Adventures In Shipping

My story on Tuesday reminded me of this story, so of course, I decided to share it.

I have the UPS app widget on my phone and I was expecting a package, so I checked it. And I found two mystery packages from some company I'd never heard of before.

I double checked all my orders. I have a folder in my email that I keep with confirmation and shipping information until I receive the order.

Nothing from anyone that would ship from some weird company.

I searched for the company name. Found out they had a bad trust score. The suggestion was made that this could be a brushing scam. For those of you who don't know, brushing is when an order gets sent to an unsuspecting person so that good reviews for "verified" buyers can be posted online. Since this company had a bad trust score, it seemed likely this was what was going on.

This was on a Saturday. The label was printed on Friday, but I didn't see it immediately and I couldn't do anything until UPS had the actual package.

I watched my app zealously. Just a label printed. Nothing else through Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning.

Apparently, brushing scams can also just print a ghost label. They can provide the tracking number to the retailer where they want to write good reviews without actually sending anything. This was the outcome I was hoping for.

And then I got a shipping notification from Woot about the shoes I ordered (See Tuesday's post). It was a UPS shipping number. I went to the app. Only two packages, the ones from that strange company, and now there's a delivery date.

I close the app and click the tracking number in my email. It opens one of the two strange packages. A few minutes later, the second shipping notification email arrives. I click that tracking number, too. The other strange package opens.

That's right. Woot shipped my SHOES from a company that sells WATCHES.

I didn't realize how stressed I was about those two packages until I got the shipping notices from Woot. Instant relief. I'm so grateful that I didn't have to deal with scam artists and brushing games.

Now I can relax and look forward to the arrival of my running shoes. 

 

Sale Alert!

Thankful for Readers Online eBook Event!!!

80+ Romantic Suspense Authors have come together to offer you 50+ FREE EBOOKS & 90+ 99¢ EBOOKS for you to binge on for the holidays!

You can find the books here:
https://www.knockoutbookbash.com/thankful-for-readers-event-2026

Not only is this a great chance to discover new authors, but I have two books in the sale! Both Wicked Obsession and Wicked Intention are 99¢!

Sale ends November 12th!

For the first time ever, Wicked Intention is only 99¢!

If you love archaeological treasure hunts, danger in a lawless country, and a hero willing to cross borders to rescue the woman he loves, this one might be your kind of romantic suspense.

Finn and Zo are the reason why I wrote this series. They showed up long before Ryder and Langley and were insistent on getting their story told.

Zofia Parker dropped out of her PhD program in archaeology and went to work for the Paladin League. Her job is rescuing looted artifacts and making sure they end up in museums instead of private collections. Finn Rowland is a former Special Forces soldier and Zo's live-in boyfriend. When she finds herself in deep trouble in Puerto Jardin, Finn rushes to rescue her.

But bringing her home means working with his former team and returning to the world of covert ops. A world that nearly swallowed him two years earlier.

If you missed the first book in the series, here’s another chance to grab Wicked Obsession for 99¢.

This is where readers first meet some of the Special Forces team, including characters who later became heroes of their own books.

Langley Canfield is the daughter of the former ambassador to Puerto Jardin, and she's in love with Ryder Pienkowski. When she becomes convinced he doesn't feel the same way, she breaks up with him and travels across the country to serve as maid of honor in her best friend's wedding.

Special Forces Sergeant Ryder Pienkowski knows Langley Canfield is out of his league. It’s a matter of when she realizes it and ends their relationship, not if she realizes it. But when Langley’s father tells him there’s a death threat directed at her, Ryder rounds up his best friends and hops on a plane to San Diego. He’ll be damned if anyone is going to hurt the woman he loves.

Planner Panic

Yeah.

I thought I had my 2027 planner system all figured out. My Traveler's Size planner arrived, the paper was beautiful, and I loved it and then I started adding information to the blank pages in back.

Suddenly, the book felt a little narrow for the additional details I wanted to keep track of in the book. Not the number of pages, the size of the pages.

This is my writing nuts and bolts planner. I was already sizing up from a Pocket to a Traveler's size. How much more room do I need?

First, I am straining at the seams on the Pocket planner that I need to get through 2026 with. I honestly am searching for space in the layout every day now as I use it for more and more things. It was fine until August. Since August, when I added the Inbox feature, it's been way too small.

Second, I can see me straining at the seams on the N1 before the end of 2027, too. If I can already feel pinched just setting it up?

So I panicked. I bought a larger planner. An A5, which is the same height as the Traveler's, but considerably wider.

And then later that night, I found another planner I wanted to test drive. I won't, though, not in 2027. With the A5 ordered, I'm already one planner over what I need. I don't need to have two extra planners. But it's on my 2028 list and I signed up for their newsletter so I'll know when the 2028 version goes on sale.

The A5 should have enough space. It should all be fine.

I hope. 

Exciting Adulthood

Being an adult can be so weird.

For example, air drying clothes.

I had a few things that either weren't supposed to go into the dryer or I didn't want to put in the dryer, but I didn't think about buying a drying rack.

Not until someone was showing a built in drying rack in their laundry room.

And I was like, yes! I want this! Until I considered how small my laundry room is and how there is no space for this drying rack. And then I added another drawback. I'd have to find someone to install it.

But it got me searching for drying racks for clothes.  

I found one that folds up for easy storage and also expands or contracts. It was actually sad how excited I was when it arrived on my front door, but it meant no draping clothes over the side of my tub because I don't want them to shrink in the dryer.

It was tempting to wash clothes early to try it, but I didn't. Then--finally--laundry day!

And my final verdict? It has less room than I thought it would even with it fully expanded, but it worked well enough for what I needed and I can drape a T-shirt on one set of lower rods, so I'm not limited to just the upper rods.

It was okay. It did what I needed it to do--keep clothes off the side my bathtub--and while it wasn't as big as I hoped, it fit enough.

Seriously? Being an adult is so weird. Who gets excited over a drying rack? (Me, that's who.) 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it!