Unreal

I know I've recently mentioned the new book covers and I shouldn't be beating this horse - which is not dead but which you may be tired of - but I got a box of books the other day with those new covers and I was just speechless for a little while. 

That doesn't really make sense, because I've been working with the designer on them for the past six or so weeks (and they're up online), so they shouldn't have been a surprise. But opening the box and seeing those jewel toned covers staring up at me just stopped me cold. 

They look like something I would see in a bookstore. And while being in a bookstore has never been a big part of my plan as an indie author - it's even harder than you would think to get them to take us seriously - looking like something that belongs there just adds another layer of validity, even for me.

I said to my husband that they didn't even feel like my books anymore, which is probably partly because Songbird is almost 5 years old now, and I guess there has to be a separation eventually. But it's also because these covers are far beyond what I expected of myself. I'd had the old covers for so long, and I really like them, and when it was suggested before that I update them to something that was on trend, I pushed back. 

Maybe I just wasn't ready to be seen in the way that I'm ready now? I don't know. Therapy was years ago and it didn't deal with putting myself out there in a professional sense. I'm a work in progress, but then, aren't we all?

Busy busy

If you're a long time reader, you  know that I like to keep busy. But it's more than liking to keep busy. It's that if I'm not busy, not checking things off and endless to-do list, I feel like I'm slacking. 

Someone once told me - and it wasn't meant as a compliment - that I worship at the altar of productivity. They probably weren't wrong. I do judge myself by how much I accomplish. The last thing I do before bed each night is to make a list for the following day. If I manage to go to bed without making my list, it will keep me up until I go downstairs and do it. I know that's not particularly healthy, but it works for me. 

When I added writing professionally to the mix of things I needed to accomplish every day, the list got longer. Because I break tasks up into small pieces, both for the rush of checking off multiple things, and because it's more realistic than thinking I'm going to get an entire book edited and formatted in one day. Much more realistic to put "edit five chapters" on the list, and if I do more, I'm ahead. 

With all this, there are still times when I think I'm not doing enough. If I'm sitting on the couch at night with my husband, watching a movie, I'm also reading on my Kindle or doing a bit of hand sewing, or scheduling social media posts. It's hard to switch off. 

And yet the voice is still there, saying, "You haven't gotten all that much done today. You should keep going."

The solution to that - and I offer it to you if it's at all useful - is to change the story I'm telling myself. We all know the power of stories. If you say you're unproductive and disorganized, there's a good likelihood that you will be unproductive and disorganized. If you tell yourself that you're productive, you will be. We believe the stories we hear, even if we're telling them to ourselves. 

Now, go forth and accomplish something. That's what I'm going to do.

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.