It’s Mostly Alive!

It lives! It’s al…. Coff coff.

Ok. It’s only mostly alive. Which about describes my status this morning. I’m talking about the book, though, not me. But I tell you three times, washing a kitten first thing in the morning because she’s gotten into the Toxic Waste is not my idea of fun. Also, opening the second-to-last can of coffee when last week they were out of stock on our preferred brand is mildly stressful. It’s been a morning already, and that’s on top of learning that The Groundskeeper: Raking Up the Dead is live for purchase on the Amazon site.

First, I must thank you all for your insights and contributions to the title. I wound up agreeing with you that the tagline of keeping things in the ground was funny, so I used Groundskeeper as the series name. The punny names Rob Howell sent me privately were hilarious, and I used one for this tale. You really should read his stuff if you aren’t already, as an aside.

I’ve digressed. It happens a lot. Just nudge me from time to time in the general direction I’m supposed to go! So! Groundskeeper Raking Up the Dead is alive and available for purchase, but in my brain-dead Friday night state, I managed to not enroll it in Kindle Unlimited last night. I remember that as being a one-click button on the dashboard. It is not. I straightened it out this morning, but I don’t know how long it will take to appear on the site. I don’t get paid much for KU reads, but as I explained to my son, who thought KU books didn’t pay the authors at all (why does Amazon give your books away for free?) they do pay us. Furthermore, I know a lot of people who would not be able to afford their reading habits (does not look at husband, carefully) if it were not for the largesse of material in KU. I’m mercenary, but I love readers. Otherwise why would I write?

Also! I had a mental moment last night with pricing. Look, pricing is hard. The lowest you can go is 0.99$ and that will net you 0.35 per sale. You get into the money at 2.99, but a novelette (Groundskeeper is slightly over 11,000 words in length, technically a novelette) is not a very long read. So I was messing around with price, looked at it this morning, and winced. It’s a good story. I have had a blast writing it, and even re-reading it for publication yesterday was amused at myself. But I did go ahead and lower that price point. Again, not sure when it will kick in. So you might want to wait on your purchase until it goes through. Unless you just want to toss me a little bit more. Up to you.

The ghouls, wraiths, and ghosties had not been part of the job description. Or maybe they had, just not in so many words. The neatly printed sign next to the ornate gates had simply read “Cemetery groundskeeper and caretaker needed. Inquire within.”

Now Chloe’s trying to calm an irascible ghoul, help a lost ghost find his way back to his grave, and get the mowing done before she needs to break out the bush hog instead… Who knew being a groundskeeper meant trying to keep things in the ground?

I’d love to hear what you think of the whole story when you do read it! Please leave a review, no matter how short. It helps me so much.

And as you can tell, I’m a mess this morning.

Oh… you wanted to know about the kitten in the Toxic Waste, didn’t you. Well, Inspector Gidget was living up to her name (which goes to show why you don’t name a creature unless you are prepared to live with that name!) and rolled or sat in a candy wrapper. My son loves his sour sweets, and Toxic Waste is the current favorite. He brought her to me, asking for help in removing the sticky stuff from her hind legs. She thought this was a perfect time to play ‘the belly is a trap!’ so while she was wrapped around my forearm licking my hands (we are teaching her not to bite) he was washing her with a wet washcloth.

The coffee is another matter. I go on a Quest a little later today in search of it… We will buy the other stuff if we must, but the First Reader will be unhappy.