Grrrrrr...Grow Up, Will You????

I've done it again. Put blind trust into an old friend and now I'm regretting it. When the hell will I EVER learn??

Here's the thing: I hadn't spoken to this person in quite a while, and since her birthday is coming up, I thought I'd check in with her and let her know my cell phone number, so she'd pick up when I called. She was delighted to hear my voice, and was sympathetic when I told what had gone wrong with our home phone and our finances.

Just to inject something here for a moment: My cell is pre-paid. $40 gets me 400 minutes, and when we had the home phone, I could easily stretch those minutes into five or six months. But since my cell is now our primary phone, I'm lucky if I get a month's worth. So I tend to text a lot, or keep phone conversations BRIEF, unless I'm talking to my mom, my BFF, or one of my kids.

So anyway, after a thirty minute conversation with my friend, we said goodbye, with me promising to call her on her b-day.

The next day, my phone rings. And it's her. Now granted, I had a choice to answer or ignore. I answered.....and it was just her, griping because she's sick and can I come down and take care of her?

Whoa...(sound of record scratching). Can I what? I'm an hour away; it's a freaking school night; and you're how old now? Give me a break! If you're sick, call your dad or one of your sisters. Do not run up my minutes over an asinine question like that!

Now granted, maybe she was teasing, and did not expect me to drop everything and go to her. And yes, maybe I should have hit the 'ignore' button, since I was in my writer's meeting. But still, I have issues calling people on their cell phones; I don't like to unless absolutely necessary. So if you're a friend and just want to chat, find me on facebook or send me an email, or a text. If I see this is going to be a long drawn out text-fest, I'll call you.

But please respect my precious minutes and don't call me unless it something important?

Nag Nag Nag...

I've been hosting authors on my blog now for nearly 18 months, and it's been harder than I ever imagined. I thought all I'd have to do is upload a cover or two, and the interview. But no; I have to format the interview around the covers; send out gentle reminders to the authors when they don't respond; remember which promotion manager belongs to which author. And also respond when authors want multiple months, explaining I'm full.

I've also had to deal with loss of traffic to my blog. I don't know if it's my message on the loops, or the fact I've had authors I've never heard of requesting interviews and don't know if they're posting their own promos. I can only do so much.

With that said, I don't think I'll send out any more invitations, other than the authors I DO have relationships with. Cindy's already gotten more comments in the past two hours than some authors have had in two days.

And I just got an email from a promotional manager, wondering why her author wasn't featured today. I can't post something I never got! I told her I had another author on standby for next week if I didn't hear from her other author. Again, there's only so much I can do on my end.