Category Archives: Bible study

Bible study, expatriate life, family, Genealogy, self-publishing, The Forest Throne

Writing Hopes for 2026

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Editing completed 1/5; hope to publish not later than 1/15.

Having posted a year in review for life in general, and a year in review for my writing activities, it’s now time to post writing plans for the new year. But should I call them plans? I’m in the midst of a move from Arkansas to Texas, a major life change and disruption. Can I even make plans, giving all that’s going on? I’m not going to get a lot done for the next month, and even a couple of months after that, I’ll be busy setting up the new house, finding doctors, learning how to do without CATV, etc.

But I have to have a plan. Perhaps I call it dreams, aiming very high, but probably having to settle for something less. First, I’ll type out my projects in progress, then move on to dreams.

  • Finish editing Vol. 7 of A Walk Through Holy Week and publish it. As of today (I’m wring this Friday evening for posting on Monday), I have two chapters to edit. Then a week of formatting and doing publishing activities. Hopefully I’ll have this published by Jan 15. Update Monday 5 Jan: I just finished the last edit. Next will be publishing tasks.
  • Do the final editing and publishing tasks for Vol. 8 of A Walk Through Holy Week. That will finish the project. All eight volumes will be published, and I can look toward promoting the series.
  • Finish transcribing my father-in-law’s, Wayne’s, World War 2 letters. I’m able to do two of them a day before fatigue sets in. As of Friday, I have thirty letters to go. That means I should finish the transcribing in mid-January. Then I’ll be putting a book together, combining the letters into one file, synchronizing his war journal  with them, and publishing it as a book. I don’t know for sure how long this will take. The war journal is typed but not yet digitized. So I’m not going to put a timeline on this. Plus, this is just a project for family and the hometown museum, not with commercial intentions. So there’s no real deadline. If I find the time, I’ll try to combine the letter files into book format before the end of the month, and be ready to work in the journal once my office is set up in Texas.
  • The clean-up and organizing prior to moving has resulted finding more letters from our years as expatriates in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. So I need to republish those books. Plus my family asked me to add more photos to the Kuwait book. So I’ll do that in odd moments during the year. My loose deadline is the end of the year for these two projects.
  • At some point in the year, I want to get back to writing on The Forest Throne series. Two volumes are published, and two more are planned. These are short, middle-grade books that will be somewhat quick to write. However, I don’t think I’ll put any deadline on this.
  • One other project that is somewhat pie-in-the-sky, is the story of my maternal ancestry. I’ve made some amazing discoveries as I’ve researched my ancestry. Many people have told me I need to write it down to preserve it. So I finally made a start at it. Tentatively titled Stories, Secrets, Legends, and Lies, I’ve written 2580 words in it. Once again, this will be a book for family, not for commercial sales. It’s also a type of book to be written when the spirit moves, rather sitting down and working on it day by day.

There are other things on my writing projects list that I could mention here, but I seriously doubt I can complete everything included in this post. I’ll have to come back in a couple of months, see where I am, and modify the list accordingly.

Bible study, Documenting America, self-publishing

Writing in 2025

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Volumes 1 through 6 are now published.

Measured by books published, 2025 was a good year.

Measured by book sales, 2025 was an okay year.

Measured by new writing, 2025 was a so-so year.

As with my last post, I’ll do this by bullet points.

  • I started 2025 having just had a seizure, and not really feeling like writing—or really doing much of anything. Another seizure in April interrupted whatever progress I was making. I would wake up each morning, not feel like writing, or stock trading, or much of anything. I had a lot of what I call “file maintenance”—that is, organizing computer files to eliminate duplicates, putting the files in the right place, changing the names to descriptive names. This is a lot of what I did in in 2025.
  • I published Vol 1. in my Bible study series, A Walk Through Holy Week, in early 2024. I had volumes 2-8 written by the end of 2024. They were only awaiting final editing and publishing. I managed to do that for Vol. 2 and published it on March 22. Vol. 3 followed on March 28. Both of these required little work except formatting and final creation of the e-book and paperback. Vol. 4 came out on May 1st, Vol. 5 on Sept. 5, and Vol. 6 on Oct 31. Volume 8 is within a week or two of being published. That will finish the series.
  • The work is published, though due to finding additional letters I’ll have to edit and republish it.

    The only other book I published was The Saudi Years In Letters, the collection of letters from our time in Saudi Arabia, 1981-1983. This was mainly for family members. Alas, I have since found another dozen letters to add to it, and will have to re-do it.

  • My total book sales for the year were only 238. That was with no author events. That was my third best year, but well below 2024’s 326 sales, my best year. My historical-political series, Documenting America, continues to sell many more copies than anything else.

I have another three to five days of editing on the seventh in my Bible study series, then maybe a week of formatting and file creating. I hope it will be published by Jan 15. After that, I’ll be hot and heavy in moving from Bella Vista, Arkansas to Lake Jackson, Texas.

I’ll do one more post in this series, on my writing goals for 2026.

Bible study, Christianity

Published: A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 6

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Volumes 1 through 6 are now published.

I continue to make progress on editing and publishing my Bible study series, A Walk Through Holy Week. All eight volumes have been written for a while, awaiting me to do the required rounds of editing. Slowly, as other pressures of life allow, I pull of the files of the unpublished volumes and do the rounds of editing required, then move on to publishing.

Last week I completed that for Volume 6, Gethsemane, Arrest, and Jewish Trial. It covers the period between the Last Supper (and Vol 4 and 5) and the Roman trial and crucifixion (the future Vol 7). He’s what I say on the back cover:

Gethsemane, Arrest, and Jewish Trial is Vol. 6 in the Bible Study series A Walk Through Holy Week.

This is the point in Holy Week where the story gets confusing. We have multiple venues, and people coming and going, some of it described in the Bible, some of it taking place “off camera” but easily inferred by what the Bible does say and by understanding what’s going on.

This volume looks at all of it, from when Jesus arrived at Gethsemane with his disciples until the dawn trial by the Jewish Sanhedrin, right before Jesus is sent to Pilot for the Roman trial. Divided into seven lessons drawn from all four gospels, this volume is suitable for a small group study, especially leading up to and including Holy Week, or for an individual Bible study at any time. Each chapter is divided into seven sections, allowing the book to be used as a study-devotional.

A Walk Through Holy Week will eventually run through eight volumes. The author suggests they be studied one volume a year, leading up to Holy Week and concluding around Easter.

The book is available as both an e-book and paperback at Amazon, as are the other published volumes.

Bible study, books, letters

Miscellaneous Stuff

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One side of the blue sheet is letters already transcribed, the other side is yet to be done. I still have a long way to go. That’s how it was a couple of weeks ago. It’s slightly better now.

The only way I can describe what went on the last few day is they were filled with miscellaneous stuff.

On Monday, I had a regular cardiology appointment. Everything must be okay, because the P.A., who was a touchy-feely person, said some back in six months.

On Tuesday, Lynda had a regular cardiology appointment, rescheduled at the cardiologist’s request. We figure everything was ok, since he said to some back in a year. On the way home, we stopped in a convenience store and got some pumpkin spice coffee for Lynda and house blend for me.

Also on Tuesday, I wrote a letter to my youngest grandson, finished typing edits to my latest Bible study volume, and submitted a proposal to our pastor for a new lesson series for our Community Group.

On Wednesday, I had an appointment with my new orthopedic surgeon, replacing the one who I had already seen but who left that practice.  He said my knee was pretty bad and that I was a candidate for knee replacement without having to go through further P.T. But I have to get clearances from five doctors first (cardiologist rheumatologist, neurologist, PCP, and dentist). I’m working on those. On the way home, as a reward, I splurged and got a large Dunkin’ house blend.

Also on Wednesday, at 10:15 p.m., Lynda said her heart wasn’t feeling right and she needed to go to the ER. We did so, getting home after 4 a.m. after whatever was wrong corrected itself without the need of medicine. I slept well, waking at 7 a.m. to go about my day in a somewhat zombie-ish fashion.

Which brings us to Friday. We have the pest control people coming at 11 a.m. At 2 p.m. we have a follow up to the ER visit with our PCP team.

All week I’ve been reading in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. It’s a real slog. Thirty percent through and I’m getting nothing from it. I figure I should read this early mythology before I tackle The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but if I’m not getting anything from it…. I suppose I’ll plow ahead for a while longer. Surely it will get better.

This week I’ve also done a little research on St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Union Island in the Grenadines. The reason for this, apart from genealogy, will be revealed in good time.

Meanwhile, I continue my work of transcribing my father-in-law’s World War 2 letters. I now have 121 finished. The to-be-transcribed stack is still very large, still maybe 140 or so. Of course, that’s what I said twenty or thirty letters ago.

So it’s been a week of misc. stuff—filled with things to do, but without a nice rhythm. Perhaps next week will be quieter and better organized.

Bible study, History, letters

Working

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Slowly making progress transcribing these.

Taking a break today from my last series of posts (on the Goldilocks Zone) to report on my recent doings.

Today is a rain day. No chance to work outside unless the rain clears this afternoon.  So I’m working indoors. Also, since this is a Saturday, the only stock market work I had was wrapping up my weekly spreadsheet. I greatly simplified my spreadsheet in June when I resumed trading activities, so that spreadsheet updating now takes all of ten minutes.

I transcribed four of my father-in-law’s WW2 letters. I’m now up to 65 complete. It looks like well over 100, maybe as many as 200 yet to go. I never said it would be quick or easy.

Yesterday I finished the second editorial pass (the first pass having been two years ago) on Vol 6 in the A Walk Through Holy Week study. I think two more quick passes and I’ll be ready to publish.

Typical rainy day activities for me are filing papers and updating the check book. Not really feeling like doing either one today, but we’ll see. For sure I’ll get in an hour or more of reading. Oh, yeah, I’ll have to prepare supper, and perhaps vacuum.

The fun days of retirement.

 

Bible study, self-publishing, Writing

Published: A Walk Through Holy Week – Vol. 5

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The e-book cover. I need to tweak it a little.

I had hoped to have Volume 5 of A Walk Through Holy Week published in late July, but I wasn’t able to get my act together and do the required publishing tasks. I finally put my mind to it over the last two days, and the book is now published. Final Teaching covers chapters 14-15-16-17 of the gospel of John, where Jesus gave his disciples instruction, encouragement, and cautions after they had finished eating their Passover meal. It’s a section of the Bible that is rich in words that can help us on our discipleship walk.

So Volumes 1-5 are published. They are:

Vol 1: To Jerusalem

Vol 2: Temple Teaching

Vol 3: Coming Troubles

Vol 4: A Difficult Meal

Vol 5: Final Teaching

The print book cover

Volumes 6, 7, and 8 are written, requiring only editing followed by the usual publishing tasks. Hopefully I can do all that by the end of the year, then be able to move on to other writing.

Concerning Volume 5, as of this moment the e-book is approved and for sale. Here’s the link to the Amazon listing. Just waiting for the print book to be approved and for the two listings to sync up. Hopefully that will happen today.

Bible study, Christianity, Writing

Editing Almost Done

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Volume 5 is close to done.

My summer schedule continues, though knee and balance troubles have prevented me from walking as much as I would like.

My special projects continue. I’m transcribing one WW2 letter a day, handling 50 scan files a day, getting rid of most of them, and doing a few other odd things. Though I’m falling behind a little on my correspondence, and on family finances. Maybe I’ll get to them before the week is out.

A morning rainstorm is preventing me from going out to pick blackberries. The vines will be loaded tomorrow—or this evening if I can get out then.

One thing I got a little ahead on is editing my latest book, A Walk Through Holy Week Vol. 5. I knuckled down yesterday and finished it, which was one of the reasons I didn’t get a blog post written. I also wrote the Introduction, though it still needs a bit of work.

Leaving The Dungeon in a minute for a mug full, and reading in the sunroom.

In my first editorial pass through the book, which was mainly for proofreading, I was concerned that I had been repetitive in places. In the second editorial pass, just finished, I was able to make corrections to eliminate the most blatant redundancies. However, I’m not sure I caught them all. Thus, I will make a third editorial pass through it, reading it quickly as would someone who bought it and couldn’t put it down. I hope in this manner any more obvious repetition will stand out. I’m going to do this pass via an e-reader, marking any edits needed, I hope the reading takes only two or three days, and that I’ll find nothing more is needed, except for minor things.

My expectations now are that I’ll do the publishing tasks next week, July 14 to 18, and have it up for sale right after that.

I’ll then wait until September to tackle the remaining books in the series.

It’s now 11 AM and still raining. Time to get a little reading done—with a fresh mug of coffee.

Bible study, books, Genealogy, home improvements

Chipping Away

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The harvest is in progress, and a good harvest it is.

Today,  on our Independence Day holiday, my work continues. I transcribed another WW2 letter, bringing the total up to 13. No end in sight, but a pattern for what the letters are is beginning to emerge. I went through at least 50 scan files, verified that I have them also stored and properly named in OneDrive folders, and so was able to delete the scan files. Then brings me down to about 1325 left to go through, or about five weeks of work. I think it might actually be less than that, because I’ve already skipped close to 100 files that I’ll be keeping.

I picked blackberries this morning, close to a pint, from less than half the plants and only getting the easiest ones to pick. Cut back a few of the new branches so that the paths between rows are more easily navigable, and raked up the cuttings. The harvest is plentiful. After the season is over, I plan on a major cut back of the bushes. I have four rows of blackberry plants that have sprung up naturally. With judicious cutting on my part and a bit of training, these are producing a good harvest for three years in a row. But it’s at least twice as many blackberries as I need. So after this year’s harvest, and when the weather cools off some, I’ll take two rows out completely. I’m actually looking forward to that.

I’m finding the book I’m currently reading a bit of a slog (I have a habit of picking those), but I’ll get through the last 65% of it, somehow.

Decumulation continues. On Wednesday, we drove to south central Kansas and delivered to Lynda’s brother all the Cheney photos we don’t plan on keeping. That included six large framed photos and a large painting of the Cheney homestead ranch in Meade County. Her brother can now decide what to do with them. Good riddance to one burden. It frees us up to work on photos from the other side of her family and finish those, hopefully within a month.

Today I edited a chapter in my Bible study. Only two chapters to go. Then, I think one more read-through at a normal pace to check for duplication or incomplete sections, with hopefully only minor final edits, and it will be on to publishing.

Last night we walked to the municipal fireworks display. We don’t live far from where they shoot them off, but a ridge, a valley, and lots of tall trees prevent us from seeing them from our house. Driving there and getting involved in that mass of traffic is a pain. So for the first time we walked to the top of the ridge, a little over 1/3 mile, and joined a hundred or so people who had done the same thing. I don’t really care about fireworks all that much, but Lynda enjoyed it.

So as you can see, I’m staying busy. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

Bible study, Christianity, Decumulation, family, letters, travel, Writing

July Goals

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  1. Have a meet-up to deliver batch 1 of family photos to the one who has been clamoring to have them. Good riddance.
  2. Somehow, carve out enough time to finish editing my book-in-progress. Down to 3 chapters, but was unable to do any editing today, nor will tomorrow.
  3. Continue transcribing one letter a day of my father-in-law’s war letters.
  4. Continue to dispose of unneeded scan files on my computer and One Drive. Down to less than 1,450 now.
  5. Keep up with yardwork.
  6. Handle various financial matters and travel bookings.
Bible study, family, Genealogy, letters, stock market

Summer Schedule, New Project

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The typing is tedious, especially reading 83-year-old pencil scratching…

It’s hot out. Not as hot here at the north end of the southern states as it is in the Northeast, but our heat is definitely up. But of course, that’s to be expected for late June, almost July.

So I’ve changed my schedule. After rising, weighing, and checking my blood sugar, instead of going down to The Dungeon to begin various projects or work on my books, I go out and walk in the cool of the morning. I walked Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday this week, going 1.07, 1.28, 1.37 miles respectively. Thursday and Friday were slightly longer distances. And, as evidence of my healing from the many maladies of the last sixteen months, I’ve been able to walk without taking a walking stick to serve as a cane.

…but I’ll get through it, one letter a day for now….

Now, I wasn’t regularly walking before Monday. My excuse? First, the rain. Then the heat. Then tiredness. By the time I come upstairs from The Dungeon and eat breakfast, it’s already a little too hot to walk comfortably. Then evening, when you can walk in the twilight shadows, I’m either busy with TV watching or just too tired after the labors of the day. In fact, it had been well over a week, maybe closer to two, since I’d walked for exercise.

I made the decision last Saturday that I would shift to a summer work schedule on Monday, and so far, I’ve been faithful to it. My target is to be out the front door by 6:00 A.M. The first three days I was right on the money. That’s a little earlier than my normal rising time, so a longer midday nap time is part of the new schedule.

…but I have to admit I’m glad it’s not a bigger bin.

I see very little activity at that hour. A car or two with people heading to work. One time a jogger. One time a neighbor on his front deck drinking coffee and reading something. I’m back home in around 30 minutes. At that point I head to The Dungeon for my normal routine: devotional reading, prayer, check e-mail and Facebook and book sales (actually non-sales. Then, rather than editing, I do my two special projects.

One of those is digitizing my father-in-law’s letters, limiting myself to one a day, either scanning or transcribing as the case may be. At one letter a day, that project will take a couple of years. The other special project is cleaning up old scan files. All the genealogy research papers and letters I scanned had been saved to a proper filing system still resided on my computer and cloud drive as scan files. Perhaps them being in two (really three) places doesn’t hurt anything, but it’s not “clean”. So I’m going through those scan files, verifying that I saved them to the right folder and gave them the right name, then deleting them from the scan folder.

My goal is to clear away 50 scan files a day, six days a week, so 300 a week. I started with 3400 scan files to deal with. As of Thursday morning, I have 1,700 left. Thus, I have around six weeks more on this project. I’ll check back in with you around the end of July or sometime in August to give a report on this as to how the project is going.

After that, I do my morning stock work, eat breakfast, and maybe work outside awhile in the blackberry patch. I come back inside and go to The Dungeon to cool down and do a little editing.  Midday is still reading in the sunroom, though that is now getting so hot I’ll need to move outside to a shaded area on our woodlot.

So what’s the new project, and how am I going to fit it in a busy schedule? Well, the new project is transcribing the wartime correspondence of my father-in-law, Wayne Cheney. These have been sitting in a plastic bin in our house for close to 30 years, waiting on someone to get them out and read them, do something with them. I decided that time had come, and that these letters from 1942-1945 were of greater importance than the newer letters I had been digitizing. Thus, I have suspended working on the newer letters in favor or the older ones.

I’ll work on them at the rate of one letter a day until I finish the scanned files project, then will accelerate the letters until I finish. I have no idea how many of these letters there are. Having now put together four letter collections, I have a system established and have learned to do this fairly efficiently. But I really have no idea how long this will take me because I don’t know the letter count. By the beginning of August, I hope to have 50 or so letters transcribed.  At that point maybe I’ll count the rest and figure how long the whole project will take me, and make a report.

Sounds like I’ll be busy a while. Busy is good: stimulating to the brain and enforcing discipline. Hopefully, while letter transcribing is going on, I’ll be able to finish the old family photos project and get my next Bible study edited and published.

Stay tuned….