I'm an Addict!

No, I'm not addicted to drugs or alcohol or anything like that.  I'm addicted to my tablet.  I had gotten it for events for the ability to take credit cards since I don't have a smart phone or a phone that has touch ability.  I love games, card games in particular.  I love playing spades and it's been a while since I've played euchre but another enjoyable game.  You can find apps for all kinds of games, and most of them are free.  So I've downloaded a version of spades, spider solitaire, solitaire, and free cell solitaire as well as several other game that are non-card.  Among them are various versions of Bubble Blast (1, 2, Halloween, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's - you get the picture.

The thing about most of these free apps is the ads that come between games or levels or whatever.  The ads can be bothersome but are tolerable.  Playing against the computers is the most aggravating part of playing spades, especially when playing partners.  You have stupid moves being made that likely can cost the game or hand.  Playing with real people you have the ability to read body language and of course, "talking across the table" which isn't supposed to happen but if you are playing a friendly game, everyone does it.  I miss that, yet I continue to play the game. 

Bubble Blast 2 is the other game that is my doing in.  I tell myself I'm only going to play 25 levels and then get back to work or do something else productive.  That happens less often than planned.  There are 100 levels per "pack" and after only having the game installed a little less than a month, I've already played over 35 packs - which is over 3500 levels.  I think I'm on pack 38 or 39, just starting out.  In addition to all the levels on BB2, I've also played several packs all the way through on Halloween Bubble Blast.  So why is the game so addicting?  If someone has the answer, I'm happy to listen.

Why can't I put these games on hold and be productive some days?  I think there is something in the install that sublimely makes us continue playing.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Tune in next week when I participate in the Next Big Blog Hop, having been tagged by Susanne this past Wednesday. 

This and That

The week has flown by but I've not accomplished that much. As far as sales go, nothing to report, no sales across the board again.

This is the last month in the third quarter of the year and looking at my projected sales (had to set my goals high at 500 for overall sales with 10 or 11 books published at this point) I'm very disappointed. Not counting my free days with "Bride-and-Seek", "The Tulip Kiss", or "The Proposal" (except when the 50% coupon was offered in July on smashwords), my sales have been less than 100 so far. Next month is the Georgia COMO conference and I really hope to see a major spike in the sales of books since there are 12 states represented in the SELA group with an overall county total of 1025. I'd love it if every state, each county bought at least one copy of each title I have available. That would make my year and would allow me to get more state stories published (i.e., pay Heather so she can keep doing covers and illustrations for the books).

I have been kind of slack this year as far as attending conferences and being out there but with no sales, no royalties, no money to speak of, it's hard to do all the conferences I would like to do. Conferences get costly - booth rental, travel time, hotel, gas (and the price seems to be hovering around $3.50 something/gallon in this area with higher amounts in different places), food, et cetera. I feel like I could be doing more but have to just take what I can get when I get it. So hopefully the librarians will do their part and order tons of books in October.

As far as my writing goal, that fell flat. I've become disinterested in my story, even after printing it off and reading it to refresh my memory of what I'd written. I still think the story is a good idea but getting Sarah Beth (Imogene's mother) from Washington state to China (still haven't decided which city to set this story in - Bangkok, Shanghai, or Beijing) is mostly personal thoughts, very little interaction between other characters. The interactions come once she is in China but even those are few and far between. This is definitely unfamiliar territory for me to write since I'm used to moving a story along with dialogue. If any of my readers out there have any suggestions or sites that will help me write a "quest/adventure type" story, please share. If anyone would like to brainstorm some ideas on how to move the story along, email me and we can get together on chat and try brainstorming the story so I can get it written.

Last item of business - tablets. Last week I posted a video "A day made of Glass by Corning" showing how Corning is developing glass products (we all know Corning is known for their cookware) that can be used everywhere - in the office, at home, schools, zoos, field trips, bus stops, et cetera. Some of the items they showed reminded me of the tablets that are out there in that they have similar features - can enlarge pictures, move things around, do reports, but what will happen to the tablets and computers in the future? The glass products are basically supposed to replace computers and tablets in such a way that we are wouldn't need our ancient computers and tablets any more. I can't do without my computer unless they find a way to integrate the actual feel of typing on the glass products - lol. That said, I love to type and my job and writing require it, so not sure I can totally give up my computer right now. Maybe one day.

Why do I mention this? About a month ago, I got a tablet - an Acer Iconia Tab 10.1. I mostly got it to use at events for my square device so I could take credit cards. I've been asked numerous times at events if I took credit cards but had to lose a sale because I didn't. Last summer I found about square and set up an account and got the device (with the hopes that I would eventually upgrade my phone to a smartphone of some sort still with straighttalk). I've used the square device a couple of times but both times on someone else's phone (once at the SCSLA and once at the SC Book Festival). Since I won't be places where other people have the devices needed for me to use my device, I decided that a tablet would be my best bet. The problem with the tablet is that unless I have some sort of data plan, I can't use it unless there is free wifi available in the places I am doing events. When I did the Mint Hill Sunday in the Park event, no wifi, so my tablet was useless not that it mattered anyway since I only sold one book that day.

There are pros and cons to my tablet but overall I do like it. The pros are that I can actually use my square on it; the con - I need portable internet service to use it outside of my wifi area. Pro - I can read a book from my kindle account on it with much more ease than on the kindle; the con - it's heavier than my kindle and makes reading in bed difficult. Pro - checking my email and accessing my web browser are faster than on my computer; con - I haven't figured out how to copy and paste things from my emails to websites like plurk so have to open my email on the computer when I post the DK Daily Teach newsletter items. Pro - you can download tons of apps (a lot of them for free); con - you get addicted to the games you download (my favorites so far have been spades (although I don't like the way the computer plays because nothing like interacting with real people when playing card games) and bubble blast). I've been through all the levels of bubble blast Halloween and bubble blast Holiday, now I'm working on the plain bubble blast (I'm up to pack 7, which means I've already been through 600 puzzles on the regular; 400 on each of the Halloween and Holiday packs). I found myself playing bubble blast until after 5:30 this morning and I was upset with myself since that meant I was going to bed in the wee hours of the morning and of course, that means I am so late getting going in the day. I guess I need to set limits on myself and stick to them.

See you all in the postings - have a great weak - and I'm still looking for teachers who teach writing to students grades 3 through 12 who would like to have their writing questions answered - so please pass the word and if you know of any teachers who fit this category, please have them contact me via email so I can get my WWYWWQ column going. I'm totally out of questions and know school has been back in session for a couple of weeks to a month in some places, so surely you teachers out there have students asking general writing questions that an author can answer for you. Thanks - E :)

WARNING - MCBUB online

Here is a cautionary tale for all you folks who order anything from a company online. DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM MCBUB - I ordered two tablets in November and received them a few days before Christmas. Daughter and I opened the package and started checking out the tablets to see if we could get my Square app to download on the tablet (that was the whole reason for ordering the tablet in the first place, it is android based and should have been compatible with the app). Daughter's tablet turned on and worked well for the most part. Mine did not - showed a green light like it was on but the screen never would come on. I tried charging it and when I had it on the charger, the light was red and then went to blue but still no screen - couldn't see anything but black. After a couple of hours trying to get it to work, I gave up. I was instructed to send it back. (according to their website, you have three days to return a faulty item.) I did get the instructions and shipping address and whatever was needed to send the package back (it only took a day to get the info in email). Package was received on December 20th; return info received on the 21st and printed out return form and address immediately; went to the post office on December 22(payday for me) to send the package. They told me that it should take about 2 or 3 weeks for the company to receive the package, had to send it air mail ($15) and I did not put a signed receipt or insurance or anything on the package (would have cost me a bunch more than I could afford for all that). I filled out the customs form as instructed, wrapped the package in extremely high amounts of bubble wrap and the post office worker liked the package I had received it in originally so we put my bubble wrapped pcakge inside the original bubble wrapped package and sealed it up and put the label on the package. It left my town that afternoon. Grant it a couple of days before the Christmas Holiday, I knew to give it a couple of days to get to its destination of wherever the United States Customs was.

About three weeks after sending the package, I hadn't heard anything so emailed the company trying to find out where my refund was. They informed me they had not received the package in their warehouse at the time. Fine, I waited another week and sent another email. I was informed to track it and find out where it was held up on my end - like it really would be hung up for 3 weeks on my end especially when I was told it had to be returned within 3 days in order to receive my refund.

So, I did track it from the customs form number and it showed that my package went through the usual stops before getting to customs in Jamaica, NY and was sent out on the 28th of December from customs. I sent the information to the company and got an email back saying it still was not in China - now near the end of January (over 3-1/2 weeks from leaving NY) or in their warehouse and had not been checked in their computer system. Of course that email had to sit and wait for a response since it was the Chinese New Year and they take a whole week off for their New Year - literally - the automated response said they closed their offices for a whole week.

So I resent that email the week after just to make sure they had gotten the first email (we are now talking about the very end of January/first part of February). Again, I was told they had not received the package and that as soon as they did I would receive my refund. Every week I've sent an email asking where my refund is. I keep explaining to them that once it leaves the United States customs there is no way to track it on my end. They need to go to their customs workers and find the stupid package. Each week I get the same response - it is not in our warehouse, nor has it been checked into our database or it's still in NY - it is almost 7-1/2 weeks since it actually left NY and made its trek overseas. So where is my $84 refund? - Still not in my account as it should be. Where is my package? no telling.

All I can say is if you are thinking of ordering anything from McBub think twice just in case you have to return it for a refund. I will never order anything from an overseas company again especially now with this headache of waiting for them to receive a returned package and holding up my money. Honestly, I believe it's there but they keep saying it's not so they don't have to refund my money. I've no other course of action but to blacklist the company for poor business dealings.

WARNING - DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM MCBUB ONLINE. If you do, expect poor materials and poor business dealings.