the picture (below) is part of my advertising campaign for all from before is now obsolete. it is a very quick campaign; it will only be on sale for a day or two. but it's important to me because i like the picture, and, at the beginning of april, it starts a big month for me. april rocks!

it's also i believe my aunt emmy's birthday; she would have been 101 today or near today, but died about a month ago. i will find her picture and put a memorial up as appropriate. i've always associated her with this time of april and always remembered her.

the book is about the april that covid came and descended upon the world. i feel about it somewhat how i feel about 9-11 - we should never forget. how quiet the world became! how nature came up in spite of the utter lack of people anywhere. how we cowered inside worrying about the slightest exposure (not saying there wasn't good reason). it was nothing short of amazing.

the marketing world is wearing on me. i read a lot of stuff and i'm only interested in about half of it. the temptation is great to simply cut corners. i have achieved some success though. in the haiku world if anyone reads your work ever you can get up to #1 though of course you don't stay there. a little ratings jump makes you feel pretty good, not to mention that someone is finally reading the poetry....it may be that they are coerced by circumstances to do it, but on some level it doesn't matter why. at least i'm not forcing someone to read a ransom note.

i have a friend whose kindle account was simply shut down. a practicing author, busy releasing a new book, and the whole thing just canceled, everything became not available. this would be my worst nightmare, but fortunately it has never happened to me. i have no idea how it happened to her or what she will do to sort the mess; i will have to follow, and see what happens. in the meantime, don't sleep for fear of nightmares.

big storm coming in tonight. i hate to sound certain, as, around here, they're always closing school and then the storm wimps out. that may happen tonight too. we are certainly in the path, but it doesn't always stick to the path and even when it does, sometimes it just changes its path midstream. i think they have sirens and are pretty alert about these things up here. i think it's basically just another spring storm, with chances of doing big damage, but not necessarily likelihood. we'll find out, as they say.

meanwhile the iowa women's basketball team came home, having lost the final match; they gave us a wonderful run all the way up to national championship game, but then lost that last one. back in iowa a storm was damaging small towns but nobody cared; everyone was watching the game. a relative of mine was on the team and she will be one to watch as she's only a freshman, and things will go from good to better as she approaches her senior year, as long as she doesn't get injured. one has to worry about such things, yes, but not as bad as in football, where concussions are a routine part of the game, and everyone's mind turns to mush. she's bright, friendly, beautiful and young. unlike yours truly.