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- well it got your attention at least!
I've not felt well this week, its been over a week without even looking at the bike, my thuse is lacking its en, maybe its the wintry weather, maybe its something else. As I've previously mentioned, I've not been idle, daily walks, a lot of writing and some thinking about the future. I've got plans, but of course they require financing which is always chicken & egg for me!
One thing is for sure, I need to upgrade my computing from this inherited W7 laptop with nasty word processing and truly terrible browser to something that'll reliably take me forward. A new PC will allow me to pursue other, non writing projects which will hopefully add to my income (after the initial outlay of course!) so that's my first priority. I've found a deal, a full bundle for @ £250 plus programmes (don't shout at me computer nerds, its Win10 and I find the MS programmes suit my needs - plus I've been using them for 30 years!) for a basic 1TB machine so unless my income stream is severely hit I should be on track for phase 1 at the end of March - fingers crossed.
The hardware for phase 2, I want to get into 3D scanning/printing, is relatively cheap - I'm looking at producing some impossible/difficult to find replacement cycle parts, decorative stuff as well as restarting the stalled doll/figurine business I started @ 15 years ago. In the longer term I intend to produce a wider range of stuff, model railway scenics for example, where availability and ability are often an issue (particularly post Brexit). The upside is that it can all be done in parallel, no need for big production runs, no inventory except raw materials and low technical requirement, initially i'll sell through EBay and other low cost product placement.
Phase 3 is of course returning to my own personal web presence(s) - the original Maddy Bell website was built piecemeal by me, there were a huge number of stories, fanfics, images etc and it was getting a bit clunky in the end and updating it was a nightmare. A follower did a huge job of updating things, it was just about ready to launch then they dropped the project before it could go live, never to be heard from since - very discouraging and it ultimately resulted in the demise of the site. I'll need a separate site(s) for the product promotion/selling side of things - most likely a generic sales offering of some kind, keep it simple!
But that's stuff for the Spring, there are more pressing issues just now!
And Valentines Day - its never been a day that I've particularly enjoyed, rather than getting luvved up, for me it's been jealous partners when I've received cards but mostly a complete lack of romance. But if it is your thang, well Happy Valentines Day from grumpy Maddy!
Lets get down to business then, I promised that I'd finish the 26th Gaby book, On The Edge for today and part 7 is now available on Kindle!
'I was belting out the Iron Maiden lyrics at the top of my voice, behind me Stefan and the guys were enthusiastically providing the musical accompaniment, the video wall had a manga style interpretation of the songs 'story' running and I was bathed in the light of two Super Trooper spotlights. I shook my mane of poppy red hair to the interlude beat as Stefan did his guitar solo, drops of sweat splashing onto the legs of my skin tight shiny PVC leggings, legs slightly askew for better balance in the stupidly high spike heeled ankle boots. The monitor at the edge of the stage was counting down, five, four, three, two, one and...
"Soldier blue in the barren wastes
Hunting and killing's a game
Raping the women and wasting the men
The only good Indians are tame
Selling them whiskey and taking their gold
Enslaving the young and destroying the old"'
'"BlauHase, Gaby, BlauHase, Gaby, BlauHase, Gaby, BlauHase, Gaby.”
The noise and stamping feet were sending vibrations through the stage, through the whole place, the tremors getting more violent as the seconds passed.
"Gaby, Gaby,” more shaking, I had to hang on to the Mic stand to stay on my feet, such was the shaking.
"Gaby!”
"What? Where?”
"Wake up, we're at Roni's.”'
You can get the full volume 7 by clicking on the cover.
I'll be starting to put together and edit all 7 parts into a single volume later, it should be available on both Kindle and Lulu platforms on Gaby and my birthday, February 25th. There will be a specific new cover illustration, I hope those waiting for the one hit volume will forgive the 'extra' waiting time!
In the mean time, if you do purchase part 7, please, please take a few moments to leave a review either on Amazon or even here on BC.
Of course Sunday's would feel right without posting something new here on BC too, today we rejoin Gaby & co in Spain for chapter 33 of Avoidance, Pamplona. After Gab's efforts on the road, some of the girls decide to have a look at the town then a new day brings a new stage of the race and some subterfuge from our heroine!
Well that's it for today, hope I didn't bore you too much!
Until Wednesday, Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid
Comments
Force of nature
Maddy,
You are a force of nature. I look forward to seeing the phases roll through. I trust that it all will.
I listened to a podcast the other day where Fran Lebowitz was talking about wishes coming true in ways we did not want them to. She said something like "I used to wish I had more free time. Then COVID hit. I used to wish that the tourists would all go away. Then we got the lockdown."
Things always work out. Sometimes they don't work out the way we want. Cheers
Your friend
Crash
Office Suites & saving money ...
I'd like to suggest having a look at both Apache and PortableApps.com for >free< MS Office replacements/look-alike/work-alikes.
If either meets your needs, they might save you some initial and perhaps on-going costs.
---
I thought say that you have put a lot on your plate, but it's maybe closer to a 3-course buffet!
i've tried
several 'free' wp programmes including Apache - 'recommended' by supposedly knowledgeable geeks, Open Office it what I'm using atm and that's so bad it can't even recognise the start of a sentence - they all suck, they just don't do what I want/need. TBH, I'd rather pay for what I want than suffer through stuff that doesn't just because its free/cheap. But thanks for the thought.
There's not really much there, its more that my budget is very low (last year I turned over a whopping $6000) so it'll take time to fund stuff.
Madeline Anafrid Bell