Category Archives: Writing

family, Writing

The Last Five Days

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Yesterday afternoon when Ephraim got up from his nap he asked for “Grandpa Todd” to play with him. And last night he wanted Grandpa Todd to read him stories and put him to bed. Unfortunately, Grandpa Todd had left Oklahoma City as soon as Ephraim was put down for his nap. The four day weekend was over.

It was chock-full of activities. On Friday I took a day of vacation and drove there with my mother-in-law, Lynda already being there. Once in OKC we stopped first at the library of Oklahoma City University, where I accessed a certain periodical needed for my Wesley research, which I had electronically looked for in other places but found there. That was a half hour. Then it was on to Richard and Sara’s house for the family activities. On Saturday we celebrated Ephraim’s third birthday, with a family and church folks party. It was a madhouse, but fun. All the Oklahoma people had their ears glued to the radio for the Thunder vs. Grizzlies game.

On Sunday Ezra David Schneberger was dedicated, not by his pastor-father, but by the District Superintendent. I knew this DS and his wife from my brief single days in Kansas City, back in 1974-75, but we hadn’t seen each other since. It was nice to be reacquainted. Then after church we celebrated Mother’s Day by going out for Indian food. We figured most restaurants would be jambed, but this ethnic one would have seats available. It did, and the food was good as always.

Monday I took another day of vacation and we hung around until 2:15 PM, then drove back. In the morning Ephraim and I went for a walk, about 30 minutes, during which time he found many treasures to take home. Then I gave Ezra a bottle (pumped breast milk), and held him a long time outside, constantly moving him to help him work on his balance and exercise his arms and legs. He finally fell sound asleep and we didn’t hear from him for a couple of hours. I’d have held him longer if I wasn’t called in for lunch.

In still moments I read some in a technical paper for work, and about 30 pages in the first volume of John Wesley’s Journal. This was all introductory material, not the journal itself. Talked with Richard, talked with Sara. Simply enjoyed the time.

So I know all of you wondered why I let five days go by without a post. I should have prepared a post or two ahead of time and scheduled them, and will try to do better the next time I’m to be gone. I didn’t totally forget about writing those last five days, just subjugated it to family needs.

Of course, I told Ephraim when he went down for his Monday nap that I wouldn’t be there when he got up, and that I wanted to read him a story and see him to his bed. “NO! Daddy do it” was his reply. That’s okay. A three-year old has to learn lessons of opportunity. And he’ll learn them, and I’ll have lots of other times to read him stories.

Health, Writing

All-Consuming Activities

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The problem with dieting is how all-consuming it is. Or maybe it’s not dieting as much as it is weight loss. I’m on a losing streak right now. That’s good. I was at a weight set point for the better part of a year and a half. It seemed that no matter what I did I couldn’t get below 254 pounds. I inched a pound or two below it, then bounced back to 258; back to 254 then to 260; to 254 then to 263. I’ve read about these weight set points, that somehow the body gets comfortable at that weight and breaking through it is difficult.

I finally did that in March, however, even before I began a healthier diet on April 1. Whatever I was doing in February-March—probably just eating less and exercising a bit more—was working, for I slowly dropped below 254, ending March about 251-252. On April 1 I began a rigorous eating program to control my Type 2 diabetes, and the weight had dropped almost as fast as my blood sugar. I’m down to the 241-242 range right now, with no lower set point in sight. I was last at 240 in 2001, losing 30 pounds for my daughter’s wedding. Can I break through that this time? I believe I can. I suspect the next set point is somewhere around 230.

But the problem is, this concentration on weight loss and blood sugar control is all consuming. It seems that every waking thought, and probably the dreams I don’t remember, is on this. I talk about it, think about it, write about it, obsess about it. Even yard work isn’t yard work: it’s multi-tasking exercise. It’s the same as with genealogy, same as with writing. I have had to put genealogy aside for a while, for my writing life is consuming whatever part of me is not being consumed by weight loss and establishing healthy eating habits.

The new writers critique group is consuming me. I’m thinking about it all the time, trying to figure out what I can do to put it on a footing that will be sustainable and valuable to all who attend and for our church that is sponsoring it. How to increase sales of my e-books is consuming me. The John Wesley small group study is consuming me.

Hopefully you get the picture. I need to just turn off for a while, think about civil engineering. No, that tends to consume me as well, whenever writing and critique group and health and genealogy aren’t consuming me. I don’t feel like I’m at an equilibrium. It’s kind of like a short, light verse poem I wrote a few years ago.

The Desperate Prayer of a Man Without Enough Hours in the Day

Again
I offer You
this simple fix:
increase
the daily hours
to twenty-six.

Of course, that wouldn’t really work, for then I’d be wanting twenty-eight or thirty. So I really need to reach an equilibrium. I’ll put that on my to-do list.

critique group, Writing

A New Writers Group

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Tonight, when this posts, I will be at the Bentonville Public Library, meeting with three or four fellow writers from my church. When I met with our new pastor ( of four months) in March, I discussed the possibility of forming a writers group/ministry. He liked the idea and told me to run with it. I knew of three others in the church who either wrote or wanted to begin writing in earnest, and two others who seemed interested. We ran a notice in the bulletin for two weeks. That brought one more person to my knowledge who not only writes but has published a couple of books.

Today I posted a notice to one of the church member’s Facebook wall, because I had a difficult time getting hold of her. Another lady in the church saw that and wrote, “What? I want to come!!!” So she will be there tonight. That makes seven people who have expressed specific interest in the group, and three others in the church who either write or want to start writing. Who knew there were that many?

My last writers group, the Bella Vista Writers Guild, faded into non-existence about May of last year. One of the ladies moved to Oklahoma City, leaving not enough attendees to make if viable, or at least no one to take the lead to recruit and build it up. That wasn’t where I wanted to go. I’ve missed the fellowship. I’ve missed the discipline of preparing something to share each week. I’ve missed the critique. I submit some things to an online group for critique, and the critique is good, but there’s no discipline to do so. I sent some items to beta readers, but truthfully more than half never respond, even though they have either requested the material or agreed to read it. So this has been a bleak year as far as writing fellowship is concerned.

I don’t know how our BNC Writing Ministry (or whatever name we decide on) will turn out. Seven plus three writers is more than enough for the critical mass needed to make a viable group. But how many of us are serious at it and putting in enough time to make a group work? Will it be a critique group? A fellowship group? How often will we meet? Will we allow members from outside the church? These are things we will determine tonight and in the coming weeks. I’m excited. I think something will come of this.

Of course, as always happens, the minute I ratchet up my writing activities, during a lull in the whirlwind of life, the whirlwind picks up again. This time, though, instead of complaining and flying off the handle, I’m trying to work my way through it.

Documenting America, Writing

A Few More Tasks During this Time

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As I mentioned in the last two posts, I’m in an interim time presently. Documenting America is done; the next project is to be decided. During this time I’ll be proofreading Documenting America, working on my income taxes (okay, not writing related except for my writing income and expenses), and deciding on my next writing project.

However, as I’ve thought about it, that’s not the only things this writer will have to accomplish over the next month. Here’s a few more I’ve thought of.

  • File my many source documents for Documenting America. I printed off a lot of pages of as many as twenty documents. These are in piles here, piles there, in my carry to work portfolio, and some who knows where. I have a small hanging file box ready for these, so this should be a relatively quick project. File the obvious ones immediately, and move the others there as I find them.
  • Set up my writer’s web site. My son has been bugging me to get this done, says he’ll even help me. Said if I made him an administrator he would be able to do updates. And he promised not to post any communist/socialist propaganda on there. This is something I know I need to do. With freelance work in four different publications, engineering articles in three others, plus a few newspaper features, I need to get this done, now especially that I have “Mom’s Letter” up for sale. I haven’t felt like going to the monthly hosting expense until I was really, really sure I needed it. I think it’s time, probably past time.
  • Format “Mom’s Letter” for the Nook reader, and any other e-reader (Sony, Apple) that could generate a sale or two, and get it listed.
  • Related to that last one, some better research into the whole self-publishing arena. I’ve crossed the first hurdle in Kindle eSP, but I’ve far from mastered it. The other e-readers may all support Pubit, which would be nice. Then there’s the paper self-publishing as print on demand books. There’s a couple of different platforms available: Smashwords and CreateSpace are the two I know by name, but much more research is needed. After Documenting America goes up as an e-book, I plan to make it a POD book. Plus others in the future.

As I said, I’ve no shortage of things to do. None of this is going to be done quickly, and income taxes take precedence over all things writing, with my proofreading tasks holding second place. It’s good for me to list these, however, lest I think I have some free time available and goof off.

Writing

Other Writing Projects

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Well, I received a couple of comments to my post about the next writing project. Still looking for more, is anyone else wants to make a suggestion.

Writing is fairly far from my mind right now. The siege is on at work. I’m working late, late into the evening on flood studies and water line construction and drainage fixes. I have a hump of work to get over. Once that’s done, maybe I can get back to writing. For now about all I have time for in the evening is to proof-read a chapter or two in Documenting America and do the early work on income taxes. I don’t have the energy or desire to read for research, or outline a project, or write even 500 words on a project.

But this too shall pass, and before long I’ll be writing again (something other than quick blog posts, that is). In anticipation of that, I’m still brainstorming writing. In addition to the projects I mentioned in my post on 14 March, I have a couple of other directions open to me. These are:

  • Format Doctor Luke’s Assistant for self-publishing, first as an e-book but then as a print-on-demand book. I could read it again, but I think it’s ready for this next step.
  • Expand Life on a Yo Yo small group study into a short book, and POD-self-publish it. Because of illustrations, it won’t work as an e-book unless I know html, which I don’t.
  • Expand The Dynamic Duo small group study into a short book, and POD-self-publish it. Same deal about illustrations.
  • Expand Sacred Moments small group into a short book, and POD-self-publish it. Same deal about illustrations. Are you sensing a pattern here?
  • Take my Isaiah small group study notes and build it into a book of some as of yet undermined length, and e-self-publish it. I can’t remember how extensive my notes are. I know I prepared a few sheets for the class, but will have to look and see what I have.
  • Begin work on another small group study I’ve been pondering, From Slavery To Nationhood, a study of Israel’s wandering in the desert, plus before and after. I’ve been thinking about this one for a long time.
  • Begin work on Volume 2 of Documenting America. Strike while the iron is hot, that sort of thing. I’ve developed a rhythm of sorts, and might be able to churn out another in the brand with less work than any of these other projects. This one is also tempting. In writing volume 1 I have come across many things I’ve bookmarked to go in volume 2. This one is also tempting.

So, I have no shortage of projects to chose between. And I’d appreciate any reader’s thoughts on these projects.

Look out writing world. As soon as this work hump is over, I’ll be back.

C.S. Lewis, Writing

A Writer’s Nugget from C.S. Lewis

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I’m not talking about something he wrote, say some fiction or non-fiction, that was especially good intrinsically for writing’s sake. No, in a lecture he made a statement that is of considerable worth for writers. Here it is.

What are the key-words of modern criticism? Creative, with its opposite derivative; spontaneity, with its opposite convention; freedom, contrasted with rules. Great authors are innovators, pioneers, explorers; bad authors bunch in schools and follow models. Or again, great authors are always ‘breaking fetters’ and ‘bursting bonds’. They have personality, they ‘are themselves’.

This comes from the lecture titled “Christianity and Literature”, which was read to a religious society in Oxford. It was originally published in Rehabilitations and Other Essays (Oxford 1939). I have it in a book titled The Timeless Writings of C.S. Lewis, which is a recent reprinting of some collected lectures and articles by Lewis published in separate volumes.

I find Lewis’ words to be particularly insightful, instructing, and inspiring for an aspiring author, one who is planning to write secular works with a Christian worldview underpinning them. It is not convention that marks the great author, but spontaneity; not works patterned after someone else’s but creativity, perhaps also or better stated as originality. Great authors should break fetters and burst bonds.

This is something I must look at in my own writings. Am I bursting bonds, breaking fetters? Seeking not to bunch in a school but rather be an innovator, a pioneer, an explorer? I sort of think so, because I haven’t really sought to pattern my work after anyone, and, perhaps, my lack of learning in the great literature that preceded me means I don’t know a whole lot about those who I might pattern after.

True, as much as I love Robert Frost a lot of my poetry sounds Frostian. On-line critics have said as much, always in a good way. As to the mechanics of my prose, so far no one has said “You sound like ———.” The ideas I have for novels don’t seem to easily fall into genres. The Alfred Cottage Mysteries are almost cozy mysteries–except they won’t always involve a murder, and Alfred, while an amateur detective, will be solving crimes of years past, not of the present.
Documenting America is neither history nor politics, but rather a mix, and I think unlike anything I’ve seen before. Will it sell? We’ll soon see.

At writers conferences and on writer/agent blogs I keep seeing advice such as: follow the genre rules. Lewis would say “Innovate. Break the fetters of genre. Be spontaneous.”

I’m going to be thinking long and hard about this advice from Lewis. Well, he wasn’t purposefully giving advice for writers. He was defining what he thought were the characteristics of great writers. I think I’ll have more to say about this over the coming days.

Wesley, Writing

Little Time to Write

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Work has pretty much consumed my waking time this week. I’m at a convention/conference–well, it ended today. I presented three papers on erosion control: two one-hour presentations, and today a half-day class. This was too much, and until noon today I had little time to do much outside of present my classes, wind down, and prepare for the next class. I attended no other classes, other than a full-day course on Monday. Tuesday afternoon would have been free, but I had to put together the PowerPoint for today’s class.

I’m glad it’s over. Three papers in two days is too much. I put a lot of energy into the presentation, just as I do for my brown bags at work. The time to wind down and relax a little doesn’t give much time to do other brain-intensive things, such as write or research. Sunday I managed to complete one chapter (in manuscript) in Documenting America. I’m going to generate one more chapter from the document, but I think not tonight. Tonight I want to do a little bit of Wesley research. Haven’t done any all week. I may only read an hour, maybe less, but I need to do it. I think I have enough brain power left for that.

My cold pretty much ended on Sunday or Monday, minor residual hoarseness persists, but that will be over soon. I’ll be anxious to get back to researching and writing, perhaps by Sunday afternoon or evening. Looking forward to it.

Documenting America, Suite 101, Writing

Another Snow Day, a Little Bit of Progress

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The forecast was for 4 to 10 inches, then 4-9, then 4-8. Last night at 11 PM the storm was hanging out just north of us, and I wondered if it would pass by to the north. I set the alarm to get up at the normal time, in case the forecasters had it wrong. I was up at 3:45 AM and looked out. 1-2 inches had fallen; the snowfall right then was heavy. I turned off the alarm and went back to bed.
When I got up at 7:30 AM, we already had 7-8 inches, and the snow was still falling. I had my devotions, then went downstairs to lok at stocks on an unusual day at home. By the time the snow ended, around noon, we had 12 inches, maybe a little more than that.
On such a day as this I should write. And I did. I finished edits to my article for Safe Highway Matters, after calling the Michigan Department of Transportation to get additional info and quotes. I then wrapped up a Suite101 genealogy article. However, when I tried to upload it I was foiled by my old, old computer. The hard drive had been crunching forever, and it kept doing it and didn’t load the article publishing page at Suite. I gave up, went upstairs, then out to shovel the driveway. That took an hour, then back in for some soup and back downstairs. I decided to do a files cleaning of the computer. I figured at the same time I’d install updates and re-boot. This took forever.
So I came over to Lynda’s computer (which she almost never uses), much newer than mine and more powerful, and I began this post. Meanwhile the old computer finished all its crunching and deleting and uploading and restarting. I’ve been going back and forth between the two, typing on this post and starting Suite101 again and getting the article uploaded. That finally worked.
Meanwhile, as I’ve had to wait on web page loading, I’ve been able to do some research for Documenting America. I also began putting together my next brown bag presentation at work, this concerning floodplains.
It’s now 4:16 PM as I write this. Hours and hours remain in the day. I’ll spend a little more time on the floodplain presentation prep, then finish reading the document for my next DA chapter, then maybe go upstairs and read some in the John Wesley biography I’m most of the way through and enjoying immensely.
Another snow day is a productive day, perhaps helping me to see a little more what a writing life would be like. Now if I could just get these fool pictures to place correctly in my blog, I’ll be happy.
Documenting America, self-publishing, Suite 101, Writing

More Snow, More Writing

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Beginning last week the weather folks were predicting a major winter storm for Tuesday. By Sunday some of the numbers had firmed up: 6-12 inches in our area. So Monday morning, to allow me to get to work the next two days over short, flat roads, I packed to stay two days in town with my mother-in-law, since Lynda was in Oklahoma City and not planning to be back until Wednesday, after the storm. However, as she got news reports there she decided to come back Monday, before the storm. So I came home, knowing that if the weather people were even close to right I would lose at least one and probably two days of work.

That’s what happened. We have 7 or 8 inches of snow, on top of about a 1/4 inch of sleet. It fell mostly during the daylight hours yesterday, so we hunkered down, read, used the computer, and ate. Today has been a mix of sun and clouds. I got out early to shovel the drive to let the radiant energy dry it out. I also cleared off my pick-up early (it’s parked well up the road, not quite at the top of the hill). I also shoveled our large deck, which had an average of 12 inches due to drifting. So today has been busy.

But on both days I was able to write. Yesterday I completed chapter 22 in Documenting America. I decided to use the extra research I did on Rev. John Urmstone and wrote a second chapter from some of his writings. I also began research for the next chapter. I read one document which, unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to use. I scanned several others.

Today I wrote an article for Suite101.com, the next in my series of genealogy articles. I don’t know if this is a correlation or not, but January is a record revenue month for me at Suite, 37 percent higher than my previous best month. January last year was good too; it’s my third best month, not topped until last November. So maybe January is just a good month, or maybe my genealogy articles are making some money. Either way, I have quite a few more in the series to write before I run out of ideas.

Now I’m going to start the next chapter in Documenting America. I found a document I can use, some of the writing of William Bradford of the Plymouth colony. I’ve also spent a lot of time these last two days reading for my next two Bible studies, and beginning to outline one of them. I’ve also studied (some) in the e-self-publishing market. I’ve printed out a lot of Joe Konrath’s blog posts, and the comments, to look for ideas and for guidance on the nuts and bolts of creating the e-book once you’ve got the words finished.

So these two days—the second one still with 6 to 7 waking hours in it—may not have been my most productive, but they have been good. Back to work tomorrow, with deadlines two days closer without commensurate production. Not looking forward to it.

Buildipedia, Documenting America, freelance writing, Suite 101, Writing

The Storm is Almost Here

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The winter storm that is so much in the news is bearing down on us. The winter storm warning from the National Weather Service starts at 6:00 PM tonight for us, so that probably means we’ll start getting some frozen stuff around 8 PM. The forecast has called for sleet, ice, snow, mixture—it keeps changing. That’s to be expected as the time nears and the computer models come together. The best guess right now is we’ll have a half inch of ice followed by 3-5 inches of snow.

Rather than negotiate the hills of Bella Vista tonight, I’m going to stay in Bentonville with my mother-in-law. Here apartment is about 3 miles due north of the office, on flat streets. If need be I could walk to work from there. Tomorrow should be the worst, with an inch of snow on top of the ice at the time of morning commute, snow still falling. She doesn’t have a computer or Internet, so I’ll probably stay at work late, or perhaps go to the library until it closes.

The storm is hitting at work and in writing as well. I have to have one of my flood studies re-submitted by Thursday. I worked on it some Saturday, and am in good shape with the computer modeling; now need to have the CADD tech do the mapping and pull a brief report together. It would be a snap except yesterday our 18-inch diameter water transmission main advertised in the newspaper, so today we should be deluged by contractors coming by to obtain drawings and specs—which aren’t ready. Hopefully they will be by 10 AM. Plus I really, really, really need to make major progress on my Rogers flood study. I’m so close to being able to run the first computer model. Four hours of undivided might do it.

In writing, I will be a journalist this morning. I have phone interviews scheduled with two DOT officials in two states, for information on my article for Safe Highway Matters. That’s due on Wednesday, and since this is the first time I’ve written for them, I’d like to get a draft in Tuesday. It’s only a 400 word article, but short doesn’t necessarily mean easier. Then I have an article due for Buildipedia the following Wednesday, and another the Wednesday after that.

Meanwhile I’m working on Documenting America and on articles for Suite101.com. Both of these are discretionary, of course. I could drop them at any time. But if I did, I would in effect be saying, “I don’t have what it takes to be a writer.” So I keep going, keep my schedule a whirlwind, hoping that I get to the point where I have something more than freelance articles published. Having decided to go the e-self-publishing route, this year is the critical year. More on that in future posts.