Just a friendly reminder that NOW is a very good time to port your entire LiveJournal entries to an account at Dreamwidth (similar setup, free, easy to use).

If you don’t want to be at Dreamwidth, at least back up your LJ entries. I’m especially concerned about people who never ported their fanfic (some of it fabulous and my favorites! I hope you’re reading this!) to another platform. NOW is the time to do it. There are easy directions at Dreamwidth.

(Aside: crossposting from DW to LJ is blocked by the owners of LJ right now. They refuse to answer DW anymore so this may be permanent.)

Outages and shutdowns of the Internet in Russia will most likely occur. LJ will be unavailable if this happens. Other outages and shutdowns will occur if this continues — don’t let your creative output be lost.

Love to you all.

This morning...
Elric: Nancy come in here (back bedroom)
Nancy: What is it?
Elric: Look at the ceiling.
Nancy: Shit.
We have a leak. In the roof. Going down through our Victorian-era *plaster* ceiling.
Our roof is leaking into the attic and down through into the house.
Our roof now needs replacing anyway, but ... thousands of dollars. That we don’t have.
I’ve called someone to do a patch job and he’s coming tomorrow.

That’s a couple of hundred dollars we don’t have. BUT IT MUST BE DONE & DONE ASAP.

HELP.

Why won’t this stop???????

Oh, and that giant hole in the back of my house caused 2 years ago by a guy painting it? It’s still there. Still can’t afford to fix it. But the roof is critical. At least patching it might get us until spring. By then I may be earning some money. Maybe.

Paypal = nhanger@windhavenpress.com

Or my gofundme for my medical expenses is still working: Nancy’s Emergency Medical Fund at gofundme

Guys, I am so tired of asking for help. I am. I’m such a loser, I know. I keep viewing my life insurance policy and telling myself Elric wants me alive instead. The bookstore is inching along in this season between seasons & not making money, not until Thanksgiving/Christmas. Then it will be making zero money (literally) until May. I may be making money from the new Huntress Press line, but not until we sign up authors. (Send authors my way!) It can’t happen soon enough.

I may have news. Maybe. Today may be a great new day. Maybe. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I’m still putting out feelers for copyediting because I MUST earn income — I’m down to $50 in my personal account. The bookstore is short $100 to pay utilities & I still need to pay taxes of course.

I want to earn my keep. If you know of authors who need copyediting, send them my way. Self-publishing authors welcome; I want to get them on board with me, but I don’t have the contacts in the market. I’ve spent my entire career with the mainstream publishers. I’m very reasonable: rates at windhavenpress.com.

Then there’s the property taxes of which I’m short a little over $1500. They’re overdue to the degree we’re on the edge of losing the house if I don’t get them in right away.

If I ran a gofundme for $2000, do you think people would help? I’m afraid of asking. I am afraid people who helped with our groceries would throw up their hands and say we’re beggars. The store is still waiting for the Summer People to come into the area: I’m just not getting in the sales yet.

What do you think?

PLEASE SHARE THIS

So it's now FODMAP DAY ... I've lost count. We were assured by our local Mexican restaurant that the chili rellenos did *not* have onion in them unless we asked for them. We specifically told them NO onion, that I was "deathly allergic to onion," stressed the *no onion* again.

Ever since starting the FODMAP diet, I find my tolerance for onion or garlic has gone to zero.

I've been burping onion ever since, because there was some onion in it. Dammit.

We refitted our version of homemade mac&cheese to use regular cheddar (allowed on the diet), gluten-free elbow noodles (we like the corn plus quinoa; the rice tends to dissolve), Lactaid milk (which seems to make a white sauce just fine), the tablespoon of flour isn't an issue (that little doesn't make a difference to me), and some canned tuna fish. Topped with a touch of wheat germ (again, not enough to make a difference, but I'd like to come up with a gluten-free option).

Anyone have a good suggestion for that?

Have someone arguing with me on FB that they won't use DW as an alternative to move to because "you have to click on stuff to read it."

Ummmm.

I think they don't understand threaded posts. And that us denizens of ye olden times BBSes had threaded posts that were even more ... thready. That *every* response had to be clicked on to be read, unlike in DW. Egads, kiddo, clicking on something is *hard*? Stay on FB, then.

The money set aside for our property taxes just went to fix Elric's car: the entire exhaust system and catalytic converter rusted out and broke in half, leading to a disaster costing almost $700. Everything I had.

I don't know what we'll do. The house is already on lien due to overdue property taxes. I was about to pay them off (for now). Now we have a few months before they literally auction the house out from under us.

I'm now so worried I can't sleep. I haven't been much lately anyway, due to pain and bad anxiety about money -- and now THIS. This. Why this?

Back to the donation box at PayPal like mad, this time. If there's anybody left who can help. Link is on the right-hand side column on my journal both on DW and LJ.

Posting publicly so it can be shared. Screw it: I can't be fussy who sees this anymore.

I have gotten a contribution. Please keep them coming: my medications are expensive (one critical one is $100 with the copay and a coupon).

The cats also thank you.

The "donate" link may need updating. And I don't know how anymore. PayPal isn't open for business until 8am Eastern, so I can't do it right now.

In the meantime, I'm:

Nhanger@windhavenpress.com

Yes, the email has changed: I sold off the windhaven domain. Long story. Broke my heart.

The appointment with the PCP was unexpectedly short -- he had a student with him, which means the student took up 25 min of my 40-min appointment taking a history. A history. Which is (1) contained in my documentation, which goes back 30 years, and (2) is already known very well by my PCP. And then he had to go give said history to the PCP. Another 10 min go by, while I gave up and laid down on the not very comfortable exam table, because I couldn't sit any longer.

The pain in my upper chest from the pericarditis is worse than ever. It's now since November that I've had it. And suddenly in February (causing an ER visit, it was so bad) a terrible pain that goes in a line around from my spine following the rib line to just under my right breast. But I hadn't broken a rib: the ER X-rayed me. Theyd checked the gallbladder, or tried to (the resident AND attending literally couldnt' find it, but I haven't had it removed — they gave up and sent me home and told me to see my PCP).

So I waited until my appointment, a month later.

He finally came in, asked me two questions, touched (gently) where the pain is, and said: "You have a rare form of shingles."

One without a rash. And it goes into the muscles and organs. And because the ER didn't treat me fast enough, he couldn't give me the usual anti-virals for shingles, so what can I do?

Nothing. Wait for it to go away. IF it ever goes away. Sometimes when it's this variety, it doesn't. For years.

The pain is intense. Sitting, lying down, really just *living* is painful — riding in a car makes my eyeballs want to explode. Which makes it interesting to drive. Which means I've been having to close the bookstore a lot. That hasn't been helping our finances (see below).

I have been recommended to try CBD oil. I've gotten some and am starting with a teaspoon morning and evening — I think this is all snake oil, but my PCP is really quite fantastic and he says he hears good things. So, what the hell. I spent $19, and we'll see.

Speak of $19. That reduced what I literally have to my name to $74.28.

You heard that right. I haven't gotten a copyediting gig since December of last year. I write and the response is always: "Oh you're great, we'll use you again, we'll be in touch." Then nothing. Again and again.

I'm desperate. I don't know if anybody is reading this anymore, but there's a link to DONATE to our house and living fund on the right-hand side of my journal here. It leads to PayPal and a donation setup. If we can't get some donations, we won't be able to buy my medicines and definitely not any food.

Please pass this around. I'm leaving this entry to Public.

I've been so sick for so long now — we owe the hospital $5k and our monthly medicine just for ME has a copay total of over $300. And then there's basic food (and me with the crazy needs for gluten-free and dairy free foods because of the out-of-control IBS).

Thank you. I know it's hard now for a lot of you, but maybe if this is passed around, some people can help with a little.

... who called after closing and demanded my time, even though I told you the store was closed & I was on my way out.

You yelled at me. Called me a liar. Told me I was "closed all the time," and that you'd even been by "several times today and the door was always closed and the CLOSED sign was up." I told you there were two of us there the entire time, the door wide open to the street, the OPEN flag flying, chairs out on the sidewalk, from opening to closing.

You called me a liar. I repeated we were open. Perhaps you had been by before we opened at 11am? We post our hours on our door. You said again I was "closed all day." You again called me a liar.

Oops. I hung up.

I'd run out of fucks to give.

If I find one in my cash register, I'll save it for you -- if you find our store is open next time during OPEN HOURS.

I have instructed my husband to tell you, if you show up tomorrow during our OPEN HOURS and start ranting, that "Oops, our phone shut off because we were closed at that time you called, which is why I warned you we were closing. Phones do that, you know. Just shut off when the store does."

See above re fucks to give. Nope, still don't have any for you. Call me a liar multiple times AFTER HOURS, keeping me on the phone, and I suddenly have a loss of them.

#thecustomerisntalwaysright

On July 1, the Upper Valley of the CT River, where we live, had what is called a "training" event of storms: the storm cells line up like box cars and throw down inches of rain at a time, one right after the other, unceasing for an entire day.

Needless to say, the rivers, streams, and brooks flooded.

The following video is about 50 yards from my house. Luckily my house is on a slight rise and not up against the brook, so we only took a bit of dampness to our root cellar.

I don't know if it was someone here who donated recently to our House & Medical Fund, but it couldn't have come at a better time. I was down to $5.41 in my checking account and we were wondering what we were going to do about food. Being out for an entire week from the bookstore due to my spine & IBS has not helped matters any.

Whoever that was, if you're here -- THANK YOU.

What Happens When the Queen Dies

Has London Bridge Fallen? Someone has died in the palace, per the protocols we're seeing tonight. An entire ingathering of the household staff has happened in the middle of the night, gathering at the palace from as far away as Scotland, to be briefed.

We don't know who. The palace is denying everything right now, but can't account for the protocols being followed, and has said, tellingly, that they will make an announcement at 8am UK time -- which is the time for an announcement of the death of a monarch or consort per the protocols.

There was a New Zealand (the Standared) article up for a few minutes that said Philip had died, but it was removed from the Internet within half an hour, and then suddenly the palace made the announcement that they'd announce at 8am what was going on.

If you're listening to BBC radio, you will hear "This is the voice of the BBC London" at precisely 8am, a voiceover that's rarely used now. It's only used for this protocol nowadays. If you're listening to a UK music station, like HeartFM, at a quarter to the hour, you'll start to hear what the protocols refer to as "sad" (a relative or the consort) or "very sad" (the Queen) music, then at the top of the hour the news announcement itself.

I'm listening to iPlayer radio for the BBC for the Worldwide Services, myself. Gives me something to distract myself (and listen to good world news) while I'm waiting.

I'm having a hard time thinking about sleep.

... who thinks that re-reading Neville Shute's ON THE BEACH is like reading nonfiction, right now?

No wonder I'm not sleeping.

And yet I can't stop reading it. I would say at least it's short and sweet, but that would be too sarcastic for our current circumstances, eh?

Business picked up a tad today, but we're still averaging about $30/day during the 5 days a week we're open right now. This is not sustainable. If it's a usual year, after July 4 we'll start to get much more business, but last year that didn't happen; even through summer, fall, and Christmas we did less than half our usual business.

I'm now 3 months behind on the rent. I will start posting some of our more interesting books here again; some are not terribly expensive but kind of cool, some more expensive (not over $50) and tres cool. Hopefully they'll catch someone's eye.

I'll also repost my amigurumi cats so you can see the new colors: those can be ordered directly via here or from the Etsy store (again, I'll post links along with the photos).

A girl's gotta make a living. Right now I'm not. We are down to a box of spaghetti and not even a jar of sauce. I couldn't buy bread today because I had to pay the Internet and phone bill for the store (last month's was overdue). I hate whining, but I'm worried and tired and my back is killing me (and I can't go to the doctor for my spine because ... copay fees).

Every little bit will help right now. Oh, and a reminder to everyone here: You can help with nicklels and dimes by NOT buying through Amazon and instead ordering (free shipping!) your new books through my bookstore's website. All books in print, CDs, DVDs, everything you'd find otherwise is there.

click on order books online at this site

We (Star Cat Books -- my bookstore) are offering a very unique book & ephemeron that goes with it:

A first edition (4th printing), 1942 of M.K. Fisher's HOW TO COOK A WOLF along with what we believe to be a completely unique cookbook stand made for publicity purposes to go with the book's release (see photos).

Because this is a first edition in FINE condition plus the cookbook stand is UNIQUE (we have found none other for sale, and experts in Fisher back this up with information it was probably made for publicity purposes -- this is the only one we have EVER found in the marketplace), we are asking for $2,000 for both items together.

We know this is a high price, but the first edition with a completely unique ephemeron is something you will never see again. Lovers of M.K. Fisher, lovers of books on cooking and philosophy of cooking (which she practically pioneered) should take a look at this opportunity.

Book collectors take notice: We are the only ones who have this and you probably won't see this again in your lifetime.

Please SHARE THIS on your journal. We are raising money to keep Star Cat Books in business. This 1st edition and bookstand come from my own mother's collection, and though it breaks my heart to sell them, needs must.

CLICK TO MAKE IMAGES BIGGER.

I just imported all my LJ entries/comments, and it finally worked.

Big question, though: How do I tell if the privacy settings are still on them? Most of my entries were all set to PRIVATE/FRIENDS ONLY -- how do I tell if the entry here in DW is set that way? It's not obvious to me, somehow. I'm sure I'm just being stupid, but could someone tell me where that shows?

I certainly hope I don't need to go through years and years of entries and re-privatize them.

My tags and bio imported just fine from LJ to DW, but I got the message that my entries imported ... and they didn't. Nothing came through at all.

Any ideas, anyone? I am full of despair.

The fuss over LJ hasn't settled yet, and I haven't been posting as much as I had in the past (most of my friends migrated to Tumblr, changed their names, and disappeared into the ether), but I do still read the friends that remain on LJ and who have been crossposting from Dreamwidth. Because I have an account in both places, I'm going to start crossposting myself, and probably slowly stop posting at LJ as things there die down. Everyone is scared of Russia (can we say 1950s and 60s, folks?) and are all sure of political suppression, but I gotta say, I'd be more scared if I were living in a country the Russians could come knocking at my door. We're privileged that we're not in that situation.

I'm "Editrx" on DW. Come find me.

Despite my absence of posting, I'm still here, and I still read daily -- though less and less of my friends are posting here. It makes me sad.

I'm here today to toot my horn for another chance for you all to help me support my little independent bookstore, which is having one of its worst winters yet (the snow just won't stop, and people don't come shopping in snow and cold). I am making amigurumi octopi and cats (because Star Cat Books should have cats!).

The octopi are hand-crocheted from 100% cotton with merino/yak embroidery eyes.



The cats are hand-knit from 85% merino / 15% yak (so soft!) with tiny, tiny hand-sew button eyes.



LINK TO ETSY SITE

Both go towards my store's survival. Please consider one or two! I also take special orders for colors!

Your friendly neighborhood book monger --
Editrx