A lesson in keeping a customer happy. #UnnecessaryWaste

How are y'all doing? Me, I've been busy as usual. Need you ask? Busy with editing and getting a Sooper Sekret project to a beta reader. :) Now that that's off, I'm toying with a few others (including the Nano 2016 project). Right now, I have one mss I hope to get back from an editor the end of the month and plan to get some short stories and stories for my Patreon subscribers out sometime this year. We shall see.

Oh. I know some newsy bit. Now I don't mean for this post or blog to turn into a product review so the names are changed to protect the evil empire, but for several years (I want to say nigh over a decade), dh and I have happily used a a certain filtering water pitcher, for water for cooking, and coffee and tea. Yes, really, it does improve the taste of our city water. Well, as I said, I have used one (actually two) of these pitchers for years with no problem. Last year, the company that makes them got it into their fool heads to "improve " things.  That "improvement" included filters that no longer work well in the pitchers we owned. After a huge effort, we found similar filters, but it turned out, it would take the damned things several hours to completely drain. To the point of where I started filling them before I went to bed.  Cut to two weeks ago, when I got up in the morning with the intention of, as usual, making coffee. Put in the coffee grounds into the coffeemaker, picked up the pitcher, as usual, and poured.

The top popped open and the three inches of water that was still in the reservoir poured out all over me. Yes, very good, next to an electric coffeemaker! Sure, I needed a shower, but I would've preferred not to get it like that!

With much vile cursing, I cleaned up the mess. Luckily, we had that backup pitcher and so I was able to get that pot of coffee percolating. While the coffee brewed I fired off a polite, yet pissed, email to the company about how dumb they were to change their design. Oh sure, they probably gave some ceo's new son-in-law a job, but damn it,don't force your happy customers to change something they're...well, happy with. That's not the way to keep that customer!

 How I kept from addressing the email: "Dear Fascist Bully-boys" is anyone's guess.

Grrrrr... So, then we had to go out and spend an arm and a leg on the new "improved" pitcher. :( Happy customer? I'm filling the new pitcher as we speak, so that remains to be seen. At least I can use the old ones to water my plants. *sigh*

Sure, this fiasco happened a few weeks ago, but this post is getting long. I hope I've given y'all a good chuckle, at any rate (*picture Juli as a drowned, very angry little warrior queen*)

(Fangirl points to you if you know where "Dear Fascist Bully-boys" comes from :))
So how's your week been?

A lesson in keeping a customer happy. http://bit.ly/2jmgLr2 @julidrevezzo #UnnecessaryWaste Tweet this!

***

Follow on Bloglovin'
****

Juli D. Revezzo is the author of the MOURNING DOVE LOCKET, the latest in the Antique Magic paranormal series, also the Celtic Stewards Chronicles fantasy romance series, as well as the Gothic romance LADY OF THE TAROT. Her books are available at Amazon and elsewhere.

Read More

Freebie #KindleFreebie Friday

So, it was a very busy morning, but I wanted to pop in here and tell y'all my Gothic short story Sing a Mournful Melody is Free today, Friday, January 23, on Amazon. Synopsis:


 At the turn of the 20th century, tragedy has left Maribelle grief-stricken. After her beloved husband is murdered, his body disappears from his crypt. Worse, ghostly voices call from the widow’s Graphophone. Is she losing her mind, or does something wicked this way come?

The story was recently called, "Very atmospheric and nicely crafted. Something to read whilst partaking of coffee by the fire but perhaps not just before bedtime ;-)" by reviewer Bodicia at A Woman's Wisdom and and "A wonderfully creepy little story." by reviewer Kelly of Reading the Paranormal.

If you'd like it, you can get here: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/MOURNFUL-MELODY-Gothic-short-story-ebook/dp/B00PF0IQWY

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/MOURNFUL-MELODY-Gothic-short-story-ebook/dp/B00PF0IQWY

Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/MOURNFUL-MELODY-Gothic-short-story-ebook/dp/B00PF0IQWY

Amazon France: http://www.amazon.fr/MOURNFUL-MELODY-Gothic-short-English-ebook/dp/B00PF0IQWY

Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/MOURNFUL-MELODY-Gothic-short-English-ebook/dp/B00PF0IQWY

Amazon Italy: http://www.amazon.it/MOURNFUL-MELODY-Gothic-short-English-ebook/dp/B00PF0IQWY

Amazon Brazil: http://www.amazon.com.br/MOURNFUL-MELODY-Gothic-short-English-ebook/dp/B00PF0IQWY

And if you need it, Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/MOURNFUL-MELODY-Gothic-short-English-ebook/dp/B00PF0IQWY

and at Smashwords or at other ebook venues like Itunes and Kobo.
Pick up your copy and if you enjoy this short story please consider leaving a review. I hope you enjoy this spooky offering! Have a great weekend!

Read More

New release: Do you sing a mournful melody?

I have a new release! Entitled “Sing A Mournful Melody” it’s a piece I have been sitting on for quite a while. Thanks to my mentor, Patty G. Henderson, it finally sees the light of day. :) Set in 1900, it is a short historical Gothic fantasy–with vampires. :) Yes, yes, I know, but I couldn’t resist. My heroine (Maribelle) needed someone extraordinary to…well, you’ll have to read it yourself to see what she needs him for.

Synposis:

At the turn of the 20th century, tragedy has left Maribelle grief-stricken. After her beloved husband is murdered, his body disappears from his crypt. Worse, ghostly voices call from the widow's Graphophone. Is she losing her mind, or does something wicked this way come?




 Cover art:

 What's a Graphophone, you ask? Well, it's something Alexander Graham Bell created, something of a competitor and precursor to Edison's Gramophone and instead of using a disk for recording and listening, it used a cylinder. They're pretty nifty little devices, so I thought, perfect for Maribelle's home use. But hers is...well, a little...off. You'll have to read to see what I mean. :)

I always hesitate to classify myself, but yeah, I hear tell this is right at home next to Cait and her ghosts. (I tried to get it out by Halloween, but things didn't go to plan....) Still, I do try to channel my inner H.P. Lovecraft on pieces like this. *g* And, of course, there's soundtrack for this one, besides Mozart's Lacrimosa, there's this:


Apparently, it's long enough to warrant a preview on Amazon, so here's a little taste of the opening:


London, 1900
“Jonah, my love,” Maribelle said, leaning her head against the carriage window. “Jonah.” The gloom descended on her beloved’s shining new crypt. No matter she knew the logical truth that the marble had been replaced she could still see its cracks. Weeks had passed since the destruction and yet, she remembered as if it were yesterday. Who had violated this terrible tomb?

No answer here or anywhere. As the carriage pulled away from the graveyard, Maribelle determined that this would be the last time she left him there alone.

Once home, she took in the room: There Jonah’s piano stood underneath the wide windows, strewn with sheet music she dare not touch as if it comprised some necromantic charm to bring him home. Letters from her mother. “Come visit,” they said one after another. “Come ease your grief with us.” Mere visitations wouldn’t lighten her heart, she knew. How could they, when the one balm she needed lay under six feet of cold earth? Like some mummy in the ancient desert.

The Graphophone waited beside this piano-shaped monument of dead wood, eager to fill her lonely nights with Jonah’s music. All she had left of him now...

****

If you would like to read more of the story, "Sing a Mournful Melody" is currently available in Kindle Select/Unlimited. You can get it here.  I've also added it to Good Reads, too. If you'd like to add it to your To Be Read lists you can do so here.

If you'd like to review it on GR or on Amazon, please do. Reviews are very important to authors. I hope you enjoy this short offering. :)


*~*~*~*
Juli D. Revezzo has written the Victorian romance novel WATCHMAKER'S HEART. Check it out at Amazon.

Read More