Chomp

 

Yesterday I sorted the book orders into several stacks - the 'official' pre-pub payments, and the 'late' payments, then sorted the 'official' ones into Canada/US.  I had just enough envelopes to do the Canadian 'official' ones, so I dealt with those first.

Then I wrote out mailing labels.  By the time I finished those, there was a knock at the door and Doug carried the boxes of books down to the studio.  I'm glad I went with the more expensive paper - the photographs are crisper and it just looks...nicer.

Each of the books going out got a book plate and I signed it with the person's name to personalize it.  Selected a towel, carefully folded it up and slid both book and towel into the envelope.  Rinse repeat until the Canadian addresses were done.  Well, the 'official' ones, anyway.

Once they were all loaded, I sealed the envelopes and put a piece of packing tape over the mailing label.  I've had the labels scrape off in the past, so I always tape them down, now.

It all takes time and I have other obligations plus personal maintenance I need to deal with so I didn't want to wait to get started.  

The order of padded envelopes is supposed to arrive Tuesday, so I want to get these first few to the post office on Monday.

Once those were done, I opened the rest of the boxes and affixed the book plates to the rest of the books.  

I don't have quite enough books to fill all of the orders, but the additional books should arrive by July 26, they say.  The blurb website keeps me advised of the status of my order, lets me know when the courier picks up the boxes, and provides tracking numbers so I can follow the journey as they make their way here.  They have generally been either on time or earlier than their shipping estimates so hopefully that will continue.

So far two people who ordered directly from blurb (one from the US, one from Europe) have let me know they have already received their books.  One person has read the courtesy pdf and is writing up a review for their guild.  And the interview and review appeared in Digits and Threads last week.

There are still two more 'official' pre-pub requests to be paid.  Until they do I will be leaving the link on my ko-fi store open.  I mean, I do still have 20 more books coming.  :D  Until the link goes down, I will honour the pre-pub offer (ie, book, signed, with lagniappe of a free tea towel, of my choosing) for $68.00 Canadian.

If you don't care about a signed copy or a tea towel, you can go to blurb and place your order now.  The default is for US prices, so if you aren't in the US, choose the appropriate 'flag' (upper right hand corner on my desktop).

If you want the 'extras' go to my ko-fi shop and purchase there.

As for today?  We are still under a thick smoke pall and have little desire to leave the house where the air filter has been running on high most of the time for the past week.  There is a hint of rain to come on Monday - *after* two days of more t-storms.  The situation here is...not good.  My plan for today is to weave.  I'm very nearly finished the current warp and hope I can get it done before the envelopes arrive on Tuesday.  But that will mean that I need to get to the loom for the next three days.  The loom may sit empty for a few days while I deal with sending out books and other obligations.  Right now the studio is full of books, bins, tea towels and I really need to clear that rubble so that I can beam the next warp.

So that's my coming week.  How's yours?