Category Archives: Writing

home improvements, Writing

Here it is Monday Morning

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Yes, it’s Monday morning, and I have no topic to write on. I’m supposed to make my post by 7:30 a.m.; it’s now 6:51 a.m. I have a sheet of paper with blog post ideas. It’s up in the sunroom and I’m in The Dungeon. But I looked at that list yesterday and nothing stood out at me as something I want to write right now.

The fact is I’m weary. I have a to-do list around here that is growing, nothing seeming to be getting done. Four items I hope I will complete today.

  • Mail some old, old family cards to a cousin’s daughter in Florida. These are cards sent by her grandparents, her parents, and her aunt to my parents or grandparents. They date from the 1950s, 60s, and a few from 70s. Dad kept all these. I got them from his house after his death in 1997. I stored them, then sorted them, began looking to see what I wanted to do with them. I decided to send them back to families of original senders. So far I’ve sent back those of the Hills and the Reeds and the Fashjians and the Vicks. No one in the Brannon family wanted them so I trashed them. This cousin I contacted her via Facebook and she said yes, she’d take them. Since her grandfather, my uncle, moved the family cross-country in the 1950s and she grew up far away from any close family, she doesn’t feel a strong connection to her family and is looking forward to getting these and learning more.
  • Call the vegetation management man for the electric cooperative and try to talk them into finishing their work on my lot. They took three trees out that were in their easement. That was in January 2020. I agreed, and they said a different crew would be by to grind out the stumps. No one ever came. I kept putting off calling him, lost his business card, found it, lost it again, etc. Yesterday I found the card again, and today I will call him.
  • Interview two people for the church 100th anniversary book. This is an older couple in the church whose families have been involved with it since the 1930s. The told me more than a month ago that they were happy to talk with me, but I’ve not been ready. Now I am. I spoke with them at church yesterday and we set this afternoon for the interview. That will make it five people I’ve interviewed to put their family histories into the book. Only about eight more to go after that.
  • Mail used books to a buyer in Springfield MO. She responded to a Facebook Marketplace listing I had for 40 paperback romances. Through messaging with her I told her about all the others I had and she wanted them. When Lynda and I gathered them together on Saturday, and Lynda pulled a few more she was willing to part with from the shelf, it came to 203 books. The buyer wants them all. This morning I will box them for shipping, take them to the PO for a shipping estimate, communicate that to the buyer, receive her payment via PayPal, and take the books back for mailing. It’s possible this may not be finished until tomorrow.

That latter item is huge. I had begun to despair of ever selling these romances. People who dropped by to look at books in general seemed uninterested in the romances. My Marketplace listings received few views and no inquiries. Then this came out of the blue. I’m happy about it, but for the moment the books have been brought back into the house for packaging and weighing. Until they are paid for and mailed they are making life more difficult.

What else is on the to-do list? Our bathroom scale is going crazy and probably needs to be replaced. The remote control for the kitchen TV is dying and needs to be replaced. The lower burner of the oven no longer works. I replaced that about 10 years ago and don’t really feel like replacing it. I should just replace the 34-year-old oven, but it’s a built in. Will anything made now fit the opening in the woodwork? But then, Lynda said she would be willing to replace the separate range top as well. I agree with her that I don’t like that, so maybe we will do that replacement. But that’s a big task and I’m not looking forward to it. For now we are getting by with the top heating element only. As the one that does the cooking, I’m going to wait a little while before tackling this.

What else? A small item is: I took Lynda’s sewing machine in for repairs last week, but they said they needed a dobbin from the machine and there was none in it. They might have mentioned that fact on their website. I left the machine with them. So now I either need to make the 18 mile drive to get them the dobbin or mail them one, hoping the plastic gadget doesn’t get crushed in mailing. I’ll try to decide that today.

What else? Doctor appointments for me tomorrow and the next day, one for Lynda next week. Groceries to get today. Possibly replacing the lancet device for taking my blood sugars. A full round of stock and options trades to watch. Two other books in the works, trying to decide which to do next.

That’s enough. I’m starting to get depressed just thinking about it. The clock shows it is now just after 7:30, as I’ve been reading various morning newsletters and messing with a spreadsheet while writing this. Time to post. Maybe by Friday my to-do list will look better. Oh, wait, I haven’t even put any of my own yardwork on it. Rats. Or the cover for the print version of my latest book. Rats again.

Christianity, The Teachings, Writing

What to Write Next?

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Dateline 15 April 2021

Now that I have four consecutive books in my Church History novels series, the cover designer I’m working with has come up with a theme for the series. I like what she’s done.

The Teachings is done! The e-book is published; the print book is formatted; I await only the cover (which is being produced) in order to upload the print book. Once I have both up, I will make a formal announcement here, on Facebook, and to my small e-mail list.

So, the question to ask is “What do I write next?”

The answer is sort of easy. I have the church 100th Anniversary book to write. I’ve been working on it, with good progress. I’m at 12,306 words. I had thought it would be around a 14,000 word book, but I’m no where near the end. Now it looks like 20,000 to 25,000 words. I’m at the point with this book where I am starting to interview people about family members in the church long ago. My goal is to put a couple of paragraphs about perhaps two-dozen families.  I’ve only done two of those families so far, so I’ve got a lot of work yet to do. In fact, today I hope to contact two of those families and perhaps do the interviews. Yes, this book will be my primary focus for a while.

Research for the church anniversary book is almost like doing genealogy. I’ve been amazed at the footprints I’ve found for the founding families of the church.

But what next? What of my own writing? As I wrote before, I have several paths I could go down.

  • The next volume in the Documenting America series. This will be Run-up to Revolution, and will cover the 15 years or so before the Revolutionary War. I’m reading for research now but finding it hard going.
  • The next short story in the Sharon Williams Fonseca series. This will be about Carter Burns investigating Sharon’s role—if any—in the Qatif uprisings in Saudi Arabia in 1979. Not a well known incident, but I heard about it when I was in Saudi in 1981-83.
  • A totally new work, a new series, a new genre (oh, no, not Genre Focus Disorder coming up again). Tentatively titled the Forest Throne series, it is a sort of time travel book for young boys. My oldest grandson and I have been talking about this ever since, maybe four years ago, we found a land feature in the hollow behind our house that looks like a seat indented into the hillside. It’s probable the root hole from a tree that fell over, but the tree is long gone and only the root hole remains. This is what my grandson wants me to work on next.
  • While I’ve been proofreading The Teachings and getting it ready for publication, I’ve also been working on a Bible study. It’s a little different from the one I did before, almost more of a commentary/devotional type book. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. I’ll keep poking away at it as the Spirit moves me, but, in truth, I don’t know if it’s a viable project or not.
  • And, I could actually go on to the next book in my Church History Novels series. I have the basic outline of the plot, the characters, and what I want to accomplish with it. This is not likely to be next, as I think I need a break from this series.

So, that’s five possibilities, or six including the anniversary book.  That’s not by any means exhaustive of what has been on my writing mind of late.  Somehow I have to narrow that down and begin writing something. I’ll let you all know what that is once I decide.

book reviews, Writing

Book Review: “Essays of E.B. White”

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I really enjoyed this books and am glad I invested the reading time and the whole 50¢ purchase price in it.

About a month ago I finished whatever book I was reading and searched my shelves for what to read next. Should be easy, right? I make it a little complicated, however, in that I want to read books that interest me but which I don’t want to keep permanently. I want to be able to get rid of them when done. The book I had just finished was a keeper, so for sure I wanted to go on to a non-keeper. As I say, should be easy, but with thousands of books in the house it isn’t. The volume makes it harder and, alas, I don’t have a prepared non-keeper pile.

But I searched and found this in the Essays of E.B. White. While he isn’t a household name, White wrote Charlotte’s Web. Of interest to writers and perhaps English majors, he collaborated on later editions of Strunk’s book The Elements of Style, a short book about improving English composition. Some time ago, measured in years, I picked up White’s Essays from a used book or thrift store. It has sat on my literature shelf in the basement, waiting for me to notice it again. The perfect book to read now, I thought. ‘T’will be interesting to me but not one I want to keep.

And so it is. I actually know fairly little about White but learned much through his essays. First, he’s a New Englander, like me, having spent much of his life in Maine (though with sojourns in New York City and Florida). He was a newspaper columnist. Some of his essays were culled from his columns. I didn’t get a feel for who he wrote for (a particular paper or syndication), nor what type of column it must have been. In his writing I found: satire, though I wouldn’t call him a satirist; humor, though he’s not a humorist; irony, though he’s pretty down to earth; concern for the planet, though he doesn’t seem to have been an environmental writer; politics, though he was not really a political writer or pundit.

So what kind of writer was he in these essays? Interesting. Sorry, Mrs. Abrams, my 12th grade English teacher. I know that’s an unacceptable response, but I have to say it. The essays were a mix of all of those things in the last paragraph, and the variety held my interest. He wrote about the life in rural Maine and of farm chores and events. It gave authenticity to Charlotte’s Web. He wrote about apartments in New York City. He wrote about harm being done to the planet by different human activities. He wrote about Democrats and Republicans not getting along and, except for the names of the individuals involved, those essays could have been written today.

Reading these essays tickled me into a case of Sidelines Syndrome, and I felt the urge to write essays. I came to my senses pretty quickly, however, as I have too many writing projects going on right now. I suppose if a writer spurs another writer to emulate him, that writers has done well.

Now, two questions remain: Should you run out and try to find a copy of this and read it (published 1977, my paperback published 1979)? And, is it a keeper after all? The answer is no to both. First, it will be hard to find. Second, it will be somewhat boring, I think, to anyone who doesn’t currently read essays. Third, as far as keeping it, for me it’s a I’m-glad-I-read-it book, no regrets at investing some time in it, but I don’t see myself ever reading it again.

So, into the sale pile it will go. The binding is partly broken, the cover has a fold in it. I don’t see it ever selling, either in my yard sales or in a thrift store, but I can’t bear the thought of throwing it out. So to the garage sale shelf it goes.

Documenting America, self-publishing, The Teachings, Writing

March Writing Progress; April Goals

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I accomplished less writing tasks in March than I hoped for. That’s because of making two trips to West Texas, one to pick up the grandkids, bringing them here for a week, and one to bring them back.

  1. Make one more editing pass through The Teachings, and decide if it is ready for publishing. Get my ideas for the cover to the designer and get things rolling on that. This is done! I make another full pass through the book, reading it aloud to my wife. The edits are done. I also got my ideas to the designer, Sophie, and she has made the cover, made into a theme for the series as a whole. That is no longer a hold-up.
  2. Make major progress in the church 100th anniversary book. I’d like to be close to 15,000 words by the end of the month. That depends, however, on getting into the library for research, or having a librarian help me. I definitely made progress, though I fell short of my word goal. I’m sitting a little under 9,000 words. I did hear back from the librarian, though she didn’t have much to tell me due to the poor quality of the microfilms she had to work with.
  3. Read for research in the next Documenting America book, including taking notes. Begin to sketch an outline of the Table Of Contents. I read for this research only one day. Too many other things to work on.
  4. Continue with my current Bible study project and see if it’s something I should turn into a writing project with the intent on publishing. Again, I think I only worked on this one day. My goals were much larger than my capacity.
  5. Get my personal bibliography up to date for current works. This should be doable. In fact, I may go work on it as soon as I finish this blog post. I didn’t work on this much before the mid-month time crunch came, but I think I got this done. I will have to pull up the bibliography and see. If needed, I’ll come back and edit this.
  6. Blog twice a week. That may be interrupted if we bring the grandkids back here for spring break. I missed three regular blogging days, as I said in a post this month, due to grandparent responsibility.

So, March was a mixed bag. Time to now set some goals for April.

  1. Publish The Teachings. All that are left are various publishing tasks, including: e-book TOC; adding two maps, one of which needs modification; writing the back cover copy; writing the Amazon page text; formatting the print book (well, the e-book too, which is far easier); and uploading to Amazon. I think this is very doable.
  2. Republish the three earlier church history novels with new covers and list of my works. One of the covers is ready. Hopefully the other two will be soon.
  3. Expand the church anniversary book to at least 15,000 words and hopefully 20,000 words.
  4. Blog twice a week. It’s doable. No travel planned this month.
  5. Do some research on the next Documenting America volume. I won’t commit to how much, but I have to get going on it.
  6. Look again at the Bible study I was working on in February and early March, and decide if that is going to be my next book or if something else is.

That’s all I can see to add right now. I’ll check back in on April 30 or May 3 and let you know how I did.

miscellaneous, The Teachings, Writing

The View From The Dungeon

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Clouds have obscured the bright sun disk of early morning.

The windows in The Dungeon face east, and that’s the direction I face when sitting and working at my computer. On sunny days like today I will be greeted by the sun. Since we are not far from solstice, the sun, as it frees itself from the horizon, comes blazing through the windows into my eyes. I have to adjust myself in the chair, lean a little to the left, so that the sun is blocked. Otherwise, I’m sure my eyes would become painful and eventually I’d go blind. Oh, the windows have blinds, long vertical slats that go to the floor (well below the window bottoms), but the tangle of computer cords causes the slats to separate and allow the bright rays to come in.

This condition lasts only a few minutes. The sun rises above the cut-out at the back of the upper unit of my computer desk, and the sun no longer torments me. I can shift my torso back to upright. At some point this spring/summer the sun will rise early enough that perhaps it will already be above the critical point when I arrive in The Dungeon to start my workday. But, by then other conditions will have changed as well.

Right now, the woods behind our house are at or just past their barest point. The Bradford pears have bloomed and just leafed out. The wild dogwoods are blooming. The oaks are a couple of weeks away from their initial budding. But, the pin oak trees among them have finally lost their leaves. Yes, those pin oak leaves hold on through the winter, dropping in the early spring just before everything else starts to bud. Once the oaks do bud then leaf out, the sun will be totally blocked until it is well up above that desk cut-out. I will come to The Dungeon when it is lighter and not be bothered by the sun.

With the solar disk so bright, and with the windows so dirty, and with the slats blocking much of what would otherwise be visible, what do I see? Bare oak branches show from the nearest trees, and behind them the mass of trees on the other side of the hollow. They are, perhaps, seven hundred feet away. If I would stand up and find a good viewport through the windows I might just barely see thy walking/hiking/biking trail, in the hollow. I walk that trail a fair amount and, until the oak forest leafs out, can see our house from it.

You wonder what the point of this post is. I’m not sure I have one. Just thought I’d take a post now and then to record something of interest. The hollow behind our house is unplatted land, belonging to the POA. It is considered unbuildable due to the steep slopes. However, if hard times would come, I’m sure the POA would figure out a way to build on it and homes would spring up. Given the nature of the geology, it would have to be very hard times indeed. So, we are destined to have a wooded valley behind us for as long as we stay here.

It is now just after 10 a.m. The sun has moved higher and way around to the right. It no longer bothers me or causes me to dodge and weave to avoid looking directly at it. The eastern sky, what little I can see of it, appears cloudy. The tree trunks at the edge of the forest aren’t bright. It would appear that cloudy conditions are developing.

The day is starting to drag. I’ve been looking for maps to illustrate my novel and am having trouble finding suitable ones. Before much more looking passes I’ll just break down and draw my own.  My cold is better, but I think I need one more day before I resume walking. Friday is April 2, Good Friday. It will be the day for me to post my progress and plans for the month. I’ll see you all then.

family, Writing

Ready To Get Back To Work

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For almost two weeks just past we have been much tied up with the grandchildren. We left for Texas two weeks ago, dropping recyclables in Oklahoma City, then six more hours to West Texas. We spent three days there, then on Sunday we drove back to Bella Vista with four grandchildren.

They were here a week. I wrote about them in the last post about some of the things that filled the week. We took them back on Saturday, another all-day drive. We spent four nights there, driving back Wednesday, dropping more recyclables in OKC as we came back. We stayed up a little late that night, and Thursday took a day of rest. We watched two of my favorites, Lawrence of Arabia and My Fair Lady,

Now, it’s time to get back to work on my writing. During the last two weeks I began going through my novel-in-progress for the third time. I also got some mock-ups of the cover for it and for the whole series. It will take another three days of reading to get through it.

I need to get back to the church history book. I’ve been brainstorming it while I was otherwise engaged the last two weeks, but didn’t add any words. I also need to get back to the Bible study I had started on. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I need to get a little farther into it before I know if it’s a viable project.

Yesterday it became painfully aware to me that I have to do a lot of work on this website.  I hate the thought of that. The person suggesting I need to make changes said I first need to back up what I have. I have no idea how to do that. I know I need to learn how to but hate the thought of it.

But, today I need to work on all these things. Hopefully, I will be able to apply my mind to it.

goals, self-publishing, Writing

Writing Progress and Goals

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Monday, regular posting day.

First of the month, a day to discuss progress last months and goals for this month.

Perfect.

So how did I do last month relative to the goals I set? I’ll paste the goals in and say what progress I made, and we’ll see.

  1. Continue to work on The Teachings. At the rate I’m writing now, I should write “the end” somewhere around Feb 15.  I got this done. I finished it somewhere around Feb 10. I already have full comments from one beta reader and partial comments from another. I’ve been through it all the way once and made edits and my wife has been most of the way through it and given her edits. I also made contact with a cover designer who says she will take on the project
  2. Continue to work on the 100th Anniversary book for my church. I’ve made a start with the book somewhat planned out and the writing started, now sitting at 1,675 word heading towards 20,000 words, maybe a little longer. Another goal I was able to meet. I did a lot of research this month into our charter members, and was able to learn much and write much. I’m now at about 6,000 words and feeling good about how the book is going. I think, however, the hard parts are ahead.
  3. Get back to research into my next Documenting America book. I call this Run-up To Revolution. It’s about the period before the outbreak of fighting in 1775, so say from 1761-1775. I didn’t do very much on this. I pulled out the one main reference book I have at the house and looked over, but didn’t read, the documents in it. I satisfied myself that, between them and the ones they will lead me to, I should have no problem getting enough source material to make this a viable book. Time to knuckle down and research in earnest.
  4. Continue to blog twice a week. Very doable. Yes, did this, including a couple of posts that I’d held off on due to the difficulty.
  5. Continue to work on my bibliography. I started this some time ago, maybe three or four years, after I found joy working on a chronological bibliography for Thomas Carlyle’s writings. Every now and then I open it and add a few more things to it. I did some work on this, but not a lot. I’ve fallen a bit behind keeping up with what I’m currently writing. I think today, before getting on to other writing tasks, I’ll work on this.
  6. This is more publishing than writing related: Begin to improve my books to try to 1) get more reviews and 2) improve the click through and purchasing rates on my ads. ….For February, I will plan on doing the ones advertised. Nope, didn’t do any of this. 
  7. Advertise one more book. I’m thinking it will be Acts Of Faith, but we shall see. Again, I didn’t do this. I’m afraid advertising and promotion took a back seat this month to writing.
  8. Not listed as a goal last month, but some writing work I did, was to start on a new Bible study. Well, not a Bible study exactly. I’ll explain more in a future post, after I get further into it. I’m not sure yet if it’s a viable project.

Thus, February was a mixed bag as far as progress was concerned. Now, what’s on for March?

  1. Make one more editing pass through The Teachings, and decide if it is ready for publishing. Get my ideas for the cover to the designer and get things rolling on that.
  2. Make major progress in the church 100th anniversary book. I’d like to be close to 15,000 words by the end of the month. That depends, however, on getting into the library for research, or having a librarian help me.
  3. Read for research in the next Documenting America book, including taking notes. Begin to sketch an outline of the Table Of Contents.
  4. Continue with my current Bible study project and see if it’s something I should turn into a writing project with the intent on publishing.
  5. Get my personal bibliography up to date for current works. This should be doable. In fact, I may go work on it as soon as I finish this blog post.
  6. Blog twice a week. That may be interrupted if we bring the grandkids back here for spring break.

I think I’ll leave it at that. I still have work to do on my already published works to make them a little more enticing for buyers, but that may have to wait.

miscellaneous, research, Writing

I Should Have Written a Better Post Today

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This morning, on the Presidents Day holiday, I was up as always around 6:30 a.m. With no stock market work to do, I decided to download income tax forms and organize the folders and files. Still waiting on one critical income form so I can’t quite start on them in earnest.

The last forecast before the snow began was for 3-6 inches. We got 5, though it took 33 hours of light snowing to for that much to accumulate.

After that I shifted to work on the church 100th anniversary book. I like the progress I made. I’m researching charter members. Wrote the short bio of the one who organized the tent meeting that got it all started then began researching another family of charter members. That took me up to noon or later.

Then it was reading time. After lunch it was reading time, walking time, and phone call time. Now here it is, almost supper time, and I’m just getting around to a post. My only excuse is: the snow made me do it.

Yes, another day, another snow storm. It started around 8 a.m. yesterday and is just about now quitting. In those 33 hours we have had only 5 inches. I went out in it around 2 p.m. Walked about 1/4 mile out and was so cold, even with several layers on, I turned around and came back. I love walking in the snow, but thought I’d better not push it in this bitter cold.

But all day, from The Dungeon window, the sunroom windows, from my reading chair in the living room, and wherever else I was, the snow captivated me enough that I couldn’t concentrate on blogging. The important post I’ve been putting off is still important, but not so timely as when I first envisioned it. I may start a draft of it tonight, after dark, because if it’s snow that distracts me…

…The current forecast is for another storm to start tomorrow evening and rage into Wednesday, giving us another 4-10 inches. Well, the latest forecast has it 4-9 inches. I don’t want to exaggerate. Tomorrow I’ll have to shovel the driveway. Not because we are going anywhere, but shoveling 4 inches twice will be a whole lot easier than shoveling 8 to 10 inches or more once.

Snow exhilarates me. I don’t even mind the cold so much. Hopefully despite the flakey distraction I’ll be able to get my work done.

C.S. Lewis, Christianity, family, Genealogy, The Teachings, travel, Writing

Hunkering Down

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[Note to self: Don’t hit the browser back button when typing a post if you haven’t hit “save draft”. Maybe the second time will be a charm.]

This is looking up the street from our house on Thursday 2/11. It is sanded (actually gritted). I believe I could get up it if I tried.

I’m looking out The Dungeon windows to a light snowfall. It’s just condensation due to the cold, 14°F. We were supposed to be in Texas this weekend, watching the grandkids while their parents were at a church event. Wednesday last was our departure day. But we woke up to a winter glaze on the roads, a freakish ice storm overnight. It had been predicted then removed from the forecast. After a quick survey of the situation, I postponed the trip a day.

If not, perhaps I could get down the hill then loop around the circle and go up the next street which, last time I checked, was free of ice.

I spent time chopping and clearing ice, spreading rock salt and sand. I was able to get the already-loaded van up to the end of the driveway. Once the City truck came by spreading grit on the road, I probably could have made it up the hill. But reports on conditions elsewhere indicated the trip would be difficult. Thursday morning was not much different. Radar showed light, frozen precipitation along our route. I delayed the trip from morning to afternoon. By noon it was clear things were no better. Reports of accidents along our route said it all. I cancelled the trip.

So were are unexpectedly home. The forecast now calls for 6-10″ of snow Sunday-Monday, with temperatures like we have now or lower. After a trip to Wal-Mart today (hopefully) for fresh items, we will hunker down. I made a large pot of soup yesterday. We have enough frozen, canned, and boxed food to get by a long time should the W-M run not be possible. I plan to write in the church anniversary book. I plan to begin the editing process in The Teachings. I will read C.S. Lewis and other things. On Sunday I will teach Life Group from home. And I will walk outside a little but get my main exercise on the elliptical. I might even get a little genealogy research done.

I realize that the last paragraph is all about me. “I plan…I will…” Obviously I will do that only by the grace of God and the strength and abilities He has given me and continues to give me.

Oh, in the last half-hour we learned that the church event have been postponed due to…weather.

Church History Novels, Documenting America, self-publishing, The Teachings, Writing

February 2021 Writing Plans

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Dateline: 4 February 2021

As I said in my last post, which re-capped the writing I did in January, my next post would be about writing goals for February. On Monday I thought I might write that post the next day and have an extra post this week. Alas, that didn’t happen. But I’m here now.

What are my writing goals for February? I haven’t written them anywhere (something I sometimes do), so today I’m making this up as I go along.

  1. Continue to work on The Teachings. At the rate I’m writing now, I should write “the end” somewhere around Feb 15. That depends a lot on life circumstances. We will be babysitting grandchildren during part of this time, and traveling two days, so that time may slip. A lot depends on how much I manage to get done today.
  2. Continue to work on the 100th Anniversary book for my church. I’ve made a start with the book somewhat planned out and the writing started, now sitting at 1,675 word heading towards 20,000 words, maybe a little longer. Last night I did some research into one item—actually a person—that I felt needed expanding in the book. I found what I needed. I don’t have any real deadline for this book, but I would like to have it fairly well finished by July. Still much research to do, especially of photos for illustrations.
  3. Get back to research into my next Documenting America book. I call this Run-up To Revolution. It’s about the period before the outbreak of fighting in 1775, so say from 1761-1775. I read for research before, but not a whole lot. I don’t know if this will be the next book I work on or not. A lot will depend on this research.
  4. Continue to blog twice a week. Very doable.
  5. Continue to work on my bibliography. I started this some time ago, maybe three or four years, after I found joy working on a chronological bibliography for Thomas Carlyle’s writings. Every now and then I open it and add a few more things to it. I did that last week and early this week. I plan on keeping up-to-date with blog posts and other writing endeavors. This is a “don’t have to do it” task, but it is becoming a labor of love. Perhaps no one will ever really care about the vast number of items I’ve written, but I plan to leave a comprehensive bibliography behind just in case someone does.
  6. This is more publishing than writing related: Begin to improve my books to try to 1) get more reviews and 2) improve the click through and purchasing rates on my ads. I’m aware of several small-ish things I can do to make that happen. Or at least do to try to make that happen. I’ll start with the two books currently advertised, then do the others in their series, then branch out to others. For February, I will plan on doing the ones advertised.
  7. Advertise one more book. I’m thinking it will be Acts Of Faith, but we shall see.

I think that’s it. I have no plans to work on letter transcriptions, or write any essays, or political essays. It’s getting into tax season and, right after this babysitting gig, I’ll have to take some time for that. Corresponds well with completion of the first draft of The Teachings.