Sometimes a post only appears on my Patreon page, since I do promise exclusive content there. This was from two weeks ago, when I thought my regular column might be late. But there was some news here, and a couple recommendations, so I am going to post it anyway.
Good morning, friends!
I owe you a column this week, and there will be one tomorrow, but it might not be exactly on time by 11 a.m. Apologies in advance for any delay.
This has been one helluva week! In addition to the consulting gig that is (once again) exceeding the 40-hour-a-week standard, we managed to destroy our stove. I don't know exactly what happened, but there are several cracks in the glass cooktop and a crater where it appears the glass actually melted!
The yellow spot is in the glass, the tiny red flakes are from the enamel-coated pan that was on the burner, and yes, those are actual cracks in the glass!
I put a pot of chili on to simmer and when I returned to the kitchen just a few minutes later I found the pot stuck to the burner. Immediately cut off the heat and started moving the chili to another pot, but the range kept making scary cracking noises. Not what you want to hear from a giant piece of glass!
Some research showed repair costs were more than half the cost of a new range, and we'd still have an older stove that we couldn't trust, so we bit the bullet and went shopping. Of course living in a small town that meant one full evening just driving to a big-box store to check out what was available.
Our local furniture store had an acceptable model in a similar price range, but their deliveries are backed up two weeks, so now we have a brand-new stove in the back of our van. Just have to borrow an appliance dolly from the hotel (one benefit of being back to the office, I can borrow equipment) and make the swap.
One other bit of news - this time good! The first reader/copyeditor completed her first pass and declared the book good! Now she has to do the final pass, so it may be another week, but we are getting close to launching the Kickstarter for this new book. I will keep you all posted on the Kickstarter process (drawing lots of advice from the Loren Coleman book Crowdfunding Your Fiction) so maybe you can learn from my mistakes, which I know I will make!
OK. So why is tomorrow (maybe) late? Because today I am taking a day off. Going to brunch with friends in a couple minutes, then off for a day trip to Tillamook, Oregon. No idea what we will see and do, but we are going to spend the afternoon exploring with no specific destinations. and finish with an early dinner. With luck I will have an adventure to share with you for the 4th Sunday "Just for fun" post.
In the meantime, I highly recommend you go read Kristine Kathryn Rusch's latest Business Musings column (if you don't already follow her). She talks about comparison, and taking joy in your work - topics we have touched on a lot lately.
I hope that is enough to hold you if tomorrow's post isn't up quite on time - and it just might be, if I don't have so much fun today that I collapse when I get home!