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!

Counting Words and Sunshine

It is nice that, at last, we have some sunshine in our part of Wyoming. We have had quite a few cold, wet, dreary days in a row. Today the sun is shining, and I have spent some time outside enjoying it.

What Am I Working On? – I am still working on the fourth and most likely last of my kid's chapter books in the series I call, The Mike, Moose and Me Growing up Mysteries. Each of these books is 12-15 thousand words. The print is a bit larger and the spaces between sentences a little wider, making them easy to read for younger readers. Surprised and happy to find some older readers enjoying these books also. The books are pure fiction but based on my life and times growing up in the 1950s.  

Like many writers, I keep count of how many words I write each day. (Only with my books not posts like this one) Unlike many writes I have no goals for words per day, just like to keep track. This week I wrote - Monday – 197, Tuesday 198, Wednesday 289 and Thursday 1,501words.

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

This is an excellent read, the stories are all, at least, a quarter of a century old, but still terrific today. The book itself is a collection of essays and reminiscing. For those of us who live in the west and for those that do not – a nice collection.

My Photo of the Week –

On the Grounds of Fort Laramie

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 sensational rest of the week.

Photo of the Week 2 -

Jr. High Football in October - Nothing Better

A New Book and Finding Steampunk

With the weather here wet and cool, I have plenty of time to write. If it were sunshine and warm, I would be out finishing the painting of our garage. I am always happy to have an excuse to skip painting.

What Am I Working On? – At last, I have finished my second volume of Christmas stories. I enjoy writing them, but it might be a few years before I am able to come up with enough for a third book of Christmas tales.  This book titled – Under Christmas Skies, is already available as an eBook. The soft cover should be ready in the next two weeks.

What Am I Reading? – My first ever steampunk story. (Artificers Apprentice by D.H. Edwardson) It is a short story of 25 pages, I read the first half or a bit more before, I became distracted and started writing this post. I do not have much of an idea what steampunk is, that is why I decided to try one. The story, so far, is excellent and well written. By the way, I found this one free on Amazon. If you, like me, want to learn a bit about a genre called steampunk, I linked above to this free story.

My Photo of the Week –

North Platte River in Guernsey State Park

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

https://amazon.com/Neil-Waring/e/B00XV26KLC

Look me up on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

Keep on reading and keep on writing – have a sensational rest of the week.

Photo 2 -

Young Big Horn Sheep

Places to Find Me and My Stories

Looks like Google + will be shutting down. Hate to see it, as I enjoyed being on the site. According to their news release, Google+ has not been doing well, but the huge data breach is what pushed it out.

With Google+ shutting down soon, anyone that would like to continue following me (and I hope everyone follows), can find me here on my new Facebook author site -

Or join my 800 followers on Twitter @wyohistoryguy

I will still be on Blogger but may start doing more with my WordPress site just in case Google abandons it blogs also. I am also considering a new WordPress author/writing site - news coming soon. 

Guess what? First snow of the season here this morning - not much but snow is snow. Have a terrific week.

I Think I Am Back

After taking two months off, I am back to writing. Went through, what we all do, some tough times, and just couldn't do it. Proud of myself for putting down almost 8,000 words in the last four weeks. That is not a lot by most writing standards, but for me, it was pretty good after nothing for ten weeks. Was able to finish my new book of Christmas Stories to follow up on the one from 2015. They are not all westerns but many are, and all are set out west. 

Next, I hope to finish the fourth in my kid's chapter books series, and then on to book three of my Blade Holmes western mysteries.

Hopefully, I will be back here more often.

Time Out

As some of my regular followers may have guessed, after ten books and hundreds of blog posts, I am on a long-term writing hiatus. I have decided to step away, at least for a few more weeks or months.

Sometimes things happen in life that seems to require a change in perspective. I hope to write, and get back to photography someday - not sure when.

Meanwhile, I am still reading books, and blogs, and working in the garden and around the house as we sort things out.  Have a terrific rest of the summer.

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.