwise. 

https://books2read.com/karenheenan

Kindle Unlimited counts. Library borrows count -- did you know you could request my paperbacks from your library? Actually, at this point, thinking good thoughts about the algorithm also counts. Thank you from the bottom of my stressed writer's heart.

Something different this way comes

Last week I did something I haven't done for a while. I sewed, for myself. 

Cold weather means yoga pants or jeans and sweaters, but some are - especially the heat and humidity we've had this year - means dresses. Preferably the larger, longer, and airier the better. 

Remember Mrs. Roper and her caftans? She wasn't wrong.

This is the Tessuti Eva dress pattern. I first made it in 2014, from a lightweight watercolor print linen that I bought at a fabric store that sadly no longer exists. I wore that dress until it shredded along the seams. 

I made another one two years ago, when the first one started showing its age, and because I basically live in it, when we went to the Salvation Army the other weekend and I found a really cool vintage sheet, I decided it was time for yet another version. 

At some point I will have to print out the pieces again, because they're getting worn from being folded and also because my post pandemic, post menopausal shapeshift has caused the bodice to be a bit snug across the chest. I solved that by just adding an extra half inch at the fold on both sides, but it would be better to just cut the next size up. 

The skirt is a lantern shape, two pieces flowing outward from the bodice and meeting two pieces moving inward toward the hem. It leaves room for air flow and is wide enough for everything but the largest of strides. If I'm wearing it in the garden , I generally tuck it up into my underwear, which also makes it easy to carry tomatoes. 

I love working with old sheets. Even if they're poly/cotton, they're meant for hard wear, they don't wrinkle much, and they last almost forever. Which is good, because I will wear this one until it falls apart, too.

Next...

The books are in charge. I know that now, and most of the time I accept it.

I thought I might be writing another Tudor book next, or maybe the more contemporary book that's been in my head for ages, but no. It's Pearl's turn.

Pearl is the eldest daughter of Ava Kimber, the main character in my 1930s series. In Coming Together, she is thwarted by youth and her mother and prevented from going to Paris for a year with her aunt. But now it's her turn. It's 1946, the war is over, and she's off to fulfill her dreams.

This is the blurb I have so far:

A city on its knees. A young woman with a dream.

All her life, Pearl Kimber has yearned to live in Paris and write. With the long years of WWII over at last, she’s traded the familiar for the intoxicating allure of the City of Light. She has twelve months to make her dreams come true. Nothing can get in her way - not even love. 

But as she wanders the streets of a city still torn by conflict, Pearl discovers a new Paris—a city of hope and endless possibility. As she falls deeper in love with the city and its people, she’ll uncover a story as captivating as the city itself, a story only she can tell.

Will Paris be the muse she’s always sought, or will the weight of the past be too heavy to bear?

It's only about 1/4 of the way done, but optimist that I am, I've put it up for pre-order for my birthday, January 31, 2025 (past the dumpster fire of election season and the recovery we will all deserve once it's over - I'm not guaranteeing how much brain I will have during that period, so January seemed safe).

The garden is really coming along. I made ratatouille this morning in the Instant Pot and the only ingredient I had to buy was onion. It feels good to have all that available. 

Also, in hot weather, there's nothing like coming with an instant pot instead of spending a few hours over the stove. When I first got the pot, I bought an extra liner, which makes labor intensive dishes like this a lot easier - I don't have to dump out the first stage of vegetables, I can just switch in another liner. And I have a silicone lid, so I can just put the whole pot into the fridge when I'm done. 

I like my ratatouille both hot and cold, so it doesn't matter to me.

What's your favorite straight-from-the garden dish?