I got a lovely reply from Christine! She said finds my blog interesting, can relate to it, would love to chat, etc. She works as a grant manager at the university which means she helps professors get and then manage grant money for their projects. For many years she worked in market research and political polling.

I’m delighted but surprised she’d love to chat! At first I was a little worried that my contacting her would make her uncomfortable being sought out like that since I figured she must not have befriended me yet for a reason. So I’m glad to know she’s ok with it.

Yesterday I did quite a bit, but still wished I’d done more. Got chapter 11 done in my current book, one which I don’t plan to submit to Kindle in the future. But the thought of surprising Nane with it, especially since she’s not turning out to be a very good friend, is getting funnier by the moment. I don’t know that I ever will, though.

Mitch showed me a sample of what my book should look like on a Kindler, edited some dialogue for me, and gave me some suggestions and opinions. “Nadirah” and “Gifford” were described as seen through “Joni’s” eyes 11 pages into the story. He felt that was too late to be describing them since by page 3 he still couldn’t “see” them.

He also didn’t think it was appropriate for Giffy to call Nadirah “ma’am” before his playful, non-serious side had been established for the reader, and also the fact that they were friends.

So I tinkered around with the manuscript a little and decided to de-swear it a bit after deciding that 45 fucks and 45 shits (and fuck/shit variations) was a bit overkill for a 161-page story (it would be more or less than that on a Kindler depending on the settings). Some swears are appropriate to both the scene and the characters, but the unnecessary ones were edited down to just 17 fucks, 24 shits, and 6 assholes, LOL.

Day 1 of my diet has already dropped me a pound and a half, but I’m soooo hungry! A deer stood outside the kitchen window watching me eat breakfast yesterday morning, and Tom said there were 6 of them when he went out the other day.

Other than wishing I had straight, thin hair, it took until 2pm yesterday just to get up to 74º in here. June seems soooo far away. :(

Later…

I talked to Mitch this morning and he said he has no book sales yet. This isn’t going to stop me from trying to get my own book published, but it’s a bit discouraging because he’s a better writer than I am. It’d suck to get a book published that never sells. Like winning the car of your dreams and never being able to drive it. Well, I hope he gets sales soon enough because if he doesn’t I sure as shit never will. If I do, I wonder who my first sale will go to. Someone I know? A stranger? Whoever they are, I will forever worship the ground they walk on!

It’s a good thing I was going through the manuscript because I found quite a blooper. I hope there are no more of them that I missed! PDP (if I ever hear from them) will reject it for sure. PDP used to be punctual with returning messages and giving detailed manuscript feedback, but lately I’ve heard absolutely nothing from them. I’ve totally given up on them. I don’t think I would want to do business with anyone who couldn’t return my messages anyway. I still think I’ll have better luck with Kindle if they’ll ever accept me. If not then I guess I’ll just have to wait for the next best thing.

The only thing I don’t like about Kindle’s setup is that you can rate/comment on books. I’d hate to have someone who hates me leave a nasty comment. You know, sort of like I did on Tammy’s store when I thought she may be one of the ones fucking with me on Formspring? I don’t know if authors are able to delete anything nasty. Mitch said never to respond to any nasty comment that wasn’t meant in a constructive way, but yeah, this does happen at times out of spite/jealousy. I’ll just have to be careful who I mention having a book there, assuming it gets accepted. Tom thinks it will, though, and we’re both so glad that traditional publishers are getting to be a thing of the past. They hold so many good writers back because traditional publishers can only publish so many people. Still, it sucks to know that you don’t even have to read the books in order to leave a comment.

I’m surprised Molly only contacted me once and spent only two days viewing my blog. She must’ve been re-funny farmed because all’s been peaceful in Trollville.

Jesse just gunned the truck for a second and turned it off. Let me guess – he’s going to run and gun it for 10 minutes in about 10 minutes, right?

Now I just saw him come up the drive. WTF??? But he just left, didn’t he? And what happened with the little Honda? Well, if he’s going to get obnoxious I’ll turn the sound machine on.

Yesterday I statused that it really pisses me off when people agree to do me a favor, but then don’t. Then Adonis came in and asked, what favor? This provided me with the perfect excuse to say that someone said they’d read my book and never did. Unfortunately, Mitch and Alison thought I may be referring to them, but after I assured them I wasn’t, I got to laugh at not only the thought of Nane seeing it but how Adonis went in and “liked” my explanation of being pissed at procrastinators. I’m not stupid, though. I know Nane isn’t procrastinating. She never intended to read my book. Like I statused, though, all she had to do was just say “no.” Why is “no” so hard for some people?” They don’t want to hear the word no and they can’t say the word no either.

Swapped a couple more messages with Christine. I feel like we’re old buddies already, LOL. She was actually born in Japan cuz her dad was in the Air Force and it was her mom that was born in Canada. She took language classes in school for French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, but doesn’t remember much. She loves learning languages, wants to write a book, and considers me her role model for exercising (we’re even the same height). I wish I could be a better role model than I am! She and I both feel we don’t move enough. I said we’d have to be each other’s “sponsors” and encourage each other.

I think I’ll go work on the next chapter of my book, then do some exercising so I’m not a total liar in saying I’ll work out today when I wasn’t going to. She said, “If you can exercise, so can I!”

Someone in Denver was combing through the Maricopa parts of my bio. They no doubt linked in through someone else’s blog that had written of their own experiences in Estrella jail. They were in one of the big dorms.