Recent Comments

1. 6 days ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

   Problem is that to be effective, hand sanitizer has to be 120 proof.

2. 8 days ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

   Hey. Wanted to stop in and update everyone.

   Our suspected exposure was on the 10th. So today we finished our 14 day window with no signs of infection and as of tomorrow I am out of quarantine. Thanks for the moral support, everyone.

   And as for the reader who mentioned her paying to read this strip and my getting paid to do the strip, I’ve got news for you. Do you know what I get paid? I make $20.00 a week paid once per quarter. So I get paid $260.00 on April 20, July 20, October 20, and January 20. I used to make a little more selling paperback collections, but I haven’t had the seed money to do a print run of a book since the ill-fated “Lie Back and Think of the Blender.”

   So needless to say, I don’t do this strip for the money.

   I had planned to end the strip after 10 years but that was when my financial problems were starting and I couldn’t afford to let even that little income out of my sight. A few months later I started the GoFundMe and the response was so overwhelming and so quick that I couldn’t let you folks down. So the past four years I’ve been doing the strip because all of you believed in me.

   Now I’m in a similar position. Last month the strip had its 14th anniversary. Again, I was considering stopping the strip right at the 15 year mark. But I had to lean on all you folks again, and can’t do that in good faith.

   Between my husband’s income and my “day job” we make barely enough to live. But with the added expenses of cleaning up after my mother’s situations after her death, trying to settle her estate, we ended up falling behind again. The disaster with the original buyer for my mother’s property was the tipping point, and now this shutdown of the country due to the pandemic is making things even hairier.

   So that was why I came back to you readers asking for help. Thank you to everyone who has. And to everyone who couldn’t but wanted to. Thank you.

3. 15 days ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

   Can I just say what a fascinating challenge it has been trying to stay amusing through all this?

   Thanks for all the support. Especially the moral support.

4. 15 days ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

   Hello, folks. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about, it turns out I may have been exposed to the coronavirus. Whee.

5. 19 days ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

   Hello, folks. Update.

   Yesterday I sent a cashier’s check for the back taxes on my mother’s property to the County Treasurer, so that will finally be out of foreclosure and I will be able to sell it.

   We have a prospective buyer and hope to go to settlement before the end of the month, which will let me use the funds to settle my own taxes, but we’re in a race to see who crosses the line first: me or the sheriff’s sale.

   The original buyer admitted to me that she had hoped to sweep in and pick up the property a lot cheaper at sheriff’s sale when she found out it was vulnerable, and dragged her feet to force it into foreclosure. I’ve arranged to add a restrictive covenant to the deed preventing it from ever being sold or otherwise conveyed to her, her family, heirs, successors, or assigns. Spiteful? Me? Never.

   Please keep spreading the word about the campaign. We might not be in a position to get to settlement in time and I really only need $5.00 per reader to solve this without the sale. Actually, I only need $2.00 per reader, but GoFundMe won’t let you donate less than $5.00.

   So keep spreading the word and banging the drum.

6. about 1 month ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

   Repeating what I’ve said here and elsewhere…

   The person who was supposed to buy my mother’s house never returned our signed agreements to my lawyer, who just informed me that the County went ahead and foreclosed on my mother’s house (and as a result mine) because we didn’t have a signed contract.

   So I have until April 1st to come up with $20,000 to pay my mother’s and now my back taxes.

   As I doubt I can raise anything like that through Crowdfunding, I am looking to sell my only real remaining asset: my intellectual property.

   Anyone interested in buying all rights to my three novels and/or this strip contact me immediately at 716 379 3525.

7. about 1 month ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

   Hey, folks. sorry to do this.

   Most of you know that we lost my mother three years ago this week. Cleaning up after her “estate” has been an absolute nightmare.

   I’ve had a deal to sell her house for a couple of months now, but for some reason we just haven’t gotten a settlement date yet. We’re relying on those funds to close her estate finally and pay my own taxes.

   I’ve now been told that the County Treasurer is giving me until the end of this month to cough up $9,500.00 or both her house and mine could go up for sheriff’s sale.

   Those who are so inclined could always pitch in a few more dollars at gf.me/u/v4mnus – if every one of my subscribers gave just $1.00 I’d have the funds I need in a day – but I’m tired of begging for help.

   So I am now preparing to sell the only appreciable assets I have that don’t involve keeping a roof over my head: the rights to my creative works.

   So if you’re interested in acquiring all rights to any of my previously published novels, E-mail me at pab at my last name dot com.

   I’m also willing to part with the rights to the Queen Herself. Originally, I had planned on ending the strip next February 8th, thinking that an even 15 years was a good enough run. But if someone wanted to buy the rights to the strip I’d be willing to not only sign over past rights and arrange for my royalties to be paid to that person instead of me, I’d sign on to do at least another five years to make sure you got your money’s worth.

   Again, serious inquiries at the address I hinted at above.

8. 2 months ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

   I also remember the variation for when working at stations that were going to sign off instead of carrying the emergency information. “If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for news and official information.”

9. 2 months ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

   “This is a test. For the next sixty seconds, this station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test.” (beep) “This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area, in cooperation with the FCC and other authorities, have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, the attention signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news, or instructions. This station serves the Southern Coastal New Jersey Operational Area. This concludes this test of the Emergency Broadcast System.”

   Yep. 30 years on I still have it memorized.

10. 2 months ago on New Adventures of Queen Victoria

    Today’s model comes from Antichrysler.