This might turn out to be a shorter blog entry than most. The power in our house has been going on and off for the last few minutes, and I could lose my wireless internet at any moment.

I had a job interview over the phone this afternoon. The position is a full-time customer service representative, and the training for it would begin around the end of January. I think the interview went fairly well, but the person I spoke too said they'll contact me either way after they make their hiring positions. So far, I already like this place more than 90% of the other companies I've applied to in the past four months.

In other news, my mother and I made some Christmas cookies:

I had a cover idea for my next short story, and it involved Christmas cookies. We didn't have any left over from last year, and since my mother was planning to make some anyway, we got to work and churned out ten dozen this evening. I took the pictures that I needed for the book cover, and that was that. Now I just have to do some touch-ups on Photoshop and add in the title.

The story is called "A Very Slagal Christmas." I wrote it when I was twelve years old about the Slagal boys, the main characters in Jackie's Beginnings series.The story was going to be in that Christmas collection book, but since that isn't happening anymore, Jackie's given me permission to use her characters in this stand-alone piece. I've already reformatted it (here's hoping I did everything right on my own the first time), and all I have left to do is add a disclaimer and the cover art. Keep your eyes out for that on Kindle very soon!

That's all for tonight, folks. Between working, preparing for my interview, and all the other things on my crazy agenda, I think I've managed to get six hours of sleep in the last two days. I'll probably fall right to sleep tonight.

And if the power goes out again and shuts off my alarm clock, I'll probably stay asleep for a very long time.

Okay folks, here you go: "Love Hurts and Other Short Stories" is now available for purchase on Kindle.

"Love Hurts and Other Short Stories"

 ~

"Love Hurts" tells a classic story: boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, girl tries to break up with boy, boy can't take a hint, and so girl decides to murder boy in any way she can think of. This whacky tale follows Al and his endless affection for Heather, the "wonderful woman" who never leaves his side despite all of the mysterious accidents that befall him. If ignorance is bliss, then Al is the happiest man in the world. The question is how long he'll manage to stay in the world...

This story and several others come together in a funny, suspenseful, and otherworldly collection that is sure to keep you turning the pages for more.

 ~


Take a look at "Love Hurts," give it a read, and be sure to post a review!

That's all for now. I went to karaoke last night, and I've been resting for most of the day to prepare for another midnight shift at Michaels. It's still a rough shift to work, but at least I get out before the store opens and the customer mob comes in.

Six Hours to Go!

Okay folks! The countdown has begun! Not the Hobbit countdown; the countdown for "Love Hurts and Other Short Stories"! 

I reformatted the file last night with a lot of help from Jackie, and I uploaded it to Kindle this afternoon. The download will cost 99 cents and it should become available for purchase around 2:30 AM. Be sure to look for it on Amazon.com if you're in the market for something to read!

In addition to that, I'll also have a holiday-themed short story coming out very soon. I originally submitted it for a collection of Christmas stories, but since that idea didn't work out, I can publish my contribution as a stand-alone piece. It's already edited, so the only things left to do are to reformat it and come up with an idea for the cover.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to edit my full-length novel and tinker with some other ideas. It's a great time to be a writer!

Speaking of books, there's an entire Hobbit/Lord of the Rings section set up in Barnes & Noble now. It looks like I've finally got some ideas for my Christmas list. :)

Open Mic Night

Okay, so I went to Open Mic Night at Duke's yesterday. It's not a competition between local bands after all, just a casual event where local bands just take turns performing. Sort of like karaoke, except everyone sings well and they play their own music.
Drew and Noah were both there, along with Drew's wife Joanna. My friend Jackie and her band Middle Aged were also there, and they did a few songs. Here's a video of one of their performances that they posted on Facebook:

"Knock On Wood" - Middle Aged

There was also a solo performer named Bucky there who played "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. On top of singing it, he managed to play the strings and percussion all on one acoustic guitar. I was impressed enough that he did that song, since "In The Air Tonight" was my inspiration song while writing "Deer Lake," but he really delivered on the performance too.

All in all, I'd say I liked Open Mic Night even more than karaoke. It turns out their hours are from 8pm to midnight, which works a lot better with my work schedule.It's also less crowded, which means less smokers. Second-hand smoke has always been a problem for me, and it's especially rough this time of year because it's cold outside and no one wants to open the doors to air out the building. I wore three layers of clothes last night just in case I had to go out to breathe, but it wasn't necessary. I might do that again next time, just in case a fight ever erupts at the bar. Stuff just bounces right off of you when you're that heavily insulated.

I'll definitely go back next Monday, because I might be helping Drew and Noah with a song then. Jackie told me to pick a new song for them to learn, and I said "Bent" by Matchbox Twenty since I'm curious to hear how that would translate onto acoustic guitar. At the end of the night, I was told I'd be singing backups for it. Good thing I picked a song that I really like. :)

Crazy Customers

There was a line of at least ten people standing outside Michaels this morning, just waiting for the store to open. It wasn't really distracting, but every time a coworker would show up for their shift before business hours, you practically had to fight back a mob of customers who'd try to barge in behind them. I have a feeling we stock our wrapping paper tubes so close to the front door so we can use them as weapons in such scenarios.

This is only the second time I've ever worked retail in December, but I'm already noticing a trend in the way customers behave during the holiday season. They obviously flock to the stores in higher numbers and tend to get more aggressive and less patient, but despite all of that, less of them actually know what they want to buy when they come into the store. I can't go a whole day anymore without someone asking me to come up with gift ideas for them!

Take today for instance. A woman told me she was looking for a craft kit for a 12-year-old girl. She didn't say what kind of a craft kit she was looking for, she just wanted me to show her every single kit in the store that I thought a 12-year-old girl would like. It also had to be less than $15. And after I came up with something, she said if I found anything "better" while she was still in the store, I should bring it to her.

Is it just me, or does it sound like this woman pretty much wanted me to do her Christmas shopping for her? Suffice to say, I didn't find anything "better" than the first kit I came up with for her.

One of my funnier customer encounters was about two months ago. A woman said she was looking for something to stick a poster to a wall with, and I showed her a box of adhesive squares. I kid you not, she held the item in her hand, read the description on the box, and said, "Adhesive on both sides, removable, and doesn't damage wall or poster. That sounds good. Where can I find something like that?"

I don't even remember what I said in response to that. If I ever make a Top 10 list of memorable work moments, that will probably make the top 3.

So that was my rant on work for the day. I'm rested up, and I think I'll go to Open Mic Night at Duke's Station this evening. It's supposed to be a battle of the bands type of event, and Jackie's sons Drew and Noah will most likely be there. See you tomorrow, folks!

11 days until The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey...

Since I've posted the link to my online portfolio, I should also post the link to my author website. There's not much on the site right now, since I only have one book published so far, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to share:






Katelyn Rushe - Self-Published Author







I'm expecting to update it as soon as "Love Hurts and Other Short Stories" is released. I'm in the process of reformatting the file for Kindle, but I'm having a few issues finding all of the necessary settings on my version of Microsoft Word. No major obstacles, as of right now.

...And since I'm in a posting mood, here's an installment of Conan O'Brien's "Fan Corrections" that I was featured in back in February. Conan made a comment about the Hulk being part of the Fantastic Four, and several viewers pointed out the error. As you'll see, CoCo had some wicked revenge in store for all of us.

There's not much else to talk about today. Work was uneventful and I spent most of my afternoon trying to catch up on sleep. I also got an e-mail from Snagajob.com saying that my local Michaels store is hiring for the season. Helpful as always, Snagajob.

12 more days until The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey...

13 days until The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey!

Not much to report from these last few days. I added another story to "Love Hurts and Other Short Stories" and have been putting the final editing touches on the manuscript. I've also started the third draft of my other book. In the meantime, I've tinkering with a few other ideas for novels and even doing some research for one. Those ideas probably won't see the light of day (or the page of a Microsoft Word document) for a while though.

Mostly I've been job hunting. I've been searching for more creative positions lately, most of which are listed on career search engine types of sites. The application process has been relatively manageable for most of them, although one position required a link of my online portfolio. Seems reasonable enough, except for the fact that I had no online resume at the time. Well, it was the evening before one of my midnight - 8:00 AM work shifts, so I was able to stay up all night making a website of my work just for that job application.

Katelyn Rushe Online Portfolio

I've sent the link to a few other companies since then, so I'd say that creating it was a smart undertaking. Let's just hope that it pays off now!

I realized today that I never came back with a more in-depth analysis of the movie Lincoln. Unfortunately, I haven't given it much more thought since the day I saw it, and the details have faded a bit from my mind. As I said last time, this isn't the type of film that I normally prefer to see, as evidenced by the countdown at the top of this blog entry. While I'm certainly open-minded to historical drama, I'm not going to have the same appreciation for it as a fan of the genre would. All in all, I say the movie is worth seeing.

So that's it, folks. I've got another early work day tomorrow and I didn't get much sleep this afternoon. I'll be back with another entry tomorrow.