Recently, my husband and I got to take an overnight trip to Kansas City, MO. It’s only about 4 hours from our home city, so it wasn’t a long trip, but it was far enough from home that it counted as a mini vacation.
I love mini vacations. The longer ones are way too exhausting. There’s so much pressure to fill the time with activities, and if you want to spend the week hanging out in the hotel room playing Stardew Valley, there’s a ton of internal judgment about why you’re paying for a hotel room only to do something you could do at home.
Luckily, for this mini vacation, we didn’t pay for the hotel room (AND it was a NICE room!), we got reimbursed for our food, and I got to play Stardew Valley for the evening.
I would have been THRILLED if my laptop had a battery that lasted more than a couple hours, because I probably would have played on the entire road trip as well, but sadly, it was not to be.
Well, the reason we even went to KS City, was my husband had an appointment to take part in a research group, and even though he was eventually excluded from further research, I still got to be in the room during his initial appointment, so I got to talk to the person conducting the research. She was super cool. Her name was Ashley, and hey… get this! She loves to read!
Sadly, for me, she loves RomCom 🙁 I can’t recommend a rom com to someone. I just don’t read them enough. I did get to recommend a couple of books to her, though. I asked her if she liked Fantasy, and she said that while she didn’t read much of it, she was always interested in diversifying her reading experience. So, as is per my usual, I recommended my current read. Moonshadow’s Champion, by my wonderful, amazing friend, Dianna Gunn.
If you remember, I wrote a review of Moonshadow’s Guardian a while back, and absolutely LOVED it. Well, Moonshadow’s Champion is the second book in the duology. Ashley took pictures of the covers in my tablet, so she could find them and read them. I hope I hear from her soon on how much she loved them. Don’t worry, D, I did tell her they weren’t really all that scary, and told her very little about the plot. I hate spoilers, and didn’t want to risk it just in case she does too.
Well, of course, my husband (who LOVES to brag on me, by the way…. he’s one of my hugest, biggest supporters) asked me, “Is that one of the books you edited?” to which I answered, “No, it’s not… hmm… now I should find one I DID edit!” and started scrolling through my kindle.
I don’t actually OWN The Disappearance of Susannah Dane, which is a bummer, because I really think Ashley would enjoy it (May have to get her email address from Hubs and just bombard her with recs) but I did come across The Orchid and The Lion, which of course got a huge recommendation, along with the story about how/why I read it, why I loved it, and how I got the job proofreading book two. She took a picture of the recently updated book cover (Good JOB, Gabe! it’s SO PRETTY!) and said she’d look into that one too! So, hopefully, I sold 3 books for some of my favorite people, and was able to give my business card out, so might (MIGHT) sell some candles! All in all, the road trip, mixed with my husband’s inability to avoid bragging about my editing chops (can’t say I’m mad about it, though), was pretty successful.
Since I completely suck at talking about my own editing chops, having a husband who can’t shut up about them? Pretty handy. Please don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE editing, and really wish I had more business right now. I think what I’m struggling with right now is the economy. Everyone is struggling to pay for basics, like food, housing, and the like. Asking someone to pay extra for editing seems rude, somehow.
I will say, though, that if you are looking for an editor or proofreader, I am available, and I am really good. I keep my prices affordable on purpose, because I don’t want someone to avoid working with me because they feel like they can’t afford it. Affording things is hard enough right now, without having to attempt to find thousands of dollars to edit your book. You deserve quality work without breaking your piggy bank.
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Anyway, I love you guys, you’re my tribe and my people, so until next time, my friends, live your best life! Tell me about it in the comments below!