On Book Publishing and Book Reviews

The fog we had earlier this morning is beginning to burn away.  A little sunshine might peek through this morning, but that's iffy.  The forecast is giving us an 88% chance of rain and thunderstorms.  This is a replay of yesterday, though yesterday, while our temps rose, they didn't climb as high as our dew point, that reached 73.  The high dew point made our "real feel" temp a toasty 103 (F).

And yesterday, with that dew point, I was out back cutting up branches and running them through my wood chipper.  Believe me when I tell you that sweating was easy.  I could have wrung out my T-shirt.  But branches were cut, chopped, and chipped, and that's what's important.  Rehydration was prioritized since dehydration can be life threatening.

And here's a warning for all of you writers out there:  beware of phony publishers and reviewers.  I work with a gentleman whose wife wrote a book and instead of going through the process of self-publishing, went with a "publisher." She sends the publisher money and in return gets suggestions for edits.  This will continue until she stops sending them money.  As for reviewers, every few weeks I'll get an email or a message on  Instagram from some one, or some group offering to "promote my books."  This promotion includes reviews posted on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads.  The first time I was contacted I said "Wow!" and then I did my research.  Paying someone or some group to post a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads will get your book banned, and they have some serious algorithms that can detect fake reviews.  The last off I got was from some scammer calling themselves Booknbones.  There is a legitimate Books and Bones publisher, who publishes medical books, there is, however no Booknbones.  And if you do get contacted, research, research, research.  When I typed Booknbones into my search I got Scam, Scam, Scam.

And my mini-chainsaw arrived yesterday.

Andy Ogles lost his primary yesterday and will not be returning to Congress.  For those who don't know, Andy's a hate monger.  He's a white supremacist from Tennessee.  He has shrieked his anger against, Muslims, gays, and others on a daily basis.  In spite of Orangie claiming that he was a great American, voters said "no way."

With Stevie Miller standing behind him, Orangie signed 2 more Executive Orders yesterday in an attempt to limit birthright citizenship.  This was after the Supreme Court told him to shut up and sit down on this subject.  This has become a standard Republican tactic.  If one attempt fails, try a subtle variation on the same theme.  They will do this over and over again because they simply are untrainable.

The Eggplant, The Rug, and The BBC

Our outside weather is a bit stinky winky.  We're looking at a temp of 75 (F) with very high humidity that's so thick your finest cottons stick to your skin.  Our high will be in the upper 80s (F).  There is the constant threat of storms, but nothing at all like what we had when the temps were in the upper 90s (F) and low 100s (F).  We are almost halfway through summer and, except for those 2 weeks of torrid temps and tornado like storms, the season has been relatively normal... at least  here in Central PA.

I got a decent upper body workout in yesterday morning.  We've added a few new exercises that I like and started doing leg extensions again.  No squats.  That's fine.

A lot of words were written yesterday, mostly because the threat of rain was to great for me to want to get my extension cords out.  All of my tools are either electric or battery powered.  I learned a long time ago, water and electric simply don't mix.

Tomato sauce is going to be made this afternoon.  This is a good thing.  Mine includes tomatoes, onions, spices, and a touch of wine.  

My schedule for the last week in August was posted yesterday.  I'm scheduled for 13.5 hours.  I had already scheduled the last of my vacation for that week, so I'll end up with 20 + hours.  That's fine.

And I know everyone wanted to see a picture of my eggplant, so here it is!  Impressive, isn't it?  Can you tell I'm very proud?

The only thing more impressive is the picture of Orangie's new rug.

I understand the color is Spun Gold.  And yes, he did wear this yesterday in Las Vegas, and no, this is not AI slop.

Even funnier than that thing on his head, is Orangie's lawsuit against the BBC.  He sued them, claiming their coverage of the January 6 riots led to his financial ruin.  The BBC. who know a shit bird when they see one, said "prove it!  Show us your financial records!"  He has until tomorrow to release the information and instead of doing that, he's running around shrieking and yelling as if that rug on his head was on fire, crying "no, no, no, you need to take my word for it."  And the BBC is having none of his shit.  I'm betting they're going to countersue because he actually did disparage and slander them.  Grab your popcorn.