- Have a meet-up to deliver batch 1 of family photos to the one who has been clamoring to have them. Good riddance.
- Somehow, carve out enough time to finish editing my book-in-progress. Down to 3 chapters, but was unable to do any editing today, nor will tomorrow.
- Continue transcribing one letter a day of my father-in-law’s war letters.
- Continue to dispose of unneeded scan files on my computer and One Drive. Down to less than 1,450 now.
- Keep up with yardwork.
- Handle various financial matters and travel bookings.
Category Archives: Writing
Life Gets In The Way
I had a complicated book review planned for today. But yesterday, after I got a minimum amount of editing done, along with my two special projects, I decided I was behind on my yardwork and better get to it. Under full sun, but much of the time working in the shade, I started pulling weeds out of our gravel yard. I made my goal in about a half hour.
I then tackled my blackberry patch. I had clearing to do in the paths between rows, trimming back high sprouts, cutting out competing vines, and then weed-eating around the whole patch. I didn’t get that last part done, nor did I clean up the mess I made with cuttings. But I did leave my crop in good shape. Saw a few berries starting to turn black, so the harvest may start as early as today.
All together, I was 1 3/4 hours in the yard, stopping in part because the weed-eater battery died, but also because I felt my strength giving way. I went inside, rested and read, and, after lunch, came back to The Dungeon to finish editing. I then rested for a couple of hours.
By 4:30 p.m., I was recovered enough to go back outside. Afternoon shade covered an area in the front yard I needed to work on. I started the small project, and to my surprise got more done than expected. The project is done. I came back inside, feeling good about having the strength to get both my inside and outside work done.
I spent the evening sorting through old photos, making progress on both physical photos and computer files. For some reason completion of the project eludes me. I can’t find some batches of like photos to add strays to. Hopefully today I’ll find them.
But only after I clean up the mess around the blackberries, and see if any are ready to harvest.
Goals for June 2025
Last month I resumed setting goals for the month. I had suspended this practice, which used to include progress, as my injuries and medical issues piled up in 2024 and continued in early 2025. But I decided to resume setting goals but not taking time to report progress on the prior month’s goals. So here are goals for June.
- Begin editing Vol. 5 of the A Walk Through Holy Week Bible study series. Based on how the last couple of volumes went, it’s likely I’ll finish it this month.
- Continue with work on computer files. This, for now, will mainly be checking scanned files to see if I’ve properly saved them and then get rid of the duplicate file.
- Having done a good job on genealogy research this month, I’d like to continue it in June. This may be mainly organizing computer files, getting rid of duplicate material and superseded files, rather than new research.
- Work some more on going through family photos. It would be nice to finish one of our four main families and send those photos off to the next family member who needs to deal with them.
- Continue going through my father-in-law’s letter files. They are in approximate chronological order. I’m going through them one a day, from newest working backwards. At this rate it will take me a couple of years to get through them all.
- Consolidate a few ideas I’ve had lately for future writing in the Documenting America series.
I have other things I’d like to accomplish, but these seem like enough to set for the month. Especially in consideration of the outdoor work I have to do in the blackberry patch.
Next Bible Study Published
Over the last five or six days, I have published Volume 4 of my Bible study series, A Walk Through Holy Week. Titled A Difficult Meal, it covers the Last Supper as told in all four gospels. Although the fourth of eight volumes in the series, it was actually one of the earlier ones written, possibly the first. It has been patiently waiting in its folder for me to finish its brethren in order before it. Here’s the link to it at Amazon.
I set the publishing up to go live tomorrow, May 6. The e-book will be published that date, though it is ready for pre-order now. The print book was supposed to be ready the same day, but I’ve had some issues getting the print cover to meet Amazon’s requirements. I corrected it this morning and uploaded a replacement cover. If Amazon approves it, the print book should be available today or tomorrow.
I will now take a short break (a month or two) from publishing this series to do a few other key tasks. I’m not sure when I’ll do the publishing on Vols. 5 through 8, but it should be before the end of the year.
A New Work-In-Progress
Yes, even while I’m trying to edit the remaining volumes of A Walk Through Holy Week, and planning to then shift to book 3 in The Forest Throne series, and plan out a larger Documenting America series, and have two other books on the back burner waiting for a chance, a new idea/opportunity has come to mind. Actually, even more than one new work-in-progress may be on the near horizon.
The book I’m reading right now is titled Great Essays. As a result, I’ve been itching to write a couple of essays. I have them fairly firmly in mind. One is outlined in my head; the other isn’t that far along. I’m not quite sure of the timing of this. Possibly this week I will at least get the outline on paper.
The other w-i-p will almost certainly happen. It is a new Bible study that I’m planning for our adult Sunday school class (a.k.a. life group, a.k.a. community group). I prepared the outline/proposal for it tonight and am about to send it to my co-teacher for his approval, after which we will submit it to the pastoral staff for approval. If approved, I will start teaching it May 4, meaning I’ll have to begin the writing at least by April 28.
I won’t announce the title and subject matter just yet, not until I have approval and get a little way into the writing.
Why do I do this? Get started on new things before the old ones are done, or at least at a stopping point. My writing is like the water contained in an elevated tank that someone busts a hole in. The water rushes out, seeking a place to pool up. That’s how my writing is. And I suppose it always will be.
Book Review: “On Writing” by Stephen King
At some point in the deep, dark past, I obtained a copy of On Writing by Stephen King. It’s a 2009 edition of the original, which was published in 2001. The book is new, but I don’t remember buying it. I may have won it at a writing conference I attended in 2011, as a door prize. It sat on a shelf in our “auxiliary” bedroom in the storeroom, awaiting its turn to pop up on my reading pile. Assuming I got it in 2011 (for sure it was after 2009), it only took 14 years of its hibernating on the obscure shelf for me to notice it.
I have to say, of the many books I’ve read by writers for writers—some giving the writer’s journey and memoir and some focusing on writing techniques—this was probably the best I’ve read. King begins the book with his writing journey. It’s a bit of autobiography and a bit of the writing road he traveled on, about the early struggles to make it in life with meager earnings, needing a brief teaching career to put bread on the table.
That journey description serves as a lengthy introduction to the second part of the book, that of writing techniques. King brings out thoughts on both the creative process—how to dig ideas out of life and then make stories of them—and the specific wordsmithing he sees as needed to make the stories good ones.
In the book, he answers the two most common questions he gets. From readers: Where do you get your ideas? From writers: What is your editing process like?
One caution: King has no compunction again using strong language, in his novels and in this book. He believes writing should match the reality that the reader lives. Hence, he makes regular use of swear words. I’d rather not have to read that kind of thing but plowed on through it. I have to say that he does not use curse words gratuitously. When used in On Writing, they seem to be used in a way that they are used in everyday speech—at least to the best of my recollection. It’s been many years since I’ve been around that kind of talk.
I give this book 5-stars, mainly for the excellence in organization, writing, and completeness. But it is not a keeper. In fact, I already gave it to someone in my writing critique group.
Progress As Hoped For
Back when I was a working man—that is, working for a company—making to-do lists was both a blessing and a curse. The tendency for me was to make a comprehensive list of daily tasks, around 10 to 20 items. These often became a distraction. Which should I do next out of the twenty on the list? Most of the time I would tackle the easier, less important item just to cross something off the list, rather than the harder but most important task.
At some point I learned a trick from some efficiency expert. Your daily to-do list should have only four items on it. They should be the most important ones. Do them, cross them off your list, and then, if you have time, move on to other things. I adopted this practice with one modification: I put the four most important tasks above a line and four other tasks below the line. This gave me more of a plan to make the day really full of accomplishment.
I’ve never adopted that practice for the many things I have to get done in retirement. But since my health problems of last year, with the Dec. 22 seizure being the concluding event, severely interrupted my work, I’ve had trouble getting back to it. As I posted before, I began writing again not so long ago. I’m still working on decumulation. And our stock trading partnership taxes are due March 17. It was all becoming overwhelming. When I made a to do list, it didn’t help.
Then I remembered the four-task rule. About three weeks ago I started to begin each day making a four-task to-do list. The things I thought most important to that day went on the list. While I had big, on-going tasks, each day’s four were different. Partnership taxes were on it every day after about 3 March. But on 1 March, the first item was “Call Ezra”, #2 grandson on his birthday. I put one writing/publishing task on the list each day, and one decumulation task.
Yesterday’s four were:
- finish partnership taxes
- AWTHW V2 cover
- transcribe journal sheets
- storeroom organization
Alas, due to most of the morning being taken up with five errands, I didn’t have the full day to complete them all, and I did only 1 and 3.
Today, my four tasks are:
- AWTHW V2 cover
- mail partnership taxes
- mark boxes in storeroom
- Cheney fam photos
We’ll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I have found a use for all these pads that accumulate from unsolicited give aways. The one I’m currently using, with enough space for six days on a sheet, was given to us by the realtor who sold us our house before this one in 1991. I found it in the desk in The Dungeon a couple of months ago, and decided it was high time to use it. From the size of the pad still left, it will probably last for 3 or 4 months.
Writing Again
Last Saturday (3/1, that is), for only the second time since my seizure on Dec 22, I wrote. Wrote on one of my books, that is. I’ve been doing a little journaling in Jan and Feb, but no real writing. A Walk Through Holy Week, Volume 3, lacked only one chapter and the Introduction of being done. Even earlier parts of the book had been through one edit.
But I just wasn’t feeling up to writing. I would go downstairs to The Dungeon each morning, feel overwhelmed at decumulation and decluttering tasks, feel my slowness at the keyboard, and do other things than writing. Any other things. The last time I had written was around Jan 22, and I added very few words that day.
But that Saturday, it felt good. I wrote the first section of the last chapter. It took less than an hour, and it felt good. That day I had already spent an hour transcribing entries from an old field book into my e-journal. That felt good, and so did the writing. I took Sunday off, but then wrote each weekday last week. That brought me to Saturday with one section and the Introduction to do. I got the one section, for which I had not done any planning, done in 45 minutes or so, and decided to shift over to the Introduction. In another 45 minutes, I had that done as well. An hour and a half was probably the most writing I had done in one session since my stroke on Sept 3.
So, AWTHW V3 is now ready for finishing round 1 of edits and moving quickly into rounds 2 and 3. AWTHW V2 is ready for typing of final edits, and the input of beta readers, if I can find any. The later volumes scream at me, asking me to please get to editing them and move on to publishing. I have to keep shushing them, saying, “All in good time, all in good time.”
Meanwhile, brainstorming is in progress about what comes next. I know what the next three, or possibly four, books will be, but not after that. I just can’t help thinking and planning ahead.
What about it, friends? Anyone want to be a beta reader for Volumes 2 and/or 3? Just let me know with a comment and I’ll be in touch. Or reach me through Facebook.
A More Normal Schedule
As I write this on Wednesday, March 5 evening, a feeling of normalcy has descended on the Todd household. Not completely, for we still have health issues we’re dealing with. Lynda has headaches almost daily; our son is, tonight, dealing with a possible break-through seizure; and I’m getting ready to start physical therapy for my right knee. But yesterday I saw my hematologist. My iron deficiency is corrected, and I don’t have to go back to him unless my regular blood work shows my iron dropping. And my cardio rehab will end next week. That is going well, and I’ve increased my workload most days as I’ve been through it. My weight is either steady or inching downward, and my blood sugars are mostly within goal.
But normalcy is close. Saturday, I returned to writing. As of today, I’ve written on four days, with the ideas and words coming easily. I have only three days of writing left on this volume—well, four including the introduction. Then, of course, the editing starts. Meanwhile, I continue to edit Volume 2 of the series. I should finish that on Friday, the day this post goes live. Typing will take less than a day, then publication tasks start.
I’m finding time to do some typing of things that go into my journal—loose papers that will later be discarded. Meanwhile the storeroom is better arranged so that I know where things are and will be able to find them again for decumulation consideration. My work table is marginally cleaner after I went through a desk-top box of hanging files and got rid of a bunch. Some were left for scanning or transcribing, work that is in progress. And speaking of decumulation, every couple of days something sells based on Facebook Marketplace ads.
But the thing that makes me feel most normal is beginning the process of closing out finances for 2024 and beginning to track them for 2025. Today, Wednesday, I did this for book sales, which is a business for me. I was up-to-date with my sales and finances spreadsheet when I had my seizure on Dec 22, so I didn’t lack much to catch up. I finally did that today, reconciled everything, created the new spreadsheet for 2025, and recorded my sales to date. I’m running a little ahead of 2024, which was a record year for me. On Thursday I plan to do this for our stock trading business, allowing me to start on our partnership taxes, which are due to be filed by March 15.
This all feels good, working on familiar things and seeing things getting done. I’m not ready to resume regular yardwork, but will slip some in once in a while. Going up and downstairs to The Dungeon is still painful, but I am able to do it several time a day.
Oh, and Tuesday I took down the string of Christmas card we received this year. A little late, but another part of the house is back to normal.
Closer To Normal
Dateline: Sunday, 2 March 2025
This may not be a terribly long post—we’ll see how it goes.
Over the last couple of days, I’ve felt a little more like my normal self, settling into my normal routines, getting normal things done. When I wrote on Friday, I felt overwhelmed by the things I had to do. But by the time Saturday wound down, and I looked back on the day (and on Friday), I realized I had accomplished things close to normal, as well as having completed a couple of special projects that would allow for doing normal things. Here’s what I got done,
- Worked 15 minutes out in the yard. That may not sound like much, but that’s the first outdoor work I’ve one since Thanksgiving.
- Did the final edits on A Walk Through Holy Week, Vo. 2. I did that over Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Since I’ve done writing only one day since before Christmas, I can’t tell you how good this felt. I figured, If I can’t wrap my mind around writing, I have much editing to do. Perhaps that will be a stimulant toward writing.
- Finished transcribing some journal sheets from 2014-15 that I found in an old file cabinet. This took a lot of effort. But getting it done was a huge relief. I have a couple of small journal books still to transcribe, but somehow these don’t seem as daunting.
- Got a smallish batch of family photos (21, I think) sorted, saved electronically, and agreement reached on how to dispose of them.
- Completed some major reorganization of the storeroom. We have sold off enough things that we have a little extra shelf space available. This allowed me to fairly easy to move things around, getting like things together, exposing some things I hadn’t seemed for years. We still have a long way to go at decumulation, But it’s looking a fair amount better.
Despite doing all this, and working my hardest at a cardio rehab session on Friday, I felt good. My energy level remained good. I took sitting breaks when I needed to, as well as a reading break at midday.
This week I plan on getting AWTHW-V2 ready for publication and actually publish it, maybe by Wednesday. After that, I hope to get a start on the last week of writing to go on the next volume followed by editing and publishing tasks.
And tomorrow morning a woman is coming by to pick up some surplus office supplies for her non-profit. It will be nice to have some surplus materials gone and space recovered.
Well, it’s one to finishing a good Lord’s Day with reading. Nothing better.