Friday, January 10, 2025

Short stuff!

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.

Daily Diary, Day 1591:

Yesterday was another gorgeous sunny day, with only mild breezes, so one more day of gratitude for not having any local fires and sorrow for the devastation up in L.A. Having lived through wildfires in San Diego, including one that was stopped only about 5 miles from us, I know that everyone in that city, even if their neighborhood wasn’t directly hit, is experiencing the effects of smoke, in some cases ash, and profound anxiety.

Didn’t get any exercise yesterday except for regular cleaning, because I had a variety of tasks to do before going to the clinic. The purpose was to get the splint for my right hand redone so that when I have completed the 8 weeks for the left hand, I can start on the right. After doing everything she could, the technician couldn’t get the splint she constructed to hold the tendon in place, and she determined that the jury-rigged glove and commercial splint (used upside down) I had been using was actually doing a better job. But neither looks to me like they will be able to keep the slippage from happening 24/7, which is what needs to happen for the injury to heal itself. So, it is possible, particularly if the left finger, which isn’t nearly as damaged, isn’t healed at the end of two months that I will just accept that the most the splints can do is make my hands more comfortable, permit me to type, at least for a few hours a day, and help prevent further injury. At the very least, the woman was very complimentary about how well I took the news, my ingenuity at having already found a solution, and my acceptance that there were no miracle cures in this instance. (smile)

Got home in time for my noon zoom meeting, and then had a lovely birthday call with our daughter, and there went the day. Watched with some sadness the very last episode of Vera, but I know we will start to rewatch the 14 seasons sometime in the future.

Also delighted to share that by the end of yesterday, the Bookbub promotion garnered 7901 downloads, enough sell through to pay for at least half of the cost of the ad, and the book showed up at #11 in the Kindle Free list, and #1 in all three of its categories, which hopefully will get a few more readers who find books by browsing.

Today I have already done yoga, cleaning, put on laundry, I have an early zoom call with a friend, and probably at least one additional phone call. I do hope to be left with some time to get back to research, maybe even sketch out some possible plot scenarios. Here is the one other rose blook I found in a walk earlier this week.

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