It only took me ’til the twelfth of Never, but I have FINALLY now gotten my book cover site up and ready to fly. I have to start promoting it now, but figured if I don’t kick it out there at the end of NaNoWriMo, I might as well hang it all up. If y’all know anyone who’s writing for publication and needs a cover design, point ’em to customcoverpro.com. I’ve got 100 – yes, I finally got all 100! – pre-made designs, and of course can do custom designs also for print, eBooks and web banners. I’ve got something like 25 years of design under my belt, in umpteen venues. Design elements are thisclose to no-brainer work for me. I’d love ideally to be able to do that for my primary income and have some passive income filling in any gaps and pushing us ahead.
The passive idea is a great concept, but you have to have a viable product and reliable drop-ship supplier to make it happen. I still haven’t been able to pin down a product and I’ve been wracking my brain about it for eons. I talked to my son and he convinced me to work on a video game for one of the game systems, rather than something like an iPad/iPhone app. Yes, there are more iPhone users, but there are also tons of apps out there in direct competition. Not worth it.
Google Android might offer me some other alternatives but the same principle applies. There’s more competition than is worth the trouble.
I haven’t written much here for a number of reasons, among them 100 book cover designs. I’m fast, but not that fast.
I’m also still fighting my way back from the earlier health crisis, which became become pretty darned ugly. Renal failure, desiccation of my good cholesterol and other issues were just the appetizer. I was exhausted all the time, but didn’t realize how profound the fog was until it began to lift. So far this year I’m still hanging in there, but we’ll see how things go when all Hell breaks loose at work after the beginning of the year, which it always does. We’re already so busy it’s a crap shoot whether or not you can take a break or lunch. I shudder to think what it’s going to be like during our “busy” season.
My daughter may finally be moving out. She got a job as a caretaker for a disabled child, and her job is something like 50 miles from here. Throw in schooling and her own toddler to the mix and that kind of commute – in some cases twice a day – dictates she get something closer to work.
I hope it works out for her for so very many reasons, not the least of which is the godsend of having our own house back. The spousal unit doesn’t deal well with chaos and with the daughter and grandson living here, chaos is a daily fact. I’m stressed because if I had my ‘druthers, I’d prefer to eliminate about 99% of the crap stacked into every nook and cranny. Granted, my husband is a pack rat, but I can convince him to keep his crap in his office and the garage. The daughter and toddler grandson, not so much.
I actually cracked open my own book tonight, but not sure I’ve got the stamina or presence of mind to write anything that requires real thought. This entry is about the sum total of my literary capacity for the night.
We did our usual yard sale run today again, knowing we were scraping the proverbial bottom of the barrel. It was interesting for a couple of reasons. One, we left our normal stomping grounds, drove quite a distance to our furthest destination and didn’t find a lot there. Two, it was the absolute last weekend to hope for any real promise of finding deals. Once the holiday season kicks in, everyone’s too preoccupied with that to hold a yard sale.
Our first community sale was an abysmal failure. We were there at o’dark thirty this morning and found exactly two items before both G and I were ready to tear our hair out. It was a zoo, everything was grossly overpriced (at least from our perspective) and the layout of the complex was a proverbial maze. Not a good experience. We headed for our second (and what we assumed would be our primary) destination, but along the way pulled in to another community where there was a community-wide sale banner. It hadn’t been advertised so we didn’t know about it in advance, and it was pure serendipity to find it. We just happened to take that specific road. It also, as it turned out, provided us with some of the best deals of the day – at least, for the first several hours of the day.
When we hit unfamiliar territory it takes longer and the pricing structure is often a lot different. We still went to the community we’d originally planned to hit, and it was kind of a big, “Eh.” We got a couple of deals, but it definitely wasn’t worth the distance we traveled to get there.
On the way back we were just kind of buzzing through whenever we spied a sign, but not counting on much. We found a corner with three signs – which turned out to be another unadvertised community sale. I think we might have maybe spent $5 total there, at tops, for all of the stops. Among other things we brought home for that total was a new desk for me, a gorgeous piece that lets us dump some mismatched crap now taking up space in the bedroom. Throw in the fact that it was free and I think I’m going to be a very happy camper. We’ll see how it goes. G still has to put the desk together AND finish up the chair. The chair’s been on his to-do list for well over a month now and it’s still midway through sanding it down.
I’m hoping that by doing this desk and a chair, I can just use a footstool to keep my bad leg elevated and give my back a break. We’ll see how it actually works out in practice.
I’m ready for early retirement. I need to cash in a winning lottery ticket this week and claim about $150 million. Mind you, I need to buy the winning ticket first, which puts the onus on me. I’m the living incarnation of the dumb blond joke that posits a blond praying to win the lottery, and the Almighty booming back, “You need to buy a ticket first.” Yep, my blond roots still show now and then.