What's up now

by Rain Trueax

It's been cool in the desert with more rain than last year but that promises a beautiful year for wildflowers. We've also enjoyed some amazing sunsets and once in a while sunrises.

Rather than going off and doing fun stuff or even looking for a fifth wheel trailer, to upgrade ours to something a little larger, we've had more time here at the house than we initially expected because of repair work that was needed-- most outside but some inside. I am starting to think in terms of storage here if this becomes our full-time home along with time in the trailer. 

Needed outside projects completed include a demolished carport, remains taken to

a landfill; patio cover beam (severely damaged by termites) replaced; front driveway widened and graded with good gravel until the next washout anyway; and the fence around the pool upgraded with the deteriorating panels replaced with redwood (which supposedly resists termites). 

This was all done with a combination of Ranch Boss and two different crews who came in with the right equipment. One of the nice things about being old and having some money saved is the ability to hire others to do jobs you once felt you had to do. This spreads money into the community to younger people and saves old backs. For years, we did it all, but now we don't have to-- although I still don't hire anyone to clean house for us other than when it's not us and is renters. 

We still need to find one more crew to build the single vehicle carport, which

requires our getting a plan, permit, and schedule. We are thinking of having the side toward the road having a trellis and passion flower vine, which evidently does well with desert climes. We also want to plant some fruit trees that are desert oriented and will be good for the wild birds (maybe pomegranate, fig, and persimmon). If we spend more time here, we want gardens too.

Because I've have been putting off the next chapters in the work in progress (fifth in the paranormal series), I put energy into getting new covers for my contemporary romances. These are books I wrote mostly in the '90s or earlier. When I decided to go indie, I spent much of 2011 editing them for modern writing style (yes, that changes) and today's world (there were no cell phones for ordinary people in the '90s, and computer use was so different from today). I also created covers (think I've mentioned this before) that I painted. I thought I could do this as, after all, I am a painter and sculptor. Turned out-- not so much. 

And thus began an odyssey of finding models, putting them with backgrounds, coming up with the right fonts and trying to get the books seen by readers likely to enjoy a story that is a combination of romance and novel. 

What you see on this poster is my latest attempt to get these covers right. They are a series but not all are connected by characters. For instance, Moon Dust is followed by Second Chance. Desert Inferno has a secondary character who is the hero in Bannister's Way, where some characters in Evening Star also show up. Hidden Pearl is connected to Her Dark Angel (not a paranormal but the kind of hero who Billy Joel sang about in that song where he's the guy your mother warned you about). Previously, I didn't try to keep all in a series with the same fonts and coloring on titles. Turns out that was another misstep (there is a lot to learn with marketing).

The big question for me is how to launch them. They have hardly been seen and years ago dropped into Amazon's black hole. They aren't erotica. They aren't heavy with violence, and they aren't sweet. It seems those three categories fit a lot of contemporary romances. I call mine Romances with an Edge because they do have sex and some violence in them but nothing graphic in either case.  I am sure there are other contemporary hybrids out there, ... still searching. 

The plan is to put them all into Kindle Unlimited, where they can be borrowed, and see if they find readers there. To do that, they had to be taken out of all other sites as it's Amazon's rule. They will still be up to purchase, but it's just to do ads or anything to get them seen by likely readers, I am holding off on how to do it and where. 

Anyway, we are enjoying our desert home, seeing the rare bobcat or coyote, and less rare javelina, who mostly are seen on the wildlife cams as they come at night. We have twice seen coyotes and bobcats in daylight. Any snow has stayed on the mountain where it belongs :). There is some talk that it might show up here Monday night. We have seen it before even on Easter. It won't last and that's the good part.

 view from our place looking toward the mountain