Will Freezes Over

We take to this blog with a sense of melancholy and dread. 

We dragged ourselves to the podiatrist yesterday afternoon for another cortisone shot. He also gave us an RX for some steroids. The swelling is way down. We have almost total toe movement. We're feeling much better now. 

However...

So around 11 PM last night we noticed that the house wasn't quite as cool as we liked in this heat...Go ahead and laugh. We checked the HVAC system and saw the pipe was frozen over. No, we did not call Gold Medal (fuckers) last seen on this blog getting busted by Inside Edition. We found someone else of whom our neighbor spoke highly. They're supposed to be here.....today. Update, 'This motor blower ain't working right. The company that installed it needs to stand by their work.' Mrs. Stroock called them this time. The company whose name shall not be mentioned will be here 8 AM tomorrow. 

Those window AC units we bought last June turn out to be the best investment of the year. And we bought stock during the tariff panic sell off. 

Our grognard thinks the failing AC is no coincidence. We've long known the government is out to get us. But which government? We suppose it's possible our KGB handler at the Kremlin is mad. He took it pretty hard when we stopped writing for the Ruskis after they invaded Ukraine. We rubbed salt on the wound by revoking Putin's coveted Stroock's Books Friend of the Jew award. We shall stay away from windows for the time being. 

Sales of War Night: Stories of the Great Nuclear War of 1975 stubbornly chug along. As of this writing War Night is ranked number 96 in its Amazon category. That ain't bad for a four month old book written by a mid-lister. Not bad at all. Think about other nuclear war ideas we shall. 

Related...sometimes we hear something like, 'all those indy authors can just dump their indy novels on KENP....' or some such. Yes. Because that's. What the customer. Wants. Alert reader(s) will notice we italicized and bolded for those with learning disabilities. 

Unless you're JK effing Rawling, one must needs be attuned to what the customer wants. We are a highly successful mid-lister in the top 15, maybe even top 10 percent of authors - in the English speaking world. We are among the very best at what we do, and know a thing or two about moving books. In all that time we've learned it's is always wise to give the customer what the customer wants

Now, it is true that withholding your new title from KENP is a perfectly good sales strategy. Why not that have readers plunk down ($9.99 initial for War Night) cash for the right to read your book? We withhold from KENP sometimes ourselves. But our long-term strategy has always been to create as big a footprint as possible and boost Amazon sales category rankings. 

DOGE report: we wrote two scenes in World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. Quayle's people want to scapegoat Stiner for the Los Banos ambush. The build up to war chapter is coming along. Who commands the invasion of Nicaragua? 

We read the 'getting ready and planning' chapter in World War 1990: Thatcher's War. The chapter is too abrupt. 'Oh...they decided to invade Ireland? Parliamentary speech...Ultimatum to Dublin...appointing a general...oh, ok, I guess.' Nevertheless we were pleased with what we saw.