Category Archives: Writing

Christianity, Doctor Luke's Assistant, Preserve The Revelation, Writing

My Church History Fiction Series

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Kindle Cover - DLA 3
“Doctor Luke’s Assistant” is available for most e-reader devices

My first novel—and book—was Doctor Luke’s Assistant. Begun December 2000 and finished January 2003, I intended for this to be a stand-alone book. I had a story to tell, a story that came to me as a result of years of Bible study and a couple of years of daydreaming. Never did I think I would someday try to have a writing career. I had a story to tell, nothing more.

But, as I started to shop DLA for publication, I soon learned that publishers didn’t want to publish a book. They really want to publish a writer who wants a career as a published author. That meant I had to have another book. And then another, and another, till infinity, death, or the apocalypse. I went back to brainstorming.

The next books that came to me were my first baseball novel and my poetry book. Nothing came to mind concerning a follow-up to DLA. Nothing at first, that is. Eventually the brainstorming came back to it, and I thought of another book, a sequel. Thus Preserve The Revelation was born. The idea came to me probably around 2009-2010; I don’t remember exactly. For sure it was by 2012. PTR would feature Augustus, the point-of-view character from DLA. He would be called to help the apostle John write his gospel, then later The Revelation. It would involve his sons in kind of a torch-passing event. This sequel was on my radar and in my mind for those several years. Finally the circumstances were right to write it, beginning last October and ending January 14th. It’s currently waiting for me to come back to it and edit it, then publish it.

As I thought about PTR, and the need to have a constant supply of books for the publishing mill (even though by this time I had decided to go the self-publishing route), and, as I read various documents preserved from early church history—something I do for enjoyment and edification, other possible books in the series came to me. To explain exactly what I mean by this, I need to briefly describe a little more about DLA for those who haven’t read it.

The premise behind DLA is that Luke goes to Judea to write a biography of Jesus. He hires Augustus, a Jew from a family that has given up on Judaism and embraced Roman ways, to assist in the research. The story is told from Augustus’ point of view: the research, the writing, the troubles with both Jewish and Roman authorities. In the end the gospel of Luke is written, though it’s nothing like what was originally intended.

So the story is how a lowly clerk/scribe, called an amanuensis back then, should have a big impact in telling Jesus’ story. That’s the same theme carried into PTR, with Augustus and his sons playing the same role, with similar results. As I brainstormed more books, I realized the number of documents in early Christianity, documents which survive in whole or in part, or which are referenced by just slightly later documents, is large. How large? In just the First Century and the first half of the Second Century, potentially eight to ten over and above the scripture. To the end of the Second Century might add that many more, and more and more as each century progresses. In the first four centuries I would probably have 100-200 documents to choose from.

I eventually developed a plan for the series from this. At present, the plan is for only eight books, taking it from the early New Testament era to the middle of the First Century. Here’s a list of the books in chronological order. Given that the first book is a prequel, I’m obviously not planning on writing these in that order.

  • Adam Of Jerusalem: Backstory for Augustus’ family. The document(s) in question will be those thought to be the sources for Matthew and Luke in writing their gospels, the Passion Narrative and “Q” (Jesus’ sayings/teachings). Time frame: 39-40 A.D. Main character: Adam, Augustus’ father. His decision to leave Judaism and embrace Roman ways will be part of the story.
  • Doctor Luke’s Assistant: Explained above. Time frame: 63-66 A.D. Main character: Augustus
  • The Sayings: The writing of the Didiche, the sayings of the apostles. Time frame: 70 A.D. Main character: Augustus
  • Preserve The Revelation: Explained above. Time frame: 95 A.D. Main characters: Augustus and his sons
  • The Corinthian Problem (tentative title): The writing of “1st Clement”, an epistle written in Rome to the church in Corinth. Time frame: about 100 A.D. Main characters: Augustus’ sons, Adam and Daniel.
  • Ignatius of Antioch: The story of Ignatius being marched from Antioch to Rome, to his martyrdom, and the epistles he wrote during this trip. Time frame: 111 or 112 A.D. Main character: Augustus’ son Daniel
  • The Heretic: The story of Marcion, a Christian of the day whose views were eventually determined to be heresy. Time frame: 140 A.D. Main character: uncertain at this time. It may be one of Augustus’ descendants, or may be another family of scribes—or both.
  • The Martyr: The story of Polycarp, especially his being martyred. This story will actually tie in with Preserve The Revelation. Time frame: 150 A.D. Main character: uncertain, but one of Augustus’ descendants.

Some of the dates above are approximate. I’m writing this blog post from memory of past research. Oh, and a ninth book from this era might be The Shepherd.

So eight (or nine) novels planned at the moment. One written and published; one written and awaiting publication. Four I’ve been thinking of for at least three years. And three that came to mind in the last six months. That ought to keep me busy for a while, especially when all my planned books in other genres are factored in. If I get most of these eight or nine written and published, I’ll have time enough to extend the series to the next hundred years of church history.

career, Doctor Luke's Assistant, Documenting America, Headshots, Preserve The Revelation, self-publishing, Writing

2017 Writing and Publishing Plans

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So, as stated in my last post, 2016 was a dismal year for book sales. And, actually, I had only one new item published in 2016, plus a couple of re-dos, and one print book added to an e-book that was already out. But now it’s 2017. Time to make new plans to feed old hopes. We’re 16 days into 2017, and I’ve already made progress.

I’m going to give two lists. The first is the new material I hope to work on this year, without regards to priority. The second is a sort of to-do list for the first few months. I can’t really see beyond that right now. I’ll need to update that to-do list based on what I actually achieve. I might do that quarterly.

Here’s the first list.

  • Finish my novel-in-progress, Preserve The Revelation, and publish both as an e-book and in print. When the year started I was about 80 to 85% done (best guess).
  • Finish my non-fiction book-in-progress, Documenting America: Civil War Edition, and publish both as an e-book and in print. I believe I’m about 40% done with this.
  • Finish my workplace humor novella-in-progress, The Gutter Chronicles: Volume 2, and publish both as an e-book and in print. I think I’m around 30% done with this.
  • Write a new story in the Danny Tompkins short story series. I think this will be the last. But, then, I also thought that about the last one. I’ve put a few words on paper, but haven’t yet typed anything.
  • Write a new story in the Sharon Williams Fonseca series. While this series hasn’t sold, I want to stick with it for a while. I know where in the world the next story will take place, but a plot hasn’t yet come to me.
  • Finish Carlyle’s Chartism Through The Ages, a non-fiction work. It’s close to 80% complete, but the last 20% is going to be a killer.
  • Continue working on Thomas Carlyle Chronological Composition Bibliography. I’m not sure how close I am to finishing. I plan on working on it a little each morning at work. Perhaps I’ll finish it some day, perhaps not. I’m going to plod away at it for a while.

Here’s the second list. Some of these will have target dates, some won’t. The order is approximately first to last, though with plenty of overlap.

  • Jan 1: Begin reading for research for Documenting America: Civil War Edition. I achieved this. I’m reading a little almost every day for this.
  • Jan: Complete the first draft of Preserve The Revelation. I actually did this Saturday, Jan 14, at 8:10 p.m. It’s now with a beta reader while it simmers for a week or two before I tackle the edits on it. However, don’t think I’m ahead of schedule on this. My original goal was to finish it in 2016. I came close, but missed it.
  • Jan 31: Edit Doctor Luke’s Assistant and republish it. I re-read this in 2016 with an eye toward making edits in it. I’m ready to go with typing. This schedule should be doable.
  • Feb 15: Edit Preserve The Revelation once
  • Feb 28: Edit Preserve The Revelation again, which I hope will be the final edit.
  • Mar 15: Publish Preserve The Revelation. Much must be done for this to happen, some of which I’ve already set in motion.
  • Apr 1: Publish Headshots as a print book. I’m unclear of where I stand with this. In 2016 I edited and re-published the e-book version of this. I don’t remember how I did my edits, whether to a master file or to the e-book file. I’ll know more when I get back to this, probably early to mid-March.
  • Apr 2: Resume writing on Documenting America: Civil War Edition. Actually, I hope to write some on this much sooner than that. But I’ll be satisfied with not doing so until early April. My guess is I’ll have two months of writing to do on it.
  • Blog on a regular Monday and Friday schedule. I’ve already missed a couple of those. I’ll be satisfied if I have 40 to 50 blog posts for the year.

So, that’s my first quarter to-do list. How close I’ll come to achieving it the posts of this blog must tell. Stay tuned.

self-publishing, Writing

2016 Book Sales

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All markets have not reported for December 2016, but it’s time to report sales for 2016. Here’s the table.

2016 Book Sales
2016 Book Sales

So, you can see that sales were dismal in 2016. The fourth quarter picked up a bit, mainly sales of In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I published the print version in October, and promoted it on Facebook. Sales of it were dismal, but less dismal than my 21 other published items.

25 sales were at Amazon, 11 were through other stores where I sell via Smashwords, and 5 were self-sales. So my sales at Amazon were where the big drop occurred. Ever since they rolled out Kindle Unlimited, my sales there have been dropping.

I also had four or five e-books/stories bought and returned. In other words, fully 10 percent of all the books I sold were returned. That’s really depressing.

But, I shall be carrying on, writing and publishing, in 2017, in the hopes that someday, someway, with someone(s), my books/stories will catch on.

Carlyle, Documenting America, Preserve The Revelation, Writing

Busy Writing`

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Well, I haven’t started 2017 very well in terms of blog faithfulness, have I? I’m trying to establish and keep a Monday and Friday posting schedule. Clearly, since this is my first post in 2017, I missed the first Monday and first Friday.

Yesterday I worked hard on my novel-in-progress, as I had Saturday. Between the two days I added just short of 6,000 words. As I wrote on Sunday, I remembered the blog and made a note to carve out some time to write a post. Alas, I didn’t do so.

Part of the problem is knowing what to write. I need to do a summary of 2016 post, for book sales, and maybe another one for writing progress. I’m waiting, however, on Smashwords to report possible late 2016 sales. I’m not expecting any, but I’ll wait for a little while. I can write a summary of my writing at any time, and will try to do that before long.

Then, I’m brainstorming a “publishing plans” post for 2017, as I’ve done for every year. I’m close to setting my annual goals, after which I can write that post. I think it’s going to be a week or so before I do.

So, for today, I’ll just mention current writing work.

As I said, I got back to work on Preserve The Revelation this weekend. The last time I’d written on it was Dec. 26. I had been thinking much about it in the interim, and had worked out some plot lines. So I was hoping the writing would go well, but, since getting back into it after a break is hard, I wasn’t sure. It turned out it did go well. I got away from the minutia of the travels of my protagonist, and began the last big external conflict. The last conflict he goes through will be internal. I’ve brainstormed that a little. I’m now down to the last 5,000 words I would say. That will make it an approximately 77,000 word book; shorter than I had figured, but not too short for the genre. If I can add 500 to 750 words several nights this week, I’ll be finished with it next weekend.

In the evenings, after I finish writing, I’m reading in two different books on the Civil War. This is research for my (currently) abandoned work, Documenting America: The Civil War Edition. I estimate I brought it to about 40 percent done in 2015, when I started struggling with it, and laid it aside. When I finish my current work-in-progress, I figure on shifting to that and trying to finish it. I think I can do it. It will be part of my 2017 publishing plan.

The other thing I’m doing is spending a half hour or so each morning, of my quiet time at work, building my Thomas Carlyle Chronological Composition Bibliography. I’m currently working in August 1840. My sense is that most of the hard work is behind me. From this point on Carlyle wrote mainly longer works, more easily traced and documented. He has a few miscellaneous things, but they are limited, and prior researchers seem to have them well documented. The hard part is over. I’m going to keep working on this. With luck, I’ll be able to publish it in 2018.

That brings my few readers up to speed with my current writing. I’m also planning a couple of writer interviews over the next month, so hopefully you’ll see those posts.

Christmas, miscellaneous, Preserve The Revelation, technology woes, Writing

A Long Weekend

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The house is decorated for Christmas; though, the Christmas tree could use another string of lights. I’ll look at that later this morning.

Menus are not fully planned; though Christmas day we’ll eat at a nearby retirement home, the one my mother-in-law lived at before she came to live with us. I bought a turkey, which we’ll have on Monday. I’ve got to have a second turkey dinner cooked at home this year.

My new computer hook up is complete! Shortly after Thanksgiving I bought a new laptop to replace my ancient desktop. Our IT guy said to buy a docking station so that I could hook up my extra monitors and easily take my laptop when I needed to go. I couldn’t get it all to work. Yesterday at work he walked me through the procedure. Last night I did it, and poof! It’s all working. So I have three monitors looking back at me. Blog on the left, spreadsheet in the middle, stock chart on the right. When I begin my day’s writing activities that will be on the right. I think. I’m still trying to figure out what’s best. I’m not quite done with all the computer hook-ups. I still have the printer to work on. Hopefully today I’ll get that set up. It’s a wireless printer, and supposedly I just plug it in, turn it on, and all my computer will be able to recognize it and print to it. We’ll see.

So, as you can tell I’m at home today. And I will be on Monday, both holidays for the company. A four day weekend is just what I needed, as I was becoming melancholy and lethargic. Some time away from the routine should do me good. My wife returned from Oklahoma City last night, which is good. My brother-in-law is driving in today. So the Christmas gathering will be complete. Not much to do today. Maybe a little grocery shopping. I even cleaned the house pretty good yesterday, so there’s not much cleaning to do.

Hopefully I’ll get to take a walk today, although rain is almost upon us, so we’ll have to see. Hopefully I’ll be able to find time to write 1000 or 2000 words in my novel. That would be grand. Doing so each day of the weekend would be grand as well.

I’m in The Dungeon, and hear stirring up above, so think I’ll head upstairs, get another cup of coffee, and be sociable. I’ll be back.

Christmas, Preserve The Revelation, Writing

A Little Progress

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Our Christmas village, in part
Our Christmas village, in part

It’s Christmastime!

I won’t say “Bah! Humbug!” Though I’m tempted to.

We have only two Christmas parties scheduled this year. One was last Saturday, so we can check that one off. The other is next Tuesday. But my wife will be out of town, tending grandchildren, so I told the organizer I won’t be there. He asked why, and I said I didn’t want to leave my mother-in-law alone for all day and the evening. He said to bring her, but she won’t want to go, and won’t want me to miss it. So I haven’t said anything about it to her or my wife. It was fun last year, but I won’t miss it this year.

Our Christmas village is in place; the wreath is on the front door; a manger scene is out; and a few lights are showing in the front window. The Christmas tree is up and the lights are on, but not the ornaments. Maybe I’ll cart them upstairs tonight. I have two other decorations I want to put up. Then it’s get the string up to hang incoming cards on. The only other Christmas thing to do is write a short Christmas letter and do the twenty-five or so cards we do each year. I should have all that done by next weekend.

So Christmas is now manageable. On to other things, mainly writing. Yesterday, Sunday, after a great worship service, excellent but simple lunch, and a nap wrapped around reading, I went to The Dungeon for almost three hours of productive work. I had to re-read my last chapter and see where I’d left off writing two weeks ago. I did a few edits as I read, determined the chapter was complete, and plunged into the next one.

My goal was to write 1,500 words in three hours. That’s less than I can normally do in that time, but, given that I hadn’t written for two weeks I thought that was about what I could do. In fact, I added just shy of 2,000 words in a little less than that time. That brings the book up to over 53,000 words at present.

More than that, however, ideas came to me of how to develop the conflict in the second half of my sagging middle. I had most of the beginning of the book worked out before I started to write it, and I knew where I wanted the end to be, but I was clueless about the middle. How do I put the protagonist in enough conflict to keep the book interesting? Ways and means of doing that came to me yesterday as I was writing. Some of it had come to me during my two-week writing hiatus, but the rest came while I was writing.

Then, this morning, I started to jot down a few notes, and figured how to do some more conflict. It involves adding another antagonist, a trusted new “friend” who turns out not to be. Will it be enough? I’m not sure, but if the book comes in at 75,000 words instead of the 90,000 I originally thought it would be, maybe it will be enough.

In other writing progress, I finished re-reading Doctor Luke’s Assistant, and will soon work on correcting a few things and re-publishing that in advance of the sequel. I had two hours of reading in Civil War documents, which is for the book I’ll work on next: Documenting America: Civil War Edition. I also spent some time brainstorming in the series of which DLA and PTR are the first two (written, not chronologically), and see the potential for 12 books in this series. That would take me out over ten years to write.

So, I’m happier now with my writing productivity than I was last Friday. Oh, and my Thomas Carlyle bibliography is also moving right along.

Christmas, Preserve The Revelation, Writing

Friday

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I’m having a hard time getting excited about anything today.

I know I seem to be negative all the time, and that’s poison if you want to attract and keep readers. But it’s true.

I can’t get excited about Christmas. There’s always too much to do, even now that we’re empty-nesters and have less responsibility. Not much of it reminds me of the magical Christmases of my childhood.

I can’t get excited about work. I’m reviewing a project submitted by another engineering company to a city I sometimes provide city engineering services for. This is the third submittal, and they are finally getting it right. I think. I’m not sure because certain aspects of their drawings are hard to interpret. I’m having to slog through it, and can only concentrate for short spurts, then have to pull of and do something else.

I can’t get excited about my novel-in-progress. I haven’t worked on it in over a week. Instead, I’ve been tweaking and tweaking a document I plan to submit in response to an atheist challenge. It’s a waste of time, except for forcing me to concentrate on something. But it’s done. I made some tweaks yesterday, and I’m calling it final. I have no intention of looking at it again. Now, whether I actually submit it or not is another matter. I’ve started that process. Even have submitted it to an outside reviewer before submittal. But whether I submit it or not depends on a number of things, which I won’t outline here. Most likely my literary executor will find it and have to deal with it.

So, what to do? Maybe tonight I’ll be able to add a few words to my novel. Or maybe I’ll knuckle down and get our Christmas letter written. Then file receipts. Then file other papers. Then update my budget spreadsheets. Then read a little for pleasure—except now that I write, I find I can’t read for pleasure any more.

Christmas, miscellaneous, trials, Writing

Can’t Get Excited

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Can’t get excited about blogging.

Can’t get excited about Christmas.

Can’t get excited about work.

Can’t get excited about writing.

Can’t get excited about life in general.

I’m not sure what it’s going to take to snap me out of this. I know I will. It might have to wait till after Christmas. I don’t know why, but I’ve never warmed up to Christmas. We are way past the days of Christmas busyness, with the kids gone. Maybe it’s the incredibly gaudy commercialism of the holiday. But I can almost say I can’t stand Christmas. It’s not quite that bad, but it’s close.

In the last week writing has taken a back seat to busyness of tasks and weariness of mind. The tasks are not yet done. I replaced two old computers with laptops, for which I already have extra monitors. But, even though I bought docking stations for the monitors, I can’t figure out how to get them connected. Everything is connected, but how do I get the computer to know the monitors are there? I guess I’ll figure it out. But until I do I can’t decommission the old computers. With that hanging over me, I don’t feel like doing much of anything.

So, I’ll make this blog post, listen to a little doo-wop, and head upstairs for reading. Hopefully I’ll be able to write some day soon.

family, home improvements, miscellaneous, Preserve The Revelation, Writing

Recovering From The Weekend

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As I was not too long ago, I’m again a day late with my blog post. It’s not for lack of something to write. Indeed, I have a choice of topics and ideas. Some things I’m not quite ready to write a post on, though, if I needed to, I could break out a short, introductory post, and leave the bulk of it till I’m ready. Other things I’m ready to write on.

So why didn’t I write yesterday? Sheer tiredness and brain weariness. This last weekend we had a yard sale, the one we were supposed to have any time after August 2015 when my mother-in-law came to live with us. We didn’t get it done last fall, and I was too busy this spring with many projects to do it. A summer yard sale works in this part of the world, but not as well as spring or fall.

So, about two months ago I decided I would get it done in October. All I needed to complete before that was the flower bed in the front yard. I completed that in early October. My wife was gone to Oklahoma City for an extended stay helping with grandkids, and my mother-in-law was gone for months visiting in her home town. I got much done during those two weeks, both inside and outside the house, and still more in the three weeks it was just me and the mother-in-law here.

Projects completed, and a visit to OKC out of the way, I began yard sale prep in earnest. My wife returned on Oct 23, and I said we were having the sale Oct 28-29. She didn’t think we could get it done, but I showed her how much I had done, and said we would proceed with it. So we did. Was it a success? I had set only modest goals: sell one box of the old books; sell the old porch swing, old suitcases (from 1981), unused air purifier and dehumidifier, and a box of farm junk left over from the 2009 sale when my mother-in-law first downsized, from a house to an apartment. Oh, I also set a $ goal of $200.

I’m happy to say that each of those goals was met. We netted around $220, and each of the items mentioned in the previous paragraph are gone—sold! I think more of the stuff selling was ours, rather than the mother-in-law’s, but it’s gone, never to take up space in the garage or basement again. However, I have to say that meeting all goals seems to be almost a wasted effort. When we brought things back in the garage, we have just as many tables set up, just as many items we don’t need but don’t feel clear to throw out, and we still can’t get a car in it. And, it was a lot a lot of work for a lousy $220.

Some other benefits were achieved. We found a set of salad plates that were not to be sold. In getting ready for the yard sale I was able to fully clean the storeroom. We had contact with some neighbors and near neighbors we rarely see. I expended a lot of energy, perhaps lost a little weight, which is a good thing even if I didn’t have my annual physical tomorrow.

But I ended the days exhausted. Sunday wasn’t all that restful, as I had to teach adult Life Group, made my Saturday run to Wal-Mart on Sunday, and did some good writing on my novel-in-progress. I had to do most of the work on the sale, as my wife woke up with back spasms on Friday, and wasn’t any better on Saturday (or on Sunday for that matter, though improved some by Monday), but I expected that. I took an extra pain pill or two each day, kept going, got lots of steps in, and then slept well.

But, Monday came, and the rush of adrenalin that comes from a sale was gone, and the tiredness set in. I probably didn’t earn my pay yesterday, though looking back I did get some good things done, including a couple of difficult tasks that involved using a website so changed from what I’m used to it might as well have been a new site. At home in the evening I got supper ready (just leftovers from the roast I cooked Sunday—oh, yeah, that was another energy-sapping thing). After eating I balanced the checkbook, then went to The Dungeon. Stock trading accounting took over a half hour, as there was much to do with it, then I wrote. I only added 625 or so words to Preserve The Revelation, but I crossed another thousand threshold, which was satisfying.

Hopefully today my energy has returned. Just being able to write this blog post is a good sign. Future posts will hopefully get back to my writing career and life lessons. Stay tuned.

family, miscellaneous, Writing

Yard Sale Today

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I’m not making much of a post today, as we are having a yard sale. Back in early 2009 my mother-in-law moved from her house to a nearby apartment. We had a sale then, getting rid of most of the furniture she didn’t need/we didn’t want. But we put several boxes on the shelf. Then, in March 2014 she went to live in an independent living retirement apartment, smaller, and she didn’t need as much. Several of her things came to our house; some to the basement; some to the garage.

The, in August 2015 it was determined she couldn’t live alone any more. It was either assisted living (more than $4000 a month) or move in with us. We had her move in with us. We sold off some of her things, but most of it went into the garage, a little going to the basement.

Our plans all along were to have a sale, adding a fair amount of our own stuff. But other things got in the way. All winter I was reclaiming the back yard from the forest. All spring and summer I was trying to spiff up both the back yard and front yard. Then there was finishing the flower bed so we’ll have someplace to plant next year, and clean up the basement storeroom. I had a number of reasons for doing that, including finding and moving things to the garage for the sale.

That stuff all being done, while the wife was out of town helping our daughter’s family with the new baby, I began moving stuff to the garage, and arranging for tables, and arranging stuff on tables. It’s now or never for this sale.

So, today and tomorrow, Friday and Saturday, the sale is ON. We live in a somewhat remote place, and to be honest I don’t expect a lot of traffic. If we can sell some of the stuff I’ll be happy. I’ll take a bunch more to thrift stores, while we’re in the mood to declutter and reduce our overall amount of stuff, accumulated in almost 41 years of marriage. And, what my mother-in-law accumulated in 91 years.

So, I wrote nothing last night, as I was making preparations. I’ll write nothing tonight. Maybe I’ll get to do a little Friday night, but we’ll see. I suspect that Saturday I’ll be too tired to write, but again we’ll see.

I’ll be back Monday, and will report in on how we did.