I'm Still Here

It has been quite a while since I updated this site. Like so many others, our life is not what it was a few months ago. Too bad, I enjoyed our old life.

Thankfully we are healthy. With so much we can no longer do, we are not always in our normal good spirits.

I am doing little if any, writing. I'm still sitting on one completed book and another completed first draft, but I just do not feel like doing anything with either of them. 

The garden is mostly finished for the year. We had to share with several mule deer, so we did not get many large tomatoes or nice strawberries as they seemed to be favored by the deer. 

We are still doing some hiking (see photos), and I am playing more golf than I need to. Someday, God willing, I may decide to write again. 

What we are missing most is travel - lots of people feel this way. We would love to visit old friends and especially family we have not seen in a while. Even short trips, in most cases, are out. 

Thanks to all of you who have asked about us, we are fine, simply lying low. 

For all of you writers - good luck, keep writing and keep reading. 

All 12 of my books are still selling (thanks to readers).  Here are the links to Amazon.

TEASER!

My book that will be published next - Yes, the finished one I have done nothing with so far. 

This book follows up my mildly successful - On Turning 70, that I published two years ago. 

Enjoy the days ahead, and don't let the bad overtake all the good there is in life. 

Writing Update - May 2020

Here we are, almost through May, and for most of us, nothing has changed. We all look forward to a more normal life sometime soon, and I am sure it will eventually get here. 

Wyoming's Snowy Range last weekend.

So What Have I Been Doing?  Some wiring, a bit of hiking, lots of gardening, and quite a bit of reading.

Writing - I have completed everything for my latest non-fiction books. What does that mean? I have the back matter completed (stuff on the back cover), and I have a cover. Release date - still not sure, but sometime in the next 60, or so, days.

The Next Blade Holmes Novel - Nothing for sure yet as my work production is slow, but it looks like I can make it (Book 3) by September 1. Fingers crossed!

Book 5 of My Kids Chapter Book Series - Hoping before Christmas. 

Wyoming State Bird in Guernsey State Park

Anything Else? I am doing a bit of work on a mystery I started seven or eight years ago. This one is fun, it combines two of my passions, a good murder mystery, and golf. It will be fun if I ever complete it. 

Osprey looking for dinner in the North Plate River

Working - Resting & Distancing

What's going on? – For me, and I expect many others, the answer is the traditional, "not much."

With all the extra time on my hands, I should be getting more, not less accomplished. I do get in about two hours each day writing or editing, an hour or so in my shop, gardens, or yard. The rest of the time, I waste. Maybe not all of it – I have done a good bit of reading – on the deck in the sunshine when I can.

I think he might have found me

Typing Skills – My typing skills, with a broken finger, have deteriorated recently. Took me years to become a proper typist, now I am one hand regular, and one hand two fingers.

Social Distancing – Much has been made of distancing ourselves from others recently. Everyone I know takes this quite seriously, but it can be kind of funny here. We live in a 2,111 square mile county with 8,391 other folks. Using my handy phone calculator, that means we have 3.98 people per square mile. Our county has two stoplights, both 26 miles away in Wheatland. As Wyomingites have been saying all along – "we have always social distanced." It is easier here - where standing or waiting in any kind of line is an oddity. 

 

Backyard Goldfinch Battle

Meanwhile – It is getting close to spring flower and garden time – a time for rejuvenation for all. And now would be an excellent time for me to get back to work. Book 13, another nonfiction book on aging, and all of the joys that go with it will be finished this month.

Newell Bay in Guernsey State Park

Photos – Wyoming's few people do make it possible for us to get out and walk/hike on nice days. Today's photos are from recent hikes in Guernsey State Park and from my backyard deck.

Take care, my friends!

Back to Writing

Writing - It seems like I should be writing more, not less, now with so much time at home. But that does not seem to be the case. Not sure why - worrying too much about the state of our country and the world might be the problem.

The good news -  is the past week, I have started turning it around and getting some work done.

What else have I been doing? Cleaning up the yard and garden and attempting to make some organizational sense our of our garage. Oh - I have got quite a lot more reading done. I usually read about a book every 10 days, now I am reading about twice that amount. 

Staying in Shape - We have also been actively walking/hiking. We live in a sparsely populated area of the least populated state in the United States, makes it easy to get away. On our hikes and outings, we have encountered zero people, and only saw a handful of vehicles. 

Our little town on the North Platte River

Stay Safe - Please stay safe and distance yourself from others. Find new hobbies, read a few new books, enjoy every day.

The CCC Museum at Guernsey State Park

Writing - End of January Update

Writing Takes Much Time and often is an exercise in futility. I am reminded of old-time movie scenes where a wannabe writer, or sometimes an established writer rips page after page from the typewriter, wads up the paper and throws it at a wastebasket. Those scenes may be long outdated but the premise still stands. In today's world, we simply write it, in my case, read it, highlight it and hit delete. Writing takes time and can, at times, be hard work. I have long considered myself a hobbyist writer so maybe it should not matter. But, after twelve books, it does matter. I hate it when I write myself into a corner or need to tie something I missed along the way, together. And that is where I stand in my writing today. It will work out, it always does, but I may have a hurting brain before I figure all this out.

Sales - On the other hand, I can happily report that sales are still a bit on the rise. For this, I am happy. Both my sales numbers and KDP pages read are up for the third straight month. I may not be on the way to bestseller status but things are looking up.

Writing Update - I am finishing up two books, one fiction, and one non-fiction. The fiction book is the third in my, Blade Holmes, historical fiction/western series. These books are set mostly in Wyoming and have been well received by western readers. My other work, now in my first rewrite, is a nonfiction follow-up to my book, On Turning 70, and should be out soon – hope by March 1, 2020.

On a Local Note – We are enjoying incredibly mild Wyoming weather with many days hitting 50 or more degrees. This beautiful weather has allowed me to spend more outside time. Outside for me means, ten rounds of golf in January, lots of photo trips, and a few walks in our beautiful weather. It almost makes me want to start my indoor garden plants – almost.

Enjoy the day and the rest of the week – cheer for your favorite in Sundays Super Bowl.

See all my books here on Amazon – all are available as books or ebooks.

A Look Back and a Look Into the Future

A Look Back and a Look Into the Future

2020 has got to be a better year than 2019. For me, 2019 will be a most forgettable year. A writer's life is not always easy, and I hope for each lousy year, I will have two or three good ones. One exciting thing for me is that I now have lived in every decade except the 30s. It might be a stretch for me to make that one, but who knows?

After years of writing around 300,000 words, this year was but a few thousand.  The consequences of writing less showed up in my sales, which were about half of the past few years, as were my Kindle Unlimited pages read. At times I thought maybe I had given up writing, but now I’m not sure. It might have had more to do with me than with writing. I not only wrote less, but I also gave up on a few other pursuits and hobbies. Physical ailments kept me from walking much and slowed me down from other things like photography and playing golf – looking back at 2019, I really didn’t do much of what has become my norm. But, there is always a bright side, we did some traveling, and I read quite a few good books, watched many fantastic movies, smoked some meat, completed some woodworking projects, and liked our terrific garden. I also enjoyed birthday number 71 – at my age, every birthday is excellent.

Writers are as bad as any other group at making and then not keeping New Year’s Resolutions. I have never lasted over a few weeks on any that I made. I do hope that the New Year will be a good one. Maybe I will get around to finishing and publishing the two books I have that have sat gathering dust for the past year.  Each of these books is within a few days of being completed.

My New Year’s Resolution – Enjoy life   --- As Dr. Seuss so aptly said, “Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”

Today's photos are from an outing earlier this week in Guernsey State Park a few miles from where we live.

Here is the link for all my books on Amazon