A Favor, Please?

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NOTE: THIS REQUEST WAS REALLY ADDRESSED TO FOLKS I’VE LONG BEEN IN CONTACT WITH VIA EMAIL, OR THOSE WHO HAVE GOTTEN IN TOUCH WITH ME ABOUT GUEST POSTS AND EXCERPTS. SORRY IF I CONFUSED ANYONE. (Please don’t all 2,700 of you guys email me. Eeeeeep.)

I’ve lost most of my regular email contacts during this computer ordeal. If you are one of them, please drop me a note, so I can add your email address to my new  contact list.  I don’t want to lose touch with you. Thank you so much!

Still reinstalling old programs, and seeking replacement ones, but I’ve got a ThorsDay smile for you shortly. 🙂

WooooHooooooo!!!! Technology R Us!

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I’m back! Almost! Got my new pc and monitor this evening, and hooked it up. VERY happy with the lovely Hi-Def image, and the lightning fast speed of the new computer. Got a LOT to learn about Windows 10 and Outlook, neither of which I’ve used before. But I can do it! It might be another couple of days before I get “settled in,” but at least I’m not trying to dictate my posts via my iPhone.

Doing a happy dance here, even though it’s WAY past time for me to call it a night and retire with a book. Thanks for all the well wishes, guys, and rest assured, I’ll not be caught so poorly prepared for tech failure again. I’ve already bought a new tablet, for Back Up Plan #1, and I’m making up actual PAPER folders for important email and contact information to keep in an actual physical file cabinet.  That’s Back Up Plan #2.

I’ll sleep MUCH better tonight, now that I’m connected to the world again. 🙂 See you tomorrow!

No News Is … No News!

Could be good. Could be bad. Who knows? The only thing I’m sure of, is that being without a computer this long is very unsettling. For a person who runs three blogs, and is in the middle of writing her sixth novel, not being seated in front of my computer all day long is very, very weird!

I thought I would hear from the Geek Squad this morning, as they worked late last night trying to save my emails for me.  So far, nothing. I hope that means they are slowly managing to export my email from one client to another. (Something that’s not easy to do.) I don’t think the delay is their fault, but that doesn’t make  me any happier, as I wait  to hear from them.

Will post as soon as I can.  I expect it will take a couple of days to get things up and running, even after I get the computer home.

I’m so out of sorts when I can’t work on my books, so you know I’m really anxious for this to be resolved.  Hope to have good news later today. Will keep you posted,  though doing so via my phone is annoying. Still, without the phone I wouldn’t be able to touch base at all. So I better stop complaining, and go find some housework to  keep me busy. 😝

The Hits Just Keep on Comin’!n

 

October has not been kind to us. Lots and lots of unexpected  and expensive problems, one after the other, but we’re still standin’, and by golly we’ll still be standing when this month disappears into history. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!

Yesterday, my computer unexpectedly went to that great Geek Squad in the sky. It is history, now, and only useful as a boat anchor. 😧 I am forced to use my iPhone for everything, which I am not very good at. So I probably will not be initiating much in the way of posts for several days. I will try to keep up with comments, and respond when I can,  but that’s about all.

Doing a full post from my phone stretches my abilities to the max! I may have my new computer by tomorrow night, but I expect it will take me several days to get everything hooked up, programs that are gone restored, and get back to blogging as usual. In the meantime you guys carry-on, have fun, and I’ll keep an eye on you as best I can. Wish me luck.

My biggest concern is that I’m going to lose all of my emails, and therefore all of my contact information both personal and business related. That would be a catastrophe!😩 I haven’t given up hope, yet. Will keep you posted as I can, and I will update you if I have any news

Now don’t talk about me while I’m gone! Or at least say nice things! Remember, I’ll be watching you! 😀❤️

 

 

 

#InspirationBoardSunday #SundayBlogShare #Poetry – Grackles

 

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Boat-Tailed Grackle

Getting caught up, here and back into the swing of my  normal weekly events. Sunday is a good day for inspiration on The Write Stuff, often about things I have pinned to the  Inspiration Boards that surround my work area. And nothing inspires me more than nature.

This week, I discovered the grackles are back! Fall migration has officially begun, and they are busily congregating everywhere they can, including local parking lots where they might find a few dropped bits of food items. There are several kinds of grackles, but the ones who make the biggest impression on me are the boat-tailed variety, and I recognize them as a harbinger of autumn, the same way folks up north recognize the robin as the first sign of spring.

Boat-tailed Grackle Quiscalus major male - singing on territory Sabine Pass, Jefferson Co., Texas 20 May 2013

Hey! It’s Fall, Y’all!!

Grackles are among my favorite of birds. I even mentioned them in a somewhat poignant scene in Finding Hunter. (See? Inspiration.) They are handsome birds, with a lovely iridescent sheen to their glossy black feathers, except for the female. She’s a plainer, mostly brown bird, but the males seem quite intent in impressing her, anyway.

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You’ll Always Be Beautiful, To Me!

They are bold. Even fierce, if need be. 

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See? Bold! As this snail kite is learning.

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And did I say fierce? Possibly foolishly so.

And best of all, they are full of attitude, strutting around convinced of their own importance, and announcing it to the world with every step they take.

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Life is good, when you’re a grackle!

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REALLY good!

My favorite autumn poem is one by Amy Lowell, called Purple Grackles. I hope some of you will take the time to read it HERE.  It’s  truly lovely, as all her poetry is.

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Let me sing you the songs of autumn! 

In the  meantime, enjoy the pics! FALL has arrived in Florida, at last. Temps dropped twenty degrees last night, and the grackles are here! Hope you’ve been inspired by them! I have. But then, grackles always inspire me.

Shoveler Pond

 

 

#ABoyNamedRabbit – Kindle Countdown Continues

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Day 2 of my A Boy Named Rabbit: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2 Kindle countdown. You can still download Rabbit’s story for $.99 until 11:00 AM, EDT, after which it goes up $1.00. (Still a great price, since it’s regularly $4.99). Bottom line, grab it today, before 11:00 AM, if possible, to get the best savings. 

While you’re there, grab Wake-Robin Ridge Book 1, the first book in the series, for the permanent $.99 price. Such a deal! 😀

Happy Reading!

A Boy Named Rabbit: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2 – Kindle Countdown Special
Wake-Robin Ridge Book 1 – Permanently $.99

 

This Just In: Twin Cyber Attacks Disrupt Twitter and More

Found this in a news article:

Several cyber attacks disrupted Web traffic on the East Coast Friday, shutting down access to some of the Web’s most popular sites and frustrating their users.

A slew of major sites including Twitter, Netflix, and Spotify were affected by what was described as a DDoS, or a distributed denial of service attack, on the Internet services company Dyn.

Sites taken down by the DDoS attack today:

• Twitter
• SoundCloud
• Spotify
• Netflix
• Reddit
• Disqus
• PayPal
• Shopify + more

UPDATE: Woooohooooo! MY Twitter is back, hopefully for good! And I hope the rest of you have access, too. Today’s 12 hour outage (for me) brought home how very, very important the internet is to what I do. I won’t forget it, believe me.

What’s Up With Twitter Today?

Anyone else unable to reach Twitter? I can’t tweet, even from Hootsuite. 😦 Nor can I read anyone else’s tweets. Just keep getting the dreaded “This Page Can’t Be Displayed” message.

NOTE: Just checked, and apparently Twitter is down nationwide, and has been since around 7:30am EDT. Well, great! Just when I decide to have a promo! Grrrr.

UPDATE: According to several articles I just read, this problem has been going on since Tuesday, with service interruptions WORLD-wide for millions of people. Twitter posted apologies and said it was fixed, but the fix didn’t last long, and didn’t cover all the outages, so those of you who have access to it are lucky, and those of us who don’t are just S.O.L. (As they say.)  Fingers crossed that it gets fixed SOON. I hate not being able to share posts and articles that I’d like to promote. Including MINE. 😀 

#ABoyNamedRabbit Kindle Countdown is LIVE, Finally!

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I guess when they say 8:00am, they mean their time, not mine, so I apologize to anyone who tried to buy the book earlier and found it at the regular price of $4.99. I promise, it’s $.99 now, honest, so head right on over and grab your copy. Another $.99 will get you Book 1 in the series, and you can then read them back to back.  I’m just sayin’ . . . .  😀

Wake-Robin Ridge Book 1
A Boy Named Rabbit: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 2

My Guest Post on #DGKayeWriter.com

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The lovely D.G. Kaye (Debby Geis) welcomed me to her blog today, for a chance to answer some interesting questions on how and why I became a writer at ths stage of my life. We touched on my latest release, Harbinger, as well as my thoughts on editing, inspiration, marketing, and my work in progress. Please take a look, and share with all your usual suspects. Deb will appreciate it, and so will I. (While you’re there, why not follow her blog, too?) THANKS!

D. G. Kaye’s Guest Post Featuring Marcia Meara