Some Good News... Eventually

It Started As One Of Those Weeks

The great Midwest deepfreeze of 2021 thawed overnight. It was suddenly a balmy 65 and warm enough to pull my car out of the garage. After a frustrating day of tech consultant troubleshooting I needed the distraction of a small project. All I wanted to do was cut some boards so I could add shelving to a messy closet in my office.

Drip. Drip.

What was that? Sonofa…

There was standing water in my garage. There shouldn’t be water in my garage, and after the recent freeze I was worried. So I did what I do, and got to work.

Slow Writing Progress

I’ve been frustrated with my lack of progress on Watson’s Worlds book 2, and everything is a distraction. While grateful for my job, it’s a bad time to take days off to focus on writing. I get a small window of time in the evenings but leaky pipes don’t help. When I can’t write, I tackle other projects, and they tend to be more than I planned.

More Than I Planned

I recently migrated my sites to Amazon Web Services. It was a good decision. Performance has improved, and it’s less expensive. A great combination. They aren’t set up like typical hosts and it takes a little technical background to get things running. AWS offers a great platform for sending email, but setting up a way to receive email is more complicated.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

I wasn’t in a hurry to fix my email. Who would actually message me using the email address I had posted on my new site? The one right below the title, “Drop Me A Note! Contact me if you have any questions or even just to say hi!” Not my brightest moment, because someone was trying to contact me.

Small Miracles

Last week I received a message on my Facebook page. “I’ve sent you a couple of emails…” followed up by an email at a non-AWS address, “and would like to schedule a call…” and then a message on Instagram, “to discuss your plans for the Watson’s Worlds audiobooks.”

A New Partnership

I did get those messages, and audiobook fans will be excited to learn that Podium Audio will be producing the Watson’s Worlds audiobooks. They’ve got an impressive library of over 1300 audiobooks and a talented lineup of performers. I’m grateful for this opportunity and can’t wait to hear Entriss Online! Stay tuned to find out who the performer will be. Until then, you can learn more about them here.

Email Is Fixed And So Is My Shop

Since cons have been cancelled, I’ve got the next best thing. (Actually, not even close. I miss cons, too.) You can now purchase signed copies of Entriss from djpwrites.com or on my Facebook page. Not only is the inventory up to date, Facebook and my shop are connected so the inventory matches on both sites.

Fixed My Leak

In case you’re keeping score, I was able to fix my leak. Plumbing projects usually take me three trips to the hardware store since I don’t know what I’m doing. In a rare turn of luck, I had the parts I needed. While frustrating, it worked out and I’m fortunate there wasn’t more damage. After it was fixed, I was tired enough to go to bed, but sat down at my computer anyway.

Figured It Out

Stepping away is always a good idea. Not only did I figure out the issue I was troubleshooting for work, I figured out the issue that was holding me back on my book. I tell others that things always work out. I should also add that it takes a lot of work to get there.

Some Good News

My friend Eric is helping his kids produce an upbeat news show similar to John Krasinski’s Some Good News. It’s a lot of fun, and I give them all the props for putting themselves out there. I was also very flattered to do a weather report cameo for their first episode. Be sure to click on the image below for a smile.