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

Writing from my Wyoming Easy-Chair

Terrific read about writers and the west posted today by, Lex Anteinternet – take a look.

Meanwhile here from writing central, in my easy-chair, I am tapping along on my keyboard. I have two books with the first draft finished, but instead of working on those find myself writing new stuff. Not sure why, but it might be I am not in the mood to edit right now.

We had a bad storm move through yesterday.  Nothing much at our place, but a few miles north, softball-size hail and a tornado, glad we are safe, but sad for those who had much destruction.

Well, back to writing, maybe a bit of editing, perhaps not.

Photos of elk and Bighorn sheep from our drive to Laramie last Sunday.

“To err is human to edit divine” – from my Grammarly site.

I call this last photo - kids at play.

Have a terrific rest of the week. 

See all of my books here 

Writing - Reading and Birthdays

Well, I made it through my birthday, and am now, officially a septuagenarian. For all of the younger than me readers that fancy word means I am now 70, and yes, it is hard to believe.

Is it Spring Yet? - The weather, at last, seems to be warming and we have begun hiking in the local state park (Guernsey State Park – Wyoming) again. Feels good to get out of my chair and feel sunshine and outside air.

Writing - I am still spending most of my writing time working on my nonfiction book about Fort Laramie and all of its great stories. I also find a bit of time, every day or two and before my head explodes, to work on some of my fiction.

Reading –  Nonfiction - The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse. Good read so far, started today, and I am about a third of the way through. The book is pretty hard for me to put down.

Garden Time – I will soon be starting my garden seed flats: flowers, tomatoes, and onions, mostly. With spring I seem to get up a bit earlier, and if everything goes well, I should get more done. Then I am reminded that Day Light Savings Time, is just around the corner.

From one of my favorite writers -

You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.
 Annie Proulx

Today's photos from outings the past two days.

Keep on reading and keep on writing.

Here We Go Again

It’s 2017 day number 2. So, how are those New Year’s Resolutions going? Funny how so many people set goals on only one day of the year. I recently set a goal for the month of December, and it worked. Goal setting for writers needs to be an ongoing process. I have several books to publish this year and am sure I will get at least three published, more I hope. I am not afraid to adjust goals as I go that I do try to not soften them too much.

Beautiful Winter Look the Last Few Weeks

I am waiting to publish two books that are ready to go as I decide what to do with ISBN numbers. In the past, I have used the $10.00 option from Amazon. That is no longer available, and now I am looking at purchasing ten numbers for $250.00. Twenty-five dollars each is still not bad, it is the initial $250.00 I am holding back on. For me, that is a lot of money at one time. Create Space/Amazon does offer a free ISBN number option, but then I would need to give up my own publishing company, Old Trails Publishing, which I want to keep using.

At present, I have decided to get the three books that are close, finished, then decide what to do about a number. I have also thought about publishing some of my work, only as eBooks, but there is just nothing better than leafing through a book that a writer can call his own.

Stark - But I Like It

Meanwhile, keep on writing and keep on reading.

No Looking Back Now - It's 2017       Happy New Year!

Back In The Saddle Again

The End of a Vacation - After a bit over two weeks on the road, we are home. Vacations are always great, and then it is wonderful to be back home. Meanwhile, my writing has been nearly nonexistent. Over the 15 days we were away, I tweeted twice, posted no blogs and wrote only about 1,200 words – not much. The good news is we had fun, a most enjoyable trip. Today's photos are all from our time in Dodge City Kansas where we spent an enjoyable day.

 Part of the Original Boot Hill

Old Town Recreation in Dodge City

A Month of Writing - Last month I wrote a few words less than 10,000 words, even short for me during my slacker writing times. Now here I sit writing my first words in November and it is the 11^th.  Seems time to get started. Recently I read that 70% of published books lose money and that cover designers and editors often are the only one’s to profit from a majority of self-published books – something to think about. I have been able to make a profit, albeit a small one on each of my books. To do this, I limit my expenses. Not preaching to the choir just reminding everyone that spending thousands on a book that will be self-published might not be the best idea.

Watching Gunsmoke on 60+ Year Old TV in the Museum at Dodge City
I  kept my feet off the table, just liked the cool effect. I find it funny.  

NANO Writers - Many years I have thought about joining the NANO writers in trying to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. Guess that is not me, can't or won't push myself that hard. A good month of writing for me seems to be around 20,000 words, but most months fall in the ten or twelve thousand area. Maybe some day.

Thought this old time printing operation fit here nicely.

Works In Progress – My biggest writing problem seems to be that I have too many stories and not enough time. When I complete the first draft, I put it away and often write another novel and several short stories before I go back to finish the first novel. As all of my loyal readers know I have three books completed and in various states of edit and completion. What do I do, you guessed it, start another. Glad novels and short stories are only part, and not my entire writing income.

Black Smith Shop

Keep on reading and keep on writing.

A few days after leaving Dodge City we were in Louisiana

Oh – almost forgot, while away on vacation I was elected to the local school board. Looking forward to serving. 

Here We Go Again

Here we go again – off on our annual fall trip. This trip will make four of the past five years that we have taken a break and got out of Dodge in late October. It is not because of the weather, which has been unbelievable, just time to do what us old people do – travel a bit. And speaking of Dodge, this will be our second day stop, the old town in Dodge City for the third time. Many think it is over the top touristy, but it is still, fun, interesting, educational and helps with writing inspiration.

We will be spending time in Oklahoma, on Route 66 in Texas and then a week in Lousiana. We will also make a trip over to Vicksburg, Mississippi to tour, for the second time, the Civil War Battle Site. Then two or three days to take in some of the shows in Branson, Missouri, followed by a day with family in Nebraska and we will head back home to Wyoming.  Looks like we will be gone two weeks, maybe a few days more. Depending on how much fun we are having and how much money we have left.

I am not sure if I will post anything while we are on the trip, other than a few photos here or on Twitter, but I will get some writing done. We have a few days of rest scheduled where I will sit in the sun, or shade and write, edit, format and all the other things I am behind on.

No Place Like Home

 We schedule our trips well in advance and always have a few things we wish we could be home for. My son coaching his football team in the playoffs, and what looks to be a good Wyoming game Vs. Boise State, this weekend, but I will follow the updates and enjoy the trip south. Speaking of enjoying, I can hardly wait to get into southern Oklahoma or Northern Texas where many eating places feature fried pies. Not the best thing for my diet, but it only happens once each year.

Meanwhile enjoy the terrific fall weather, winter is not far away.

                               Pick your own caption here                               

 #1. Me, after too many fried pies                               #2. Winter is not far away

Keep on reading and for all of you that are writers, get in the chair and get busy writing.

Book Marketing and the Dead Western

Book Marketing

Like all writers I have found that marketing is most difficult. How much is too much? I commonly cut off people I follow on twitter who post too many times a day promotions for themselves or other authors. Not sure how some people have time for anything else. One I quit following must have tweeted two dozen times a day about their book. Another I cut loose seemed to retweet each and every tweet they could find.

Book Promotions

This might be the last chance to download a free copy of my short story click the link and read the short western.

I ran a free book (actually a short story) promotion over the weekend. I limited my promotions to once on each of my blogs and three tweets over three days. Some will tell me that is not enough – maybe not. I did get several dozen downloads but have no idea if that is a good number, or terrible. Nevertheless, this week it will be back to work writing and probably no promotions, other than links on posts like this one. One thing I did notice during the five-day free short story promotion, I sold a few of my other books as the promotion was running.

Is the Western Dead?

I am constantly told that I write in a genre that is dead, or nearly so. Most of what I write could be classified as historical fiction, and I think that is alive and well. The westerns I write may not be doing as well; there are still fans and readers, but not many. So how do the two differ? Historical fiction has real events, real people, and real locations mixed in with fictional happenings, people, and places. Westerns may have a real setting but most, if not all of the story, comes from the active imagination of the author.

Might be a setting for a good story

Making a Living Writing

Mysteries are still popular as part of many genres. Most of my historicals and westerns are also mysteries, something I hope sets my stories apart from many others. Nevertheless, all books, by unknown or nearly unknown authors, have a tough time finding a market. Once in a while, I have a good day or week of sales, but then they often fall off to nothing. Good thing I do not have to rely on my stories to make a living, but along with some writing work for others, I am getting closer.

Here I am heading up the mountain for inspiration - or for the view

One last note 

This could be either good or bad. My wife and I are heading back to Nebraska this week for our class reunion. That wonderful class of 1966. Yep, 50 years and a few of us are still kicking. Should be a lot of fun.

 

Out for a cool morning hike, and then off to a 50-year reunion

Spring Fever? - Might Be!

This is my third post tracking my writing progress this year. For those of you who have not been lucky enough to read the other two fantastic posts – here is a synopsis. This year I am keeping a journal of my daily writing, the number of words and what I was writing. Not too hard. The goal was to write almost every day. I know, I know, big time writing blogs keep telling us to write every day, no exceptions. Well, that’s too hard. I can't’ t do it, but I am not doing badly.

Maybe I will get my writing flying along again soon

We are on day 52 of the year and I have written 49, pretty good for me. On big days, I go 2,000 words and more and on slow days, I go two or three hundred. This week was tough, just didn’t get it going. I skipped writing on Friday and Saturday, two days with zero words. Friday we were out of town shopping, ugg, and Saturday looking at Golf Carts and then playing golf, now that was a nice day.

Some days are good writing days, others are good hiking days - like today

And speaking about writing every day my, On-Line friend, author Oscar Case at -   has a fun post today on the same topic, not getting enough writing done. If you have not yet found his blog, give it a look.

Even with the days off I am averaging a bit over 1,000 words a day, about right for my goal of 350,000 words this year. If I could write in the morning, it would help, but I cannot. I read and work outside, but unlike most writers just can't get going in the morning. Maybe someday. On a good morning, I will get in an hour or more of research on one of the two nonfiction books I am working on.

My nonfiction books take a great amount of research
Research on guys like William Scott Ketchum
at one time the commander of nearby Fort Laramie

Took time today for a nice hike in beautiful Guernsey State Park.

The difference between a good hike and a great one might be  the view

Keep writing.

Getting in some camping before he needs a reservation - Smart Turkey

Know Your Weapons

Seems like I see lots of author advertising lately for services offering expertise in areas that modern writers need. Two particular standout, one a guide to firearms and then yesterday a guide to bow and arrows. I grew up shooting both and it seems to me that if one is not familiar with a weapon they should, head out to a range and try it out, or leave it out of the story.  Or in my case, drive out in the country and shoot away at a target on BLM land. 

 

BLM

It reminds me of the old author advice, write what you know. If a writer does not know anything about guns or bows, write it simply. “the bad guy raised the gun or bow and shot him.” In many cases it depends on the reader, will they need to know the caliber, model, and manufacture of the gun? As a reader, I have never found it to be something I could not live without. As an avid target shooter, I don’t mind reading stories that go into some detail about weapons, but if the story is good, the word gun is okay, as far as the weapon, for me.

In my own writings, over the years, I have referred to both Army and Navy Colts,  made a simple reference to handguns of .38, .22 and .45 caliber and rifles of .306 and 30/30 caliber. All simple stuff, and all guns that I own and shoot. I also own several shotguns but have not, as yet, hey, I’m getting an idea here, worked one into a story.  In some cases like my Historical Fiction novel, Commitment, I get a bit more specific, but it’s not a required, must know, for the story, but it will be fun for gun buffs and those knowledgeable of historical weapons. 

Tell a great story, use details in things you know, write the rest of the story in a simple and straightforward manner and let the story carry the day.

Just my thoughts. Write on!

Off to a Good Start

I have always thought of myself as an avid reader. Now with the end of another year I am reading more and more posts of what others read last year. I read 30-50 books a year, some of the posters read 100 plus. Now that is reading. All good writers read a lot, but I think, reading two books a week is exceptional.  I have always believed that good writing went hand in hand with reading, looks to be true.

Maybe it helps to have a terrific reading room

This year, for the first time, I will attempt to keep track of my reading. Might not be as much as I want or believed, but I will keep track. I often spend hours in research for my nonfiction work, and that takes time so I will need to find more time – somewhere.

Seems that quite a few writers also keep track of words wrote for the year. Something else I do not do, but I have tried. This year I will give it another shot.

There they are, two ideas for the New Year, not really resolutions, but I will give it a go. Looking at it maybe they are resolutions – oh well!

We had a great start to the year joining in the national state parks, first-day hike activities. We took the three mile plus hike in Guernsey State Park with about 50 others. We started with temperatures in the teens, but with the bright sun and lack of wind, it was a near perfect day. It was a good way to start the year, now I need to get reading and writing – hey, that’s a pretty good way to go.

Need a good read? Click on the photo of  my five books?

I have a new mystery coming in February to be followed by, I hope, two other books this year.

I hope you are off to a great start by a warm fire in 2016
Photo from the Castle the mid-way point of our first day hike

Writing on a Frosty Wyoming Morning

Sometimes it takes a great frosty morning to get enough inspiration to write.

Mountainside frost in Guernsey State Park this morning

I often wonder how the mountain men and early explorers handled winter. I have read the stories but am not sure they can relate how tough it must have been.

North Platte River above Guernsey, Wyoming

Winter can be hard, but it also can be beautiful - as it was today on this frosty Wyoming morning.

Meanwhile, I am into a rewrite on a novel I put away several years ago. I am having fun with it and so far am pretty happy with the story. I am also continuing my research for my Fort Laramie book. Research is slow but fascinating.

I don't look much like a Mt. Man at Fur Trade days at Fort Laramie last summer -one of my favorite places 

Speaking to an elementary Wyoming history class later this week about mountain men. I Will also be talking about the Civilian Conservation Corps to a high school history class this week. Then what? How about some Christmas shopping, and of course, being the head sampler for my wife's Christmas goodies.

Self-Editing, What I Have Learned

I have always believed that editing is hard work, for me harder than writing. For many, to self-edit is almost impossible, but I think it can be done. I recently had my eyes opened by a simple fact – if you are self-editing, order a proof of the book and edit from it. Editing from my computer screen is the most difficult for me. Printing a hard copy and editing from that is a bit better but still not as good as looking at the book.

Talking about my CCC book

Which brings me to publishing eBooks, not sure that I could self-edit and publish eBooks without an editor. I have my readers, and I self-edit, but most of what I find are in the book proof.

 So what have I learned from this? Read the work in another form to finish the self-edit. This helps in finding, too long paragraphs, and too long sentences and misused words. I also read my novels and nonfiction works out of order, random chapters, last chapter first, and then skip around and read, and I read the chapters slowly. Some suggest reading the entire work backwards, this works, and for many works well, but not for me.

One of my chapter books for kids - fun read

From my self-editing experience, I have found two tips to be the best. First, know when to stop, sometimes I put in a comma or hyphenate a word then re-edit and take them out – Stop already!

Second, read aloud, hear yourself. And now I have a third, look over a proof of the book.

 If I were to put a fourth here it would be, now you are finished, send it off to an editor.

This is the proof of my western, still finishing final self-edit

I am not like writers that believe all works must be professionally edited. There are so many editors selling services it is important and hard to find a good one, and one who charges a fee that is affordable.  It takes quite a few sales to make back a thousand or more dollars in editing costs. Everyone that writes expects or hopes to have a best seller, but if you believe that the book will sell only a hundred or fewer copies stick with a good self-edit and get on to your next book.

So far my best selling book - several hundred copies

Summer's Almost Gone

I am still not spending as much time writing as I would like, but summers seem to be too busy for me. With all the guests and a few short trips, plus helping two of our kids move to new locations has taken most of my summer. But I don’t complain, not much anyway. Nice to have visitors and nice to see the kids doing well, but now I am ready to kick back a little.

Taking a break on the steps of the North Bluff Castle in Guernsey State Park

Fall seems to be my best time, I sub at the school a bit and write a lot. I still have great hopes of two books before Christmas and two more before May 1. All are written, or nearly so, but still need a bunch of work. My book of Christmas short stories in the west should be out on or before October 15, and my western mystery, “The Incident at Hell’s Half Acre,” is due out by the end of December. After Christmas, the third of my children’s chapter book series should be a go. And lastly and with great hopes, my second non-fiction history book should be available before the kids are out of school for another summer.

Colors from last fall as we hiked Black Canyon Trail

On another note, the vegetable garden is terrific this year and the flowers and lawn look pretty good. The golf game has been fair to middling and the fishing not so good. But when the snow flies I will be writing, I have a lot of projects to finish. 

See my books here 

A Unique Read

Not often can I find a unique book. When I do I frequently cannot put it down. Like many readers, I read mostly formula fiction, mysteries and westerns. But formula reads are not as much fun as a truly unique read. Every writer has heard that publishers hate the word unique and when querying an agent or publisher never say, “this book or story is unique.” Too bad.

If you look back on books that are some of your all-time favorites, are they unique? Most likely they are. That’s why Harry Potter and Fifty Shades of Grey took off. They were something new and exciting, different or as I said above unique. What happens afterwards, dozens of copycat books, formula reads are published. They're not all bad either, some are pretty good. From this we create an odd scenario, to be a great book it should be unique, but it is nearly impossible to find someone wanting to publish a unique book.

Deep down every writer wants to do something unique, something great but over the years many settled for a paycheck and formula books especially in the western genre. But today formula westerns do not sell, at least not very well.

So what do I consider a unique read in the western genre? Here is my top five - Little Big Man, The Virginian, The Time it Never Rained, Hondo and Andy Adams’s, Log of a Cowboy. Those are my top five, not saying these are my picks as the top five westerns ever, just my pick as great unique reads.

Think I may have set a record for use of the word unique (12 times) in one post. Below see two of my photos that I think are very unique (13) and might make a great story.