Randomness

Here are some bits and pieces of random thoughts on this extremely busy week:

We are moving in less than three weeks; at least one of us will be working all through the move (me!); and we have less than three weeks to break down and pack up two townhouses. Yikes!

I am behind in scheduling routine doctor's appointments, and these are more numerous than my social calendar. A sign of getting old?

Faith, my calico, has suddenly decided she's rather sleep on my desk chair or waaaaay up high by my pillows, not on the specially reserved spot for her on my bed, at the foot, with her own pillow. Spoiled? Spooked?

Shipping is free on the BryonySeries store and most likely will continue to be free until after we move. Only print is available for now (for eBooks, you must still go to Amazon), so if one or two or more titles appeal to you, now is the time to order and/or stock up..

Why does coffee taste the best early in the morning?

Uncle Barty is in town.

Speaking of uncles, I received the sweetest birthday card from my Uncle Carl in New York. He is eighty-one, and the front of the card reads: "A niece like you adds so much beauty, joy, and love to life." The inside reads: Celebrating all there is to love about you and the incredible difference you make in our family and in so many people's lives." I shall treasure this for a very long time.

My ears feel pretty good today. And if I don't remember to cancel the appointment with my primary today to have those ears addressed (I made an appointment for Friday and wound up in quick care over the weekend), I will be paying a no-show charge. Better put "cancel Dr. Rogers" in my calendar.

I have just under 8,000 emails in my AOL account, and if I didn't have email that needs answering (such as anthology submissions from WriteOn Joliet members), I'd delete all of them and just start fresh. Why does email pile up faster than one can respond to it?

Finally, we did not swap out the recipe on the Sue's Diner page yet and probably won't until this weekend. 

So if you'd like to check out the current one, which is authentically from the nineteenth century, apears in Bryony, and is most likely unlike anything you've ever eaten, go here.

Email Hell

So once upon a time I was great at keeping up with email.

We're talking about, oh, pre-2014.

What changed in 2014? Well, I became an employee.

And my one work email address became two work email addresses. My previous work address then became my personal email address - except it was also a work email address to my contacts of fifteen years.

But I wasn't comfortable checking it at work because, well, I was at work. So I did it on off hours. Except as off hours shrank, I didn't feel like spending off hours checking email.

The last time I did a great purge was February of 2015.

So in 2017, I decided to get ahead of it. Except it multiplied faster.

Yesterday, AOL spoke.

As I was moving some things around, AOL asked, "Do you want to permanently delete this?" And of course I clicked, "No."

That's not what AOL heard.

Momentary panic. And then relief.

So now I'm taking a few minutes each day to sort by keywords stuff I want before it permanently vanishes. But "new mail" is looking lean.

And I like it.

Easy. Manageable.

Finally.

Have Flashdrive, Will Travel

Newspaper routes thrown, two meetings accomplished, voice mail, email, and Facebook messages checked, I read the thunderstorm warning in my News Feed from the Joliet Weather Center. I glance out my attic window. Humid, but sunny. By the time I finished one story on deadline and an interview, it would be too hot for a walk.

Shoot!

Timothy was driving Rebekah to a weeklong culinary class at Joliet Junior College and had just pulled out of the driveway when the sky blackened and the wind kicked up. I quickly called him. "Bad weather coming in. Be careful."

"Sunny skies where I'm heading," Timothy said.

Good. They would beat it. I opened "new document," typed the first letter and felt a huge blast through my window. Then all went black. We had no power. Great. Staff changes at the newspaper over the weekend meant my new contact's number had not yet made it into my cell phone. It was on my office phone, yes, but that one was dead.

After Timothy dropped Rebekah off at school, he called to let me know she had made to class on time. So, I asked if he could send email from his new phone. He could, but didn't really know how. So I called Bryony's web administrator, Sarah Stegall, who lives out of state.

"Can you email my editor?" I asked.

I gave her the address and a few bullet points, then called my mother who lived in the next town. She still had power and was more than happy to share her electricity and internet service. So I packed my notes and flashdrive and headed over.

After I met the most immediate deadlines, I spent a deligthful afternoon catching up on an editing project, free from phone calls, instant messages, texts, and compulsive checking of my news feed. Later, my parents invited me to dinner and even made sure Timothy and Rebekah ate when they returned from cleaning the warehouse. I called Christopher and asked him to buy dinner for everyone else. Daniel even assumed my household chores.

With an editor going on vacation and needing her upcoming pages filled before she left, the last couple of weeks were busier and crazier than usual. Then I learned my new contact would be on vacation next week, so she needs her stories stockpiled, too. Throw a few family emergencies in the mix, tack on several thousand extra sets of weekend inserts (It's vacation time  for newspaper carriers, too), and, although thankful for much work, my mind felt flat and body longed for a break.

It came today in the form of a power outage. Coincidence or providence?

You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Philippians 4: 19.

Bryony Business Cards....

....are in and the first 1500 or so are distributed.
These plastic-coated cards features the Bryony logo, complete with Bryony's signature vines (created by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt (http://www.imaginarylinesstudio.com/), tagline (a drop of blood, a deceptive fantasy), and contact information: website, blog, Facebook page, and email.

THANK YOU Christine at CAL Graphics, Inc. (http://www.calgraphicsinc.com/) for designing a fabulous logo!

Best of all, they cards are FREE!

If you'd like some, contact me at BryonySeries@gmail.com, and I'll send you some.

Branding for Dummies

That would be me.

I ran downstairs to get the morning chores done (what better time than two a.m.?) and returned to find an email from my publicist to the Bryony team about an upcoming a trailer meeting. Confirming a date was the easy part. Then, I read the rest of the message.

Attached to that email were some concepts to ponder-in question format, of course--regarding branding, promotions, marketing, and communications. It was like walking into a pop quiz and quickly remembering you had forgotten to read that chapter.

I had figured once a publicist was on board, I just had to agree with her ideas and show up. She, however, is not letting me off that easy. I guess this means I'm supposed to be part of the process. She even suggested I write a blog post on branding. (Accomplished).

Actually, I see this as a series of blog posts that will give updates on my adventures into the world of marketing, sort of like ye olde school progress reports.

I have two weeks to formulate answers to her questions. Time to dig a new furrow in the aging brain cells, because this is definitely, for me, the untraveled road.

Wish me luck!