Category Archives: Bible study

Bible study, letters, miscellaneous

Writing Again

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Vol 1 is published, Vols. 4, 5, 6, and 7 are written and edited. Vol. 8 is written and edited one time. Vol. 2 is now underway.

I finished writing my latest book, A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol 8, on April 1. I set the book aside for a time of seasoning—not of the book, but of my brain. For two weeks, almost three, I concentrated on my two special projects: transcribing letters from our years in Saudi Arabia, and scanning/saving of the hundreds of pages of poetry critiques I posted at on-line poetry boards years ago.

On Friday April 19, with the two special projects making good progress, I decided to pick Volume 8 again and do a round of edits. I did one chapter that day. That felt good. I did this using Microsoft Word’s text-to-speech feature, which I am liking more and more. So on Monday April 22, I edited two chapters, then did two each day and finished up one chapter on Saturday April 27. The main problem I found with the book is what seems to be too much repetition.

I then made the decision to put the book on the shelf and let it rest until I’m ready to publish Volumes 2 through 7. That will allow me to publish them in order.

But that got me to the point where I figured it was time to get to work on Volume 2 (Volumes 4, 5, 6, and 7 are already written and simmering, waiting their turn to find the book pages of Amazon). On Saturday, April 27, I took about an hour to begin the outline of the book. I finished that on Monday April 29. That brought me to Tuesday, April 30. Time to begin writing.

And that’s what I did on Tuesday April 30. I sat down at my computer, outline in hand, and got started on Chapter 1. Each chapter has seven sections, and I decided to write just one this day.  I was able to do that in less than an hour, a little over 750 words. I also did some formatting of the Bible verses already loaded into each chapter.

One section a day is less than my normal production, which is two sections a day. But for the first day writing after a layoff of almost a month, that wasn’t bad. Then, on Wednesday and Thursday, I was able to write two sections a day. The target for today is two sections, which will complete Chapter 1.

If I could equal the production I had when writing Vol. 8, I would finish he book sometime in June, possibly even early June. But I have lots of interruptions ahead: medical appointments, home maintenance need, and traveling. I will be happy if I can finish the book around the end of June or even into early July.

If I put my special projects aside, I think I could finish this well before July 1, but I don’t want to totally abandon the projects for the sake of writing. The trick will be to write the book while still working on the letters and critiques. Tuesday was a trial run of that. After writing, I transcribed two letters and scanned and saved several critiques. What I’ve found about the critiques is that each file created needs careful proofreading to check for scanner errors, as well as formatting to make sure everything is in a printable format. The goal is to someday put these in a nice concise volume, or probably two, as a record of a large part of my writing life.

I thought I was done with transcribing the Saudi years letters. I searched for letters that might have been missing to match a dozen or so empty envelopes. In the process I found a batch of letters written to us in Saudi Arabia. These were mainly from our last two grandmothers, with a handful from others. I found 43 of these letters, then another eight. So far I’ve transcribed sixteen of these. Only 27 to go. And I don’t have many more places to look for what should have been in those envelopes.

But that won’t be the end of the transcribing project. That year I kept a detailed travel journal for our trip through Asia, especially China. That will take a fair amount of transcribing. After that will be proofreading the transcriptions, then putting them in book form for the family. I don’t think I’ll finish this project in 2024. The transcription—yes; the proofreading—maybe; but assembling them into a book? Not a chance—not unless I drop everything else.

So, busy times.

Bible study, Documenting America, goals

April Progress; May Goals

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The end of April is upon us. Time to give an accounting of my writing time, and set some goals for May. My goals were modest because i expected to have several medical appointments. Those happened as expected, and cut into my writing quite a bit.

So, here’s my April progress.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. I managed to do this, though I was quite late one day due to not having planned ahead.
  • Attend two writers meetings. I’ll miss one due to the heart cath. I am the presenter at one. Did this. Actually, I sort of attended a third, when I met with one writer in our critique group to help her with her writing.
  • Make two rounds of edits on A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 8. I did only one round of edits. I’ve decided that’s all I’ll do right now. It’s going on the shelf until early next year—an approximate timing.
  • Begin outlining the next volume to write in the Bible study. Maybe, if other things go faster than I expect, I’ll be able to actually start writing this. I did most of the programming of this volume.
  • Do some website upgrades. I saved this for the end of the month. As of this writing (Apr 29), I’ve made some but not all of the upgrades.
  • Continue with scanning old documents and saving them as e-files. I did a lot of this. In fact, I exceeded my goal as to how much I got done, completing one notebook. I have a lot to do, but I feel very good about how far I’ve gone.
  • One unofficial goal was to make major progress in transcribing letters from our years in Saudi Arabia. I actually exceeded this goal, transcribing the last one on April 25th. Though, I’ll have to restate the progress on this goal based on new information. Stay tuned.

Here are my may goals. Once again, they are modest, as some things are going on this month that will severely cut into writing time.

  • Blog twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. Some of those I may have to write early due to schedule conflicts.
  • Start writing Volume 2 of A Walk Through Holy Week. I don’t have a specific goal as to word count. Just making a start will be sufficient.
  • Continue to scan, format, and file old documents, specifically poem critique I did from 2001 to approximately 2012. I have done well so far, but have another ±400 pages to go. I have no specific page goal—just getting some done will be sufficient.
  • Do a little reading for the next Documenting America book. The problem is, as reported in a previous post, I don’t know if the subject will be the Articles of Confederation or Abolition. I hope by the end of this month to be far down the road in deciding between the two.

That’s enough. I will be very surprised if I manage to get all these done.

Bible study, Documenting America, History, letters, poetry

A Quiet Week?

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Initial sales of Run Up To Revolution are not bad. That’s not bad for me. Which means next to nothing as opposed to nothing.

Last week was busy. Two medical tests. Three doctor appointments. Two writer meetings. Plus a private meeting with a writer in one group. All of these appointments save one were in Rogers, a twenty mile drive each way. A couple of appointments I was able to have somewhat close together, but with some “layover” time between them. I had time to spend in Barnes and Noble and the Rogers Library.

I did almost no writing last week. Instead, I worked on the two special projects I have going on. That took up much of my time, but I made major progress on both the letters transcription and the critiques scanning and saving. I can see light at the end of both of those tunnels.

But on Friday I did some editing of A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 8. Just the first chapter, through Word’s text-to-speech function. After having left this alone for a while, it felt good to be back at it. I’d like to edit a chapter a day using this word processor feature. That would have me finishing the editing pass during the first few days of May.

Then, what? I’ll either have finished of just be finishing my two special projects at that time. It will be the start of another busy time, something I’ll explain later. My plan has been to start on Volume 2 of A Walk Through Holy Week, hoping to finish it (first draft) in about ten weeks. That would be followed by editing and publishing Vol 2 and moving on to Vol. 3. Completing Vol 3 will let me move ahead with publishing all eight volumes.

But I’ve started to brainstorm what to do with the Documenting America series. This is my highest selling series (can’t say best-selling, because it’s not even close to that level). Perhaps it makes sense to write the next book in that series.

But what will it be? I had intended to write next about the abolition movement in America—something I’ve read some on, but which I’d like to know much more about. I have plenty of documents available to read, but I believe I’ll have to find more than I have to make a full book.

Lately, however, I’ve been reading in Thomas Paine’s writing. I already read Common Sense, which is about the American Revolution. A couple if shorter writings dealt with America under the Articles of Confederation. I’ve now moved into his Rights Of Man. To my surprise, the first twenty pages are all about Paine’s thoughts on the French Revolution and his countering the arguments of Edmund Burke. It’s not, so far, a treatise on the rights of man.

But this got me to thinking. Maybe the next volume I write in this series should be on the government of the colonies before the adopting of the Constitution. This was the time of the chaos of the Articles of Confederation, which defined our government during the Revolution and the six years after it. I have some sources for this period, though I think that, just as with abolition, I would have to find others.

Which would be better? Abolition captures my interest, but the Articles of Confederation, what I’m tempted to call the First American Government, seems to be something that has been written about much written about it. If I can find enough source material, it might be something that will stand out and will be more interesting than writing about the Revolution.

If I stick with my writing plans, I won’t wrote the next DA book until sometime in 2025. But that means I should start now to identify and start reading sources. I know that for Abolition I will have plenty of sources to choose from, but I’m not sure that will be he case for the Articles.  So I think some of my work this week, if the time materializes, if to start listing sources for both of these.

Why both?  Because whichever of these is next, the other will be after that, Therefore none of my research and reading will be lost. It might just be delayed for writing a book.

Bible study, expatriate life, letters, poetry

Will Be Writing Again Soon

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Vol 1 is published, Vols. 4, 5, 6, and 7 are written and edited. Vol. 8 is written and asking to be edited. When it will happen if somewhat of a mystery to me.

I finished writing A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 8 on April 1st. That’s the first draft. I need to do at least two editing passes before “putting it on the shelf” to await my writing Vols. 2 and 3. In the past I’ve found getting a little distance from the first draft to help the editing to go better. Normally I would start on the next writing project, but given that it’s another Bible study in the same series I decided not to rush into it. I did, however, take an hour or two one morning to do a little planning and programming on Vol. 2.

Meanwhile, during the last two weeks of Life Group lessons, which my co-teacher taught, I got some ideas that I need to work into the last two chapters. I think I may incorporate those either tonight or tomorrow.

My time has been taken up with my two special projects. I think I wrote about these before. One is transcription of letters from our years in Saudi Arabia. I try to complete two or three letters a day. After a slow start, I’m in a groove this. Letters from 1981-1982 are done, and I’m four months into 1983, the last year. It looks as if I have another 40 letters to go. That means I will likely finish this around early May, so long as interruptions are minimal.

The other special project is scanning and e-filing the many poetry critiques I did at various poetry boards around 2001-2009. I printed a lot of these and saved them in 3-ring binders. Most of these were at the now-defunct Poem Kingdom, but I also hung out at several other sites and critiqued. My estimate has been that I critiqued somewhere between 500 and 1,000 poems. No, that’s not an exaggeration. I saved many, but not all, of the critiques I made.

So far, I’ve scanned, formatted, checked for accuracy of the scan, and saved 106 poetry critiques. These came out of a 1-inch binder. My estimate is that I have 75 sheets left to process in this notebook, which will probably be 70 critiques—meaning 175 critiques. When I finish that, next to tackle is a 2.5-inch binder stuffed with critiques. That means I’ll be well over 500 critiques. What I can’t remember is if there is a third notebook or if this is it.

If I don’t have another notebook, I will likely finish this project some time in the fall. If in fact there’s a third notebook hiding somewhere on my shelves, then the project will likely continue into 2025.

So the question I’m dealing with whether I can get some book editing done while also maintaining my pace on the special projects. I won’t be able to test that until later this week. I have medical appointments today and Tuesday and two writer meetings on Thursday. I’m sure I’ll make a report on this in a future blog.

Bible study, Documenting America

March Progress, April Goals

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This was my publication in March.

Easter Sunday. Christ is risen! I write this on Sunday for posting on Monday, April 1, describing the progress I made in March and establishing some goals for April.

First, progress in March relative to goals set.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. Did this, all with meaningful posts.
  • Attend three writing group meetings. Did this. Good meetings.
  • Make major progress on A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 8. I hope to be about 90 percent done with it by month’s end. I exceeded this goal, being only one section of one chapter away from finishing the first draft. I may take a little time on Sunday to complete the last 600 words.
  • Publish Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution. Very doable by early in the month. I did this, publishing the e-book on March 2 and the paperback on March 5. Had seven sales of it this month on Amazon.
  • Make website changes as a result to the new publication. I did this, making fewer changes than I thought I would. I’ll probably look at this again in April.
  • More source reading for the Documenting America series. No, I blew this off in favor of spending the time on the Bible study.
  • Consider changes to the covers for the AWTHW series, though still encompassing my granddaughter’s artwork. I brainstormed this a little, but did not actual work on it.

Well, what about for April? I will likely lose a little time due to a heart catheterization on April 2. But here are the goals I start the month with, as always subject to change as the month proceeds.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.
  • Attend two writers meetings. I’ll miss one due to the heart cath. I am the presenter at another.
  • Make two rounds of edits on A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 8.
  • Begin outlining the next volume to write in the Bible study. Maybe, if other things go faster than I expect, I’ll be able to actually start writing this.
  • Do some website upgrades.
  • Continue with scanning old documents and saving them as e-files.

That will be it. Yardwork ramps up in April and I need to keep on top of it, so I’ll lose a little time each day to that. But it’s good to have ambitious goals.

Bible study, Health, holidays, Writing

A Special Weekend

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I’m writing this Thursday afternoon, March 28. I’ve had a busy day. Devotions. Stock trading accounting. Writing in my work-in-progress. Stock trading. Writing a letter to my #2 grandson. Weekly trip to Walmart for groceries (mainly). Quick swing through the bank drive-through. Dealing with a minor insurance issue. Working on plans for a trip east. Lots of bits and pieces.

This weekend will be a three-day weekend. Tomorrow, Good Friday, is sort of a holiday. I have my work planned out. Trading accounting. Write 1,200 words in my w-i-p. Some yardwork. Filing of financial papers. Scan/e-file as many genealogy papers as I can; maybe some writing papers. Putting things back in place after the work in the house. Updating the checkbook and budget. Begin doing our personal income taxes. Cook some banana bread. Yes, lots to do.

Next Monday will be my regular post, which, being the 1st of the month, will be my progress and goals report. I will have a special post on Sunday, not a normal posting day. It’s a special 50th anniversary for me that I want to tell you about.

Then, next Tuesday, I will have a heart catheterization, hopefully as an out-patient. This is preparatory for me to have my genetically defective/abnormal aortic valve replaced. I don’t yet know when that will be. The heart cath is needed for the doctors to know if they can replace the valve in a minimally invasive way rather than by open heart surgery.

All of which just talks of the busyness of life. Friday will be busy, as will Saturday. I’m hoping to carve out a little time for Bible reading and prayer. I’ll start the days with that.

 

Bible study, critique group, goals, miscellaneous

Busy Days

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Rocky and me, our for our early morning walk.

I usually try to have the posts for the blog go live around 7:30 a.m. on Mondays and Fridays. Usually I try to write these a day ahead so that I don’t have to rush them on posting day. But here it is, nearly 8:00 a.m. on Friday, and I’m just writing today’s post.

This week has been very busy as we are dog-sitting again. Our neighbor’s dog, Rocky, has been with us since Saturday. He’s a good dog, but he gets homesick a lot. At his house he goes outside without a leash to do his business. At our house, if we let him out without a leash he will hand around a few minutes, then run home. We then have to go uphill, pass the three wooded lots between our houses, and find and fetch him.

Still, it’s been good to have him here. He’s older now, and I figured out this morning that we may be walking him more than we need, for he didn’t come right out of his nighttime kennel and run to the door. I think I will walk him less today. When we came back from a long walk a couple of days ago, we passed some neighbors out on their porch and stopped to chat for a while. I told them one of us was worn out. The other was a dog.

It’s been good to get my steps in every day. My weight is down (helped by a little sickness on Tuesday) and I’m very close to reaching a major milestone on weight loss. Look for an announcement soon.

On the second walk today, three deer were grazing. Caught two of them in this shot.

Rocky goes home tonight and, despite the work involved with his care, we will miss him. Because of the early morning walks, twice I encountered a herd of around eight deer grazing in the lot north of us. Never would have seen them under normal circumstances. Alas, I didn’t get my camera out in time to snap a picture before they scattered.

Meanwhile, in other news, the water/mold remediation work inside the house is finally done. Two men were here yesterday to re-install the built-in bookcase. All water damaged areas have been removed and replaced. Corrective actions have been made in three areas to keep it from happening again. The painting is not yet done, for we will have Rocky’s owner, who is a professional painter, to do that, hopefully soon. But today I will start putting books back on the shelves. We’ve already put some stuff back in the master bathroom.

I’ve also been able to mostly keep up my writing schedule. Monday through Wednesday, I completed one chapter in the Bible study I’m writing. Yesterday I planned out the next chapter and edited the gospel harmony it’s based on. Today I will try to write one section in it. By the time my writing is done tomorrow I hope to have two more sections done, which is actually a little ahead of the weekly schedule I’ve set for myself.

As far as my special projects are concerned, I’ve fallen a bit behind on them. I’m transcribing letters from our years in Saudi Arabia, intending to put them in a book. But I found a folder with eight items in it from our Kuwait years. The last few days I worked on them, typing and formatting them. They will have to go into the book on the Kuwait years and I’ll have to republish it. All for family, of course. The project of scanning genealogy papers and e-filing them has fallen on hard times. Perhaps I can get back to that in a few days.

No, the taxes! I forgot I still have our taxes to do. Got the business taxes done and in before the March 15 deadline, but still have to do our personal income taxes. I suppose I will have to start on that tomorrow. Alas.

 

Bible study, Documenting America, goals, letters

February Progress, March Goals

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It didn’t work as a Kindle Vella book. Maybe it will as an e-book and paperback.

End of one month, beginning of a new one. Time to record my progress and goals. First, February progress.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. I managed to do this, despite the stroke. It helped that I had written one post early. Alas, I did a poor job responding to comments made. I hope to rectify that today.
  • Attend two writers meetings. I only made one of the two. One was the Thursday after the stroke, and though I could have gone, our leader strongly suggested (i.e. forbade me) to attend so close to the stroke.
  • Make major progress on Volume 8 of A Walk Through Holy Week. Based on January progress, I might be able to complete the first draft in February. UPDATE: Probably only 60 percent. I did make progress, but not near as much as I wanted. I would say I’m a little over 50 percent done. I lost two full weeks of writing while waiting for my touch-typing ability to return closer to normal.
  • Finish all publishing tasks for Vol. 1 of AWTHW, both e-book and print version. Just missed getting this done. I finished editing on Wednesday. Publishing tasks remain. Also waiting on a beta reader, but I was late getting it to him. That won’t hold up the publishing.
  • Make a couple of new ads on Amazon. Maybe one for There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel and one for A Walk Through Holy Week, Volume 1.  Did not get this done. Just seemed too hard to do and do well with other things going on.
  • Continue transcribing our letters from Saudi Arabia. I did this, albeit significantly slower than I’d hoped.
  • Continue reading in some source for the next Documenting America book. I did this, but not as much as I thought I would. More on that in another post.
I’m looking to tweak the covers for this series some.

Now, time for March  goals. I’m a little hesitant to make them, given that I have home repairs to superintend and medical appointments to keep, but here’s a stab at them.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.
  • Attend three writing group meetings.
  • Make major progress on A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 8. I hope to be about 90 percent done with it by month’s end.
  • Publish Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution. Very doable by early in the month.
  • Make website changes as a result to the new publication.
  • More source reading for the Documenting America series.
  • Consider changes to the covers for the AWTHW series, though still encompassing my granddaughter’s artwork.

I feel like there’s a couple of things missing, but will conclude this post for now. I can always add to it if all goes well through the month.

Bible study, Health, Writing

Progress After Stroke

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As I mentioned in a very short post on Jan 29, I had a stroke on Jan 27, at 10:08 in the morning. I got to the Urgent Care ER in about 45 minutes, had the clot-buster shot in less than 2 hrs. Was transported to hospital for the mandatory 24 hr observation after receiving the shot.

Here’s the cover for the e-book of “To Jerusalem”.

While in the hospital, my impairment symptoms improved. After the 24 hrs, I passed all the tests, including the final CTscan and physical, occupational, and speech therapy, and they let me go. I spent the rest of that day and the next going from bed to recliner to couch. I slept much. From Saturday morning to Monday I lost 4 pounds as my body fought the trauma. No snacks might have helped too.

As of now, my symptoms are greatly reduced. My speech is back nearly 100%. I can tell I still have a little trouble forming some words. My right hand is much improved. I can now touch-type normally, though not as fast. I’m doing maybe 40 words per minute instead of my normal 60 or so. A sticky keyboard is adding to the difficulty.

And my drooping right eyelids seems better. When people looked at me, they couldn’t see the droop, but it was there. It affected my reading a lot at first. Slowly it’s been better. Yesterday’s reading, of an 11 pt font, I was able to do without much trouble. I can still tell it’s not quite back to normal, however.

Through all of this, my writing tasks have been few. I was within a couple of hours before the stroke hit of publishing To Jerusalem, which is Volume 1 in my A Walk Through Holy Week Bible study series. As my strength, energy, and desire came back, I was able to finally get to the publishing tasks remaining. I published the ebook on Feb 8 and the paperback on Feb 11. So far I have one sale.

I returned to working on another volume in that series, Vol. 8, on Tuesday of this week. It felt good to be back in the saddle. My typing is more or less at the speed my mind is working to put words together. I’m getting less written in a typical writing session than I did before the stroke, but perhaps my productivity will return with a little more time.

So, that’s my story. I have more health items yet to come, but they will be the subject of later posts.

Bible study, Christianity

My Latest Book: To Jerusalem

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Here’s the cover for the e-book.

It seems a long time since I published anything. My last book was The Key To Time Travel, published in June last year. Since then, I worked on three different books, two in my Bible study series and one in my Documenting America series. I published the latter one on Kindle Vella, and recently began the work to publish it as a stand-alone book. Hopefully that will be ready for publishing before the end of February. After that, I have a completed short story to release soon, maybe in March.

But, right now, I completed the publishing tasks for To Jerusalem, which is Volume 1 of 8 in my Bible study series, A Walk Through Holy Week. It covers the period from the banquet in Bethany, six days before the Passover, to some of the teaching did on Tuesday of Holy Week.

My granddaughter, Elise, did the artwork for the cover series. Her work is acknowledged in the book. This was version one of the art.

The book is organized into ten chapters, with the idea that this could a series of ten small group lessons leading up to and perhaps going a few week after Easter. Our own adult Sunday School class has been going through this series for several years, one volume at a time (though is six parts rather than the eight volumes of the final series). The class seems to have enjoyed it.

The book is available, both as an ebook and paperback, at Amazon.