Forgotten But Not Gone

First of all - a shout out to AztecLady who blogged about a Netflix series Sense8 so I started watching it and oh lord, I love it. I'm completely mesmerized by the beauty of the show (not to mention the beauty of the Spaniard in it)...

It's really worth checking out.

I finally watched the third season of Orange is the New Black and I read people felt it was the weakest season but with Pensatucky's story being told and the heartbreak of it... as well as the love letter to Judaism that was in it, well, I was blown away.

Although I thought that Piper is becoming a caricature and adds nothing to the show anymore. But it ended with Alex (most likely) being killed and Daya's baby disappearing into the system and a few lovely connections right at the end... anyway, Season One was amazeballs but this had so much going for it and I'm still thinking about it.

When I'm not thinking about that perfect Spaniard in Sense8.

Read Heartless by Mary Balough and really really liked it. Reading throw away books until the next book comes out.

Did I mention the hot Spaniard in Sense8?

Life has been nuts and way too busy but it's looking like it's about to get better. Our office is moving into a great new space where I'll have a real desk of my own and it's a beautiful space.

My sister came visiting with her partner and 2 of their friends and emotionally it had a few hard moments for me but mostly it was lovely. It's hard to be around family and not have all the insecurities and craziness pop up but we did well. I miss my sister a lot now that she's gone home.

She's so beautiful. She's just a gorgeous woman inside (and out).

Mollie's school starts tomorrow (yes, in July! That blows!!) but she's happy about t. School nerd.

Saw Magic Mike XXL and must say, if any of those men want to take their clothes off, I'll pay to watch. But they really need to not try and put a plot on it because it was a worse plot than Dumb and Dumber. Naked and Nakeder.

Writing. So is Carolyn. Life always looks better when words are on the page.

And I want to say that our dear friend Cheryl lost her Mom today. Since my own heart hasn't completely healed from my mother's passing (10 years ago) I feel a little broken knowing how Cheryl must hurt. Even knowing it was coming, it's your Mom and nothing prepares you for her loss. Hugs to you Cheryl, wish I could do it in person.

And Life Keeps Going On

We're having a very busy time right now. My sister, her partner and 2 friends are visiting. Mollie is on her 2 weeks of summer vacation. We have three providers on vacation at work and a new employee.

Time has disappeared.

I've gotten a little bit of reading time at lunch and before bed. Read Heartless by Mary Balough. Really liked it although throughout the book I wanted the heroine to just confide in the hero and thereby solve all her problems.

Frustrating when a simple confession would solve all problems. But she didn't because she believed he'd toss her on her ear which was fascinating because he proved himself again and again to be a truly great man.

But despite that, I really did like the book and now want to read more.

I do not want to read the prequel of To Kill a Mockingbird.

I do want to see Amy Shumer's movie when it hits our neighborhood. I'm starting to think Amy Shumer might be everything modern womanhood needs nowadays. Hysterically funny, relevant and someone who points out how women need to stop sabotaging themselves.

So this afternoon we're having a big party and I need to clean the house. Which I don't want to do. I'm sore and tired and need a shitload more sleep.

But...

I'll post pics.

Go Set a Watchman

I wasn't interested in Harper Lee's new old novel, until I watched this. It's a fascinating look at a very unusual woman and a bioscopic of the South.

I intend to get (and read) the book even though it's a toss of the dice. I feel like living dangerously in my old age. And frankly, no one understands the south better than Harper Lee, one of its most famous daughters.


Harper Lee

How John Green Failed and Mitch Green Prevailed

There has been a lot of commentary about the John Green reaction to a woman's Tumblr comment:

I bet John Green thinks people don't like him because he's a dork or a nerd or whatever, when in reality it's because he's a creep who panders to teenage girls so that he can amass some weird cult-like following. And it's always girls who feel misunderstood, you know, and he goes out of his way to make them feel important and desirable. Which is fucking weird. Also he has a social media presence that is equivalent to that dad of a kid in your friend group who always volunteers to 'supervise' the pool parties and scoots his lawn chair close to all the girls.

So she said he creeps her out. John Green's response was this:

 You want me to defend myself against the implication that I sexually abuse children? Okay. I do not sexually abuse children. Throwing that kind of accusation around is sick and libelous and most importantly damages the discourse around the actual sexual abuse of children. When you use accusations of pedophilia as a way of insulting people whose work you don't like, you trivialize abuse.

Of course she didn't accuse him of being a pedophile. She accused him of being a creep. Huge fucking difference. And the people who are saying the Dad comment  is an accusation of child rape are wrong. That dad isn't a pedophile either. He's a creep. A pedophile sexually abuses girls (or boys). A creep is a creep.

So... this weekend my brother Mitch and my daughter Mollie put together an awesome fire pit which we then sat outside and enjoyed and shot the shit. And Mitch and I had one of those rambling conversations about everything and I told him that I admired that he never cheated on any woman he's been involved with and would never even consider it.

And he told me I was half right and half wrong. Mitch said that he has never cheated (right) but not that he's never thought about it. He's a human male. He said he simply never puts himself in a position of being able to cheat. Because if a naked woman offered herself he might be tempted. So he doesn't ever place himself in a situation where a naked woman could offer herself.

I think John Green is a very talented writer. I've read 2 of his books and have a third on the TBR pile. But I think that when a woman accused him of being a creep and he responded by claiming he's not a pedophile, he failed his audience and himself in a big way.

He acted like the creep he was accused of being. He threw shade and hid from the real words directed at him. Because where John Green failed is that he is a creep. Unlike Mitch, who would never put himself in a place where temptation could grab him, John Green does place himself in a position of being able to prey on girls. He might not, he probably doesn't and never would, but he definitely is in a place where the opportunity exists. And that he didn't deny or accept the reality but fought against something that wasn't said was a huge fail on John Green's part.

So John Green, I think you failed big time. And Mitch Green, I'm proud as anything that you're so awesome.

And a-writing we will go

Well nano had a difficult start for me and it will possibly be a hard month for writing with a lot of things going on but I'm going to keep trying.

My intended story is changing before my eyes. I'd planned on a funny romance but it's turned into a serious piece that isn't romance. It might actually be shit, I don't know yet. But I'll forge along.

I'm using Write or Die to try and keep to word count. Since I can't afford to buy it right now (poverty is my middle name) I use the free version that gives you 15 minutes and 500 words. It's the perfect amount of time for a writing sprint and it starts to erase your words if you hesitate too long so you have to keep writing.

It's working for me so yay to that. I think I might have finally figured out that 500 word increments without excuses to break is what will work for me.

I'm going to try and get caught up this weekend so Lea stops making my word count look so anemic.

Happy 4th everyone. Remember to keep it sane and safe.

Dear Amazon, You Blew It

In mid-June, we announced a change to the way we will pay for authors’ participation in Kindle Unlimited (KU) and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) (https://kdp.amazon.com/community/ann.jspa?annID=786). Starting today, the payout of the KDP Select Global Fund will be based on the number of pages KU and KOLL customers read.

KDP authors can now see the Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count (KENPC V1.0) for each of their KDP Select titles on the "Promote and Advertise" page in their Bookshelf (https://kdp.amazon.com/bookshelf). Please keep in mind that, because it is based on settings specific to this program and intended to normalize the count across all KDP Select titles, KENPC may well vary from page counts listed on a book’s Amazon detail page or page counts for a print book. As measured using KENPC, during the month of June, KU and KOLL customers read nearly 1.9 billion Kindle Edition Normalized Pages (KENPs) of KDP Select books.

 So, let me get this straight....

I sign my books up to sell exclusively on Amazon and therefore I cut your competitor's throats for you because we have this special relationship. But the truth is, since I did this I can't help but notice that Letters From Greece, sells more copies on KU and well, I'm excited to see sales.

Except that one day I thought to compare numbers and realized that you paid me less for my KU sales than my regular sales. Still, I like having any sales at all so I shrug and keep on keeping on. Because you know I can be very true in a good relationship and I thought that was what we had.

But now this.

So people can download my books all they want on your program but if they don't read the book, they can own it and I never get paid. Or if they read a chapter and decide they don't like it, they still own it and basically I still don't get paid.

Oh, and let's not forget the novellas. Shorter page count so despite what my price point is I get paid only for pages read.

I'm going to bet that Amazon did some serious research and realized that a majority of their readers buy the books and don't read them. Or finish them.

This is breaking my heart Amazon. I always thought you were writer friendly. I thought you had my best interests at heart. I thought you cared about this relationship as much as I did.

Thank you kindly but no thank you. I'm going to start selling my books along all platforms now. I'm not interested in this relationship anymore.

I suddenly realized that you never really were on my side at all. And you just figured out a way to screw the little guy in the ass. Without lube.

Time to go.