Showing posts with label the writing process. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the writing process. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

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.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

What If?

What If?
What could a fence post tell us if  fence posts could talk?

That's how I most often come up with ideas, what if?
What if this way your only ride to town?

I have two new books coming soon, one a collection of Christmas stories from out west, the other a modern-day western. The book of Christmas shorts, there will be 15 in all, 14 are finished, and it truly is a collection of what ifs. This book will be released November first and is so far without a title. However, back to the subject.
What if this guy was a Zombie? What if he lived next door?

Here are the, what ifs, I used for six of the shorts. It is important to know that this collection, all westerns, contain stories for adults and stories for kids. Some stories are of Santa Clause, and some are more traditional Christian Christmas tales. Some are a mystery, some romance and one or two may be a bit on the fantasy side. What if an old cowboy found red ribbons at Christmas time in the sage? What if the stranger was not what he seemed? What if you can go home again?  What if Santa really was? What if Prairie Dogs celebrated Christmas? What if a discontented, modern-day urban dweller slipped back into the 1800s?
What if this place was your new home?


I did this with both of my children's chapter books, Melvin the E Street Ghost and, Then Mike Said, “There’s a Zombie in My Basement." And I did it with my western mystery, Commitment, a book available as an ebook and soon as an actual novel that readers can hold in their hands and place bookmarks on the last page read.
What if you had a taste for Big Horn for supper?

Every writer comes up with lot's of great ideas and I bet most of them, somehow, start with, "What if."
What if you were here and needed to be over there?