Category Archives: Daddy Daughter Day

Bible study, Christianity, Daddy Daughter Day

“I Will Awaken The Dawn”

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A few posts ago, I mentioned that I had three Bible verses that I tried to start each day with. I also confessed that I wasn’t always that faithful with saying these verses. I’m getting better at it, however. I started this about two years ago, though two of those three verses have been special to me for longer than that.

The first of these verses comes from the Psalms. I find it in two places there: Psalm 57:8 and Psalm 108:2.

I will awaken the dawn.

Actually, that’s not the full verse. I should quote the full verse.

Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.

While I have probably read this more than once, it first grabbed me when we were doing a study of Psalm 119 maybe four years ago. For some reason this verse in Psalm 108 must have been cross-referenced to something in Psalm 119.

This, as I say, grabbed at me. What did it mean exactly? To try to find out, I checked other translations (the above quotes are from the NIV). I found they were surprisingly the same. The New Living Translation has Psalm 57:8 as, “Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song.”

What did it mean? I pondered it for a while, internalizing it, and concluded that the psalmist woke in the morning excited about the day that was before him. He couldn’t wait for the sun to come up so that he could be about living another day joyously in service to God. So he wrote, “I will awaken the dawn.” I will call upon the day to start so that I can get to my daily chores, my work, my career, or whatever it is he had to do.

That struck me as a good way to start my days, to be anxious for what God had in store for me today, and what the world has for me. C’mon day, let’s get going. C’mon sun, I need your light so that I can be out and about, meeting people, serving God, serving mankind.

First, I had to think, is this how I really feel? Am I excited to have another day to live? Thankful, of course. But when nature calls early in the morning, and I swing my feet off the bed to the floor, and I anxious for the day, so anxious that I say, “I will awaken the dawn”? I decided yes, yes I am excited to be living another day.

What about that Saturday in late February, when I spent three hours chopping ice in the driveway and shoveling it off so that I would be able to get to church on Sunday and teach Life Group? My back was tired, my hip was tired, my mind was tired. I woke up that Sunday with many more aches and pains than usual. Yet I was able to say, “I will awaken the dawn,” get up, and get to my normal Lord’s day activities.

What about income tax season? I have a love-hate relationship with income taxes. I enjoy the challenge of doing them myself. Yet, it’s a lot of work and often frustrating. In early March, when I work on the partnership taxes, and then in early April when I do our personal taxes, saying, “I will awaken the dawn” isn’t all that easy. Still, I say it anyway, realizing I have another challenge to tackle and overcome.

Then there’s the daily “grind” of writing. Yes, it is a grind. I can’t say it any other way. Sometimes it’s almost a drudgery. Yet, again, there’s that challenge waiting me in the morning, to get my coffee, walk down the stairs to The Dungeon, have my time of devotions and prayer, check overnight e-mails and social media, then get to whatever book I’m working on. While it severely cuts into my retirement idleness, I can joyously say, “I will awaken the dawn” as I open a book file and begin typing.

I actually wrote a poem that kind of sums up, or maybe expands upon, what this verse is saying. It’s the second poem in my book Daddy-Daughter Day.

That says kind of the same thing, I think. Written in 2005 (or 2006), it speaks of wanting the day to occur and being excited about the adventures that await you.

So, what happens on a day when I wake and just don’t feel ready to claim the day as my own? When I don’t particularly want to awaken the dawn? Yes, I have days like that. I still say the verse. And the verse seems to get hold of me, once again. My attitude quickly changes. And I get on with the adventures that God has for me today.

books, Daddy Daughter Day, self-publishing

2015 Book Sales Report

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Well, let me start right off with the 2015 sales table, then I’ll break it down. You might have to click on the table and view it full size to read it.

DAT Book Sales 2015

So in 2015 I sold 83 books. That’s one more than I sold in 2014. A few outlets I sell at via Smashwords haven’t reported all of 2015, so it’s theoretically possible I’ll have a couple of more sales. However, I never sell any books at those outlets, so I feel okay posting results now. Here’s some breakdown

  • Titles published in 2015: 51 sales
  • Previously published titles: 32 sales
  • Print books: 63
  • E-books: 20
  • Personal sales: 24
  • Sales through retailers: 59
  • Items with at least one sale: 13
  • Items with no sales: 8

So, I had a better year with print books than with e-books, a complete turnaround from prior years. But that’s not an accurate picture. Two of my news books, Daddy Daughter Day and Seth Boynton Cheney: Mystery Man of the West , I published only as print books. Since they were my two best sellers, naturally that would skew my results toward print books.

The Seth Cheney book was my best seller, at 29 copies. This was a book for members of my wife’s family, prepared prior to a family reunion in Dodge City in the summer. It had about 100 pages of narrative with photos and maps, and 200 pages of genealogical data, also with photos and maps. I completed it a month ahead, had time to market it to the family, and they bought it. I have only one unaccounted for sale that may have been from a non-family member. Sales of this will not be repeated in 2016.

So, was it a good year, or a dismal year? I suppose any time your sales increase, even if the increase was less than 2 percent, you should consider it a good year. On the other hand, selling only 4.17 copies per book published is rather dismal.

Oh, well, onward into 2016. Next post will be goals for the year.

And, I’ll link a smaller image of the table for linking at Absolute Write.

DAT Book Sales 2015 smaller 298x130

Daddy Daughter Day, poetry

Daddy-Daughter Day

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CS Cover with green font abt 362x262Well, I did it. After years of having the book done, but wanting to do something a little different with the production, I finally decided this was the time, and published my poetry book Daddy-Daughter Day.

I’ve written about this before, perhaps several times on this blog and my other blog. It was originally titled “Father Daughter Day”, but I was talked into changing the name by a number of people. As I’ve written before, it is a story told in a series of poems. A dad has promised to spend a Saturday with his. He forgot about it. When she reminded him at the crack of dawn, he told her to get lost, then thought better of it, and decided to fulfill his promise to her. The book describes the day they had, the activities they did (to some extent a broad outline of the activities), and how each reacted to those activities and to being together.

A goal I had for the book, or rather for the poems in the book, was that each poem should stand on it’s own as a complete work, and yet should fit seamlessly into the book as part of the whole story. I haven’t yet had any feedback from readers concerning this goal, though the poems I’ve work-shopped on-line seem to have worked in this regard.

Sales are slow, as should be expected, but I’m hoping it will catch on.

 

 

 

Carlyle, Daddy Daughter Day

Am I On A Rabbit Trail? Or Two?

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Confession time: I have never read Alice in Wonderland. All I know about it comes from the Disney movie, which I realize may be nothing like the book. Plus, I’ve heard or read various people talking about “rabbit trails” in connection with it. My memory of the movie is hazy, as it’s been a long time since I saw it. I guess Alice follows a rabbit trail which takes her off her intended course. That’s the best I understand it, and what I mean by the title of this post: following things that take you off course.

For the last month, maybe a little longer, I have allowed my writing focus to be diverted to two projects related to Thomas Carlyle. I’ve written about them before here. One is a comprehensive bibliography of his compositions, in chronological order. The other is a book about his book Chartism, and the literary reception it has had in the 175 years since it was published. Both of these are books that are in progress. I have computer files of both.

While the Chartism book is fairly far along, most of my recent efforts have gone into the Bibliography. It’s something I enjoy working on, something that is different than other bibliographies of his works. However, I’m learning just what an incredible rabbit hole it is.

On my noon hour I did some searching for copies of some research papers on Carlyle, from the last 25 to 30 years, which I believe will have various Carlyle compositions that were never documented, which I would like to add to my Bibliography. As I expected, these volumes are under copyright and not available on-line. I didn’t check to see where they are in any of the world’s libraries, though I’m sure they are somewhere. Also, I could possibly buy some back issues of them.

Then, I did some looking into something at the Carlyle Letters Online, the Duke University site that is a goldmine for Carlyle researchers. In five minutes of research I found reference made to two compositions that I don’t remember knowing about or seeing in any bibliography (though possibly they are there under a different title).

And, I came to the realization of the madness of it all.

I don’t have time for this. It’s something maybe 20 or 30 people in the world are interested in. Why would I write books like these? I’ve been sinking a lot of time into this lately, even after saying I was going to “button up” current research and lay it aside. I thought I did that a week ago, yet, here I am, still at it.

Last night, before getting on my Carlyle research, I proofed my Federal income taxes, found them to be correct, and stuck them in a folder to take them to work to make copies of. Except when I checked that folder this afternoon they weren’t there. What did I do with them? Then there’s Daddy-Daughter Day, sitting there with a finished cover, finished formatted book, waiting for me to take an hour to upload them to CreateSpace and order a proof copy to see if it’s truly ready to go. Did I do that last night? No, after taxes I worked on Carlyle. Madness! Sheer madness!

So, this time I’m for sure ending this. All my work is saved; copies of some things are printed for putting in a notebook. Tonight I’ll put them in the notebook. Then I’m going to find Ginny Weasley and ask her to hide the notebook (actually two notebooks, or maybe three) in the Room of Requirement, somewhere I won’t find them. Tonight, when I get home after Good Friday service, after eating supper and descending to The Dungeon, I will do the work needed on Daddy-Daughter Day. Carlyle can watch me, if he wants to, and complain that I’m ignoring the Sage of Chelsea. Let him complain. For the foreseeable future I’m done with him.

Daddy Daughter Day, poetry

Turning It Over

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CS Cover-03 thumbnailOkay, I think I’m going to turn over my cover for Daddy-Daughter Day to someone. Jake has helped me with it so far. We looked at it today to discuss some tweaks. I showed him how some of his letters needed tweaking, to which he agreed. He showed me how some of my color work didn’t quite make the grade, which I could see after he pointed it out. He then said if I would send him the G.I.M.P. file he would see if he could upload it into Photoshop and take care of those few things. He also saw where some of the letters he drew were not on a straight line, which he wanted to fix.

CS Cover with green font 343x263He says he will have it done in about a day. He’s taking a few days of vacation for a stay-cation, with family in, but said he’d have plenty of time to do this. This means I might be able to upload the book to CreateSpace tomorrow, and order a proof copy pretty quick, assuming the cover size is correct. I think I did that correctly.

Turning this over to someone is both a good feeling and a not so good feeling. It feels as if I’m failing at learning how to do something. Yet at the same time it’s a relief not to have to deal with it.

Will I ever learn graphic arts programs enough to where I understand what I’m doing and feel comfortable doing it? I doubt it.

The two photos in this file are the two book covers I’m considering, after the guy’s tweaking. I posted them to Facebook and received comments. The green font one was ahead, but a decent but not comfortable margin. I’m anxious to get this done.

Daddy Daughter Day, Engineering, Writing

The Time Crunch Deepens

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Monday morning at work I began tackling my to-do list. It was a written to-do list for a change, since, when I got to work that day I realized just how much I had to do, and knew I wouldn’t get it done if I didn’t have a plan.

The list was long, and I felt a great weight of pressure. This week we were to have training events on four days, Tuesday through Friday. The one on Tuesday was more of a software demonstration, but it was of software I have an interest in, and if the company is to buy it it will be on my recommendation. So it was something I scheduled, planned, and attended. Then, Monday in our Leadership meeting, as we discussed the one day Leadership Development training scheduled for next Tuesday, it became obvious that we would have to have a more focused meeting on the subject. So I scheduled and planned that, adding it to Tuesday.

Then, it seemed, the salesmen came out of the woodwork on Monday, contacting me, saying they would be in the area this week and wanting to meet with me. Late in the day I received an e-mail from one of our department heads, saying a construction specification I wrote last December needed two additions to it due to changes in the project and oh it’s under construction so it’s needed quickly.

In the midst of this, I was thinking of all I have to do at home. Some weeks ago I made a good start on my income taxes, but then let it go by the wayside. So those were due. I had fallen almost two weeks behind on keeping our family finances and budget up to date. That’s not bad compared to past years, but this year I’ve been trying hard to keep them up to date on a weekly basis. Almost a week’s worth of mail had piled up. I have received the book cover art and font work from two people, for Daddy-Daughter Day, and so need to go about putting a book cover together from them—if I even can. This is different from past covers. And, of course, there’s the normal stock trading work I have to do each evening if we are ever going to start making money consistently from it. And, decluttering our house is weighing heavily on my mind right now. I go home from an office that’s a mess to a house that’s mess. The office mess is my own, and I certainly have a share in the house mess.

So at work on Monday I wrote a to-do list for home. It wasn’t real long, but it had each of those items from the previous paragraph, plus a couple more, with days of the week next to them. Stock trading work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Decluttering work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Income taxes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Family finances on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; no, just on Monday for that, as I’m not that far behind. Notably absent is any writing work, including on the poetry book.

And, at home, just as at work, I’ve been working the to-do list. I got finances up to date on Monday, along with some decluttering and stock work. I dusted off the taxes spreadsheet on Tuesday, and made a huge dent in completing them, to the point where I can probably finish the Federal on Wednesday. I did some stock work every day, enough to keep on top of our accounts and current trades and place a couple of new ones.

Today will be another busy day at work, as I try to complete preparation for my presentation tomorrow, do final organization for the vendor lunch and learn today, do some organization on Friday’s lunch and learn, and maybe, perhaps, a little decluttering in my office. One of these days I hope to have enough time to remember what it was like to be a writer.

Carlyle, Daddy Daughter Day, Writing

Current Writing Projects

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The Great Time Crunch continues to constrain me, cutting off much of what would otherwise be writing time. A number of projects are on hold. Nevertheless, writing continues. Here’s what’s still active.

Daddy-Daughter Day: My poetry book, finished (sort of) since 2006, is about to be published! Yes, I finally found an artist for the cover. She completed her work in late February, subject to a few tweaks. I formatted the book for print about a week ago. Right now I’m waiting on another man to create the font for the cover. He showed me a draft of that this morning, so I might have it tonight or tomorrow. I’m planning on taking the artwork, add the font to it, and creating both the e-book and print book covers using G.I.M.P. When formatted the book runs 75 pages, or 77 pages with a couple of blank sheets in the back. I knuckled down last week and completed one additional poem for it, one that had eluded me for several years. I don’t know how good it is, but it fits in. If I had to guess, right now, I’d say the book will be available for sale around March 20, just in time for Spring. And, those who have followed this blog or looked forward to this book, will recognize that I’ve changed the title, based on comments I solicited (and some I didn’t).

Seth Boynton Cheney: Mystery Man of the West: This is a labor-of-love kind of book. Seth Cheney was my wife’s paternal great-grandfather. Family lore says he went west as a teenager in the California Gold Rush, dropped out of sight for 30 years, and shows up in the Texas Panhandle and southwest Kansas, where he married and settled down and raised his family. Research has filled in a lot of those 30 years, and more discoveries are being made. In 2006 I put together this book and “published” it on the company printing equipment. Now, in preparation for a family reunion this summer, I’m hoping to expand the book and properly publish it. I have started on the task. Recent discoveries have resulted in the need for a new chapter, which I have begun writing in manuscript. I have also begun the difficult task of combining separate files into one, which will also involve extensive formatting. I hope to have this available at Amazon by July 1, but no promises.

The Gutter Chronicles, Volume 2: I have a fan at work who wants me to work on this. I’m about half-way through the fourth chapter of this, or almost 25% done with it. I haven’t worked on it since last July. I have most of the book planned out. Just last week this fan got after me for not working on it. I suppose I’ll begin using noon hours to get it done.

“Sierra Kilo Bravo”: This is the third short story in my series on Sharon Williams Fonseca, unconventional CIA agent. I began this in manuscript, probably 1,000 words so far, but nothing typed yet. I estimate it will be a 6,000 to 8,000 word story. My best guess is that I’ll get to this sometime during the summer.

That’s about it, except for some stories about my family, which I began working on in January and now stands at 1,537 words. I have no idea how long this will be or when, if ever, it will be finished. Two Thomas Carlyle projects remain on the shelf, as does the last short story in my Danny Tompkins series. All projects for another day.

Daddy Daughter Day, Writing

Back in the Saddle—Hopefully

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After five days of traveling to a conference, and presenting a paper (twice) at it, I’m back at work, back at home, batching it right now. It’s time for me to get back in the writing saddle.

The busyness of life continues unabated. However, somehow, I need to find a way to do all that I must do and to write as well. This weekend I’ll work on that.

Part of being back in the saddle is writing for and posting to this blog. In fact, I think that is my top priority. My other blog, An Arrow Through the Air, will remain dormant for the time being. Whether I ever start it up again, or just post to this blog, is something I have to determine. For now, I’m going to try to establish a regular schedule of writing here.

Meanwhile, the only real writing project on tap for now is my poetry book, Father Daughter Day. An artist is just about finished with illustrating the cover. She expects to finish today or tomorrow. So, my plans are to format the book for print this weekend, and to try to format it for an e-book and see how it does. I’m not really sure that poetry will display all that well where the text size (and thus the need to line wrap) is adjustable. But I’ll try it and see. I also have one more poem I’d like to write for it. I’ve started on it three or four times, but, lacking inspiration, abandoned those attempts. Thus it’s necessary to turn to perspiration and get the thing done if I’m ever going to, or decide if the book is complete without it, and just go to publishing.

So, stay tuned for more blog posts. I’ll let you know when FDD is out.

Daddy Daughter Day, Writing

Nothing to Write About

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Once again I missed my normal day to write a post for this blog, so, a day late, I’ll add something minor. I have nothing to write about as it concerns my writing career. I’m not writing anything at the moment, still, as the Time Crunch consumes me.

I haven’t heard back from the cover illustrator for Father Daughter Day, but I really don’t expect to for another week or so. We don’t have a deadline.

Otherwise, no little poems have come to mind, no ideas for new works. Every now and then I have an urge to write, but I purposely busy myself with other things, things I have to do, so that I don’t succumb to the writing temptation.

The good news is I actually see a little light in the future. Our stock trading training is going well. We are having modest success at implementing the things our mentor is teaching us. It’s all paper trading right now, but done in a way to simulate real market and trading day conditions. We are keeping up with the webinars, and have only a few more to attend (taking us not quite through December) before we can go to the website and do a few of the other things we’re supposed to do there. After that, we “graduate”, and the time crunch is over. Right now, as I look ahead, I think perhaps February will be when I’ll find some time to think again about writing.