Writing In the Hot Days of Summer

 Writing

I spent a fair amount of time writing this week – pretty good for me. I no longer set daily or weekly word count goals, but 3,000+ words is a decent week. Mostly I am cleaning up two finished yet unpublished books. I also found the time to work on a newer project I started a couple of months ago. That project stands at about 7,000 words, getting close to halfway. All of my Senior books fall between 18,000 and 25,000 words. All my senior books are nonfiction life lessons and lessons learned, filled with humor and ideas to make growing old easier. I like to keep these books short enough to read in a few hours. I keep them shorter because these books have extra room between lines and nice large print. Many of my senior readers prefer books to Ebooks, and I do not want them to be so large as to be unmanageable to older readers. My arthritic hands struggle with books over an inch and a half thick - good thing I like Ebooks.

Westerns

Wendover, the third in my Blade Holmes western mysteries, is almost ready. I finished the book nearly two years ago but never liked the first chapter. At last, I believe I have figured out what it needs. If I like the results – out to my first reader, and we will see.

 

Final Note

We watched the mini-series Dark Winds this week and loved it. (Prime TV) This series is based on the great Tony Hillerman's novels and is well worth watching. Terrific story and acting. I have read all of Hillerman's works, most more than once. If you love westerns, he is a must-read.

Meanwhile, Keep on reading, and for you writers – keep on writing.

 

Photos

Today's photos are from one of my favorite places – the Castle on the North Bluff at Guernsey State Park. 

 

 

Writing Places and Edward S. Curtis

 Confessions of a Writer of Westerns

January 10, 2022 

I am off to a pretty good start this year. I have not written too much, but I am picking it up. Last week around 3,000 words, this week almost 5,000, and I have edited through nearly 20,000 words of my new western mystery book. This is the first and longest of the three edits I usually do. After those edits, it will be off to beta readers – hopefully sometime in February.

Often writers, especially Indy and small house published writers like myself, have no set deadlines, leaving us open to changing gears, or directions, when we probably should not. By that, I mean we tend to stop what we are working on and start something else before finishing. I did this twice this week, had a great idea, and had to write it down. Most of the time, I write a few pages – in the case of these two book ideas, I wrote about three-thousand words. Now, I will leave both alone until inspiration strikes. If it does, I will let you know here.

My office, I did pick up a little before snapping this one. 

Reading – More looking at photos than reading, and very much enjoying – The North American Indian – The Complete Portfolios. This is the one-book compilation of Edward S. Curtis's thirty-year, twenty-volume work on the American Indian. Some day I hope to get a chance to look through one of the original books; sadly, not many around any longer.  

Reading Bookcase - constantly changing.

Weather – After the freezing temperatures of a week ago, this week has turned relatively mild. Most days start cool, low twenties or below, but reach around forty by mid-afternoon. Quite comfortable.

Quote of the day – "For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time." Louis L'Amour

Beside my recliner in the family room - lots of writing gets done here.

Today's Photos – Self-explanatory – But I have an admission here. I bought another camera this week. Guess I thought six was not quite enough. Sigh – it's only money, they say - yikes!

Running in the snow

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

2022 - And Off We Go

January 3, 2022

As always, it seems odd to switch to a new year. I’m talking about writing 2022 instead of 2021 on anything I need to date. I wonder how long it will be until I write 21, 20, or maybe 19 as the year on something?

Writing – My writing rate was - I will give it an ok. I wrote just under 3,000 words the past week – not great, but for a busy week, not bad. I was somewhat distracted from writing by so many football games on television. We have not done anything special for years to celebrate New Year’s Eve or Day, which allowed me to put a few extra words on paper. 

I am still working on the editing portion of my historical mystery/western. It looks like I am about a third of the way through. I’m still not sure about the ending, but I did work on it.

 

Reading – Lawrence Blocks, highly entertaining, The Thief Who Couldn’t Sleep.   I am a long time Block fan but somehow never got around to this Evan Tanner series

Weather – Dipped under zero for the first time this winter. About one inch of new snow and lots and lots of wind, which I can do without for the rest of winter.

Quote of the day – “I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.”  James A. Michener

Today’s Photos – All shot from my walks this week and a trip to the state park a couple of miles north of here.  

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

Fifteen Books and Still Writing

 December 27, 2021

Well, like most everyone else, we have finished another Christmas Season. Bring on the new year. Right now, we are back to the two of us and the dog – again. Great atmosphere for writing and watching football, but almost too quiet at times. 

On my morning walk, I realized that I was not sure, exactly, how many books I had written. Guess it is time to count them up.

Nonfiction

The Civilian Conservation Corps and the building of Guernsey State Park

Beginning Gardening & Other Entertaining Lies - With Four Bonus - Murder in the Garden Stories

On Turning 70  

Elderly – A Sensational Day Every Day

Western Fiction

Commitment  (western mystery)

The Ghost Dance (western mystery)

Ghost of the Fawn (young adult)

Under Western Skies (collection of short stories)

Under Christmas Skies (collection of short stories)

Interview with a Gunfighter (short story)

Kids Chapter Books

Melvin the E Street Ghost

The Mike Said, There's a Zombie in My Basement

Yikes – My Neighbors a Vampire

Howling at the Moon

 

Finished but Not Yet Published

Morning Walk ( the third in my series for senior citizens)

Wendover  (my third Blade Holmes western mystery)

Almost Ready

County Fair (book five in my Mike, and Moose and I kids growing up chapter books)

Essays from the golden years  (fourth in my series for senior readers)

 

Wow, that was an exhausting search, not really. Thirteen published books and one published short. Two more books are finished but not yet published. I am not sure why these two, which will be self-published, are still waiting. I figured it out and can answer my question – lazy. Soon.

That makes 15 completed books with two in the almost category and the single short.

I am not always one to write out New Years Resolutions, but I aim to have all 17 of the books I listed earlier published. I hope to continue with my senior reader's books, with at least one addition in 2022.

Photos – All taken in the past week within 15 miles of where we live in Wyoming

Happy New Year – 2022

Keep reading and keep writing

 

 

 

Christmas Slowdown - But, Not Much

 December 20, 2021

Writing –  My writing slowed down a little this week. Too much Christmas shopping and a couple of doctor appointments slow me down. Only a few over 2,000 words for the week. When I set goals, I wrote well over 300.000 words each year. Without goals, I write about half that. I still have not decided if I will set a word goal for 2022 or continue writing as I have been the past three or four years. We will see. 

I am doing heavy editing on my long-finished historical mystery/western. Trying to rework the second half – love the first half of the book.

As often happens, a new inspiration – yes, I started another book. Mostly notes and thoughts so far.

 

Reading – David Baldacci’s Memory Man. Off to a good start, and so far, it has kept me interested. Looks like a good one 

 

Weather – Cold and wind this week. A few days of blustery snow. All in all, typical December weather.

Quote of the day – “Any word that doesn’t advance a story slows it down. Which is reason enough to avoid expletives. Contrary to popular misconception, the term ‘expletives’ refers to a whole class of empty words, not just gratuitous profanities. Most expletives simply fill out the syntax of sentences. The most common is ‘there are, ‘there is,’ ‘there was.’ ‘it is,’ ‘it was,’ and son on.” -  Jack Hart

 

Today’s Photos – All shot on my walks this week. 

Have a Merry Christmas, everyone! 

Writing & Publishing

One thing I have learned is that when I am not feeling well, it is hard to write. Other than a handful of blog post, like this one, and a bit on social media I am nearly down for the count. A bad cold is whipping me, every day I think it will be better but, so far, not much. Enough about how I feel – read on.

Writing Quote – Write while the heat is in you. … The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with.

Henry David Thoreau

What Am I Working On? Two weeks ago I had a book nearly ready to go to my first reader – it is still there. Hopefully, who knows, maybe today, I will feel like working on it again.

Christmas Books – Don’t forget about my newest book, a book of Christmas short stories – G rated and fun. This one follows volume one that I published a few years ago. Both books, each containing 14 stories, are available on Amazon. Brighten your Christmas season and read a few short Christmas tales, all with happy endings.

Reading - I am doing some reading, presently enjoying C. J. Box’s Trophy Hunt. I thought that I had read all of the books in the series, then discovered I had missed one from several years ago. Like all of Box’s books, this one is an excellent read.

From the Old West – When a cowboy's too old to set a bad example, he hands out good advice.

 Photo of the Week – Like my writing, photo opportunities have been few the last ten days. I did get out this week for two sunsets and found some interesting opportunities.

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

 Or

Follow me here on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

Keep on Reading and keep on Writing

& 

Have a terrific week.

Writing Communities

Writing Communities – I have been seeing a considerable increase in tweets and blog posts about writing communities. For the most part, they seem to be people trolling for followers using a writing community hash-tag. I am always looking for good writing people or groups to follow, but have not found much by following the links from hash-tag, writing communities or anything similar.

Mixed Messages – Lately I am starting to wonder why so many who try to sell books or services on social media make so many political posts. Most political posts are very one-sided, which is fine, but won’t this turn away half of your customers?  This type of marketing seems odd to me when anyone could simply create another profile, for political posts, and not offend half of their potential customers. My readers will see nothing political on my posts, other than a rare comment, or like, I keep that world to myself. 

Photo of the Week - 

Selling Books – I enjoyed a fantastic last two weeks of November selling quite a few books and seeing my KDP pages zoom upward. I am not sure what December will bring, but with my two Christmas books, I expect it will be good.

From the Old West – There are two sides to any man’s argument, his and the wrong one.

Snow Today – Days like this are nice for old people like me. I am sitting in my easy chair, snacking, drinking tea and watching football on TV.  A few minutes ago, a squirrel made a sneak attack on the bird feeder in our backyard. Right now, light snow is falling turning my view out our family room windows into a Hallmark Movie scene.

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

& 

Enjoy the coming of a new workweek.

We have reached December, creeping toward 2019

                                                                                           

Writing & Editing

This is a short week for most American’s – When I was a teacher I always liked Thanksgiving break. It was long enough for me to relax but short enough for the kids not to forget too much before coming back.

Writing can be hard work – Today, I am cleaning up some computer files, as in, changing names so that I actually know what each one is. What a mess.

Selling Books – I went through a downtime a couple of weeks ago but now, for unknown reasons, I am again selling quite a few books and my KDP pages read is also back up.

From the Old West – An old-timer is someone who has had a lot of interesting experiences – some of them true.

What I Am Working On – Most of my week has been spent being lazy. The working part of my week (not nearly enough hours) I have been editing (still) my kid's chapter book. I am also spending time reworking the opening of the third of my Blade Holmes western mysteries.

I have great hopes that I will someday get back to a normal writing routine.

“Maybe – someday,” he says, fading away.

 Photo of the Week – 

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 Thanksgiving.

Reading and Writing Westerns

We had the first good snow of the year over the weekend. We got about three inches, nice to see it will be warming up over the next two weeks. Maybe I will still get the rest of our garage painted this fall.

What Am I Working On? – Added 3,500 words to my kid's chapter book – pretty good week for me. This book the 4^th and possibly last of my Mike, Moose and Me series, will be complete at 12 to 15 thousand words, I am over 8,000 now, so getting close. I also spent some time working on my newest non-fiction book, tentatively titled, Elderly. It is just nicely started with about a 1,000 words and a partly completed outline.

What Am I Reading? Still - Reading Wallace Stegner - Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West. 

I am also revisiting a book I started a while back but did not finish – Love Song to the Plains, wonderful read by the incomparable Mari Sandoz

My Photo of the Week –

North Platte River Narrows in  the lake at Guernsey State Park

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

or

follow me here on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

Old West Knowledge- The good thing about talking to your horse is – he will never talk back.

Photo of the Week 2 –

Little Mule Deer as the sun disappears for the day

Keep on reading and keep on writing – have a great week!

Independence Day Week - Selling and Writing Books

July has arrived in all its heated glory. With Independence Day only two days off it is feeling very July like. We were blessed with a wet, and cooler than usual, May and June. 

With the weather so hot it is not fit to spend much time outside, I hope to get more work done with my two works in progress.

Wyoming, it’s too hot joke - I saw a coyote chasing a jackrabbit and they were both walking!

We spent the past weekend in Estes Park Colorado, about three hours away. We were there for our niece's wedding and were also able to take in some of the local sites. We have been to Estes more than a dozen times and always enjoy our time there. We especially enjoy people watching, seems everyone is walking, talking, smiling, and eating on the downtown streets.

Book Sales – Picking up the past week, but still in typically slow, summer mode. 

Reading – I have just started reading Louis L’Amour’s. To Tame a Land.  

My goals – Now that I am in need of finishing up some of my WIP, looks like I will need to set some goals

1.  5,000 words a week for July – those 20,000 words will go a long way towards finishing up some of my new projects.

2.  Finish up my Christmas book of short stories – my second one. Here is a link to read the first story for free in my first Christmas book – Under Western Skies

3.  Finish the next five chapters of my nonfiction book.

4.  Make sure I get my four posts here for July, as I have been slacking off to two or three the past couple of months.

Meanwhile, stay out of the heat, be careful with fireworks, and keep on reading and writing.

Photos – Today's shots from the Big Thompson River Valley in Colorado (the Big Horn Sheep photos), just east of Estes Park. The rest are from the Laramie Range west of town, and from Guernsey State Park

Here is a link to all of my books on Amazon.