Looking at what lies underneath

It's not a pretty sight. Like turning over a stone and finding something disgusting and disturbing underneath, when my husband and brother took out the toilet this morning and ripped up the floor, they found the real cause of why the bathtub had quit draining and why the toilet was making its slow downward decent toward the ground.

It wasn't that the toilet leaked and rotted out the wood as we had expected, although it did contribute to some of the damage. No. they guys found that two beams underneath the floor had broken, causing the entire eastern wall to slowly crumble. You couldn't see the damage from outside the house. But you could see it quite clearly after you looked up underneath it.

My house was built in the early 1920's. My father bought it in 1988 along with it's twin, which is next door and probably crumbling to dust like mine. My JW and I moved in shortly after we married and have been here ever since. When we first moved in, it was snug, cozy, had a fresh coat of paint and although it was old even then it was sturdy and well kept.

But time and hurricanes and floods and droughts takes its toll, and no matter how well kept the house had been in the past, nothing could stop the slow erosion that has occured.

In short, my house is dying.

Im not ready yet to perform a bardo service for it quite yet. We live on my meager salary as a writer and my husband's social security. Although Im sure the city inspectors are going to drop by and cluck their tongues and threaten to condemn it, we simply cannot get a long term loan at our age to buy one, nor can we afford a mobile home to put on this lot.

Now some could say that we could move into subsidized public housing but that is neither desirable nor acceptable. For starters I own property, and secondly my neighborhood is bad enough thank you, and have no desire to move into one that's far worse.

What could be most useful and desirable would be for my royalty statements to improve. I already have three books out on the market, another on the way for next year, as well as two novels Im working on en tandem now as we speak.

And I have this blog.

Now before you roll your eyes and go on about this being sob story and oh how I'm now going to ask for money for a new house, and why don't I just get off my fat ass and get a real job let me stop you right there.

Writing is my real job. I went to school to learn how to do it. This is not a hobby.
I am not and never will ask for money for nothing. What I will ask is that you do one of two three things: all of which are purely voluntary on your part but if you will consider it, will bring you good karma and make me a happy writer.

Here's the deal:

1. You may purchase any or all of my novels. It's that simple. My two erotica novels are available on Amazon.com for next to nothing. I think they're a buck a download. Or you could go to www.whispershom.com and purchase them from there. The two enovels are Marilyn and Destiny's Mark.

My third novel and my first in print is called Mercer's Bayou. It is available at amazon.com, Barnes and Nobel, Hastings (Hastings has been awesome to us) and at Samhain Publishing's website www.samhainpublishing.com

2. In the upcoming future, this and my other blog Feavre Dreams will have special Sponsor a Writer buttons. If you've liked what you're reading, then by all means contribute something. Even a contribution as small as a buck will be greatly appreciated. Tell your family and friends about my novels, and about my two blog sites and invite them to drop by as well.

3. Starting this fall, I will do a blog novel. One chapter a month, in which I will also add remedies and recipes. You will be able to subscribe to this novel, and for a small download charge you will get the latest installment of the story, plus traditional remedies and recipes from rural East Texas.

This should be a sweet deal for all of us. You get quality entertainment as well as an infomative blog, a novel in installments and I get to save up enough money to put something more liveable on this lot.

Like I said, I'm not looking for a handout. I'm looking for a hand up.

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