Thrifty Thursday tip, 01/13/2011

As the level of your bottle of dishwashing liquid goes down, add some water to it. Dilution will not affect the amount of suds you get (as anyone who has added water to the last drops left in the bottle will know), and it'll last much longer!

Thrifty Thursday Tip, 01/06/2011

The Flexible Spending Account. Enrollment is probably going on at your place of work right now. Don't be left out. Make a reasonable estimate of your anticipated medical expenses: Copayments for doctor visits, anticipated surgeries, and anticipated dental work; prescription medications, eyeglasses and contact lenses, and submit that figure to your payroll department. The funds will be deducted from your check on a pretax basis, and you will then be reimbursed for after making your claim (some employers offer automatic reimbursement of prescriptions).

I was just told by a friend on Facebook that non-prescription purchases no longer qualify, effective this year. That's really unfortunate. Those purchases really add up, and some stores, like Walgreen's, used to mark the receipts with FSA-eligible items, like over-the-counter medicines, bandages, saline solution, and more, to make it easy to determine if it could be submitted for reimbursement. Bummer.

Anyway, if you run out of funds (you'll want to use everything you put in, or you lose it), move up that colonoscopy/mammogram or other screening (these usually involve lab expenses as well), or having that troublesome cyst taken off. And if you go over, see if you can postpone the procedure to 2012. An eye exam can easily be put off a few months. A toothache, of course, can't.
Happy savings!

Welcome to 2011




Happy New Year to all of you! I wish you health, happiness, prosperity, love, and most of all, good reading.

I'll bet you guys thought I died or something. I'm alive and kicking and grateful to see another year. I have been somewhat neglecting my blog, though, and that is something I plan not to do in 2011.

Part of the reason I haven't been around much is because I've been so busy getting my latest Bunderful Books release available for sale. The Heat of Heat went on sale a few weeks ago and is available online only (not in stores) in print form at Amazon.com and in eBook form at Amazon.com, BN.com, and Smashwords.com (in just about any format your eReader takes). In addition, you can get autographed copies of the print version at a discounted price, plus free shipping to US addresses, from my Bunderful Books website, BunderfulBooks.com. It's January now...time to get some heat!

Later this month author Rosalyn McMillan will be dropping by at Chewing the Fat to talk about her new novel, We Ain't The Brontes, after a long publishing hiatus, so stick around!

All the best to you and yours in this new year!

Book Trailer, The Heat of Heat

I finally got around to fixing this; I'd forgotten to replace a sample photo with the real deal.

Hope you like it! You can head on over to the Bunderful Books website to read an excerpt.

The Week in Review

Eddie Fisher and Tony Curtis passed within 7 days of each other. Let's see...Eddie Fisher wrote in his autobiography that his first wife, Debbie Reynolds, was a shrew; and that his second wife, Elizabeth Taylor, was a slob who allowed her children and dogs to poop anywhere. Tony Curtis's autobiography contained blunt remarks like, "I fucked Yvonne DeCarlo." (That's Lily Munster, y'all, and underneath that ghoulish makeup she was quite the beauty).

I wonder if God enrolled them in the same class on what a gentleman says?

A Love Letter to RAWSISTAZ as they celebrate 10 years

Dear RAWSISTAZ:
I confess. I've always been impressed with how organized book clubs are, how they put together events to showcase authors, whether simple book discussions or large events to which people travel from far and wide.

But doing it all online: Maintaining a strong presence on the web with an informative website, overseeing official chapters that abide by RAWSISTAZ principles that carry your name in major cities all over the country, holding contests, having a roster of book reviewers, organizing and hosting either a live, in-person event or an online conference every year, maintaining a blog with thoughtful articles, and more...it just boggles my mind how much all of you do to give us readers of African-American fiction a place to learn about all the latest and upcoming book releases, and a place to interact with one another.

I felt so gratified when RAWSISTAZ accepted my first independent book project (Save The Best For Last, published in 2009 by my own Bunderful Books) for review, and even more so when the reviewer gave it 4 stars and described it in glowing terms. I felt as though this gave me validation, to have my self-published work given the same recognition as the books I've had published by traditional publishers. You just don't know how much it meant to me.

I am happy and proud to be able to tell the world that I love RAWSISTAZ. All my best to you as you begin your second ten years.

Love, Bettye

P.S. This is being posted somewhat late...I always seem to lose a day when the week starts with a holiday, but it doesn't mean I love you any less.

P.P.S. I would have loved to have included one of your logos with this posting, but it seems to be copy-proof.

Interesting

My books that are available in e-book format are outselling those available in print, according to Amazon.

Call me old-fashioned, but for me, there's nothing like holding the actual book in my hands. Of course, I've been slow to come around to new technology in the past, and this may be just another of those eventualities where I'm late to the party.

How do you do most of your reading, through actual books or e-readers?