Double Down Available in Paperback

For those of you who don't have an e-reader, my murder mystery, Double Down is now available in paperback at www.createspace.com/3892358. They tell me it will take about five days before it is available on Amazon. I can't tell you how excited I was when I received the proof. To see my writing in print was amazing. I couldn't stop grinning. I confess I still grin when I look at it.

Writing - Magnificent Obsession?

I consider myself a writer. Then I read a blog or article where someone claims real writers are those people who have to write. It's a passion. It's impossible for them not to write. Most of them have been writing stories since childhood. I think that's not me. I can go long periods of time without writing. Some days I have to force myself to sit down in front of the computer. Once I actually start writing, I love it. So what does that make me, a fake writer?

If writing is my hobby rather than a career, what do I call myself, one who dabbles in words? I don't consider it a career because I already retired from a career, and I only write novels which will never make the New York Times best seller list. They aren't gritty, cutting edge, thought provoking, or heartbreaking.They are simply entertaining.

So what's the criteria, a money making job, an all consuming passion, or is it simply being good at it?  If you draw or paint exceptionally well, you're an artist, even if it's not financially rewarding. If you compose, sing or play an instrument, you can call yourself a musician, even if you don't do it to the exclusion of everything else.

I may not be Hemingway, but I believe I'm good enough at stringing words and phrases together to weave an entertaining story to be able to call myself a writer.

In My House, Diet is a Swear Word

Lately, in my house, DIET has become one of those four letter swear words, like . . . well, you know. I try not to use swear words, but occasionally one slips out especially when I'm dieting. Oops. Not eating things I like makes me cranky, but then so does trying to slip into a too-tight pairs of pants or skirt.

 I've always hated people who say they forgot to eat. I enjoy food. I look forward to deciding what to eat. My family's favorite pastime is going out to eat. Most of our traditions revolve around food. Even so, throughout my childhood, teenage years, even in my twenties and after having children, I was thin. The pounds didn't start to pile on until my late thirties when my body suddenly turned against me.

In spite of eating exactly the same amount of food, it began to store fat. So naturally, I cut back. The less I ate, the less my body required, therefore allowing it to continue to store more fat, as if it were preparing for an inevitable famine. Nor did my activity level suddenly decrease. Once my children were all in school, I went back to work. Yes, I sat on my butt for a period of time each day, but then I hurried home, made dinner, cleaned house, did laundry, chauffeured children to various events and even did yard work on the weekends. Not exactly a sedentary lifestyle.

As the years wore on, the problem only got worse. I cut back on calories, joined a gym, took up running, tried over the counter appetite suppressants and each time I lost weight until my body adjusted. Then however little I'd been eating became the new norm. Not only did I stop losing weight, but the minute I ate more, the pounds came back a lot faster than they had come off. I even tried crash diets, like drinking liquid protein instead of eating. Again, I lost weight but I could only gag that stuff down for a short period of time before my mouth absolutely refused to swallow any more. When the weight came back, it brought with it friends and relatives. I once read that you can shrink fat cells, but they don't go away. I could swear that any time I ate something that tasted good, I could hear the fat cells in my thighs saying, "Cmon down. We've got just the place for you."

When I retired, I decided to stop worrying about how much I weighed.. After all, no one but my husband looks at me anyway and he doesn't seem to care, until I reached the critical dress size. You know the one you swear you will never buy. I can disregard the scale, but the closet gets me every time. When everything becomes too tight and I can't bring myself to buy bigger, the only choice left is  . . .

I hate insurance

I hate insurance. You are basically betting your money against yourself. When you buy life insurance, you bet you'll die young and the insurance company is counting on you living to a ripe old age. Car and house insurance is the same principle except that the odds are better that some accident will occur and you don't really have a choice, since most states and mortgage companies insist that you buy it.

A few years ago we bought a home warranty policy that covered large appliances, water heater, air conditioner and such. Since most of our appliances were at least ten years old and one air conditioner was at least 25 years old, we thought it was a good deal. Wrong.

The only thing that's gone out since we owned the policy is the six year old air conditioner on the addition to our house. Six months ago it needed a new condenser motor. Insurance company called a repairman and it got fixed. Pretty good deal. Now we find out they didn't put in the right model and once it got hot, it doesn't work.

We have been trying to get it repaired for over a week now. The only companies on the insurance company's list are in Las Vegas, an hour away. In the summer, these companies are swamped with business and have no desire to spend their valuable time driving for two hours. After three days, they finally sent someone out at 7:30 p.m. Of course he didn't fix anything, just looked to see what needed to  be fixed, had to order parts, get approval, etc.  Since then it's been nothing but excuses and appointments where no one shows up. A week later and the den is still hovering in the 90 degree range. Fortunately, the 30 year old air conditioner is still keeping the main part of the house cool.

I've made so many calls to the insurance company and the vender that you'd think they'd send a repairman just to get me off their backs. Today the insurance company asked me if I want to have another vender. "Start over?" I asked. I could practially hear her shrug.

As soon as I get this air conditioner fixed, I'm cancelling this policy.Of course, at the rate it's going, they can probably cound on at lerast six more months of premiums.

Double Down didn't make semi-finals

Double Down didn't make the list of semi-finalists on Amazon's Breakthrough novel contest. Not too surprising but still disappointing.  I didn't know until today that there were written reviews. It's no wonder that Double Down made it to the quarterfinals. The two expert reviewers at that level loved the excerpt, even saying that they believed I had a promising future in the writing field. However, the Publishers Weekly Reviewer who read the whole novel hated it. He or she didn't have even one nice thing to say.

I'm not sure what they expected. Double Down isn't gritty or gory,and doesn't have explicit sex scenes. It probably qualifies as a cozy mystery, except it doesn't include any talking animals, recipes or knitting patterns. I refuse to read anything with those types of gimmicks. It's just an entertaining mystery along the lines of an Agatha Christie novel, or so I thought until I read that review. The feedback wasn't constructive, just vicious.

Because I enjoy writing and some people seem to enjoy reading my stories, I'll continue to write. After all this is just one person's opinion, but I'm not sure if I'll be entering any more contests.

Jealousy Now Available

My new mystery, Jealousy,  featuring Valerie Peterson and Detective Delgado is now available for Kindle on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com for other ebook readers.

Back home and loving it.

Just got home from a vacation in Jamaica. White sands and warm ocean, what could be better? We really enjoyed ourselves. We swam with the dolphins, did a zip line over jungle canopy, flew down a metal bob sled ride, and climbed a 1000 foot waterfall, in addition to snorkeling and just laying in the sun on the beach. The only thing that would have made it better was if we were twenty years younger and all that fun didn't come with aches and pain afterward.

Even though we enjoyed the time away, we couldn't wait to get home. I missed our dog, my own bed, home cooked food and laying around watching TV in my robe. 

When we got home we discovered that the pool drains had clogged with leaves while we were gone and since the water couldn't circulate, we had brown scummy water. We cleaned the pool filters and I dosed it with lots of pool shock, but it's still not back to blue. I'm afraid we may have to call the pool guy to drain and clean it. Another bill we don't need especially since we haven't paid off the vacation yet.

Good news is that Double Down made the quarterfinals in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. Now back to writing, cleaning house, and paying bills.