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.

I Made The Cut

My pitch for Double Down made the first cut in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. They took 5000 entries in two categories and selected 1000 in each category, so the odds were good. Next they will read an excerpt and whittle it down to 250 in each category.  They won't announce that until March 20th. I told myself that I would feel good just to get this far, but I want more.

In the meantime, I need to edit Jealousy. If anyone out there is an English teacher or just an excellent proofreader, I could use your help. It's really hard to proof your own writing.

My next project is another young adult sci-fi, completely different from The Crystal's Curse. My granddaughter, Katherine, wanted me to write something using her name as one of the main characters. This one is for her and all my other grandchildren whose names I'll be using in it. I wrote the first two chapters over a year ago thinking I could work on it and Jealousy at the same time. I found out I had a hard enough time disciplining myself to work on one book, let alone two. So it has been languishing in my computer for a while. Somehow I deleted the outline. Fortunately, I printed out a copy and stuck it in a folder.

Now butt in seat, fingers on keys and write.

Jealousy - Coming soon

I finished the first draft of Jealousy tonight. A new mystery featuring Valerie and Detective Delgado coming soon to a web site near you. I've been working on this book for over a year and a half and now that it's done, I feel lost. I don't remember feeling this way at the completion of the other two. Maybe it's because I've worked on this one longer. Of course, it's not ready for publication yet. The ending still needs work. I need to write a jacket cover synopsis and think about what image to use as a cover. I'm sure it will need a few revisions before I'm ready to upload it. But the essential story is now down on paper.

I should feel elated. Instead, I'm still worrying about it. Should I keep the beginning? Does it start too slowly? Does the plot hang together? Have I wrapped up all the essential elements? Are there too many characters? Will the reader get lost? I guess I won't have the answers to any of those questions until someone other than me reads it.

In the last couple of days, I've read it through from the beginning to the end and I love it. After I test it out on my family, I'll post an excerpt here and hope you'll give me some feedback.

Rewarding Risks

All though my life I've taken chances. Not the gambling kind, and not stupid ones like getting involved with drugs or anything illegal. Just small risks. Like going white water rafting or taking up in line skating in my fifties. I had to give up the skating when I discovered that falling down at that stage of life hurt a lot more than it did as a child.

The most satisfying risks involved learning something new. In my career, I often volunteered for projects I'd never done before. Then I'd panic. Unwilling to fail, I'd learn what I needed to make the project a success. This boldness often led to promotion and reinforced my desire to seek out and conquer other challenges.

Writing novels has been one of those challenges. At the beginning I was convinced that I was not a creative person and I had no stories inside struggling to be told. However, I was bored, so I sat down at my computer and a whole new world opened up to me.  As the story evolved and the characters came to life, I found the excitement I'd been looking for.Within six months I'd finished my first novel.
It was only after that I read books on writing, joined writers groups, and went to seminars.

The best part of writing is that it necessitates continual learning. I've researched anatomy and Mayan mythology, mastered new formatting techniques and computer shortcuts. I've joined facebook and learn to blog. Tweeting may be next.

The world I grew up in is nothing like the world of today, but instead of feeling like an outsider looking in, writing has been my key to keeping tuned in, turned on and feeling young.