Oh. J.J…
After a long night of crying where I became fully convinced that it was J.J.’s time and we would have to take him on that final car ride on Monday, I came downstairs wondering if I would find a little black body curled up and cooling on the futon.
Yeah, no. J.J. lifted his head and meowed cheerfully at me while I started to get everyone their food. Then while my back was turned he got up, rolled off the futon onto the ottoman, then rolled down the ramp to the carpet where he wiggled into a patch of sunlight and basked. I ask you.
I brought him some water (he still won’t eat, not even tuna water) and noticed a king god hella killer eye booger in his right eye so I gently pried that out, then realized that he kept smacking his lips and tossing his head like he was trying to clear his mouth before drinking the water. I tried to look in his mouth and it seemed mucusy as hell, plus his breath was really rank.
I think the Elderly Gentleman has a raging upper respiratory infection. The other cats have been sneezing and the symptoms fit him to a T—eye and nasal drainage, squinting, no appetite, lethargy, some sneezing. And while a URI usually passes on its own in a younger cat, he doesn’t have the reserves to fight it off due to his age.
TL;dr: He’s going into the vet tomorrow (either our regular one or the ER vet if we can’t get a slot) to be evaluated and hopefully get an antibiotic shot, some B-12, and an appetite stimulant. This cat has been faking us out for years by appearing to be on the brink of death and then recovering at the last moment. Let’s hope he has one more recovery in him.
Not The Greatest of Saturdays
My cat J.J. is definitely not doing all that well Today I washed his bedding, washed him (it’s basically a sponge bath on the side of the bathroom sink, popped him with some sub-q fluids, held a bowl so that he could slurp up some water (one thing that hasn’t changed—this cat loves water and will drink at any opportunity), tried to get him to eat something (no dice on that front), then propped him up where he could see me while I did dishes.
I keep wondering if this is it and he’s reached the end, but he still tries to get up on his own, still loves drinking water, and his tail flicks like a metronome. We’re going to see how he does tomorrow, and if he hasn’t improved I’ll call out vet and make an appointment to have him evaluated and see what we should do next.
Because I have to take care of him I don’t have time to finish my edits and format Shifter Woods: Claw for release on Tuesday as planned. I’ll try to release Claw and the omnibus by Friday, and barring that I’ll do it next week, but right now I have to focus on my black velvet purrmonster.
Writing? What Means This Word, Writing?
Welp, we got through the storm pretty much unscathed except for our welcome mat going sailing into the bushes. Considering that I saw a house in our neighborhood with a tree that came down on its roof, I can live with a displaced mat.
As for writing, not so much today because I need to get Shifter Woods: Claw polished, formatted, and ready for release on Tuesday along with the ECS omnibus. Unfortunately I also have an extremely elderly and infirm cat who needs to be bathed, hydrated (I literally stood hunched over the futon for more than five minutes holding his water bowl so that he could lick at it), supplied with clean bedding and head scritches, and generally monitored.
Which means that my day is spent split between my office and coming down here multiple times to check on J.J. and get him whatever he needs at that moment. On the plus side, I’m getting my steps in so that’s good. On the minus side my legs are aching like hell, and the wild weather we’ve been getting isn’t helping. I’ve resorted to some CBD oil in the hopes that it will resolve the issue and I’ll actually be able to get some sleep tonight, which would be nice.
You know how y’all keep telling me I do so much and you don’t know how I manage it? I do this on sleep that is broken every two hours or so by something on my body yelling at me. If I could regularly get a full night’s sleep, I’d be able to take over the world.
Well, That Was Entertaining
Just had a seriously nasty thunderstorm with high winds pass over Casa Cameron that kicked off with one hell of a powerful updraft. It literally had the house shaking and the J Crew freaking out while I ran around closing windows and eyeing our tornado hideout under the stairs. The sirens sounded pretty much continuously for about fifteen minutes but we didn’t get any hail and no local tornadoes, touch wood. Can’t check for roof or fence damage until tomorrow but I’m hoping we’re all good and I am sincerely grateful that we still have power (a lot of local friends don’t).
Of course, my UPS’s battery picked tonight to die on me. Ramón was able to dig out a massive surge suppressor for me and I have everything on my writing desk plugged into that for now (I’m more concerned about everything being on a surge suppressor than a UPS. If the desktop shuts down over night, oh well). There are a couple of places in the area where I can pick up a replacement battery so I’ll see about doing that over the weekend.
There’s Writing, And Then There’s Real Life
Didn’t get a lot of work done today, unfortunately, because I spent a fair amount of the day playing hospice nurse to J.J. (aka The Elderly Gentleman) He’s been a bit weak and out of it for the last few days, so after tending to his morning care (changing out soiled bedding, giving him a sponge bath, and trying to convince him to eat some Lick ‘N’ Lap) I decided to head over to the vet’s for a banana bag (lactated Ringer’s solution—very good for dehydrated or ill cats). Luckily they know me well over there and were happy to provide me with the bag and a new IV line.
After watching a YT video to refresh myself on how to prep a banana bag and insert the IV needle, I gave J.J. his first bolus about an hour ago. He perked up pretty much immediately so he’ll be getting a bolus every other day or so. Luckily I did this with Jordan ten years ago so we have a setup next to the fireplace where I can hang the bag and sit with J.J. in my lap while the drip does its job.
Of course, J.J. wasn’t impressed with getting to sprawl in Momma’s lap and be petted while getting his sub-Q fluids. He pretty much sat there like, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let me know when I can go back to my bed.” He’s never been a lap cat and being old and infirm hasn’t really changed his opinion.
I’m also aware that this is pretty much palliative care at this point. He’s twenty-one and is going to pass at some point (I hesitate to say that he’s definitely on his way out because he’s gone through patches like this before and bounced back. That cat has a will of vibranium and will leave when he decides to and not before). At the moment he’s still eating, drinking, pooping, and peeing on his own. If he starts refusing food and water, then we’ll have the vet take steps but so far he’s hanging in there. And as long as he wants to do that I’ll keep him clean, dry, comfortable, and hydrated.
Goodbye February
Welp, I didn’t make quite what I’d hoped to from Amazon this month but I did make three figures so that’s something. As I release the ECS omnibus wide and promote that and To My Muse on FB (althought I intend to take the course I bought on FB ads first—no point in throwing good money away on badly formatted ads) it’ll be interesting to see if sales pick up.
And of course once the ECS omnibus is out that should start making money from the readers who refuse to start a series until it’s completed. This doesn’t make sense to me considering how many series get abandoned because they don’t make enough money, but it’s their money and their choice.
And I’m sure there are some people who are looking at my income and thinking, “But romance is supposed to be a gold mine—why aren’t you raking it in?” Because the romance market is hypersaturated, to be honest, and people who are raking it in either are a name, have a rabid fan base, or have so many books out that they can make decent money from just a few KU pages reads on each title. I’m working on creating the rabid fan base and having a buttload of books available, myself, but that takes time.
Then again, I already have sixteen full-length titles out there and will be released at least another four this year, so I’ve got momentum on my side.
I May Have Scared Ramón
So I was checking my KDP dashboard this morning, as you do, and went to make sure that Shifter Woods: Growl was out of KU (today was the last day of its current cycle) and ready to be included in the ECS omnibus.
A horrified shriek rang through the house as I saw that the KU period had been renewed as of today and Growl wouldn’t be out of KU jail until May. See, I’m an idiot and didn’t uncheck the “automatically renew in KU” checkbox like I did with the other titles I’m putting wide because if you do that Amazon won’t promote the titles anymore in KU and I was hoping to get a few more page reads out of Growl before I set it wide. With visions of the omnibus being put off to May swirling in my head, I unchecked the box and closed the little pop-up, cursing to myself.
And then I thought, “Well, wait a minute. Today is the last day of the current cycle and I’ve opted out of the renewal. Check it again.” So I did and mirable dictu, it was no longer enrolled in KU.
I need a drink. And maybe a nap. And poor Ramón is still recovering from hearing me shriek. Bad Nicola, no new laptop.
My SF Writing Brain Is Making Itself Known
As you know, Bob, I use any sort of crafting as part of my writing process and work on plot points or full stories while I’m sewing/knitting/crocheting/whatever. And I’ve used that to great effect in the last two months while I’ve been finishing projects from my office closet.
Except. While I was working on the Skulls and Roses swing dress I started thinking about a SF story. Not a romance—a straight-up SF thriller sort of idea about a cruise-type spaceship inbound from a colony around Jupiter coming down with some exotic alien disease and people scrambling on Earth to determine whether or not the passengers can be allowed to disembark. Why you do this to me, Muse?
No, I’m not going to work on it, at least not right now. I have the Paladins of Crystal and Olympic Cove series to finish first, plus the other books that I want to get out this year. The SF story can keep percolating in the back of my brain for now. But it’s like, “Really? Really, you do this to me now? Don’t I already have enough to write?”
Maybe I should try dictating again. Lord, if I could make that work I could churn out everything I’ve ever wanted to write.
Editing, Editing, Editing
Normally I like to take weekends off and give myself the chance to catch up on paperwork, clean the house, and sometimes just, you know, relax, but I’d really like to get Shifter Woods: Claw out so I’m working on the edits this weekend. So far things seem pretty clean—I have a tendency to repeat words and luckily T is good at catching those, and she hasn’t pointed out any gaping plot holes or logic gaps so that’s always reassuring, especially since I’d changed a lot of things about Angela’s background and motivations during the writing and I can never be sure that I caught everything. That’s why editors and beta readers are godsends.
I’m also getting more comfortable with Vellum—I still wish there was a way to stop certain pages from being including during a compile like with Scrivener so that I could keep all the platform editions in one file, and I really wish there was a way to center the Table of Contents, but the formatting is really nice and I like being able to have fancy scene break icons and big initials at the beginning of a chapter.
In other news I’m continuing Operation: Finish All The Craft Projects 2023 by going through my office closet, pulling out all of the half-finished craft projects I’ve stuck in there over the years, and actually finishing them. As of today I’ve finished two baby quilts, three quilt tops, a wall hanging, two dresses, two jackets, and quilted covers for the stand mixer and food processor, which is pretty damned good considering that I’ve been doing all that in the evenings and weekends.
At right is my latest finished project, my Skulls and Roses swing dress. Now, I love swing dresses. They look great on me and I have three of them from Torrid, so when I found this awesome fabric I knew I wanted to make a swing dress out of it. I found one of those “designed to be adjustable” patterns that give you more than enough seam allowance so that you can baste the dress together and fit it to yourself before actually sewing everything, and I must have cut the actual pieces out three or four years ago.
So I started putting it together today. To my surprise the dress fit almost perfectly except around the waist, so I let that out a bit and tried it back on. Et voila, I had an awesome new dress that Ramón pronounced, “So you.” I have two more batches of fabric (black swirls on black and a cream, lavender, and light blue with handwriting on it) that I want to turn into dresses sometime in April or May.
And To My Muse is Wide. Again.
Following recommendations from some of the best minds in the indie publishing sphere, I’ve decided to start moving my standalone titles back to wide. KU is great if you have a lot of series (and I do), but it’s kind of hard to make money on standalones purely from KU reads.
So I’ve finished formatting To My Muse in Vellum, made three different versions for Amazon, Smashwords, and Google Play, and uploaded the files. Amazon’s file is already live, Smashwords’ file is live on their site and is in review for release to Kobo, Apple, B&N, etc, and I’m still waiting for the painfully slow Google Play engine to process its file.
In Vellum’s defense they do have a mechanism in place for adding platform-specific links to a platform-specific edition, so if I wanted to generate a Google Play edition it would contain only the links to my other books in Google Play. But that still doesn’t change the problem with the different copyright page required by Smashwords (unless they decide to change the rules now that they’ve merged with Draft2Digital) so for now it’s easier for me to maintain three separate Vellum files for each book. I was doing that anyway in Calibre so no biggie.
Next on the work bench—finishing up the edits for Shifter Woods: Claw. I’m not even going to predict when it’ll be released—when it’s available I’ll let everyone know.
Nicola Cameron Writes 