The Bugs Think My Plants Taste Lovely 🪲
Aug 02, 2023 3:01 pm
In case today's title caught you off guard, full disclosure that I'm about to describe all the bug problems I've had with my second attempt at an herb & vegetable garden. It's been quite an eventful summer in the Carhart yard.
As for Gift of Water, I've made my way to the halfway point—yes, literally 2 weeks before I have to upload the manuscript on all the retailers. -facepalm-
Yes, that means you might find more typos than usual once your copy drops into your Kindle, Kobo, Nook, or preferred reading device. If you're on my ARC team, it also means you won't be seeing Gift of Water until a week before the book's release date. Yep, I've dropped the ball this time. Really bad. 😕
That being said, if you've already pre-ordered a copy or if you're waiting impatiently to dive into Jasmin's story as an ARC reader, you totally, completely have my permission to tell me if you find any typos or wrong words. I'm nowhere near reaching that "coveted status of perfection," and I'm always grateful to anyone willing to give me a heads up when they notice an error in my work. 💖
Ready to find out all about this year's garden struggles? What about an update on post-BookBub sales of my Elemental Bloodlines series? No point in beating around the bush. Let's dive right in!
Bug Problems In SC
So first of all, even though I've lived in South Carolina, USA for the majority of my adult life, I grew up in a far different state—New Jersey. (Yes, that's why Swanie, the ice witch heroine of my first series, spends some time there.)
My dad cultivated a vegetable garden every year for most of my childhood, and the one problem we don't face in New Jersey is BUGS. My dad's had deer and raccoons snack on his crops, but bugs apparently aren't an issue.
Must be nice. 😉
Now, my husband isn't much of a gardener himself, so I do most of the tending of our tiny plot. We've grown a small collection of herbs for the past 5 years, and then last summer we made our first attempt at vegetables—cayenne peppers, to be exact. We bought 4 self-draining planters, loaded them up with garden soil, and planted a handful of cayenne pepper plans and 2 basil plants.
Then we went on our Great Western Road Trip in June and July, and our pepper plants dried up. Last summer we harvested 3 peppers total. 😔
Lesson learned. Gardeners can't take vacation mid-season. Oopsies!
This year, we planted 6 green pepper plants and 2 cherry pepper plants into our 4 planters, along with 2 basil plants, 1 African blue basil plant, and 1 dill plant.
In our mostly overgrown front planter, we've got oregano that's been growing steadily for the past 5 years, plus some peppermint from last year that spread like a virus. 🤣 It has since been contained. This year we added rosemary and pineapple sage.
Everything was growing happily from late April to around the beginning of June. We harvested a lot of really tasty herb leaves, and I'm totally going to expand our herb garden next year. (Remember, I'm a fan of munching violets.) I even learned that pineapple sage produces bright red flowers!
Then June came, and with it...THE BUGS. 🪲
No, I've yet to entirely pinpoint which bugs are chewing up every single leaf in our garden. They decimated the pineapple sage, gnawed on the oregano, basil, and peppermint, and made our pepper plants really sad. 😔 So far, we've tried two methods of "organic" extermination. Cayenne pepper didn't work because it washed away immediately with the first rain.
We've had better luck with diatomaceous earth. While that sticks around longer than cayenne pepper when the ground gets wet, it does start clumping up after a heavy rain. And of course thunderstorms happen in South Carolina nearly every.freaking.day in July and August.
So it's been a never-ending battle, and I'm about to try Extermination Method Number Three. We've harvested 4 scrumptious green peppers (one more than last year, so winning!!!!! 🎉) and as many un-gnawed herb leaves as we can get. I'm keeping an eye on the single cherry pepper that's holding strong, hoping the bugs prefer non-spicy foods. Fingers crossed!
Here's a photo of our African blue basil before the bug problems began, although this plant's been the hardiest even when nibbled. Recommended.
What will happen in the Carhart garden next year? Will the bug problem meet its match? Stay tuned for an update from the violet eater next April!
Final BookBub Stats
You might remember that the first book in my Elemental Bloodlines series, Gift of Fire, was chosen for a 99¢ BookBub Featured Deal that ran on July 7th. A couple weeks ago, I told you we managed to sell over 1,000 copies of Gift of Fire as a result of its BookBub, along with all of my fellow indies who shared it with their readers. I also mentioned that we cracked an actual profit. 😱
Today I'm sharing The Numbers, because I'm the weirdo author who does that. Also because my sales numbers typically hit 2 figures per month, since I don't advertise regularly. (Yes, I know I need to change that or no one will ever find out my books exist. It's one of my Quarterly Goals.)
You ready for the deets? Here they come.
This BookBub Featured Deal cost $540.
Gift of Fire (Book 1) sold - 1,112
Royalties earned - $490
Gift of Stone & Gift of Darkness (Books 2 & 3) sold - 66
Royalties earned - $200
Gift of Air (series prequel) sold - 9
Royalties earned - $18
Pre-orders for Gift of Water & Gift of Light - 16
Looks like this BookBub Featured Deal did a pretty good job! Apparently all you have to do to see actual results from this type of promotion is get a BookBub in the right category. 🤪 Yes, Gift of Fire is definitely a paranormal romance, and BookBub's readers seem to agree. Now the hope is more read-through will trickle in as August progresses.
Book Fairs And Giveaways
I've decided to start linking a batch of book fairs and giveaways in each of my newsletters, just in case you happen to miss a couple every month. It's no fun to miss out on collections of indie books and limited time giveaways! Be sure to take a peek at whichever links interest you.
Witchy Ways Giveaway - ENDING SOON!
Paranormal Romance - Free Books
August Fantasy/Sci-fi Romance Sale
Fairy Tales And Fantasy Romance
Other Books You Might Like
I've got 2 intriguing stories to share with you today, so if one or the other—or both!—captures your attention, be sure to grab a copy and support other indie authors like me. We need all the readers we can get. 💖
The Usurper has been captured. The rightful queen has claimed her throne.
Faerell, the land of the fae and wolves, is once again safe. Faery Warrior Tessa should be celebrating. Instead, she's climbing a mountain with a wolf wanna-be Warrior and a prisoner no one trusts, and she's humiliated by the treachery of her ex-partner.
As if that weren't enough, the wolf wanna-be Warrior, Rollo, saved her life, so now she's beholden to him.
Which is a problem, because she's also attracted to him. Which is a bigger problem because she doesn't even like him.
One princess. Twelve noble suitors. One assassin mystery....
Princess Qloey is the heir to the Velazian Empire and of age to choose a husband. Twelve boys are invited to compete in a month long competition to win her heart and a seat on the throne. She thinks finding the right husband will be an easy and swift process, but after she meets the charming princes, beautiful elves, a dwarf, and a commoner, her heart gets swept off in different directions.
More is at stake than a simple proposal or a broken heart. At the opening ceremony, an assassin tries to kill her and they soon discover that the mastermind is one of her twelve bachelors. Amidst several assassination attempts, centaur attacks, publicized group dates, and royal favoritism towards some competitors, choosing a husband becomes the hardest decision of her life, and threatens Qloey’s very right to inherit the throne.
I'd better get back to Chapter 12 of Gift of Water, because it looks like Jasmin's finally about to learn some spicy details about the hiking stud who recently crossed her path. He seems to have a strange obsession with climbing the most dangerous mountain near her village—and confronting the undead priest who calls it his home. ☠️
WTF is this guy thinking??? Maybe I'll get some insight later on today.
(And you can get some insight by reserving your very own copy of Gift of Water at the first link below.)
Have a wonderfully weird week, and I certainly hope you've had better luck fighting the garden BUGS this year. 🪲
Talk to you soon,
C.L. Carhart
Pre-order Gift of Water:
https://books2read.com/ebgiftofwater
Get Gift of Air for free:
https://bf.clcarhart.com/6w57qgfhc9
Get Dukes of Magic for free:
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/7yzvslyqb9
Witchy Ways Giveaway: