Another update on our plans - 2014 version

Now Playing -  Here It Goes Again by OK GO

 

Life -  

The more we think we have a plan figured out, the more curves life seems to throw at us. A few months ago, we laid out our plans for the rest of 2013 and our moves in 2014.  It was a fine plan, but a number of major problems presented themselves. Our house in Idaho was severely under-appraised due to a bunch of foreclosures in the area, making it worth less than we actually owed on it. That's a situation that will likely improve, eventually, but for the time being, that means my mom buying it would be a bad move for both her and us. She could get a better house in the area for less money than our place and find one that would suit her needs better. We'd end up losing over $30k if we sold now. On top of that, our Christmas was dramatically worse than we'd predicted. Between the government shutdown, a late Thanksgiving and a myriad list of other reasons, people weren't shopping as heavily as predicted. Our shop wasn't doing itself any favors either. Apart from our soaps, which we'd debuted too late to really get the full benefit, we didn't have anything new and exciting to draw in shoppers.

After we'd gotten the news of the house, I made a trip out there and we decided that the best option would be for Lindsay and I to move back to Idaho, to our old home on Rosewood. That would mean forgoing our plans to move to Washington, but it wasn't all bad news. We still like the house on Rosewood, we just never really gave it a chance. The whole time we lived there, we were looking for plans to move away. Which is really how we've spent the last... seven years or more, actually.

The initial plan had been to sell the trailer and abandon Maine as soon as the holidays were over, traveling south to avoid the weather and get back to Idaho in late January. It would mean us losing money on this trailer, selling it as fast as we could, just to get out of here, the exact reasoning that had kept us here before but this time it was compared to how much we would lose if we sold the house... a number nearly twice as large.

Unfortunately, the holidays underperformance now means that is delayed. We will have to wait until at least spring, when we can sell the house at closer to what we owe and in the meantime I can concentrate on the shop, conventions and possibly a part time job, while Lindsay re-dedicates herself to writing. (Despite not releasing a book in over a year, her romance novels are still selling regularly if not in great numbers)

So this is kind of a non-update. But despite the setbacks, we are actually quite excited about the next few months. It would be more exciting if we were moving back to Poky and better still if our original plans of Washington were possible, but we aren't rushing to escape Maine quite as urgently and that should allow us some time to do it properly. Eat at Red's Eats one more time, do some sightseeing and photography, I plan to hit a number of conventions in the area. It should be good stuff.

The ROUS FAMILY -   

  

 

 

 

 

VACATIONLAND - Updates and Plans

Now Playing -  Don't Forget To Breathe by Bitter:Sweet

 

Life -  

I have been bad. Not just at updating this blog, but all of our blogs, social media sites and in my own writing. It's literally been over a month since I've written a single word on a novel and apart from some last edits on the print version of MR PALE, Lindsay and I have been totally out of the loop on the author end of our lives. There's an okay reason behind some of it, but I feel bad all the same.

Part of the reason it aggravates me is that I genuinely like writing, and I like positing on this blog. If nothing else, I actually think it makes a great little record of our lives and right now our lives are different than they've ever been.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again now – I'll try and be better.

So what's been going on? A ton. This year has been amazing for us in so many ways but in other facets it's actually been one of our hardest years ever. The opportunity to quit my retail job and for both of us to concentrate our efforts on Deeply Dapper and our various other pursuits has been a dream come true. But True Life is never quite as sweet as the dream. We've had some ROUGH months. Rough estimate, we need about $3000 a month in income to pay bills, feed the animals and keep the shop going. There were a few months in late spring/ early summer where we didn't make half that.

When I quit my job I did something somewhat ill-advised – I cashed in my retirement fund from Walgreens. The simple fact is that if things go the way we've planned, I could either use it now to work towards our future or save it and give up our dreams right now. It was a no-brainer to us – we're dreamers.

So that money has supported us at times and every time we sat in the red and needed some new item for the shop or a big load of supplies that had to come out of that savings, it sucked, pure and simple.

So there's that. Money troubles.

In addition, there's the sheer, unadulterated claustrophobia of two people, two large dogs and two cats going from a 1600 square foot house with a huge fenced yard, two sheds and a garage in Idaho to an 800 square foot tin box in the middle of nowhere. Add in the fact that we're both here ALL of the time and are at heart both very alone-time centric, this has been a Challenge. We did what we could – we bought Linz a writing cottage and we cordoned off our place into private zones but we live in a house that takes roughly twenty paces to reach from one end to the other. It takes the dog less than a second to run it.

After a few rough months of living here with the shop hitting a few speed bumps, we made a fateful choice. We needed to get out of Maine. Neither of us have any friends out here. Linz worked the overnight shift at a hotel and I was most of my peers' boss at Walgreens. We don't socialize, especially when we live 40 minutes from any socializing being done. And naturally, both of our best friends are the types that aren't really functional online. I have a few friends that started as online so I had them and I've always been rather content in solitude, but it was especially hard for Linz, especially when it came to writing inspiration and motivation. There are some things that friends can inspire and move along without ever realizing it.

Our plan to move was ambitious, no doubt. The real sticking point was one of the same things pushing us to move in the first place – this house. We bought it out here with the vague allusion that moving to rural Maine would be a smart step company ladder-wise and at the time I bit. We got a decent deal for the place but we still owed a lot on it and unlike a real house, a mobile home is more like a car when it comes to resale. We were gonna lose money. Probably a lot. Luckily, we didn't own the land, so we'd just have to sell the trailer and WEST OR BUST.  The plan was to wait for this coming Christmas, stockpile every penny we could and as soon as the snow receded, get the Hell out of Derry Maine.

One of our home improvement projects, replacing a cracked floor joist.

Unfortunately, once we did the smart thing – Crunch Numbers, things began to reveal themselves. Assuming we couldn't sell the trailer for much and factoring the costs associated with the move – rentals, trailers, gas, tolls, etc., it would cost us approximately $14,000. And that was just back to Idaho, to say nothing of our ultimate goals of getting past the potato and into the Pacific Northwest.

On the other hand, we actually had that much, give or take, between our retirement money and what we forecasted to make over the holiday, so it was doable.  Then things got a bit crappier out here. Maine seemed to close up over us and things seemed more oppressive. We had a few trademark issues with the shop and just plain bad months and we started to get desperate. We had to get out of Vacationland and back West where our hearts were.

Part of it was that we were starting to crunch the numbers in regards to this Christmas. Last year was huge for us and our shop was significantly larger on a day to day basis now. Christmas could be HUGE. And we knew no one out here. If we were to say.... head to Idaho BEFORE the holiday, what would be stopping us from setting up shop in Linz's folks' garage and hiring cheap slave labor under the guise of inviting friends and family over?  It sounded so great. Eating Christmas cookies and packaging switch plates with family and friends.

Enough that the idea seduced any other real logic out of our heads for a while. We started looking at places to buy post-Christmas, figuring out which supplies to buy now and have shipped to Idaho ahead of us...

Then, one day, we looked at each other and said “Crap, it's a good thing we don't run our shop like we run our lives, or we'd be bankrupt.”

For us to get out to Idaho before Christmas, it would not only take every penny of our savings, but we would likely have had to put all of our Christmas supplies on the credit card that we had just spent two years paying off. Additionally, we still owned our house in Idaho. My mom is working towards buying it, but regardless of how the shop does, there's no way we could buy a home in OR or WA while it was still in our name, especially with a new – owner operated business as our sole income. We also had about three months to sell everything in the house that wouldn't fit in a 5x8 trailer and get to Idaho with enough time to prep for the holiday sales to start in October.

SO to sum up, we would be living in the In-Laws basement, have thousands of dollars in debt, not a penny to our name, no way to buy a house to live in and we would be living in Pocatello Idaho... again.

Despite the obvious, we still almost went for it. The day we realized what we were doing was a very hard one for us. It was the same day we realized that if the shop kept having sales the way they were, I'd have to get a job before we left or our bills would tap out the money we'd need to get out of the house in the first place and we'd be stuck here anyway.

On the other hand, if we stayed here in Maine, we'd be in a house that's already being paid on, we'd have enough money in savings to get us to Christmas, buy a few home stuff we really needed and all of our supplies. We'd be in a place that we didn't....hate and we'd be better off financially than we have ever been... Sort of, anyway – at the time, our shop was still a question, but we figured that if worse came to worse, I could work part time during the summer to get us comfortably by in the lean months.

So once again, we did what we do best – we changed our plans. Sigh.

OUR NEW PLAN:

2013:

Deeply Dapper - Keep on trucking with Deeply Dapper on Etsy. At the same time, explore alternate avenues of revenue with the brand – www.deeplydapper.com as well as shops on Zibbet, Goodsmiths and eBay. Finally get DD.com up and running, including the Octopress branch, offering eBook formatting and cover work. Start prepping for Christmas '13 in earnest. Tighten up books and records, become an official business entity. Possibly hire a part time assistant to help out.

Writing – Still write, but let it take a back burner to an extent. We were trying to push it too much and our love of the craft was suffering. Our planned books for 2013 have been pushed back. Unfortunately.

Location – Stay here in the tin can in Maine. Not the best choice, but we've been working on making it more comfortable for us, doing some improvements we've put off, decorating and the like. We've also started exploring the area we live in slightly more.

The Crew – We found the boys a Day Care we could take them to for trips and the like – the person we did have caring for them moved further away and it wasn't fair to them or the dogs. More on that in a later post. On Lindsay and my end, we aren't doing much to change our situation... not yet. The simple fact is that we don't have time to find friends this time of year -XMAS is upon us. We have visits from family this fall too! Linz's folks will be here in about a week for 8 days and my brother makes his first trip to Maine at the end of September.

Addendum – My brother's trip had originally been designed as a bookend to the first leg of our move out West. The plan had been for him to come out, spend a week then he and I would load up Linz's car and drive it cross country with as much of our house as we could do without until the full move. We were looking forward to the cross country trip too. With our move cancelled, we're now planning to take the train back to Idaho, where I'll spend a bit of time. (Hopefully completing the sale of the house.)

2014:

Obviously, a lot of these plans are tentative, based largely on how our shop does over Christmas.

Deeply Dapper – DD goes CON! 2014 will see our shop represented in Comic Cons! We aren’t sure how many, but our first con is this November – in addition to our switch plates and stickers, we'll be selling our new line of geeky soaps. Along the way, I'll also be hitting up comic, game and video stores to see if they would be interested in selling our soaps at a retail level. My plans this year are to expand the brand on a wholesale level. Doing so could stabilize our shop to a tremendous extent. More on this to come! If it doesn't pan out, I'll likely try out a few part time jobs over the summer to supplement our income. There have always been jobs I've been vaguely curious about – this would be the ultimate chance to try them out.

Writing – Hopefully, Linz will be able to continue plugging away at her romance novels – despite no new releases or promotions, her novels keep selling, so we want to add to it. We also plan to release them in paperback. She's also working on a top secret novel series that she's been planning for a long time. We're also looking into writing groups in the area, both from an editorial assistance point of view and for that sweet, sweet human contact. I hope to release GRAVES and write the second MR PALE and MOONSTONE BAY novels. I HOPE. Ha-ha

Location – Here still. Keep calm and carry on. And pay off some of Linz's oppressive student loans. Mow the lawn.

We also hope to find time to start e3njoying the area the way a young work at home couple should be able to – Sex in the forest! Oh, I mean exploring the hundreds of old graveyards out here!  Our wholesale and conventions should be a help here, allowing us to phase out some of the extremely time intensive products from the shop.

The other thing is to pay off the house if possible so that when the move does come, it comes much, much cheaper.

The Crew – Our two main goals here are to free our minds from the stress of moving and where we'll be in a month, etc... And concentrate on enjoying our lives. We're finally making money off our interests and talents – we should be overjoyed! Linz will look for some friends; I'll be better about talking with mine. We'll get out more, be healthier, cook even better food, and lose weight.

The one event we are over the moon about in 2014 is that we are finally planning to take our belated honeymoon to Ireland. Aww yeah. That alone makes not moving a little sweeter.

Beyond that, the real plan is to make as much money from the shop and our writing as humanly possible so that in 2015, after the snows melt and while the air is still cool enough for a long road trip to be pleasant, we head west. For reals this time.

The ROUS FAMILY -   

  

 

 

 

 

Stalled Out.... Again.

Now Playing -  Mr. Sandman by The Puppini Sisters

Life -  

 Grrr. We were so looking forward to moving into a place of our own. The numbers looked good, the realtor... used trailer salesman...sales representative..?  Anyway, David said everything looked good. Then he calls us and asks if we have check stubs proving the rental of the house in Idaho. No, we do not. My mom pays the mortgage company directly and deposits a small amount into my account each month.... Well, it appears that if we don't have that, the bank says no. So, everything looks great, we have a strong history of payment and no dings, good credit score but because I don't have my mom write me a check, deposit it and write my own check to mail to the mortgage company, we're hosed. Apparently, the bank thinks there's some way that I'm out here, paying my rent and paying my mortgage out in Idaho....

Which begs the question, if that's indeed the case, and I am paying something like $1700 a month... then how can a used mobile home, with payments literally a third as high as my current rent, to say nothing of the mortgage, be a bad call? Aaaargh. Ugh. Sense and Cents may sound alike, but they clearly do not reside in the same building.

There's still a ghost of a chance that a local credit union that David has connections with may take a chance on us - we'll see, but either way, we're in the same teeter-tottery undecided position that we've been in for a month now, the same crap we've gone through FAR too many times in the last few years. I'm pretty sick of it. If this goes through and we can move into a place we own, I plan to make it stick for a while... Even if it is out here in the bug-infested, Mexican-food-free, away-from-our-families-and-friends, not-Oregon, stupid-rules-about-trash,  east.


 Bugger.

The ROUS FAMILY -   

 

 

 

 

Looking Back at 2010

Now Playing -  
I'm Getting Sentimental Over You by The Ink Spots

Life - 

A year in the northeast.

Roughly a year ago, we left our world in the West behind and flew out to Maine. Neither of us had ever been here before, in all honestly, I can't say Id ever really even given the state much thought. But we were ripe for a change and my company was actively seeking experienced managers to head up the expansion in the area.

Lobster Roll - The Ultimate Maine Food

So we jumped in. This isn't something we usually do too rashly, we'd been planning a potential move for months, having put in for a move to the northwest a few months prior, scuttled by some staffing changes with my company. We hit a few snags before the move, primarily stemming from me shattering my arm and wrecking our Honda Element. But we stuck to our decision and left on a jet plane.

3,000 miles later, we landed in a state surprisingly similar to Idaho. Cold, bitterly so, with a stiff wind and little snow. Pretty much Idaho in January, though there wasn't the 3 inches of ice on the roads. We rented a car and set out to find a place to live and to explore out new home. After a few days in the sublimely funky Inn At St. Johns, we rented a room at the trashy, slummy Northeastern Motel in Windham, ME. The Internet didn't work, the water had a sign that suggested boiling and left the shower stained an unusual smurf blue, and the owner was a nosy, rude freakazoid. We spent a lot of time watching home and garden TV and swearing at our Internet connection. But it wasn't all bad. We drove around every week, learning more about our state. We found some great pizza and some of the best corned beef hash on God's green earth. I worked in the district office, making some valuable connections while my arm healed. Finally, we found a new house, renting a small mobile home on 1.75 acres in Topsham, ME. I bounced around in a few different stores before settling somewhat permanently in the Forest Avenue store, where I set about training my generally awesome and quirky employees.

Our Humble Abode

We flew back out to Idaho, ate some good Mexican food at last (Maine does not have any- at all) gathered up our pets and a few possessions. We built a bed platform with storage underneath in our newly purchased Honda Element (My third), stuffed it full and drove back across the country, sleeping in the car the whole way. We learned that North Dakota has good people, toll highways are the worst thing to happen to travel and that our dogs are pretty decent traveling companions. Also, a laptop and a few tv shows, plugged into the audio of the car makes for a pretty awesome little home theater on the go.

Old Orchard Beach

Back out here we travelled a lot on our weekends, we saw lighthouses, the ocean, expensive old houses, countless graveyards and ate more seafood than I've ever had in my life. Eventually things settle a bit. Linz got a job working the night audit shift at The Captain Daniel Stone Inn in Brunswick, a new, nice looking if somewhat poorly run hotel, and we set about trying to plan for our futures.

One of the hundreds of gorgeous cemeteries in the east.

For years now, we've wanted to buy and run a little motel in the Pacific Northwest. We've tried all sorts of stunts to accomplish this, from begging for money, to converting a house into a BandB, to almost leasing one from a gentleman in Washington. Nothing panned out, so now we have to do it the old fashioned way, by getting rid of our debt and saving up some money. Then we need a lucky break. That's one reason we're out here. Back in Idaho, it had become too comfortable, surrounded by our friends and family, by our thousands of books and DVDs, our good restaurants and above all, our routine.

We are living light out here, eating out rarely, freezing meals on the cheap, shopping for work clothes at goodwill, all in an attempt to pay off our debt. It's a daunting amount. Including our house, which we still own in Idaho, our car and Lindsay's school loans, we owe over $210,000.00 However, most of that is low interest “Good Debt” but coming out here we still had over $17,000.00 in dental bills, credit cards and a loan we took out for a vacation and to remodel our house. Over the last year, working aggressively, we've cut that 17k to less than six, with plans to kill the rest by July. This is very exciting.

We've also started up a few additional schemes to make money. We're both writing novels, which we plan to release ourselves as ebooks this year. I've written a post-apocalyptic crime novel, I'm almost finished with my zombie book and have a children's story in progress. Lindsay's written almost 3 historical Romance novels and started planning an elaborate fantasy series. To that end, we've created our writerly identities and started doing the social networking thing that is required of authors these days. It's a bit of a chore, but an interesting challenge as well. I've also started a company called Deeply Dapper, through which I sell art, sculptures, home décor and design book covers. It's a work in progress, but it's made a few hundred so far.

Portland, Oregon

It hasn't all been sunshine and lollipops. We love some aspects of Maine, but there are a lot of things we've come to dislike too. The people are very hit and miss, with some being extremely sweet and friendly and some being rude to the point of parody. Everyone drives like crazy people here, not just aggressively, but dangerously. Winter seems to be neverending. Not just the copious amounts of snow, but the extremely short days, coupled by my long commutes has made me craving a simple walk with the dogs in the sun more than ever before. We're both quite homesick, or more appropriately, Westsick. We miss Oregon and Washington, their funky sensibilities and long beaches. Maine has a bit of that, but it's overshadowed by pretension and something undefinable that rubs us the wrong way.

I lost my grandmother recently and watching it all happen from afar, wishing we were there was especially difficult, and the idea that it wont be the last time while we're out here, with friends getting married and family getting older stings.

To be shallow, we also really miss our stuff. Our small library overflowing with books, the big TV and room full of DVDs, my private garage full of art and sculptures, Lindsay's craft room.

So we plan on moving back eventually. If we could afford to, frankly, we would move back in a couple of weeks, when the roads thaw and it's warm enough to sleep in the car. More realistically, we need to pay off our credit card and save up at least $8,000.00. We came up with that because it would be enough for the cost to get home, to Washington, rent a uhaul and find a place to live. Of course, that's also assuming I can get a transfer out there with my job, or by some miracle we manage to make a living off of our writing. So we're out here for a while. If I were to be promoted to store manager, something that is a vague possibility, we would be able to afford the move faster, but I would then need to dedicate an appropriate amount of time to the position and a transfer when the time came would be harder, so the promotion would be bittersweet.

Autumn is amazing out here.

So how has our first year been out here in Maine? More good than bad. A surprising dearth of good food, an abundance of nasty people and the Atlantic is nowhere near as welcoming to us as the Pacific. But we've loved exploring. The Autumns are amazing, the cemeteries ancient and beautiful and we have been able to make progress on our debt like never before.

So we'll keep on trucking. Blogging, writing, sculpting, reviewing and eventually, if lady luck stays with us, we'll move to the West, open a motel and write our novels for a living.

On the inside of my wedding ring, I have this phrase -

“Dreams Create The Future”

And every day, we work to make those dreams as real as we can.

The ROUS FAMILY -     

Quickies!

Life - 

Friday night after work, we drive up to Topsham, ME and sign the paperwork on a rental! Hooray! No more crappy motel room for us! (Knock on wood.)


I won’t say more until it’s official, but things are looking very good and we are quite excited. This does mean that it’s likely that we won’t have any internet access for a while, but when we do, it will be because I ordered it myself and had it installed. In theory, that should make it more reliable….

REVIEWS OF UNUSUAL SIZE - 

5 Things About -

FILM - 

SHUTTER ISLAND

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Benjamin Kingsley

1 - We went to this thinking it was a haunted house mystery. It's not, it's a psychological thriller, but we were not disappointed.

2 - Shutter Island is directed beautifully. The setting is perfect and Scorsese's style, while recognizable from his previous films, felt different here, a bit more creative and spooky.

3 - GREAT supporting cast here. Von Sydow, Levine, Lynch, Haley... all actors that make everything they're in better. Ted Levine, best known recently for his role as Stottlemeyer in the TV show Monk is especially memorable.

4 - The location makes this film. Dicaprio was good, though I still think he looks too young for most of his roles, but without the location, this movie would have been a waste.

5 - We saw this in a little theater in North Windham. Old, a little run down, old-school seats and screens. Film scratches and pops. Five dollar admission. You know I was down with this joint. There was also a surprising number of older locals there, virtually no teenagers at all and only a few young couples. My theory is that they all drive into Portland to the swanky digital screens or the IMAX. Bah to that. Give me the grindhouse any day!

5/5

BOOKS -

THE THIEF WHO COULDN’T SLEEP
By Lawrence Block
1998, 256 pages

1 – An man who cannot sleep who bides his time by learning languages and joining lost causes finds himself wrapped up in a caper involving buried treasure, spies and revolutions, all in 256 pages? What an idea!

2 – An Idea that, while brilliant, does fall a bit flat in execution with some jumps in the story that feel missing and a bit confusing.

3 – The character of Tanner is one of my favorites now. A smart, resourceful insomniac that gets into all sorts of trouble.

4 – Some of the twists get pretty far-fetched, and aren’t quite convincing in a book this short, so it’s best to turn off your brain and enjoy the ride!

5 – Bring on the next Tanner novel!


3/5


CHERRY BOMB
By J.A. Konrath
2009, 304 pages

1 – FINALLY, the resolution to Konrath’s wicked cliffhanger in his previous book, FUZZY NAVEL, and it’s a great book, though the big answer to the cliffhanger, who was killed at the end of the last book, feels a little bluntly answered.

2 – Konrath, like the Always Stupendous Marshall Karp, mixes action and humor seamlessly, both sly, sarcastic jabs and out loud laughs.

3 – Kork, a scarred, sexy, demented killer, is a great character and a perfect nemesis to the detective Jack Daniels.

4 – A great mix of mayhem, mystery and enough fashion references that for a long time, I was pretty sure J.A. was a female… (That’s a compliment, Joe... I promise!)

5 – Slappy the monkey!


4/5


THE OUTFIT
by Richard Stark
2008, 224 pages

1 – Stark’s grim and clever Parker is back, focused on dealing with the “Outfit” a mob-esque crime ring that has Parker in their sights. They’d better watch out, Parker doesn’t take prisoners.

2 – I love the Parker novels. They’re hard-boiled, fast reads, a lot of fun. This was an interesting one because it wasn’t about a job or revenge really, just Parker getting rid of someone that is keeping him from his jobs.

3 – Like you would assume, the Outfit never stood a chance.

4 – I have a hard time not tearing through all of these books. They’re sitting there on my nook, taunting me. “Don’t read a different author, just read the next one!”

5 – A Snub Nosed .32!


4/5

Grind, Grind, Grind.

Life - 

I spent the last few moments of spare time I've had doing some monotonous packing related things, going through magazines, making some lists, trying to use up the last of our kitchen crap.

We're having a little going away party on Sunday, have a couple of days after that, then we fly off for Maine! Which means we're doing pretty good on the packing front, but still have a good chunk to do. We're hoping to convince our friends to move a few things on Sunday. I'm not much good with just my left arm...

We cooked Beignets for breakfast today. Yum!

I watched the Others last night, the first time since I bought the DVD, I believe, and even knowing the ending, maybe because I knew it, the film still seemed really powerful. Eerie and full of gothic dread. I forgot how much I liked it!

Writing - 

I actually sat down and re-read my revised first half of the Whispering Ferns the other day, I'm quite pleased with how decent I think it sounds. It needs some polishing, and I still have another 20,000 words to revise, but I'm starting to get excited about the idea of sending it out to agents!

It Was The One-Armed Man!

Life - 

So... packing to live in a different state, in a bit of a hurry, possibly a wee overwhelemed. What could make that rougher? Trying to do it with just your left arm. Ugh. I I've never been more frustrated and annoyed in my life than I am now, watching my small wife try and move boxes, straining to budge something that would normally have been pretty simple for me to lug around. I can't even really pack things, it's amazing what little things you do with two hands that you kind of just assume in the back of your head are one-handed things.

And it still takes me forever to put on a pair of socks.

However, we are making pretty good progress, the house is gradually becoming echoey and barren, moreso than any time in the recent packing binges we went on, and it's comforting.

I've spent a lot of time this month trying to be excited about the move and not really pulling it off, theres just been too many other stresses. It's starting to sink in though, things are getting real, and I'm getting more excited about our adventure.



I had another appointment the other day for my arm. It's healing very well, in fact, they almost decided to take me out of the splint. They actually said that they'd hoped this plan would work, but were pretty sure it wouldn't and they'd have to operate. Hooray, I guess! I have some excercises I have to do now, mostly stretching and flexibility. My muscles have atrophied to the point that it's almost frightening. I've never felt the bones under my shoulder before, bones that now are clearly very close to the skin. I have a long road ahead to build my arm back up.

Reviews Of Unusual Size


Books -


FATAL FLAW
by William Lashner
2004, 576 pages



HOSTILE WITNESS
by William Lashner

 1996, 608 pages

 PAST DUE
by William Lashner
2005, 576 pages



ALTAR OF EDEN
by James Rollins
2009, 416 pages



POINT OF IMPACT
by Stephen Hunter
1993, 592 pages

Once again, I'm a little too pressed for time to give these books a proper evaluation, but I thought I'd get them listed all the same. I found a new author this month, William Lashner, who writes legal thrillers based in Philadelphia. I started with PAST DUE, which I found in a thrift store and loved his eye for dialogue and characterization enough to run out and buy three of his others. I really like his stuff, his characters are a little rougher around the edges, sarcastic and grey-souled, a really pleasant change from the usual heroes of legal thrillers. I also discovered from his website that he was the author of a different book I'd read last year, KOCKROACH, which he wrote under a pseudonym. I dug that book and it was kind of amusing to realize that I'd read a book by the author I'd "Discovered" already.

Writing - 

I actually wrote a bit the other night, mostly just trying to find a comfortable position. I wrote a new intro to the Whispering Ferns, something I like, but probably wont use.

The Last Sentence - 

As Smith grew, his fascination with the old museum and it's secrets grew with him.

From - "The Whispering Ferns" (WIP)

The next step, Portland!

SO last year, right around now, Linz and I were in serious discussions to take over a small motel in Seaview, WA. The place had a lot of charm and was in a great spot, but it was pretty run down, owned by a fellow that no longer cared about the business. All was looking well, and we had extremely high hopes for the year to come.

Well, turns out that the owner did have a love of something related to the motel, the almighty buck. Once he started asking for more than we'd agreed on, more than we could have afforded comfortably to give, things fell apart. In retrospect, this was a good thing, it would have been a lease to own deal and frankly, we would have been miserable trying to run it while he still had his fingers anywhere near the property in any way.

Since then, as a slightly vindictive side note, the motel has gotten some very unfavorable reviews and is still for sale, now for quite a few years.

After the motel deal fell through, we had a pretty rough year, a few setbacks, though looking back, it wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time, and we also managed to start new goals for our future; writing!

We have both written books, as well as started on multiple others each. Lindsay is in the process of finding an agent and has had a few favorable responses so far. I submitted my book, The Whispering Ferns, a kids ghost story/mystery to the Delacorte Press New Writers Contest. I lost and amusingly, after the contest ended with no winner announced, they ended the contest for the future, after 18 years. My book is apparently that bad, ladies and gentlemen! Ha!

So 2009 seemed rough, but was filled with some nice milestones all the same. I'm pretty sure that my busted arm in December helped make it out to be bleaker than it was; December and January just aren't the best of months for us!

Towards the end of the year, Lindsay and I decided to try and transfer with my job to the Oregon/Washington area. We really love it out there, We're enchanted with the ocean and the lush forests, I love the rich culture of myth and irreverent history of the area too.

So we took a trip out there and checked out a few areas, applying for transfers when we got back. Unfortunately, we have bad timing with this kind of thing, just a few months earlier, Walgreens, my job, instituted yet another ill-conceived money-saving plan with the structure of their stores. In every store, as Assistant Managers left or were fired, rather than promoting, transferring or hiring new managers, the stores were ordered to create a new position in the stores, something called a Shift Leader. This position is essentially a manager with all of the responsibility and expectations, but none of the support, ability and pay.

This also means that for me to get a transfer into any established store, that store would have to lose two managers and not have any immediate local replacement or be willing to choose me instead. It didn't seem hopeful, but we tried anyway, contacting every store in the area, throwing the net far and wide.

Then, on a whim, we threw the net a bit wider and we pulled something fascinating in from the depths of the ocean, an offer. And not just an offer, but an offer from a district manager that is personable, friendly and funny, who seems excited about the idea of working with me, in an area that could mean a lot of opportunity for me if I choose to progress with Walgreens.

It's a pretty short deadline though, he needs me out there asap to aid in building and setting up stores where once there were none, so we've been scrambling to pack and prepare.

Our plane leaves on the 27th of January. Our plan is to fly there, stay in am monthly rental motel for a bit while we look for a place to live with our pets. Once that's secured, we'll fly back to Poky, buy a new Element and drive the kids and a few additional essentials out to our new home.

Where's that you ask? Well, if you read the title of the post, it should be somewhat clear, It's Portland! What isn't completely clear though, is that on January 27th, we're flying to live in Portland, Maine! 

Yeesh, this is going to be one exciting new year! more as it comes, but wish us luck, and stick with us as we document the trials and tribulations of moving 3,000 miles away from any family and friends and attempting to become published authors, debt-free, and eventually, owning our own motel! 



And yes, I am aware that we are unabashed dreamers, but we figure someone's dreams have to come true every now and then, why not ours?