Category Archives: Writing

Health, Writing

Back In The Dungeon

2 Comments
Ah, back in The Dungeon as of Tuesday. Productivities improved in my familiar realm. Maybe Virginia Woolf was on to something.

When I hurt my right leg in the freak home accident on July 15, I found immediate difficulties in maintaining my normal routine. Each step I took was extremely painful. The accident happened mid-morning, after I had finished about half my daily time in The Dungeon. That’s the computer room in the basement where I do almost all my writing, and other projects. But I could tell it would be too painful to go back downstairs. I finished the day away from The Dungeon and away from my laptop.

The next day, after sleeping (not very well) in an easy chair all night, I knew I needed to get to The Dungeon, at least for an hour or two, work there, then bring my laptop upstairs. I had begun using a walker upstairs, and could see it would be too difficult to carry downstairs. Walking downstairs was going to be impossible. I could ask my wife to go down to get my laptop, but I didn’t really want to ask that of her. What was I going to do? How could I get to The Dungeon?

I got there by walking backwards downstairs on all fours. That took some of the weight off my bad leg. It gave me stability going down the staircase. I actually went down fairly quickly. But then there were the fifteen steps to my computer desk, with a slight deviation to switch on the light. Once I was in my seat, I was okay. But the getting across the floor was very hard. When it was time to get breakfast, I went up the stairs on all fours, then once again went down and over—in much pain. I could tell it wasn’t working.

So after an hour, I took my laptop with me and said goodbye to The Dungeon, promising to be back as soon as my leg healed enough to walk on it and go up and down stairs as a normal person. My easy chair in the living room—the same chair I slept in—became my office. Needless to say, my productivity suffered. In the same time I could write 1,000 words in The Dungeon, I was lucky to get four or five hundred in my chair. I prayed for healing and productivity through unusual circumstances.

In my reading recently, I saw where Virginia Woolf, in a letter to a friend, sort of commented on this.

But to write a novel in the heart of London is next to an impossibility. I feel as if I were nailing a flag to the top of a mast in a raging gale.

I felt like that was me. To finish a Bible study book in an easy chair, with a laptop on my lap, not on a desk, forty-five feet and twelve stair steps away from my usual working space, would be difficult. But not impossible. I finished the round of edits to the Bible study, set it aside, and moved on to my next project. I slowly gained a measure of productivity and got things done.

But healing did come to my injured leg. I was finally able, last Sunday, to sleep on a bed. Monday too. So Tuesday morning, I grabbed my laptop and wireless mouse, leaving my coffee behind, and walked down to The Dungeon with no trouble and no pain. By Thursday, I was able to make the trip with computer and coffee.

So I’m back at my retirement work: writing books; trying to figure out how to sell them; trading stocks; and working on downsizing. My leg is not quite fully healed, but six weeks after the injury, it has healed enough for me to say, “Hello, Dungeon! It’s business almost as usual.”

 

letters, Writing

One Project: The Words Are Done

Video 2 Comments
This is how I’m storing the letters—at least for now. Not sure if I should find a more permanent container.

A week ago I wrote a post about the two projects I was working on. I’m pleased to report that I finished one of those on Saturday.

But I need to qualify that. I finished the words part of the project. And I did a small amount of proofreading on Sunday, so I guess I should say Sunday was my completion day. I’d better explain.

The project was the book of letters during our years in Saudi Arabia, 1981-83. As I explained before, we didn’t have a phone in our apartment, had limited access to the office phone for personal calls (expensive and inconvenient), so we wrote letters home. Our parents, grandparents, and others kept most of them, and now we have them. In addition, we have some that were written to us from home. We must have brought those back with us when we were repatriated.

Here are the little darlings, collated in their box.

The collection, as it currently stands, is 191 items. I say “items” instead of letters, and “currently stands” because the collection includes a few things that aren’t letters, such as envelopes of receipts from some of our travels. Also, we have a number of empty envelopes in our files, addressed to a parent. The letters themselves were removed and are presumed lost. Or are they around the house somewhere?

This project actually began somewhere arounds 2008, I think it was. I gathered all the Saudi letters together, collated them, and began to transcribe them to a Word document. As I did, I left the letters out of the envelopes and put them opened flat in a folder, thinking that was a better way to preserve them. Later, as I studied how letter collections were gathered and preserved, I realized they should be left in the envelopes. So a few years later I returned them to the envelopes.

The Kuwait letters book served as the prototype for the other collections I’ve put together.

Or did I? Problem is, I remember finding the folder and seeing the letters laid flat and the envelopes on top, but I don’t actually remember ever putting them in the envelopes. Did I do it? I don’t have a list of which letters I transcribed, and the computer file is long gone from various computer upgrades. It makes me wonder if that folder is still there, buried beneath a pile of other things, waiting for me to do my work.

No matter right now. Today I have set aside some time to look for that folder and see if there are other letters to collate and transcribe. I don’t think there are, but we’ll see.

This was a fun, if often tedious project. The document I’ve created is over 109,000 words and spans 190 8.5×11 pages. It includes a four page Introduction, a list of the letters, and a list of correspondents. The only words that are missing are those that will go on the Copyright page. Well, that, and whatever captions I add to pictures once I get them added to the book.

Yes, I intend to publish it. It’s just for family, a way to preserve some of our history. But I’ll publish it as a paperback to Amazon, print off a few copies for family, then un-publish it. It will remain on my Amazon author’s bookshelf, ready to be re-published should some family want more copies (such as my grandchildren when they are older).

So the next step is to generously illustrate the book with photos. I plan on using some time in the afternoons over the next couple of weeks to go through the mountain of photos we have, select 50 or so good ones (maybe more), scan them, load them into the book. Then all that’s left is converting the Word file into the correct size pages for publishing, moving the photos to the right place, adding captions, make a suitable cover, and publish it.

And I did it with this collection as well, though it had only a handful of illustrations.

No, that’s not a quick and easy task. But I’ve already done that once with the letters from our years in Kuwait, so I sort of know the drill. Moving photos into place is actually kind of easy. The final sizing and positioning takes some care, but it’s quite doable.

That’s my afternoon job over the next couple of weeks.

My morning job? The will be picking up again A Walk Through Holy Week, Volume 2, and doing the next round of edits. I’m not really sure how long that will take me. Could be a week, could be two. I’ll also have to decide if I need another round of edits before moving on to publishing tasks.

I felt a great weight fall from my shoulders on Saturday when I typed the last words in the Saudi letters book. It’s good to see it reach this milestone.

Bible study, self-publishing, Short Stories, Writing

Working Two Projects

Leave a comment

While I’m laid up with accidents, I’m doing my best to get some writing work done. But when I say, “laid up,” I don’t mean lying flat on a bed doing nothing. I’m able to get around with a walker, to drive, attend church, pick up meds at the pharmacy. A couple of weeks ago I did a little yard work, and learned I wasn’t really ready for that. It probably set back my healing for a week.

But there are two things I enjoy doing that are easily done without putting weight on my feet: reading and writing.

I’ve done a fair amount of reading. For my morning devotional time, I read two prayers in Prayer That Avail Much. I’m a third of the way through this book, and mostly enjoying it. For enjoyment, I’m reading two books that are writing related. One is The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals by Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of the famous British poet. I’m not sure I’m really enjoying this one. I’ll write more about this in a future book review. The third book I’m reading is Vol. 3 of The Letters of Virginia Woolf.  I’m enjoying this one a little more, and will surely write a review of it.

As to writing, I’m working on two projects. One is A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol. 2. I finished this one about two weeks ago. I let it sit a while, then came back and did one editorial review of it. My plans are to let it sit for a week, then do one more editorial pass. I’m hoping at that time to call it “Done” and start publishing tasks. However, it’s possible I’ll still have areas in the book that will need more attention.

The other writing project is the book of letters from our years in Saudi Arabia. This book consists of handwritten letters transcribed into print. To those I added an Introduction and a little commentary along the way. That makes the words part of the book done and ready for proofreading. On Saturday and Sunday just passed, I proofread 57 of the book’s 186 pages. I’ll finish it this week. Then I have to find photos to illustrate it. After that will come publishing tasks and having a few copies made for family members. I hope to have that done when the family gathers for Thanksgiving.

So this is keeping me busy. I have other books lined up when these are done. And I have other writing projects waiting when these two are finished.

I might learn to like this life as a semi-invalid.

Bible study, letters, reading, stock market, Writing

On Again, Off Again Journal

Leave a comment

For several years I’ve been keeping a journal. I’m not very regular with it. My typical time to write is in the evenings, after everything else is done and we are watching TV.

  • Up at 5:50 a.m. Weight 202.0; blood sugar 117.
  • Walked 2 miles, my fourth straight day to walk that distance, and my tenth day of morning walking in an effort to improve strength and stamina ahead of my surgery.
  • To The Dungeon, without coffee. Devotional reading (currently in a book on prayer) and prayer.
  • Begin work on the Bible study I’m writing. My goal was to write one section, about 600 words. I was able to do that. Had time left, so began work on the next section. It was a good time of writing.
  • No book sales when I checked early.
  • Reviewed the stock market and made one trade.
  • Upstairs for breakfast of sausage-onions-peppers-eggs-cheese on pita bread, then outside to do some light yardwork.
  • Checked on two home improvement items. Our propane company did change out the hardware on the propane takes as I asked. Someone called me about it a couple of weeks ago but the reception was so bad that I couldn’t understand him. And, I called the plumbing supply store about the replacement toilet seats I wanted to buy. They had never called me. I learned they couldn’t find one of the right size, material, and color that I need. So I researched and found one on Amazon and ordered it. Let’s hope the color matches.
  • Worked on scanning documents to save electronically and then discard the papers. I got rid of three stray genealogy papers and a number of writing site papers. I only need two more days at that pace to get rid of one more notebook.
  • Read in the sunroom. Cloud cover made it easy to do today. May have napped a little out there.
  • Lunch of leftover pizza, crackers, and blackberries.
  • Made a blackberry cobbler to give away.
  • Back to The Dungeon for a few more computer tasks, including managing correspondence.
  • Looked through some books to choose a couple to take to the hospital with me.
  • Rested upstairs in my reading/TV watching chair. Worked on crossword puzzles but fell asleep.
  • Read three letters in the Carlyle Letters Online.
  • Had supper of leftover taco salad, still quite good on the fourth day. Dessert for me was, you guessed it, blackberries with a little sugar sprinkled on them.
  • Wrote a letter to my second grandson, which I’ll mail tomorrow.
  • Remembered I needed to write a blog post for tomorrow, and so started writing this.

Well, that seems to describe a full day. Maybe I’ll actually find time to write this in my journal.

family, Writing

The Planetarium and More

2 Comments
A good time at the planetarium.

The child-watching and pet sitting gig is on-going. I don’t know that I can say that I’m having fun, however. These are not the same as the previous child-watching gigs. I suppose they will never be the same again. The world moves on in not always pleasant directions.

On Friday we took our youngest grandson to the nearby planetarium. It turns out it’s a mere three or four miles away from our daughter’s house. I have good memories of school trips to the planetarium in Rhode Island. I think it was in Roger Williams Park, though that memory is sketchy. I loved how they slowly brought the lights down and stars emerged, how the stars rotated in the night sky and at dawn were in a different place than where they started. Those are good memories.

Elijah, spaceman in training.

So when I discovered that we had a planetarium so close to us, I knew that would be our “field trip” for the week, even if we didn’t have to go far. We entered the room, which was more or less how I remembered it. Around 18 people filled only a fraction of the 72 seats. A speaker up in front told a little about the planetarium and had the technician darken the room to the night sky. She told about a few constellations and told about some stars. They then shifted into a movie projected onto the domed ceiling. The moved was the basics of our solar system.

Elijah liked it enough that we went back on Saturday. First was a story time in the lobby, with Elijah being the only child to show up. Then into the star room for the opening (which was identical to Friday) followed by a cartoon movie, Accidental Astronauts. It was good, though sometimes hard to understand what was said. Elijah seemed to like it.

The facility included a lot of display cases of space things. This included scaled models of the different rockets that have gone into space, including the Artemis craft that will take humans back to the moon. That was well put together. Of course, there were computer stations in the lobby where people could see various educational videos or games.

Lauri Cruver Cherian, author

On Saturday, the woman who did the story time in the lobby, just before we went into the star room, handed me a bookmark. It turns out she’s an author. I said we would have to talk after the show. We had a good conversation after, told of our books, and determined to keep in touch. Her name is Lauri Cruver Cherian. Here’s a link to her website. I’m looking forward to exploring her items. Check out her website and books.

home improvements, Writing

Dateline: 9:00 p.m. Thursday 18 April 2024

Leave a comment

Writing this Thursday evening for posting Friday morning at my normal time.

I had a busy day today. This morning I started with transcribing letters from Saudi Arabia. I managed to get four items documented in my files. I made a count of the letters not yet tackled. It’s 29. So if I can do four a day, the transcribing job will be complete around the end of April. I can deal with that.

Next, after a few stock trades and my usual breakfast, I scanned poetry critiques and saved them electronically. Each scan requires proofreading and some formatting to make sure the scanning was accurate. I managed to complete critiques for four poems, a couple less than my typical workday. After that, I counted the poem critiques still do be done in the small notebook. It’s 69. If I can average five a day, I can finish this notebook by around May 8th. I’m good with that. However, still looming in the background is the larger of my two critique notebooks. I’m actually not anxious to shift to that.

While I was doing that, I received a call from the admin assistant of  the local insurance agency for my homeowner’s policy. Last week I received a letter from the national company, saying they were aware of the repairs needed to the house (certainly from their rep came out to evaluate our water damage claim that they denied) and asked to submit evidence we had repaired the damage, implying they might drop our coverage if we hadn’t. Last week the agent said she would come out and look at it. So the admin assistant said the agent had been at our house today and wanted us to submit invoices for the repairs.

I have to tell you that this irked me. They refuse to cover our damage, threaten to cancel our coverage, the agent comes out to look at our house and never even knocks on the door, then asks us to submit receipts to her? And doesn’t call us but has the admin assistant do it? I told the admin I was very upset. She put me on hold and in a few seconds the agent came on. I said I couldn’t believe she didn’t even knock on the door—most of the damage, which has already been repaired, is viewable only from the inside or our deck which is reachable only from the inside. She said would come out on Friday. Meanwhile, despite my displeasure at this company, I sent electronic copies of the receipts.

After that, I headed to downtown Rogers to attend an author event. I wasn’t the featured author, but I know the two women who were featured and their two book cover artists. I went mainly to support them. The venue was the Rogers Experimental House, which is the headquarters of the Artists of Northwest Arkansas; it was their meeting. The presentations and readings were fine, but then they transitioned into doing art exercises based on the readings from the books. I don’t do art, so I used the time to brainstorm my writing and make a to-do list of sorts.

From there, it was on to Scooters for a large house blend, then to the Rogers Public Library. I had two and a half hours to kill before the meeting of the Scribblers & Scribes, my writers critique group. We had eight people attend, Four people shared writing, and one passed out a copy of a short-ish book for s to take home and review.

We had one tense moment when, on one of the pieces shared, we disagreed on the effectiveness of the writing and suggestions on corrective measures. Protocol on how critiques are given were broken. I don’t know if I’m the only one who noticed it or if others did. Now I’m trying to figure out what to do about it.

It’s now just before 10 at night. The day is winding down. Tomorrow will be busy around the house, with no outside appointments. Plenty of time to transcribe, scan, maybe edit a little, complete a few stock trades and a little yard work.

Bible study, Health, holidays, Writing

A Special Weekend

Leave a comment

I’m writing this Thursday afternoon, March 28. I’ve had a busy day. Devotions. Stock trading accounting. Writing in my work-in-progress. Stock trading. Writing a letter to my #2 grandson. Weekly trip to Walmart for groceries (mainly). Quick swing through the bank drive-through. Dealing with a minor insurance issue. Working on plans for a trip east. Lots of bits and pieces.

This weekend will be a three-day weekend. Tomorrow, Good Friday, is sort of a holiday. I have my work planned out. Trading accounting. Write 1,200 words in my w-i-p. Some yardwork. Filing of financial papers. Scan/e-file as many genealogy papers as I can; maybe some writing papers. Putting things back in place after the work in the house. Updating the checkbook and budget. Begin doing our personal income taxes. Cook some banana bread. Yes, lots to do.

Next Monday will be my regular post, which, being the 1st of the month, will be my progress and goals report. I will have a special post on Sunday, not a normal posting day. It’s a special 50th anniversary for me that I want to tell you about.

Then, next Tuesday, I will have a heart catheterization, hopefully as an out-patient. This is preparatory for me to have my genetically defective/abnormal aortic valve replaced. I don’t yet know when that will be. The heart cath is needed for the doctors to know if they can replace the valve in a minimally invasive way rather than by open heart surgery.

All of which just talks of the busyness of life. Friday will be busy, as will Saturday. I’m hoping to carve out a little time for Bible reading and prayer. I’ll start the days with that.

 

Bible study, Health, Writing

Progress After Stroke

6 Comments

As I mentioned in a very short post on Jan 29, I had a stroke on Jan 27, at 10:08 in the morning. I got to the Urgent Care ER in about 45 minutes, had the clot-buster shot in less than 2 hrs. Was transported to hospital for the mandatory 24 hr observation after receiving the shot.

Here’s the cover for the e-book of “To Jerusalem”.

While in the hospital, my impairment symptoms improved. After the 24 hrs, I passed all the tests, including the final CTscan and physical, occupational, and speech therapy, and they let me go. I spent the rest of that day and the next going from bed to recliner to couch. I slept much. From Saturday morning to Monday I lost 4 pounds as my body fought the trauma. No snacks might have helped too.

As of now, my symptoms are greatly reduced. My speech is back nearly 100%. I can tell I still have a little trouble forming some words. My right hand is much improved. I can now touch-type normally, though not as fast. I’m doing maybe 40 words per minute instead of my normal 60 or so. A sticky keyboard is adding to the difficulty.

And my drooping right eyelids seems better. When people looked at me, they couldn’t see the droop, but it was there. It affected my reading a lot at first. Slowly it’s been better. Yesterday’s reading, of an 11 pt font, I was able to do without much trouble. I can still tell it’s not quite back to normal, however.

Through all of this, my writing tasks have been few. I was within a couple of hours before the stroke hit of publishing To Jerusalem, which is Volume 1 in my A Walk Through Holy Week Bible study series. As my strength, energy, and desire came back, I was able to finally get to the publishing tasks remaining. I published the ebook on Feb 8 and the paperback on Feb 11. So far I have one sale.

I returned to working on another volume in that series, Vol. 8, on Tuesday of this week. It felt good to be back in the saddle. My typing is more or less at the speed my mind is working to put words together. I’m getting less written in a typical writing session than I did before the stroke, but perhaps my productivity will return with a little more time.

So, that’s my story. I have more health items yet to come, but they will be the subject of later posts.

Bible study, Documenting America, expatriate life, family, goals, holidays, Writing

A Roaring Start to 2024

Leave a comment

Dateline: Monday, January 15, 2024, Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I was about ready to leave The Dungeon and go upstairs, grab my sledgehammer, and fix the modem that way. Fortunately, our internet came up before such drastic repairs were needed.

It’s my regular blogging day. But I woke up this morning to find we have no internet. Thus, I can’t get to the blog to type in a post. I’m writing this on my computer, and will post it whenever the internet comes back to us.

Actually, it has been a horrible weekend for technology. Friday evening our cable kept going haywire. Picture breaking up, sound breaking up, occasional total loss of signal. We suffered through and saw a few things. Wound up streaming something via Amazon Prime, which worked. Or was that Saturday? The days are running together.

Anyhow, called Cox. They said they would have a technician out between 3 and 5 yesterday, and said it might involve a $75 charge. We had internet all day yesterday, but no cable.

The Cox tech was a no-show. But it snowed yesterday, a little over 2 inches, and the temperature never got above 1°, so I kind of understand why the tech didn’t make it. A call telling us that would have been nice. Alas, service providers of every type have ceased being proactive in communicating with their customers in this age of easy communication. Will it do any good to call the office today, on the holiday?

My post today was to be about January being off to a good start. I am one or two days away from the last editing pass through A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 1. Granddaughter Elise got the cover art done. So either tomorrow or Wednesday I’ll begin publishing tasks.

The first week of the year, while in Lake Jackson, I had a conversation with Elise about the next book in The Forest Throne series, and she read the prologue I wrote based on our prior conversations. She loved it, reading it aloud while our daughter was in the room and putting much drama into the reading. So a good start there on a project just a little down the road. Also, youngest grandson Elijah wanted to have a conversation about the fourth book in the series, which will be about the youngest child in the Wagner family. That book is planned for about four years from now. But we had the conversation and I got some ideas on paper. I may type them up and see what that future book will look like.

Sven months of letters from the Saudi years. The ones on the left are transcribed. The ones on the right to be done. It’s a big project.

I began transcribing the letters from our Saudi Arabia years. This was one of my realistic goals. On Fri-Sat-Sun, I typed five letters each day. I’m going to limit myself to five a day so as to keep the project from overwhelming me as the letters from the Kuwait years did. I have no idea how many total letters there are. As I look at the piles, it appears to be about 300, which is close to double the number in the previous project. But as we had no typewriter (or computer in 1981-83), the letters will likely average a little shorter.

I did a little reading for research for the next book in the Documenting America series. Not much, but a little. What I read, however, makes me wonder if I’m on the right track with this volume. I’ll discuss that more in a future blog post.

I also have made a good start on an author interview for a future blog post. Possibly today I’ll be able to pull my interview questions together and send them to him.

Well, our internet just came up, so I will wrap this up and post this. I’ll have to leave The Dungeon to go upstairs to see if the cable TV is up. I’m not optimistic. But I’m still optimistic in general about 2024. I still expect to see those realistic goals met. But we will see.

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

2023 Recap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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