Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Somewhere in this blog post I’ll be writing something I’ve never written before. Bear with me—I’ll get there.

In the meantime, I’ve been busy packing and organizing. Sounds easier than it really is. Yeah, either still or again. I’m all set now. Hard to believe I did all this while being sick. Sick in a weird way because there were/are times when I can go about working for a couple hours. Both of these facts are beginning to sound like old news. Still sick. Still packing. Life goes on.

Of course, you all know I published a book through all this, too. I pat myself on the back for that. This book has been a challenge in many ways. Publishing it showed me no mercy, either, because it was a day I didn’t feel well.

Back to packing.

So many memories were found and old wounds opened. Some of the bad ones went into the shredder. Trust me, it’s possible. Some of the good memories will remain with me physically and in spirit forever. One thing that stood out and nearly brought tears to my eyes…okay, it did—was a poem I wrote to my “first love” and it covered every decade since we had met. This decade didn’t make it into the poem.

Heartwarming memories came upon finding lots of greeting cards from special people. I saved so many cards from my kids. I’ve packed them all in a box. I even stuck some photos of them as kids in there, and some photos of myself. I’m not vain, but after all, when they go through this, I won’t be around. My boys had this picture taken before my oldest son moved to CA. I keep the picture of them as youngsters with it now. They are in reverse order in the small image.

My two boys are one reason I started having photos taken of myself. At one time I didn’t. Do you? Once, I read an article about a wife/mother who never had her picture taken; therefore there were no photo memories for her family. This article was written by her husband. Maybe it was “Dear Abby.” So, I’m taking care of that. I even added some of when I was a kid. Some cards were from when they were born. Apparently, I’m a saver, and I have dragged them along with me through various moves. LOL Admittedly, I didn’t save all of them.

When I get moved, I might go through some of the items and “organize” again. It’s easier to stack empty storage tubs. I’ll have a big storage/laundry room in my apartment, so there is room. It will get small real fast once moving these items into said storage room takes place.

Next step in moving.

morgueFile

Who will move me? I talked with two popular moving companies, but my son said he had planned on moving my stuff for me. My oldest son offered to travel from California to help. Looks like I’m set there too. Now, it’s a matter of waiting for the move-in date. Jeez, this is a lot of rambling about moving. Hope I didn’t lose anyone.

About that first paragraph above…

How do I put this without sounding like I’m tooting my own horn, but in reality, I am tooting my own horn. Remember, I said how challenging my current book was to write and publish? It was all worth it, for yesterday when I went to one of my book pages to tweet it, I saw this on the middle of the page. See that cute little red sign beneath Of the Cowboy’s Own Accord? That says Best Seller. For two days I hung out at #2 and hoped for the #1 spot, but didn’t think it would happen. Sorry, my phone camera sucks. I should have used my iPad.

In a rush, I tried to get my fingers to work and go to my book page then to the category page to see for myself. It has also been #1 in Hot New Releases in the same category.

It still said #2, but changed almost immediately to #1 Best Seller. I was so happy I literally cried. Literally! Sure, it’s Amazon Best Seller in Contemporary Western Fiction, but all I see is #1 Best Seller and it was/is a big deal to me.

Number #1 Best Seller is something I’ve never written before. All of my books have ranked in this category, and most are still there but to see this book in the number #1 spot warmed my heart more than I can even describe. Today it was still there, but now is knocked down to number #3. I’ve noticed it varies throughout the day as the page gets updated maybe hourly. I have a couple big promos coming up, so I can only hope to get back there. Either way, I am going to proudly say that Of the Cowboy’s Own Accord is a #1 Amazon Best Seller in Contemporary Western Fiction.

Thanks for reading.