Reading Lawrence Block & A Finished Book

 Confessions of a Writer of Westerns

January 31, 2022

Most of the time, life can be good, even at 73. It's the last day of January, and it's 51 degrees. Right now, I'm sitting in the bright sunshine of our enclosed on three sides deck. I'm not sure what the temperature is as I type away facing the southeast direction, but it is hot. Guessing it might be above ninety here in my little favorite writing spot.

I had a pretty productive writing week, putting down about 4,000 words. I also managed to finish editing my next Senior Citizen book, which, God willing, I will publish in February. This week I plan to complete the second edit of the third book in my Blade Holmes, western mystery series. I had to move some things around in this one and had a couple of gaps I had to fix. Besides changing how I wrote the ending, everything seems to be rolling smoothly along.

I also spent some time shooting photos and videos this week, which always seems to make my life more fun. I also got in five good walks, down from the typical six or seven I shoot for each week.

Since I finished one book this past week, I am also in the planning note-making stage of the fourth of my series for seniors. Maybe this week will be when I get some writing done on the fifth in the series of my children's chapter books.

 

Reading – Telling Lies for Fun & Profit – A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block

There is lots of fun and information in this writing, how-to, book. Block is a master storyteller, and it shows through in this terrific collection of writing advice essays. Every chapter is timeless and told in the unique, down-to-earth, and often humorous way that only Block can do. A fine read for anyone who has hope of one day becoming a writer or better writer.  

Writing Tip – "Write to please yourself." Lawrence Block

That is always good advice, and if it just happens also to please a broad audience – even better. 😊

Weather – Another great week here in east-central Wyoming. It looks like snow is coming in the middle of the week, that's ok by me, we can use it, plus I have nowhere to go.

Quote of the day – "The more you look, the more you find." John E. McIntyre – from, The Old Editor Says

 

Today's Photos – Are from a drive through our local state park (Guernsey State Park) this past weekend.

 Click the link to see all of my books on Amazon

Have a great week. Keep on reading, and keep on writing!

 

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

Life of a Resting Writer

"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."
William Faulkner

I have spent quite a lot of time over the past few months reading and working on projects and precious little time writing. I guess with as much time as I have, I can do as I please, so I do. At one time I spent several hours each day, year-round, writing. I hope that someday I will get back to that.

What am I reading now? – Ernest Hemingway’s -A Moveable Feast

 I am getting some writing done, but so far, nothing finished. Along with a lack of writing I am also doing less photography than I was a year ago, maybe out with a camera once or twice a week instead of four or five times.

So what is the point of this? It is alright to ease up and take a break.

Soon the snow will be falling along with the temperatures, and writing will, once again, take up most of my daytime hours. It looks like that may be coming soon – snow forecasted for Thursday.

Book Sales - I am grateful that my books are again selling well. After my sales went through a case of the summertime Blues they are now close to brisk, at least for me. Thanks for reading! See all my books here on Amazon. 

Today's photos were taken this fall in Guernsey State Park two miles from our home.

Writing and Making Money as a Writer

Last week I said I was back, it's true I am, but not going too fast. I did work on a short story for Christmas and edited on my WIP, but didn’t write all that many words – but, it’s a start.

I am not sure if I will get back to writing every, or nearly every day of the week, maybe when winter comes, I will get a little more prolific. It is always rewarding to write a scene I like, but re-dos, do-overs, cuts, and adds, are tedious and can be downright dull hours on my laptop. 

It may be that I was enjoying writing more when I was not checking sales and looking at my writing income every day. What started as a hobby became more of a business, which is nice, but the business end takes time from, watching Baseball, playing golf, hiking, photography, gardening, and sitting around doing nothing – being retired.

I remember my first sale and the first check for more than $100. I keep a copy of that check

Of my twelve books, I have only two with sales over a thousand, but several more getting close. One of my books sits at less than 20 sold, guess they don’t all work.

What is Selling Now?

·                     1) Romance/Erotica

·                 2) Crime/Mystery

·                 3) Religious/Inspirational

·                 4) Science Fiction/Fantasy

·                 5) Horror

A few facts for new writers – or - how to not get rich quick.

The average traditionally published book sells 3,000 copies in its lifetime and only about 250-300 copies the first year.

To make the New York Times Best Seller list, a book needs to sell 9,000 copies, or more, the first week.

Most self-published eBooks sell less than 250 copies in their lifetime

Most self-published-only authors, make less than $1,000 per year, some much less than that.

I write, westerns/historical fiction, kids chapter book adventures, humor, and historical non-fiction.  Humm, don’t see any of those on the list above. I do write mystery into my historical fiction, that should help.

My Point for the day –

Write because you love it, write for the pure joy of putting words to a story -  and don’t quit your day job, not yet anyway.

Today’s photos are from Guernsey State Park, five minutes from our home.

Want to see my work?      Find all my books, available in softcover, and eBook here -

A Writing Day

I am still working on trying to get more words on my WIP each day.

Seems I have settled into a routine when I write only around 500 words a day. Weekends are the worst because we have lots of things we like to do and some we don’t want on weekends. Weekends have often been zero word days, now I am trying to write some on both Saturday and Sunday, even if it only amounts to a page of 250-300 words.

Yesterday for the first time in quite a while I got close to 2,000 words – wish I could do that every day.

I am also trying to take more breaks,  get up and walk around more often as I write, might keep me fresh.

I am approaching 50,000 words on my WIP (work in progress, for my new readers) this book will end under 60,000, which means I am getting close. But then ugg, editing. 

Along with my writing, I have been able to get out for a few hours with my camera. Photos were all taken this week and within a few minutes of our house.

Here is the link to all my books on Amazon

Writing and Editing - Christmas Stories Too

One Afternoon in My Life – Yesterday I spent an hour and a half taking out and installing a new(er) radio and CD player in my wife's Explorer. As always, it took about as long to find the proper two tools I needed as it did to complete the project. It works great, not bad for a 70-year-old word-scribbling curmudgeon.

Selling Books –  Both book sales and KDP pages read continue to be healthy - interesting that I do spend some money on Amazon adds and the more I make, the more I seem to spend. I am not good at the spend little and make a lot. I seem to be more of the spend and take in about the same. Oh well, I will keep experimenting and continue enjoying the strong sales. 

From the Old West – Damn fool mistakes are always made by the other guy.

Christmas Books - I have two books of Christmas stories for sale on Amazon and other online retailers. Each book has 14 short stories. The first has been out for a couple of years is titled - Under Western Skies. My newest, out now for about a month, is titled Under Christmas Skies. Take a look and read a few free tales of Christmas by clicking on the Amazon link. Thanks!

My Photo of the Week - 

Writing – I am back at it, revising, for the last time, in one book, and reading through the first 20,000 pages of another WIP. 

My Best Selling Book - My western mystery (Commitment), continues strong sales, take a look at it here and read the first chapter for free. 

As always, you can find all my books here on Amazon

 Or

Follow me here on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

Keep on Reading and Keep on Writing

& 

Have a wonderful weekend

Of Writing, Photos, and Eagles in a Tree

Busy Week – Talk about having too much to do. This week it looks like I will be scrambling to get any writing done. Meeting tonight, early breakfast at the school tomorrow and then three-day school board convention in Casper. Yes. I am on the local school board, going into my third year. I will, off course, take along a laptop and hope for some late night hours to write. On days like this, I most often work on outlines for future products and look at plot twists for my works in progress.

Guernsey Lake looking very Blue this time of year

From the Old West –Men and barbed wire each have their good points.

What I Am Working On – Most of the past few days I have been working on attempting to figure out why my KDP page reads had slipped to nothing. Never figured it out after going through eight days in a nine-day period with zero page reads – not good. The past two days I am back to several hundred each day – about normal for me.

For my readers that enjoy writing, that’s great, because the marketing part of writing is long, troubling and boring. When I started writing it was for the love of it, glad I still feel that way. Otherwise, it would seem too much like real work.

Took this shot from so far away that it looks more like a painting than a photo - somehow it seems to work - I like it.

 Photo of the Week –

Took this on today - on a day I was looking for eagles

As always, you can find all my books here on Amazon

 And

Follow me here on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

Keep on Reading and keep on Writing

& 

Have a terrific week.

Spring is Here and the Writing is Easy

Spring is here, and I say, it is about time. We, my wife and I, had a bit of a tough winter, flu, colds, and too much ice and bad weather. Now we are back walking and enjoying time outside.

Writing and Researching - My writing, or at least my researching is picking up. I always have trouble getting sidetracked when doing historical research – too much good stuff. The problem is I find stuff I will never use, at least on my current work in progress, but it is much too interesting to put down. Oh well, it can lead to several hours of enjoyable reading. I am managing to write, at least a few hundred words each day, not bad, when writing nonfiction.

Reading – Finished The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse, terrific nonfiction read, now I am back to fiction, reading Elmer Kelton’s, Texas Vendetta, Kelton’s western fiction is always enjoyable.

I have also pulled up some of the works I was stuck on and hoping that after a break I can get going again.

Spring Fever - Should have mentioned I am also reading several new seed catalogs, kind of a gardeners spring fever thing. I have started planting my early seed flats, with a little luck, the new plants will be ready for the garden in the middle of May.

My Gardening Book & my Newest Release – Last year I released my gardening book, Beginning Gardening and Other Entertaining Lies, the book has garden information and includes four garden Murder Mystery short stories. With spring approaching it is starting to sell again, thankfully, as March is a traditionally slow sales month, at least for me. My newest release, On Turing 70, a humorous and reflective look at my new age is off to a good start. If you fall into my age group or hope to reach it someday give it a look.

Today’s photos are from our Monday hike in Wyoming's Guernsey State Park

Want to take a look at all my books? Click to See my Amazon Author Site - 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.

Last Post of the Year

Look's like we are about to do away with another year. I have much to look forward to in 2018. I have two books being edited now, and another soon - so, fingers crossed, three, maybe four, new books this year. Also coming, our anniversary number 50, and my birthday, number 70. 

Not sure how I feel about that last one. 

As of this late date, I have not come up with a list of New Year's Resolutions. No wonder, they never last long for me. But, I am thinking about a few things - maybe, just maybe. 

THAT TIME OF YEAR - CHRISTMAS LETTER TIME

We are enjoying mild temperatures for the middle of December making it not at all Christmas like. But I did remember it was time to write my annual letter. I have for years, written my, tongue in cheek letter, I will admit only to it being an anti-everyone else’s letter. Here is an example from the second paragraph.

Reindeer ? - Probably not!

Christmas Letter Excerpt - Our kids, Jennifer, Aaron, Thomas, & Andrew, are all doing well. The grandkids, like everyone else’s, are all special, good looking, and talented. Jan and I are shocked and happy when people are surprised to learn we are over 50 years old and often remark, “You guys don’t look a day over 30,” It makes us feel so good. NOTE – I made up that last part, but our kids and grandkids really are fantastic.

 I write the entire letter without really saying much of anything, and that’s the way I like it, and I have written 49 of them. All letters are on one side of the page only – short and sweet.

Winter Look

A Week Of Writing - The reason I am talking about my Christmas letter, is because I am not getting much done with my two work in progress books. Some but not much. Christmas programs, shopping and maybe a bit too much time out and about with my camera have slowed down my writing. I did write about 5,000 words last week which is about average for me. My winter word numbers often run to 10,000, but guess I will take five.

Thanks to everyone who purchased my Christmas storybook, I watched with pure glee as it rose into the top 25, for a time, on Amazon.  

Open water and Ice

All photos were taken this week - my early winter collection.

Below Power Plant - Guernsey Dam - On the North Platte River