6th Night of Hanukkah!

It's been an even longer time between posts...I'll probably be better about that now. I'm not going to do my monthly holiday stuff this time. I've felt so crummy gut-wise lately, that I didn't put Hanukkah decorations up. I've just been lighting 2 menorahs. (Of course, with the blessings.) The cats seem fascinated by the candles. They get more interested in it with each night. Rosie asked for me to light them last night. It was so cute! I have been eating some fried foods and cheese. The fry is probably not good for my gut, but what's Hanukkah without it? I don't have latkes this year, but that's ok. 

As I get older, I'm growing to hate Christmas more and more. I'm very happy for my friends and family that celebrate it, and definitely encourage them to share their holiday stuff on facebook and other social networks. That's a different thing, though. I hate that people assume others celebrate it. To get more of an idea of how I feel about it, what would happen if it was Hanukkah that was celebrated like Christmas? Switch them, basically. 

There would be menorahs, dreidels, and/or blue and white decorations everywhere you went. The mall, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. The radio would be flooded with Hanukkah music 24/7. Even Pandora would have Hanukkah themed ads. People would say Happy Hanukkah or Chag Chanukah Sameach everywhere you went. They'd look at you astonished and feel 'uncomfortable' about the idea you don't celebrate it. There would be debates about putting up a giant menorah in public schools. Kids would get gelt from teachers and bus drivers. There would be school or work Hanukkah parties. They'd tell you it's more like a 'holiday' party, yet everything there would be Hanukkah-themed. Kids in band/choir would be essentially forced to sing or play Hanukkah songs. Teachers would say they're not religious, at least. There would be extra credit Hanukkah-themed school projects. People will tell you to get into the Hanukkah 'spirit', and if you don't you're thought of as cold and heartless. They'd tell you playing dreidel isn't really religious, and of course everyone does it. It'd be encouraged in restaurants and grocery stores to eat oily food. There would be special Hanukkah drinks at Starbucks, and other special Hanukkah items at other places. There would be people singing Hanukkah songs outside in the streets. There would be dreidel competitions at malls and libraries. (Instead of kids seeing Santa.) There would be Hanukkah-themed special episodes of shows. Hanukkah specials and movies on TV, too. There'd be debates among people who celebrate Christmas about the 'December Dilemma'. How to keep kids more interested in Christmas than Hanukkah. (I never understood this...) There's more, but I think this is a good snapshot. Oh, and this stuff would happen about 2 months before and during. Enjoy that mess of stress...No one can escape all the Christmas stuff unless they hide in a cave far away from civilization without their smart phones. 

I published the sequel to Alliance, Alliance: Dawn, through Amazon. Or, technically kdp (kindle direct publishing). There's an ebook and paperback version. The ebook is on preorder until February 16th, and the paperback is 'live' now. I wanted both of them to be on preorder, but apparently I can't do that with the paperback through them. I put the copyright as 2018, because I was hoping to have both of them like that. It's really close, so it might not matter. I did the cover art, too. I drew a big feather, little feathers, and the logo from the cafe in the book. The logo has a ship's steering wheel with the sea, sun rising, and the rays of the sun reaching out to the stars in the inside of it. I edited them, colored them in black, and added text through Photoshop. It came out better than I expected, and close to what was in my head. I ended the story on another huge cliffhanger. Just leaves the option of another sequel open. 

My memoir, More Than Meets the Eye, was also published through Amazon. It has both an ebook and paperback version, as well. The ebook's on preorder until the same date as Dawn, and the paperbook's live now. Here's the description: A memoir of an aromantic asexual agender Jew. Who's a clarinetist, writer, adores cooking and food, has dealt with numerous health issues, and is an animal lover. 

The cover art is of a pic I took of a big clock in the family room, that's on a brick wall over a fireplace. I thought it looked cozy and like a piece of home. More personal this way. Time would play a role with a memoir, too. I like learning about the world, so the old world map on the face fits that way. 

The first chapter is devoted to being aro ace, 2nd one's on being agender, and 3rd being on Judaism. I'm expecting some hate with just those. The haters will have issues right off the bat. Oddly, I'm kind of itching to go up against them. Yet, terrified of it at the same time. Other chapters are on: music, family, cooking and food, pets (and my love for animals in general), mental health (I cover multiple mental illnesses in this one), physical health, IBD (wanted a separate chapter on this, since it's big topic), school before college, college, travel, and friends. I tried to cover as much as I could about different aspects of my life. With the mental health part, I might get more hate, as well as IBD and other health issues. Some people that knew both my mom and I might have an issue with how I felt about her when she passed away. Some of my friends that read the friends chapter might think I remembered something wrong, or something. Lots of different factors rolled up in this book. I tried to educate as much as I could with the topics. Going into detail with each one that I brought up. Explaining what it is, what it's like for me, etc. I mention AVEN and Arocalypse in the aro ace one. So, there's a few mentions of resources. (Not much, though.) 

I realized after I published the memoir that I made a teeny tiny error in the forward section. I added an 'a' where there shouldn't have been. It's not even a misspelling. I'm still debating whether I should bother with changing and republishing it just for something so small. My computer was super slow through the publishing process of both books and their 2 versions. It especially took way too long for the memoir. Do I want another headache through doing that again? If I had a faster computer without a faulty internet connection, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It's hard to even get much writing done with it. Maybe I'll leave it for now. The rest is free of errors. I know I came up with the forward quickly, and didn't really look over it much before I started publishing it. 

I tried to broadcast/promote it all last week. Did a lot more for the memoir. This is mainly because it covers a wider audience. With fantasy, it seems pretty narrow. With my memoir, I not only have people who are similar, but people who know me, old classmates, those who are into memoirs in general, etc. Huge swaths of different people. I put it on blast mainly on facebook. I posted it on my personal page, the local trans group's, local ace group's, and my other books' pages first. Then, to all the other groups I'm in. Aro, ace, non-binary, general LGBTQ+, Crohn's and Colitis, my former old high school classmates, Gaia Online, etc. groups. I have a lot more than I thought...Then, I messaged a bunch of similar public facebook pages, asking if they could promote it. One person in one of the ace groups asked to share it in 2 of their groups, and I said sure, the more visibility the better. With all this, I've covered a lot of people. Most of the pages I messaged have already posted about it. Some people have shared that post. So, it's reaching more this way. I'm rather surprised with the interest people have shown in it. Maybe it'll take off because of it?

I also blasted Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, AVEN, Arocalypse, a manga forum, an Asian drama forum, PLM (Patients Like Me), and a few other places. I might do more this week. Still have other sites I'm a member of to go through. With many of the others, I hardly ever use them anymore. Still, people might be interested. So far, there hasn't been any hate. Should be interesting to see what happens with it. I'm both really nervous and excited about it! 

I'll add both books to the layout on here soon, like I did with the other 2. Easier to see it that way. I don't think they're connected to my Author's Central on Amazon, yet. So, it's a bit weird. Their 2 different versions aren't linked up yet, either.

I've been really liking 2 shows on Netflix. One's a Singaporean mystery/detective drama called Against the Tide. Everything, including the cases, are turning up to be connected. Very interesting. They speak close to 1/4 English, and the rest is Chinese. Their food has looked tasty, too. 

The other one is a Korean mystery/forensic/detective drama called Quiz From G-d. (Obviously with the 'o', but I don't write it out.) I like this one a lot more. It's like a combo of CSI, Bones, and House; only better. The main character is a genius neurosurgeon and forensic doctor. His team deals with mysterious deaths and rare diseases. He has a rare disease himself. Unlike House, he's nice, kind, and funny. He's still eccentric, but a bit of a goofball. The main detective for the first 2 seasons was awesome and kickass. (She's not dead, just left for a bit.) He called her the Terminator occasionally. She's also taller than him, which looks interesting that way, too. She said she doesn't care about romance and sex, and she's never felt that way towards anyone. So, seemingly aro ace to boot. Although, they keep trying to put those 2 leads into a romantic relationship, the detective doesn't seem to know what to do. So, it gets awkward. She really does care for him, though. I think a qpr would be a better category to put them in. Makes the series even better to me. 

I like that they highlight real diseases, and it brings up awareness for them. Dr. Han (the main character) had such horrible side effects from his disease, he had to get surgery to have half his brain removed at the end of the 2nd season. I'm watching the 3rd season now. There are 4 all together. This season's side thing has been the after effects of the surgery. His hair is much shorter, darker, and in a different style. Understandably shorter, since he had to have his head shaved for surgery. I'm starting to like that look on him now, but it seemed like such a drastic change at first. Anyways, his previous side effects have disappeared, and he seems even smarter now. However, his mental health is not doing well. When he goes to sleep, he seems to turn into a person with a totally different personality. He knows this because he set up cameras in his bedroom. This other self also talked to him right into the camera. When he tried to stay up for as long as he could, his other self attacked his body after he finally fell asleep. He woke up with multiple deep cuts and bruises all over his body. There was a note telling him that he should sleep on time, or something worse will happen. Creepy. 

I like the new detective now, too. He seems even more eccentric, and loveable in different ways. I miss the other one, though. I like how every member of the team (detectives and MEs) are intelligent. It's not just Dr. Han, and they don't rely on just him. Quite different than many shows like this. It's also the first Korean series like it, so kudos to them on making a great one right off the bat. 

I might post some of the amv's I've found recently tomorrow. So, at least there will be something. Hopefully, I'll get back to playing my clarinet soon, too. Might be in January, though. I already have ideas for my next books. I might start writing the next sequel of Alliance and a cookbook. I have quite a lot of ideas for the cookbook. I'll use my mom's big binder of recipes for a lot of it. I'll credit companies if I need to. I'll post a pic of each recipe in it, so people know what it'll look like. This also means I might be trying a lot of stuff for it. Some of the recipes will be based on my 'experiments', and I have some pics of those already. I have some of the pics already for the binder stuff, too. Some of the binder's recipes are actually passed down through generations or what my mom used to make. It's like a treasure trove. A better form for it would be as an actual cookbook, too. I'll reach even more people with this. So, fun stuff to look forward to. 

National Cake Day!

Wow! It has been a while since my last post. (Longer than expected.) Yay for cake! My fave is Black Forest cake. It was National Parfait Day yesterday. I hate what most people think a parfait is in this region. That's layers of yogurt, fruit, and granola. I like the ones that are layers of pudding, whipped cream, maybe some fruit filling, and cake. That sounds a lot better to me. 

I haven't changed either my desktop's or iPhone's wallpaper, so I'm not showing a new one this month. The Pusheen calendar for November is titled: 6 Reasons to be Thankful for Your Cat. The first one has a heart around Pusheen, with the caption: warms your heart. Next to it, she's in an office chair, with the caption: warms your seat. The first one in the 2nd row has her on a bed and her speech bubble has a heart in it. The caption: cuddle buddy. The one next to that has her looking somewhat angry on a bed with food in the bubble. The caption: alarm clock buddy. The first one on the last row has her laying down, hearts coming off of her, and hand petting her. The caption: beautiful friend. The one next to that has her laying down on some papers, coffee nearby, and a hand gripping a pencil. The caption: beautiful paperweight. It's cute. 

The month-long holidays for November are: National Peanut Butter Lovers Month, Raisin Bread Month, National Memoir Writing Month, National Native-American Heritage Month, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. Interesting that it's both Memoir Writing Month and NaNoWriMo. Especially, because I finished writing both novels this month.

There's at least one reason why I haven't posted much on here lately. I was trying to finish writing both the memoir and sequel to Alliance. I managed to finish writing the sequel a couple of weeks ago, and finished the memoir 5 days later. 

By the way, the sequel finally has a name. It's Alliance: Dawn. Dawn makes so much sense, on many levels, for the name...People who read it will understand. I have ideas for the memoir's title, but haven't decided yet. One of the biggest candidates is Hineini. Hineini means Here I Am in Hebrew. However, there are already memoirs with the same title out there. So, I don't know if I'll use it. I'm not feeling as into the other ideas for the title. 

Taking out the month of being too sick and it being too hot and smoky to write, plus writing half as much at the beginning, it took me roughly 4 months to write both of them. That's really fast! My first book took a few years to write. 2nd one took close to a year. This is like lightning speed for me. First time doing 2 at once, too. So, technically, it was about 2 months each. Even though I wrote them at the same time, if I just did them one at a time with the same amount of writing each day, it would have been like that. I was writing 4 pages a day, 6 days a week. (Not writing on Shabbat.) 

Now, I'm editing both of them. Trying to edit a chapter from both each day. I'm a little further into Dawn than the Memoir. It's shorter, too. The memoir seems to be the longest of the 4 books I've written. Dawn is slightly less than its prequel. Sometimes it feels like I'm editing so much, my brain hurts afterwards. 

After editing, I'll format them both for their ebook and paperback versions. Then, I'll create their cover arts. I have a clear idea of how Dawn's art will be. I'm a little fuzzy with the memoir. After that, I'll figure out pricing. Then, I can go through the submission process through Amazon. 

I'll have it so Dawn could be bought bundled with Alliance, and by itself. That way people can have the series so far, or get the sequel on its own. This also ups the likelihood that people will actually see it. Some people only look for series bundles. I'll have both of them as preorders first. Thinking they might go live in February or March. I can still be paid with however much I make from preorders during that time. Also, Amazon promotes books more during the preorder. (It'll be my first time using the preorder through them.)  With making ebook and paperback versions of these new books, I'll be more visible in 4 more ways. Besides the 4 ways I have now with my other books. Add in the bundle part with Dawn, and it gives me even more visibility. It's not just being visible through 2 more 'entries' in this sense. I could also rotate Amazon's promos on all 4 books, so there could be a sale at any given time. This adds more to it. Although, as it is right now, I can only run promos with the ebook versions. Still, it's something. I'll also post links to them on the sides here, like I did with the other 2. Easy for people to access them this way. 

I did get to the point of practicing my clarinet for an hour each day during the week. I only stopped when I started editing those books. It felt really nice, and I was noticing more of my mistakes. That meant I was getting good enough to tell again, I could fix them. I might get back to it after the editing. 

Went to Thanksgiving dinner at a friends' place. The couple that hosts it is like family. This year it was just Dad, me, and that couple. Usually, there are a lot more guests. One of their dogs is having incontinence issues now, so we couldn't sit on the couch beforehand, like usual. The wife injured her knee, I think. So, almost everything was being done by the husband. He looked so exhausted. He smokes their turkey, and I've always found that kind of cool and interesting. It adds a unique flavor to it. Anyways, I could see why they wanted less people. They said they wanted at least a couple of friends over for Thanksgiving, and they asked us. I think we're the closest to them. 

I also found out the person that was so rude to me last year when I came out as aro ace, isn't a friend of theirs anymore. They were appalled by her behavior. Plus, there were other questionable things. She was oddly into talking about Jesus sometimes. Not something Jews usually do, and why I at least have an inkling she's a 'Jew for Jesus'. In other words, Christian in disguise. Really scary. She's also a Trump supporter, that couple and my family are really against Trump. For obvious reasons...The hostess has strong political opinions, so that can be a conflict if you aren't on the same wavelength that way. That person was also very ageist, at least towards me. Also, most of the food she brought was awful or just really weird. She would tell us that she messed up horribly just as we're about to try it. Or, how about bringing little pork sausages to a Passover seder? Oh, wrapped in crescent rolls. It's a Jewish holiday, pork isn't kosher, and we don't eat anything leavened during the holiday. Way to mess up in multiple ways. She told me it wouldn't hurt me to try them, too...So weird. I'm glad I most likely won't see her again.

I was going to go to Leavenworth to celebrate my birthday. My birthday was on the 7th. Turns out that has been postponed until around March. At least, it seems like it's still on. Dad brought the idea up, and I thought it'd be great. I've only been there once, and it was a long time ago. It was fun, though. I did go to the Olive Garden for my birthday dinner. That was nice. So, we did do something for it. I hadn't been there in a long time, and it used to my fave restaurant.