In Which I Hit the Happy Jackpot!

Yeah, it’s been nearly a month. I know. My bad.

I’m just having a wonderfully awesome day today.

A while back I signed up for the Early Reviewers program on librarything. This is a program in which librarything members are chosen to receive Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) in exchange for a review. Free books? Generally before anyone else can get them? What’s not to like? But the pool of available reviewers is fairly large and the pool of available books, while it’s probably expanding, is not as large. Chances of getting a good book seemed slim. While reading the various discussions it became clear to me that there were other ways to get ARCs. So I signed up for the main one mentioned. I should be getting one book from them, maybe two. I’ve asked for more, but haven’t heard anything back. And this evening I signed up for HarperCollins First Look. I really don’t pay a lot of attention to who publishes which author, but from the list, it looks like HarperCollins publishes a goodly number of my favorites. Unfortunately, most of my favorites are writing long-term series and there probably aren’t a lot of ARCs from them. But I do know that one author that I like did have some ARCs go out through librarything, so maybe.

Oh, the book I’m for sure expecting is nonfiction, called The Practical Progressive. I anticipate enjoying it very much. The other one I might get I’ll post about if I get it. It’s fiction, though, and I think maybe in the science fiction/mystery genres, which is right up my alley. (I should know what it’s about, but I was so excited that I didn’t pay close attention.)

This afternoon notices went out on librarything for the June ARCs and I snagged one! It’s about dealing with the cognitive challenges of multiple sclerosis. I realize it doesn’t sound like much of a page-turner, but my brother has MS and has definitely had cognitive challenges, so I expect it to be quite useful. And I suspect that it being not high on anybody’s list helped me get it. I suspect getting my foot in the door, however it happens, is good.

Eventually, as soon as the books come in, which frequently takes a while, I’ll be posting the reviews here.

The other way I hit the jackpot today is this: I had an appointment with my counselor today and one of the things I talked about is continuing acquisition of yarn stash, even though I am clearly a member of the Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy club. My counselor said she has a client who is a knitter (besides me, obviously) who is struggling with depression. She can’t work and has started to feel a bit hopeless. And one thing that’s a problem is that she can’t afford any nice yarn to knit with. My counselor wondered if I could spare some of my stash. Oh, yeah. But most of mine is sock yarn, since that’s mostly what I knit. She’s wanting to knit scarves and baby things, evidently. But sock yarn can make nice scarves and even baby things.

But then I had a brainstorm. On Ravelry I joined a group, yet another one, that really doesn’t have much to do with knitting. In fact, the aim is to be pointless. But there’s a lot of support there for the members and it reminds me a lot of my old CompuServe group. Anyway, I got online and mentioned this to them, and have already had several requests for my address and offers of nice yarn. One mentioned handspun! Very cool!

Oh, and yesterday when I took a couple of kittens to the shelter clinic, one of the staff members gave me a tent sort of thing that you can put outside and let cats be outside without being able to escape or get into much trouble. I had seen it before, but it’s expensive and we generally don’t let our cats outside. Still, I’m thinking that tomorrow, if I can get up before it gets up to oven temperatures outside, I’ll set it up and put the babies out there. I think it would be good for our newest girl.

One of my favorite things, other than being given things, is to give things to people who need them. It’s why I love Christmas, I think. I get to buy presents for everybody. It’s such fun! And so is this.

So, I really feel like I’ve hit the jackpot today!

Except that, I saved up enough money to buy a completely frivolous pair of shoes, and they are no longer available. I know the model name and my size and the color, so I’ll do a little looking around online, but I’m not hopeful Oh, and my second this year CPAP mask broke, in exactly the same way the last couple did (grrr), so I need a new one. Rather than get one from the place the insurance company uses, I think I’ll buy my own online. A different model. I found a new model that looks more comfortable and might have fewer fragile parts. Which means a few nights of less comfortable sleep, till the new mask can get here. Probably by some time next week. But I can manage; I’ve done it before.

Just this morning I was sensing some low level depression, undoubtedly because Mother Nature hates me and has turned on the oven outside. Feeling much better now!

In the meantime, I wonder if I ought to go out and buy a lottery ticket or ten.