Not the final cover, but some thoughts I had on a draft. The artist is working on it.
As I mentioned in my last post, several writing projects are at or near an end, and it’s time to start thinking about what’s next.
Last night and this morning, I believe I completed both the Amazon page description and the back cover copy for There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. This is something I’m not particularly good at, these short descriptions aimed at “closing the sale” when someone is looking at my books. I like how it turned out in this case. I have high hopes for this book. Maybe these short descriptions will help.
As I said before, the church Centennial book is done, and print copies are in-hand. The church has been taking pre-orders, and this Sunday, distribution will start. I’ll be at the table where people will pick up pre-ordered copies or buy them that day. A presentation of the book will be made in the church service. I’ll get to man the table between first and second services.
Also as mentioned in the last post, I’m waiting on feedback on my completed Bible study before doing the last 25 percent of the second one. But next week, I think I will hop back on that project and start bringing it to completion, whether I get the feedback or not.
This week, I quickly wrote a couple of thousand words in a memoir-type piece that I’m contemplating writing. At present, it is titled Tales Of A Vagabond, but I’m not sure if that’s how it will end up. I’m not even sure it will be my next project. I wanted to have something for the Scribblers & Scribes writers’ group meeting last night, so I wrote that. It was well received, though of course I received valuable feedback should I want to continue with this. I guess I mentioned Tales Of A Vagabond in my last post as well.
So I’m not quite in between projects, but I continue to inch closer to that point. TNSTATT should be published within two weeks. The two Bible studies should be done in about a month. Centennial committee duties are almost over for me and will be over as of July 10. High school reunion is Aug 13. Somewhere, sometime soon, is my next writing project. Possibly I’ll take a week off.
The Centennial book is done. I have my copies in hand. Full distribution starts on Sunday May 22.
Ack! It’s almost 11 a.m. and I’m just now getting to writing my blog post for today. Something must be wrong with me.
Yes, something is wrong with me. I’ve been too busy. It began last Thursday, when a Zoom meeting about our upcoming church Centennial celebration was still going strong after 2 1/2 hours, and I hit a wall. I couldn’t go on. I abruptly ended the meeting, took a break, and a few hours later got back to the task we had been working on—now alone. Yes, I still work better alone than with someone else.
Not the final cover, but some thoughts I had on a draft. The artist is working on it.
Friday and Saturday are blurs to me now. I know some heavy yardwork and a daily walk were involved. I had a number of e-mails about the Centennial, also about There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. Saturday evening was taken up with study to teach Life Group on Sunday morning. Sunday was the usual church, Life group, fast-food takeout. Then we went to the high school graduation reception for our neighbors’ daughter. Through a comedy of errors (which included my not understanding the invitation), that took us a while to even get there. Back home, tiredness set in and I didn’t get a lot done during the afternoon. In the evening I went back to the Centennial work I have been tasked with, and got a little more done. I also did some in-depth critiquing of a piece send by a member of our critique group. This morning, the first thing I did was finish that critique and e-mail it to her.
Back on TNSTATT, we must finalize the book cover, create the publication files (e-book and print book), decide whether it will be on Amazon only or go “wide” to other publishers. I think it was on Friday that I got most of the final formatting done. Today I re-read a couple of the later chapters and made a few edits. I declared it done around 8:15 a,m. and began the final formatting. This includes such things as adding in a listing of my other books which, for some reason, is never up-to-date. I spent time getting it up-to-date, and creating a system for keeping it up-to-date henceforth.
I have another hour and a half of work on the print book, then an hour or so on the e-book. Then I will be ready to work on something else. What will it be?
I ought to get back to the second of two Bible studies I was writing, as described in this post. I had pulled off the second while waiting on feedback on the first. But last night I learned that the man I sent it to for review never got the e-mail. I re-sent it last night, confirmed he got it, and so now I wait. I may get back to that. The Scribblers & Scribes meet this Thursday evening, and I’d like to have something to share. But what? I’m not sure they will want to review and critique pages of a Bible study.
Or, I may start on something completely new. I don’t want to go into too much detail. Tentatively titled Tales Of A Vagabond, it would be the start of an autobiography. I actually started it when I realized I needed to write my blog post.
Whatever I ultimately do with Tales Of A Vagabond, I know that finishing the two Bible studies will be my next main writing tasks. But after that, what? I’m kind of itching to do some work on a genealogy book about one of Lynda’s ancestors. My two partly-complete and temporarily-abandoned Thomas Carlyle books are starting to look attractive again. There’s always the next Documenting America book, for which I have completed the research. If TNSTATT takes off, I may hop right on Book 2 in that series. I just don’t know.
That’s not really the full list. I will be taking time soon to pray about this and see if I get some divine direction. The problem is, God has never given me such specific guidance. He usually leaves it up to me, and I have learned to pray that he would direct my footsteps as I make the best decisions I can. I suspect this will be one of those times.
Faith and science work together, to my mind it brings completion.
When we were recently in Lynda’s hometown, Meade Kansas, we went to a library surplus book sale. We don’t need another book in this house, but such a sale is an irresistible tractor beam, so we went. I picked up two used books for a quarter each. One was on the British romantic poets. The other was some correspondence of Bertrand Russell.
I knew nothing about Russell, other than the name and a vague idea he was an atheist, or an anti-Christian, but don’t know where I got that idea. I’ve read nothing he wrote, no biography of him, nothing. I suppose his name might have been in something I read, but if so, I don’t remember anything about him. But I knew he was an important man. I won’t go into a bio of “Lord” Russell in this post. Let’s just say I know more about him now than I did before, though not as much as I feel I ought to know. More research is needed. I’m only about 40 pages into the book.
In response to one letter to him dealing with his atheism, Russell replied (on 2 December 1964) with this statement.
I think that all religions consist at least in part of believing things for which there is no evidence and I think that in face of such beliefs loyalty to evidence should be substituted.
That got me thinking about religion and science. People are often categorized as being either of faith or of science. “He’s a man of faith,” is a statement frequently heard. Or, the converse, “He’s a man of science.” This latter statement is usually presented as science being exclusive of faith, while the former seems to be neutral on science, or so it seems to me. I guess my question is: Why can’t it be both?
Science is obvious, especially since the scientific method came into vogue. You observe, experiment, document, and conclude. The result is a snippet of information for which there is evidence. The moon is not made of green cheese. It’s made of rock. Barnacles don’t grow without parentage (i.e. via spontaneous generation) as once thought. They are spawned. Disease isn’t caused by evil spirits, but by germs.
We can’t see these germs with the naked eye, of course. It takes a microscope. I remember the fun in university science lab, where we looked at a wastewater sample under the microscope and a rotifer propelled itself across the part of the sample in view. Now that was exciting! While we haven’t seen the germs, we read that others have seen them, observed them, documented what they do, and conclude that germs are real. Faith isn’t required to believe in germs. Nor in atoms, nor the parts of the atom. Well, maybe a little faith that those who have done the experimentation/observation have accurately concluded and reported. But what with peer reviews, etc., not much faith.
Going out the other way, we now have powerful telescopes. They give us evidence of what stars are, how far away they are, the different types of stars, and a whole lot about them. They give us evidence of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the incredible distance from ours to others. Faith is not involved.
But where did it all come from? The most powerful space-based telescopes, seeing light from a long time ago, are starting to give us hints of the universe’s forming. But it really doesn’t tell us the why.
Science is constantly changing. I remember a college chemistry professor telling us what a professor of his had told him 25 years earlier. That prof had said, “Forty percent of what I teach you will eventually be proven untrue.” I think that prof was correct. As science advances, as more experiments are conducted and observations expanded, our knowledge changes. That’s not a negative. That’s a good thing.
But it does remind us that science, in general, is a moving target, constantly changing as knowledge increases.
On the other hand, there is faith, which for this post I’ll define as belief in something for which you don’t have evidence. Belief in God, in His sovereignty. That God created all that we can see and experience. How wonderful is faith! How wonderful it makes the world. How it expands on the enjoyment of all that is around us.
I suppose I get a bit irked when I see things such as “Evidences for God”. I don’t read them any more. I remember reading on-line the transcript of a debate between an atheist and a Christian. Both gave long opening arguments. Then they got into their main, prepared arguments. The Christian debater went to great lengths to prove mathematically that God existed. What? Who needs evidence? Who needs proof? I quit reading after a couple of paragraphs.
I prefer to believe in God by faith. I need no evidence other than that described by the apostle Paul in Romans 1.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
But that’s still a matter of faith, not of science. I’m sticking to faith, which enhances science. Does science confirm faith? Doesn’t matter. Faith needs no confirmation.
I’m going on in this life by faith. Come along with me.
A series of 31 short, inspiring stories. Well worth the read.
In our evening reading time, my wife and I recently read aloud A Gift of Miracles: Magical Stories to Touch Your Family’s Heart. This is a group of stories about events in peoples’ lives where something unexpected and, shall I say, miraculous happened.
Submitted by those whose stories they are, the book is by Jamie C. Miller, Laura Lewis, and Jennifer Basye Sander. I assume they are editors of this, though they may have served as co-writers with some who submitted their stories.
The book contains 31 inspiring stories, typically three to five pages. These are very much like the stories you find in Guideposts magazine, though this is not a Guideposts book. While this is a faith-based book, all the stories are not outwardly spiritual. No matter. It’s a good book.
If you find this book, it’s well worth a read. Read one story a day for a month. Or two if you have the time. Or read it straight through. You will be inspired.
While I liked the book and give it 5-stars, it is not a keeper, as I don’t see myself ever reading it again. If this is in a series, or we find another like it, we will probably pick it up and read it.
This is my first Bible study. It’s done fairly well but is by no means cracking a bestseller list.
In my progress and goals posts, I have mentioned that I was working on writing two Bible studies. They are actually part of a longer study having six parts. Let me explain.
Some years ago, when my co-teacher and I were discussing the curriculum for our Life Group, he said it would be nice to go through the events of Holy Week as a study, ending up on Easter Sunday. I took a look at it, and discovered there were almost 70 separate events during Holy Week. It would take us over a year to go through it all without combining some of the smaller events. Actually, more like two years when you consider the occasional Sunday when we don’t have Life Groups and the interruptions for all-church studies.
I decided instead that we would break this up into six parts and do some every year leading up to Easter, and going beyond Easter when necessary. I planned it all out, and I guess it was in 2019 that we did Part 1, on the Triumphal Entry and the events over Sunday-Monday-Tuesday of Holy Week. That was a bit long; I should have broken it up into two parts. Then there was the Olivet Discourse during the pandemic interrupted 2020. Last year was the Last Supper, and this year is Gethsemane, Arrest, and Jewish Trial. Next year will be the Roman trial, execution and burial. And the year after next will be Easter Sunday.
All has gone well. We get through this seven to fifteen lessons per year. The class seems happy. The pace is good.
At some point between last year’s series and this year’s series, I decided that, if I were going to write and publish another Bible study, maybe this series was what I should write. In January, when I finished two other writing projects and decided I’d do a Bible study next, I went to work on the Last Supper study.
I immediately ran into a problem, however. I had my teaching notes from when I taught the classes, but they were months old. They were suitable for teaching when the material was fresh but not for writing when the material was stale. I found I had to re-study a lesson again in order to write a chapter in the book. As a result, I made very little progress in January and February.
The first Sunday in March, we began the new part of the study, Gethsemane, etc. The day after I taught the first lesson I set down to write it in book form. The chapter came out very easily. In three days I had it written. At that point I switched back to last year’s study, and struggled along.
The next week, I decided to make that the pattern. Here’s what I’m trying to do.
Study on Saturday for the current lesson.
Teach the lesson on Sunday; come home and begin to write the current lesson into a chapter.
Work on and complete the current lesson chapter Monday-Tuesday.
Work on last year’s study Wed-Thus-Fri, hoping to complete one full chapter, but being satisfied with whatever I can do.
Since I started that at week 2 in the current study, it has worked well. I have all chapters in the current study complete through Chapter 5 and am working on Chapter 6. On last year’s study, some weeks I’ve been able to do a full chapter; other weeks I’m a little short of a full chapter.
As of April 10, I have written approximately 31,000 words in last year’s study, and 29,000 words in this year’s study. That’s substantial progress.
Yesterday, I went to The Dungeon after church and began writing, and found myself completely out of gas. Problems sleeping Saturday night had left me tired. I wrote maybe 300 words on the current lesson, and decided to pack it in. I’m not sure how much I’ll get done today and tomorrow, due to the need to finish my income taxes. But there’s no law saying I can’t take the entire week to write that chapter, and save work on last year’s study till next week or the week after.
I’m enjoying this writing. I don’t know how this will proceed. I know I’ll finish these two, publish them, then see if I’ll write more of them over the next couple of years.
This little book is a good read about a good man who had a good ministry. Well worth reading.
One of the books we picked up used, somewhere along life’s way, is Luis Palau by Terry Whalin. It’s part of the Men of Faith series by Bethany House Publishers (since bought by others).
Palau was an Argentinian who grew up in difficult economic circumstances. He had limited schooling at an early age, though finally went to a European-run boarding school in Argentina. Slowly, God got ahold of his heart and he embraced Jesus as Lord.
He became interested in spreading God’s word and, in the 1940s, became aware of mass evangelism. This seemed a great idea to him. He found mentors and organizations to guide him, and his ministry took off. A few years later, he was holding crusades throughout Latin America. As bilingual, Spanish and English, he was soon called upon to hold crusades around the world. Along the way, he had emigrated to the USA, married in the States, and they had children.
The book was written while Pilau was alive and holding crusades. The author, Terry Whalin, is someone I’ve met at writing conferences. He has been active in all parts of the publishing industry: author, editor, agent, publisher. He also spent time with Wycliff Bible Translators. I’ve corresponded with Terry off and on over the years.
This is a good little book. If you get ahold of a copy, it’s well worth reading. Our book was a strange critter. We began reading it aloud. We got to page 32, and the next page was 65. At page 96, it went back to page 65. We saw, stamped on the bottom of the book, “Seconds”. We obviously bought a defective copy. Not to worry. It was probably a 50¢ purchase. But, we aren’t going to pass a defective copy on to someone else, and into recycling we will go. We were able to find a copy of the book to borrow at Internet Archives, so we were able to finish it.
I’m now down to the third Bible verse that I use to start my day. [If interested, you can see an overview of this series of posts here, and the first verse here and the second verse here.] Here’s the third verse.
So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ [Luke 17:10 NIV]
Pouring over old record books held at the church was the first place to start in my research.
This is at the end of a passage sometimes titled “Sin, Faith, Duty”. Jesus talks about how a person who has a servant will not, after both servant and master have had a busy day, serve the servant. He will expect the servant to continue in his/her duties until the master’s needs are met.
Yet, Jesus says: If all you, as a servant, have done is your duty—if you have not gone beyond your duty and done more than asked—you are an unworthy servant.
This verse struck me several years ago. I think I was still working as an engineer when I found this and knew right away it had to be one of my life verses. I was closing in on retirement and was kind of skating, doing the minimum I had to to keep my job. Then this verse came anew into my life, and I knew I had to change. About a year before retirement my boss gave me a difficult assignment, to assist (and eventually take over for) a design professional who was overwhelmed with problem projects. I dug into it, and for fourteen months had a wild ride bringing those projects into some kind of resolution. I think I did my duty with them, and more than my duty.
That also hit home last July. In June I had finished writing the book for our church’s Centennial, at our pastor’s request. This meant monthly virtual meetings of the committee, and lots of research and writing. The deadline for the book kept getting pushed out as our celebration kept getting delayed due to pandemic and construction. I decided to stick with it as if the deadline was close, finished it about 10 months ahead of schedule, and set back to rest awhile.
But one item nagged at me. The church had 12 known charter members, but supposedly 63 charter members in total, the names of the other 51 never having been properly recorded, or, if recorded, the records were lost. A new pastor came a few years into the church’s life and established record books. Henceforth, members were added and deleted as they joined and left or died. But he also reached back in time and recorded, I’m sure to the best of his ability, the names of everyone who had been a member before he became our pastor. It included some members who had already left. That was a total of about 170 names.
Something inside me said I ought to dig in, do the research, and see if I could determine who those other charter members were. But, I protested to myself, if there are 170 names, and 12 of those are known charter members, that means I have to research about 158 names and try to sort them out as to which to include in the 51 and which to exclude. It was a monumental task and I decided I wouldn’t do it.
July rolled around, and I began proofreading the book at a leisurely pace. I came to the point of there having been 63 charter members, 51 one of them unknown but buried among 158 names, and I had to stop. The verse came to me, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” I had done my duty; the book was done, and done early, leaving plenty of time for editing and proofreading.
But, the thought kept nagging me: if I only did my duty, I was an unworthy servant. I made the decision that I would do the research and see what would result.
Thus, July and August were consumed with research of those 158 names, trying to find a reason to choose 51 of them as charter members. First, I developed five criteria of what would make me include or eliminate someone as a probable charter member. Then I went by family groups, then those not in family groups. Using various internet research sites, I applied the five criteria to each person.
Slowly, everything began to sort out. I was able to make educated judgments and narrow the list of probable charter members down from 158 to around 60. After that, it was just guesswork, but I came up with my list of 51 names and added them to the Centennial book.
But, I didn’t mean for this post to get into the nitty-gritty of the task. I wanted to show how this Bible verse spoke to me and helped guide my behavior. It probably sounds like so much patting myself on the back. I don’t mean to do that. I know there have been plenty of times when I was that unworthy servant, doing only my duty or even less than my duty. But using a real illustration of the principle resulted in the back patting.
I hope this verse will help you as you develop a strategy for completing the work that life has assigned for you to do, or that you have taken on voluntarily. And that the three Bible verses in this series will encourage you. The sun is just breaking the horizon on this cold (28°) spring morning. It is time for me to awaken the dawn!
Not too long ago, I posted about the second of three Bible verses that I try to start each day with. This one, 2 Corinthians 4:17, talks about our troubles on this earth being light and momentary, and will result in an eternal glory that far surpasses the troubles. My focus of that post was that I wasn’t experiencing the glory because I wasn’t using the troubles as a spur to personal growth.
This photo doesn’t really show how my workspace was torn apart from moving stuff to get to devices and cables. Will wait a little to everything back in place. Maybe I’ll even organize it a little.
Wednesday was one of those days, when troubles seemed somewhat more than light. The power company was working in our neighborhood and had alerted us that they would be turning off our power for a couple of hours in the morning, and that they would come by and tell us before they did. The day started out normally. I was at my computer by 7:30 a.m., doing writing and stock trading tasks. It was about 10:00 a.m. before the power company came by and gave us a 10-minute warning. I closed out of all programs, keeping only a couple of Word documents open, closed the lid on my laptop, and left The Dungeon.
Sure enough, the power soon went off. I took the occasion to make my weekly grocery run to Wal-Mart. Normally a Tuesday task, a long meeting then had caused me to delay a day. I went and did my shopping, for a change finding everything on my list. At the self-checkout, all worked well.
The man at the self-checkout station next to me had some unusual items in his cart: a dozen cans of salt and that many gallon bottles of vinegar. That seemed strange, and I did something I never do: I started a conversation with him, asking him about the oddity of his purchases. Understand: I never do that. If at all possible I go through the store and consider it a good time if I don’t have to talk with anyone.
Although, earlier in this trip, I did talk briefly with a woman shopper in the pharmacy section. A rock and roll song was coming over the loudspeakers and I was humming it. This woman and her adult daughter came in my direction and the woman was singing it. She caught my eye and stopped, embarrassed. Then I started signing it and so she started again. Three seconds later we had passed each other, on with our shopping.
Back to the man and his cart of salt and vinegar. I assumed he was buying for a restaurant, but he said no, it was for his concoction of killing weeds in his rock yard. He told me his formula. Since I have the same problem and have considered hiring a lawn service to spray deadly chemicals on it, I was interested. I learned something from this conversation, this impromptu, hard for me to start but easy to continue conversation.
Back to light and momentary troubles. When I got home, the power was still off. The power company had said two hours, and we weren’t there yet. So I went to the sunroom and read. The temperature was 40° out and the sunroom was getting cold with the space heater not working. I was about done with my daily reading quota in this particular book when the power came on, just shy of three hours since it had gone off. The power company had said it might take as long as that if they ran into any problems.
All was good. The trouble of no power was indeed light and momentary, and I thought I had redeemed the time well. A brief lunch, and downstairs to The Dungeon to resume my activities, only to learn…no internet. No problem. I rebooted the modem; still no internet. I rebooted the router; still no internet. I waited then repeated those two steps. Still no internet. I finally found a number for our internet provider. They did a remote reset of the modem; still no internet. I got on a text chat with a rep of their company. He did various things. I tried to explain the situation. Two hours of texting; still no internet.
I took note of the steady light showing on the modem and the all-lights-flashing status of the router, assumed a router failure, and texted a friend who is an IT guy in his job and arranged for an evening call. I wondered if the router experienced a power failure when it came back on. I also considered that the internet provider had sent an e-mail a week before, saying they had increased speeds and I would have to reboot the modem to take advantage of that. I hadn’t done it yet, but the power shutdown was actually a forced reboot. I now have 866 mbps speed—but no internet. Could it be that this old router was incompatible with the higher speed?
This trouble was turning out to be worse than light and not all that momentary. I found other things to do, mainly going through an old genealogy research notebook and getting rid of a bunch of stuff I no longer need. I read the instructions for the air fryer we’ve had for three years but never used and planned to cook some veggies in it. Supper came and went, and I had the call with my friend. We talked through the internet problem. He agreed with me that it sounded as if the router had gone bad. Based on our set-up, he talked me through a work-around, and poof! we had internet.
From there the conversation rolled into other areas to fill the hour. Technology, internet, CATV vs streaming, cost increases, even a little into politics. We ended when he was expecting another call to come in. It was a good hour.
So how would I describe these technology troubles. Light? Momentary? In hindsight I would guess so, though it didn’t seem like it at the time. But since the time was redeemed, and redeemed well, I would have to say they were indeed light and momentary, and that God used them toward the goal of eternal glory.
A short bio, but full of information, and well-written.
In our quest to reduce clutter and dis-accumulate years of accumulation, Lynda and I pulled a few books from obscure shelves in the basement family room, and will read them next. These are all “non-keepers”, books we will discard. One of these books was George Mueller. Not too long ago we read that aloud in the evenings.
I’ve known about George Mueller and his life of faith for a long time. I’ve read about him in various books and articles. I included him in a chapter of Acts Of Faith, my book about Bible people and Christians who had special faith experiences. But I had never read a biography of him.
This was a short book, possibly geared towards teens, though actually a good read for adults. It covered Mueller’s growing up in Germany, his wild youth period, his conversion, and his growth as a baby Christian. He gave up a prospective marriage to a woman who did not appreciate his desire to be a missionary.
He made contact with a missionary society that wanted him to work among the Jewish people in England. He went there, but it didn’t work out. He became co-pastor of a church. Before long, he started a Bible distribution ministry. Not long after that, he took notice of orphans in Bristol and their plight in the workhouses. He decided to develop orphanages, which he had seen in Germany but were a new concept in England. Over the years, he developed multiple orphanages, first in the heart of Bristol, then on the outskirts.
This includes a chapter, or rather part of a chapter, about George Mueller.
The act of faith? He did all this without ever soliciting donations. Not for renting property. Not for staffing the orphanages. Not for provisioning them. Not for buying property and building multiple orphanages on it. He prayed for the needs and trusted God to supply.
The book concentrated on the orphanage years. There were times when they had nothing for breakfast, and a bread truck broke down in front of the orphanage. There were times when a 5 pound bill was due, and an envelope came in the morning mail from someone they didn’t know. Mueller had faith when he needed a shilling and was trustworthy with it. God then gave him faith for tens of thousands of pounds and trustworthiness with that.
The book was an easy read. Not terribly long, but long enough so that by the end I felt like I understood Mueller’s life fairly well. Now I’m sure that, in a short book, much was left out. I want to read a fuller biography of this.
I highly recommend this book, which I give 5-stars. But this little paperback is long out of print. If you can’t find this, grab any bio of Mueller and dig in.
This book is not a keeper. However, we might give it to our grandchildren to read. It’s quite readable at that age.
Moving this 7 foot high woodpile about 60 feet downhill might interrupt my writing rhythm.
I haven’t looked back to see what my writing goals for March are, but I know I’ve been busy writing. I’m into a rhythm of sorts. I need to be since I’m working on two projects at once, while still waiting on two others to truly finish and drop off the radar.
The two waiting to be finished are the church Centennial book and my MG/YA novel There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. The former is done and sent to the printer. At least the insides are. The cover has lagged due to the designer’s busyness. She sent it to me on Tuesday. I immediately shot it to our pastor and committee chair for approval. Both wanted tweaks or changes, one involving a new photo. That photo arrived in my inbox today. I sent it on, and the cover designer says I should have the revised cover tomorrow. Once I send it on to the printer, that project will be truly done.
The other project is also done—sort of. I’m waiting on five beta readers to give me feedback, four of them in the target age group. I’ve given nudges but hear nothing from them. The cover is under preparation by a different designer. I think, once that is done, I will publish it with or without the feedback from the five. If they give me good suggestions for substantive changes, I can always make the changes and republish the book. Meanwhile, I’m giving my critique group a chapter every two weeks and getting good feedback. Alas, as adult writers, they aren’t in the target demographic. Both of these projects are taking very little of my time.
My Bible commentaries are out, resting one on another on the kitchen table, and likely to stay there for a couple of months. I see blank paper to write on, but what did I do with my notes?
Now, as for current projects, they are two Bible studies that form a pair. First, some background. Last year, Feb-Apr, I taught a Bible study on the Last Supper, 13 weeks I think it was. It was Part 3 of a larger study, A Walk Through Holy Week. We are studying it in our Life Group, one part a year, based on the harmony of the gospels I wrote. I realized that the entire study would make a good series of books. I didn’t do anything with Parts 1 and 2, but Part 3 seemed especially suitable for a Bible study book.
Alas, when that study was over, I was fully involved in the Centennial book, and when I had it mostly finished by June (with a research supplement not done till Aug), I moved straight into the time travel book because the iron was hot and I wanted to get it done. Meanwhile, I preserved my teaching notes, some of which were handwritten and some typed. Whenever my schedule freed up, I would be ready to write it.
That happened around mid-January this year. I gathered my notes, merged and organized them, then created the book file. I labored at it for a month. Yes, labored, for I found it very difficult to write. My plan was to have one chapter for each week’s lesson. Chapters would be organized into seven sections, making for a reading a day should the reader want to proceed that way. I was able to make some headway on it, starting the seven readings for Chapter 1 and completing some of them. I got some “days” done, others not. By around March 3rd, I had perhaps 12,000 words of a book that I think will be 50-60,000. Not great progress, but some.
Then a dilemma hit me. On Sunday, March 6, we were to start Part 4 of the Holy Week study. I immediately thought I couldn’t work on both studies. Teaching the new one would consume so much time, and cover different material, that writing Part 3 while teaching Part 4 would be difficult. But the thought came that maybe I should just write the new one and lay Part 3 aside. That way, I could write the chapters (again, planning for seven readings in each chapter) as I was teaching it. The material would be fresh, and hopefully the writing would go fast as well.
I taught the first lesson of Part 4 on March 6. The day before, Saturday, I did an intensive study for it. Coming home from church on Sunday, I went to my computer and began writing the new study. As I hoped, it was easier. I was able to incorporate class discussion and thoughts not in my notes that came to me as I was teaching while all was fresh on my mind. Sunday, I wrote one complete reading and part of another. I also organized the chapters and readings. Monday, I did two more readings, Tuesday two more, and Wednesday, two more, completing the chapter. Yay!
That left me Thursday and Friday to return to the Part 3 book and see what I could accomplish. What I found was I really needed to re-study the material just as if I was going to teach it anew. I did that on Thursday, and on Friday I wrote two days of readings. My writing time on Saturday had to go to study for the next lesson in Part 4.
So it seemed to me that this was a viable rhythm. Saturday: study to teach a lesson in Part 4. Sunday, teach the lesson and work on writing the chapter in Part 4. Monday-Tuesday write the Part 4 chapter, hoping to finish by Tuesday evening. If I couldn’t, continue with Part 4 writing on Wednesday. When that was done, shift to Part 3, hoping to study a chapter and write it on Wednesday-Thursday-Friday.
It worked out like that this week. I completed the second chapter of Part 4 on Wednesday, early enough to give me some time to shift to writing Part 3. As of the time of this writing, I should finish tomorrow (today when you read this) the most difficult chapter to write in Part 3. Then, it’s on to Chapter 3 of Part 4 and another chapter in Part 3. I hope this is making sense.
Part 4 finishes on Easter Sunday. The week after Easter I have a medical procedure scheduled that will prevent me from writing a whole lot. I hope to finish Part 4 by the end of April—the first draft, that is. I’ll be very surprised if I am even half-way through with Part 3 by then, but maybe I will be.
As of yet, I have no publishing schedule for either of these. I don’t know if I’ll publish Part 4 when done, and Part 3 a couple of months later, or if I’ll withhold Part 4 until Part 3 is done and publish them together, or maybe a month apart. Once I know, I’ll let you all know here.
