Best Mother's Day Weekend Ever:)

I've now been a published author for ten years, five months, and fourteen days.  Five years ago, I learned about book pirates, and had a 'ha-ha' moment when I discovered neither mine nor Kenzie's (who's been a published author for nearly three years now) books had been pirated.  I decided we were such newbies that we were flying under the pirates' radar.  All of that changed last Friday.

If you're a regular reader of the RBRU blog, or a paid attention to Kenzie's tweets and my FB status, then you're familiar with the current 'scandal':  One of our own authors happens to share the first name of a very popular, Grammy Award artist.  And Sony apparently googled its artist's name, looking for copyright infringements.  And, oh, look....there's an author with that name.  Let's let legal know she cannot use that name anymore, and send a Cease and Desist order to everyone affiliated with this particular blog.  Oh, and let Google know, so they'll take down every website, blog, and the like.

But what's really confusing is the book URL they cited had another author's name on it.

Someone goofed.
 
Which led to discussions about names, and got me thinking about my own fictional university.  Was there an actual Arbor U out there?  Internet didn't exist when I made up the name in 1985, and yes, I was too damn lazy to use the library.  And at the time, never dreamed my book would ever see published status, other than what came out of my printer!  So who cared?  But after Friday's fiasco....I googled Arbor U.

And (big sigh of relief) nothing showed up.

So...let's put 'tales' after AU.

BINGO!  My blog, website, links, and interviews popped up.  But...wait....what the hell is near the bottom?  Someone's offering a FREE DOWNLOAD of my baby?  I clicked the link.  And discovered someone has liked my book so much, he's offering it to anyone for free.

Outraged, I complained.  Tweeted.  Posted the site everywhere.  And yes, filed the DMCA form.  But being the weekend, it will be today before Customer Service receives anything.  I'm hoping the site will be down by tonight.

So hurrah....I've attained 'seasoned author' status at last!  And :PPPP Kenzie...you're still a newbie...(insert playful sing-song voice!)

So why was this the 'Best Mother's Day Ever', if I was pirated?

Take a look:

My youngest presented me with a handmade card and a new coffee cup which he'd decorated at school:)  This explains his question last week about needing a new coffee cup, lol!  Not understanding what he was up to, I thought he was offering to swap cups with me:  The one he uses is larger, and more decorative.  His eyes lit up this morning when he saw me drinking my morning coffee from the new one!

After church, they took me to La Carreta, the best Mexican restaurant in town.  I drank a pina-colada-flavored margarita; enjoyed my chicken fajita nachos, and was stunned when the daughter handed me a package.  Inside was a shiny Kindle Fire!!!  It doesn't show up very well in this pic, so I took another when we arrived home:

I can check FB instantly, without having to drag out the laptop; all the free books I've been downloading (including the Flavors of Ecstasy, Cindy, which I'd bought two years ago!!) in anticipation are on it; and I can even download music, via Pandora.  And I've already caught my youngling trying to download SpongeBob episodes.  Thank God I hadn't set up my Amazon account yet; he thought he was accessing NetFlix, when actually, he was trying to ORDER a $2 download!

If the college kid had been thinking, he should have grabbed my camera before I opened my present.  I think I held onto the box for maybe a full minute,  hugging the thing and saying 'thankyouthankyouthankyou!'

And when I asked when they bought it, I was even more dumbfounded.  Turns out they did it Monday morning, while I was editing.

I didn't blog last week; the spouse took the two older kids to breakfast at Denny's; I declined since I wanted to hit the edits hard.  Later, discovered they'd been gone for nearly 5 hours, but since I know the spouse is looking at trucks, plus his favorite stores are Lowes and Rural King....and had two teenagers, figured he was just enjoying Quality Time with his kids.  Little did I know they'd taken $300 in cash and driven to Terre Haute, to the very same Best Buy where we bought the daughter's laptop in April.  I was just enjoying the fact they had left me alone to work!

Daughter even said she carried it into the house right past me....and I hadn't even noticed.  I probably thought she had a Walmart bag or something.  And when after church, CK offered to pick her up so we could go ahead to the restaurant, I agreed, never dreaming she had been wrapping my Kindle while the rest of us were at church.  She doesn't go with us, due to 'exercising her religious freedom' and attends her church on Thursday nights.

And the spouse cleaned up the kitchen....nobody complained while I took a nap and watched a few of my DVR'd shows....and the spouse even warmed up the leftover lasagna while I watched the Survivor finale.  I was hoping Chelsea would win, but Kim did play an awesome game.  And being a 'Troyzan' fan, I got to see him one more time:)

Currently Reading:  Finished Immortal Cravings by Cindy Spencer Pape, and loved, loved, LOVED Dani's Demons!  As previously stated, there are few vampire stories which appeal to me, and when these three stories first released, I wasn't that thrilled.  But since they were in one volume and in print at RT, I went ahead and bought it.  I also read it over the weekend, so kudos to holding my attention!  Last Friday, I finished Susan Elizabeth Phillips Glitter Baby.  WOW!  I want to get some of her others, which I found in the back of the book.  Both of these ladies' work is Recommended Reads, so I suggest you hightail it over to Amazon. 


Next Up:  Something Wicked This Way Comes Vol 1.  I'm already loving Laurann Donner's story!