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

Never Too Old To Write

It’s Never Too Late – After retiring this man decided to write a book. In his lifetime, he had published two works and a couple of essays. One of his books looked at early poetry, and another was about reading maps, both thirty years before his retirement in the early 1970s. He finished the book in a couple of years and, of course, no one wanted to publish it. At 240 pages it was, too short for some publishers and one rejected it saying, “It has trees in it.” Finally, at age 75 the University of Chicago Press, as a favor to one of their old professors, agreed to publish it for him. This book would be the first ever fiction published by their famous press. How did it do? Well, Norman Maclean’s, A River Runs through It and Other Stories, did okay. Well, that is, if fabulous sales, a major motion picture, and a Pulitzer Prize nomination are okay.

There you have it – it truly is – Never Too Late

Writing by the Numbers – Another nice week, I have settled into a routine where I am writing three to five thousand words each week. For the year, I have written a bit over 31,000 words, through yesterday, and have written 33 of the 44 days this year. I am on pace to reach my goal of a quarter million words in 2019.

Reviews – I Can’t Make This Stuff Up – “To my dismay, the sample pages only contain the Foreward and Acknowledgement chapters, leaving me in the dark about the story.”   

The above was part of a one-star review I read about a very famous book. I wish this type of review could be taken off, as it has nothing, at all to do with the book.  (Note – I left the foreward, as I was using a direct quote – odd how so many misspell - foreword.

I once received a bad review for my misspelling of or misuse of a couple of words. The review stated they would go on to finish reading the book. This was at a time when I could not yet, afford an editor, still often my case. Did it really deserve a one-star if it was compelling enough to read on, and finish the book? Not in my mind, if I finish a book I will commonly rate it four or five stars. I rate on the story, not on a handful of errors I might catch. I finished a New York Times bestseller recently that I noticed a – the - where it should have been they. It happens!

From the Old West – The man who apologizes when there ain’t no need knows something you don’t.  

Photo of the Week –

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

Follow me on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

Keep on Reading and keep on Writing

& 

Have a wonderful rest of February.

Writing Book Three of a Series

About  Goals for 2019 – I saw a funny tweet the other day that went something like this – “Well I have already failed on my 2019 New Year’s Resolution’s but wait until next year, in 2020 I will hold to my resolutions – wait until next year. That will be my year.

That is why I do not make any hard and fast resolutions.

Writing Year – I did say on here a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to write more – well so far, I’m doing okay. As of today January 28, I have written, with a bit of an estimate to the end of today, about 18,000 words – not bad. At that pace, I will end up only a bit short of my normal quarter of a million words per year.

New Book – I am presently hard at work on my third in the series of my western mystery – Blade Holmes books. These are not long I am shooting for fifty-five to sixty thousand words and more than halfway home with my first draft. Looks like I may have a first draft completed in February, then several editing rounds, some beta reads and, hopefully by the middle of March it will be for sale on Amazon.

Research – I am also back researching my Wyoming book – going nicely, but as always with research, slow going

Life Goals for the Year – At my age, soon to be 71 I have decided that maybe I need a few life-changing goals. I have ruled out a run for president and starting a rock band, and settled on the following.

1.  Start playing golf again – I hope I do. I have played most of my life, but last summer, life changes, and disappointments caused me to quit or nearly so. I played, four holes once and six holes once in early July, and have not played since. I used to play quite a bit, actually good exercise, even when I am riding in a cart.

 How much? – We will see, but maybe, before it gets too hot, nine holes three times a week.

2.  Make sure we make our spring trip south to do some poking around in New Mexico state parks and historic sites. This trip has been planned each of the last three years, but sickness and lack of traveling cash have put it on the back burner each time. Also, make sure we, again, take our annual Branson trip in late October.

3.  Start walking again – looking to get closer to 10,000 steps per day up from my present, 3,000 if I am lucky.

4.  Last – get back to Nebraska, where we grew up, more often to see family and a few sites.

Photo of the Week –

From the Old West – Life is like checkers when you reach the top, you can move wherever you want.

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

Follow me on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

Keep on Reading and keep on Writing.

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

I Write What I Feel

I Write What I Feel

So many times writers are told to pick a genre and stick with it. Pretty good advice, but I never follow it. Why, because I write what I feel, as my mood or life changes, my writing seems to change with it. Not a great way to get rich writing, but a nice way to keep my sanity, or what I have left of it.

I have published three non-fiction books, one a serious look at the Civilian Conservation Corps and the building of Wyoming’s beautiful Guernsey State Park, the other two are more of what I call, just for fun.  I am in the process – likely before Thanksgiving, of publishing my fourth in the - Mike and Moose and Me, series of kids chapter books.

When I am in the mood to write something longer, or more serious I write western mysteries, I have two Blade Holmes books, my best selling books, and a stand-alone novel set in central Wyoming that revolves around an ancient people’s mystery, and a modern-day murder. I also just published, only the eBook is available so far, the second of two collections of Christmas short stories.

There you have it – my eclectic writing collection.

From the Old West – Lonesome creates diseases that friendship cures.

What Am I Working On? – Nothing the next eight or nine days – we are heading on our annual trek to Branson, Missouri. That means I may miss a post or two, but I will be back, rested and ready.

 Photo of the Week –

Nice looking young couple

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

 Or

Follow me here on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

 

What a history and story this place must have

Keep on Reading and keep on Writing

Don’t forget - next weekend we get an hour back as Daylight Savings fades away for another year.

Western Short Story Give a Way

FREE – Download a free copy today & all weekend.

My western short

Interview With A Gunfighter

More than a quarter of a century after the end of the old west a legendary gunfighter submits to an interview. The one and only time he talks about living his life with a gun.

Find it here – a nice 15-minute read –

Random Thoughts About the West and Westerns

Who put the West in westerns? Sounds like a bit of an odd question, but it might be a tougher question than it first sounds. The old west, the one of so many books, is both a place and a period of time. The where is the old west is a tough question, but by most definitions it is west of the Missouri River, south to Mexico and north through Alaska. The old west as a period of time, I see as from the end of the civil war until the introduction of the automobile in America. Commonly this time period is seen as from the Gold Rush to Wounded Knee, 1849-1890.

In Wyoming, we like to say we are the last of the old west, or that we are the real west. If that is true, the west of today refers to wide open spaces. That’s the reason California and most of the highly populated Pacific coast are no longer thought of as the west. Genre westerns often were set in California, gold rush, land grabbers and city builders all made good plots. Today the west coast still makes an excellent setting for movies and books, but none are thought of as westerns. Western’s weather set in the 1800s or present day need wide open spaces.

 Today writers of westerns set in modern time seem to follow this idea. It is easier to write a western if there are wide open spaces involved, Wyoming and Montana come to mind here.  Mountains, forest, wild rivers and long lonesome highways seem to make good modern western stories.

But the real west is defined by the cowboy. If a cowboy is involved, it must be a western story. Western romance sells millions of copies each year, the book covers usually depicting a cowboy, shirt unbuttoned, hat, boots, and beautiful women. Why do they sell? Is it the western flavor, the romance element, or the wide open spaces? I would guess it is a bit of all of the above. Today the sparsely populated west is full of romance and mystery to many people, especially people from metropolitan areas.

One of the reasons we live in Wyoming is because we love the empty areas. I know, this is not for everyone. We have to drive more than an hour to the nearest Wal-Mart and nearly two hours to a Shopping Mall. For many this would be a disaster of colossal proportion. Even worse, the closest hospital is a half hour away and to find a lawyer, accountant or college we must drive at least half an hour. But we trudge on. The reason we like it here, all of the photos on this page were taken closer than the nearest Wal-Mart.

Love the west!

Christmas in the West

My new book of Christmas stories in the west is finished.  

Find it here

Out west, Cowboys and Christmas have always been a near perfect match. I’m not sure that there has ever been a Cowboy that didn’t love Christmas. 

When it’s Christmas in the west magical things happen. Tales set in both the old west and the modern west, a few serious and some humorous but western stories through and through.

Give it a try today – makes a great gift. 

Avoiding the One Star

Over the years I have come across many things that can turn a good novel bad. I am not a full -time professional writer or editor although I dabble in both. But I do consider myself a professional reader. With that said, her are, The Waring Rule’s for staying away for the dreaded- One Star Rating.

1.    Do not name every character in the novel, the bartender does not need a name if he is only the bartender. Neither does the guy sitting across from the protagonist at a poker game- if he is never again in the story.

2.   Some words are spelled differently in England than in the United States.  A Defense Attorney in America is different from a Defence Attorney in England.

3.   I hate a page with three sentences on a page and a next page with fifteen. A few long sentences are fine, but too many and it gets difficult to read.

4.    Comments from a few westerns I have recently read. Please be aware I am a professional historian-these may not bug everyone.

 

·        Fry Bread became popular in the 1860s with the Navajo who were given so little provisions it was one of the few foods they could make. It was never common in cafés or in non-Indian homes. And it was Fry Bread, not, Fried Bread. It tastes great, if you want to try it I posted a recipe on my cooking site some time ago. http://crazy-cooking.blogspot.com/2013/01/journey-bread-and-donuts.html

 

·        Early playing cards were not marked in the corners like todays.

·        Cowboys would never have ordered a steak rare

·        There were no blue jeans in the old west

·        The cowboy did not pull his fixin’s from his shirt pocket

 

As far as one star ratings, I don’t give them. If I can’t give it a three or better I don’t rate it. I also don’t give ratings to books that already have several dozen ratings. If you are anything like me, I only look at a few of the ratings, that’s enough.