Category Archives: Writing

Bible study, Documenting America, miscellaneous, Writing

A Creative Spurt

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I don’t know how others feel, but I’m new enough to baking that it still seems creative to me.

After writing last week about what to write next, I made my decision and did it. I worked on Acts Of Faith Bible study on both Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t spend a lot of time on them, but found the words flowed quickly and easily. Research went well. By the time Sunday was over I was about halfway through Chapter 5. This morning, before getting to other activities, I came close to completing Chapter 5. Not really, because I plan on re-reading and editing it later today. But, as it sits right now, completing Chapter 5 today should be an easy thing.

What else? I began reading Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition aloud to my wife, scratching edits as I go. I read four chapters (out of 32) last night, seeing a fair number of places where it will benefit from editing. I hope to type some of those edits today. The Introduction especially needs both tightening and expansion.

The cooking prep for my experiment. I actually haven’t had one yet. Reports are that they were good. I’ll have one tomorrow.

What else? I wrote a letter to one of my grand-nephews. That may not seem like a creative thing, but it is/was.  I also baked, a blackberry cobbler—from blackberries I picked—and some banana bread. They turned out well. Then, Sunday morning, I fixed English muffin omelet sandwiches to take to Life Group for our fellowship breakfast. I don’t know that they turned out so well and may not fix them again. It was an experiment, trying something my own mind conceived, so I count that and the baking as creative endeavors.

I spent a good amount of time outside, listening to the birds as I worked. Didn’t see this little guy around however.

While being creative, I didn’t neglect other things. As the first activities on Saturday I updated the checkbook and budget. On Sunday I took care of some miscellaneous receipts, the type that seem to defy even a comprehensive filing system. I weeded in our back yard and did other light yard work. I cleaned a matt of bugs off the front of our newer van, bugs that had decided to join us on our last two road trips. Both vans need washing, but that will be a task for another day. Sunday, Lynda and I went for a walk after the heat of the day passed. Not a long walk, but enough to get the juices and sweat flowing.

I kept up with my reading in three books, now having one more to review. Reading I see as sort of a creative activity. As I read my mind is usually thinking about writing, either the writing I’m reading or the writing I could do from the subject I’m reading about.

So, all in all I’m pleased at how the weekend went. If I can be that creative for the full week ahead of me, I will be on Cloud 9.

Adam Of Jerusalem, Bible study, Church History Novels, Documenting America, Short Stories, The Gutter Chronicles, Writing

What to Write Next?

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My most recent publication. Sales are trickling in. Literally.

For my Friday June 28 post I had planned to do my book review of Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life In Letters. But based on the weekend just past, I’m pushing that post into the future. Instead, I want to document the process I’m going through.

What should I write next? I just finished the first draft of Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. I’m letting it sit for a week or two before I hit the editing process. The first two chapters have gone to my critique group, with good reviews. What to do next? Here are the most obvious choices, based on my recent thoughts, research, and publications.

  • The next volume in my church history novels series. This is to be sandwiched in between #2 and #3. Tentatively titled The Sayings, it will cover the writing of the Didiche, which many scholars believe was written before many of the New Testament books. A loose plot line was in my head even as I wrote Preserve The Revelation, #4 in the series. With Adam Of Jerusalem, #1 in the series, now published, completing the foursome makes sense.
  • The next volume in The Gutter Chronicles: The Continuing Saga of Norman D. Gutter, Engineer. I ought to write this before I get too far into retirement and forget the stories of working as an engineer. I’ve begun the outline, and know where the first couple of chapters are going.
  • The next volume in Documenting America. This has turned out to be a good series, with three published already and the fourth a month or two away from publication. Once I know the topic these come together quickly. Another volume or two might result in critical mass and an increase in their popularity.
  • The next short story in the Sharon Williams Fonseca, CIA Agent series. I have four written and know what the fifth one will be about and it’s probable title: “Tango Delta Foxtrot”. This has been on my radar for some time, always with “as soon as I finish the book I’m on” schedule. But then another book bubbles up and this one gets shunted aside. Maybe it’s time. I have a basic outline of the plot.
  • A Bible study titled “Acts Of Faith”. I programmed this about four months ago (I think, maybe a little longer), one evening when I was brainstorming curriculum for future Life Group studies. I spent some time recently outlining this, and even creating the first computer files. This for sure would be next except, while I’ve taught Bible studies and prepared them from scratch, I’ve never written one for publication. That may be what happens here. Or, perhaps this will be the first to be developed, published, and taught.
  • A genealogy book, tentatively titled Samuel Cross and Elizabeth Cheney of Ipswich Massachusetts. This book is 80 percent written, maybe more. It’s meant to form a part of a larger work about Elizabeth Cheney’s father, John Cheney of Newbury. But the research is done and it is long enough to stand alone as a small genealogy book. It lacks only a little text, then the formatting for publication. I could have this ready for publication in less than a month if I re-started my work on it.
I’ll soon be creating a cover for “Documenting America: Making the Constitution Edition”. It will be a simple re-creation of this one.

There you have it. Six potential writing projects, all good, all desired (by me), all fulfilling the writing urge and maybe meeting a need. What will be next? I’m writing this on Monday, June 24, but scheduled to post on Friday June 28. My intent is to add something to it before it posts, to let everyone know either what I’ve decided, or at least what progress I’ve made in deciding. I’ll see if there’s a new ending to this post.

Update Tuesday June 25: Yesterday and today I wrote the first chapter in Acts Of Faith. The first draft came in at about 2,150 words, shorter than I thought it would, but perhaps about right for a Bible study book. I picked up a reviewer, a pastor/counselor, and have sent the first chapter to him. I’ll be anxious to see what he thinks.

The writing of this felt good. Since this is the most urgent need, should I indeed publish it and teach it beginning around mid-September. If so, I need to get on the stick.

Update Wednesday June 26: This morning I did another half-chapter of Acts Of Faith. It flowed easily. Yesterday afternoon I wrote the outline—more of a synopsis actually—for the next novel in my Church History Novels series.  My evening reading unintentionally dovetailed with this, and the plot flowed easily. Makes me wonder if this book needs to be next. I’ll think on it.

Update Friday June 28: I have now completed two chapters (out of 17) in Acts Of Faith. The words have flowed fairly easy. The pastor/counselor I sent the first chapter  to said he believes it to be a viable study and offered to help write discussion questions.

So, this is my next project. I’m hoping to finish the first draft by August 1, though that may be too ambitious. For sure I’m going to spend a lot of time with the writing.

 

Documenting America, Engineering, Life Group lessons, miscellaneous, Writing

Days of Accomplishment

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For today’s blog post, I had originally planned on a book review. I’m not sure which. I recently finished two books and will review both. I’ve been debating which would be first. As late as Wednesday I was still debating that, unsure. This isn’t a critical decision, but I just wanted to let you all know what’s going on with me.

Caught this little guy on camera this week. It’s always so nice to see the blue color on the deck.

Then came Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Actually, I could lump Monday in with that. All four days were days of incredible accomplishment. I got a lot of stuff done. Not only me: Lynda accomplished much decluttering, sorting through piles of children’s books to find duplicates, the unused/unread, and prepare to give away many and organize the rest. That’s on-going. The house is a mess, but it won’t be long before it looks much, much better.

As for me, each day I kept up with my routine things. I did my devotions first thing. I kept up with writing and publishing news. I did my stock trading, entering into a number of trades on Monday and seeing some success. And, I resumed my workouts on the elliptical—nothing major, but after a month layoff, it felt good to get back to that routine.

I then shifted to working on Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. One day I edited the final three source documents. One day I wrote my part of a chapter, then next day on two chapters, and then yesterday did the last chapter. So, the first draft is now done, excepting whatever I choose to do for an Introduction. This is a very good feeling.

In the afternoons I worked on a construction specification for my former employer. This was the first major work I had for them. It’s major not because it will require a lot of hours (it’s a small construction project), but because it’s something other than random site inspections and correspondence. I had to remember again how to put a spec together. Strange how much you forget in not quite six months of retirement.

The spec was also good because the work of the project is unusual, the widening of a ditch, which requires a farm pond to be moved, both of which require some heavy-duty erosion control (temporary and permanent). I had to write one new spec section and significantly modify another. It’s always good to create something.

The amount of wild blueberries in the woods across from our house is massive. It’s no where near being fully picked, no where near all being ripe. And, blackberry season is about to begin.

Despite this busyness, I was able to do some things for enjoyment. I picked blueberries one day. Started reading two new books on consecutive days, and they both look like good ones that I’ll read through to completion.

In the evenings, I began work on a Bible study. I’m planning on it being part of our Life Group curriculum at church, probably this fall. I had the outline done for over a month, but hadn’t started work on it. On Tuesday evening I tweaked the outline and wrote it out anew. On Wednesday evening I began putting a Word document together, only to end the night finding the file had major corruption issues, about the strangest I’ve ever seen. On Thursday evening (actually some during the day) I started the document over and made major progress with it.

Now it’s Friday. I plan on writing the Introduction to Documenting America. I might pick some more blueberries. I’ll read some more in the two books. I’ll begin one book review for Monday’s blog post. I’ll do some decluttering work of my own, perhaps split between my closet, the garage, and my writing papers. Hopefully, four days of great accomplishment will become five.

Documenting America, Writing

Starting the Week Off Right?

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I greet my few readers this rainy Monday morning. It looks as if this is going to be a normal week. Not much taking me away from what I want to be a normal routine.

I was up at 6:30 a.m. and in The Dungeon, and had my devotions before 7. I just finished checking a publishing website I keep up with, which reminded me this is my day to blog. Yes, having been so out of the habit I needed that reminder.

Tomorrow I have an afternoon dentist appointment for some major work. I also have an assignment for my former company that will take ten to twelve hours to complete this week. Beyond that, blueberry picking is before me. I’ve yet to search the full extent of the field in the woods across the street from our house. I would do that today, but it’s raining right now. The showers should pass before long, but I won’t go out into a soaking wet wood.

Beyond that, this is a week for writing and other author tasks. My critique group meets Wednesday evening. I’ve submitted my work and have only one piece submitted to me at present.

In The Dungeon, I anticipate the normal stock trading activities, and writing. I have five chapters left (actually 4 and a half) in Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. I’d like to get one done per day and, by Friday, call the first draft complete. I have no writing tasks other than that this week. Well, perhaps a little clean up of my work areas.

Next Sunday I have another author event, at the Rogers Library, hosted by Ozark Book Authority. I think it will be just an author table for selling and signing books, though the organizer said something about having writer panels. I have a hard time believing the turnout will be enough on a Sunday afternoon in June to justify that, but we’ll see. Two author events in one month: that’s a first.

On to the writing now.

Documenting America, Engineering, travel, Writing

Not Quite Back to Normal

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The grandkids found a wild blueberry patch in the woods across the street from our house. How many years has that been there and I didn’t know it?

After 2,700 miles in the last 24 days, consisting of two round trips from home to West Texas, first to pick up grandchildren to stay with us then to return them, things are back to normal today. That also includes our special bug infestation earlier in May, something I haven’t written about here.

I took the grandkids to a Wednesday evening service project at our church, packing meals for the food challenged.

Well, not quite back to normal. This afternoon we have our quarterly pest treatment. We always have some prep work to do for that and putting things back afterwards. Then there’s the question of groceries and whether we have enough or if we need to make a quick trip to the store. Then there’s getting the checkbook and budget up to date for all the debits on the trip, and filing the receipts. The latter isn’t critical, but I like to have finances up to date always.

Then, there’s my speaking engagement tomorrow, to the Village Lake Writers and Poets. This was supposed to have been in April, but I got bumped when another speaker was booked over me. I’m mostly prepared, but would like to run through it a couple of times today and tomorrow morning. My topic is “Genre Focus Disorder: Is Poetry the Cure?”

One other thing is an assignment from my former company to write a construction spec. I’ll need to look at that a little today, consider the deadlines, and decide how much time I’ll need to put into it. It isn’t huge, but it’s the first “major” assignment they’ve given me since I retired on January 1st this year.

Couldn’t let them be on screens all day. Chores were assigned, and done cheerfully—for the most part.

As for blog post, I have nothing planned. I’ll be thinking about them over the next few days. I hope to quickly get back into my rhythm of Monday and Friday blog posts. I normally try to plan ahead for those, knowing a week or two out what I’ll be posting about.

Trips aren’t over yet for the summer. We will soon make an overnight trip to Oklahoma City for a church event. Back to Texas a little later to help the kids out, and maybe one more time for the oldest grandchild to come stay with us for a week. It’s all good. I enjoy long distance driving, as does the wife. A road trip us usually a joy.

Now, will I be able to accomplish a little writing today? Documenting America waits. Stay tuned.

Adam Of Jerusalem, Church History Novels, Documenting America, Writing

Busy, with Progress, but Only a Little

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At the moment our grandchildren are with us, the three older ones, ages 11, 8, and 6. They’ll be here until next week. That’s after we spent ten days with them and their parents in Texas. So it’s been a busy time for me, for us, and I have little progress to report on writing.

The Kindle e-book was published on May 6, 2019. Print book was published May 27, 2019.

But I do have a little. Adam Of Jerusalem is now published in paperback. Sophie did a good job with the cover, and Amazon accepted it on the first submittal. At the last moment I found a stray comma in the introduction and had to correct and upload that. I’ll need to do that to the e-book as well. That will be after the kids leave.

I was able to complete tasks on my friend Bessie’s book and it is now published in both e-book and paperback. Once Again Upon An Island follows upon her first book of similar title. I did the cover: me, with my limited skills. It had been a year since I worked with G.I.M.P., and forgot much of it’s use. Fortunately, I had made some cheat sheets for some tasks. I think, once we are a quiet house again, I’ll do more G.I.M.P. practice.

OAUAI print cover 2

I edited the first chapter of Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition while we were in Texas, and yesterday I typed it. Tonight I’m going to either edit more early chapters or write my portion of two or three later chapters. At least I’ll be able to show some progress in the midst of busyness.

The weekend will be full, between yardwork and grandkids and preparing to teach adult Life Group. Still, maybe I’ll get a little writing done. That’s the plan.

construction, Documenting America, Engineering, reading, self-publishing, stock market, Writing

Random Friday Thoughts

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Can a graphics duffer create the print-book cover to go with this? Enquiring minds want to know.

As I look out from The Dungeon windows at 06:47 a.m., the sun is hidden by the tall trees at the rear of our backyard. But enough sun gets through I can tell it will be a sunny day, at least to start. Storms are predicted for tomorrow, and might start in a small way sometime today.

Yesterday was a busy day. In addition to stock trading in the morning, I did a few writer things. I’m trying to create the print book cover for my friend’s book. I made a good start on it despite the fact that it’s been a year since I created a cover. Using G.I.M.P., a no-cost alternative to Photoshop, I managed to get the overall sizes of each part of the cover in place. I found some good notes I wrote on that. Alas, I’ve forgotten enough that I didn’t get it done in the time I had. Hopefully I will this morning.

I then at a quick lunch, hopped in the van, and went to do some engineering work, final inspection of one site and monthly inspections on three other sites. I completed the final inspection, with a little arguing with the contractor thrown in. Not bad arguing, just them obviously not appreciating the things I found. I got a little testy at one point when they gave new information about a structure I’ve been trying to get them to modify. Why they didn’t give me that info months ago is a mystery.

I went to the first monthly inspection, walked the site, saw only one or two things out of the ordinary. This has been a problem site, with me constantly finding things they are doing in violation of City codes. They’ve started to get much better. They had installed almost all the handicapped ramps incorrectly. I decided to let the first few go, but I found a new one wrongly constructed. They will have to change that. They also had one where they attempted to construct it correctly, but came up short. Fortunately the correction is inexpensive.

The engineering work to that point took me from 12:30 p.m. to about 3:30 p.m., with two more sites to go. I was beat and dehydrated, as I hadn’t taken water with me. I decided not to do the other two inspections, leaving them to the employee of my former company who joined me yesterday for training purposes. I came home, rested an hour, then wrote the reports for the two inspections.

Then I took it easy in the evening. We had plenty of leftover chili to use for taco salad, so had that for supper, and a slice of turtle pie for dessert. I spent much of the evening on the computer working on the reports as well as trying to find some photos in the company files to prove the point I tried to make on site.

I’ll soon be creating a cover for “Documenting America: Making the Constitution Edition”. It will be a simple re-creation of this one.

I wrote an e-mail to the CEI project manager, telling her my inability to do the two other inspections was “most likely a combination of too much sun, frustration with [the other] engineer and developer and contractor, age, and perhaps a creeping retirement-starting-to-care-a-little-less each month.” I haven’t heard back from her yet. I have trained the other man to do these inspections and had no doubt he could do the remaining two and write acceptable reports.

I spent no time in the sunroom, didn’t work on my own books at all, didn’t make much progress on my to-do list. My wife and I did a little reading aloud, and we took a very pleasant call from our oldest grandson and had evening devotions with him. Our reading carried us after normal bed time.

So, up this morning after sleeping through the night, ready to “awaken the dawn” that I see unfolding out the window. It’s fully light out, though the trees still obscure direct rays. On to other things for a couple of hours, then back to the book cover work.

Adam Of Jerusalem, Church History Novels, Writing

Adam Of Jerusalem is published

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The Kindle e-book was published on May 6, 2019. Other versions will be coming soon.

Those who read this blog regularly will realize I missed my normal posting days of last Friday and yesterday. Extreme busyness of a few out-of-the-ordinary things consumed so much time I just couldn’t see my way clear to carve out the time to write posts. Those unusual activities have eased just a little, enough for me to write today. I’ll be back in the swing of things soon.

Here then is a short post, to say that my latest novel, Adam Of Jerusalem, is published—at least the e-book is. As always, the print book will lag a little. I put this up about a week ago, just before the busyness set in. I was planning on making this announcement last Friday.

So, now my church history novels series has books 1, 2, and 4 published. I know what book 3 will be, and I have a program for books 5 through 9, or maybe it’s 5 through 11. I need to gather together all my writing idea sheets and bring them into some sort of useable arrangement.

I’ll now finish the next volume of Documenting America, my current project, then will see what to work on next.

Adam Of Jerusalem, Church History Novels, Documenting America, goals, Writing

A Rainy Morning of Busyness

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Here’s what I got up to this morning—a nice, steady rain. Yet, it didn’t put me back to sleep.

I’m starting this post at 7:05 a.m. I’ve been up since 5:20. I got up a little before 5:00 for a call of nature and never got back to sleep. My right shin was hurting and kept me awake. I finally got up, went to my reading chair and tried to sleep. It was raining hard. The noise of the rain from the open window behind my head, and on the skylights and the roof, was soothing, but didn’t do the trick for putting me back to sleep.

So, a few minutes before six I got up, put on the coffee, then came back to my chair and opened the book I’m reading on my cell phone. It’s Thomas Carlyle’s Miscellaneous Essays, specifically his 1829 essay on Voltaire. I don’t know much about Voltaire so was looking forward to this particular essay. Alas, 68 pages into a 73 page essay and I don’t know much more than I did before reading it. I’m either reading distracted or Carlyle’s style is working against comprehension. I won’t re-read it immediately to see which it is.

Now I’m in The Dungeon, typing this on the fly. It’s going to be a busy day. I have to call my dentist when the office opens. For some reason I think I have an appointment today that I failed to put on my calendar. Later, at 12:45 p.m., Lynda has a medical appointment in town that I’ll accompany her on. That will consume about three hours including the driving there and back.

Last night, via e-mail, I received the final information needed to publish Adam Of Jerusalem. At some point today I’ll plug that into the publication files, then complete the final formatting. I hope today I’ll get the Kindle e-book edition published, tomorrow the Smashword edition, and maybe Wednesday complete the print book and order a proof copy. This may sound like a lot but it’s all doable, depending on the time to make the print book cover from the e-book.

Of course, at 8:00 a.m. I’ll get on the elliptical for 5 minutes, then go into my Monday morning stock trading routine. Meanwhile, last night I completed my research in the source document for one chapter of Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition, a chapter I hadn’t yet done any reading for. I identified the excerpt I want to use and will today add it to my book file. That will give me three chapters edited, waiting for my original words to be added.

Somehow, when adding the photo to the cover, I caused the text to be offset from center. I’ll correct that later today.

Then, I also need to spend some time on books for two other authors that I’m helping. One is the retired missionary from our church. I’ve written about this before. I’ve created a rudimentary cover for it, which, while not professional, will likely suffice for this book. I have the same publishing tasks ahead for that book, that I can start any time.

A second book, for a different author, is not as far along. She came to my attention through the critique group I’m in, as she’s the church friend of a young man who has attended a couple of times. Her book is encouragement for women who have a church background but are working to recover a strong spiritual relationship with God that they either lost or perhaps never had. I may work on that some today, though more likely tomorrow.

So there you have the outline of my day. How much of this I will actually accomplish is a mystery. But, I’ll try. With God’s help and strengthening I’ll complete much of it.

America, Documenting America, History, research, Writing

Documenting America: From the Cutting-Room Floor

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The United States Constitution. What a great system of government.

As I mentioned in a previous post, as I’m going through the source documents for Documenting America: Making the Constitution Edition, much good material gets edited out. It winds up on the cutting room floor, so to speak, using the movie industry term.  Some of this is good material. I’d love to use it in my book, but, alas, I need to keep the book a reasonable size.

The thought came to me to use it for blog post material. So, instead of just dumping it, I’ve been saving it for use when it’s time to write a blog post and I have nothing else in mind. It could also be newsletter material, I suppose, if I ever take the plunge to writing a newsletter.

But, again alas, something I put into a file last week, from one of the Federalist Papers, is now nowhere to be found. What did I do with it? Did I save it to my Documenting America Vol 3 folder? It’s not there. Did I save it to my Blog folder? It’s not there either. Maybe, without paying attention, I saved it to the root folder of my Documents. Nope, not there either. Did I fail to save it and let it go drifting off into the ether?

Whatever, the excellent item I was going to use for today is not on my computer. I could spend an hour looking for it, but think, instead, I’ll find something else. I saved other stuff.

Here’s one from an anonymous writing from someone from Pennsylvania who didn’t like the proposed constitution.

The wealthy and ambitious, who in every community think they have a right to lord it over their fellow creatures, have availed themselves, very successfully, of this favorable disposition; for the people thus unsettled in their sentiments, have been prepared to accede to any extreme of government; all the distresses and difficulties they experience, proceeding from various causes, have been ascribed to the impotency of the present confederation, and thence they have been led to expect full relief from the adoption of the proposed system of government, and in the other event, immediately ruin and annihilation as a nation. These characters flatter themselves that they have lulled all distrust and jealousy of their new plan, by gaining the concurrence of the two men in whom America has the highest confidence, and now triumphantly exult in the completion of their long meditated schemes of power and aggrandisement.

Whoever wrote this, a small part of a much longer article, was, I think, spot on concerning what happens when power is obtained and then applied to government. Wealthy and ambitious people do tend to lord it over their fellow citizens. They are successful, often from their own work, and they see this as a reason why they should 1) be held in high esteem by others, and 2) have positions of political power.

The writer of the original document seems to have been wrong, however, about the motives of those who wrote the Constitution and about how the government would function under it. Things turned out much better than his dire predictions. He knew things weren’t going well under the Articles of Confederation, and saw this new document as setting up a government of the rich and powerful. I believe most of our 232 year experience with it shows us that this isn’t so.

My Documenting America series focuses on our historical documents, and tries to inspire people to seek the documents out and read them.

Or is it? As I look on Congress today, I see lots of multi-millionaires. I see people who make laws that apply to others but not themselves. I see the rich and powerful say the government should take over your health care while they keep a very nice plan for themselves. Same with pensions and Social Security.

I could go on and on. Can you tell I’m not a big fan of Congress? I think most of the ills in the nation that are often attributed to the president—every president, no matter who it is—are often the fault of Congress, either due to their action or inaction.

So why didn’t this particular passage make it into my book? Simply a matter of space. This document, like all of them I’m using in the book, is chock full of good phrases and arguments. Some turned out to be wrong arguments, some right. It’s all worth reading. If someone reads Documenting America and then digs into the source documents, they’ll see this. All the better. If they don’t, this will remain obscure and unread.

Perhaps my book and this blog will help others to find and read it.