Facing Another Thunderstorm

Athens, OH is insane right now, and it's been insane for the past few days.

Last week, the power went out for an entire 48 hours, and I had no way to charge my phone. I wasn't the only one. The whole town and campus was without electricity until the weekend was over. Thankfully nothing blew out today. I still have my computer and cell phone and internet, so that's a good thing.

Mom was worried we were going to die and insisted me and Phil buy a ticket to California ASAP.

I told her this is my town, and I'm not running away from a few drops of rain. Even though its pouring outside, the weather is still 90 degrees, and it's not a total bust.

I like comparing Athens weather to Caribbean weather because it's turning more and more into a tropical environment. The only reason it's raining intensely is because the air is extremely hot and the trees need their nourishment (that's what I keep telling myself). Mother Nature knows what she's doing, and I personally enjoy the violent rain storms. It doesn't have to snow all the time. Ohio can have rain and be a desert, too :)

Aside from the thunderstorm, we cut Missy's nails yesterday. WOO! Thank GOD! That girl was having way too much fun shredding up my furniture with her crazy bear claws. I'm not exaggerating. I know she's a kitten, but her nails were the size of a male lion's. All she did was dig into stuff and leave marks on my arm. 

Phil and his brother finally went to the dollar store and bought some new clippers. They held her down pretty tight to get the job done, which she didn't like very much. But we're all enjoying the result; now I can cuddle with her and be worry-free :)

I also did some research about cats stealing people's breath away when their sleeping. I know, I know, I'm being superstitious and it's an old witch's tale, but I believed in that non-sense. Now that I have one, I realize cats just like being close to their owner. They like breathing near our faces because it's cozy to them. They're not 'stealing' the oxygen from our lungs or some insane idea like that. They're just sharing an intimate space with their owner. And with that realization came a new acceptance for me; I'm not freaking out every time she comes near my face.

I'm really glad Phil found her when he did. She was living on the street and he just picked her up and brought her home on the night of the storm. She's a pretty awesome kitty. She even jumps on my desk and writes with me most of the time. I think I'll dedicate a page to her; cats are such an interesting subject that I'd probably never get tired of talking about them.

I can at some point get tired of talking about books, though. There's been so much technical delays on the Amazon website that it's driving me CRAZY. I can't even begin to express how frustrated I am with my favorite online store right now. But they've really made it impossible for me to make my books available there. For the last 30 days, people have been buying my book, and the sales haven't been showing up on my reports. In other words, I'm not getting paid. Period. I haven't been getting accurately paid for SPADES for the last 30 days, and I was about to call my lawyer and start a case until I realized I can take matters into my hands. I'll just sell my own books from my own website - problem solved.

With Amazon's system being inaccurate at the moment, I'm only getting one or two sells a day on their website when I know for a fact it's selling more. I even bought 10 copies of my own book yesterday to prove it, and sure enough, the payments went through and the money was deducted from my bank account, but it has yet to show up on my reports. That's what's been going on for an entire month. So I've lost a lot of money waiting for them to do their job. I  also emailed them a bunch of times and they said they're aware of the problem and that the issue is widespread and high priority and they're working to fix it as soon as possible.

I'm not upset or anything like that, ok maybe a little. Malfunctions happen. But instead of depending on them for my livelihood, I've made my ebooks available here, as well as the paperbacks. I'll still keep an introduction page on Amazon, because I love them. But hey, I have to make a living, too.

And to all the aspiring authors and indie writers out there, when you finally do release your material, never put all your eggs in one basket.

Thanks for your understanding, and thanks for reading this post.

Love&Light

-Kristy