Category Archives: Bible study

Bible study, Church History Novels, goals, Sharon Williams short stories, The Teachings, Writing

January Goals – Accomplisment

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This is Bessie’s first book. While it was a work-for-hire, she has obtained a license for a limited print run.

Last day of the month. Time to see how I did on my January goals.

  1. Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. I’ve been fairly successful blogging at this rate, and feel confident I can achieve this. Yes, did this. I don’t think I missed a regular day.
  2. Finish producing a book for a writing friend. This project is well along. I might finish it today; if not, it should only be a day or two from now. Yes, check this off as complete. I got this done not long after I posted the goals. I did a quickie cover, using PowerPoint and loading it into G.I.M.P. The quality wasn’t as good as we’d like, so I did it over from scratch in G.I.M.P. It was accepted by Amazon without needing correction, and have ordered copies. I was able to use G.I.M.P. without much consternation.
  3. The 5th story in my Sharon Williams Fonseca – Unconventional CIA Agent series.

    Edit my short story “Tango Delta Foxtrot”. The story is finished, and I’m in the editing process. My critique group hasn’t particularly liked the plot, but I don’t know how to change it. Whether I can accomplish this in January is a little iffy. Not only did I get the editing done on this, but I also published it. The cover isn’t the greatest, but it’s the best I can do.

  4. Attend writing group meetings as much as possible. My travel schedule may make it impossible to attend one, but hopefully I’ll be at the other. My writing groups held only two meetings this month. I missed the meeting of the Village Lake Writers and Poets due to travel but attended the critique meeting of Scribblers & Scribes of Bella Vista. 
  5. Start my next book, tentatively titled The Teachings. This will be book 3 in my church history novels series. I plan on starting this later this week. Writing will take several months. I did this, but just barely. On Wednesday I created the files and reviewed my notes on the plot. Yesterday I entered the first words in the book. I think I wrote only about 250 words, but it’s a start. So yes, I did this.
  6. I found too many errors in this book to let it go. So I corrected the text and re-published.

    Finish a proof-reading of Acts Of Faith and republish a corrected version. I’ve proofread about a third of it and found more errors than I like. Done! I completed the editing mid-month, and uploaded the new insides around the 22nd. No changes in the cover.

  7. Create a PDF version of Acts Of Faith: Leader’s Guide in 8.5×11 inch format. This is a brief task that should be no problem to complete. As I said in the goal, this was a quick one, and I did it with no problem.

And, actually, I completed one other major task that came up long after I made my goals post.

8. Read/proofread a book for a member of SSBV, who has a short window of time to get some changes made to her previously published book about to be re-published. I was able to do this. I finished the reading yesterday and e-mailed corrections and comments to the author. I’ll eventually write a book review of it.

So, it was a good, productive month. Perhaps tomorrow, or perhaps not until my regular Monday post, I’ll lay out my February goals.

Bible study, Church History Novels, critique group, self-publishing, Sharon Williams short stories, The Teachings, Writing

January 2020 Writing Goals

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I’m still working on my annual goals for 2020. I’m just not sure of what I’m going to attempt this year. So, I’m going to start on goals for January. That’s a short enough time frame I should be able to project 30 days ahead. Here are my goals.

  1. Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. I’ve been fairly successful blogging at this rate, and feel confident I can achieve this.
  2. Finish producing a book for a writing friend. This project is well along. I might finish it today; if not, it should only be a day or two from now.
  3. Edit my short story “Tango Delta Foxtrot”. The story is finished, and I’m in the editing process. My critique group hasn’t particularly liked the plot, but I don’t know how to change it. Whether I can accomplish this in January is a little iffy.
  4. Attend writing group meetings as much as possible. My travel schedule may make it impossible to attend one, but hopefully I’ll be at the other.
  5. Start my next book, tentatively titled The Teachings. This will be book 3 in my church history novels series. I plan on starting this later this week. Writing will take several months.
  6. Finish a proof-reading of Acts Of Faith and republish a corrected version. I’ve proofread about a third of it and found more errors than I like.
  7. Create a PDF version of Acts Of Faith: Leader’s Guide in 8.5×11 inch format. This is a brief task that should be no problem to complete.

I think this is enough. I’m writing this Friday evening to post on Monday morning. It’s possible I’ll add an item or two.

Adam Of Jerusalem, Bible study, Church History Novels, critique group, self-publishing, Sharon Williams short stories, The Teachings, Writing

Looking Back as the New Year Starts

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The writing of this book was finished in December 2018. Editing took some time, and I didn’t publish it till May 2019.

One year ago I entered the world of retirees. It was unchartered territory for me. I knew I had more than enough interests to stay busy, but how would I structure my days? What would I accomplish? Would it be more or less than I wanted to do? How would writing and stock trading and property upkeep and a dozen other things vie for my time?

At that time, in January 2019, I did not write a blog post about writing goals. It was all too new. I didn’t know what I could accomplish in my writing. I had recently completed the first draft of Adam Of Jerusalem and I was letting it simmer while the Christmas busyness was in progress. So that would be on the table early in the new year. But what else would I accomplish?

I think I will start this year on An Arrow Through The Air by three posts about goals. First will be what I accomplished last month, then will be a look-back at the whole year, then will be a look-ahead to 2020 and what I hope to accomplish. I’m still thinking about the new year, so this schedule will give me time to think some more.

I last posted about goals at the end of October, for November. Not sure why I didn’t do a December goals post. Here’s what I said for November, and how well I did on them over a two-month period.

  1. As always, blog twice a week on Monday and Friday. I may have to write some ahead and schedule their posting. I did fairly well on this. Some of them I did write ahead of time for later posting. I missed one day in each month.
  2. Attend writing groups. One group is considering adding a second meeting in the month, so it might be three instead of two meetings total for the two groups. I attended every meeting available. One was cancelled. Another was a time to wrap books as Christmas presents to go to a middle school. It was a fun time.
  3. Finish Tango Delta Foxtrot. I think this is about two hours of writing. Surely I can do that. I finished this, and gave it to my critique group (Scribblers and Scribes of Bella Vista). Waiting on a full range of critiques, but initial response, but for installments and for the full document isn’t good.
  4. Finish reading in two books that are research for The Teachings. This is quite doable. I’m not reading all of Josephus—just enough to know about a certain action in Jerusalem at the beginning of the war in 66 a.d. Yes, I got this done. From Josephus I have selected the dates and locations for certain scenes. From the other book I have a good idea of the composition of The Didache. From the two I’ve made an outline.  When I sit down to work on it, probably next week, I hope it starts to flow.
  5. Finish the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. This should be doable, in the original concept only. I’ll be working toward publishing it in December, most likely as an e-book only. Another thing finished. I received some feedback about potential changes that would have taken time, but decided not to make them. For now this is an e-book, but I’m planning on making a PDF in 8.5×11 format to give to people who ask.

So, two months of reasonably good accomplishment. Hopefully this will continue into January 2020.

Bible study, book reviews

Book Review: Born the King

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Not the best devotional book I’ve read. Not sure whether I’ll keep it or not.

This will be a short review. Born the King: An Advent Devotional, is the Advent book published by our denominational publishing house for use this year. Our pastor preached a sermon series by that name, and we were all encouraged to purchase the book and read along.

I purchased the book, but didn’t start on time. Getting a few days behind, I finally read a couple of chapters out loud to Lynda. The chapters are short: two pages (though in a 10 point font), with two pages of worksheets afterward. I could tell Lynda wasn’t enjoying it, and neither did I. So I quit reading aloud and put the book aside. Later I picked it up and read a week of devotionals at a time, finishing it Christmas morning.

I’ll say this as nicely as I can: It wasn’t my favorite devotional book ever. In fact, I didn’t like it. Maybe it’s just too hard to write an Advent devotional and come up with new material. As a result, the writer (in this case writers, a husband and wife pastor couple) try too hard, and the book isn’t all that meaningful. To me, it wasn’t meaningful.

Maybe it was the way I read it, a week at a time instead of each day. Maybe it was that I didn’t do the exercises for each day. I’m not sure what it was, I just didn’t like it.

Normally I keep these yearly Advent devotional books, thinking I’ll go through them again someday. Except I never do. I’m not sure what I’ll do about this one. In the spirit of decluttering, I should put it in the garage, on the donation pile. Possibly I’ll put in in the row of devotional books in the living room. Possibly.

Bible study, critique group, Doctor Luke's Assistant, self-publishing, Sharon Williams short stories, Writing

Publishing and Writing Side-by-Side

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The e-book cover for this was easy. At present I’m not planning on issuing a print book.

Well, I missed another blogging day. Yes, I missed last Friday. That’s two Fridays in a row. I tell you, miss it once and it can become a habit. I’ll break that habit this coming Friday.

For now, I’ll just tell a little of my current activities.

Today is the day to publish the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. I made the cover on Friday, finished the editing on Saturday, made one minor tweak yesterday, and let it sit for the night. As soon as I finish this I’ll go to Amazon KDP and do the publishing tasks. Hopefully it will be available for sale before the end of the day, though perhaps tomorrow.

I’ll make the cover for the print edition of the prequel of this look much the same. Delete “Again” and change the photo.

Then, tomorrow I’ll work on my friend Bessie’s book. I did her second book for her earlier this year. Her first book, however, is available from the publisher only as an e-book. She has people in the church who want a copy. At my prompting, she obtained a license from the publisher to make do a print book edition of her own. I have already gone through the text for errors. I think I built the Table of Content, but will check on that. The cover will follow the lines of the last book and should be simple—except print book covers are never simple for me. Publishing it may not be doable on one day.

Salzburg and environs are so nice, with quaint things to see and do—but not when you’re following Sharon Williams Fonseca.

After that, I shift to writing tasks. My short story, “Tango Delta Foxtrot”. It’s now at 5,300 words and is well along with the story. I don’t have a specific word goal, and I didn’t plan out the plot. To keep it from getting boring I need to wrap it up. I may work on that some in the evenings. I did so yesterday evening, incorporating comments from my critique group. I’m not finished yet with that, so may make working through those comments my evening task for a few days. Wednesday or Thursday I hope to be adding words to the story.

Meanwhile, I sold a couple of copies of Acts Of Faith at church yesterday, and last Friday a paperback copy of Doctor Luke’s Assistant sold at Amazon. That bring my sales for the year up to 131, my second-best year so far. About 75 of those are self-sales of books from inventory, and 69 are of books I published this year. That’s good news. I hope to continue the up-trend next year.

Bible study, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Headshots, holidays, self-publishing, Sharon Williams short stories, Writing

Now Between Holidays

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Had an on-line sale of this one day, then two days later had another, plus one of the prequel. I’m hoping it means someone bought it, not realizing it was the second in the series, liked it, bought the first, then convinced someone else to buy it.

Thanksgiving is over. Well, almost over. My sister is still in town, and we’ll get together again this afternoon and evening. Our full household, however, is back to two, just me and the wife. We have much after-company work to do yet, but the yesterday we took our rest, and this morning is normal routine. Tomorrow or Wednesday will be full routine.

I gave up writing work during this time, except for a little editing in the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. I rarely went to The Dungeon since two Saturdays ago.

But, now it’s time to get back at it. Complete editing of the Leader’s Guide is step one. Simultaneous with that I’ll be reading for my critique group, Scribblers and Scribes of Bella Vista. I have two pieces to read to get ready for the meeting Wednesday evening. Plus, I need to send out again for critique my short story, “Tango Delta Foxtrot”. I haven’t written any more on it, but still have a few pages of it to read to the group.

I’ll make the cover for the print edition of the prequel of this look much the same. Delete “Again” and change the photo.

Next, I’ll get back on publishing tasks for Bessie Black’s first book, Once Upon An Island. It was a work-for-hire, but she received a license to self-publish it as a print book since it’s gone out of print. I’ve already done most of the formatting. I want to read it through once more to look for typos. I figured out what we’d do for the cover. I hope to publish that for her before the end of the year, which looks very doable.

The other thing that has surprised me recently has been some unexpected on-line sales. I had two sales of Headshots and one of In Front Of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, as well as one of Acts Of Faith. Those came about a week ago over a three day period. It’s nice to see sales at the same time from both the back list and new items. I hope this will be a trend.

So, back in the saddle, for three weeks at least, before the next holiday interruption comes.

Bible study, Health, home improvements, Writing

A Busy Day With A Twist

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Writing the Leader’s Guide for this has taken more time than writing the book, and it’s just as long.

Here it is Friday evening, and I’m just now getting to my post for today. I have three book reviews backed up, but I haven’t felt like writing those posts yet. They take a little more time to write, and with other things going on I didn’t feel like taking that time.

Today was very busy. I started at the computer, with my end-of-week stock trading tasks. At the same time I was putting finishing touches on the leader’s guide for Acts Of Faith. There may be one chapter that I need to do just a little more work on, but, except for that chapter, I believe I’m done. Over the weekend I’ll re-read it, add that little bit of stuff, and it will be done.

After that I went outside to continue clearing downed tree trunks away from the lot south of us. Midway through my first saw cut my left baby toe started hurting, suddenly and badly. I thought I must have done something to break my toe. I couldn’t work without pain, so I sat down on the tree trunk and pulled my shoe off to find a nail through it. It wasn’t stuck in my toe, but I couldn’t tell if it had punctured it or not.

I had wanted to work about an hour and a half, but I decided to cut it off at an hour. I got a lot done after the nail incident. I knew, however, I needed to get inside and find out what I’d done to my toe. I soaked my feet in Epsom salts, then looked at it and had my wife look also. Neither of us could find a puncture mark. Still, I contacted my doctor about it. My last tetanus shot was eight years ago. I heard back from the nurse and she said yes, I needed to get the shot.

We had to go pick up our newer van from the body shop, and I had to go by Lowe’s to return a light and pick up the right one. After that I went by the pharmacy and got the shot. They say it’s going to hurt for up to three days, but so far no pain. Nor does my toe hurt. I think that the nail, while it punctured my sneaker, didn’t puncture the skin.

So now it’s evening. We’re done with supper and watching a little tv. I’m about to get us some dessert (probably some fruit). I hope to read a little later.

One thing I learned recently, that just really came to my consciousness today, was that writing the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith has been significantly more time consuming than writing the Bible study was. It’s also almost as long as the Bible study, both in words and page length. I don’t know how long it will now take me to get it to market, but I hope in a week for the e-book. I hadn’t planned on issuing it as a print book, but perhaps I will. I’ll have to think about that.

Bible study, C.S. Lewis, home improvements, Writing

A Blustery, Productive Day

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Sleet has turned to snow. Not much accumulation expected.

Hello winter, on Veterans Day. At midnight we were 50 degrees. We woke up to 39 degrees and falling. Right now it’s 25. The wind is howling and snow is falling. If it were continuous snow and heavier this would be a blizzard. That’s okay by me. I’ve nowhere to go tonight, no reason to leave the house except for getting something I left in the van last night.

I’ve been productive today. I was up at 6:45 a.m. Before long I was in The Dungeon with coffee. For about two hours I split my time between working on my book in progress and stock trading. Did some general reading as well. I put in four options trades, all rolling out existing positions. Three of the four filled at my limit. I touched-up and expanded another chapter in the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. That’s only three of 17 chapters that have the expanded information in the Leader’s Guide, but at least it’s a start. I fear, if I continue along this path, I’ll never get it done. There’s always something more I can add.

The cardinal was much prettier from my view. A downy woodpecker is at that feeder now, but I don’t think I’ll be able to capture him.

After breakfast around 9, with a little sleet coming down, the wind whipping the trees, and leaves rapidly leaving their branches, I broke with my routine and came out to the sunroom. While I have two books I’m currently reading for research, I decided to start a new one for pleasure. It’s a book of essays edited by C.S. Lewis. Only one of the essays is by him. One is by Tolkien, the others by other of their friends. I’m going to enjoy this, I think, if I understand it. I managed to get through the 10 page Preface today.

Inside around 10:30, I did a little work to use existing materials to “build-in” the microwave over the oven. This has been open for a while, the wife didn’t like it, but trying to get a suitable build-in kit to fit a 30+ year old opening is difficult. I managed to get the old kit to work, and it looks presentable if not perfect. They I began putting furniture back in place in the living room. It had all been moved last week for carpet shampooing. I finished the cleaning on Saturday, put some furniture back yesterday, and finished the living room today. I hope to get three heavy pieces back in place in the entryway, and that pre-Thanksgiving company work will be done.

Then I began a task for my old company, an engineering review of a submittal for a project in the City of Centerton. I spent over two hours on that, taking a detailed look at the drawings and assembling my comments. I still have the drainage report to review, which I will do either tonight or tomorrow. This works keeps me in coffee money.

Coffee, books, a computer on my lap, snow and wind outside, cool temperatures inside. What more do I need right now?

Speaking of which, after retrieving that item from the van (and foolishly checking the mailbox, forgetting this is a mail holiday), I heated some coffee and came once again to the sun room. The sleet has turned to snow—not much snow, just enough to make it feel like winter. This is an early snow for us, although last year we got our first snow on November 13th or 14th, so about the same.

For the first time I’ve taken my computer to the sun room and am typing this post there. In front of me is the deck, snow and leaves showing, birds coming to the feeders. To my rights I see the tops of pin oaks being whipped by the wind. To my left is my reading table piled with too many books, also with my coffee. The temperature out here is 59 to 60 degrees; just enough to keep the plants comfortable, and about where I like it.

A big gust just blew snow off the roof in a very picturesque way. I need to wrap up this post, get some photos loaded, then get to my research reading. I’ll have over an hour and a half for that before supper. Unless I decide to make that cauliflower/sweet potato dish. I’m thinking about that.

Bible study, C.S. Lewis, poetry

Late In The Day

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This morning, when I should have been writing a blog post, I worked on a financial spreadsheet. Now in my 11th month of retirement, knowing what our financial condition is at present, I had never made any projections into the future. This morning, in about an hour, I was able to build a nice spreadsheet to make those projections. It’s not done yet, but it’s close. I need to enhance the formatting, and maybe add another bell or whistle or two, but I’m pleased with the progress I made. It was long overdue.

Now it’s evening. I had a busy Monday with taking the wife to a doctor appointment, doing a couple of errands while she was busy. At home I changed out our modem, which was two generations old. I walked to the post office and mailed a copy of Acts Of Faith to a former pastor.

After that I read, finishing C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. I’ll be writing a book review of it soon. I did a little research for teaching AOF, and have somewhat relaxed in the evening. Through this I had no time for original writing. Yet this evening I anticipate some reading for research in a future book, or maybe in the Leader’s Guide for AOF.

I wanted to start another book, something closer to pleasure reading, since all my recent reading has been or still is in support of my current works-in-progress or future planned works. I also wanted to grab something off my reading pile, which is on a bookshelf in my closet. I went in there and found the perfect book: Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Readers of this blog will know I love reading letters (though I haven’t written about that for a while). I don’t know a lot about Rilke, so I’m looking forward to knowing more about him through his letters.

I guess, since I consider myself a poet of sorts, I can’t say this is completely a read for pleasure. I’ll see where this leads me. As always, I’ll report back with a review.

Bible study, expatriate life

The End of an Era

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Sad to see this die. I still have the sheet of the signatures of those who gave it to me.

I’m much engaged these days in trying to finish the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. This has given me more trouble than I anticipated. I’m making progress, now down to the last three chapters of the first draft. I’ll finish one of those today and get started on another. Perhaps I’ll have it finished by the end of the weekend and will make a start on editing. I know that, as I progressed through the chapters, I changed the information I was putting into the Leader’s Guide. I’ll have to decide if I need to make many changes to the earlier chapters.

My post today will be somewhat brief. We made a trip to Texas in early October for a grandson’s birthday. It was just a week, but an event took place back at our empty house that I see as significant. Our downstairs clock stopped working. It’s batter powered, and of course I have to put in new batteries from time to time. I was working in The Dungeon, where the clock resides, and on the first day back noticed it had stopped running.

No problem, I thought. I’ll change the batteries. Alas, we were out of AA batteries. I put them on the shopping list, and promptly forgot to get them at the store even though they were on the list. Then I forgot to put them on the list for the next week. Finally, on my third trip to the store after our return, I got the batteries.

It took me almost another week before I cut open the package, took three batteries downstairs, and put them in the clock. And…nothing. The clock didn’t start. No problem, I thought. I took the batteries out and cleaned the terminals on the clock. Although the old batteries I removed looked okay, perhaps they had left a corrosive film that was preventing the new batteries from working. I put the new batteries back in and…nothing.

I double-checked to make sure the new batteries were in the correct way. They were. I came to a conclusion: The clock had quit working.

The clock is 36 years old. It was a gift to me on the occasion of my leaving Saudi Arabia to end my expatriate life there and return to the States, along with Lynda and our two pre-school children. It was from the Pilipino men I worked with. I had bonded with them, and they gave me this as a result.

The chimes kept me on track in The Dungeon, but, when set on loud, could also be heard through much of the house.

The clock chimed, beginning at 6:00 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. One chime on the half hour, the number hours on the hour. From it’s location downstairs, we could just hear it where our reading chairs are in the living room. If the TV was off, that is, we could hear it, and I found it to be a comforting sound. I don’t know how much our guests who stayed in the guest bedroom downstairs liked it, sounding off louder for them at an early hour when all they wanted to do was sleep in.

It will be sad to discard this clock. It’s a link to an era, our expatriate life. It survived the journey home (since our shipment was already sent we had to carry it in our luggage through Europe to Rhode Island to Kansas City to Meade thence by car to North Carolina), at least one big fall off the wall (when hit with a ball thrown for the dog), more years in storage, and moves in Arkansas until it came to a permanent place on The Dungeon wall.

Throwing it away is breaking that link to our expatriate life. I know, it’s nearly 36 years since we returned from Saudi and over 29 years since we returned from Kuwait. We have many souvenirs of those times. Still, this was special. Sad to see it go, but nothing lasts forever.

Wednesday night I taught a class at church, on 1 Timothy 5:26 through 6:11, which includes the part about the love of money being the root of all evil. I used the illustration of going to the Middle East to pursue a better job for more money, and wondered if chasing the dollar like that was the right example to show for my children. Then to myself I wondered if, 38 years after going there, and 29 years after our return, if it wasn’t time to let this part of life go, to quit using examples from that. Just as disposing of the clock is sad, so is making a further break with my life from several decades ago, but it’s time.

I’ll remove the batteries from the clock, but will put it in the garage for a while. Who knows, maybe these batteries, brand new from Wal-Mart, were bad. One can always hope.