A Trip Home

Often stories take hold because of a setting, a special setting. Seems easy to write about place, if you can picture it. What better way to picture a place, than to visit it, again.

Sometimes a trip down memory lane is good for the mind and soul. We got to see old friends, and as my dad used to put it, I got “back to the old stomping grounds”.

This is the road, not a drive - very little use

Actually not only my, old stomping grounds, but my dad’s, and his family. Although I did spend the first few years of my life in this house, now abandoned for more than half a century.

 

I have lived much of my adult life in Wyoming and find it a beautiful and fascinating state.   My trip down memory lane was in northeast Nebraska where I was born and later taught for more than a decade. Most people wouldn’t recognize this ruggedly beautiful area as Nebraska. Unspoiled by resorts, getaways or people, what a great place.

 

A trip back home - old friends, old places, memories for a lifetime.

 

Create Space Publishing

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
—George Orwell

Well, I found help, help for the writing pain, especially if you are going the self-pub route. Rick Smith’s, Create Space & Kindle Self –Publishing Masterclass, is the only resource needed if you wish to publish on Amazon in either print or for e-readers.

The blurp on the front cover says, “The Step by Step Author’s Guide to Writing. Publish and Marketing Your Books on Amazon. I believe this says it all.

My current, work in progress, yes, I know I am supposed to use WP, but I still like to write it out. But I digress, my current nonfiction work in progress will have more than 100 photos and about 30,000 words. That could be a formatting nightmare, but thanks to Mr. Smith, and his book, I have made it through. Will publish by June 1.

Summer slows down my writing – too many distractions

 

 

Wilkie Collins -The Women in White

I have long been a huge fan of Charles Dickens and felt it was about time I read one of the works by his longtime best friend, Wilkie Collins. I am part way through Collins, The Women in White, his fifth and reportedly his best novel.

So who was Wilkie Collins? The author who started detective fiction, the ending cliffhanger and maybe modern day detective mystery novels. Collins novel, The Women in White, I referenced above, often pops up on lists of 100 greatest novels, and so far, half way through, I have not been disappointed. Next time you find a good detective mystery or a story with a super cliffhanger thank Wilkie.

Wilkie Collins died at 65 after years of battling gout and drug problems related to pain meds he took for the gout. Wow, did that hit home. I have been battling gout problems for years. Think I will read some more of his stuff but will stay away from reading any more about his sufferings from gout.

One last note, The Women in White, is a Kindle free download.

 

 

A Walk In The Park

Some days there is nothing better than a nice hike. This is the Red Cliff Trail in Guernsey State Park, Guernsey, Wyoming.


Steps to start the trail

Trail Side Waterfall

Looking West to the Spillway

Looking south toward Guernsey and the RR bridge
 

The Red Cliffs

End of a Nice Evenings Walk

 

Read a Lot - Write a Lot

       Read a post earlier today in which a writer said they didn’t read much, not before they became a writer or after. Seems strange to me that someone would write but not read much. Claimed they didn’t have the time. I believe writers need to find the time. Many writers read a whole lot more than I do, but I do manage more than 50 books a year. But I also read, maybe too many, blogs, magazines and newspapers. Some days I read so much I get no writing done, none at all.

Stephen King, who has sold a few books himself, once said. “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

My problem is I read too much, and write too little. But I have other income, outside of writing, and do not consider myself a full time writer. I do have a small income from my editing service and from the sale of a few small pieces each year.

Love Wyoming Sunsets - Easter Sunday, Guernsey State Park

I will self-publish three books this summer and see if my writer earnings jump afterward. Not expecting a move into a higher tax bracket, but as someone once said, “you never know.”

Professional Edit or Not

How many times do I need to write the same book? Have you, like me, ever asked that question? I have a novel that I have went through six times and am still not willing to attempt to publish it. Why? Because it is not ready. No, not because the book sucks. I feel like it is a very good story. But it needs work. What have I learned by this process, two things?

The best edit is still with a red pen on paper. The last edit is reading the text of the work aloud. I have edited, to death, on the computer and still recommend it for the first go through. On my new work I used a red pen edit for my second edit, a red pen edit by someone else for my third edit and a read through, oral edit for my final.

No professional edit? I don’t think so, not for these works. I may seek additional input from another outside, non-professional, editor but have decided to go it on my own. I have published numerous short stories and at times, must admit, when I read the published version, I found something I wish I had edited, either more or better.

Why all this? I tried, in vain, to find a professional editor and could not. They charged too much or too little, wanted to change too much or too little. Makes me sound a bit like Goldilocks from, The Story of the Three Bears, I just couldn’t find a, just right, fit.

Will it work? Not sure. Remember in the old days when people said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”? Guess I will find out. I spent years doing content edits and rewrites for graduate students while teaching in Laramie, but never edited grammar or punctuation unless it was so bad even I could see it. Until a year ago I still did some editing for two print magazines.



View of my little part of the world from Roundtop Mountain, three miles from town.

There is my unedited story about editing. My conclusions, do it the best you can, or until you feel good about it, then be done with it.

Cowboy Coffee

Have you ever ran across something that just doesn’t sound right? I read, not as much as I used to, about a book a week. Twice in the last five or six books I have had a cowboy ask for a cup of Java. Java, really?

Maybe some used the term, I live in Wyoming, have for decades, never have heard anyone ask for Java. Not very cowboy like. Now I live in modern times, so maybe it was different a hundred years ago but I don't think so. I did a quick search and could not find when the word Java was first used as slang for coffee. Someone in the old west may have asked for a cup of Java but my money says he was on vacation wearing a three piece suit with a gold watch chain and came to town on the train.

Cowboys liked their coffee, drank a lot of it. They drank it black and they drank it sweet. Wanna make your cowboy into a real cowboy, have him ask for a cup of Arbuckle's. Arbuckle’s Ariosa to be exact, but no one asked for it that way.