NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Thursday, June 15, 2017


In fact it’s been a rough couple of weeks for me. I took a huge emotional/personal hit. Boo. My physical health has been crappy for three months now. I thought I would be totally recovered by now, but I’m not. Probably have another month to go. Double Boo.
Are you feeling sorry for me yet?
My laptop was threatening to go to that place where computers go to die. I rushed it to the ER and was told it would be around $500 to have it repaired. It’s four years old by the way. I was not amused. I weighed my options and decided no end of life resuscitation heroics for laptop. Better to let it transition gracefully. It’s so sad.
I’m sure you must be feeling sorry for me by now.
Before I go any further, let me tell you that I live on an island in Florida. It’s not primitive but we frequently have power interruptions and power surges. Having previously lost a monitor and computer to such an event I have a battery backup for my computers. Okay. The day the new laptop—which shall be called B from here out— arrived. I unplugged the transitioning laptop— which shall be called A from here out—from said backup and plugged new one in. I’m desperately attempting to be sure I have everything on A saved so, I plugged it into a normal surge protector and within an hour the power wet flicker, flicker, flicker. I think great, now it’s a gonner. But wait. A is doing all kinds of gyrations. Well, I won’t go through everything that happened I’ll just say that the flipping thing is sitting here all bright and shiny, grinning at me and working perfectly again. It’s like electrical shock therapy brought it back to life.
Never fear, I’m not trusting it. There’s a distinct possibility A took one look at B, saw how sleek and wonderful it is, got jealous and decided to try and worm its way back in my favor. Ha! Not happening. I may be the most un techy person on the planet but I’m old and been around the block a few times.
Purchasing B has put a large hole in my wallet. Consequently I’m thinking of doing a GoFundMe.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen three people on Facebook with a GoFundMe to support their writing careers. One wanted $15,000 to take care of their expenses for 2 to 3 months (that is the time it will take to write a book and they couldn’t work at the same time while they were writing.) Another wanted $5000. Their book was finished but they needed the money to fund editing and marketing. Another needed fund to travel and promote their book. I mean who knew? I’ve been doing it all wrong. Not only should people buy my books they should financially back my writing career. Palm to head smack. I wish somebody had told me this before.
Now, since I know by this time you are all feeling very, very, very, sorry for me I know you’ll want to contribute to my GoFundMe to help. $50,000 should be enough. First, it will help me pay for my new purchase (B). Second, I need a four-month world cruise, where my every desire will be met, to relax me completely allowing the words to flow from my fingers to the page. Plus, I can purchase the premium drink package for liquor, wine and chocolate to get me over my physical and emotional disappointments.  
Oooooooooo. I’m already feeling the sympathy flow. I’ll let you know soon where to send the cash flow.
Have a great weekend.
PS. For those who don’t know me the GoFundMe part is a joke.

Rita writes about extraordinary women, military heroines, and the men they love. 

12 comments:

Anne Marie Becker said...

Rita, I always admire your ability to find humor when life throws stuff at you. :) Have a great cruise! (*snort*)

jean harrington said...

Rita, why did you add the PS? Too bad, I already had the check written, but after reading your PS, I ripped it up and flushed it.

PS: Hope you're feeling better soon.

Rita said...

Thanks Anne. LOL!
O. Jean I just couldn't be that evil.

Elise Warner said...

I think it's high time for you to find an old-fashioned sugar daddy.

Rita said...

Elise! I like how your mind works.

LIsa Q. Mathews said...

Feel better, Rita! Things will look up soon (the bad stuff always comes in bulk). Loved these comments, too. By the way, did those other writers actually GET any money?? I always remember that young woman who asked the Internet for a dollar from each person to pay off her ginormous credit card debt. She had plenty left over, as I remember.

Toni Anderson said...

I've been pretty horrified by some of the things people ask for. I think back to the days when I woke up in cold sweats every night thinking I'd never make it as an author and had better start updating the resume. That phase only lasted for a decade though so I'm probably just a wimp. I actually heard a voice on my worst day that basically told me to stop worrying. Not sure I have ever admitted this before.

Love you. Will vet Sugar Daddies. Can we vote on them??

Rita said...

Lisa, YES! they each had donations in the 4 fidures. Gah!

Rita said...

Toni, even worse are the idiots, eh.. people who give them money. Oooo. The thought of a Sugar Daddy vetting party gave me a very big smile.

Maureen A. Miller said...

A Sugar Daddy vetting party!! LOL. I'd send money to a GoFundMe for that! If you set up a GoHugMe, I'd definitely contribute. :)

Rita said...

Hmmm. Maureen, I didn't think of that angle. Interesting. I'll let you know when I get it started.

Sandy Parks said...

OMG, still laughing. Don't know how I missed seeing this post when it came out. The stuff about writers doing GoFundMe campaigns was hilarious. Thanks for the great chuckle. I needed it and I could use a cool $50K while I'm at it, too!

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