Today was time to shop vac out the car. This is a big job and it takes me forty minutes or so. The sun was out, charging the Bluetti from both panels so I plugged the shop vac into the Bluetti and vacuumed out the car! (The Bluetti is always powering the freezer, so that freezer can do its thing even though I’m using the Bluetti for other things.)

Here’s a picture of the Bluetti hooked up to our freezer. Since the power station is in the garage, may as well use it for other things–like a trickle charger for our car battery and if power goes out, we can use it to power our garage door opener to get a car in or out! (Click for a bigger picture – the Bluetti is the little black box on the floor. A pretty powerful little package.)

Not sure if I posted the second solar panel we bought. It’s a “flexible” one so it’s very light with no frame. We were planning to buy a shade for the garage window and it turned out the solar panel was the same price as the shade. So we hung the solar panel outside the window and added it to the setup. This panel is only in the sun from about 7 to 10:30, but it also shades the garage window during that time, keeping the temperature in the garage cooler!

You may have noticed around July, that Amazon stopped telling you exactly what you bought or what you paid when they sent an email receipt. Why? Because Google (specifically their gemini AI) is scraping that information. Here’s a Verge article. Why do they want that data? Because then they can target ads. They can offer you their shopping cart. They can offer you their select products. Make no mistake–companies out there have this information because they have been paying AMAZON for the information. Google just wanted to scrape it for themselves.

I have a proton account (there is a free tier) for emails I don’t want scraped. Yes, I have turned off permissions under gmail so they SUPPOSEDLY don’t scrape my email. But when I have something I want to stay private, I use proton. It’s encrypted on my end. I can’t control the other end, but be aware that you are likely exposed. Also if you do turn off “smart” features, you will lose access to gmail spell check and a few other “nice” to haves. But that is the way they keep permission to scrape data–if you leave features on, they give themselves permission to take your data.

David Revoy is one of my favorite artists/cartoonists/story tellers. I follow him on bluesky and also check his site for new work. Fabulous artist and if you like graphic art stories, he is the guy to read–there are full graphic novels on his site if you ever need anything great to read. Check out the sheer talent and creativity!

With our recent discussion on AI, I thought I’d share his latest comic strip–he’s been doing a series of stories involving a parrot. The parrot represents AI. Because all AI does is “parrot” art and prose it has stolen!!! Keep in mind that AI has already affected artists like David–in that his work was stolen to train AI, and also he now must defend his work all the time as “No, I don’t use AI.” As a writer, I get asked this question also. To be clear: NO, I don’t use AI.

Here’s the comic and also a video (speed paint) where he shows how he did the artwork!!!

You Cant Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson As you know, I don’t read non-fiction very often. So here’s a little history of how I ended up reading Phoebe Robinson’s book. While Hedge Witch is out with Beta readers (thank you, you know who you are!) I started work on another project that is currently a novella. I posted the novella, a space opera, for free a while back. I decided pretty early on when writing it that it needed to be a full novel. The main character developed herself and she happens to be Black. But I am not Black so when I started tackling changing the novella into a full-length novel, I decided I better do some research. Could I write an in-depth Black person? Should I even try? I don’t find a lot of Black, heroic women characters in the books I read and I read a lot of books! Oh, there’s some warrior types usually in fantasy, and lots of romance with Black characters. I don’t need a warrior for my space opera.(Weeeellll, you know me and my action scenes. She might turn out to be a warrior woman!)

I tend to be a character writer though and need a lot of growth, a lot of personality, history, a lot of family nuances, and so on.

Anyway, when I came across You Can’t Touch My Hair, I checked it out from my online library. Wow. What a read. I ended up buying the book when I was about halfway through reading it. Talk about in-depth. It reads a bit like a memoir, a lot of personal experiences, but with an attempt to laugh off and add humor to some pretty not-funny topics. There’s lot of the “every day Black person experiences” some really great discussions on Black life–Phoebe’s in particular. Just what I really needed. Phoebe does a great job of talking about culture, news topics at the time, impressions and also being a comedian in a man’s world. So there’s a lot of just what it is like as a woman and how she is treated because of that! There’s some college stories too. All in all, I think Phoebe would tell me: Don’t try writing a Black woman. You can’t make it real, you can’t ever completely understand. But then again. She is open, honest and has an understanding of human nature to the point where she might say, “go for it.”

Reading her intelligent, well-thought out stories…it’s always intimidating to take on my own writing after reading something great. But I’m not trying to appropriate culture. I’m also not trying to make the same statement she did. The character in Hell Space was Black from the beginning. I don’t really know why or how my muse picks characters and sometimes they change before a book comes out. I learn about the character as I’m writing because I’m definitely a “by the seat of my pants” kind of writer. I don’t outline so much as write various scenes and then stitch them together. I shut off all the little voices that tell me “you can’t do this” and concentrate on “just write and see how it works out.”

So anyway, I can definitely recommend You Can’t Touch My Hair — it’s got humor, heart, and meaningful stories. As for my story, we’ll see where it goes. It’s very early days yet!

Gardening

You know I am a big gardener and you probably guessed I don’t use pesticides. I haven’t for many, many years. The industry would have you believe it’s impossible and expensive to garden without their killing pesticides. It’s really not. Pesticides don’t work all that well in reality. I tried a number of them when I was younger and didn’t know any better. I didn’t realize that growing wildflowers and wild grasses alongside vegetable can solve a lot of problems, including soil issues.

This year, Tony collected some old hay and manure for me to compost. Okay, so when they say make sure it’s VERY composted, they mean it! Otherwise you end up with 100 grubs per inch and a lot of flies. I have two bins composting right now. When it rains, which is not often, the compost needs to be mixed. Smelly job. Sure, once I mix this mess next year with some peat moss, I’ll have the best soil ever. But I really thought a month of composting it would be enough. Nope. It is not soil yet. I guess that is why Dad always collected the very dried, nearly fossilized cattle turds for the garden. Less bugs, less time to return to soil. Although I have found that when they are that old, they can retain their brick qualities for most of the summer…

Anyway, I’m not the only one who has noticed nature’s benefits. Here’s a guy growing some of the heritage wheat varieties in Europe. What a fabulous success story!

And here’s a story about a Ghana chef–working with Indigenous foods instead of imports. Another great story! There is definitely power in food.

What are you reading this week?

Randy posting some interesting articles:

An interesting piece from financial analyst John Mauldin this week. Since AI is the topic of many discussions, I thought you might find it interesting:

AI In Your Backyard: The Water and the Wires

The AI Bottom Line

The grid genuinely needs to grow faster than American infrastructure has grown in decades, and that is a real, difficult, and worthwhile policy challenge, one I’d rather see us solve with faster permitting, smarter interconnection rules, and more nuclear than with a moratorium on the industry that’s currently the largest source of private capital investment in the country, not to mention the driving technology of the future.

But “data centers are draining the aquifers and blowing up your power bill” is not what the data shows. On water, they’re a rounding error next to golf and agriculture, and the technology is getting more efficient by the year. On power, the bottleneck is real, but it’s the poles and permitting, not some unsolvable physical limit — and the regions leaning hardest into data centers are, so far, not the ones paying the highest price for it.

Personally, I think the infrastructure stuff will work itself out over time – that’s the way markets work, if they’re allowed to work. Right now, I’m more concerned with AI’s ‘behavior’ than its actual existence.

John’s going to post a second piece on AI and jobs next week – I’ll post that one when it comes out.

Maria’s rebuttal is in the comments. Keep in mind that AI stole several of my novels and used it to train. And I’m watching my own industry NOT benefit from AI. I’m sure there are some investors benefiting from AI, but it’s not the artistic community. I get no benefit from the changes I’m seeing.

Husband has added a like button at the bottom of each post! So now when you visit you can like a post or unlike a post. This helps me know you visited or how many people visited. So if you like a post, hit the like button!

Okay these two things are NOT related. But they are my morning news to share and I know you will want to avoid one of these things…hmm…which one…?

First let’s go with T.M. Baumgartner’s newsletter. There are kitten pictures because Teresa is a foster mom. For a LOT OF KITTENS. She also is Tess Baytree and writes cozy mysteries with no paranormal elements. I just love the cover on this next installment. I also love the mysteries. I’m only on book 3, so I have lots to look forward to!

Also I think we should talk turtles. Because I love turtles and they should be saved. I can’t do much since I do not live anywhere near any coast, but I can use less oil and less plastic whenever I have the opportunity. Remember those plastic bags at the grocery are made from oil!

Okay, you know I’ve posted about the ugly vinegaroons before. So if you don’t want to see one in “on-guard” mode or “attack” mode, do not scroll!!! You have been warned!

(Click for bigger pictures – if you dare…)

For the visually impaired who may be asking what they looked like: These are some of the ugliest bugs out there–a kind of half-dried coagulating blood color with a long stinger tail that emits the scent of vinegar. The front claws extend for grasping, as they are in the picture. They are kind of similar to lobster claws with longer extension and smaller claw ends. This one was on our window screen. Where we did NOT WANT it to crawl under or through. So we knocked it to the ground, which put it in defense mode. Vinegaroons favorite food is crickets. It can have them all.

Bonus: Story about vinegaroon without pictures!

916 wind towers sending power to Arizona and California. Of course, seems to me they could have left some of that power here for US in NM, but we do have other wind towers in southern NM. But I wouldn’t mind at all if my electric bill went down (we just had a huge increase hit in June of this year.) PNM, our electric company, is trying to sell the company to “private equity” firms. That doesn’t usually lead to good things. But anyway, I enjoyed reading about the wind farm. It’s pretty amazing.

In other news I’m almost ready for beta readers for Hedge Witch. What does that mean? I send out this “early draft” to get feedback. Is the story too long? Where are you bored? Do you hate a particular character? Is there something missing from the story even if you don’t know what it is? Email me if you’re interested!

What are you reading this weekend?

Edited to add: Need heating or cooling in one room and don’t have or can’t afford air conditioning? DIY heat pumps should be available soon. These are going to gain in popularity, I suspect.

Okay, I have finally figured out a way to get Null Witch (the audio book) uploaded to several retailers–including Libro.fm and Apple! There’s a few more retailers that should be added, but haven’t put Null Witch online yet (hoopla and Bookshop.org to name two). BUT, here is a current list of where you can buy Null Witch in audio! Remember, Null Witch is a stand alone urban fantasy with found family and romance. The audio is 9 hours long.

Buy Links:

Null Witch Audio:

Libro.fm
Apple Audio
Google Play
Kobo Audio book
Author Blog store
Chirp Books
Hoopla

Ebook:
Amazon
Apple
B&N
Kobo
Google Play
Bookshop.org
Author Blog store
Hoopla

You can also order a signed, print copy for 7.99 plus 5.50 US shipping. Leave a comment with your email in the private line for email to request information about print books.

For an excerpt in audio or ebook, look here.

Okay so ever since One Smart Cookie was published, I’ve been looking for a good rendition of a bloodhound. I commissioned one a couple of years ago, but it didn’t look good on the cover itself. So I kept querying artists now and then and trying to have a dog drawn that was in my price range. I’m a very small indie and some artists don’t even want to work with us little folks because they are one-off jobs where they don’t get much (if any) visibility. Full cover work is where there is more money for them and they actively seek out that type of work. It’s difficult to make a living as an artist. It’s usually a second job, not a first job and sometimes there is no time to be an artist at all. Burnout is as high for artists as it is for writers! Anyway, here is the new, improved cover–thanks to Himmis!

As always, the ebooks are sold at all retailers. I’ll be ordering my own stash of print books that will be available for 7.99, plus 5.50 shipping in the US. International orders are higher shipping costs.

If you’re looking for an excerpt for One Good Eclair or One Smart Cookie, they are available at the links. Both of these are cozy mysteries with a side of romantic comedy.