Category Archives: Writing

Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Preserve The Revelation, self-publishing, Writing

Writing and Publishing

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ftsp-createspace-cover-2016-10-14

Publishing and writing tasks have been proceeding apace. No, that’s passive construction. Let me rephrase. I’ve been able to spend a decent amount of time on writing and publishing tasks of late, with some positive results. No, I’m not where I’d hoped I’d be, not even where I’d planned to be. But I’ve made progress, and that will have to suffice.

I’ve been able to spend time every day working on Preserve The Revelation either writing or researching. Yesterday I added over 2,000 words, and my word count is somewhere around 23,700, I think (my count is at home; I’m writing this at work). If I’m correct that it will take about 90,000 words to tell this story, that means I’m about 26% done. Is that good news, or bad news? If I average 500 words a day, I’ll be done in 133 days (very doable), around the end of March 2017. That seems like a long time from now. If I can bump that up to 750 words a day (doable), I’ll be done in mid-January. If I can do a little better and average 1,000 words a day (a stretch based on all that the world expects me to do), I could be done just before Christmas this year. That sounds so much better. It’s what I need to shoot for.

Apart from that, I continue to work on Thomas Carlyle: A Chronological Composition Bibliography, or whatever exact title I eventually give it. Why? I’m not sure, except I can’t let it go. Most days I spend a little time on it, rarely more than thirty minutes. I’m looking through Carlyle’s letters for references to his publications, checking reference materials for the same, reading a few works by or about Carlyle, and typing/reprinting as I have enough changes to warrant doing so. I have no schedule for completing this. I’m past the most difficult years of Carlyle’s literary life, it seems to me, so maybe this will go fast henceforth. I still have significant editing to do in the years 1823-1832. Right now I’m in 1836-37 and moving forward. I’ll edit those earlier years later.

In late August or early September I wrote a poem for an anthology and submitted it. I found out this morning that the anthology fell through. I still have the poem, a villanelle, that perhaps I’ll do something with. It’s submissions season for many literary journals. What the heck, might as well submit it and see what happens. I’ve written one other poem since, a tanka, that needs some work.

As far as publishing tasks, in September I published the fourth short story in my series Sharon Williams Fonseca: Unconventional CIA Agent. Titled “Hotel, Whiskey, Papa: Sharon Williams Fonseca in Salzburg”, I’ve had one sale of it, no reviews. That’s about par for the course. I had a mere nine sales in 3rd Quarter 2016, and zero sales so far in the 4th Quarter. Since I added to the series, I republished the first three books in the series to include the reference to the new one. All of this was on Amazon. I haven’t done the same on Smashwords yet.

The other publishing task was getting into print my baseball novel, In Front Of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I was ready with the interior of the book in August, but have had trouble finding a cover designer who could work me into their busy schedules. I plugged along at doing it myself, and finally, with some help from a man in our office, got it done last Friday. The full cover “wrap” is at the start of this post. I uploaded the book the same day, and within six hours had word back from CreateSpace that it met their criteria. I accessed the online proof, and saw only one place that needed a slight tweak in format. I then tried to order a proof copy, but, somehow I hit the wrong button, and the book was published! This was last Saturday. There was one change I wanted to make to the title page, but figured I’d do this after viewing the proof. Oh, well, I’ll republish it with the correction before too long.

One other item of significance was a contest I ran, through my Facebook timeline, to give away copies of my poetry book, Daddy-Daughter Day. Contestants had to guess the name of my [then soon-to-be-born] latest grandson, which would begin with E, as have the names of his brothers and sister. I allowed two guesses. Seven people got it right. The books have been ordered (it’s only available in print) and should be here Thursday. My hope is that somewhere among these seven will be people who will like the book and leave a review on Amazon and other sites. We’ll see.

So, I’m busy and productive, if not productive enough. Alas, the day job and life in general get in the way of full writing productivity.

Preserve The Revelation, Writing

A Time Crunch is Coming

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My mother-in-law, with Elijah, five days old
My mother-in-law, with Elijah, five days old

This past weekend I went to Oklahoma City to see my new grandson. My mother-in-law went with me, and had a couple of hours with her four great-grandchildren, then I took her to her step-daughters for her to stay the remainder of the weekend. It would have been a bit of a challenge for her to function with three noisy children all around her. I’ll add a couple of pictures to this post.

Esther with Elijah and Elise, previously the baby of the family
Esther with Elijah and Elise, previously the baby of the family

So, I did little writing Friday through Sunday. That evening, after getting home, I managed to bang out a few words on Preserve The Revelation. Last night was the same thing. I think my two-day production was close to 500 words, which was to be my one-day goal. But, I had to go to the store after work, and I’m playing catch-up from the weekend trip, so I didn’t feel that I could dedicate much time to writing. I did sit and plan the next couple of chapter, reading in Revelation for research.

At the “Between The Lines” blog today of Books & Such literary agency, the issue of time logjams was the subject of the post. I wrote and posted a comment, telling of my own current logjam. Here’s what I said was in it.

– find whatever it is that’s dead in my garage and is causing a big stink. That would be easy, except…
– …with the garage full of things, waiting for that garage sale, I need to make a major effort in getting ready for that.
– finish the front yard flower bed project. I’m two hours of work away from that. I think.
– ongoing: be the primary caregiver for my 91 year old mother-in-law while my wife is out of town, helping our daughter’s family following the birth of their fourth child.
– either figure out cover design with G.I.M.P. or find a designer who can do quick work on the cover of my first baseball novel; it would be nice to get the print version out before the Cubs win the World Series. E-book is already published.
– ongoing: finances and filing. Will I ever catch up?
– ongoing: participating in my wife’s home business
– start preparing for the family to come for Thanksgiving; yes, it takes that long.
– ongoing: this pesky day job.
– If time allows, add 500 words a day to my novel-in-progress.

That pretty well sums it up. I don’t think I need to write more than that. The time crunch has caused my blog regularity to suffer. I’ve missed my normal days for the last two posts. You can see “Update blog” isn’t even on the logjam list, so far is it down.

A better day is coming. “All in God’s timing,” as was stated on the blog.

commuting, creativity, Preserve The Revelation, Writing

Searching For A Metaphor

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It’s approaching 6:00 p.m. on Sunday as I’m writing this, taking a moment away from working on my novel to work on this post. It’s been a busy weekend. My wife is still away, in Oklahoma City, on grand-baby #4 arrival watch. Due date is still more than a week away, but his brothers and sister all came early, so she went up early, and will be there a while after the birth. My mother-in-law is also away, visiting her relatives and friends in southwest Kansas. She won’t be back till around Oct. 3 or 4. So it’s just me in the house.

I’m in The Dungeon, which is where most of my serious writing takes place. After Life Group, church, buying a sandwich and fries from Arby’s, making a quick stop at the Neighborhood Market for something I forgot yesterday, and dropping recyclables off, I got home to the empty house. I ate my lunch while channel jumping between NFL football games that really didn’t interest me and one of the Star Wars movies, which some channel is showing over and over again this weekend. Then I went to The Dungeon to write. I could tell, however, as I started, that I would have difficulty adding coherent words to Preserve The Revelation, so I decided to go to the couch in the nearby family room and take a nap.

My nap lasted a little less than an hour, but I woke up with greater powers of concentration. I guess I was wiped out from Saturday’s labors. While I was working on Saturday it didn’t seem like I was working very hard. Oh, I was getting things done. I went to Wal-Mart early for groceries and building project materials. I removed cut branches and pulled vines from the front and back yard to the forest; worked on the flower garden project in the front yard, getting the edging blocks in place (I think; I may yet modify the layout a little, but it will be minor). Then I came inside and set up a new shelf unit in the storage room, to replace the old, old computer table which took up a lot of room but didn’t have all that much storage capacity. I’m not looking for more room to store more stuff we’ll just have to get rid of some day, but I want a neat storeroom, and the computer desk was frustrating those effort.

All that done, I fixed a salad for lunch, then went to The Dungeon to write. But, I was so exhausted from the work I’d done, I couldn’t write. I added a few words to the novel, but knew I wasn’t going to make major production as I’d hoped. So I searched YouTube for a medley of my favorite oldies, and spent a few afternoon hours just listening to some girl group songs and doo-wop. Then it was drive to town to the church to set up stairs for today’s worship service, then home to cook supper, then to study to teach Life Group lesson, while doing laundry, then to drop into bed and sleep the sleep of the dead for seven hours.

What, you ask, does all of this have to do with the title of the post, “Searching for a Metaphor”? Perhaps it’s a weak connection, but I have been searching for a metaphor for my writing for a while. As I read other people’s writing, such as Mark Twain’s short stories, or Thomas Carlyle’s non-fiction, I find them to be rich in metaphor. As I look back on my own writing, especially my poems, I know the ones that are best are those which are rich in metaphor. My poems of late, alas, have been more focused around imagery, not metaphor. Images are important too, but I think metaphor is a higher use of language.

I look out The Dungeon windows. The tall oaks are swaying, so it much be windy outside. Now they’ve stopped, so obviously it’s intermittent wind. There they go again. Dusk has come upon us, plus, it’s cloudy. We were supposed to have rain this afternoon, but it has never come.  I find no metaphor in the trees, however; nor in the lack of rain, the busyness of the weekend, the usefulness of a nap, or the significance of writing with good, solid production.

I wrote a poem on Friday. It started out as a haiku, based on the eastern sky during my morning commute. This is often a time that inspires a haiku. However, I wanted to make a little more out of the poem. The tanka poetic form takes a haiku and expands it by two lines. It’s supposed to have only more information on images already presented, not present new images. Friday evening I worked on it, being just a few words short of the complete tanka. In the evening I was able to add those lines. But the tanka, while probably not too bad, is not a metaphor.

Alas, I will keep searching. Perhaps by the time winter comes, I’ll have much less work to do around the house and property, and will be able to quiet my mind for a while, and train myself to think in metaphors, instead of, at best images, or at worse to-do and to-purchase lists. One can always hope.

Doctor Luke's Assistant, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, home improvements, letters, Preserve The Revelation, reading, self-publishing, Writing

Staying Busy

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I’m a day late with this post. The last two months, since I established my Monday and Friday posting schedule, I normally try to write my Monday post on the weekend, or at worst on Monday morning before the start of my workday. I’ve missed a couple of times, but I’ve been doing better about regular posting.

This weekend, however, I did nothing concerning a post. By the end of Sunday I realized that, but it was too late in the day to write it. I decided I’d do it Monday. Monday came and went, and alas, I did nothing on it. Shame on me. I’ll do better going forward.

So what’s keeping me so busy that I didn’t do my blog post? On Saturday it was first work around the house, followed by writing on Preserve The Revelation. The house work included a major cleaning job on the refrigerator, thinning the blackberry vines, cutting a lot of low hanging branches, and weeding in our back yard. I also had chair set-up at church, and trips to Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Sunday was Life Group and church, followed by lunch at a community event. That put me home around 1:45 p.m. I should have written.

Instead, I began work on the print cover of In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, using G.I.M.P. to assemble the graphics. As always, G.I.M.P. defeated me. I was able to create a palette the size of the cover, and add and size the front and back covers. But on the back cover I needed to hide three corporate logos. I had planned how to do this, and got two done quite easily. However, when it came to the third one, I stalled. I was using the same procedure as for the first two: cover it with an opaque layer. Only on this one I had to add text. Somehow the layer that is the back cover was deselected, and I couldn’t add the opaque circle. Without the circle, the text was meaningless. I worked more than three hours on it, and finally quit in frustration. I went back to Wal-Mart to pick up one thing I hadn’t the day before, then spent the evening reading.

Yesterday was the normal busyness of work and house. In the evening I went to The Dungeon, intending on writing. But there, on my work table, was the box of photos from our time in Kuwait, with several batches of photos out on the table. I had dug into the box last Wednesday to select some photos to scan and post on Thursday. In the box I found batches of photos not in envelopes, hence not matched with their negatives. I decided getting those photos matched was a better use of my time than writing. I don’t say that facetiously, either. Some day we’ll pass those photos on to our children, and having them properly organized is critical. It was a good use of my time—not that I finished, but I made significant progress. But by the time 9:00 p.m. came I wanted to be about my evening reading. No time to write the blog.

So here I am on Tuesday, writing Monday’s post, and it’s about nothing but why I didn’t write on Monday. But it lets my few readers know what’s going on in my world.

Since the weekend, one of my cover designers contacted me, saying he’d done work on it. We discussed it. Hopefully he’ll complete it very soon. In case not, I’ve contacted a third cover designer and am in discussions with her. Today I sent off a letter to an influencer, a seminary professor, concerning Doctor Luke’s Assistant and things he’s written that dovetail nicely with it. This is by snail mail, as the seminary doesn’t post faculty e-mails. We’ll see what comes of it.

Tonight, when the work day is through, I plan on staying about an hour after to do some research and typing on our fact internet and computer. When I get home, I have one small task to do in the yard, then I’ll heat some soup for supper, and descend to The Dungeon. No photos tonight. I need to add at least 1,000 words tonight, and 3,000 in total, before I will allow myself to return to those photos and finish that big task. I’m looking forward to it.

Bible study, books, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, poetry, Preserve The Revelation, self-publishing, Writing

It rains! It rains!

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Today, Friday, we are having band after band of thunderstorms pass over us here in Bentonville. As I’ve mentioned before, I like the rain; it does my heart good. So, on a Friday afternoon, I’m upbeat. I have completed a number of miscellaneous tasks this week, including today, and am ready for the weekend. If the storms continue (as, I believe, they are forecast to do), I shall read and write, file and discard, clean and organize to my heart’s content. If the rain holds off, I have plenty of outside work to occupy my time.

My writing work has been slowly progressing of late. I add a little every now and then to Preserve The Revelation. I do the same to Thomas Carlyle: A Chronological Bibliography of Compositions. Almost every day I review and add to my Bible study titled “Entrusted to My Care”, which we are scheduled to study in our adult Life Group beginning in four weeks or so. Of poetry, I add nothing. The villanelle I wrote last month I hope to get back to in a week or so, tweak it, then submit it to the anthology; the deadline for submittals is Oct 31.

Then, the other major task I have at hand is the cover for the print version of In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I’ve been waiting for two talented cover artists/creators to get to it. For a variety of reasons, some legitimate, some not, they haven’t gotten to it in over a month’s time. So, my top priority is to get it done this weekend, uploaded to CreateSpace, a proof copy ordered ASAP, and the book published ASAP. It won’t be as good as if a pro did it, but it will be done, and the book will be available before the Cubs win the World Series—if they do.

My cell phone just gave me a severe weather alert, the first one I’ve received on this. Yet, the thunder has about quit. I may not go by Home Depot on the way home. We’ll see.

holidays, Preserve The Revelation, Writing

It’s A Holiday

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For years I’ve struggled with establishing a good, sustainable schedule for posts on this blog. I tried five times a week, four times a week, three times a week. Somehow the time to write never materialized. I even backed off to just once a week, and still I found it difficult to blog on schedule. Sometimes I had extra ideas I wanted to blog about; sometimes I couldn’t think of anything on my regular weekly blogging day.

But over the last couple of months I’ve been able to be on a fairly regular schedule. I post on Monday and Friday. For several weeks now I’ve done this and been quite regular at it. In truth, I write my Monday blog post sometime on the weekend and schedule it to publish on Monday morning. Then I have four weekdays in which to write my Friday blog post, and schedule it to be published.

This has been working out fairly well for me. Post ideas have been coming to me with no problem. Time to write has been available. And I’ve found it a enjoyable thing to do, not a drudgery.

So here I am on Monday morning (for real; this wasn’t written earlier), writing a blog post. It’s the Labor Day holiday, and I’m home from work. The household is quite, as neither my wife or mother-in-law are up yet. I have no great topic to write on. My last post on Patriotism vs. Nationalism is still a somewhat incomplete treating of the topic, but I’m not adding to that today. Perhaps on Friday, or even next week. That topic isn’t going away.

So this is just an “hello” to my readers. I’m going to post this, take my coffee back upstairs, leaving The Dungeon empty, go to the sun porch on this cool-ish September morning, and read for an hour or so. My breakfast casserole from Saturday have more than three servings left, and will make a fine breakfast, along with some fruit, around 9:00 a.m. Later, after a few relatively light outside chores, I’ll be back in The Dungeon to work on some writing, most likely my novel Preserve The Revelation.  I’ll do some stock work. I’ll perhaps write a letter—or two.

Yes, this will be a most relaxing holiday, but not without it’s accomplishments. Enjoy it, readers. See you on Friday.

Doctor Luke's Assistant, Preserve The Revelation, self-publishing, Writing

What’s Next?

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So, yesterday I finished the short story “Hotel Whiskey Papa”. It’s 5,839 words, though that could change in the final edit, which will start tomorrow and take only a day or two, I think, and then I will publish it. That is, if I can get the cover made with no trouble. That will give me four stories in the Sharon Williams Fonseca series of stories:

  • Whiskey Zebra Tango: set in Cranston, Rhode Island
  • Charley Delta Delta: set in Greece
  • Sierra Kilo Bravo: set in Italy and Switzerland
  • Hotel Whiskey Papa: set in Austria, mostly Salzburg

As far as how many there will be in the series, I have no idea. The number of places I’ve visited give me enough fodder for 50 to 60 stories, if I can get enough ideas to wrap around the locales. That will be a good series. I’m hoping the fact that I’ve been to the places that I will put Sharon and her antagonists in will add authenticity.

Conventional wisdom says I should continue with this series and whip out several more fairly quickly. I’d like to do that, and I may change my mind and do at least one more next. But the fact is that coming up with C.I.A. operations that work as short stories and involve Sharon and seem like they will be interesting has been more difficult than I expected. The inspiration for “Hotel Whiskey Papa” came slowly. It was ten months after I published “Sierra Kilo Bravo” before inspiration came for HWP; and HWP will be published almost a year after SKB. At present I have no inspiration for the next, though I believe I have the title an setting: Tango Delta Foxtrot, set in Paris, France. But I’ve sort of wrote myself into a corner with this last one, and I’m not sure how the next one will flow. So, for now, I’m not going to rush into the next one. Besides, when did I ever follow conventional wisdom regarding what would be best to write next?

No, when I finish editing HWP, the next thing I do will be to edit chapter one of Preserve The Revelation, and start on Chapter 2. I have a little research to do, so I may do that before plunging into the writing.

But that’s my project. It will be good to once again see Augustus ben Adam on my screen, and to add his two sons, Adam and Daniel. I’m looking forward to it.

poetry, self-publishing, Short Stories, Writing

Works-In-Progress

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Finally, I have a minute, with no other posts pressing on me, to write about what I’m working on in my writing career. I’ve been trying to get to this for several weeks, and another thought for a post keeps popping up and pushing this aside. Not today.

My main work-in-progress is a short story. Titled “Hotel Whiskey Papa”, it’s the fourth in my series about Sharon Williams Fonseca, an unconventional CIA agent. The Agency has another, junior agent who shows great promise, dogging her, for they are concerned that she steps over the line from time to time, doing Agency work in an illegal, or at least unethical, way. In a twist, I’m writing this on manuscript, not on computer in The Dungeon. I sit in my reading chair, with only an end table between me and Lynda, and write on the back of already used papers. I typed what I had last weekend, and some on one other day. On my computer the document stands at about 3,800 words. Since then I’ve written another thousand in manuscript, and am approaching the end of the story. I had in mind that these stories should be 4,000 to 6,000 words, so I’m on track. As soon as it’s finished, proofed, edited, and proofed again, I’ll publish it. I’ll make my own cover for this one.

Then, yesterday I actually wrote a poem, something more than a haiku that is. And I’m not denigrating the haiku form or saying it’s easy, but something longer? I haven’t written one in a couple of years, or maybe even five years. I’ve written some song verses in that time, but no stand-alone poems. This one is for an anthology being put together by the present poet laureate at the on-line writers group  Absolute Write. It will be a themed anthology of contributions by AW members, the theme being a traveling carnival. I told her I would contribute anything I had already written, but that I had no inspiration or energy to write something new. When the theme was announced, I had my poem “Magic”, which sort of fit, so I submitted it. But sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday a phrase and plot came to me that would fit the theme. I quickly forgot the phrase, but it came back yesterday morning. As the morning went on I saw a way to write the poem. During the noon hour I started it, and finished it off and on by mid-afternoon. I quickly posted it to the anthology critique forum before I lost my nerve. I’m not saying it’s good, but it’s done, subject to improvement, of course.

What else? I’m trying to get In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People published in print form. I have the book formatted, and am waiting on the cover. Two different people have given me photos of Wrigley Field to use, and two others have said they would do the cover. Alas, when you’re having people work for free, other things get in the way. Hopefully I can get this done next week some time. I may cobble a cover together myself this weekend.

I’m also improving some e-book covers. Recently I received a notice from Smashwords saying that four of my e-book covers did not meet their minimum standards. These are my older covers, made and posted before they had minimum standards. I guess they are just now getting around to enforcing. that. I completed one of them last weekend, or maybe last week some time, and uploaded it. Yesterday I got the word that it was acceptable, and the book—actually a short story—is back in the premium catalog. Only three to go. I’ll hopefully get one done this weekend.

That’s it as far as writing work. I’ll post something here and elsewhere when HWP is published. And, once things change, I’ll write again. Actually, I just thought of one other thing. I’m working on a Bible study to teach in our adult Life Group. But it deserves a post by itself. Maybe that will be next.

self-publishing, Writing

Where I Stand on Works-In-Progress

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About three weeks ago I said I was going to give an account of my writing life as it exists at this time, and left my few readers know what was going on. Several other posts got in the way, as did life. Finally, I’m here to do what I said I would.

Alas, there’s not much to tell. I’m barely writing. If my count is correct, I have seven works-in-progress, in various stages of completion, all waiting patiently for me to get back to them and finish what I started. So why don’t I do so? Pick the one farthest along, write the end part, and publish it. Then take the next one and do the same. Or, perhaps take the work that appears to offer the least path of resistance and just apply myself and get it done.

Again alas, I find it harder and harder to apply the gray cells and the energy needed to fuel them to writing tasks when I have other things to be done. At this time my mother-in-law lives with us. She’s 91, and is slowly starting to fail. She doesn’t need the level of care a nursing home requires, but she can’t live by herself. For the moment my wife can’t fill the role of care-giver to her mom, so I have to. Not intimate stuff such as washing and personal care, but things like making sure her medicines are in order, helping her to manage her diabetes, making sure she eats right, seeing that she has money, taking care of her mail. It’s not a huge time consumer, but it’s something that must be done, by me.

Then there are the projects around the house.  Recovering our backyard from the encroaching forest took much of the winter and spring. After that it was working on the front yard, neglected while I concentrated on the back (which actually still isn’t done, but is in a tolerable state). Part of that was working on a proposed flower bed. That was a lot of physical work, and still isn’t done, as I await one decision on how to do it. I want it ready for planting in the spring, so I really, really, really want to get it done.

Then there was the new kitchen floor preceded by removal of wallpaper and painting therein, then rearranging kitchen things, then the large window in the bathroom that broke. And, I must not forget the electrical repairs, or installing build-in shelves in the basement—merely utility shelves, but still taking energy that included trips to the hardware store. All of these required finding a service provider, obtaining a quote, and supervising the work—or in some cases figuring out how to do it myself.. All consuming gray cells and energy. My current project, related to the kitchen work, is almost complete: a two-level shelf unit on wheels custom made for our pantry. I varnished it yesterday, and have only to add the handles, put it in place, and figure out what goes on it. Then our “things” will be off the floor, and we can pull the shelf forward for easier access.

So where does that leave me in terms of works-in-progress, or, what am I writing right now? I recently had a bad day with knee pain. Actually it came on in the evening. I took a pain pill, and instead of reading, I decided to write, in manuscript. I wrote the first 600 or 700 words in a new short story, “Hotel Whiskey Papa”, the next in my Sharon Williams Fonseca unconventional C.I.A. agent series. Why? I’m not sure. That story has been gestating for a long time. I had the opening scene clearly in my mind, so I wrote it to free up space for other things. Whether I finish it soon or not I don’t know. So that leaves me with eight works-in-progress. Or, I suppose you could say nine if you count the Bible study I’m preparing for our Life Group.

As far as book length works, nada. Volume 2 of The Gutter Chronicles remains midway through the fourth chapter (out of 15). Preserve the Revelation remains dead after one chapter. Documenting America: Civil War Edition remains quiet at about 40 percent complete. My two Thomas Carlyle works are further along than all of these. I work a little on one of them, not at all on the other. I still have much interest in them, and perhaps I’ll take some time before the end of the year to get one or both of them further along. And my next family history book, John Cheney of Newbury is stalled after one chapter. This is because I that one chapter (out of 11) ran to 70 pages before I came to the degree of completion I wanted. When I realized the enormity of the task, I decided to back off.

But I do have a few publishing tasks to do soon, if not new writing. I want to publish my two baseball novels as print books. Today I talked with the cover designer, and he said he could work on them right away. So now I’ll have to scramble to format them for print, decide on back cover copy, etc. That will all feel good. Then, it turns out the covers of several of my e-books have been declared to be an unacceptable size by Smashwords, based on what the sellers they distribute to require. So I’ll have to try to modify those covers—for size only—and upload them. I don’t think that will be too difficult.

So, I haven’t exactly laid down my pen yet. The inkwell is almost dry, and my paper is mainly white, but I’m still marginally in the game.

miscellaneous, Writing

Still Restless

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Yes, as I wrote two posts ago, I’m restless—still restless now. I’ve had quite a week.

Last Saturday I was able to complete one household project, installing a second under-the-counter light in the pantry. Well, I say “finished,” but it’s not quite. I still need to fasten the wires to the drywall, to keep the curious hands of grandchildren, when they visit next, from pulling on the cords. I was going to do that last night, but, alas, didn’t. Hopefully I’ll get that done tonight, freeing up some time on Saturday to work on…

…the pantry shelf on wheels. I bought the materials last Friday, but haven’t yet gotten to it. In some ways it’s a complicated project, but in other ways it’s kind of simple. Still, I’m not a builder, so I don’t know how well it will all come together.

One other special project for this weekend is to find (in the house), scan, and upload to Facebook some photos of my dad. Monday is the 100th anniversary of his birth, and I’d like to honor his memory in that way. I already have a number of photos of him scanned, but I have a few more I’d like to do. They are in boxes somewhere in the house, or perhaps some in an album. I can find them, and scanning them won’t take too long. I’m not quite sure how to create an album and post it, but need to figure all that out by Monday.

So where does writing fit in with this? Mainly that I’m still waiting on hearing from the influencers I contacted about my writing, and in some cases about their writing. I heard from one, as I said before, and we are exchanging books. He was very positive in our messages so far, so I’m hopeful. That’s a non-commercial project at this point, but who knows where it could lead. I also learned another has been travelling, and just returned home today. My book should be on his desk when he goes into his office, so I’ll wait a little longer. Of the other two (or is it three?), nothing. I’ll wait a while longer for them as well. I don’t think I’ll contact them again. Either the contact I’ve made is good enough, or it’s not.

As to new writing, this week I began work on a professional essay for a class at CEI, which I will later publish in a generic form. I did that at the public library, where I went to escape the heat when the AC in my office wasn’t working. It was fixed about noon yesterday, and then about 1 p.m. today I realized my office was up to about 80 degrees again. I’m thinking of bolting again, going to the library and writing some more on it.

Hopefully this weekend will be productive, and by early next week this restlessness will stop.