Oil's Well that Ends Well

The lovely man at the garage explained things to me. Despite what various garages said, we have a wet belt, which apparently doesn't need changing, and instead I needed oil. Lots and lots of oil as there was practically none in the car. I suspect that Red has an unfortunate oil drinking habit, which set me back £85, which was a lot better than the £1,000 that I would have to pay for a new wet belt. 

I think that we're going to have to look for a new car. I don't want to, as Red has been a wonderful car, and she's very economical when it comes to petrol. But the wet belt on our car usually only lasts for 90k miles, and we're on 95k, and £1,000 is a decent percentage of a cost of a new-to-us car. She also needs to get out more, so I'll have to bite the bullet of expensive petrol and go on some runs. It won't kill me to go into shops. Having said that, I had a delivery today. It had the first chunk of the stock up. The promotion runs to 19 May, so I'll space out the purchases. 

I didn't do much to get pics, so here is the progress on the shawl. Yesterday it looked like this.

And today it looks like this.

I've added another six inches in length, and there's around 150 stitches on the needles. I've almost finished that skein of yarn but I want to add at least another one. I would guess that the shawl is currently around 20 inches long, and I want it much longer than that. I suppose it depends on how many stitches I can fit on the needle. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Hanging on to Knitting

Knitting keeps me calm. Well, unless I drop stitches or something, and even then I can usually find some peace as I sort things out. Today, it's been useful. It's the only pic I took today, showing the progress of the shawl. Yesterday it looked like this.

And right now it looks like this.

DH managed to get off work a little early so I spent a little longer than normal, hanging out with him and knitting. I was glad of the calm.

There was a little external excitement today. The police were banging on the door of next door but one. I stuck my head out of the door to see what was going on, as they officers were being emphatic, but apparently they didn't catch anyone home. The officers knocked on my door later, and I had to tell them that I hadn't seen anyone living there since the woman with the untrained dogs moved out. When I told DH about the minor excitement, he said that he had seen some signs of life, but it hadn't affected us, so we couldn't help the police much at all. I'm absolutely agog to know what's going on, but I doubt that I'll ever find out. I shall have to do better as a nosy neighbour.

Writing stuff - I've had to unpublish Further Tales from the White Hart as issues with the cover, Amazon's rules, the previous edition, and the amount of content have caused problems. I may need to write another 30,000 words for it. This is why I need knitting. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

The Triangular Shawl Strikes Again

Sometimes, the need to knit a triangular shawl calls to me like a siren. Who am I to resist? I dug out some yarn that I was supposed to be saving for scarves, but I was rethinking my choice, grabbed some needles with a long cable and started off.

It's been wonderfully soothing to knit, and I needed it. 

The first bit of excitement was the discovery that it's the time of year when gluten free groceries get discounted. Anyone who has to follow a gluten free diet knows that you practically never get a sale on gluten free stuff, especially not the supermarket own brand version. I keep an eye out for it every year, and when it comes round, I commit. I go in hard. For example, at Tesco, 500g of gluten free pasta is currently 60p instead of 75p, which is only a 15p saving. However, we can go through five or six bags per month when bear is home, and at least four bags, or 2kg per month when he isn't, and I have no shame in buying a year's supply when the sale is on. If I allow for four bags per month, which is around the minimum, that's £7.20 saved, and with today's food inflation, that's not to be sniffed at. 

I need to be picky. There's the jars of pesto that DH likes, that have around a two year shelf life, and he gets through maybe three per month. They're currently 25p cheaper, so that's around £9 saved for a year's supply. I'll probably get four or five tubs of the gluten free gravy granules as well. They have over a year shelf life, and we get through at least one tub per month, more if bear is home and they're 30p cheaper. 

Food isn't likely to get less expensive for the next year, so I'm happy to stock up, but only things that we absolutely will use and that have long shelf lives. Besides, it gives me an interest. Both Tesco and Morrisons are running deals, and at first glance, some regular items are a penny or two cheaper at Tesco and some are pennies cheaper at Morrisons. In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty unimportant. But in terms of a challenge, well, challenge accepted! I'll probably save less than £30, but it will be better off in my pocket than that of the supermarket.

The other issue today has been the car. 

That's a pic from 2022 when Gladys was considerably larger and Red, the car, was a great deal newer. 

We're getting 'oil check' notifications, but only for a few moments. Then it goes back to normal. I thought that I'd check with our favourite garage, and when I spoke to them on the phone, they said that it sounded like a 'wet belt' problem and that it would likely be around £1,000 to fix it, and that they couldn't do the work as it was an engine strip down and they didn't have the gear. 

I've spent most of today ringing around trying to find someone local who would be able to deal with it and who was unlikely to overcharge. DH was also on the mission and he got told that our model of car doesn't actually have a 'wet belt'. I got back to our favourite mechanics, and they said, "Oh yes! I didn't realise it was that model. Come in on Friday. But don't drive before then because you may irreparably break the engine. No stress."

This is why I needed to knit the triangular shawl. And why saving £30 on groceries over a year has its attraction, because every penny really does count!

Writing stuff - Further Tales from the White Hart is now live here.

It's currently just the ebook, but the paperback should be available soon. 

If all goes well, and we all know that I'm risking things by stating what I'm planning, Back at the White Hart, which is the recent arc of stories from my blog, and Stories from the White Hart which is a collection of short stories that have cropped up from time to time, and which are separate from the ongoing stories, should, theoretically, probably, hopefully, be available by the end of the month, fingers crossed. 

Hugs and good health to all

I Threw Out the Duvet Covers

I'm sorry that I've been away. As far as I can tell, I've sort of been shut down with all sorts of blocks. For example, I had three dusty and crumpled duvet covers, one of which absolutely needed a wash. They literally blocked off my room, but I avoided dealing with them because I knew that I'd need to wash, dry and iron them and I was dithering between that and prioritising other washing, and I was pretty much at a standstill over it. Because I needed to wash clothes, some stuff that had been stacked and got damp, and the general day to day stuff, but the duvets were always lurking there, and I knew that I'd struggle to iron them because I struggle to stand, so even if I washed them, they'd probably just transfer to another dusty heap, possibly less crumpled if I folded them right. But I couldn't take them to a charity shop like that, and I definitely couldn't pass them on unless they looked good. I tied myself up into knots about the dratted things, then decided that the world wouldn't end if I didn't donate or reuse them, and threw them out. 

I haven't posted on here because I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't done anything in the garden. In my defence, moving is interesting as I've done something different to my back, but I still feel in knots. I need to find the equivalent of throwing out the duvets. Right now, the garden is so overgrown that I feel that I could find a lost tribe, a secret temple and King Solomon's Mines in the tiny square outside my house. 

One thing that has brought me joy - I used a book to bring my monitor up to a sensible height. 

Yes, it's a real book. It's the old Gazatteer and I intend to access it regularly, just for fun!

Bear had a good holiday, and seems to be doing okay. I'm putting together another parcel for him, which I hope that he'll enjoy as he's got to the 'neck deep in exams' part of the university year. It's just bits like hot chocolate, biscuits and some hot sauce that he likes. 

The rest of the post is about writing, so feel free to skip it.

Another block that I've had is that I wanted to do the proper thing and publish the novels from the White Hart at monthly intervals with all the ARC reading and publicity. I got myself tied up in knots there as well, and I decided that the equivalent of throwing out the duvet covers was just getting the dratted things published. I've paid out for new covers, the first two are current on Amazon, and I should have the lot of them out there by the end of the month. I need to do the updated links on my blog, but here is Tales from the White Hart

Tales from the White Hart

And More Tales from the White Hart

More Tales from the White Hart

About Publishing - If you read a lot, and indulge in indie authors, this may explain why books are now not always available in the same way. 

If I keep my ebooks on Amazon only, I can use Amazon Kindle Unlimited, and I can get more royalties that way. In fact, it's the biggest source of the very small income that I make. However, not everyone likes Amazon, and up to now, I could publish paperbacks on Draft2Digital. They would distribute to places like Walmart and Waterstones if my books were requested, together with all sorts of independent bookstores and libraries. Up until recently, it was free to publish. Now, however, Draft2Digital are charging $12 per year to any author who doesn't make more than $100 in royalties. Apparently, this is to weed out the AI books that are less than stellar quality and clogging up the bookstores.

By the way, that $100 doesn't mean the sum total of the costs of the books sold. It means the percentage paid out to the author as their cut. If you look at Cats in the Bible, the buyer pays $5.99, but I get $0.06, and it's the total of those $0.06 that needs to add up to $100 or I have to pay $12. My total of royalties, including stuff that goes back a few years, comes to $1.80. 

I know there's a lot of chatter about it in author circles, and I suspect that quite a few are removing their titles. Now, as long as I earn more than $12, it should be good, right? I'll still have to pay, but I'll get more than I pay and I'll be able to offer the books to those who don't want to shop at Amazon. But on top of that, I'm having a bear of a time trying to get Tales from the White Hart uploaded there. I'm still thinking about it. Is it worth my time? Or is it just the equivalent of dusty and crumpled duvet covers?

Hopefully I get past all those discarded duvet covers and get back here with something a little more fun.

Hugs and good health to all.