Meet the new knitting chair.

I know, I know: you guys have been on the edge of your seats since last Sunday, wondering about the verdict on the new knitting chair. ("Edge of your seats" -- heh. I see what I did there.)

Anyway, and without further ado, here's the chair in its new habitat. It's in exactly the same place in the living room as the old chair; my daughter Kitty took this from the opposite side, I guess so she could show off how it swivels.

The delivery process went off with a minimum of complications, and the chair itself is just as comfy as the one I tried in the store. I'm very pleased so far. The real key will be how it holds up, but of course we won't know that for some time yet.

The rest of the week has been a mixed bag of this and that. I started a Google Community for Indies Unlimited last week so I could write a how-to post about the process of creating one. It was easy, so since I was on a roll, I went ahead and made my own fan page at Google Plus. Feel free to head over and put my page in your one of your circles, if you're on G+. There's a widget in the sidebar that will get you there, too.

I'm looking for alternatives to Facebook that don't arbitrarily limit the number of people your posts are shown to. I'm not yet ready to give up on the Book of Faces -- too many people still go there. But a lot of indie authors -- and other small business owners, too -- are frustrated with the site. Here we've got hundreds of likes on our pages, yet only a tiny fraction of our followers see a post unless we pay Facebook for an ad. Anyway, G+ is one of the places I'm evaluating. We'll see how it goes.

Now that I've got that off my chest, let's move on.

June is going to be a rockin' and rollin' month here at hearth/myth. I've received Scorched Earth back from my editor, and it looks like we're on track for release around June 11th. The book trailer was posted at YouTube last night. You can go there to watch it, or you can see it right here:

 
I'm planning another Facebook party to celebrate the release of Scorched Earth, since we had so much fun last time. Save the date, if you would, for Saturday, June 14th, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. I'll have more info about the party next week.

And if that's not enough: Two of my stories have been accepted into the newest BookGoodies Authors' anthology. It'll be called Summer Dreams, and once again, all proceeds will be going to charity. Our editor released the cover today. That's it over on the left.

Neither of my stories in this book is set in the Pipe Woman Chronicles universe -- they are completely new. In "The Door into Summer," I tried my hand at magic realism. You'll have to let me know whether I hit the mark.

If all goes as planned, Summer Dreams will drop for the Kindle next Sunday, June 8th.

We've also begun planning for our second Halloween anthology, to be called 13 Bites, Vol. 2. More on that as we get closer to October. I'm not sure what I'll be writing yet for that book, but I'm thinking Nanabush might get up to some mischief. We'll see.

And thanks to those of you who downloaded The Pipe Woman Chronicles Omnibus when it was featured at Free Kindle Books & Tips yesterday. I hope you enjoy it!

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These moments of scattered blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.

We have a winner! and: The knitting chair odyssey.

First off this week, congrats to Melissa Bowersock, who won the contest for Sage's birthday last week! Melissa, I'll get the stuff to you shortly. To everybody else, thanks very much for entering.

Second, thanks very much to the new Pipe Woman Chronicles fans (at least, I hope they'll be fans once they read the books...) who bought the omnibus at the very special price of 99 cents this weekend. The sale is still on for another few hours, so if you've been meaning to blow a buck on the whole series, or to tell someone else to get a copy, now's the time. And thank you in advance.

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The chair, complete with my WIP.

When the Universe speaks to you, you might as well just pay attention and get it over with.

This is my knitting chair. It has a long and storied history with our family, starting in 1998, when I bought it for $10 at a thrift store in Denver, Colorado. It was then upholstered in a gold-and-black chenille fabric -- not my first choice, but the seat was comfortable and the bones were in good shape, and I didn't have the cash at the time to be overly picky.

It moved back to DC with us and eventually settled in our basement. (Yes, it's the same basement that Darrell remodels in Crosswind.) The basement was damp, of course, and then it flooded during one bad rainstorm. The upholstery was already wearing out, and now it smelled of mildew. So I looked into getting it reupholstered into something I could stand to have in the living room. First, I thought I'd tackle the job myself. After I read up on it, I decided against it. For one thing, buying the tools would have cost as much as the fabric; for another, pulling the fabric taut apparently requires a fair amount of upper body strength, which I ain't got.

So instead, I contracted with a furniture restoration guy to replace the stuffing and re-cover the chair. Something like $800 later, I had a comfy chair that looked great in my Southwest-and-denim living room. (Yes, I blew $800 on a $10 chair from the thrift store. That's how comfy it is.) I put an Ott lamp next to it and it became my knitting chair. I've logged a lot of hours in that chair, on one project or another.

The big reupholstering occurred in 2008 -- just six years ago. So I was dismayed last week to notice a big frayed spot on the front edge of the chair. (See it on the right-hand side in the pic?) Not having a spare $800 for another reupholstering job, I covered the seat with a pillow slip and set about looking for a less expensive solution. In other words, a new chair.

I started a Pinterest board for my favorites (here it is, if you're interested). One of them is a bonded-leather tub chair that swivels; I was intrigued by the concept, but not sure whether it would be comfy. Plus it was one of the more expensive options, and freight delivery further jacks up the price.

I decided to go with the blue wingback, even though it wasn't perfect. So this afternoon, I got in the car and headed for World Market...and drove right past it while daydreaming. Ah, well, I needed to go to Trader Joe's anyway; I figured I'd go there first, and stop at World Market on the way home. So I got what I needed at TJ's...and found myself following someone else into the furniture store next door.

Now, I'd been avoiding regular furniture stores. The merchandise is usually scaled for a mini-mansion, not an apartment. And the sales guys drive me nuts: "Hi! Can I help you find something? What are you looking for? What style? Sure you don't need a sectional? I can give you a sweet deal on a whole living room suite...." I mean, I know they get paid on commission and they're just doing their jobs. I don't fault them for that. I would just rather tour their selection in peace.

But it was almost as if I were being prodded to go into this store. So I did, against my better judgment. And just inside the door was a bonded-leather, swiveling tub chair, for half the price of the one on my Pinterest page. And it was comfy!

Needless to say, I bought it. It'll be delivered Thursday. I'll post a picture next week.

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This moment of Universal blogginess has been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.