Humpday Pic and Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Pre-Thanksgiving from BrickONeil.com 2012!  This was taken at the 2009 Washington State Fair, their produce exhibit.  Imagine all that pumpkin pie those would make.

This year has been quite a ride but aren’t they all? This year saw me republish my debut Novel, Aside of Murder, adding new characters and scenes.  I published it across almost all major eBook retailers, such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Diesel-eBooks, Sony and others. It has garnered alot of interest but few sales so far. I started working on the sequel, “The Bamboo Killer” but have just burnt out this fall, working on it.

My first cookbook was also written this year, “Simple, Healthy, Fresh 1.0” because most of my friends on social network sites, asked me to (then only 2 of 200+ that begged and nagged me to write it actually bought it). I’m very grateful for those two that did buy it. But I’m grateful for having written it, giving life to my food ideology, feelings about cooking and so on. Hopefully all the cross-marketing I’m doing will pay off–the spice giveaway was a bomb.  With over 400 + views on the giveaway post and only 2 entries, it was apparent  no one was interested.  Ce la vie.

At one point I had a short story group on a social network, because friends asked me to, but it quickly died out after a few weeks. So I dropped the group, compiled my stories that I wrote and published them on the eBook retailers as well, under “Unrelated: A Selection of Short Stories”.

I’m so very grateful for my bf sticking by my side this year.  I’ve been battling unknown dizzy and short loss of consciousness spells all year.  None of the doctors know what is causing it but suspect mini-seizures. He has to go with me whenever I go outside, because I might fall in traffic or against someone. Who knows, the police here in Seattle may see me fall, think i’m drunk and tase me to death.  I’ve got 65% loss of hearing and speech discrimination, so I would not be able to hear/understand them and get shot. But I’m grateful my bf goes with me, when he has stuff of his own to do.

I’m grateful we still have a roof over our heads, we’re able to afford healthy, GMO-free vegetables and fresh fruits to eat. I’m grateful we qualified for scholarships at the local “Y” to keep healthy and fit.  I’ve simplified my life this year–gotten rid of excess, both in my real and online lives. As I say in my cookbook, I’m a fan of simple; I love simple.

So, it’s been a busy year and i’m looking forward to some downtime.  Enjoy your turkey, football and whatever family you may have and relax.