I had a couple of things I wanted to share before Thanksgiving, but time got away from me. (Yes, more home improvement projects are currently underway.) I’ll be back soon, but until then, to my American friends, HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!🦃🥧🦃 To my friends from afar, HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND! ❤️
Greetings, friends! As I’ve shared before, I’ve designed a lot of book covers for other writers, and lately, I’ve even started editing for a handful of them. And for most of the people whose covers I’ve designed, I also formatted them for both Kindle and print versions and then published them on Amazon for the writer. So, as far as getting a book ready to publish and knowing which options to select while publishing, I was well-versed.
What I wasn’t familiar with until I published my own book was the part that came after publishing. Specifically, I mean the information on the KDP dashboard. My autistic brain likes to know how things work, and because I’m a paralegal by trade, I like to research a thing to death. For example, I’m on Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), so why were the KENP Read numbers moving at different rates than order numbers? Well, as I learned from Amazon, KENP pages roll over at midnight Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), so that’s 8:00 my time that KENP starts counting the new day. Which means that a few minutes after midnight my time, I might show 600 pages read on the new day, because that’s really been 4 hours’ worth of reading. Likewise, Kindle sales go by Pacific Standard Time (PST) or 3 hours after midnight my time. So, my day’s book sales can continue long after I go to bed. These stats came directly from Amazon, so I can trust that they are accurate.
As far as my debut novel, The Changeling of the Third Reich, I’m up to 50 Amazon reviews, and while October’s sales were all over the map a few weeks ago, they started picking up again in the latter half of the month. I already know to expect a decline in November and December and an upswing in January, so hopefully that’s true.
My next book to be published, The Changeling of the Third Reich Book II: The Reckoning, will be released on November 26, 2023. As with Book I, it’s a historical fiction -slash- psychological thriller, and it picks up a few weeks after the end of Book I. I had an ad for Book I on Facebook the other day when one of those Fiverr artists messaged me and asked if I designed the cover myself. When I said yes, he said, “Perfect, just that the name is not in the center.” I’m like, “That’s correct,” and he then tells me, “Ok.” Okaaaay? That was weird. But, speaking of covers, here’s my long-awaited cover reveal for Book II…
Now, if you remember my cover from Book I, the girl’s face was ripped in half with each half depicting a different victim of the Nazi Army. Book II’s cover also depicts two different scenes, but because I didn’t split the soldier exactly in half with the baby, the split is more subtle. Do you see it? I’m curious as to what you notice without me telling you what to look for. I’d love to know your thoughts, and even more so, I hope you’ll read it… and love it.
Let’s talk: Is there a particular part of history you feel especially drawn to? Do you judge a book by its cover?
Greetings, friends! I had SO many exciting blog posts planned for the last half of October. I was going to introduce to my new Devon Rex cat, Nova. I was going to reveal the cover of my next book. And I was going to do a special Halloween thing. But, as the old saying goes, we plan, God laughs. When I went to Georgia to pick up Nova, I also picked up a nice hearty dose of the flu! In fact, the doctor feared it was going to my lungs, so he put me on Tamiflu 5 days after I got sick (which is 3 days too late to help the flu part of the flu, but can hopefully prevent it from getting further into the lungs). So, today, I’m going to take it easy on myself and you and just share some of the decorations Sister Michelle and I usually do for our annual Halloween party.
Each year, we save our cooler-looking jars and bottles and add to our spooky apothecary. It’s fun to try to think of different creative names and what we can put inside them to make them look real — and creepy. We haven’t had a party since Covid started, and in light of my flu, it’s a good thing we didn’t plan a party this year. But last year, Sister Michelle took our spooky apothecary to work and won the office decorating contest there.
To make these, we start by spray painting the lids. Then we sand the jars / bottles with 120 grit sandpaper. Then, we paint them with a dark-brown water-based stain, leaving drip marks. We either find labels on the internet or make our own, (I like to make them whenever possible.) We print them in black & white on standard copy paper, cut them out, then paint a thin layer of strong coffee on them, lay them on a cookie sheet, then sprinkle them with instant coffee and bake them at 300° until they are dry. Then, we Modpodge them on the jars.
Next, I’ll show you our jars and tell you the things we put in them to make them look creepy. You probably have most of these ingredients in your own kitchen, craft room, or yard, and the ones you don’t have are inexpensive and totally worth the cost.
Toasted Troll Ears = pork rinds
Captured Attorney’s Soul = black tulle (fabric)
Bottled Swamp Fog = white tulle (fabric)
Dehydrated Lizard Livers = white raisins
Baby Dragon Scales = Oats
Desiccated Maggots = rice + flour
Pickled Tape Worms = boil fettuccini in water with a few drops of red food coloring. As you add it to jar, add a couple of drops of red food coloring every few inches. Pack it in tightly.
Dander of Werewolf = oats + flour
Laudanum = salt
Genuine Werewolf Whiskers = cut from a paintbrush
Dragons Eggs = At first, we used mothballs, but even in a jar, they smelled awful! The next year, we started using painted styrofoam balls. You could even paint ping pong or golf balls.
Hand of Zombie = This is one of my favorites! Make it a few days ahead so it will get really gross. A hand-shaped piece of ginger + a packet of brown gravy. Trust me.
Curare Granules = Coarse Salt
Botulism Neurotoxin = water + black food coloring
Dehydrated Cockroaches = black raisins
Vampire Grave Dirt = potting soil or dark dirt
Sands of Time = Sand
Witches Wart Hairs = cut paint brush
Pickled Rat Brains in Skunk Oil = cauliflower in water + yellow food coloring
Chloroform = water + green food coloring
Strychnine = cream of tartar
Shrunken Head Antidote = water + food coloring
Ghost Tears = water
Wolfsbane = water + food coloring
Cold Pressed Toad Oil = water + green food coloring + 1 TBSP vegetable oil
Dead Marsh Whiskey = water + food coloring
Arsenic = baking soda
Eau de Trollette = water + neon yellow food coloring
Phoenix Feathers = black feathers
Bloodberry Ghoul-aid = water + purple food coloring
Cyanide = fine salt
Paw of Griffin = I don’t even know what that thing is… It’s some root from the produce section that’s darker than ginger.
Desiccated Bat Droppings = black raisins
Slug Juice = water + black food coloring + 1 tsp. gelatin
Varicose Veins = These are my other favorite! Boil wide spaghetti in water with a few drops of blue food coloring then add a few drops of blue & purple food coloring along the way as you pack it in the jar.
Diseased Gall Stones = dried peas / split pea soup
Zombie’s Blood = light corn syrup + red food coloring
Raven’s Blood = light corn syrup + red food coloring
Zombie Biotoxin = water + food coloring
Skeleton Polish = Crisco or coconut oil
Coffin Liquor = water + food coloring
Octopus Ink = water + black food coloring
Tarantula Venom = water + 1 TBSP milk
Black Widow Spider Milk = water + 1 TBSP milk
Powdered Liars’ Tongues = colorful mica (or scrape an eye shadow until it is loose powder)
Phoenix Ashes = crushed piece of charcoal
Slightly Used Wooden Stake Splinters = wood splinters (or toothpicks) dipped in red paint or food coloring
Axe Polishing Paste = Crisco or coconut oil
Troll Hair = scrap of fake fur
Pickled Goblin Eyes = peeled grapes
Rapid Change Elixir = water + food coloring
Swamp Sludge = water + black food coloring + black dirt/potting soil + 1 tsp. gelatin
Scab Collection = corn flakes painted with dots of red paint or food coloring
Embalming Fluid = water + greed food coloring + soak the inside of a highlighter marker until the ink is absorbed into the liquid then remove the insert — This gives it a creepy glow!
Aged Mummy Wrappings = gauze or cheesecloth strips rubbed with cinnamon
Slime of Frog = make green slime with Elmer’s Glue + Borax (Google recipe)
Toe Jam of Troll = make grey slime with Elmer’s Glue + Borax (Google recipe)
Decomposed Mummy Dust = flour + cinnamon & tiny bits of gauze or cheesecloth
Ogre Snot = make yellow slime with Elmer’s Clear Glue + Borax (Google recipe)
Shrinking Potion Test Subject = Miniature Skeleton
Hybrid Specimen = one of those wet & grow creatures from the dollar store
Unknown Specimen = one of those wet & grow creatures from the dollar store
Assorted Teeth = we made assorted fangs & teeth from polymer clay then painted them after baking
This is NOT part of our usual spooky apothecary, but I wish it was. This actually happened one year just a few days after carving a perfectly healthy pumpkin. I have no idea why or how it happened, but it looked pretty cool (though it stank of mold!). At any rate, that’s just a bonus for you.
In a final note, if you make any of these, please do NOT store the bottles until next year with any food or slime inside, or you will get a bad trick that’s no treat. Seriously. 🎃👻🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN, FRIENDS! 🎃👻🎃
LET’S TALK: Do you have plans this Halloween? Do you like to dress in costume? Have you had your flu shot? Would you have fun creating a spooky apothecary?
Hello, friends. It’s been one of those months where I can truthfully say nothing’s been going on, and I also truthfully say I’ve been SOOOO busy. I hate times like that when you feel like you’re spinning your wheels but have nothing accomplished to show for it.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, 2023 started with a hearty list of home reno projects that Sister Michelle and I wanted to check off. Unfortunately, we kept hitting road blocks at every turn. We got most of them done, but a few took a LOT longer than we anticipated because of some problem or another.
So far this year, we ripped apart Sister Michelle’s bathroom and rebuilt / retextured the walls, then installed a new sink/vanity, toilet, and shower (including building a cement curb – NOT fun!). (That took almost 4 months! Our motto for that job: “Never again!”) (The bathroom looked like that when we bought the house… Sister Michelle would’ve never chosen brown Southwestern.) As soon as we get Son Jeremy to cope the crown, the bathroom will be completely finished.
Next, we tiled our kitchen backsplash. An easy project that only took a few hours. Instant gratification without being completely sore an exhausted. That’s what I like!
Next, we ripped out our old fireplace and built a new one.
Currently, I’ve been working on replacing the kitchen cabinet doors. I bought naked ones and used a sprayer for the primer and enamel paint. (The enamel paint stinks and causes sinus infection from the lingering fumes!) A couple of problems we’ve run into so far: Even though the new doors are exactly the same dimensions as the old ones, they are thicker, so they don’t close where two doors fill an opening. So, we’re having to shave a blade and a half’s width off each; and while that’s working, that means more primer and paint (on the cut edge PLUS where the front rubbed on the floor of the table saw. Goof grief!) And more sinus issues. (Oh, joy.) Also, the place where I ordered them offered two types of hinges – neither of what we had before – so I just selected one. That was a big no-no. The hinges they are bored for – and the ones I bought are for a frameless opening, and our cabinets have an overlay opening. And since we didn’t notice this until a couple of weeks after we received the doors which was well after the return for mistakes period, we’re stuck with them. We figured out a way to bend the prongs, and they fit after that, but by this point in the year, we’re both just dragging, so we have a Frankenstein kitchen right now, with some new that still need work, some new that are complete (on the other side that’s not in the photo), and some old cabinets (up top). I guess with Halloween just around the corner, at least the Frankenstein theme is appropriate for the moment. Did I mention we’re just exhausted?
At this point, 2023 would have been marked complete (after the cabinets are finished), but since we had that flood in my bathroom/bedroom a few months ago, now we have a huge palate of tile on the back deck to install in those rooms.
Also, during the cabinet painting, I SERIOUSLY ruined the concrete around the pool, and we need to primer and re-stain it. And since we like to have Thanksgiving around the pool, we want both of those jobs completed before then. Wish us luck.
I also told you how I lost my favorite lady girl, Cleo, my best Devon Rex cat early this year. I’ve been lost without her, so a few months ago, I found a breeder in Georgia who had a litter in July with a new girl for me. So, in a couple of weeks, Sister Michelle and I will be traveling to the Peach State to pick up Nova and bring her to her new home.
(The autistic kid in me is both highly excited and VERY anxious about making the trip. It’s got to be strange to people who aren’t familiar with autism as to what seemingly insignificant changes to a daily routine can set off a bad run of anxiety. The construction projects above are also fine examples of stressors that set off my autistic brain and make it twitch. As an adult, I can identify the problem and what causes it — not that I can control it, mind you, but as a kiddo, I would just have a tantrum – technically a melt-down, but since we didn’t have Asperger’s diagnoses way back when the dinosaurs and I were young, it was just considered a temper tantrum by a spoiled brat. Me being the brat. I’m not telling you this for any other reason than to help you understand any autistic kiddos you may know.)
Then my sweet Daughter Stefani had to have her sweetest baby, Buddy the Chihuahua, who was her heart put down last week. That was just days after my poor kiddo battled her third round of Covid. (And, yes, she’s vaccinated. Luckily, it only lasted a few days this time.) Poor kid. 💔
Finally, I’ve been working on finalizing my next novel to be published, The Changeling of the Third-Reich Book II: The Reckoning. Obviously, it’s a sequel to Book One. I’ll be doing a low-key cover reveal later this month, and it will published next month after Thanksgiving. Furthermore, I’ve started making the loose outline for Book III, so I’m excited to see where that one leads. 📚
Looking forward, we’re very ready for 2024. The plan is to take-on only projects that can be completed in a single weekend, and otherwise, work on heath and well-being type of activities. We started oil painting with Bob Ross back in ’22 🎨 and would like to get back to that again, and I still haven’t even opened the laser the kiddos got me for Christmas last year to try out any projects. Plus, I have a couple of different writing projects ✍️ simmering on the back burner, and I just learned today that I can’t put off the shoulder surgery 🏥👨⚕️💉 much longer, so 2024 will likely kick off with that. Woo hoo. 🙄 😂😂
LET’S TALK: How’s October in your neck of the woods? Have you completed what you hoped to this year? Are you already making your next year’s list of things you hope to accomplish? If you hired someone to do a job and they blew it off, would you chance hiring someone again or figure it out for yourself?
Hello, friends! I’ve been crazy busy at my house, attempting to wrap up a LONG list of projects in a short amount of time AND dealing with performance issues on BOTH of my computers. (I hate when that happens because I fear I’m going to have to replace them both, and as you probably know about me, with my autistic brain, I really do not like change. LOL! 😂)
I’m still fighting the sinus infection and have two more weeks’ worth of antibiotics to finish. Despite all this, I traveled to North Florida last weekend and met in person three of the writers who I edit and design covers for. That was super-exciting! While I was there, the owner of a local bookstore that sells their books walked into the restaurant, and she was super nice also. (Now I have an idea of where I might want to live when I retire. 😁)
This month, I also had some excitement regarding my own novel, The Changeling of the Third-Reich. My book baby turned 3-months old this month, and so far…
• I had my best KENP day to date.
• I beat my last month’s KENP total by 32%.
• I beat my last month’s book order total by 6%.
• I beat my last month’s royalty total by 21%.
• I made it up to #16 in Jewish History in the Kindle Store more than once.
• I received several new Amazon reviews and have 37 now for a rating of 4.6.
• I received several new Goodreads reviews and have 20 now for a rating of 4.45.
• I’ve gotten a lot of nice comments from strangers on FB who have read my novel.
• My Facebook boosted posts are doing very well as far as advertising.
• Two people who I don’t personally know but who are friends of friends recommended my novel for their book clubs.
Of course, all roses have thorns, so this month also brought some not-so-nice book news for my novel…
• I got a 1-star and a 3-star Amazon review (also over on Goodreads) with no comments. (Don’t worry — I’ve been an artist for years, and I know writing, like other types of art, is subjective and not everyone will love it.)
• My Amazon advertising campaign was a waste of time and money.
• I backed out of a Facebook advertising campaign (and opted for boosted posts instead) because I didn’t like how little control I had over what was displayed.
• I designed what I thought were (boosted post) books ads that would really pop, but they all performed poorly compared to the more simple front and back cover ad. (Now I know.)
• And finally, I received some hateful remarks on my FB author page from a Nazi/holocaust denier who didn’t like that I was “promoting untruths”. (Of all the “thorns” this month, this was really the only one that disturbed me and rented space in my head.)
But back to the exciting news, I also received my first blogger review from a fellow author and artist, Roberta Eaton Cheadle. (YAY! Thank you, Robbie! 💗) This news REALLY made my day/week/month! For those of you who don’t know her, Robbie is gifted at so many things, and her talents will leave you in awe. She always does an expert job of reviewing books, and I’m humbled and honored that she read and reviewed mine. I love how she lists the key elements of the story without giving spoilers and also lays out the book’s themes. I’d appreciate it if you’d all visit Robbie’s page and say hi to her or meet her if you haven’t already…
Hello, friends! I’ve had a busy month year of home renovation projects, and they’re starting to take a toll on my health. The most recent was primering and painting new kitchen cabinets with an air sprayer. The spraying was fun, but breathing the fumes of the enamel paint wasn’t. Nor was waiting days for them to dry and dealing with fumes. There are still some mechanical kinks to work out, so I don’t have photos to share yet.
Earlier this year, my Lupus started involving my kidneys, so the doctors started me on Benlysta. I give myself a shot of this each week, rotating between the legs and abdomen, and it basically kills off my immune system that is normally overactive from the Lupus. In this instance, that meant I wasn’t going to recover from the sinus infection I got painting cabinets unless I skipped a dose of Benlysta and took antibiotics. So, that slowed down my progress also.
When I feel yucky, I like to relax by watching feel-good TV shows such as Gilligan’s Island before bed each night. As of today, I’ve watched every episode of Gilligan four times in a row over the past few months. It’s the Autism in me that feels comfort with the familiar (rather than annoyance of the lack of variety).
Last night, as I was watching Gilligan, it occurred to me just how long I’ve had a passion for being entertained by people who were shipwrecked. I believe it started when I was a little girl, and my Granddaddy would tell me the story of Gulliver’s Travels and of Robinson Crusoe. They were such exciting tales, I couldn’t wait until I was big enough to read them myself. I loved how Robinson Crusoe kept a journal of his lonely time on the island before discovering the man he named Friday. That’s why I commemorated the story in art form. This was my first time making sand clay.
When my son was small and had trouble sleeping, I told him about Lemuel Gulliver and his adventures in Lilliput, and he loved it so much, we ended up making up at least a couple of dozen more islands that Gulliver visited along his way and created new adventures for him. (I don’t think Jonathan Swift would mind.) I also believe Gulliver’s Travels was one of my first book arts.
When I was in high school, I had the coolest senior class English teacher. She’d assign a book to read one week, then the following week, we’d discuss the book and then watch the movie version in class. This was when I discovered one of my all-time favorite books, Lord of the Flies. Not only do I love the book, but I love the original movie and the remake movie. And that’s a rare thing for me to even like the movie if I’ve read the book, much less two movies. I used polymer clay for most of this book art, and the book itself is just cut to create the shoreline.
When I see a movie that I love, I always check to see if it was adapted from a book. If so, I’m reading that next. So, in 2010, when the movie Shutter Island came out, I was all in. Because the ads made it look good, but more importantly, Leonardo DiCaprio. Just sayin’. Afterward, I bought the book, loved it more then the movie, and realized I liked Dennis Lehane. Technically, Marshall Daniels isn’t shipwrecked there, but there’s no way he’s getting off the island anytime soon. So, with this book art, I originally thought I’d build a lighthouse, but then I kept seeing a short-lived trend of folding book pages to create a scene. So, I made the picture of a lighthouse over the words “Who is 67?” It’s not my favorite piece, and I still may attempt to construct a lighthouse around the book’s spine to complete it.
At any rate, I just found it interesting that I apparently had a theme going on and didn’t realize it. (Keeping this theme in mind, you’d think I’d have jumped at the movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks. While I love Mr. Hanks, I did not care for that movie, so I never even checked to see if there was a book. So much for staying true to my theme… P.S. I just checked. Apparently it’s based on Robinson Crusoe. I guess they substituted Wilson, the ball, for Friday, the man? At any rate, I don’t see it and still don’t care for it.)
Let’s talk: Do you have a particular subject that repeatedly draws you in? Will you ever read a book after seeing the movie or see the movie after reading a book? Do you ever love a book so much that you make up additional chapters when you tell the story to your children?
Howdy, friends! We’ve been busy bees at my house. We finally finished the fireplace remodel. When we moved in six years ago, we hated the fireplace and the wall next to it. The wall had one of those “dust catcher” shelves that were so popular in the 90s when our house was built. We wouldn’t have minded so much, but it was so close to the ceiling, there was no room to actually put anything on it, and it just served no purpose but to make the wall look squatty. (We always intended to create a time capsule in the void when we sealed it up, but by the time we got there, we were over it and just wanted the job done.) The fireplace had a huge outdated mirror over it that wasn’t in the best condition anyway, and the fireplace was a huge propane insert that never worked.
So, Sister Michelle and I rolled up our sleeves last month and got to work. We were still so sore and exhausted after rebuilding Michelle’s shower by ourselves that this time, I hired someone to install the cement board and do some drywall before the two of us started the stone work. I soon came to regret that decision. After correcting the cracked new drywall area (GRR!) and new bad texture (GRR again!), we RE-retextured, primered, and painted the walls on either side of the area. Then we finally got to lay the stacked stone veneers.
It wasn’t as difficult as it looked like it might have been… It was kind of like a manual (and very heavy) Tetris game. Nonetheless, we did run into a few problems along the way. Sister Michelle wanted to use a stone treater which was supposed to make the grey stones a deeper, richer color. It did not. It made them black, and all our hard work looked like a slab of road tar! So, I had the bright idea to whitewash the whole thing, but that turned everything neon blue! Finally, we sprayed mineral spirits and scrubbed each stone with steel wool until our fingerprints disappeared. The stones still have a slight blueish hue, but at least they’re mostly grey again.
The next problem was the floating mantle. If you’ve done much in the way of woodworking, you know what I mean when I say it’s always difficult to get the miter joints to line up when it’s a very long seam. This was just shy of 6 feet, so I started with problems that only got worse. I did the carpenter’s trick of filling the joint gap with glue, then brandishing the seam with the edge of a screwdriver, then sanding the seam so the sawdust combines with the glue to strengthen the joint for a seamless look. That was working well until I got a toothpick-sized spike (okay, splinter) in my thumb that was covered in glue and I couldn’t get it to pull out. I feared the glue was starting to dry, so luckily, I found son Jeremy after a few minutes, and he was able to remove it.
As for the mantle, I ended up having to use Bondo wood filler, and while I originally intended to stain it black, the Bondo made an odd shiny spot under the stain, so I mixed the black stain with satin polyurethane, and that covered the flaws nicely. What do you think?
Now, we have a hurricane headed our way this week, so we’re taking a break before starting our next project which is replacing the kitchen cabinets. And in case you feel disappointed because my post really wasn’t about bees at all, here’s a book sculpture I was commissioned to make for an attorney’s wife who is a beekeeper.
Let’s talk: Do you love watching those Facebook reels as much as I do of the people who remove bees? (I’m deathly allergic to bee stings, so I guess that’s why they fascinate me.) Have you ever done – or hired someone to do – a home repair then had to redo it because it turned out badly? What would you have put on a too-short dust catcher shelf? Have you ever had to prepare for a hurricane? Have you ever left – or opened – a time capsule?
Happy Friday, friends! For those of you who interact with me on Facebook, you may have already heard what happened to Sister Michelle and me last weekend. (If so, you can skip to the part after the photo.) But what happened afterward was just as reprehensible.
I’ll be brief with what happened so I can get to the aftermath. Last weekend, Sister Michelle and I had lunch at a restaurant on the outer perimeter of the mall. On our way there, we read of a shooting at a traffic stop in Orlando (an hour away from us) that left two police officers critically injured that very morning. It was tax-free weekend here in Florida because school starts this week, so the mall was crowded.
We finished out meal and headed out to the parking lot via a door that led directly out (meaning we didn’t go through the mall). We were parked two rows over, about hallway between the mall and the exterior mall road. The rows were one way, and we were parked facing the mall, meaning we had to back up, drive toward the mall, then take an adjacent row to head back out.
As we neared our car, we noticed some people running to their vehicles. No big deal. We got in and started to back up, but some jerk cut us off and nearly hit us, so we stopped and let him pass. Rude, but nothing out of the ordinary – he was in a hurry and obviously more important than us. I got us backed out and started to proceed toward the mall when a nasty old woman almost cashed into the front of me and started shaking her fist and yelling at me to get out of the way. That was weird. She was the one going the wrong way. We got around her and two more vehicles were driving the wrong way toward us.
Now, we knew something was going on. All of a sudden, throngs of people emerged from the mall. Michelle suggested that perhaps “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” got out at the same time. We watched as many of them ran in front of us, and we noticed a lot of them were crying and most were on their phones. Several dropped their bags of leftovers or shopping and raced to their cars. My heart sank. “That’s not a movie crowd,” I said. “Looks like a riot or looting.”
Michelle’s next words were chilling. “No. Maybe there was a shooting.”
We still weren’t to the end of the row yet, and traffic was at a standstill. I asked a man standing nearby what happened, and he said there were “shots fired” inside. Crap!
By now, cop cars and helicopters started arriving. We got to the end of the aisle and turned around and put on the blinker to turn right so we could leave via the front of the mall. During this wait, we looked for news, both on the internet and radio, but heard nothing. So, we called home to Son Jeremy to see there was anything on TV. He couldn’t find anything, but he posted it on Facebook. Eventually, we made it to the end of the next aisle so we could turn.
By then, more cops, more helicopters were there (or the same two helicopters kept circling), and a police officer told me we had to turn left because the front entrance was closed and the mall was being evacuated and would be closed the rest of the day. We asked what was going on, and he simply said, “Active shooter,” before he proceeded to walk to the car behind us.
Traffic was moving as slow as molasses in winter, and we kept searching for news but found nothing. Two and a half hours later, we got out of the parking lot. When we got home, there was still no news, so I made a Facebook post, mostly so that Jeremy’s and my shared friends were in the loop. A lot of people were so kind to tell me they were glad we were safe.
Later that night, we read that after going through video footage, police determined that a woman at the food court leaned on the countertop which accidentally discharged a gun in her purse, hitting the counter. She then intermingled into the groups of people fleeing and left, identity unknown. And then it started. People – FRIENDS – actually started texting and messaging me that “I just read what happened at the mall. It was just an accident. No big deal.”
I’m livid! First of all, I never claimed we were in danger, nor did I dramatize or exaggerate anything! In fact, I didn’t even mention the number of people we saw weeping and hugging on their way out of the mall! THEY were obviously quite traumatized! The mall closed for the entire rest of the day! On tax-free weekend! They stood to make a LOT of money that they won’t get now. Every mall employee lost getting paid that day. Not to mention scheduled that were changed to accommodate the extra employees for a busy day. Lower income parents lost the opportunity to get tax-free clothes for their children and save money. People in the middle of the movie they paid for had to leave and lost their money. People in the midst of a birthday celebration lunch (such as we had at the same location for Michelle’s birthday the weekend before) had to leave without celebrating. Prepared food at the restaurants and food court had to be thrown away rather than purchased and consumed. Insurance claims on the lost mall revenue will drive up all our premiums. Law enforcement were called away from other places where they may have been needed more. The city and/or county had to pay for helicopters to look for a would-be shooter. I can guarantee you there were some fender benders as a result of the chaos (because we were nearly hit twice). And we have no idea how many individuals were affected as a result such as those who already suffered from high blood pressure, those who were diabetic and stuck in the car for hours, those who were pregnant and stuck in the car for hours, etc. Was I in danger? No. But it was A HUGE DEAL!
It burns me up that a citizen who is not in law enforcement feels the need to carry a gun in her purse to a mall. (And before you tell me she needed a gun in case of a real mall shooter, read the next sentence.) But what’s worse is she’s obviously not even a responsible gun owner, or the firearm would’ve had the safety on. (Hence, I wouldn’t trust that she could handle a real crisis with her gun.) Or a trigger lock. (I know, Glocks don’t have safeties.) But what if a child or another adult would have been too close and gotten hit? It would still be “an accident”, but would it be a “big deal” then? And why did she leave? COWARD! If she was so convicted about her Second Amendment right to bear arms – in a mall – where families and children were shopping for back-to-school items – then she should’ve been woman enough to stick around and own up to her “mistake”! Apologize and make sure the police knew it was just “an accident.” If she’d have owned her “faux pas,” it would’ve prevented needless searching for an “active shooter”, prevented the mall from completely evacuating and closing, saved helicopter and law enforcement expense, and saved the expense of the police searching for her.
As of a couple of days ago, the news claims that police have located the shooter, but so far, no charges have been filed. However, I hope the state attorney decides to throw the book at her and charge her for the expense of that entire debacle the police had to go through! I hope every store in the mall sues her for lost revenue. I hope every patron affected goes on her social media page and tells her exactly what they think of her.
Personally, I’m angry as hell! And not just at the irresponsible firearm-wielding coward, but at my so called “friends” who dared to call me out to tell me it was no big deal. To them, I say, when a classmate of your child or grandchild brings a gun to school and “accidentally” fires a single shot and the school is locked down and you don’t know if your child or grandchild is dead or alive… before you think of a way you can sue the school, please remember: It’s No. Big. Deal.
Rant over.
Let’s talk: Without getting political, do you think Americans are becoming too numb to gun violence?
Greetings, friends! I’ve had an incredibly busy couple of weeks. Sister Michelle and I are in the midst of remodeling our fireplace which meant ripping out an old propane insert that weighted about 200 pounds as well as demoing an 11-foot-tall wall. We plan to rebuild it with cement board and tile it with stacked stone veneer. In the middle of all this, we both got swamped at work and with other home projects we didn’t plan on (emergency repairs!), so we actually hired a friend to come finish the demo and prep the adjacent walls for being retextured so the texture and paint would all match the new stone. (I know, I know. We never hire anyone to do what we can do ourselves, but we were just stretched too thin all at once. We’ll do the stone and build the mantle ourselves.)
Last month the car A/C went out. In Florida. Where we’ve had 110° F days lately. We had it repaired to the tune of $600, and this week, it went out again. Ugh! The mechanic will look at it this weekend to see what the problem is.
And a few months ago, the icemaker in the refrigerator I bought in 2020 broke. Then last month, it started working again on its own. And two weeks later, it stopped working again. It ticks me off because refrigerators only come with a limited 1-year warranty these days! Every rental home we’ve ever lived in up until buying this house has had a refrigerator that barely refrigerated, much less made its own ice. So, we always dreamed of the day when we could actually just push a glass to the machine and get all the ice we wanted. This was not what we bargained for.
So, last week, I had the refrigerator repairman out three times to fix this thing. To the tune of another $600! He changed some parts, but it still didn’t make ice. I was getting quite frustrated. Then he told me before coming back out a fourth time, that I should try turning the temperature down another 5 degrees to negative 5.
Guess what? That fixed things! Turns out, if it’s very hot outside, the water that comes inside is extra hot, and keeping the temperature at zero wasn’t enough to process it into ice fast enough, so it came out slushy then froze in the pipe and the ice holding cell, which prevented the turning coil from rotating and spitting out ice. When it “magically” worked for a while last month, that was apparently because we had a rainy period after a long drought, and the outdoor temperature dropped for a while. So, now I know, and now YOU know too. (I’m hoping sharing this info will save someone else the $600 I spent learning this lesson.)
So, as stated above, I’m planning on tiling stacked stone this weekend. What do YOU have planned?
Let’s talk: Do you tackle most of your home repairs or call a professional? Would you ever attempt ripping a wall out by yourself? Have you ever had an ice maker that didn’t make ice? Did you have a clue that zero degrees isn’t cold enough to freeze water in Florida during the summertime?
Greetings, friends. Just about this time last year, Son Jeremy was in an auto accident so horrible, it was a miracle he survived. He was busy at work installing pool cage screens, and he let time slip away from him. His auto insurance was nearly due, but he kept forgetting to make the payment because he was so busy. That day, he woke up with paying it in mind, then he got sidetracked by a call from a screen company, so he went to pick up some screen. The cut-off day was the night before at midnight. That was his first mistake.
After he left the screen supplier, he intended to turn left across two lanes of highway to rest in the median before merging into the other two lanes of highway. He sat at the stop sign for a long period of time as a semi-truck to his left was stopped, waiting to make a right turn onto the side road where Jeremy was. Jeremy couldn’t see around the semi, and the semi couldn’t make the turn with Jeremy there. The semi-truck driver waved Jeremy across, so Jeremy headed across the first two lanes. That was his second mistake.
A third driver of an SUV was traveling at 50 MPH in the inside lane and approached the rear of the semi just as Jeremy started to cross. BAM! She hit Jeremy right in the driver’s door, so hard that it pushed him across the median into another on-coming semi who hit his front passenger’s door.
Now’s where the angel on Jeremy’s shoulder really had his back. Literally. Jeremy has had a bad habit of not wearing a seatbelt. This probably saved his life. When the first driver hit him, he became airborne and “floated” above the center console. If he would’ve been buckled in, he would’ve been crushed. As his vehicle started to roll, the second vehicle (the other semi) hit him from the opposite direction, correcting the almost-roll, and spinning his vehicle in the opposite direction before it dragged his car a few feet. Still airborne, Jeremy recalls seeing his car spin around him. When his vehicle rested, he realized both front doors were crushed in, and he was in the only safe space. He also thought he was actually dead.
He jumped out of the back door of his car while everyone else who saw the accident rushed to save him. He recalls seeing them attempt to open the front passenger’s door, and he felt as if his body might actually be inside while his spirit was outside looking in. Moments later, his co-worker who had been at the screen shop spotted him and ran over to him to ask if he was okay. That’s when Jeremy realized he was actually alive.
(Pause… Remember that my day job for the past three decades has been working in personal injury law, so I can assure you that the adrenaline rush from being involved in an accident can make you think weird things, and it can cause strange neurological responses such as stuttering for a while. Oftentimes, it takes a few days to even realize how injured you really are for this reason. Okay, hit play…)
As a mama bear, I can’t even begin to describe what that felt like, hearing about the accident, seeing the photos of Jeremy’s totaled car, and then seeing the videos as they emerged. The poor little girl who hit him was hysterical, but the driver who waved him across didn’t even stop to see if he was alive!
Jeremy got two tickets, one for an improper left turn, and one for no insurance. (The police arrived after the fact, so they didn’t notice the no seatbelt thing.) Now, as someone who, again, works in law, I can assure you, he deserved these tickets. But what happened next was mind baffling. A few days later, Jeremy got a letter from the State of Florida saying that his license was suspended for lack of insurance. That was appropriate. But they said he couldn’t get his license back until he paid $10,000 in cash to do so. (This figure is the minimum amount required in Florida for property damage coverage, which is damage to someone else’s property if you are in an accident.) Now, I’m not saying at all that he shouldn’t have had to pay this – the girl’s car and the semi that hit him were both damaged, and they deserved to split the available coverage, which would’ve been $10,000 if he’d have made his payment (or had his accident) the day before.
But the part that really ticked still ticks me off is that if he were a drunk driver or a driver on drugs, Florida would allow him to get a work restriction license. Meaning he could drive to work and home only, but he could still earn a living. Jeremy already crippled himself (figuratively, not literally) by having no insurance because he didn’t have available PIP coverage (the coverage that pays for yourself to see a doctor when you are injured in an accident), and he didn’t have available comprehensive and collision coverage (the coverage that pays for your own vehicle to be repaired or replaced after an accident). But because he was NOT drunk or on drugs, he didn’t qualify for a work license. Yet, he obviously had to work to come up with $10,000. Does that make sense?
Fortunately, Jeremy was able to hire Daughter Stefani to drive him to his jobs, and a few months later, he earned enough to pay off his debt. If he didn’t live with me, he’d have had a lot more bills and wouldn’t have been so fortunate. But I still think of how many people who may have needed to wait until payday to pay their insurance and had an accident. How do they get their kids to school or get to the grocery store or to work, and if they can’t even pay their insurance, how do they ever save up $10,000 in one lump sum to pay back? I know the other drivers shouldn’t have to eat the cost of the uninsured driver failing to carry insurance, but there has to be a better answer than this.
Perhaps there should be a 7-day grace period for insurance coverage. They could charge 37 days’ worth of coverage for the initial payment, then 30 days’ worth every month thereafter which would keep the driver protected for a week after their due date. Florida should allow work restriction licenses for these people; otherwise, they are being cut off at the knees and will have to go on public assistance to live if they can’t get to work! Not to mention how do they get to the grocery store and to their children’s schools? (Florida doesn’t have public transportation other than busses that don’t go to a lot of places.) The poor are being penalized while the drunk drivers and drug addicts are being rewarded!
End of rant. To end on a positive note, I’ll share my book art of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer…
Let’s chat: Have you ever been in a car accident? Have you ever been the victim of a backward bureaucracy? Have you even been penalized while someone with a worse offense was seemingly rewarded? Finally, do you ever turn left (or right if you’re in the UK) when another driver waves you across? (If so, PLEASE STOP!)
Rachel Carrera, Novelist 