Just a Few Kibbles and Bits This Morning

Some updates on book progress today, but not much is happenning:

1. To answer my most-asked question of late: No, I have not heard from Ellen or Ross. I may never hear from Ellen or Ross, or it may just take forever. For a girl who likes closure and may never get it in many book situations, this is a "great" experience for me. Keep on keeping your fingers crossed!

2. I have completed the process of sending out all of my review copies, and now I'm waiting for some of those to come in. Another situation where I could possibly wait forever...but I have faith that a few will come through with a review. Don't worry, I'll post them here!

3. I finally finished making those pet boutique phone calls. I did have the few who want another call in a couple of weeks, but that's great: at least they'll expect to hear from me!

4. I received my second book shipment this week! That was exciting, because I am almost finished selling the large first shipment. I plan to take the new books to an event we're having at the salon in mid-November for my mini-book signing!

5. You have today and tomorrow to go to Manic Mommy's blog and post a comment about your dog's name if you want to be in the running to win a free copy of Remembering Ruby! Her blog is hopping, so get over there and read and enter!

6. Holla! to Kevin at the Wag N' Wash. I stopped in to hang some flyers and business cards in his store and he was very, very nice. He has a great store, too!

7. I feel like I'm trying to get the word out about the book through one or two people at a time (well, I am, right?). I thought yesterday about trying to find some event where I could set up a table with my books, like a craft show but not a craft show. Any general ideas of what I should look for? And do you think it would be worth it? Instead of marketing to one or two at a time, I could reach--what--75 to 100 at a time that day? Advice, please??

8. My next steps include mailing out more information to the second round of rescues, and I have yet to market to veterinary offices, which I really need to do soon. I hope to start that this weekend!

Where Else Can You Find A Blog With Three Consecutive Entries About the U.S. Postal Service?

This morning I tried to call the Post Office to sing the praises of M, the super-dee-duper Window Clerk (Is that an official title? I'll have to look that up) who far surpassed her normal job requirements when dealing with me this weekend.

Unfortunately, after asking me for my address (I assume there are different supervisors for different parts of town? That's an interesting concept. If you misbehave on the job, do you get "demoted" to the more whiny areas?) and going to find the correct supervisor, she left me on hold for a really long time--for this type of call, anyway. I ended up having to hang up because I was on my way out to meet my friend D for lunch. I did not let this apparent indifference about leaving customers on hold for an indefinite amount of time deter me from wanting to call back.

Upon my return from lunch, I called again. This time the operator asked me what my call was regarding, and she didn't need my address because she was putting me directly through to the Window Supervisor. The woman answered and when I told her that I was calling to give "Big Ups" to one of the clerks (I didn't say "Big Ups"; I just like that term better for the story--it adds flavor!), she seemed flabbergasted. It's clear that she doesn't get many calls like mine.

I tried to make the long story short for her (it's tough: I challenge YOU to try it!) and in the middle of it she asked me, "Well, did she offer you Express Mail so it could get there faster?" She obviously was missing my point, so I had to back up a bit and recap my recap. I finally got it all out and she thanked me and told me she would let M know that I called. I hope she really does. I hate it when management gets feedback (especially good feedback!) and then suddenly get too lazy to pass it on to the people who need to hear it.

In other post office news (will it ever stop?? LOL), the book that I sent (Priority Mail, remember?) to Ross the Intern at the Tonight Show got delivered to the studio around 7:30 this morning. I wonder when he'll actually have it in hand.

Things are percolating now...Send good karma my way, please!