Alexis Dawes

Yes, yes, yes… I’ve been gone a few weeks.

Last time I blogged, I was in the early stages of the flu. That lasted a week and some change.

Then my daughter got sick for the 1,000th time this school year.

Then I had out-of-town guests.

Then I got addicted to the stock market. (Hi… my name is Alexis Dawes, and I’m a trading addict. But we’ll save that for another blog.)

So the weekend before last I sat down to finish writing No More Smelly House, and a crazy thing happened.

I realized that I REALLY had a lot of writing to do. Seriously. A LOT.

I kept thinking this report was going to be done lickity-split. Ha, ha. I misjudged the depth of information to be included.

Smells are the craziest things. They are EVERYWHERE in your home. And there are a ton of mystery smells that I hadn’t thought of.

I couldn’t just glaze over smells coming from a washing machine. Or what to do about a bathroom that has a urine smell even though it’s perfectly clean. Or fish smells that mysteriously linger, even when they haven’t eaten fish for weeks.

In order to neutralize an odor, you first have to find out where it comes from. And trust me, they come from the oddest places for the oddest reasons.

And since I’m no expert in plumbing or house maintenance, I really had to bury my nose in topics normally reserved for contractors.

Sure I could have outsourced that part. But I think it’s more beneficial for you to see exactly what you have to go through sometime. After all, the easy way is obvious.

Anyway, now I’m knee deep in 40+ pages of information on getting rid of smells.

I know enough about P-traps and sewer gas and vents and smoke machines and dirty sock syndrome, to have a fairly decent conversation with a plumber.

I can’t say that I’m happy that I had to learn about all that stuff. But it’s done. Water under the bridge.

And actually, the report is turning out so much better than I expected.

This is the kind of information that can go on selling for years. A really good desperate topic.

In fact, once I saw how in-depth it had become, I went ahead and applied for my ISBN number, so that I could do this as a print book as well.

Remember months ago I said that I wanted to do a print book, but I couldn’t quite figure out a topic with enough of an appeal for publicity purposes? (I wanna do radio interviews, and that kind of stuff.)

I think No More Smelly House definitely has a wide enough appeal for a print book.

And as far as publicity… a lot of people have experienced some weird smell that they want to get rid of. Whether it’s their neighbors cooking smells coming up through the vents, cat pee on a sofa, sewer smell in the bathtub, and so on.

I’ve already been in touch with 2 homemaker type sites that are very interested in promoting it. So it’s full steam ahead. I’m excited!

I’m really at the tail end of completing the book now. The cover is currently being designed. Then it’s going to a proofreader. And I’m having some graphics done to be included in the book.

I have to admit, this project has gone beyond what I originally imagined it to be.

It’s bigger. It’s much more detailed. Took far longer to write than I imagined it would.

But… when it comes down to it, it’s still a desperate topic. It’s something that could go on selling for a long, long time.

So when looking at the big picture, I don’t mind putting in a little extra work.

BTW, have you seen the new header for the No More Smelly House blog? I put it up a couple of weeks ago. Much better than the first one I paid $50 for.

The new one only cost me $15 from Banner Square. And it was completed in 24 hours. Gotta love that.

I haven’t blogged there since. But I have been testing several different smell good products. There’s some really good stuff out there. Odor neutralizers in particular.

So that’s the update. I’m back. I’m working like a maniac.

Alexis Dawes
(Coming to a talk radio show near you!)