My Characters Have Become My Friends

I am doing my final read-through of my historical fiction novel, Commitment. ( I call it a western mystery) Then it goes off for edit and then to my readers.

When I finished I wondered what happened to several of characters from the novel, I also wanted to know what was going to happen next. Looks like I will need to write a second book with my main character, Blade Holmes.

Laramie Range - The setting for my historical fiction novel

Reminds me of Terry Brooks who said in his, Lessons From A Writing Life, “ If you do not ever wonder what happened to your characters after you stopped writing about them, you did not care enough about them in the first place and do not deserve to know”.

Too Much to Do

I have learned my lesson – maybe. Lately, I have been working on three books at the same time. Actually I took a peak at a fourth but we won’t talk about that.

These are not genre westerns, two are kid’s books and one is a nonfiction book about the Civilian Conservation Corps. The one I took a peak at is the western.

So what have I been doing? Trying to get both the print and Kindle additions ready. Thought it would take a couple of days at best, well I was wrong. From now on I am going to try to work on one book at a time.

The two kids books (3^rd and 4^th grade reading level) – Melvin the E Street Ghost and, Then Mike said, “There’s a Zombie in my Basement, are part of a six-book series.

My other book, no editions for sale yet, will be out by Friday. It is the nonfiction book and I am really quite proud of the way it came out. The book entitled, The Civilian Conservation Corps & the Building of Guernsey State Park – With Folktales and Stories of the Park, will be returned with finished edits Tuesday and should be for sale by Friday.

Bad Weather and Heading West on the Oregon Trail

Spring snowstorms are not uncommon in Wyoming, but all of us seem surprised each time we get one. We were so dry in March I was afraid that we would dry up by the middle of June – not now.

When pioneers headed west they had to very careful of the weather and spring storms. They weren’t this far, not yet. The early wagons would have reached Nebraska around this time of May. One of the crossing's on the Oregon Trail in southeast Nebraska was the Little Blue River near present day Fairbury, Nebraska, and that river has been out of its banks for several days.

When I hear sportscasters talking about how courageous some athlete was for: hitting some shot, taking the big shot or scoring the winning points, I think about these people. Now they were courageous, fighting the weather, often all the way west.

Trail Ruts south of town - taken before the recent snow

We are blessed to get all of this rain and snow this time of year. My part of Wyoming only receives about 12 inches of total moisture each year. So far in the month of May over 5 inches. Lovin’ it! 

The North Platte River, south of town, is running strong

Remembering the Man Who Was Two of My Favorite Authors

I remember, years ago, reading the Wagons West series by Dana Fuller Ross and the White Indian series by Donald Clayton Porter. I loved both series, although I think I quit after ten or so books in the Wagons West series. My wife wanted to give up after her Dana Fuller Ross hero, Whip Holt died, but continued to read them all. The White Indian series I couldn’t put down.

It was years later before I found out that Dana Fuller Ross and Donald Clayton Porter were one in the same – the prolific Noel Bertram Gerson (1913-1988). Why prolific? He wrote 325 books including best-sellers and two books made into movies. Although I read him as a historical novelist he actually wrote in many areas and under 10 different pseudonyms.

These two series have lived on with the Wagons West, I believe, now in re-release. If you haven’t tried them, they really are great reads. Think I will figure out where I left off in the Wagons West series and read the rest of them.

Mountain Valley in my part of the west

The Publishing Experience

For my long time readers, all of you well know, from past blog posts, that I have written several books. (Five complete, four others nearly so) After much urging to, “just put them out there,” I decided to publish three of my books on Create Space and Kindle and see what it is like.

 I have read so much about dedicating a full day to load a book on both, especially if you are a first timer like me. Well, they weren’t wrong. It is a chore, and it does take time. I started the process Friday and worked many hours on both Saturday and Sunday. Here it is Monday and I am still working. But I am getting there.

Now I am back to editing, again. How could I miss some of that stuff? I also had a very good first reader look them over and mark them up. And we both missed a few things, small but significant.  

What have I learned so far? A book with many photos takes a lot of work. My soon to be released, The Civilian Conservation Corps & the Building of Guernsey State Park, has 200 photos. The Kindle edition is especially difficult as the site takes quite a long time to load. They do warn you it will take a while and it does. The problem with all these photos is that they appear different in different readers and are different with each text size the reader chooses. Still came out pretty good even if an occasional caption comes up on the top of the next page. Not odd with electronic readers.

As far as the Create Space books, I am waiting for my review copies but they looked great in the reviewer. Overall I enjoyed working with both Create Space and Kindle Publishing. Good sites and most helpful step by step guides.

After a hard day of work we went out for a drive
This is a view of the historic gatehouse at Guernsey State Park