I knew housework wasn't any good for me

We've all read the internet story of the family that starts out to simply give the cat a bath (they should have known better) and they end up in either the hospital or with the fire department or both. And a dirty cat. Yesterday was my semi-equivalent.

It's rainy and the house needs cleaning so I decide to give it a go. I would never be hired for my housekeeping skills, the kitchen being an exception. I can bake and new recipes are like a red flag to a bull--yes, let's go! When I was growing up, my mother's job for me was dusting the furniture. And you know how it goes: I hate to dust. I'll vacuum, clean the bathrooms, mop the floor. Just don't make me dust.

But the place was dusty, so I started in the living room. By the time I got to the study, I was deep into clean mode. And there it was, on the end table surrounded by dust, the modem.

Our modem is a touchy thing under the best of conditions. I think it knows when you look at it wrong. So I carefully dusted around it, then, acting as if it were the Crown Jewels, I picked it up to dust under it.

And it started blinking. Didn't like being touched. Not at all. So I went to reset it. The telephone pincer broke as I removed it. Snapped right off.

We have accumulated many cast-off telephone wires so I retrieved the box of them. They were either 6 feet long (too short) or 40. So long as to be a bundle to be tripped over. I needed 12 feet, didn't have it, but set the modem up in the window with a 6 footer just to make sure it would work and still be able to reach the electric outlet. Window placement was never to be a solution.

Off to Walmart I went and found the appropriate wire. And it didn't work. Would not, would not, would not connect. I switched out lines with the telephone to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with the new cord. It was fine. I called my neighbor. Was hers working? Maybe I'd stumbled into a two-fold problem. Nope. She was up and running. I gather the ethernet cords and prepare to set up camp by the modem and call tech support, when it flashes all is well.

I'm still a bit distrustful of it. Caution is my byword.

And I knew dusting would get me in trouble. The modem gets to sit in a pile of it from now on.

Introducing NOOK and iBooks

I made it through two more hurdles and After the Thunder Rolls Away is for sale in both the Barnes & Noble NOOK store and through iBooks on your iOS device.

YESSS!!!!!!!!

The self-published world--entered at last!

Thanks to expert formatting by Ink Lion Books, I published After the Thunder Rolls Away on Amazon with my first click of the Submit button.

I'll be attempting the same on Nook and iBooks, but there are sooo many hoops to jump through.

In the meantime, here's a summary and I hope you find it sufficiently intriguing to check it out and hopefully purchase.

The lives of two families are forever changed when a car accident kills one spouse of each family. But which one? How do the remaining two rebuild their lives? And what if it had been two others?

Mark and Angel O'Shea, Eric and Paulina Eubanks--best friends and business partners are driving home early one summer morning from a country club party when a deer darts out in front of Mark's new car. Paulina's sure driving saves them from the first deer, then the second, but the third is a surprise and they plunge off the narrow Texas highway down a ravine and into a slow-moving river.

There are four outcomes to this horrifying, community-changing event. Four ways the families may have to reconfigure their lives, hopes, and dreams.

But which outcome is it… after Fate steps in.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

I've gathered all the pieces to put my first self-published book into play. Cover? Check! Formatted for everyone? Check! CreateSpace print cover and formatting? Check! ISBN? Check! Copyright?

Copy what?

Guess what's shut down with the current government issue? That's right. Along with the National Park System, the Copyright Office is closed for business. According to the website, I can (and I will) file electronically to preserve my date of publication, but it won't be processed until all this mess is cleared up. Well, they didn't say 'mess.'

That ol' law of unintended consequences: It'll get you every time!