Category Archives: non-fiction

American Colonial History, Bible study, family, Health, home improvements, non-fiction, self-publishing, Writing

2023 Recap

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It may not be selling, but at least my grandkids are reading it and seem to like it.

2023 was a strange year for writing. In some ways my output doesn’t seem very significant. But, then, the year brought many other things that pried me away from writing. We made six trips for family matters, Lynda had her heart irregularities leading to a pacemaker implant, home improvements led to the discovery of water damage that is taking much time to arrange for contractors to begin repairs.

Yet, I think I made some progress. Let’s see how it stacks up against the goals I published on January 6, 2023.

  • Edit and publish The Key To Time Travel. Yes, I got this done. Publication was in June.
  • Determine the structure of the overall A Walk Through Holy Week Bible study series, and whether it will be six parts or seven. It’s being taught in six parts over six Lent/Easter seasons, but I’m thinking it’s better as seven parts in books. I completed this, sometime in late spring. I settled on eight volumes rather than six or seven. All volumes are planned out and all chapters named.
  • Finish/edit Part 4 (what may become Part 5) of AWTHW. Finished this, and it’s now on hold, waiting for earlier volumes to be finished and published.
  • Finish/edit Part 3 (what may become Part 4) of AWTHW. Finished this (didn’t actually have much left to do on it), and it’s now on hold, waiting for earlier volumes to be finished and published.
  • Write Part 5 (what may become Part 6) of AWTHW, simultaneously with teaching it. I’m pleased to say I finished this. It actually became Part 7 in the restructured series. It was done a couple of weeks before the last class.
  • Start Part 1 of AWTHW, after determining the overall structure, of course. Not only did I start it, but I finished it and made one editing pass through it. Two more passes and it will be ready to publish.
  • Depending on how work on this goes, publish some or all of the completed parts of the study. I decided to hold off publishing volumes out of sequence, so all the complete volumes are waiting for Volumes 1, 2, and 3 to be published.
  • So far this has not found an audience on Kindle Vella. All 32 episodes have been published.

    Start writing the next book in the Documenting America series. It will cover the years 1761 to 1775 and is tentatively titled Run-up To Revolution. Yes, I finished this. I decided to publish it to Kindle Vella, chapter by chapter. In hindsight that was not a good decision, as it has not attracted a readership.

  • One other item, which is non-commercial but which will be a book, is to start transcribing the letters from our years in Saudi Arabia (1981-1983). I don’t think this is something that I can finish in one year, given that it will be fill-in work when I have nothing else to do, but I’d like to at least start it. I’ll wait to start it, however, until I get a few more disaccumulation items done. No, I didn’t do this. The work of disaccumulation proved to be more time-consuming than expected. I made major progress on it, but I’m still a long way from done.

So all in all, I published only two items: one book, one book in serial format. Given the distractions, maybe that’s not too bad. And I did get a lot of writing done, even though it’s not yet published.

Time now to set some goals for 2024. That will be in my next post.

book reviews, non-fiction

Book Review: On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection

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Alas, this book is falling apart. Tonight it will go into the trash.

Several decades ago I read the book Origins by Irving Stone, checked out of a library. It’s what we now call creative non-fiction, not quite a novel and not quite a biography of Charles Darwin. I liked it a lot. It presented Darwin in a sympathetic way. I learned a lot about him.

Flash forward three decades. I saw Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection at a thrift store, I grabbed it and put it on my reading pile. It sat there for several years, until May this year. Having finished another book, and ready for something new, I went searching for this book in my downstairs, storeroom library. It took a couple days of looking but I found it, exactly where I remembered seeing it a couple of years ago. I began reading it on May 14, 2020 and finished on July 29, 2020 in approximately 50 reading sessions.

Did I enjoy it? Not particularly. Did I learn for it? For sure. Do I recommend it to others? I’m not sure. It was a difficult read. The language, being from the 1850s, is somewhat archaic. Sentences are long and convoluted. Paragraph breaks sparse. It’s not exactly old English, but it’s not modern either. In addition there were lots of scientific terms, and lots of partial references to other experts Darwin consulted.

Over 40 reading sessions for 460 pages indicates how difficult this was to read.

Reading it was a struggle for me. I wanted to read for comprehension, but often I found myself skimming, or reading the same paragraphs two or three times trying to understand it.

Why did I read it? I wanted to get Darwin’s theory directly from him, rather than filtered through a science teacher or science textbook. What exactly did Darwin say? Does it seem plausible? Where should I go next in researching the topics he wrote on—would there be hints in OOS that would allow me to do this? An inquiring mind wanted to know.

Alas, after reading OSS, I can’t really say I know more about Darwin or the theory of evolution. I read the book slowly, away from the television and other distractions, so I can’t blame lack of concentration. I’ll blame the other things I mentioned a few paragraphs back. I think I understand what Darwin was saying, but, by today’s standards, I don’t think it develops the theory very well. It certainly has no references. Many times Darwin says something like, “Dr. Smith informed me of his research into….” The reader, unless a contemporary of Darwin in the science of that day, has no idea who Dr. Smith is, what his field of study is, and why he should be trusted. That’s not to say it’s wrong. It’s simply impossible to know the correctness of what Darwin is saying from Darwin’s book alone.

The subject matter in the book is far ranging. Darwin covers not just the gradual change in species from what they are to completely new species over thousands (or tens of thousands) of generations, but also the concept of mutations and hybrid species.

Still, I wasn’t very satisfied by the book. I think I would have to read this at least three times to understand it. Will I ever do so? Not with this book. It was somewhat damaged when I bought it as a used book, and started falling apart as I read it. It starts with a 70 page introduction, and the first 80 pages of the book have fallen out. It was a cheaply made, mass-market paperback. It’s not worth trying to sell at a garage sale nor donating to a thrift store. No, this particular book is going in the trash—not because of what it contains, but because of its physical condition. And, if I ever do want to read it, I can access it as a free e-book at Project Gutenberg.

Adam Of Jerusalem, Bible study, Documenting America, non-fiction, The Gutter Chronicles, Writing

My Current Writing Activities

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So, with my suspected hacking dealt with (see my addition to my last post), I can get back to other things, such as telling you all about my writing.

I created and made the cover for this one; so, if it doesn’t work, I’ll gladly take the blame.

I published The Gutter Chronicles, Volume 2. It went live on Amazon last Monday, live on Smashwords last Tuesday, live on Barnes & Nobel (via Smashwords) on Wednesday, and will soon be available in print. I submitted it to CreateSpace yesterday. This morning I got the e-mail saying my cover needed to be tweaked. I was able to do that today, and I believe it will be approved. Next, I’ll review it on-line for formatting, while at the same time ordering a proof copy. I don’t want to publish it without going through a physical proof copy. This isn’t a real book release post. I’ll do that when I get the print copy out there.

So far it’s sold: 1 copy, from a faithful reader who liked the first volume. Next, I’m going to send an e-mail to our CEI people in Arkansas, finding out how many people want a print copy. I’ll send out a couple of FB posts with the same message. With those, I’ll also see if anyone wants a copy of Volume 1 at the same time. I’m hoping to get 50 to 60 sales that way, although that’s probably optimistic.

Besides that, I have two main works-in-progress: Adam of Jerusalem, a prequel in my Church History Novels series; and Documenting America: Making the Constitution Edition. Both are begun.

With AoJ, I started writing it. This was back at least three months ago. I completed three chapters, and set it aside to simmer a while. The simmering time is up, and I anticipate getting back into the writing before long, certainly within a week.

With DA–MCE, I’ve been reading for research for the last two weeks, or a little longer. I’m reading in The Annals of America, getting an idea of what source documents are available, and refreshing and expanding my knowledge of the events of those times, 1783 to 1789. I’m learning quite a lot, and enjoying it.

From here on, I’ll work on the two simultaneously. When I feel like writing, it will be AoJ. When I feel like researching and reading, it will be DA–MCE. I think, in a month or two, one of them will prove to be the more enjoyable and will start to get more of my time. Although, my plan is to finish and publish AoJ first.

I have a couple of other things I’m doing as well. I’ve been brainstorming my Bible study Sacred Moments, and may try to expand that for publishing—not right away, but the brainstorming will continue. Then, I’ve been reading for research in one of my Thomas Carlyle projects, the Chronological Composition Bibliography. I have no plans for this except to read a little here and there, just to keep my mind sharp and not lose sight of the project, which I estimate is 60-70 percent complete.

So, there you have it. Hopefully in a week I’ll be able to report the print version of Norman Gutter’s activities is available. In a month or two I’ll let you know how other projects are going.

book reviews, family, History, non-fiction

Book Review: The Day of Battle

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During World War 2, my dad had an interesting story. Older than the average G.I. at 26 when the war broke out for the USA, he found himself in North Africa, staging to go on the invasion of Italy. Just before he embarked, he was transferred to the Stars and Stripes, the G.I. newspaper and on his way to Algiers to set type. Before long he was in Italy, setting type on the mobile unit of the paper: within sound of the guns.

Rick Atkinson is an excellent war historian and writer.

So, some years ago I found The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy at some discount store, I grabbed it. It sat in my reading pile for a couple of years, until I finally read it beginning last fall and ending in early January.

I’m glad I did read it. Rick Atkinson has done a wonderful job of making the war in these areas come alive. He deals with the generals and the soldiers. He helps the reader see what it was like to be pushed forward by Patton. Or how impossible missions were undertaken in Italy and men slaughtered as a result. I had never read any detailed information about the campaign in Italy. Atkinson brought it alive for me.

I’ve read some of the reviews on Amazon. Most are positive, though a few are that are negative. At least one criticized Atkinson for using obscure words. He did have a few of those, but, in my mind, not many. I only looked up one or two. I was able to pass over the others without loss of meaning. A few seemed to be military technical terms.

This book is a keeper. I have a fair collection of WW2 books. Most I’ve never read, and those I’ve read I haven’t retained as well as I wish I had. Someday in the future I might pick this one up again, and re-read it. Or, if I ever do get around to writing that memoir of my mom and dad, this could be source material for the conditions Dad worked in.

If I review this on Amazon, I’ll give it 4 or 5 stars.

non-fiction, Writing

What’s Next? A Professional Essay

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Just a few minutes ago I uploaded a short story, “Charley Delta Delta” to Amazon and Smashwords. It’s my twelfth item to publish (if you count the two versions of Documenting America as separate items. Time to move on to something else to write.

So it’s time to decide what to write next. Actually, I’ve already decided. I believe I will write the following, in this order.

I have a professional essay I wrote for work titled “The Learning Curve: 11 Suggestions for Accelerating Your Professional Development”. The essay was written specifically for my employer, CEI Engineering Associates, Inc. It needs some modification for the general market. I began going through it a couple of months ago, and got half way through it. I believe I can have it ready to publish in a week. Except I’ve got some graphics in it, and would need a cover. But they’re simple graphics, and I hope I can do them. So, I would hope to publish this in the first half of August.

This week at work I began writing the second volume of The Gutter Chronicles: The Continuing Saga of Norman D. Gutter, Engineer. In two lunch hours I wrote 850 words. The first volume was a 42,000 word novella in fifteen chapters. It deals with workplace situations, humorous things that have happened to me over my 39 year engineering career. I figure the new one will be about the same, and have about half the chapters planned. I have no schedule for this, but now that I’ve started I think I’ll keep on it till it’s finished. Although, I haven’t really thought ahead to the ending.

The next novel I’m going to work on is Headshots, the sequel to my baseball novel In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I may be crazy to do this, given how the first one didn’t sell, but that’s what I plan to do.

Once I get past them I’ll stop and re-think.

non-fiction, Writing

2012 Writing Plans: Non-fiction for the Christian Market

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[Because of a stupid document switch by my computer, and a stupid click by me, I was more or less finished with this post but failed to save it. Here it is the second time around, which is never as good as the first.]

Previously I wrote about my writing plans for 2012 for fiction, non-fiction articles, and non-fiction books. One area I haven’t covered yet is non-fiction works for the Christian market. This is an important part of my writing, so I’ve formulated some plans.

I have two main interests currently in the Christian non-fiction market. The first is Bible studies for Life Groups (a.k.a. adult Sunday school). As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I have developed and taught several of these. Here they are.

  • Sacred Moments: a study of the sacraments and other sacred times
  • Life on a Yo Yo: Learning from Peter’s Ups and Downs
  • The Dynamic Duo: Lessons from the Lives of Elijah and Elisha
  • Isaiah (a 20 week study)
  • What One Thing is Strongest (a 5-week study based on 1 Esdras from the Apocrypha)
  • Lesser-Known People of the Bible
  • Good King, Bad King

These are in various states of completion for student materials and teacher materials. Some are more in outline form with my teaching notes, but no student papers and the teaching notes not in a form that another teacher could use. Others are close to finished, with snazzy student papers and good teaching notes. All of them will require some work to be in publishable shape.

For publishing, I’m thinking of PDF format and sales from my web site for a nominal fee. This is not a money-making proposition, though I’d like to get a little something for my trouble. I’m not sure how it would work. Clearly a manual system, where they e-mail me or fill out a contact form, would be easy. An automated system would be a lot harder and possibly expensive. We’ll see.

The second area of interest and activity for me is the writings of John Wesley. Last year I began an earnest study of these, and developed some ideas for publications. I actually started some essays based on his writings, though I’m not far along with this. I have begun to gather Wesley’s political writers with the aim to publish them as a compilation with a little commentary. This is a manageable task for this year. Beyond that, I’m not sure I have anything beyond the brainstorming stage.

So what to plan for in 2012? Given that I’m not real sure about the amount of time I’ll be able to spend on writing as a whole, and how much of that I can set aside for this sector. I’ll keep my plans modest. By the end of the year, I plan to have one Bible study in finished form and available for purchase through my website. Perhaps I can do more. Perhaps even this limited plan is a stretch. But it’s now in writing, and I’ll work toward it.

non-fiction, Writing

2012 Plans: Non-fiction articles

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As 2012 begins, I have three non-fiction article writing gigs in hands. One is for real money; one is for almost no money; one is for unknown money.

The no-money one of these is Suite101.com. This was starting to be an earner for me, until Google made major changes in their search algorithyms and ruined access to the site. I wrote 127 articles there on a variety of topics that interested me. I figure these articles amount to about 101,000 words. Back in January-February 2011, it looked like all the work was beginning to pay off, as ad-share revenue was finally amounting to something. Then Google screwed us, and did so again in August. Ad revenues are down to less than $5.00 per month average, maybe closer to $3.00 per month.

I haven’t written an article there since last February, though I remain a member in good standing, and could write there any time I want. The site is soon to go through a major re-vamp. I’m waiting to see what they do, and if anything I want to write on will still be suitable. I don’t expect to dedicate a lot of time to this site in 2012, though that could change as site changes unfold.

The one for decent money is Buildipedia.com. I’ve been writing there since about August 2010, a variety of engineering and construction article. Right now I’m writing a twice a month column on construction administration, something I’ve done a lot of in my career. I’m paid $100 for these 500-600 word articles, which take not too much time to plan, research, and write. I have one due Monday, and another two weeks later. It looks as if I’ll get contracts monthly so long as they like the results.

I could also pitch feature articles to Buildipedia. I wrote about 15 for them in 2010-11. The previous editor was starting to reject most of my feature article ideas, but I should pitch some to the new editor and see where they go.

The third gig is a site named Decoded Science. The owner/editor invited me to join and submit articles. I have one written, but have not yet taken time to complete all my paperwork. Their article submittal process is quite different than for the other two sites, and I suppose I’m holding off because I don’t want to learn a new system. But I will write for them, at least a few articles, and see how the ad-share revenue is. I’m thinking of writing some articles on low impact development, something I’m learning that is all the rage in site design right now.

Apart from these, I have no plans to plan, pitch, or write freelance articles this year. The one experience I had in 2009 with an article for Internet Genealogy was not fun. If all print mags are similar, I’m good writing for the Internet for less money. Actually, at Buildipedia it’s a lot more money per word, and I don’t have to beg them to pay me.

Bible study, non-fiction, Wesley

2011 Writing in Review: Non-fiction Bible Studies

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The last of my posts reviewing my 2011 writing activities is in the area of non-fiction studies, primarily Bible studies. Actually, while I have a little writing of small group studies other than Bible studies, it was Bible studies that took some writing time this year.

Well, I suppose that’s not completely true. Yes, I worked on Bible studies the first couple of months of the year. But after that, any writing time I spent in this area was on John Wesley studies. My intent was to work up a large book dealing with his writings, and working that into a study of Christianity and the Bible.

At the writers conference in June, I talked with a couple of editors and found some interest in the project; however, the editor most interested said he would prefer studies of six lessons each. Split it into a series of books like that, he said, and he might be interested. So I began the process of consolidating my research then splitting the long study into a number of smaller ones.

I originally began writing these Bible studies to teach for our adult Sunday school class. During the summer, the church announced that we would be moving to a sermon-based curriculum in December. Unfortunately, that killed my motivation to complete two Bible studies in early development and the Wesley study series. That’s a lousy excuse, but that’s what happened.

So from about August till the end of the year, I didn’t work on any Bible studies for publication. I haven’t dropped the notion. I have four from the past that, with just a little polish, I could e-self-publish. I may do so in 2012. But wait, this post is about 2011. I’ll discuss what to do with those later.

Documenting America, non-fiction, The Candy Store Generation

2011 Writing Year in Review: Non-fiction Books

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Just before our Christmas trip I wrote out a schedule of posts for this blog that would take me through around January 13. Today I find myself two days and one post behind, the consequence of spending time with family over Christmas. I don’t regret the time, nor the need to catch up. But family is still in town, activities are still planned at least through January 2, so I’m not sure when, if ever, I will catch up.

The good news is: It doesn’t matter if I ever catch up. A day late, two days late, a week late, or even not posted at all, doesn’t much matter. Today I’ll at least begin the catch-up and see where it goes.

Reviewing 2011, in the area of non-fiction, book-length works, I had only one: Documenting America. I have other posts on this blog where I explain how and why this volume came into being, so I won’t take up valuable pixels to repeat that here. I will say what prompted me to finish it and publish it in 2011.

Back in January 2011, when I made the decision that I would e-self-publish some of my works (while not completely severing the dream to have something accepted at a traditional publisher) to test the process, I figured my completed short story, “Mom’s Letter”, was the perfect item to start with. I could practice formatting and uploading. I could see what went into having a cover made. I could see what it was like to track the work once it was live on line.

Then I looked at what to do next. I could have gone to my completed novel, Doctor Luke’s Assistant, but that didn’t seem right. I had these 18 or so newspaper columns I had written, only four of which I had published, or that I even tried to have published. I decided they could serve as the basis for a book. Lengthen each of the 18 to what I wanted them to be without the constraints of newspaper column-inches. Add to them until I had 40,000 words, and eSP it. The research, writing, and editing consumed March and April. By early May it was available as a Kindle book, though it took a little longer to attach the real cover.

Having got that far, I took another two months, with many other life issues getting in the way, to format the book for Smashwords and have it added there. CreateSpace took some more months, with the cover modification being one problem.

During all this time, I was thinking of what to do as a follow-up to Documenting America. I began research for a second volume (in fact, I almost called DA Volume 1), and have material in hand to generate at least 10,000 words. I also began writing a different, though sort of related work tentatively titled The Candy Store Generation. This is based on blog posts I made at a friend’s political blog about the Baby Boomers and how they (we) are not improving the United States. I pulled those blog posts together, and added some additional material. I believe it stands at about 5,000 words, needing to get to at least 30,000 words to be a viable book. I also did some research into the make-up of Congress, when the House of Representatives tipped to being dominated by the Baby Boomers. This turned out to be slow going, but I have the research started and well organized.

That’s it for non-fiction books in 2011. The next year-in-review post will be fiction of all types.

career, fiction, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, non-fiction, Screwtape's Good Advice

Shifting Gears

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The month of June, what time I could spend on writing, was mostly on miscellaneous tasks that had fallen by the wayside for a while, and on pulling together the proposal for Screwtape’s Good Advice. With that in the mail last Wednesday, I turned my attention to the proposal for In Front of Fifty-Thousand Screaming People, my baseball thriller. I first started on the proposal, and tidied up the synopsis and wrote the sell sheet. Actually, I did some of this overlapping the SGA proposal, while waiting on my beta readers to respond. I did some market research, and figured out what books out now would be reasonably like mine.

Then I turned to, or rather returned to, writing the book. I began FTSP in June 2004, after pitching the idea to an editor at a conference. At that time all I had was a concept with some plot outline. He liked the idea, and said to send him a few chapters. So I quickly pounded out a prologue an two chapters and sent them. He still liked the concept, but wasn’t as thrilled with the writing as I would have liked. I set the book aside, partly not knowing what to do, and partly from the busyness of life.

Over the next three years I pulled it out and worked on it from time to time. I ditched the prologue, as the editor suggested, and polished the writing of the first two chapters. I added a third and polished it. I began a fourth. An idea came to me for a scene well into the book, which I thought would be about 2/3 the way through, and I wrote that. I worked on a plot outline and character development, writing page-long essays in the words of the four main characters, stating in their own words what their motivations were for the events in the book. But I did not do any serious writing, continuous writing for days in a row, as I had done with Doctor Luke’s Assistant.

Friday night I decided I’d better get back to this. The agent wants the first thirty pages with the proposal, and when I merged chapters 1, 2, 3, and the partial 4 I had only twenty pages. I figured out what to do with Chapter 4, and finished it as a short chapter. The plot analysis I had done as part of writing the synopsis told me I had to move the scene I thought would be 2/3 the way through to become the first plot point, meaning it needs to be 1/4 to 1/3 the way through. I did that, and made a couple of related changes. Then I sat down on Friday, Independence Day, to write the fifth chapter, intending to do serious writing.

Lo and behold, I couldn’t write it! I wrote “Chapter 5” at the top of a re-use page, then sat there, not sure what to do. My plotting did not get down to the level where I had to plan what the next chapter would be about. Yesterday (Saturday), I went back to it and managed to write about half a page. That was a start, but not the type of progress I needed to make. Was this a case of writer’s block, my first? I have had times when I was not motivated to write for various reasons, usually the whirlwind of life causing my brain to shut down for a while, but never have the words not come to me when I wanted them to.

After a while the reason for this inability to add this chapter became clear. For the last seven months I have been concentrating on non-fiction as a probable easier way to break into publishing, and purposely laid fiction aside. I brainstormed the SGA book and began it. I turned my Elijah and Elisha study into a potential book and brainstormed it. I thought about ten other Bible/small group studies I could write as follow-ups. A fruitful career as a writer of Bible and small group studies danced before my eyes in waking moments, and through the subconscious in sleeping moments. I had done no fiction writing at all, until after the Blue Ridge conference, with the interest of an agent staring me in the face, I at least read my manuscript and made some edits. I shared chapters 1 and 2 with my new critique group, and received feedback. Now that I’m ready to return to fiction, I can’t get my mind around it.

It’s hard to change gears between fiction and non-fiction–at least it is for me, this first time to do so. What will the future hold? If my career goes the way I want it to (at this stage of my “career”), I will be switching regularly between fiction and non-fiction. I’d better learn to shift those gears effortlessly, on a day to day basis if necessary. This will be especially true if I follow-through with plans to market and publish the Documenting America newspaper column.

Help! I’m a prisoner of a career that hasn’t even started yet.

The good news is that, as I fell asleep Saturday night, a scene late in the book came to me. I wrote it mentally lying in bed, then wrote it on paper Saturday morning. Today, while eating lunch, the way to write chapter 5 came to me, and I’ll be hitting the keys for that after I finish this post. So maybe the gears shifted over the last couple of days. May it be so.