Happy belated July 4th to those who celebrated. We had a nice time. It was just the family and we had all home sheltered for two weeks prior.
Now on to boring admin news. We decided to limit the nature of our email form. If you look on the contact page, you will now see a form that allows you to notify us when you experience technical difficulties. We are no longer accepting personal messages.
This wasn’t done because we are offended by any particular email. Almost all of the emails are actually very nice. But, maybe because of Ryder, or because of COVID, or because the number of readers has grown, we are flooded.
We receive dozens of messages a week, sometimes ten in one day, and a lot of them require thoughtful response. We are swamped to the point where the admin tasks like epiracy take-down notices and website traffic reports are getting pushed aside to make time for email responses. One of Kate’s books had disappeared from Australian retailer sites for unknown reasons, and we didn’t know for a month, because it was buried in email communications.
We hope that the changes will allow us to solve problems faster and will ease our workload. Thank you for your understanding.
Sweet dogs! I love that they float in the pool.
The dogs look soooo cute in the pool toys 🙂 Totally understandable with the emails. The price of fame. You two are very generous with your time as is!
BTW I like the new Leave a Reply format
➕1️⃣ ???? ???? ???? ????
Quincy’s fur looks really better !! ????
You are very fortunate that you have a pool and a nice home and property and loving family. I am still hunkered down with my Mother in AZ with a lot of crazy people yelling No Masks and White Power, while coronavirus cases rapidly rise. I am going home to L.A. next week and we will spend the rest of the summer where it isn’t 105 at ten in the morning. I need my low seventy degree weather and the ocean breezes.
Stay calm and be well.
A year or so ago, when everything seemed to require repairs, I wondered if we had done the right thing by buying the house. No regrets now. A pool and a nice yard make all the difference in 102 degree heat. 🙂
Did you ever post what the HVAC repairman said about the cables going through the outside wall that allowed water to flood into the office? I remember you said the electrician just shook his head and passed the problem on, but if you posted anything further about it, I must have missed it – and I check your blog every day. Okay, full admission, sometimes several times a day. What can I say? I’m hooked.
I have wondered about that too! I discussed that with my husband and showed him the pictures. He even asked me about it a few weeks later.
❤️
Yeah I’ve lived in AZ almost all of my life and seeing how people have reacted to covid just turned me off AZ a bit.
Even as minority, I was lucky to have a carefree childhood without any real racist/discriminatory encounters… and now seeing the racists and the covid conspiracy believers come out of the woodwork just… Made me sad. I wish people cared more about each other
Just wondering if the dogs got into the floats themselves or were they helped in? They look happy ????
Thank you for reducing the clutter. Your dogs look very comfortable. Here in far West Texas fireworks are illegal, because of the drought. A $500 fine was imposed for ignoring the ban. Apparently the fine didn’t deter thousands of people in the County from using firecrackers, roman candles, rockets and cherry bombs. Thankfully there was no Breaking News on the local TV this morning about fireworks problems. I don’t have any pets. A Daughter said one of her dogs and her cat had problems, their thunder jackets didn’t work.
One of our neighbors drove to the next state and bought nearly $2,000 worth of fireworks. He put on a show that lasted the better part of two hours. The next day, walking outside, I was a bit stunned by the remaining detritus… which of course, he didn’t pick up. What a mess.
Our cats were most definitely displeased.
You guys are so generoous with your time. Love the dogs! I’m sure hell would freeze over before I could get the cats to do that. ????
I’m glad you enjoyed the Fourth. It looks like you had a lot of fun – or at least the pets did.
Please continue to take care of yourselves and your family. You obviously have figured it out and I applaud you.
There’s a pool right across the street, but I am unwilling to join the small crowd already in it. I will continue to watch the kids and their parents. They need the outlet more than I do.
As always, thank you for all the lovely books. I noticed several of your books updated when I went through my library.
Happy Summer!
I was kinda surprised that was an option when I first started reading your blog years ago. That you kept it as one for so long says a lot.
Glad you had a nice Independence Day!
So earlier you had directed blog readers to use email to alert you to continuity issues with Ryder. Back to comments?
There’s an option for that in the new setup.
Cute pics of dogs on floaties!! You could do a water parade!
We’re still waiting to get the okay to use our local beach, but better safe than sorry. (It could snow, just on me, and I would be a happy camper…!❄️)
Quiet in my neighborhood so far today, so I’m guessing some partyers have “Fifth of July” syndrome this afternoon….
The dogs looked very happy. How did you get them in the floats??
I am in NYC , Queens, and we had fireworks large and small for the whole week. My cats were constantly freaking out and slinking on the floor trying to hide.
Not really finding the spirit of The Fourth of July.
Still staying at home , had some part time work and now back to worrying.
But I truly thank you for all your posts. And the BDH.
It has kept me going and helping with the stress.
Please wear masks, I know they are hot and uncomfortable but they needed now. And wash your hands .
Use hand sanitizer.
It’s so perfect that you have a dragon shaped floatie. I hope there are sword shaped dog toys and biscuits. I really appreciate how much you give to your fans but i sincerely hope you take care of yourselves. Please don’t overextend. You’re also living and working with lots of underlying stress. Glad you had family time! Hope you all stay safe.
FYI only the first of the edge books is available in the UK, I don’t know if you know about that?
agh – as an audiobook I mean!
Probably stating the obvious but you need a web admin who is not you. 🙂
I am glad you had a happy fourth with your family.
Prioritizing is important. Love your work! Stay well!
Thank you for post, Ilona Andrews. Love the pictures. Quincey is a beautiful. Glad you got to spend time together as a family. Some of mine is in quarantine due to contact tracing and grumpy because they don’t feel sick. Since I am responsible for my 76 year old Mother and her multiple health issues, I am in the dog house as I told her No. Staying at home. Stay well.
I don’t know if House Andrews has read a lot of Heinlein, but he made jokes in his novels about filling gutters with fan mail (his characters did). I think after a while, it becomes a real time suck and burden, no matter what the ratio of love to crazy is. I guess another answer is what stars do- a person who reads it all, sends out a form letter response, and sends you a summary and any notes. Maybe that’s what Brandi used to do? To make it at all cost effective (as your movies probably won’t come out for 5 years or so 😉 ) is to maybe take on an apprentice who’ll do it for critiques, and who is street smart and a tough nut. Ah well! Your answer works well too.
Glad you all had a peaceful Fourth. The email solution seems perfectly reasonable to me. Loving Ryder. Enjoy your Sunday!
Thank you for all you do! Glad y’all are taking care of yourselves.
Sounds like perfect compromise between what needs to get done and what others want. Y’all keep up the great work.
Oh man yeah. That’s understandable if even with an assistant you can’t keep up with the email that something has to change. Somehow I don’t see hiring a second assistant just for email being a reasonable option in this economy. Do what you need to do. I mean, you can’t write more books if you’re spending all day writing email. ????
OkeeDokee. You guys are ACES with me and appreciate anything you do. We had huge fireworks problems last night. Peeps set up relays of M80s+++ and didn’t anticipate the issues. Dogs cats went totally nuts. FINALLY about midnight took my poor hot drooling shaking dog on quiet walk in the dark. Just me my baseball bat pepper spray and 102lb pit bull. But got home rereading enjoying still old copy of small magics. Don’t care loving it.
Love the pictures and totally understand the need to streamline for sanity:)
I hope it works and thing flow more smoothly for you guys.
You two are such a kind couple. You are way more patient than I’d ever be. How you both manage to keep everything going and give us Ryder and the Small Magics upgrades and all the myriad other things is magic. I realize it comes with a lot of hard work and tears at times. You do whatever you need to do to stay happy and safe. I am so glad to have found your books. Here, kitty, kitty always makes me think of you. Best and stay cool, safe, and enjoy each other.
+1. Thank you for everything always.
I freaking love the dog on the dragon pool float! Thanks for sharing!
I had to walk Mabel, our boxer bulldog mix, at 1:30 am and then our lab at 4:15 am. Poor pups were done in by the nonstop fireworks in our neighborhood and nearby communities from about 8 pm to almost midnight. So we all have napped a lot today and I’m doing some knitting listening to Magic Breaks. Enjoy the gorgeous pool!
I adore your grandpuppies. <3
Glad you had a good holiday. Totally makes sense about the emails. You make yourselves very available. There is only so much time in a day and you have to make decisions about the best use of that precious commodity.
Happy Independence Day to all who celebrated. Stay safe and sane.
This sounds great. Hope you find it easier to do the important work that keeps you in business.
Love your photo, G.
Me: We need that pool float (Dragon one).
Husband: We don’t need a pool float, we don’t even have a pool.
Me: Fine, we need a pool and that pool float.
Husband: *sighs at my ridiculousness and walks out of room*
LOL!!!
My husband and I just had that exact conversation, only he added:
“And no, you can’t have it for the beach, either. I’d have to get the Coast Guard to rescue you when you end up way out at sea!” *sighs again and walks out*
I live in the Bronx..enough said. Two days ago I ate outdoors at a restaurant for 1st time since mid-March. Kept mask on until food was delivered & replaced mask each time I had to speak with the waiter. Yesterday I got my first haircut since lockdown. I will wait 2 weeks and get tested for covid as precaution.
Thank you for so many wonderful stories and sharing so much of your lives with us.
I hope all of your family remains healthy going forward.
Cute pics!
Thank you for the admin notice.
Take care and be well.
Oh my goodness, that pool floatie is amazing hahaha. Where is it from? 🙂
Also, limiting emails makes complete sense when you are missing out on important emails because of the sheer volume of notes!
Quincy looks healthy and happy. Looks like you had a lovely day. I envy your pool. ????
Do you still use the smoker you got? I saw the Kamado grill/smoker in the Costco mailer and was about to go get one (masked up, sanitizing wipes in hand), then saw the price. Now I’m thinking about just a stand-alone smoker. But I don’t know that I’d use it enough.
Thanks for Ryder, and everything. It’s a bright spot.
Your dogs are adorable!! Thanks for sharing their pool pics!’
I had a great 4th! Roomie was gone two nights so just me and my cats. I was “social” 30 hours last week at work so I did exactly as I wanted for a day and a half then had to become a responsible adult again this afternoon. Early morning projects outside on Monday then clearing the decks for the work week starting Tuesday afternoon. I’m not exactly a hermit but I do enjoy my home and me time. Love the pet pics and the pool dragon.
More doggy pics please
+1 yes, please, more doggie pics. they look like raiders on the seas——captain Quincy of the dragon longboat (Norse-like) and dread pirate Charlie in a stealthy dinghy (British flipper).
clipper not flipper. dang auto correct. hahaha!
Oh no! And what we really, really want you guys to do is write more books and live well. That doesn’t sound like it qualifies, quite. It may be necessary, but priorities after all.
It’s like Rogan cuddling a puppy!!!
:))
And that right there is why I don’t ever e-mail authors. It takes time and thought to reply and I always think to myself: “Do I really want to take up time from somebody else just to say this thing I’m thinking about that isn’t all that important?” and the answer is always “No”. After all thats what comment-sections are for.
As an IT professional, it surprises me to see that many authors I enjoy use the same address for business correspondence as for fan email and for personal email. Email addresses are easy. I have a public email, a private email, a work email, an email for a busy list I like that generates a lot of back and forth, an email for businesses I like that email coupons. I think I’m up to 7 or 8 emails. Some I filter heavily, some I rarely look at, one I don’t look at at all, just dump the junk a couple times a year. Nearly all email handling software will handle many accounts.
I also know people who set up filters to sort their email, nothing stays in the inbox except spam. I find that harder to maintain. Having business and personal email go to the same box is a surefire way to lose stuff of importance, at least to me.
Now Quincy lives a dog’s life as it should be, and he obviously loves it. Several friends who live on a lake have German Shepherds. The people like to paddleboard and a dog sits on the prow of each paddleboard as they travel around the lake each sunny morning. Never mind a dragon fleet, these paddleboards have living, toothily smiling figureheads.
Love the shepherd in the dragon float, but then, partial to shepherds. Glad everyone is fine. Sorry about the e-mail glut. I hope the reduction allows you all to clean up problems quickly and write more books…yessss…more…bookssss
These were great pictures of the dogs. They look so comfortable. I am glad you had a good day.
We went out today, the first time since March. We arrived at the tropical fish shop and the fire alarm was going off! We are home now and have new plants and fish. Most people wore masks. Fingers crossed we will be okay. Our area in England is not one of the top ones for the rising corona virus figures.
Thank you for all your writing and giving me a glimpse of warm weather!!
I love the dragon pool float.
Aw, your furry family looks very happy. Gorgeous!
Glad you are finding a way to relieve some of the pressure and stress on yourselves.
I hope this is temporary ????????
And I can’t help but think you’re only being nice and polite about the nature of some of the emails you’ve received…
Which makes some of us feel bad.
Question: how can your fans reach you then????? Is there some other alternative?
ARTHA!!! Artha looks so happy ☺️
Love y’all, do what you need to do!
I’m such a geek that sorting through, reading and responding to Ilona Andrews’ e-mails sounds like it’d be a fun or interesting job. Could y’all have someone sort them into various boxes according to what they require and mark as new if they’re not reviewed by the ppl who cover that section. Then again that might require hiring someone. It’s like a catch-22. If you don’t accept certain emails, you may miss something and if you accept them all you’ll get inundated and DEFINITELY miss important things.
Happy 4th!
I fully support your decision to focus more on writing books for me 🙂 awesome pool floaty! Keep up the great work!
Stay safe. Health first, next family, after that business, and finally us your readers/fans. Without your taking care of the first three, there wouldn’t be any more books/stories.
Take care and be good to your self and family,
I love that pool float – i think i need that one in my life!
Completely understandable! Thanks for maintaining the blog and all your amazing books. I’m re-reading Small Magics now that I have the updated version. 🙂
Just fyi – As of writing this, the paragraph under the “FAQ” section on the contact page refers to your old email policy. I imagine you’d want to update it to reflect your current policy. You’re probably already aware of this, but in case not I thought I’d point it out.
We had an “exciting” Fourth of July. We expected to hear more fireworks in our neighborhood, because the city outlawed them recently and then canceled the public displays. But, OMG! It sounded like a Civil War re-enactment combined with the WWII bombing of London. My kids were freaking out scared. Found out the next day that our county fairgrounds, a mile away from us, had decided to set off 1,000 industrial-size fireworks all at once, in a 15-minute window, so they could put it on TV. We never saw any of it, because of the trees. It just sounded like The End of the World.
Loved the pics ❤️
Minor email question — (and I fully support your turning off the email)…
you mentioned in the previous post on not wanting edits that you wanted people who found factual changes to email you instead of posting on the blog.
I’ve never been knowledgeable enough (grin) to need to inform you of anything, but for those much smarter than I am, is there something else you’d like them to do instead? (The answer might well be “no thank you” but you did seem to want those.)
Argh, never mind. I see that’s easily one of the options under the ‘TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES’ section of the “Get in tough / Contact” link. I didn’t realize there was something below the second image when I was scrolling.
OMG, The Dragon…I wanna dwagon, but can I hv the pool first?
A pool, or access to, is an absolute necessity in Tx. I do not miss the 102+ with 80% humidity at all.
Glad everyone had a great (as much as possible) Fourth of July. Me? I stayed home and watched TV.
If anyone gives you and Gordon grief about the e-mails, you can always take Kate’s advice and get a big onion to cork their mouth with it. 😀 Yes, I read Kate’s grocery list. I laughed so hard at if Curran gave her any grief about the onion, she would use it to cork his mouth. I can picture Curran with an onion in his mouth, giving Kate his Beast Lord stare, spitting it out, and telling her he was not amused.
Regarding the email: Good for you! Cut down on your workload wherever you can, or you’ll find your time is being fribbled away on a “whole lotta nuthin”. That’s no way to live.
Stay well.
What a beautiful German Shepherd puppy!
WHERE DID YOU GET THE DRAGON FLOAT? I have to get one! (I collect dragons!)
I think you go far and beyond with your generosity of your time and thoughtfulness to your readers/fans. Glad you are making things less demanding for yourselves. Thank you.
No need to apologize. We love what you give us, so take this as a “thank you” for all you give! We just want more and more and more, and like any blog “mommy,” you need some “me time.”
Love
I will cut to the chase – please take care of yourselves! We must remember what happened to another author…
“Oh, the legend lives on from Arkham on down,
To the great ocean where Cthulu lay dreamin’,
Old Lovecraft, they said, had to give up his lunches,
When the volume of mail left him screamin’ …”
Thank you for the pup pictures! Is that Arfa or the new boy?
Love your GSD. And thank you for all your snippets
That dog is flipping adorable!
I adore your dog’s photo!! That dragon float is too cute!
Pools in sunny, hot places need covers! I’d burn to a crisp in 2 minutes, flat. On the other hand, where did you find the dragon float???
The puppers have the good life, don’t they?
I love your books!
Your Frenchie’s surgeon did a really good job. Cooper just had an eye removed due to glaucoma, he had the prosthetic put in, I hope he looks as good as your little guy who is adorable.