Goofing Off – Page 6 – Sharon Lee, Writer

In which there is dismay and confusion

It’s being something of a zoo this week here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

On Monday, we did a lovely Skype interview with John Mierau at Patreon, which will be going up on youtube, in the fullness of time. We’ll let y’all know when it’s available.

Today, the generator guy came and scoped out The Situation. He was supposed to have come by on Tuesday, but. . .didn’t. I’m not sure what’s with that, but I remember a wise man once told me that contractors run on their own time. Anyhow, he promises an estimate this week, so that’s in process.

In and around these generally benign events, I have been having. . .discussions, as in multiple hour-long phone calls with the ACA and the local health insurer, Community Health Options. Which has officially been No Fun At All.

First, I got a phone call from the ACA on Monday morning, wherein I was informed that, since I had submitted a Change of Income, the person making my new eligibility determination noticed that I had not “attested to” last year’s income. I needed to call a representative, she said, and do that. Any rep who answered the phone would be able to do that.

. . .Now, I actually know better than this, because I had been for many years a secretary, and I am Very Aware that, when the instructions include a variation of, “Call this person, say this, and they will know exactly what you mean” — they won’t. No one will know anything even approaching what I mean, and if I have not elicited Actual Hard Facts that bear directly on What This is Actually About from the person for whom I am making the call, it will end up taking days to resolve this One Really Simple Thing.

With that said — no, the rep who answered the phone on Tuesday at the ACA had no idea what “attesting” to last year’s income was, nor did her supervisor. Her supervisor, however, recalculated my eligibility, which was not what I wanted, at all. I wrote a letter, explaining what had happened, and why, and logged into the ACA website to upload it — only to find that, if the ACA isn’t expecting to receive documentation from you? There is no option to upload documents.

Unwisely, then, I tried to go into my (new) application and see if there wasn’t something there. . .got twisted around and called the ACA back, hoping they’d bail me out.

The rep I spoke to this time also didn’t know what “attesting” income was, and said that 2014’s income was completely beside the point, this being 2015. She also told me that the ACA representative who had handled my first policy change, back in July, when Steve went on Medicare, had just cut my Best Guess at Income for both of us in half, and had figured my monthly payment/subsidies from there, and that this was Utterly Wrong.

Apparently, we still count Steve’s income, even though he’s on Medicare and I’m only looking for a policy for myself, and that! amount! put me over all the subsidy limits, and — long story short — it appears that, because of this, my insurance has been canceled. If it hasn’t been canceled, I’ll be in the happy position of having to pay something on the order of $2,000/month for health insurance, but I can’t find the amount for certain, because Community Health Options only allows access to its plan descriptions and prices during Open Enrollment, which this is not.

Today, I was supposed to call CHO to find out if, in fact, my insurance is canceled, and — if it has been, what do I do now? if it hasn’t, how much will it cost to maintain the policy?

I did not make that phone call today; since I had lots of leftover frustration from yesterday to work with. Today, I refined a scene that I’d written over the weekend, and then wrote a few more words in a forwarder direction.

Tomorrow, I will have to call CHO, and try to straighten this out, and, man, am I looking forward to that. Not.

In the meantime, the nights are getting seriously chilly and the day-temps aren’t really exerting themselves above the middish 70sF, so, yes, winter is coming. And very possibly with bells on.

And, to pay you for your patience in allowing me to vent, have a look at this place — a college of fools, just outside of Paris. Here’s the link.

Last Saturday night I got married; me and my wife settled down

All righty, then! You say you forgot to pre-order a signed copy of A Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume 3 from Uncle Hugo’s?

Well, honestly; what can I say to that?

Oh, wait! I know what to say to that!

Of the 200 Constellation Threes that Steve and I personally signed with our own personal names, with copious assistance from the Feline Contingent, Uncle Hugo has about 30 left.

So if you want that signed copy, run, do not walk to Uncle Hugo’s website — here’s your link — and order your book now, because you know they’re gonna go like hotcakes.

Today, Steve and I were out, walking — well, actually, driving — up and down the world, and we decided that, since we were hungry, we’d get lunch. As we were in Augusta, we thought we’d try the new Italian place on Water Street. We found a parking place right in front, got out, looked at the sign on the door with the hours (in Maine, in the summer, most especially on Friday, you Just Don’t Know what’s going to be open), saw that we fell in the sweet spot of after 11:30 am and before 11 pm, pushed open the door, strolled in to the very pleasant dining room. . .

. . .where we were greeted by the manager, who said, “I’m sorry, but we’re not open.”

We mentioned the sign, and the fact that the door was open.

“Yes,” he said. “I am sorry; we try to do lunch, but last night — we had a really good crowd last night, and they ate all our food. The chef just went out to go shopping.”

Ah.

We nodded, and wished the young man a nice day, got in the car and went to hunt and gather elsewhere*.

So ends today’s adventure.

Hope everyone has a wonderful, and stress-free weekend.

Today’s blog post brought to you by The Weavers (Ghod, my mother had this exact sheet music; I learned to play the song FROM this exact sheet music), “Goodnight, Irene.” Here’s your link.

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*Which turned out to be Ruby Tuesday, in Waterville, where we had a very pleasant meal in a quiet after-lunch restaurant, which made the lady who stopped at the table to geek out over my hair even. . .more astonishing. I’d forgotten that my hair is purple today. . .

When I see the future, I close my eyes

First, we’ll take a look at the past.

In the recent past — yesterday, in fact — Steve celebrated the 65th anniversary of his natal day. Here’s a picture of him with a couple of party guests:

Steve (in flowered shirt), Catbus, Totoro. July 31 2015. Picture by Sharon Lee

In keeping with the Cat Farm’s well-earned reputation for housing party animals, we partied hearty. Some of us, heartier than others:

Sprite

Going a little further into the past, here’s a fascinating slide show of the Baltimore that was. I don’t remember all of the places shown, but I do remember an astonishing number of them. There’s even a picture of the General Motors Assembly Plant on Broening Highway, in Canton, where my father worked for many, many years, as a spot-welder. This may be of interest to those who ask where Surebleak “came from.” It came from Baltimore, folks.

Putting our gaze now firmly on the present and near future, I have today received a notification from the people who review our health insurance provider’s “formulary” that they will no longer be covering my thyroid medicine — levothyroxine. They will be requiring me to accept an alternate — synthroid. I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever received such a notification from a health insurance company. On the other hand, I’m fortunate in that I don’t take very many medicines, so maybe this is A Thing.

Here’s what’s funny, though. When I first started with the underachieving thyroid, my doctor prescribed synthroid, which I liked as much as anyone can like a drug they have to take for a chronic medical condition. Such relationships are, at best, complicated. But! The insurance company at the time did the thing that I’m Very Familiar with, that being the notification that they weren’t paying for any fancy-schmancy name brand medicines. The generic would do me — and all the rest of the people in the network who took thyroid medicine — just fine. If I wanted to, I could continue with the name brand medicine, but I would pay full price for it, which I couldn’t afford, so it was levothyroxine for me.

. . .which, at the time — we’re talking years ago, here — I thought didn’t work as well. Pooh-pooh, said the insurance company, generics work just as well — in some cases, they work better! — than name brand medicines; stop making a fuss.

(Honestly, I was required by the day-job to attend two presentations about medications given by our then-insurance-company, and the Utter Contempt displayed for name brand medicines was really off-putting. You’d think name brand medicines were one step below Mrs. Pinkham’s Medicinal Compound. What’s with that?)

In addition, this change comes at an. . .interesting time, when we’re trying to work out exactly the right dose of thyroid meds I need to function correctly, using levothyroxine, which will no longer be available to me, starting, um, today. The letter from the formulary counsels me to get with my health care provider and have her write me a prescription for the new drug. Which. . .OK, though that does raise the issue of cost. It’ll be hard to beat the price I paid for my last refill of levothyroxine, which was $0.

So, all of that. Time for me to get to work, since I’ve already done the vacuuming.

On deck today, Author Commentary for the final chapter of Shan and Priscilla Ride Again, and more work on Droi, which will eventually be part of The Gathering Edge.

Why, yes, even in the midst of All This Excitement, we’re writing a book. Because we’re just that awesome.

In order to reward the two people who managed to read all the way down to here — I offer two songs.

The first, which brings you the title of today’s blog post, Excellent Birds, Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel. Here’s your link.

The second comes from the Irish Rovers, Lily the Pink. Here’s that link.

More on the Grand Experiment

So, yesterday, I submitted the epub edition of Writing Neep to Smashwords, as planned. Probably predictably Smashwords fussed that the cover was too small, so I had to upload a bigger image. Then it told me the book was published, but I couldn’t find it in my dashboard, so this morning, I re-re-uploaded the book, and it is now showing on the dashboard, as published and pending review.

So, yay, right?

Wrong.

Yesterday, a friend reminded me that Smashwords, in addition to all of the rest of its annoyances, large and small, requires that Certain Particular Holy Words be placed on the copyright page, something like “This is a Certified Smashwords Edition,” or…something. Which brands the book as coming from the Smashwords Distribution Empire, and bully for them, but which also means that No Standard Copyright Page will satisfy them. You cannot put the Holy Words on a page of their own, they must be in a particular place on the copyright page, and the words must be exact.

I had of course forgotten this, but what it means is that the book will not pass Real Human Vetting.

I am therefore calling it quits with Smashwords’ storefront and distribution empire. The books that are on Smashwords will stay there, but I will not be adding new books. I’m sorry about that, because I, like some of you, like to have alternatives to pubbing to Kindle and Nook; OTOH, Smashwords and I simply can’t reach an accommodation.

(Yes, I’m aware that millions of people every day pub to Smashwords and adore it. I am not one of those people, and since I don’t use Word, Smashwords’ decision to base their entire conversion process on a bloated, buggy word processor works very much against me.)

So, that.

Last night, Steve and I watched “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” and had a good time with it. This morning, we’re doing catch-up with a variety of tasks, including getting Chapter Fourteen of Shan and Priscilla Ride Again ready to upload tomorrow, and doing some side-laundry. I need to get with Sprite a little later and give her mane a trim under her chin where it wisps up into her mouth and gets made into little, soggy corkscrews of fur.

Also, the ribs still giving me back-chat, as they are, some careful stretching, and some time out in the comfy chair with The Golden Hawk, which I started yesterday. My goodness, it does get on its bike and ride, doesn’t it? And, despite a few eye-rollers like the first mate wondering, given the notoriety of their ship and captain, how the crew can expect to land at Xtown to satisfy their “manly needs,” it’s really very readable. Mr. Yerby knew how to write sentences, so he did.

Monday sadly requires phone calls, and I’ve got to get to the bottom of this desk, which has become chaotic again, mostly with Mundane Matters. I wonder if there’s room in this house for a House Desk, so I can dedicate my desk to writing. Too much to ask? Yeah, probably so.

So! Off to do battle with the to-do list. I hope everyone has a restful Sunday afternoon.

Warrior Princess Jasmine Sprite reposing among her trophies

More on ISBNs; self-pubs take note!

So, I girded up my electronic loins and went over to Bowker (https://www.myidentifiers.com/), to buy me some International Standard Book Numbers, and I found that (1) Bowker is having a Moon Landing Sale — 10% off bulk orders of ISBNs and (2) for the purpose of this sale, a block of 10 ISBNs qualifies as “bulk.” ISBNs are still stupidly expensive ($125 for ONE number? C’mon, guys.), but a $29.50 discount for 10 is still, yanno 10%.

As part of this exercise, Bowker — which has become Quite the Source for Self-Pubbing Services — asked me to take a survey, which I did.

One of the questions on the survey was: What is your primary reason for writing?

And the answers in the drop-down box were as follows:

1. NONE
2. I don’t write; I’m a publisher
3. Self-Expression
4. Religious/Evangelical
5. I want to be a professional author
6. Lead generation for my business endeavors
7. Advance self professionally/in my career/as a thought leader
8. I am an academic professional
9. It has always been my dream to write (because I love children *cough* sorry ’bout that. SL)
10. Hobby

Notice anything missing here?

It astonishes me that no one who buys ISBNs from Bowker writes primarily because they ARE a professional writer. Just. . .wow.

The to-do list is winning; the health insurance has turned ugly again, and will require a call-back, but I made the first call, dammit, and I’m claiming it.

1. ~~Brush three cats~~
2. ~~Untangle banking glitch~~
3. Make correx to ebook
4. Try one more cover design for ebook
5. ~~Buy ISBNs (which I’ve been putting off; for some reason, cost of ISBNs is really bugging me)~~
6. ~~Call the health insurance company and fuss about the incorrect invoice~~
7. There’s probably something else, but this’ll do to get me started

You can make a break, you can win or lose

So, yesterday. . .

Though it was better, it was obvious that the knee I’d fallen on last week was not progressing in the best way possible, so I bit the bullet and made an appointment with my doctor. First appointment was late afternoon, so I downloaded Patty Briggs’ Dead Heat as insurance that I would stay in the comfy chair until it was time to go, and so it came to pass.

The doctor agreed that matters might be moved along a bit more spritely, and prescribed a Brother to Penicillin. I managed two pills (out of a possible four) yesterday, and this morning, the swelling is gone, the redness is gone, and much of the lingering pain is gone. So — yay! Now, of course, I need to finish the course of the antibiotic, to Be Sure, but it was ever thus, with antibiotics.

On the positive side of medical news, the business with the Radiology Department last week, returns a negative, so I don’t at this point in time appear to have cancer. Also, yay!

Today’s to-do list is a little busy — this is what happens when you take An Entire Day in the comfy chair.

I hope everybody has a pleasant and fulfilling day.

Today’s blog title brought to you by Mr. Glenn Frey, “The Heat is On.” Here’s your link.

Updates and Appeals

Asking favors first:

1. If you’re one of those speed-readin’ ebook-buyin’ folks, who have already purchased and devoured A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume III, please consider writing a reader review at Goodreads, BN, Amazon, Baen, or the site of your choice. Early reader reviews help potential readers/buyers of the paper edition, and those who may be on the fence about purchasing the e-edition to make up their minds. Thank you for your help.

2. In case, you missed yesterday’s post, the deadline for order Tree-and-Dragon shirts is fast approaching. Off-World Designs will be screenprinting and embroidering the order they have in hand by the end of next week, at which time, they’ll start “saving up” orders until they have enough to make up a new batch. Here’s your link to the Korval items at Offworld Design. NOTE: This link takes you to a search page. In order to learn more about each shirt, and/or to order, you have to click on the shirt of your dreams; this action will take you to a detail page.

3. I recently did an interview on behalf of A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume III, for the Baen Free Radio Hour. (In case you missed it, here’s the link.) This, oh, I don’t know — the dozenth? — podcast we/me/he have done, and we’re always pleased to be asked. But! We’re soliciting listener feedback. Are these presentations useful/entertaining for you? What do you listen for? What background information would you like to hear more about/less about? And the ever-popular etcetera.

So endeth the appeals.

* * *

Updatery. . .

Let’s see: Steve got home late enough on Thursday that by the time the pizza was gone, and the bottle empty, it was Friday. The cats are re-sorting themselves in order to provide coverage for two humans, and I’m feeling a little less under pressure to be All Things to All Coon Cats. Scrabble, of course, has long held the belief that I can take care of myself, with a little gentle poking from time to time; her primary mission is Steve, and she’s now back on the job full-time.

The preordered Constellations destined to be signed by us and then sent on to Uncle Hugo’s to be mailed, which were supposed to have arrived earlier in the week. . .have not yet arrived. There seems to be some confusion about Just When they will arrive; more news, perhaps, on Monday.

The result of my last visit to the vampyres has been read, and my thyroid medicine has thereby been adjusted upward another smidge, with a third blood test to scrutinize the serum levels in six weeks. Here’s the thing, though: the thyroid numbers themselves were normal, which they have been, since forever; but the numbers indicating how much hormone the pituitary gland is having to push out in order to make the thyroid do its thing is still elevated; the increase in meds is to try to take some of the pressure off of the pituitary.

What else?

My ribs still hurt, sigh, though the knee hardly hurts at all; and! it’s rainy and cool here in beautiful Central Maine, with thunderstorms due to start rolling in around 1:00. Tomorrow, the weatherbeans say the temperatures will leap back into the mid-to-high 80s(F/29C), so I’ll just revel in 69F/21C today, thanks.

In other news, I have a whole stack of dance videos here, and I’m thinking maybe I’ll just lay on the couch and watch other people exercise while I listen to the rain. That’s a good use of a rainy Saturday, ain’t it?

Everybody have a good weekend.

Oh! Steve brought me flowers yesterday. Aren’t they pretty?

Red vase with flower. Photo by Sharon Lee

In which the errands win

ATTENTION EBOOK READERS: Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume 3 now available in full from Baen and from the Kindle Store. EDITED TO ADD: And in the Nook Store.

* * *

I did not have a restful night, thanks to the bruised ribs deciding that their interests had been neglected. About 4:00 a.m. Trooper arrived on the bed, surveyed the situation, administered head-butts, and stretched out back-to-back with me. Honest to ghu, it’s like sleeping with a German shepherd. Except German shepherd’s don’t purr. Trooper has a Most Satisfying purr, and I was probably asleep inside of three minutes, to wake, at 8:30 limber enough to get the trash out to the road before the town truck went by.

Breakfast included two aspirin; after they kicked in, I drove Kineo to the Post Office and retrieved the package waiting for me there — a softcover edition of The Beast of the Rails, Book One of the Second Journey of Agatha Heterodyne, and! a signed photo of Bangladesh Dupree, suitable for framing, a bookmark, a Transylvania Polynostic University Student ID, and a. . .something. A paper medal depicting Agatha atop a Bear, as it runs at a Toothy Mechanical Dragon. Agatha is holding a lance.

The rest of the errands included picking up prescriptions at CVS, and completing the grocery shopping I had let slide on Tuesday, because — ouch.

I am now home, and exhausted, and trying to decide if I should have lunch before I take a nap, or forget about lunch and just go straight to nap.

I had hoped to get more done this week. Silly me.

In other news, it’s a truly gorgeous day here in Central Maine — Sunny, dry, and about 71F/22C. Really a perfect day to go for a drive. . .or maybe not.

I have heard from Steve; he’s on the road and heading Maine-ward. Depending on roadwork/detours and other summertime travel hazards, he could be home this evening.

And now?

I’m going to. . .*flips coin*

Go take a nap.

Catching up is hard to do

Well, let’s make the attempt, anyway.

I have finished reading both Dragon in Exile (#3200 in Books>Literature & Fiction>Literary on Amazon.com LOL), and Alliance of Equals (scheduled for publication in hardcover July-ish 2016. Hoping to forestall the inevitable: USUALLY the eArc, if there is one, is offered from Baen 3-4 months ahead of hard copy publication). I find that Dragon does solve a problem that has been on the board since I Dare, advances both bishops and at least one knight, and puts the rook in a more advantageous position. Which is to say, yes, Stuff Happens. IMHO, of course.

Stuff also Happens in Alliance of Equals, and! byerlady, I’m betting that Stuff will happen in The Gathering Edge, which will, in part, take us back to Surebleak. It will still, I fear, be a novel in which more than one character will be precipitating the Stuff that Happens, but that’s what we’ve got, this arc.

So, that.

Yesterday, Steve and I were waked early by clucking, and by Belle in Huntress Crouch in the bedroom’s back window. We looked out to find four adult turkeys and about 20 chicks marching single-file along the edge of the grass and the wild-land. I grabbed Sprite, and then Trooper, and took them to my office window, which overlooks the same section of our property, and we watched until we thought all of them had made a left hand turn into the weeds and trees just beyond the end of the house. We kept to the window, listening to the clucking — and here came one more chick, peeping anxiously, clearly lost. He stared around him, appeared to hear the peeping of the band, but not sure of his direction, took the air, landed in a birch tree more or less where the rest of the band had taken their left, apparently got his bearings and leapt into the air, heading for the head of the line.

Well! You don’t get that kind of excitement every day, and, since we were awake, anyway, and it was a beautiful day, we drove down to the ocean, arriving just as the tide turned from low to high.

We walked on the beach at OOB for an hour or so, picnicked at Pine Point, then drove down to Wells, in order to Find the Town, which we did. Goodness, it’s, um. . . packed tight. Maybe six inches between the houses. Maybe. Drake’s Island is a little roomier. I need to check a map, though. From the drive, it looks like oceanside Wells is distributed between Drake’s Island, Wells Harbor, and Wells Itself, and the link between the three is Route 1 and only Route 1.

After Wells, we continued in a southerly direction, through Ogunquit, to pick up 95 and so to home.

It was a long day of driving, and I drove all of it, without falling asleep, which was another reason for making a long drive.

So, that was yesterday.

Today in the mail comes a “used” edition of Who Buries the Dead, about which I have a funny story.

I had originally ordered this book with The China Mirage, through ABEBooks, through a vendor in. . .Michigan, I think. That vendor cancelled Who Buries, as being unavailable, but in good time sent on my non-fiction book, which — surprise! — is a brand-new hardcover.

In the meantime, I went back to ABEBooks and saw that there were two copies of Who Buries at a price I was willing to spend — one copy in the UK and one copy in New Jersey. I ordered the book said to be in Jersey, which I received today.

It, too, is a brand-new hardcover, but that’s not the interesting part.

The interesting part is the mailing label. The book was sent to me from — wait for it — the UK vendor, paperbackshop.co.uk Ltd — with a return address of 801 Penhorn Ave, in Secaucus, New Jersey, arriving via Global Mail.

Also today, I have brushed three coon cats and clipped claws. Scrabble also wished to be brushed and I tried to accommodate her, but I was using the Wrong Brush. As always, she declined to have her nails done.

As soon as I’m finished this blog post, I’ll vacuum the house, which for some reason looks like four cats live here, and get on with the rest of the day. Also, I think we may be expecting a box of authors’ copies of Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 3. Which would mean that the books we’re to sign for the Uncle can’t be far behind.

. . .I think that catches us up, except for the part where I need to figure out a good reason to drive down to the ocean once a week and walk on the beach for an hour or so. Hmmm…

Oh, and Steve has been wandering around the house today, taking Sekrit Cat Pictures. Here’s one of Belle, helping me read Alliance of Equals:

Now I’ve finally found someone to stand by me

Inquiring Minds Want To Know. . .

At the beginning of “Dirty Dancing,” Baby sets us into the story-frame with a voice-over as we watch the family car driving up the turnpike there in Maine. She says:

That was the summer of 1963 – when everybody called me Baby, and it didn’t occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came, when I couldn’t wait to join the Peace Corps, and I thought I’d never find a guy as great as my dad. That was the summer we went to Kellerman’s.

So my question is — what do Frances and Johnny do, now that they’ve defied just about everyone? Does Johnny join the housepainters union? Does Frances go on to Mount Holyoke? More important — does she join the Peace Corps?

What logically proceeds from the ending of “Dirty Dancing?” and! — bonus question — what’s the happy ending?

Go.

Oh. Today’s blog title is “The Time of My Life,” Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes. Here’s your link.