I've got a couple, I'm going to attempt to post them.

Going back a day, this is Saturday during the day, when the beautiful snow was falling and The Giant was desperately trying to dig paths so The Princess could go out and do her thing. Fortunately, despite holding out for over 36 hours (at least), things finally got moving today. Anyway, here she is out in the active storm yesterday -- which she loved. (took this from inside, so it's a little fuzzy through the window screen)
Caption: Ain't I pretty?


This is Saturday late afternoon, as the snow was winding down. Yep, that's our mini-van closest to the house. And behind the mini-van is an SUV. See 'em under those lumps of snow? Also, our light post is pretty well covered. I took this from inside where it was warm and dry.


The rest are from today.
And let me remind you, The Princess is altogether unhappy with present conditions. She likes to be able to roam the yard, as well as stalk the fence to run after people walking their dogs on the other side. She has been unable to do either, and has stood in one of the paths that The Giant dug for her, looking woefully OVER the mounds trying to see the fence. Then we get a look like, hello, keep digging, I can't reach the fence yet... Also, we've noticed that she gets really excited to go out until she realizes that that STUFF is still out there.

So my caption is:
Please, please, please make this cold white stuff go away!


This is while The Giant was continuing his quest to make a place for The Princess to do her thing. I'm across the yard and she's attempting to see me over the almost 3' high mountains of snow. Also make note the fence behind The Princess and The Giant is a six foot high fence. And you can't even really see the rail that runs across horizontally halfway between the top and bottom rails.


Remember I told you that we heard a horrible horrendous noise overnight from Friday night to Saturday morning? Let's look and see what it was, shall we? See that tree going horizontally across the picture? I didn't rotate the picture, that's half of our cypress tree (either split in half or one side of two trunks) that got thrown to the deck rail because of the gigantic tree limb that came down on it from our neighbor's tree. What you can't see is yet another gigantic limb a little ways away on the ground.


Part 2 of that image is what is left of the upright cypress, with an empty space to the right where the rest of the tree used to be. Also, I enjoy the lovely green and white of winter against the gorgeous blue of the sky behind it.


Part 3 of that image is the damage you can see from where the neighbor's tree limb broke off. If you saw it live, you'd see not only the broken limb left behind, but that below it is one of the two actual snapped limbs (it's a couple of inches below the broken stump left on the tree). This is where the broken limb is resting on part of our tree, which is what made the crashing noise when our tree (we think it's still attached, just horribly bent over) hit our deck.


This is the back corner of our yard. You can't really tell, but those trees are pretty well buried by the almost 3' of snow we got.


On our way back into the house after today's exercise in the backyard (which as I noted did pay off eventually), The Giant heard and then saw a woodpecker. I attempted to capture it on film, and got what I thought was a really cool picture. Do note the beautiful blue sky as a background, and the dumb tree that already has spring growth on it. Hee.


I have more pictures from Saturday, but they're from inside the house, which means through a window. So they didn't come out so great.

Anyway, we're still snowed in, without a plow in sight. And based on the word choice the HoCo government is using on their website (and the plow tracker page), we might not expect to see plows until tomorrow night or Tuesday. And we should damn well be happy about it, apparently. Personally, I can't say I'm thrilled. I'd be less unhappy if they'd used nicer language, rather than making us all feel like crap that they're working day and night because we're asking them to. Last I checked, we don't control the weather, or the amount of snow we get. Should be interesting to know if we get dug out before we get more snow on Tuesday night.

Who ISN'T blogging about this humongous storm?

Last night, when everything started, I took a couple of pictures thinking, Isn't that tree beautiful! Then we went to sleep. Then at 4:15 a.m. this morning, I awoke (as did The Princess) to a horrendous noise...and initially I thought a roof had caved in either in our house or our neighbors house. I rushed from window to window on our second floor (after waking The Giant and saying "DID YOU HEAR THAT?!") to see if I could find the damage. I saw nothing, nor did I hear any sirens or or ruckus from the neighbors. But when I looked out the back window at the yard, I was promptly creeped out.

It wasn't dark out, it was gray and heavy and oddly silent. The very tall pine trees in our yard had branches that were weighed down by snow, making them look like giants with their arms hanging limply at their sides. And at their tops? They swayed gently, if weirdly heavily. It was creepy as all get-out. Maybe it was my sleepy (and sleep-deprived) state, but the whole thing was eerie and gave me the shivers. When I got back to the bedroom, I tried to explain it to The Giant, but he mostly grunted and burrowed further into the covers.

The Princess was on high alert, which is never a good thing for her anxiety. I was on high alert because everything was creepy and snowy and unknown (the noise). Fortunately, though, both of us fell back asleep and one of us slept in.

But poor Giant had to get up at 7 a.m. this morning to dig out the deck and a path into the yard for The Princess. And even worse, we're pretty sure (though he was digging a lot of the time and isn't positive) she didn't even go. The Giant tells me the snow was up the height of the deck, so finding the stairs down was "fun." Apparently they went out again later, but still without success. Just before lunch, The Giant went back out to clear off our heat pump...and he did so by just slogging through the waist high (and he's 6'4" tall!) snow to do so. While he was doing that, I let The Princess out, but she refused to leave the deck and came back to our sliding glass door. So I stomped into my snow boots (without socks), grabbed The Giant's leather jacket and an umbrella (don't judge me!), and went out with her. I ushered her off the deck into the path The Giant had carved for her before he went to "find" the heat pump, and I ordered her to go. You might find it amusing, but we have a command word for her to pee, which comes in handy when it's raining or storming or snowing. If she has to go and you give her the command, after a minute or two, she will actually go. So I stood a few feet away from her and directed her to go, which she did...at length. So The Giant and I felt better, and all three of us clomped back into the house, dragging drifts of snow in with us. As a treat, I microwaved some leftover plain brown rice for The Princess, which I sprinkled warm onto her food to praise her for doing her thing. Then The Giant and I had lunch and watched the news (meaning the weather). We also heard the newscaster say that the Postal Service waved their white flag and is not delivering mail today. Neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night...but snowmaggedon is another subject apparently.

After lunch, The Giant went out and cleared out a big circle area for The Princess to, uh, poop. But she's picky about that on a good day, so as we expected, she refused, and the two of them came back in. Eventually, though, we're sure she'll get desperate enough to just go.

Now, back to that horrendous noise outside at 4 a.m. Apparently a tree in our neighbor's yard (a large pine) lost a big limb, which tumbled into one of our cypress trees. We're not sure if the cypress had two trunks and the giant limb fell in between the two of them, or if the pine branch actually broke the cypress. It's too snowy to tell, and we can't get over to that area. Of course, the pine branch is half-resting on a railing of our deck, which isn't fun, but at least we don't see any major damage. Additionally, one of the neighbor's tree branches (it's like an oak tree, we think) broke off and fell onto our fence. So either or both could have contributed to the overnight noise. We're just happy nothing hit the house...at least not enough to do structural damage. We can't get over to that side of the house to look, so it could have damaged our siding, but we're otherwise in tact.

And the snow keeps coming. Based on what we see out there with our fence, and with The Giant tromping through the snow, I suspect we have at least 30". It's a little hard to tell because of all the blowing we've had, but the height piled up is pretty amazing. When it's all said and done, who the hell knows what the real numbers will be. Except we know it'll be high.

Fast Company online also speaks very succinctly about the issue with Amazon and Macmillan books.

They boiled it down to: Amazon hates you.

No surprise to me that Amazon hates everyone...except themselves.

Link: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/...page_newsletter

LOVED this post, sent on to me by The Giant regarding the MacMilllan debacle over the weekend.

You all know how I feel about Amazon, and I absolutely loved the title of the post, which is why I borrowed it for my post title.

Petulant foot-stomping. Gotta love it!

Read the whole article, and enjoy: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/01/all-...ed-the-weekend/

And don't buy from Amazon. They're clearly looking to screw everyone over, without notice, for any issue they feel like getting ticked off about.

I'm so stoked that The Player is now available! And as usual, my blog readers see it first! Official release date isn't until Monday, so get yer copies before everyone else!

Here are the details, people!

Check out this cover:


Back cover text:


Don't forget that you can still get The Crooner, which is the first book in the Bandmates series!

GO BUY NOW!
Ebook
Trade Paperback

(Free read)

I'm really excited that The Player is almost ready to be released. And in fact, I might release it EARLY. You heard me, I said EARLY. So be prepared...

In the meantime, here's the cover art. (Tah-dah!)


And a reminder of the back cover text:

And because you know how much I love you guys, here's the sneak peek at the first chapter.

Don't forget that you can still get The Crooner, which is the first book in the Bandmates series!

Watch this space for early release information!

Gee, have I mentioned I have a new series of books out?

Yee-ah. The first in the series was The Crooner, which was released last January (of 2009). Nik was the lead in that book, as well as the lead singer in the band, and I enjoyed him immensely. He was fun to write, and I like his laid-back style and confidence. He's a guy who would be fun to hang out with, amazing to listen to while he's tickling the ivories (one of his favorite past-times), and he's a perfect front-man for the band that he co-founded.

The second book in the series is The Player, due out the end of this month. The lead in this book, Brage (pronounced like plague), was a little tougher for me to write, because he has two pretty distinct personalities. He's a brooder, but really only when he's alone. In a group, he likes to be the life of the party, and spends the majority of his time flirting with women. He's tall, dark, handsome, and built like a wrestler, but he knows how to treat a woman right. The problem is, he's happy to treat that woman, and that woman, and that woman...without committing to much of anything. And the women let him get away with it, because who wouldn't want to be with the hot and hunky bass guitar player, who's been said to know how to confidently play a woman like the bass he cradles in his hands during every concert. But Brage isn't necessarily happy, and recent events have him feeling a little skittish. Don't know what I'm talking about? You better go pick up and read The Crooner, so you know what he's dealing with.

Anyway, Brage is definitely a man to be reckoned with. Here's the blurb for The Player.


Hope you're tantalized. Come back soon to see the sneak peek at the cover art, and the first chapter. Woo-hoo!

I'm pleased as all get-out to announce a new addition to our Draumr Publishing family...Sandra Bruney!

I've actually been talking to and working with Sandra for a while now (over a year!) because I felt such a passion for her book. It's pretty rare that we reject a book that I then end up thinking about time and again. This is what happened with Sandy's book...it really touched me, but at the time, it wasn't ready for publication with us. Thankfully, Sandy was persistent, and after several revisions, we were more than happy to offer her a contract. So this book that has stayed with me for over a year will finally be coming to light with Draumr.

I don't want to give too much away yet, but I'm looking forward to sharing more about Sandy and her book with everyone soon.

Until then, there are more updates coming on Draumr's upcoming release, written by me! I'll be sharing the back cover text for The Player next week. Then soon after, the cover art. Then soon after that, the book!

Hope everyone had a great holiday season, and that 2010 is fabulous for us all.

I've been scattered and scarce for a couple several weeks, and I know it. We've been on a bit of a roller coaster ride that I thought would be ending soon, but has now been extended into February. Fortunately, though the issues that have had me going coo-coo in la cabesa are coming to an end, I hope.

Here's the thing...for the past 2-3 years, we've been looking for property on which to build a new home.

That's crazy, you're crazy, don't be insane!

Yeah, I know. But do realize we started this looking process almost THREE YEARS AGO. Before the recession, before housing prices bottomed out, and etc. And we're not looking alone...we've been hoping to find something big enough to sub-divide (or buy connecting lots) so my parents can build a new home for themselves (and The Brother and The Loaner). Well, finally, a couple of months ago, we found property, and we started the arduous process of putting a contract on it and getting an engineering study. The contract is in, the study is still on-going. But in the meantime, to prepare for the financial part of it, we've been discussing house plans with a local builder. It's most efficient (and economical) to start with floor plans that your builder has, and make any modifications you want to those pre-made plans.

So my 'splainin' is this...I've been positively obsessed and possessed by floor plans. Over the past almost 3 years, I've been looking for, and designing my own, perfect floor plan. But with the choice of a builder, I had to basically start from scratch with one of his floor plans. And then I had to figure out how to make it our own. Which involved hours and hours and hours of time and concentration. That along with regular work here at Draumr has made me a little nuts and scattered. Add on top of that working with an architect to make the changes to the plans, and all the holidays, and keeping track of the engineers and the agents and the plans and the ideas--all with a very short deadline looming... Just thinking about it is making me cross-eyed.

But hey, we're coming to the end of the major portion of the design process. I've sent our last changes to the architect, who will finish the drawings and send them to the builder to review. Hopefully the builder will take one look at the modified plans and pronounce them perfection.

Bonus to the recession, property prices did come down a tiny bit (not nearly as much as houses), and interest rates are low. But there's always the down side of the recession...which I know I don't have to 'splain to anyone.

So now it's more focused, less scattered, and time to get my next book in the Bandmates series out there. I'm only trying to get my back cover text done, put final touches on the cover design, and it's a go! Yay!

I don't know how much updating I'll do about our buying/building process, but maybe every now and then I'll drop a note. I suspect it's going to be long and even more arduous than the floor plan design process...but at least it won't be crammed into a couple of weeks in order to fit into a short deadline.

Wishful thinking, I know.

Yeah, we generally stay home for new year's eve, preferring the comfort of our home to the cold and crowds that wander elsewhere. S'all good.

Besides, if there are fireworks in the area or the neighborhood, The Princess gets upset. So we'd rather be here than have her alone.

Meanwhile, to everyone, a safe and happy new year's eve! And may the new year be full of health, happiness, and prosperity in whatever way you would like to receive it.