Snow is indeed Simple

Snow is simple if you rely on your body's signals- aches, pains, pressure...even your nose can smell snow on the way. Snow is not so simple if you are a TV Weather Futurecaster. The answer for them is CYA...and each channel gives a slightly different forecast so one of them is bound to be right. Snow was forecast to start at 4pm yesterday. They kept pushing the timeline up and I believe it was closer to 4 AM today!

Around 6:30 am I decided to take the Flipcam as far as the front door and video whatever I might see. Snow, snow,Snowplow at the corner trees, snow. Snowplow still just sitting there. What's he waiting for? Christmas? Oh! Car! Snowplow..
Whatdaya want from me? I hadn't even had coffee!

So what DID happen to November?

Before I tell you all about November, and what is happening this week before Christmas, please allow me to introduce one of my most favorite readers! Stormy belongs to my good pal Jackie and has loved reading about Sophie and Ollie in my novel!~ Hmmm...is Stormy angling for a guest role in Google Ghoulash?
Speaking of Jackie-- the cupcakes are one her favorite things to bake and they look so yummy that my tummy is growling just looking at the picture!

November-- well National Novel Writing Month pretty much consumed me. Well, that and various medical ups and downs for hubby and me-- thank goodness all is well! Oh, and there was Thanksgiving too!

All in all, I made the 50K NANOWRIMO challenge in about 16-17 days of writing, finishing up at the 29th of November. Most of my writing was in fits and starts, but this time around I knew my characters, knew my story and had a plan. Unlike last year when I wrote "Are You Gonna Eat that Banana?" with no plot, no plan and characters who were strangers to me. This year was really fun!

I still have to finish writing the story- and will- I already know how it ends, but for now I'm working with some writing software to iron out the kinks of the first 35 chapters, trying to decide on a cover design, and I admit, reading, reading and more reading to catch up with some of my favorite authors/series who were neglected in November.

Christmas is almost upon us and this is the first year of my adult life in which I have not mailed one snail mail card, not given any gifts- and don't intend to. Wow? Bah Humbug you say? E-cards save trees, and these days NOTHING goes on a credit card and no one needs more stuff anyway. I'd rather get things out of the house- have given many Christmas things on local Freecycle, and even gave away our artificial tree to a stranger! So- my punishment for my No Christmas Spirit Zone?
Maybe the 3 Ghosts...but even worse, now they say SNOW SNOW AND MORE SNOW!

Hey- Happy Merry! Catch ya on Twitter where I spend way too much time!

Ok, so the story goes that kids at Danvers High have been saying "MEEP" much to the annoyance of staff and the principal. This even caused an automated telephone call to go out to parents issuing an "edict banning the use of the word meep" in the High School! Despite vague explanations and concerns about behavior this became a front page headline in The Salem News the other day.

My take: Why aren't they more worried about things like drugs, alcohol, sexting and so forth? Give me a break! In my day, I would have staged a walk out protest! Oh wait- I didn't stage one, but went along on one as a freshman when the seniors walked out and walkd to Town Hall to protest something I don't even remember.

Oh and there was the time we took our chairs on wheels racing up and down the hall to torture a shorthand teacher with either a wooden hand or fingers. Damn I'm old- can't remember. There was also the time I didn't want to read aloud in English class and feigned largynitis, but I had an accomplice- a girl pal who had crutches for sprained ankle. We got to leave class early so I could carry her books since I wouldn't be "speaking". Got to the hall and she threw down the crutches and ran and I yelled "Hey wait up!"

Oh- and those notes from MD to get me out of Gym for all 4 years-- I totally blackmailed him to sign them. He's dead now so I can say that.

Anyway- the cartoon which doesn't show well here says "The Students want WHO as a commencement speaker?" and shows a harried secretary watching the principal chuck a nutty. Then the speaker is none other than "Beaker" from The Muppet Show.

Danvers High Principal-- you are so lucky I've been out of there for decades. Go MEEP yourself!

Big News!

For the month of October, I will donate any and all book proceeds to! Team Scrubs Wubs as part of the 2009 LA Aids Charity event. Please buy your copy of "Are You Gonna Eat Your Banana" NOW and help the cause.



The other big news is that I am officially entered in NaNoWriMo for November 2009 and this time have a plot, a plan and an editor in place!!! This is to be a sequel to "Are You Gonna Eat That Banana?" and I'm going to Tweet as I write too!

Hugs
Laura

Are-You-Gonna-Eat-That-Banana?

The Cats

Fishing Equipment info

Fishing equipment is all sold- thanks for the reminder from the nice fellow from the UK!

What a fun yard sale!

After spending most of Friday sorting and pricing, with the help of my sister and a dear friend of mine, we were ready for Saturday morning and anticipating the work and the crowds. There was plenty of both, but we had much more fun than I expected! I'm very glad to share some stories here and they should also appear on GarageSalesTracker when they update.

GarageSalesTracker is a really great tool for Garage Sales with free advertising and helpful information.

Yesterday we ended up selling almost exclusively kitchen supplies and appliances. It amazed all of us how one man could have so much stuff- much of it brand new. It was great to get good prices on decent equipment, and also felt good to see people's faces when they were delighted to find just what they needed, or items they didn't know they needed until they saw them. It was an eclectic group of shoppers of all ages from kids to the elderly, probably equal amounts of men and women, some families, and neighbors we'd never met. Almost everyone came with a smile and kind words, and we got a lot of hugs from people we don't see often so that was a bonus! I'm a hugger and always say the more hugs the better.

Our next Garage Sale will be in two weeks. I do call it a garage sale when it's really a driveway sale because I do want people to visit the GarageSalesTracker site and help them to thrive!

Thank you to everyone who came to look, shop and buy and we hope to have continuing good turnouts as we next should be selling electronics and in September much more of the Christmas decorations. We hardly had room to put any of them out yesterday! The sale was such a success that we felt able to cancel today and rest up- the weather is very humid with rain coming too. The next planned sale is in two weeks!

Ta ta and Cheerio!
Laura

Holy Moly It's a Giant Yard Sale

Has anyone ever actually sold their yard at a yard sale? Or their garage at a garage sale? Estate at an estate sale? Just asking!

We are about to embark on quite an adventure! Recently, our niece Kate's father passed away. It was not unexpected. What was unexpected was the amount of STUFF he accumulated. It boggles the mind.

Tomorrow will be the first day of many for a yard/estate sale to find new homes for his worldly goods. Mike and I volunteered for this, because we love KT with all our hearts and want her to have some money to help pay for her trip across the country to be here for her Dad's funeral.

There is furniture, there are boxes and boxes of kitchen goods and appliances. Books, Christmas items, so many things that I still haven't discovered! We expect a good turnout and good weather.

We are a little antsy about the amount of things in our house, so items will be priced to move. If you are anywhere near the NS in MA, we hope you'll come! The sale with details is posted at GarageSalesTracker

The people at GarageSalesTracker are doing a great job all across the country, and I was surprised and happy that they asked me to blog, and I will blog away as it will be a wonderful way to memorialize this giant event and hopefully find some tips to offer others for their sales! Thank you to GarageSalesTracker

Time Flies Like an Arrow- Fruit Flies Like a Banana

Holy Macaroni Batman! I have not blogged since May 25th!!! Where did that time go?
A lot has happened- Mike and I had our 24th anniversary on June 2nd. We officially adopted Ollie (see above) the Cat From Next Door. We had Mike's parents and sister Michelle visit for several days in June, and a wonderful family get together here with Mike's other sister and her family who I had not seen in many moons! It was great fun!
4th of July came to pass, and there were finally fireworks here. They'd been delayed because of rain almost the whole month of June and into the first couple of days of July. So, I guess that about accounts for the time flying and my lack of blogging!

I'm still trying to get the word out and sell some more copies of "Are You Gonna Eat That Banana/" before it withers and dies and goes out of print. There is indeed a sequel in my brain, but it may not come to me to type until I get some motivation by seeing "Banana" move at least a few more copies. You can get it by clicking this link:

Or a Kindle version here:


Happy July! Enjoy your summer! Nudge me now and then on Twitter or Facebook to blog! LauraHinds for both!

Laura
The More Books the Better

New Amazon Book Store

Visit my new Amazon book store where you can buy things directly from Amazon safel and securely.

Huge Money Savings Day @ Walgreens

This morning, armed with coupons, a well planned list, and a store sale flyer, I managed to get the following deals at my local Walgreens!

I did have a $5.00 of $25.00 printable coupon from Walgreens.com that was only good yesterday, and today. You can still sign up and get one (as far as I know) but ONLY today!

Hint: Colgate Visable White and Bayer Quick Release Crystals are both only found near the register. Both are FREE after RRs.

Bottom line this AM: I got $79.02 in merchandise (inc tax) for $41.17 AND got $23.00 in RR's for a final price of $18.17!
Deals were:
Colgate Visible White $4.49, -$1 PC, and $4.49RR
Bayer Quick Release $2.49 $2.49 RR
Edge Shave Gel $1.79 - $1coupn $1.00RR
Dry Idea Clinical $5.99 $2 PC $5.00RR
Bandaids 4pkgs $10.00 $1 coupon $4.00RR
Bic Utility Lighter $2.99 $1 cpupn $1.00RR

Glade Sense& Spray on sale for 9.99 got 4.00 and 1.50 RR
Clairol Balsam Hair 4.99 got 2.00 RR
Off Clip On sale 9.99 buy 1 get 1 free with coupon 3.00 R

The printable coupons came from Coupons.com for Dry Idea, and Colgate site for toothpaste.
Others were from Sunday Flyers.

You can make this better if you have extra Band Aid Coupons (use 1 per pkg)!

That was really fun and people in line were asking for advice! I loved being able to help them, too!

Laura - use your savings and buy a book and still have a ton of $$ left!
"Are You Gonna Eat That Banana?"

Create a Mystery

What's going on at your house?

Well aside from the missing bumble bee in ours, this is whats up. Create a mystery story from it and you could win a bookmark!

Book review writing day

I have a puzzle to ponder. Just how do I approach writing a book review of a "chick-lit" book when the book is about a novelist who wrote a chick-lit book, but hates it when anyone calls it chick-lit.

I asked Mike what he thought, and he asked me where I got the term chick lit besides off a box of gum (chicklets). No help from that corner.

Ah well, the book is a fun read and easy breezy fun, so maybe the review will come easily too when it comes down to it.

Anyone reading anything good today?

Sneak Peek- Chapter 32 Are You Gonna Eat That Banana?

THIRTY TWO

The roommate slunk in bearing a pile of mail. She brushed her teeth with her tongue as she sorted through it and it was the most annoying sound I’d heard in ages. I turned the radio on and set the volume up higher than I would have liked. Especially since they were playing Christmas Carols already. Singing Chipmunks.

Obviously, this in turn annoyed the roommate since she heaved a stack of mail in my direction and ran up the stairs to her lair. Most of the mail did land on the coffee table, but I had to get up and reach for the few pieces that missed. The first thing to catch my eye was a reminder notice from the meth clinic. Er, I mean the deli. They had potato salad ready for me and if I didn’t pick it up by yesterday they would throw it to the cats in the alleys and never make any for me again.

Normally, this would have made me really mad. In the scheme of things, though, it seemed about the only normal thing going on. The deli owner had both a temper and an usual sense of justice.

Justice. That reminded me. As soon as Tommy made an appearance, Tim and Mom both had orders to bring him to my castle to stand in judgement. I would have to have on hand several dozen rotten tomatoes if he were to be given proper Vegetable Justice. I would also need several semi athletic people to help toss them at him. I really don’t know too many people around here. Kenjl maybe. I wasn’t sure if Tim would participate. Pregnant Pattie was too swollen to invite her, although she might enjoy it. She could be our judge and keep score.


Cynde from the library probably would disapprove, but on the other hand I could ask. She might even bring her kids! I needed more recruits. I had an AHA moment. The Aging Hippies Volleyball Team! I typed up a flyer to post on the beach where they play.

The specifics weren’t important, but just that they show up at my house in clothes worth getting stained for some Vegetable Justice fun. I left my phone number and instructions to call for the final details of date/time. Now all I had to do was find a way to get this posted. I thought and thought and thought some more. I got a brain cramp. The obvious answer was one that might not go over well. I’d have to ask Mom. I could probably persuade her with the argument that Vegetable Justice was better than me having Tommy arrested and thrown in the clink.
Her mother’s instinct to protect her young might work. After all, a few rotten vegetables weren’t going to hurt him, right? I gave up the idea of asking the volleyball team to participate.

The telephone rang and nearly gave me heart failure. It had been so quiet just a few minutes before that I nearly fell asleep in the middle of the book I was reading. I think I did, I felt some drool sliding down my chin.

As I wiped it off and simultaneously answered the phone, my “hello” came out more like “elmo?” It was Cynde at the library calling to say she had a new book I’d likely be interested in. She only chuckled at the “elmo” assuming it was just me being me. Weird, that is. I asked what the book was, and she said it was called “The Secret Lives of a Chinese Fortune Cookie Maker”.




I guess I’d rambled on some of my strange tale when taking out the Chinese Translation book. I did agree it sounded good and asked her to please hold it for me. Without even hesitating to think any further, I grabbed my cell phone and hit the speed dial for Tim.

“Elmo” he said. Or at least that is what I heard. How could he have known? “Tim?” “Yeah it’s me. Oh hi.” “Did you just say Elmo?” “No. I said Hello. Why would I say Elmo?” I shrugged my shoulders then light dawned that he couldn’t see me. “No reason. My ears must be plugged. Wanna go for a ride to the library?”
“Ok. I have books to return.” He sighed slightly.
“Ok then. I think I can walk this time.” I sighed in turn.
“Good enough. I’ll be there after a fashion.” He clicked off. What the hell did after a fashion mean? I’d best get ready. I had two books to return myself. They were mysteries that I solved in the first fifty pages. That was always disappointing to me.

I put the books in my book bag and went outside to sit on the front steps and wait. The sun was warm for mid November, which meant we’d likely have snow for Thanksgiving. I don’t know how long I waited, but it couldn’t have been too long since I didn’t have time too think too much.
Tim pulled in, this time driving a Prius. It belonged to Stanley he said. “Is Stanley your Mom’s boyfriend who I hear so much about?” I asked. “Yeah. The rich dude.”
I put my book bag down and looked in the mini back seat. It was full of library books. “Tim, er, did you read all of those.” “Yeah”he said. “We have a lot of books at school and stuff, but when you have had library withdrawal syndrome for years, once you get a taste of library books again there is no going back.”


“I am thinking of asking if there is a way I can work off the error of my ways as a youth. Do some pennance as a volunteer or something.” Good for Tim! I smiled and said “I tell you what. You ask Cynde when we get there and I’ll back you up and maybe even volunteer with you.”

Half way to the library we spotted a lanky figure on a ten speed bicycle. Wearing a baseball cap and flip flops. I knew it was Tom! Tim pretended he didn’t see him, but I rolled down my window to call out to him, when he raised his fist in the air and shook it at us, yelling at the top of his lungs “MR IAN WOON!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON”. I spun around in my seat and yelled at Tim, “TIM!!! TIM! That was Tom!!! Tom!!! Why didn’t you pull over?” Tim was whistling and playing innocent. “Huh? Did you say something? I had the wind in my ears.”

Earl Schenck Miers

Quote of the day, found in "Book Reviewing" by by John E Drewry, 1946

From Earl Schenck Miers:

"Bring into a room two statesmen, and very likely you will have a war, two churchmen you will have a schism, two businessmen and you will have a merger or a panic, two murderers and you will have a murder, but bring into the same room two men who work and live with books and the walls will ring with camaraderie."

Year's Oddest Titled Books

A really nice friend sent me this today. She noted that I am the only person she knows who would appreciate this. Now that might just be because my book is oddly titled "Are You Gonna Eat That Banana?" Or it could be that she knows I enjoy oddities in all forms. Anywho- I bet some of you will get a laugh too!


Cheesy book takes prize for year's oddest title

Mar 27, 12:05 AM (ET)

By JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) - A heavyweight study of the future of soft cheese has won Britain's annual competition to find the year's oddest book title.

"The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais," by Philip M. Parker won the Diagram Prize, awarded Friday by trade magazine The Bookseller.

The runner-up was primate study "Baboon Metaphysics," by Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth.

Horace Bent, who runs the award, said Parker's volume was a surprise winner given the competition from racier-sounding finalists like "Curbside Consultation of the Colon" - a medical manual - and hobby handbook "Strip and Knit With Style."

Bent said "Fromage Frais" was a worthy winner that had "turned the supermarket chiller into the petri dish of literary innovation."

Fromage frais - literally "fresh cheese" - is a dairy product that originated in France and has a similar consistency to sour cream. The book is a 188-page study of the global retail market for the product.

Parker's book is published by Icon Group and sells for a hefty $795 (euro589.)

The Diagram Prize was founded in 1978, and the winner is decided by public vote.

This year's other finalists were "The Large Sieve and its Applications" and "Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring."

Previous winners include "Bombproof Your Horse,""Living With Crazy Buttocks" and "People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It."

Now see, here's the thing

In trying to promote my book, I've been advised to join Facebook, Twitter and to do an Author's Blog on Amazon. All well and good. I drew the line at MySpace since I hear that is yesterday's news.

Now see, here's the thing: trying to keep up with all this is killing me ever so slowly. I know, I know, I can do one blog and have it both here and on Amazon. I can have my Twitter Posts also be on Facebook....leading to the problem of what if I say something on one that I don't want to share with people on the other??? Hmmm??

So I guess I just limp along and do the best I can and update each now and then. Twitter is easiest except when it tells me that I am locked out for tying to log on too often, when I've only logged on once the whole darn day!

There are a lot of other "things" that I could blog about, but who knows who is reading this blog and how they might use it against me? They might not buy my book!
Egads- they aren't anyway. I evidently have written a book that is best used to pass around from friend to friend, and to take out of the library.

Now the other thing is: To Sequel or Not To Sequel?

GOGGIES

CONTEST

Purchase a copy of "Are You Gonna Eat That Banana" from Amazon using this link:


Email me at LauraHinds@aol.com with the date of your order so I can verify it. I get a count of how many books sell on any given day. When you email me, be sure to give me a mailing address for you and you'll soon receive a personalized bookmark in the mail!

Write a fair review on Amazon, send me a copy, or the direct link to your review, and I'll also send you an autographed bookplate for your copy of "Are You Gonna Eat That Banana?"

Contest ends March 31st.

New Logo....

How do you like my new logo for the book?? Don't forget to buy the book!

Writing Google Ghoulash

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Google Goulash

I'm finally inspired to work on Google Ghoulash and am pleased with this mini success story of the morning. Drum roll, please:

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Banana's Everywhere!

Cats and Bananas are everywhere! I found this one on LOL Cats this morning! How did they know it was purrfect for the day my books are on their way here!

Don't forget- you can get your very own copy from Amazon.com

It's Official! The Book is on Amazon

Clown Free Zone

In response to blog reader concerns (Oh Hai Gail!), I want to reassure fearful fans that "Are You Gonna Eat That Banana" is truly clown free and safe for your eyes!!! I even had my favorite LOL cat of the week take care of any clowns lurking about seeking to insinuate themselves into the manuscript!

Of course, you might want to be careful about the rogue Gnomes!!!

Happy Monday!!!

The editing continues today!!!! I only have to slog through about 50,000 more words or so!

Laura
http://www.laurahinds.com
(ok, so that only brings you to this blog for now! Better things are coming soon!)

It's HERE!

The book will be available on Amazon.com soon!!