All Is Not Lost

Buck

We adopted a Plott Hound from a rescue shelter a few days before Christmas, and we named him Buck. He was four months old and so adorable... but he was also sick. We didn't know it at the time, but he had been infected with the Parvo virus—a terrible virus most dogs don't survive. Yes, he had gotten his shots the day before we picked him up, but it was too late. He'd already been exposed. 

We took him to the vet as soon as we realized something was wrong. The prognosis wasn't good. We could have him put down, or we could treat him and keep our fingers crossed. We'd have to give him fluids with an IV, medication, and a whole lot of TLC. So, we did, and all was not lost. Buck survived his horrible illness, and now, well let's just say... it was all worthwhile. 

Go Buck! Woof! Woof! 

My Two Dollar Car

1995 Chevy Geo Prism

My son, Tommy Mullen, was going to sell this car for junk, so I bought it (real cheap).

His issues with the car started when he put in the wrong kind of antifreeze… and then everything else just went downhill from there. The car sat for a long time.

I thought the car still had potential. Front-wheel drive. 30 mpg! FWD would be good in the snow, and who doesn’t want great gas mileage? Sure, it was old, but I didn’t care. I could drive it anywhere, park it anywhere. No fear. So what if it gets banged up? It’s a two-dollar car. It just needs a little work. How bad could it be?  

So… my husband, Tom Mullen, worked on it… and worked on it. Many times, he almost gave up. He cussed at it. He threatened to drive it into South River. He had other work to do. He couldn’t be spending all his time on “that piece of sh*t”. But, he persevered, and a year later, the Money Pit is ready for the road!

*It still has a small issue with the engine idle, but he’ll take care of that… eventually. He has other things to do.

I hear the donkeys calling.

Man Socks

Instead of shoes, I always wear socks around the house. I don't know about most women out there, but for me, ankle socks are just too tight, so... I came up with something different. I got this idea when I took a pair of Tom's socks that were ready for the trash bin, and I cut the tops off (so they wouldn't be tight either). This opened up a whole new world of foot comfort for me. Now, though, instead of waiting for Tom's hand-me-downs, I went out and bought a pack of men's socks just for me. I cut the tops off, and now I'm good to go. You should give it a try. Your feet will thank you.

I Want To See You

I hesitate to hook up on a social network with someone if they don’t have a picture by their name.  I don’t know about you, but I want to see who I’m talking to.  I don’t care what they look like. I don’t even care if their pic is a basket of fake flowers. I just need something to make me feel like someone's there. To me, you’re not there if your image is an egg. If I wanted to see eggs, I’d go have a look at my chickens. Show me your face. Not photogenic, you say? Me either, but I’d put up something. Get brave and show the world who you are. If I can post this awful selfie, then you can come up with something.  

 Be proud of who you are.

Go With What Works For You

Right after my books went live on Kindle, they also went live on NOOK. After several months, I found out they just weren’t selling on NOOK, so I removed them.

I did this because I wanted to put some of them in the Prime Program/Amazon Kindle and to be able do this, my ebooks couldn’t be sold anywhere else. They weren’t selling on NOOK, so why not make a change?

That’s the way it has been for over a year and sales have been very good on Amazon Kindle. Then, I started getting emails from readers asking why they weren’t available on NOOK. Sooo… I took all but two out of Prime/Kindle and they went live again on NOOK.

Normally, my books sell well on Kindle, but not this month. This month the sales have been dismal, and to top it off, only one person has purchased a book on NOOK so far. What does that tell you? 

I’m sorry readers, but there just isn’t a market out there for NOOK. Not for me anyway. Some of my books will be available on NOOK, including my newest one, The Prey Bites Back, but I’m headed back home to Kindle Prime.

Check out my books:

Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Ann%20Mullen&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank

NOOK:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Ann-Mullen?store=ebook&keyword=Ann+Mullen

Sometimes you just have to go with what works for you. I love my Kindle Prime.

Sable says hello.

Writing Tips and Old Dogs

I’ve read quite a few articles about how people write, and most say they go by an outline or by their notes. I wish I could say I have a strategy for writing, but I don’t. I just sit down and start writing, letting my mind go where it wants. Sometimes it goes way out into left field and I have to pull it back and rethink the situation. But that works for me.

When I start a new book I have an idea of a storyline, but that’s about it. To me, the most important thing is to come up with a story and a title that suits the story. Once I get an idea and a title, the rest just seems to fall into place. A lot of times, the book ends up differently than what I had planned, but that also works for me.

The one thing I do to keep myself on track and not forget to mention the outcome of a scenario is to make a very brief notation at the end of the book. Using MS Word, it’s not hard to do. For example, if I have a character who is involved in a situation, at the bottom of the page I’ll type: tell about (insert name) and what happened to her/him. Or, if I add a new character, I’ll skip down and say something like: Shark—tall, muscular, shaved head, black guy, war scars, snap a neck in a second. When I go back to where I left off writing and continue, the notation moves down the page.

That’s pretty much it for me. Writing should be fun, not bothersome.

If you have any writing tips, I’d like to hear them. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I say you can.

Now, this old dog is going back to working on Be Very Afraid. See you on the flip side.

Free at Last!

Tom thought it would be fun to let the donkeys run loose, until it was time to round them up. Perhaps we need a little training in donkey training. Hee-Haw!