After we lost Grendel, back in May, I had kinda a downswing with my depression. 2015 has sort of been the year of death by 1,000 paper cuts (or in my more angry moments, I call it the year of "Fuck You!") My blog post on depression, Last Chance, seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people. In the week since I wrote it, it's become the third-most read entry on this blog of all time, behind my two different calls for submissions (if you haven't gotten your story to me, Saturday is your deadline!!)
Mostly everything's been mostly medium-sized fuckery and not anything completely life-wrecking or (like in the cases of the severe illness of a dear friend's father, who I love a lot, the death of my cousin's husband, and the death of my cat) nothing I can change, but they've been constant.
Broken glasses, broken teeth, unexpected bills (I forgot that buying a new car would mean that we'd actually have to pay a personal property tax that had some bite to it, rather than just the $30 or so a year we pay to have a 22 year old car), work problems, friend drama (break ups, new boyfriends, stuff like that, some of it's not bad news or anything, and it doesn't directly affect me, aside from you know, loving and caring about my friends, but it can still be tiring.) vet bills for our cat that died, the dentist double-billing us, flat tires...
If you've read my story in Family Time, Cascade Failure...
That's the kind of year we're having. Nothing's unendurable, nothing's catastrophic. Just little to medium sized problems, constantly. It's more than halfway through the year and I'm ready for it to be next year.... just, oh, my god.
So, yeah, new cat.
Kitten, actually. He's about 10 weeks old and we've named him Oreo. (My fault. The shelter named him Noodles, which none of us liked as a name, and I was throwing ideas out there randomly, and when I said Oreo, the husband said "so, if he gets fat, can I call him Double-Stuff?" which set me and the childthing laughing, so Oreo it is...)
And after a chest cold and getting his bits snipped, he's home...
Which leads me to the contest / sell-a-thon thingie...
Our old cat was, aside from being old, always very calm. Grendel didn't play, he didn't climb, he didn't... do much of anything, really. Every once in a blue moon, he'd attack the shadow of the ceiling fan in the kitchen. Other than that, he ate, he slept, he tolerated affection with a certain amount of "I can see the floor, can I get down now?" Which means our house is NOT very ... childproof? I guess might be the best word.
I've spent the last two days moving things and attempting to teach the kitten not to climb on kitchen counters, the dining room table, into the trash, etc, etc, and trying to move things from "if this gets knocked over it will break" to "when this gets knocked over, it'll make a mess."
Oreo has staked out a spot on my desk where he now likes to sleep when I'm working that's surprisingly not in my way, and to encourage this behavior, I cleared the spot out so that it's nice and comfortable for him.
Unfortunately, this is right where all my contributor copies were. (he shoved several of them out onto the floor until I cleared the space)
I moved them, but now they're cluttering up my regular bookshelf in stacks and I don't have really a good place for them. So...
I'm going to sell them.
If you want a book, they will cost $10 per paperback with $5 for shipping and handling, no matter how many books you order. This is between $2 and $6 less than their normal retail price...
--Disclaimer: I am probably not making money on this. What people don't always know is that indie writers seldom get more than 1 or 2 copies of a book as part of their contracts and some companies don't give away contributor copies at all. Sometimes, depending on the company, we can get more books for a 40 - 60% discount for the purposes of selling them at trade shows or cons. I'm not saying this to complain, I want people to know why I'm not giving away 30 paperbacks.... (also, why I want to smack people who ask for free books...)
--For those who care, I did not buy the Coming Together books at discount; I paid full retail price for them, so all royalties that go to charity have already been paid to those charities.
Now, if you're interested in these books, I am having a contest for people who purchase now...
1 copy of Blood Sight
1 copy of Howling Bitch
9 copies of Blues
1 copy of Roll
5 copies of London Steam
1 copy of Coming Together: Among the Stars
1 copy of Coming Together: Pro Bono
1 copy of Coming Together: For the Holidays
1 copy of Encounters
2 copies of Family Time
1 copy of Marked Man
1 copy of Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica
1 copy of Cupid's Chokehold (out of print and unavailable anywhere)
4 copies of Whetting the Appetite
1 copy of Ladies of Steampunk Magazine, Vol 1
All books will be signed by me (and if you order Whetting the Appetite, I can probably get Elizabeth L. Brooks to sign it, too)
In addition, if you buy a book, you'll be entered to win a Grand Prize -- a Vin & Beau tote bag, a USB drive which includes e-copies of ALL my current books to date, (which will include a copy of Classic!) and a $10 gift card to Amazon / Barnes and Noble / JMS books or Torquere Press.
(~$100 value, give or take...)
You will get one entry per book purchased!
I will keep this contest open until I either sell all the books (titles on a first come, first served basis, and I will post when books have sold) or until September 2.
I accept payment through personal check, Paypal or Cash app. You can comment on this blog, email me at lynntownsend (dot) writer (at) gmail (dot) com or Facebook me or bother me on twitter, or use the donate button at the top left of my blog to send money and I'll email you from there. (What I'm saying is, I'm easy to get in touch with!)
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