Time flies, or at least goes very fast

January 31, 2013

The first month of the new year is all but past. With just a few hours to go until February, I'm trying to figure out where the heck January went. I looked at my calendar, which is much like a diary, and found only a few things worthy of recording. What did I do with the rest of the time?

I do have a day job, so there are those fifty hours a week (including travel time, etc.). And there was the New Year's holiday to recover from. Desert Snow released on January 6th and along with that came the obligatory promotion rounds.

Oh, yeah. Promotion. I bought an INSANE ad package dirt cheap at The Romance Studio for 2013. I did spend some time to gather information for that. Crap. I gotta go look at the TRS schedule and fill in a few blanks.

January saw me at two online chats. One at TalkingTwoLips and the other at LoveRomancesCafe. They were quiet affairs, but both were an opportunity to drop a few excerpts for the lurkers.

I bought a new love seat. The new piece of furniture inspired a small fit of decorating. I actually dusted off the sewing machine to make a few new slipcovers for some throw pillows. (What's with the buying stuff, anyway? It's not like I have money! If I had money I wouldn't leave the house to go to work every day, would I?) 

We celebrated a couple of birthdays and anniversaries in January. That was nice family fun.

The edit of the upcoming Catching Fireflies was completed just this past week. (Look for it to be on sale the last weekend in February.)  I signed up for the 2013 A-Z Blogging Challenge. This will be my third year in a row for that. Since I knew I was signing up, I did prepare the first several blog entries and load and schedule them. It's good to be a little bit ahead of the game.

Pinterest finally caught my interest. I went and joined. It gives me something to play with during the day when I'm doing the "hurry up and wait" on the higher-ups at work. I'm sure you know what I mean. Like everywhere else you can find me on the Internet it's the .com/KCKendricks.

I do a bi-monthly, as in every other month on the last Sunday, column at Brenda Williamson's "An Eclectic Author" blog. I got that in on time.

And the biggie - I've almost completed the manuscript that concludes the story of Ian Coulter and Rick Mohr which began in Double Deuce.

Huh. Maybe I didn't waste the entire month, after all.

KC Kendricks
http://www.kckendricks.com

Small kindnesses still exist

January 11, 2013

These days, we're bombarded by negative news reporting, so much so it's easy to believe that decent, friendly people no longer exist "out there." But nice people are still here, and one of them lives in my hometown. 

My house is almost thirty years old and I'm still decorating, trying to create the perfect nest. All that remains of the house of thirty years ago is the kitchen cabinets. Every wall has been repainted and every floor has gone from vinyl and carpet to hardwood, tile or laminate. (So much easier for my partner to navigate without carpet so it's not all by choice, but I have no regrets.) Over the past five years, the house has taken on a cream, maroon and chocolate brown color scheme. 

Except for the sofa. It was green plaid and I decreed it had to go, and go it did last weekend. Now I have a pretty little chocolate brown love seat just big enough for me and the cat. But since one thing always follows another when restyling one's nest, I decided the cornice covers needed to be updated. Last evening, I went to the local fabric store and found the perfect pieces to update the look of the windows, make simple curtain panels at the dining room window, a matching table runner and re-cover a few throw pillows all in the current colors. I call my style a relaxed modern country in case you're wondering.

At the cutting table, I asked the salesclerk if any coupons were available. Regrettably she said no, and that's when a total stranger offered me a kindness. She had an app for the coupon on her phone, and since I run Android, I couldn't get it. This lovely girl offered me the use of her phone with the scannable coupon when I checked out and saved me almost forty dollars. I thanked her and she simply smiled and walked away. I didn't even get her name. 

There are nice people left in this world, people who do a kindness just because they want to. 

Thank you so much. 

KC