The Glamorous Life of the Author

I know y'all probably think that authors live glamorous lives (mostly in full make-up and stiletto heels). So I thought, on this holiday weekend, that I'd give you a glimpse into mine before I go full-bore promotional "THE BOOK IS COMING OUT SOON" for Dangerously Charming. (Which is on sale now at Amazon, by the way. The paperback version is actually cheaper than the Kindle one, if you can believe it.)

So here you are, for your amusement, my glamorous life this weekend:

First, I defrosted the freezer in the mudroom.

 I'm making pesto today, so I needed to make room to put up the extra.

Then I went to the dump. No, I was not wearing full make-up and high heels.

Then I picked up a new office chair. I have to replace them a lot. Apparently my butt kills them.

 Magic the Cat is checking it out. She doesn't look too sure.

My friend Ellen came over to help me harvest things from the garden.

 Eggplants, tomatoes, and onions, OH MY.

The garlic harvest had been drying and it was time to clip it off and put it away.

It looks like a lot, but half will get replanted for next year.

No, you're not seeing double.

 The old cat tower had seen better days, but Angus spends most of his time sitting on the top bit, so when I saw the exact same thing on sale, I bought it. Ellen helped me put the new one together, using the non-instructions that always come with such things, and then we dragged the old one down to the street in hopes that it would find a new home. It was gone before we went back into the house. (Seriously. A nice lady with a station wagon was VERY happy.)

Naturally, Magic had to check this out too, even though she doesn't sit up there.

Yesterday was mostly house cleaning.

Yes, that's a pile of cat fur. Yes, that's all from one room. Yes, that is Magic supervising in the upper left. See? Glamour. Lots and lots of glamour.

Today I'm mostly working on the 365 Days of Everyday Witchcraft book for Llewellyn, although I did finish writing a short short story for Literary Escapism later this month, featuring Mikhail Day and Beka. And I have to go out and harvest a bunch of the seriously-out-of-control basil and make a huge batch of pesto. At least now I have a clean freezer to put it in.

What did you do with your weekend, three-day or not?

Oh, and be sure to come back tomorrow, because GIVEAWAY. Just sayin' :-)
 

The Organizational Neurosis at Work

I have what I like to call (laughingly, but relatively accurately) an organizational neurosis. What this really translates to is that I like things neat and orderly. Which is not, mind you, to say that you will not find plenty of places in my house where things are chaotic. But still. I make my bed as soon as I get out of it. My books are alphabetized by author if they're fiction and shelved together by subject if they're nonfiction. (I did grow up in a library, with a librarian mother, so that may have had some influence there). Most things have their places. Whether they end up in them is an entirely different matter, of course.

My organizational neurosis actually works quite well for running a shop with 50 artists in it. The scheduling alone requires it. But I also find that I can tell A) when winter is coming and B) when I'm stressed by how much rearranging and organizing I start doing.

Apparently I don't do spring cleaning and clearing out nearly as much as I do it in fall. Probably because I know that I'm about to be stuck in my house with all the crap all winter long. *snort* But lately I've been really wanting to reorganize some of the trouble spots, including the space in my office/dining room where the swag and giveaway supplies had outgrown the shelves I'd been keeping them on, and the upstairs "craft/crap/catchall" room where I need to make a clear enough space for the guys who are installing the new windows to actually reach said windows.

So I started out by bringing an extra shelf unit down from upstairs and arranging all the swag on it and the shelf that was already in place.

It didn't work perfectly, but it worked. Good, right? Nope. Here's where the "neurosis" part comes in. Not only were things not fitting on the shelves quite right, but the two units didn't match and the black metal one didn't go with all the other wood things in the room. It kinda made me twitch. If this had been back in my "I'm broke so I'll suck it up and make do" days (you know, last week), I would have just learned to live with it. But I got a nice royalty check, so instead I ordered two new matching shelf units and redid the whole thing.

Luna and Angus helped, of course. If by helped you mean got in the way and made an even bigger mess.

 Look at it now. Isn't that better? Ahhhhh.

The unit on the left side has my "brag selves" with all my own books on them, plus some bundled goodies ready to give away. The bottom shelf is my Llewellyn-related giveaway items. Then the unit in the right has all the giveaway stuff and postcards/bookmarks/magnets, etc. for the Baba Yaga books and Veiled Magic.

Yes, I AM going to be doing a lot of giveaways, why do you ask?

Now all that leaves is the room upstairs. Oh, brother..

The boxes are all empty and waiting for me to use them to send things out. The rest of it is just...stuff.

The heaps are semi-organized. Not really. Save me.

Hopefully soon I'll be reporting back with pictures to show you how this space has succumbed to the organizational neurosis. And a new window.

In the meanwhile, check back on Tuesday, because that's when my next giveaway will go up, three weeks before the release of VEILED MAGIC. Since we're at that time of year, this one will have a Halloween theme. Here's a sneak peek at one of the prizes...

Hi! Aren't I cute? Boo!

So tell me, do you prefer things organized and neat or are you happy with chaos?

A Little Light (Blog) Housekeeping

First, thanks to everyone who took the blog poll. If you haven't done it yet, there are still a few days left. I'm mostly just trying to get an idea of what I should be writing about the most (although I'm still going to talk all over the place, probably). So even if the poll doesn't seem to apply to you, feel free to give me your two cents in the comments.

Second, if you remember, when The Witch's Broom first came out at the end of March, I put up a link on both the blog and my website so people could buy a signed version directly from me if they wanted to, and said that I would take it down after I'd sent out 100 copies. We're not there yet, but we're getting close, so if you wanted to order a signed copy from me, you should probably do it now. Just sayin'. Addendum: Reminder, this is for USA folks only. Anyone outside the USA can contact me for special arrangements to get a signed book, but be aware that postage outside the country has gone up dramatically. I think Canada is about $6-7 and overseas is anywhere from $10-$18.

Also, not a blog thing exactly, but I posted some pictures on Facebook of some of the jewelry I took to last Saturday's book signing, and people got kind of excited. (That is to say, I sold three of them to people who said "I WANT THAT." Lol. That wasn't the plan, but it was fun.) I got a bunch of requests to put up pictures of the jewelry on a regular basis, so from now on I am going to do a "Necklace of the Week" on Facebook...probably on Mondays, but maybe Wednesdays. Just so you know. Do you want me to post it here too, or all you all following me on FB?

And now a couple of quick questions:

1. One of the folks here asked for an occasional post on "magical recipes"--food that also has magical properties. Is that something other folks would be interested in?
2. How many of you own/buy tarot decks?
3. How many of you are interested in the writing "how the writing biz works" posts? (As opposed to the "this is what I am working on" type.)

Okay, that's it. Back to your regularly scheduled programming...and thanks in advance for taking the time to answer!

xxx Deborah