For some reason, the Photobucket account that I use to upload all my book covers and Romanov images has gotten over 500,000 hits this month. Consequently, I am dangerously close to exceeding my monthly bandwidth allowance. So it's very likely that a big chunk of my images on the blog may turn into those generic this-image-is-hosted-by-a-cheapskate-bandwidth-hog-who's-exceeded-her-limit graphics sometime between now and Saturday morning, when the monthly count will reset.

[Insert embarrassment, cringing, and profuse apologies here]

For the bargain price of $39.95 a year, I can avoid this whole issue entirely. Or I can do things like stop uploading such ginormous jacket art images and upload more of my photos directly to Blogger. You can probably guess which one I'm choosing -- for the moment, anyway. For all I know, this month's usage is a random fluke. I'll be keeping an eye out.