Postal System Followup; Only Trouble is Interesting

What I'm reading: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, by Diana Gabaldon

Today's 'not surprising' news brings another email from the Postal Service informing me that although I canceled a 'click and ship' label, it was scanned into the system, and I should go immediately to their website and pay for the postage. And, of course it's one of those "do not respond to this email" messages.

Apparently the problem arose because although I'm dealing with the USPS, I'm going through two separate payment systems, even though (I assume) all the money goes to the Postal Service. I checked my AmEx account, and lo and behold, there's one charge, and only one charge, and it's for the correct amount.

I emailed a blow-by-blow via their 'contact us' site, and we'll see what happens. I'm beginning to think this might be an omen as to how I will fare in the contest, which is why I was sending the package to begin with.

My next "only trouble is interesting" event of the day started with a surprise bit of publicity in an article in the January issue of Orlando Magazine for several local romance writers. One of my books, Finding Sarah, is mentioned in the article. I popped into my local Barnes & Noble to see if they had any copies. After scanning about 8 racks of magazines, I went to the counter to ask if there were any copies of Orlando Magazine. She said, "we keep them right here" but since they weren't "right there", she checked the computer, and they haven't arrived yet. OK, I can deal with that; at least I didn't miss them.

So, I asked if she might like to order a few copies and I would autograph them for potential customers. When she checked the computer, she discovered that although What's in a Name? is there, Finding Sarah is flagged as "not available for order." Naturally, there's nothing she can do about that.

I did get an immediate response from the Cerridwen office (surprising since it was early Sunday morning), and she shot off an email to their B&N contact, but there's no telling how long it will take to correct the situation.

Let's hope anyone interested in Finding Sarah will figure out that the publisher sells the books, and they're on Amazon.com.