Nicola Cameron Writes

Not for me—for Ramón. Although he didn’t get a lot of relaxation in, having spent the morning struggling to get the pool pump motor apart and see if he could figure out why it was vibrating so hard (he’s an engineer, this is what he does—remember how we fixed the subsiding front walkway? Yeah, this is more of that).

His technical opinion: we have to disconnect the pump from the pool plumbing, dismantle it, clean it out, replace a bunch of seals and other motory things, then reconnect it. One eensy problem—when we had this motor put in about eight years ago the guy who did it rerouted some of the pool plumbing pipes directly over the motor, which means we can’t just unhook it and lift it out. It pretty much lives in a cage of PVC.

Which means our options are as follows:

1) Cut out the piping over the pump, pull the pump and fix it, then install new PVC piping. Quite apart from the fact that I’ve never done that before, I’m not sure if we could get everything fitted properly.

2) Cut a hatch in the fence behind the pool pump that would allow someone to reach in, unhook the pump, and pull it out through the fence. On the one hand, this would allow us to pull out the pump on a yearly basis to clean and fix anything that needed fixing. On the other hand, we have one of those offset slat fences and creating a hatch that would be both secure and aesthetically pleasing would be … a challenge. Yeah, let’s call it a challenge.

Ramón is already on the side of the fence hatch and I do agree that this would make future pump upkeep much easier, but he’s talking about taking out a section of the fence and the back gate to create it and … no. Just no. I think I may go out sometime next week when the weather is nice and just get it done myself. My honey is brilliant, talented, and a whiz with tech and motors, but I’m the one who earned the title Spackle Woman, Maid of Mortar early on in our marriage (my grandfather could design, build, and repair anything, and his skills seem to have been passed on genetically because EVERYONE on that side of the family can do what he did). If anyone will be handling power tools, it will be me.

Much to my surprise I got a text from the accountant this morning saying that the tax return was ready and I could go back out there to sign it and pay for the service.

Unsurprisingly our return was minimal (mainly due to the money we took out of the IRA for my knee surgery) but at least it was a return and pretty much covers the CPA fee so I’m grateful for small favors. Another writer I know said that she owes big time this year, so not going to complain.

However, it also means that certain plans I’d been holding in reserve for a goodish tax refund will have to stay in reserve until I can find the money for them. Which isn’t necessarily bad—it’s certainly a good prompt for me to get my ass in gear and publish more books, set up the Patreon, record audiobooks, and start selling signed print books directly.

The more I get into the small business owner headspace, the better. I know I can make a decent income from being an indie author, but I have to stop thinking like I’m only the Talent and start thinking like I’m the Producer as well.

I have just completed one of the two yearly scheduled road trips. Our accountant’s office is just a touch west of Arlington (the accountant was recommended to me by a friend when I used to work in Irving. They’re so good at what they do that we don’t want to switch to someone in Plano), which means I have an hour and a half round trip to go out there, drop off our files, and come home.

And yes, they have a secure online server where I could upload scanned files (and I have a printer that is also a scanner and will work such arcane magic), but I like the drive. For one thing, the hillsides of the various highways are usually carpeted in bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and other wildflowers, which is always pretty, and even a short road trip is kind of fun for me.

This year, however, I got the taxes finished in record time (I usually get everything done in March) and the hillsides showed nary a bluebonnet as I drove down 181. Bit of a bummer, but there’s a nice field nearby that usually gets carpeted with bluebonnets and I can always get my fix when that blooms.

While in previous years we usually got some pretty tasty returns due to me having a small business and a home office, I’m hearing that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018 is going to adversely affect a lot of people for fiscal year 2022 so I’m not holding out hope for a big return. If we don’t owe anything, I’ll be happy with that.

To be honest, there were no grand romantic gestures here in Casa Cameron, which I know may be unexpected for a romance writer. But neither of us were in the mood for such gestures, nor do we need them. Ramón and I are ridiculously affectionate all year round so we don’t need an official day for those kind of activities. Also, flowers need to be put out of range of the J Crew which is problematic, and we already had chocolates. *shrug*

So today pretty much consisted of working, changing out J.J.’s peed-upon bedding, fetching Thai for dinner, and generally relaxing. I did wind up churning out 1,210 words on Crystal Blade, which felt really good, and I now have a solid plotline of what should happen in the second half of the book.

In other writing news I’m picking at the outlines for High Tide (Olympic Cove Five) and To Love a Wild Swan (Hidden Empire Three). Mage of Fire (Two Thrones Five) is still simmering in my subconscious and with everything else going on I don’t want to poke at that quite yet. Once I have Crystal Blade done, however, I’m going to try an experiment and work on Crystal Reflection (Paladins of Crystal Three), Tide, and Swan in rotation. Since the stories are all so very different I’m hoping that I can stay fresh by shifting from book to book depending on my mood of the day.

And if it turns out that I’m just muddling along without getting ANYTHING done I’ll switch back to doing one book at a time. We’ll see.

Tax numbers have been crunched. Worksheet has been filled out for the accountant. Brains are mush. Hope you weren’t expecting more than that today.

Oh, yeah, Ramón took me out to a local Mexican restaurant as a celebration of getting the numbers done/early Valentine’s Day dinner. We were rather surprised to see the place almost completely empty until I noticed the football game playing over the bar and realized today is Superbowl Sunday. Hey, if the Bears aren’t playing I don’t care.