Day 130: When a picture says 1,000 words

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 130: When a picture says 1,000 words

Dear Lord, thank you for ... 

What will I have for lunch ...

You spend too much time on Facebook, take a break.

That fish looks tasty.

I'm gonna tell mom you did this.

There's a spider on the ceiling.

Is that what you're wearing?

Did you see that?

Back off, I'm not in the mood.

I like to put my feet up and relax.

Is it safe to come out?

Pretty in pink?

Day 129: Bed acrobatics

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 129: Bed acrobatics

When bedtime comes around, everyone has their own routine. Some people take a shower, others make a cup of chamomile tea, while others still read a few pages of a book to calm down. Me, I count my cats before turning in.

Most of the time, finding them is no trouble at all. Charlotte usually sleeps curled up by Dieter’s feet while Gabriel, Holly, and Halley are already on my bed. As such, getting into bed requires some acrobatics on my part. With a cat here and a cat there, getting a space to lie down takes a certain amount a sliding, twisting and turning to get under the duvet.

While some cats get up at the slightest movement, Gabriel, Holly, and Halley are like rocks, they don’t move an inch. I can push them, put a foot under them and try to lift them, it makes no difference whatsoever.

As soon as I turn off the light there’s movement though. Holly comes and drapes herself on my chest. Not only is this a considerable weight, it’s also quite warm. Welcome in winter, but not so much now in summer. Meanwhile, Halley likes to position herself on my head. Another source of heat.

Smart as they are, they know my routine though. As long as I’m on my back they can expect to be petted, but once I turn on my side, I want to go to sleep. So, they move. Now there’s another problem though … purring and snoring.

Holly likes to share my pillow, which is fine, but with her happy noises, it sounds like there’s a helicopter hovering near my head. As for Halley, she’s only a big baby, but her purring reaches quite a few decibels.

In the morning things are quite different.

Charlotte and Holly are late sleepers, but Gabriel and Halley rise with the sun. They seem of the opinion when we’re up everybody should be up. As such, Gabriel starts meowing, only he doesn’t meow like a normal cat, he pronounces meow as mayo, as in mayonnaise. When I try to shush him, he adds a few decibels. Not that I have any intention of getting up at whatever time he starts his nonsense.

Halley never asks for food, she knows she’ll get her breakfast in good time and until then she plays with her favorite toy, a plastic spring. Unfortunately, we have hardwood as flooring and when she chases the spring her nails make a scratching noise. It’s like an army of mice running around.

Eventually, I give up and get up.

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Day 128: Not the subtlest way to approach a lady

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 128: Not the subtlest way to approach a lady

Where it comes to love, every living being has a different approach to getting themselves noticed. Some people have a bold and confident approach while others prefer something more discreet.

In the animal world, it’s not much different. Some birds will sing their little hearts out to get the feathered apple of their eye to glance their way, mammals will strut their stuff in the hope that the love of their life will agree to a date, while fishes will even change color to make themselves more attractive.

As for cats … they have their own mating ritual. Many, many years ago we had a cat called Mona. When the time came for her to choose a mate (this was before spaying became necessary) several handsome male cats would come strolling into our yard. Mona would give them the cold shoulder or worse, hiss at them.

That is until one particular cat made an appearance and then Mona would go all gaga over him. She would visibly perk up at the sight of this cat, walk up to him with her tail held high, followed by lots of rolling around on the patio.

Nowadays, responsible pet owners have their pets spayed or neutered, and even though that controls the pet population, it would seem that female cats can still fall in love.

Take Halley for instance. When she was adopted from a Toronto Cat Rescue foster mother in January of this year, she instantly bonded with Charlotte, one of our resident cats. They would sleep together, eat together, and play together whether Charlotte was in the mood or not. Where you saw Charlotte, you saw Halley; where you saw Halley, you saw Charlotte.

The months passed and while Halley is still rather fond of Charlotte it seems that she transferred some of her affections to Gabriel. The reason is rather obvious. When Halley joined our family, she was a three-month-old baby and she was looking for a mama figure in our household. Now that she’s grown into a young lady, she’s developed an interest in boys and has fallen head over heels in love with the only boy in our house ... Gabriel. Of course, the path to true love is never easy and while Halley is a pretty young thing, a big strapping young lad as Gabriel is, he’s playing hard to get.

When Halley follows him around, making soft purring noises, he acts like he doesn’t hear or see her. When she wants to curl up with him, he moves. When she wants to rub noses, he will indulge her for a few seconds and then hiss or walk away. Halley is not easily discouraged though, I can tell by her attitude and persistence that she’s going to get her man, no matter how many times he gives her the cold shoulder or sends her the message that he's not interested.

However, in all fairness to Gabriel, and before you feel sorry for Halley, he did approach her once or twice to sniff her rear end and she was having none of it. As I told Gabriel afterward … not the subtlest way to approach a lady.

Where this love affair is going remains a mystery though, Gabriel being neutered and Halley being spayed. If it's not lust, it must be love, true love.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 127: 2.5 million dollar project (2)

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 127: 2.5 million dollar project (2)

There was a time when I woke up to the sound of silence, or birdsong, depending on the time of day. When I wake up at 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. I hear nothing at all, but when waking up around 6:00 a.m. (which doesn’t happen very often) I get greeted by a cacophony of birds all competing with each other with tweets, chirps, and songs.

Nowadays I wake up to a different loudness. With the parking project in full swing, the construction workers create their own kind of noise. A jackhammer, a type of mini bulldozer and two other machines all fight with one another over who can create the biggest racket.

Then there are the men. Most of the time they go about their job in ‘silence’ but every now and then they need to communicate with each other which is not as easy as you might think. When Marcel is having fun with the jackhammer, Renee has to shout and whistle quite a few times to get his attention.

When they talk to each other, they don’t really talk as such, they shout. Understandable as one man is on one side of the parking lot and the other is on the other side. So, communication goes in the form of yells, screams, and hollers.

How the men manage to work in this heat is beyond me. Yesterday's temperature was 28 deg C (82.4 deg F) but they don’t seem to be bothered. Dressed in jeans, T-shirts and a helmet, they sit in the tiny cabins of their machinery and tirelessly scoop up the soil and deposited it in the container. Judging by the mountain of soil it’s going to take them days if not weeks to get through it.

Someone asked me the other day if I was a construction worker, which job I would prefer. Would I want to be a builder, a glazer, or did I have something else in mind? I didn’t have to think long. If I was to be in construction, I would want to be a crane man, okay to be correct a crane woman. I quite fancy the idea of sitting high and dry in my own little cabin, several meters above the ground. There’s a problem though … I have a fear of heights.

Anyway, back to ‘my’ construction workers. Around 12:00 the noise usually stops when the workers kill their machinery for lunchtime. They eat, they have a cup of coffee or tea, followed by a well-deserved rest. From the looks of it, the one on the left is contemplating life, the middle one is busy with some stretch exercises, while the one of the right is conked out. For his sake, let’s hope there are no birds in those trees.

I can’t wait to see what they get up to in week three.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 126: The Night Halley Disappeared

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 126: The Night Halley Disappeared

I’m in the habit of doing a headcount of the cats before I go to bed. Gabriel is usually on top of the wall unit in his basket, Charlotte is sleeping on Dieter’s bed, Holly is already on my bed, and Halley is still playing with this, that or the other. Knowing that everyone is accounted for I go to sleep with peace of mind.

Only yesterday there was no peace of mind. When I was in bed, I remembered seeing Charlotte on Dieter’s bed, and Gabriel and Holly were on my bed, but where was Halley. I listed, but I couldn’t hear her moving around. Knowing that I wouldn’t get any sleep not knowing where she was, I got up.

I switched the light on in the kitchen, illuminating the lounge and dining room, had a look around, but Halley was nowhere to be seen. I went back to my room to look under the bed, but she wasn’t there.

Next, I went to look in Dieter’s room, even looked under his bed, but she wasn’t there either.

I was getting more worried by the second and wondered where she could be. Even though I was fairly sure that she wasn’t on the balcony, I opened the door to have a look there. 

So where was she? If Halley was not in the living room, dining room, kitchen or bedrooms … where had she gone too? I hate it when cats do their disappearing act. It made me wonder if I should get a bell and put it around Halley’s neck.

The only place I hadn't checked was the bathroom. So, I took a look there too. No, nobody there. I moved the shower curtain a little and in the dim light of the hallway noticed a dark spot in the bathtub. That was strange, I didn’t remember the bathtub being dirty.

When I switched on the light … there was Halley, sleeping ever so peacefully in the tub. The dark spot that I noticed didn’t belong to the tub, but was a marking on her back. Pardon the confusion, but it is rather hard to notice a white cat in a white tub.

While Mickey was alive, I had a similar problem with him. He was a 95% black cat and it’s murder finding a black cat in the dark. Every night when I did my headcount, I managed to find Gabriel, Charlotte, and Holly just fine, but it was hell on wheels locating Mickey.

I love black cats, but after Mickey crossed Rainbow Bridge, I wasn’t keen on getting another black cat for this very reason. Now it seems white cats have a few tricks up their sleeve too.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 125: Attention all self-published authors

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 125: Attention all self-published authors

Some self-published writers like to brag about their sales, some are happy with a sale here and there, while some are not happy at all and ask for help how they can effectively market their work.

I used to do okay in sales. Nothing to brag about, but a steady flow of book sales. And then suddenly, nothing. The sales all but dried up. When I looked in March at my February statement there were no sales.

Now it so happened that in January we adopted a kitten from the Toronto Cat Rescue and I stayed in touch with its foster mom, Jackie.

During one of our email conversations, I mentioned that I was a writer, that I had written three novels and two children’s books and Jackie promptly ordered copies of ‘Kitten Diaries’ and ‘Debbie’ for her grandchildren.

Jackie had purchased the books in February, yet my Amazon statement said that there had been no sales in February. I waited until April, expecting the sales to show up in the March statement, but that was not the case.

I got in touch with Amazon and they promised to investigate the matter. After a few days, I received an email from Ana who stated that no sales were documented. I told her that I had proof of sales. She asked if she could see that proof. I emailed her a copy and she sent me the following response ...

"CreateSpace Member Services"	Fri, Jun 29, 2:37 PM (8 days ago)
to me

Hello Conny,

Greetings from CreateSpace.

Thank you very much fort contacting us back with additional information. This is very helpful as it assists us with the investigation. 

I have now forwarded the investigation to a representative who is best equipped to answer your question. You should receive a response within one business day. I really appreciate your patience.

When I didn’t hear back from Ana I sent a follow-up email … how did the investigation go? I received no response. I sent a second follow-up email and again, no response.

This got me thinking … how many self-published authors are there who don’t have a clue about their book sales? If they order their own books or someone they know places an order, they know of those sales, but how many more sales are made they are unaware of? They have no way of knowing if someone bought their books or not.

I was lucky that I knew Jackie, and she was willing to share proof of sale with me, but how many self-published authors are out there not knowing anything about their book sales. This could be a scam amounting to millions of dollars.

That’s not all though. Another reason why my sales are down is that my books show up on a number of websites that offers free downloads. ‘Waiting for Silverbird’, ‘Voice of an Angel’, ‘Lily’, ‘Kitten Diaries’ and ‘Debbie’ are all there.

I know about this because I get Google alerts similar to this one:

Conny Manero As-it-happens update ⋅ June 29, 2018
	WEB
	ntg.ebook google.com There was a problem loading more pages. [ntg.ebook] Debbie Conny Manero Free Download.pdf. [ntg.ebook] Debbie Conny Manero Free Download.

Book Descriptions:

Debbie the ferret lives in a pet store. One day, a man named Andrew takes her home. He shows her around the condo and then introduces her to Charlie, the cat. Debbie is terrified, but soon she and Charlie become good friends, and Charlie teaches her about—everything! Come, let Debbie tell you all about ferrets and how they live and read about all her adventures!

How it works:

·         1. Register a free 1 month Trial Account.

·         2. Download as many books as you like (Personal use)

·         3. Cancel the membership at any time if not satisfied.

It's no wonder my sales are down. Amazon is hiding sales and various pirate sales are offering free downloads. 

Has something similar happened to you? 

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 124: 2.5 million dollar project (1)

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 124: 2.5 million dollar project (1)

In addition to my own 365 creative writing prompts project, I would like to keep you up to date on another project. A $2.5 million project.

The works involve replacing the membrane of the parking garage of our condo building. Four members of the board of directors were in favor of this project, one was against it, so this was a no-brainer … with 4 to 1 the majority won.

The quotes that were presented for this project ranged from $2.5 million to $4 million, or so we were told. I contacted a construction company on my own and received a quote for $1.3 million. Why the difference? Who knows, draw your own conclusion.

Anyway, the works started last week by ripping up the asphalt.

While Charlotte and Gabriel couldn’t give a flying leap about what’s going on outside, for Holly and Halley this is great entertainment. The works usually start at 8:00 a.m. at which time one or both of them sit on my bedroom windowsill. Once I’m up and about and the balcony door is open, they move to the ledge and keep an eye on the workers from there.

 (Halley clearly has her doubts)

I should mention that this particular project is set to finish in November. Then next year phase two will start, followed by phase three.

In the meantime, I would like to keep you up to date on the progress by means of a weekly report. Since pictures are worth a 1,000 words, let the pictures do the talking …

 www.connymanero.weebly.com