Sunday Post #416

Posted December 6, 2020 by Lola in Sunday Post / 20 Comments

sunday post

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.
It’s a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

What happened this week?

This week was awesome in terms of work, but very stressful and annoying in non work related terms. Let’s start with the good part. Work has been awesome, I’ve been busy with assistant work and tour work. I got some new tours in again this week and put two sign up posts live for new tours and am working on more. I’ve been keeping my banner designer busy with all the banner requests. Last month was the best month so far this year in terms of how much money I made and that makes me really happy as I’ve had some difficult months money wise earlier this year. I just hope this keeps up.

I also made a slight change to my tours and included both a square and rectangular tour banner standard with each tour, except for the bookstagram blitzes. Up until now I’ve been offering this as an add-on authors could pick for some extra money. I love having the square banners for easy instagram posting and so I can switch up the graphics on social media. So I added it standard to all tours now as well as a slight increase in price to compensate for that. I haven’t upped my prices in a long time and thought now would be a good moment to do so and add something extra to each tour too this way with the square banners.

And thanks for all your understanding replies last week about me being less active with the blog visiting. I hope once this month is over I can be more active with all the visiting again.

I’ve been reading some good books this week which helped a bit. One book is my re-read of Chaos in Kadoma Ward, by one of my favorite authors S.J. Pajonas. And I’ve been reading the next book in Lindsay Buroker’s Dragon Blood series and the third book in Hillary Avis her cozy mystery chicken series.

Now for the less good parts. This week has been crazy and stressful with lots of non work related things going on. We’ve been dealing with high humidity levels in our house for a few weeks now, like high humidity as in our windows being all wet. Due to being busy we didn’t really look into it and hoped it would go away, but it only got worse, with now mold started to grow on and around our windows. It’s usually quite humid where we live, but it never has been this bad. I cleaned all the windows this week and removed the mold and then we did some internet research and now are airing out our house twice a day. Which really is tedious and no fun as it’s really cold outside. It does help tough, but having frigid air in your house twice a day is no fun. So it might be worth looking for another solution there or maybe it will be less humid soon.

Besides that I’ve been dealing with a tedious issue with my email service provider for my Lola’s Blog Tours email. I just wanted to renew my yearly payment, but for some reason they won’t send me an invoice and keep telling me to add a credit card which I don’t have and I told them that and they keep asking for changes and upgrades and still no invoice that I can pay. That email address is super important for my business and I have no idea what will happen if I can’t resolve this by late next week as that’s when the new year payment should start. I emailed them, called them and even just sent a message to their social media and tried multiple other email addresses for the same company. If I can just get someone else to speak with I think I can resolve it and finally pay. How difficult can it be for a company to make sure a loyal happy paying customer can pay? I just can’t wrap my head around this. Their customer support has been unhelpful, sending canned replies saying I have to do one thing then another and nothing actually gets me the invoice. I’ve been super stressed and worried about this.

Besides that we’ve been dealing with some other issues as well. I had a product I ordered where I got the wrong version and had to email support about that. Another order that I had to send back as it wasn’t the right size. And then a few more things like that, which all had to happen this week. And ofcourse things like this always happen when I am already busy. I just want to focus on work and not have so many other things that pop up and I have to deal with or worry about. On top of that I’ve not been sleeping well, probably because of all the stress and worries.

As for another topic, here in the Netherlands a new law got passed that now we have to wear masks in all inside public places. Which is great. This is the first time since this whole corona situation started that I saw everyone wearing a masks while I was grocery shopping. Unfortunately I had to go shopping at a slightly later time than usual and it was still busier than I would’ve liked.

Food Corner

I bakes some toasted coconut cookies with chocolate chips this week. This is a twist on a recipe I already have, but this time I toasted the coconut before putting it in the cookies and it really made a big difference in the taste. Both are great recipes, just very different in terms of taste. I was happy with how these turned out.

Toasted-Coconut-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies-close-up

And I perfected my recipe for vegan kaiserschmarrn. They are like thick pancakes cut in pieces basically and as I don’t always have eggs in the house I am happy to have this vegan alternative as well.
Vegan-Kaiserschmarrn

What did I read this week?

Roost and Arrest

I finished listening to A Roost and Arrest this week. This was another great cozy mystery, not my favorite one in the series, but I still enjoyed this one and the narrator did a great job with this one.

This week I blogged about:

Review: Wolves of Paris by Tori Knightwood
Review: Vangie Vale and the Corpseless Custard by R.L. Syme

Review: Wolves of Paris by Tori KnightwoodReview: Vangie Vale and the Corpseless Custard by R.L. Syme

What to expect next week on the blog:

– Review: Sympathy for the Demons by Lidiya Foxglove
– Lola’s Kitchen: Vegetarian Wellington Recipe

Tours open for sign-up on Lola’s Blog Tours:

Review Opportunity: Spooks by Athena Flores
Review Opportunity: Kiss of Salt by Smita Bhattacharya
Review Opportunity: The Road to Hell by Christopher C. Starr
Review Opportunity: Who Let the Demon Out? by Naomi Bellina
Review Opportunity: Knitted and Knifed by Tracey Drew
Blog Tour: The Flyght Series by S.J. Pajonas – 7 till 11 December
Book Blitz: Love and Other Moods by Crystal Z. Lee – 1 till 14 January – New!
Book Blitz: A Cat’s Guide to Bonding with Dragons by Chris Behrsin – 1 till 14 January – New!
Blog Tour: Death and Decluttering by Nancy McGovern – 4 till 24 January
Blog Tour: Heaven Falls series by Christopher C. Starr – 10 till 23 January
Blog Tour: The Twelve Tasks by Katharine E. Wibell – 18 till 31 January

Book Haul:

The FighterBusiness Visibility

How do you deal with unhelpful customer service people?

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20 responses to “Sunday Post #416

  1. Urg! I hate it when you come across such a really unhelpful company! Most of the time, these days, companies make more of an effort… And really glad that the job is going so well. I hope you can finally track down the wretched company and sort it out! The vegan pancake thingy looks delicious, by the way… Have a better week, Lola:))

    • It really is a shame as their email software is so easy to use and their online help documentations are awesome. I’ve had a few issues in the past with the support, but most of those were still relatively easy to get resolved, this time it isn’t. I just hope I can get it resolved in the next 3 days and get hold of someone who can help me.

      I am glad my work is doing well, it really is great to have that going well. I have the recipe post for the vegan pancakes thingies scheduled, but I think it’s midway next year or so at the moment. They taste great!

    • Those weeks when everything piles up are tough, I hope this week is better.

      I am glad my tours are doing well and I hope that keeps up.

      Kaiserscharrn is basically a thick pancake cut into pieces, it’s really good and quicker to make than multiple pancakes.

  2. Iza

    I thought about you when my boyfriend started cooking sauerkraut today 😀 I’m sorry about your email and humidity worries. A deshumidifier could be useful ? Ask your local hardware store ? Are there any cracks, even small, in your walls ? I hope your problems will be solved and allow you to sleep peacefully. Your cookies made me salivate 😉 Sending good vibrations your way *hugs*
    Iza recently posted…My week in books (not only) #47 – The Sunday postMy Profile

    • I like sauerkraut, we recently had that for dinner too :). We’re considering a dehumudifier, but they seem to be quite pricey, so we’re doing more research first and see how it goes in the next few weeks.

      I have no clue if we have cracks, I never noticed any, but if they’re small they might not be obvious.

    • I am so happy my work continues to go well.

      That’s the thing that baffled me the most about the whole situation, why would a company make it hard to pay? I wanted to pay, so why make it difficult? It’s been resolved now luckily when I got hold of another employee.

  3. Sounds like a bit of this and a bit of that sort of a week. We have a de-humidifier in our home because of the high humidity. Before I could find a well-priced used de-humidifier, our hardware store would carry these bags of Damp Crystals that would absorb the humidity and reduce mold and we also kept a fan going to dry the air. What a pain for you with that and the bad customer service situations. Isn’t it crazy that you just want to pay your bill and they still aren’t responding?
    Yay for the best month of income and work to make up for some of the lean months. Your new tour packs with the banner option sounds good. It’s nice to have the versatility to use them with various media posts.
    My dad loves toasted coconut so I’ll have to try your idea of mixing it into chocolate chip cookies.
    Glad you enjoyed your latest mystery.

    Have a good week, Lola!
    Sophia Rose recently posted…Spotlight: A SOLDIER UNDER HER TREE by Kathy DouglassMy Profile

    • That’s a good suggestion to see if I can find an user de-humidifier. We never had one before, so I’ll have to do some research to see if it’s worth getting one.

      I just couldn’t wrap my head around it that I just want to pay my bill and they were so difficult. I got hold of another person and they could help me luckily.

      Having the square banners is really nice for the tours :). I could use a few more good income months to make up for the lean months earlier this year.

      I really liked using the toasted coconut in the cookies, it added a nice touch.

  4. I love coconut, so coconut in cookies sounds like a winner to me! Humidity is a real problem in Japan, too, and a lot of them deal with it by buying a small dehumidifier. I would look around and see if anyone is having a sale for the holidays on appliances like this. You may find one for a good price. I’m so glad you’re enjoying Chaos in Kadoma Ward now! I’m actually back in Kadoma Ward again in the 4th book I’m writing, and I missed it. 🙂
    S. J. Pajonas recently posted…Sunday Update – December 6, 2020My Profile

    • I like coconut in cookies and toasting the coconut was a nice twist on my recipe. I might need to look into humidifiers or see if I can get a good deal for one.

      I finished Chaos in Kadoma Ward this week and I loved re-reading it :). How exciting to hear you’re back in kadoma ward in book 4! I look forward to book 4. Only one more book to re-read and then I am all caught up again. i can’t believe how many little details I had forgotten, so it’s been great re-reading the books.

    • I’ll have to see if a dehumudifier is an option.

      I managed to sort it out and I think I just got an inexperienced person who replied to my emails, but it sure was a pain.

  5. I’m glad work is going so well! Gotta take the wins, right?

    The humidity situation sounds so miserable – your choice being to be miserable and humid all day and grow mold or air out with cold air twice a day? I really hope you’re able to find a better solution soon.

    For the invoice situation (which is so dumb right?!? You want to pay… take your money already! LOL!) have you considered using one of those visa gift cards? So you buy a gift card for the amount that you need to pay and then you’ll have a credit card number to pay with. Seems like that should work? I hope you’re able to work something out with them!

    Hope you’re having a great week!
    Berls recently posted…Sunday Post with Berls | COVID Quarantine Week 38My Profile

    • Definitely gotta take the wins. I am so happy with the work going well.

      The humidity situation is a pain, although we found a way that seems to be working well for now.

      I just can’t wrap my head around what happened with the invoice situation. I just wanted to pay. I got hold of another person and was finally able to pay this week. What a great idea re the visa gift cards, I hadn’t thought of that and only heard of it once before. I’ll definitely keep that in mind should I need a credit card somewhere in the future. Thanks for the idea!

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