Thanks to everyone who shared the Subject A36 sale last week on their social media! I count myself fortunate to be a member of such a supportive blogging community, and I appreciate all of you.

So this is a combination rant and cautionary tale. A couple months ago I participated in a book festival where the book sales were handled by Barnes & Noble College, which is entirely separate from Barnes and Noble (I’ve never had a problem when they handled the sales). A few weeks later, I received payment with a virtual credit card issued by Wells Fargo. Maybe some of you are familiar with this, but I’ve never been paid this way. The email said instructions on how to process this card were attached (they weren’t). I called Wells Fargo, and they couldn’t seem to understand that I wasn’t a brick and mortar store (despite me stating several times I was an individual author) and kept asking which business I was with. They told me I should call my bank, which I did. I spoke to a person I won’t name at my local Truist branch who was also unfamiliar with a virtual credit card, but she asked for a screen shot of the info and promised to get back to me. To make a two month long story short, multiple emails and calls were mostly unanswered, passed on to someone else, or the same “instructions” were repeatedly sent. Customer service by Barnes and Noble College, Wells Fargo, and Truist Bank was absolutely abysmal. The story does have a happy ending. I finally figured out on my own how to process the card through Paypal – which anyone from those institution should have known.

Over the weekend I finished 1899 on Netflix. Here’s a brief description: Immigrants on a steamship travelling from London to New York get caught up in a mysterious riddle after finding a second vessel adrift on the open sea. This is one of the most bizarre, mind-bending mystery/horror/historical drama series I’ve ever seen. Don’t expect a fast pace – I considered quitting it after the first few episodes, but the reviews encouraged me to stick with it. And I’m so glad I did. There’s a vast difference between where it starts and ends. There’s also an interesting bonus episode of the making of the series (begun during Covid) that I watched part of. Trust me – this will keep you guessing about what’s going on.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still feeling stuffed from Thanksgiving. We had a pretty peaceful day here. I only made one last dash to a convenience store for instant coffee that morning (for a dessert). Both sons were here, so we were very thankful for that. I also did some Black Friday shopping – all online, of course. Got some pretty good deals, too.

Subject A36 is on sale for $2.99/£1.99 in the US and UK through November 30th! If you haven’t read The Colony Duology, now is a good time to get started. The second book, The Insurgent, was released in May of this year, so there’s no waiting to see what happens. Click HERE for Amazon US and HERE for Amazon UK.

Even though it drops on Netflix December 23rd, we saw Glass Onion (the sequel to Knives Out) in theaters over the weekend (it’s a one week limited theatrical release). I’ll never tire of hearing Daniel Craig with a Southern accent – once again, he does a fantastic job as Detective Benoit Blanc. The mystery will keep you guessing, and there are plenty of laughs along the way. Ethan Hawke, Serena Williams, and Hugh Grant have fun cameos, and Jeremy Renner’s face turns up on a hot sauce bottle. We all gave it a thumbs up!

Back in August, a librarian at a local high school asked if I’d visit her class, and I immediately accepted. They were working on a unit dealing with fear and what makes a nightmare, and she asked if I’d discusss my books and writing process. The visit was scheduled for the week before Halloween – a perfect time to discuss fear and nightmares. The problem? It’s been several years since I’ve done any kind of public speaking – more like a couple decades when I did HR training at a hospital – so saying I was nervous is an understatement. But I told myself it was a group of teenagers, and I’d be discussing books. Honestly, I could talk to just about anyone when it comes to books. Several days before the visit, I began working on my presentation. I emailed the teacher and asked about the number of students – thinking I might take some bookmarks to hand out – and figured the number would be somewhere around thirty. Wrong. Two hundred fifty-six. The whole sophomore class. I wish I’d had a picture of my face when I read that email – no doubt it was a look of sheer terror.

I prepped and prepped that week – then threw out 80% of my presentation and started over the day before the visit. But guess what – the dread of speaking to that many people was worse than actually doing it. Since we were talking about fear, I confessed up front how nervous I was speaking to them. Afterwards, four students who were genuinely interested in writing came up and asked me questions. I was thrilled to speak to them one on one about books and writing. It turned into a fun day, and I’m glad I set aside my fear of public speaking and did it.

A couple months ago, I mentioned Son #2 and I did the Ancestry DNA test and promised to update you. Our results came in, and some were pretty surprising. Fifty percent of mine was England and Northwestern Europe, which I’d expected, but 28% was Scottish. Didn’t see that one coming. My son’s showed both of those, but the surprise was the 26% Sweden and Denmark that came from hubby’s side. He had no idea. My MIL has claimed for years there was Italian on her side, but it sure didn’t show up in the DNA. I know over time these percentages can change, but we had fun doing this. If you’d like to try it, Ancestry regularly has the kits on sale.

We’ll have both sons and a couple friends who we consider family here for Thanksgiving on Thursday. Hubby always fries a turkey – if you’ve never tried it, I strongly recommend correcting that oversight ASAP. To all my American friends, hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!