Can we say ewwww?

So I'm looking through some old blog posts and I found one that had me chuckling so I thought I'd share. It has nothing to do with writing but it will give you a glimpse into the real me. This was posted in May of 2008 when I was part of the Magic Mavens. It's all about my fear of cockroaches or waterbugs. And yes, I still have a healthy dislike of the critters. The image below is from Wikipedia.

EWWWW. We all have our little fears. Some are sillier than others I suppose, but one of my biggest fears is the cockroach. My DH finds that terribly amusing because I'm so big compared to the brown bug. However, they just gross me out. I always have to call DH to come kill the darn things whenever I come across one. I think it has to do with a childhood experience in which a junebug crawled up my slip. I couldn't strip fast enough. I know - junebugs and cockroaches aren't really in the same league but .... Then there was the time in our first home when I was literally attacked three times by cockroaches. They fly and the first one flew off the ceiling to land on my chest. It landed hard enough to awaken me from a dead sleep. I sat up, screamed, woke my DH, woke the cat and preceded to go on a cockroach hunt as I wouldn't be able to sleep until it was dead. No worries, mission accomplished. So - I go back to sleep only to wake up to the same exact thing happening. After taking care of the second attack cockroach, I fell into a fitful sleep. Sure enough, another one started to fly about, hitting the side of the wall. That was it. No more sleep that night. I'm not talking your small house roaches. I'm talking those giant waterbugs. Creepy.

So - last night, I get up to go to the bathroom and as I push open the door, there it is, on the edge of the door. The biggest, yuckiest cockroach I've seen in a long time. I freeze. Finally, I close the door ever so gently. I don't want the bugger flying at me. I do my business, keeping a watchful eye on the beast, but when I'm done, I'm faced with a dilemma. If I open the door with the light on, I'll wake DH. No way am I going to turn the light off first and then open the door because that will give the waterbug a chance to move in my direction. I can't swat him. The sound will wake hubby. I know - you're thinking that it didn't stop me from waking him that other time, but he had to get up at 5:00AM for work and he hadn't slept in three days. Nope. I'm NOT going to wake my husband. And of course, there's no spray in the cabinet.

Oh, but wait. There is spray -- hairspray. So, I very cautiously pick up the hairspray, aim and squirt. Well, it didn't kill it, but at least he moved in the opposite direction. Well hidden beneath a towel, I was able to skirt around him, turn off the light, open the door and run for the bed.

I fell into a light sleep only to be awakened by the cat. She was amused by something and chased it about the room for a good hour. I only hope she got the bloody beast.

My philosophy on Book Signings

I've done several book signings in the past, all with varied success. My usual operating procedure is to have my Eppie Award on display, provide bookmarks to pass out, offer a variety of candy and sell my books for $10.00 each.

I buy my books from either Lulu.com or Amazon.com at full price. I usually buy from Lulu when they are offering one of their sales as this generally covers the cost of postage. The reason I purchase at full price  is so it will show in the count for my publisher or on Amazon. When I get my royalty for the sale, it makes the book less and fairly close to what I would have paid had I gone through my publisher.

That said, each book is about $11.95 or $14.95 so I either lose a little or break even. (I also have to pay state tax on each sale but that's nominal)

This weekend, we had a great turn out of the Houston Indie Book Festival. In a split decision, I changed gears. I sold my books for $5.00 each. Had I not set the price so low, I would have only sold maybe 3 but probably only 2. Most stopped and took a second look when they were told the price. I took a loss for each sale but ... I don't spend any money on promotional geegaws that most folks end up throwing in the trash. In my mind, the difference equated to promotion.

I always say, "one reader at a time." I'm hoping for a domino effect. If they read it and like it, they'll buy more. Most of the readers who bought, claimed they did not own an e-reader and preferred to read paper. They wanted to know if they could purchase more of my paperbacks from a bookstore. I directed them to go to the publisher's webpage or Amazon.

For the readers who didn't buy today, they went home with a bookmark and information and a reminder that first chapters were offered for free through my website or through the e-book providers like Amazon or B&N. I actually had 4 times the amount of traffic I usually have to my website.

Houston Indie Book Festival

Well it's been forever and a day since I posted here mainly because school has kept me very busy and I've been writing! Yay me. I have over 70,000 words now for the sequel to The Keeper of Moon Haven. My goal is to have the rough finished by the time I get out of school. That will give me June to polish and submit to my publisher, Champagne Books.

In the meantime, I'm going to be signing books at the Houston Indie Book Festival. So excited. It's been a year since I've done a book signing. And I get to join forces with fellow Champagne author, Linda LaRoque.

So, y'all come out and say hello. Would love to meet new friends, authors and readers.