Bible study, critique group, Doctor Luke's Assistant, self-publishing, Sharon Williams short stories, Writing

Publishing and Writing Side-by-Side

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The e-book cover for this was easy. At present I’m not planning on issuing a print book.

Well, I missed another blogging day. Yes, I missed last Friday. That’s two Fridays in a row. I tell you, miss it once and it can become a habit. I’ll break that habit this coming Friday.

For now, I’ll just tell a little of my current activities.

Today is the day to publish the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. I made the cover on Friday, finished the editing on Saturday, made one minor tweak yesterday, and let it sit for the night. As soon as I finish this I’ll go to Amazon KDP and do the publishing tasks. Hopefully it will be available for sale before the end of the day, though perhaps tomorrow.

I’ll make the cover for the print edition of the prequel of this look much the same. Delete “Again” and change the photo.

Then, tomorrow I’ll work on my friend Bessie’s book. I did her second book for her earlier this year. Her first book, however, is available from the publisher only as an e-book. She has people in the church who want a copy. At my prompting, she obtained a license from the publisher to make do a print book edition of her own. I have already gone through the text for errors. I think I built the Table of Content, but will check on that. The cover will follow the lines of the last book and should be simple—except print book covers are never simple for me. Publishing it may not be doable on one day.

Salzburg and environs are so nice, with quaint things to see and do—but not when you’re following Sharon Williams Fonseca.

After that, I shift to writing tasks. My short story, “Tango Delta Foxtrot”. It’s now at 5,300 words and is well along with the story. I don’t have a specific word goal, and I didn’t plan out the plot. To keep it from getting boring I need to wrap it up. I may work on that some in the evenings. I did so yesterday evening, incorporating comments from my critique group. I’m not finished yet with that, so may make working through those comments my evening task for a few days. Wednesday or Thursday I hope to be adding words to the story.

Meanwhile, I sold a couple of copies of Acts Of Faith at church yesterday, and last Friday a paperback copy of Doctor Luke’s Assistant sold at Amazon. That bring my sales for the year up to 131, my second-best year so far. About 75 of those are self-sales of books from inventory, and 69 are of books I published this year. That’s good news. I hope to continue the up-trend next year.

Bible study, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Headshots, holidays, self-publishing, Sharon Williams short stories, Writing

Now Between Holidays

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Had an on-line sale of this one day, then two days later had another, plus one of the prequel. I’m hoping it means someone bought it, not realizing it was the second in the series, liked it, bought the first, then convinced someone else to buy it.

Thanksgiving is over. Well, almost over. My sister is still in town, and we’ll get together again this afternoon and evening. Our full household, however, is back to two, just me and the wife. We have much after-company work to do yet, but the yesterday we took our rest, and this morning is normal routine. Tomorrow or Wednesday will be full routine.

I gave up writing work during this time, except for a little editing in the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. I rarely went to The Dungeon since two Saturdays ago.

But, now it’s time to get back at it. Complete editing of the Leader’s Guide is step one. Simultaneous with that I’ll be reading for my critique group, Scribblers and Scribes of Bella Vista. I have two pieces to read to get ready for the meeting Wednesday evening. Plus, I need to send out again for critique my short story, “Tango Delta Foxtrot”. I haven’t written any more on it, but still have a few pages of it to read to the group.

I’ll make the cover for the print edition of the prequel of this look much the same. Delete “Again” and change the photo.

Next, I’ll get back on publishing tasks for Bessie Black’s first book, Once Upon An Island. It was a work-for-hire, but she received a license to self-publish it as a print book since it’s gone out of print. I’ve already done most of the formatting. I want to read it through once more to look for typos. I figured out what we’d do for the cover. I hope to publish that for her before the end of the year, which looks very doable.

The other thing that has surprised me recently has been some unexpected on-line sales. I had two sales of Headshots and one of In Front Of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, as well as one of Acts Of Faith. Those came about a week ago over a three day period. It’s nice to see sales at the same time from both the back list and new items. I hope this will be a trend.

So, back in the saddle, for three weeks at least, before the next holiday interruption comes.

book reviews, C.S. Lewis

Book Review: Mere Christianity

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This will go in my permanent C.S. Lewis collection which, unfortunately, is far from complete.

Well, I finally did it: got through Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. It only took me 48 years to do it. That’s a bit of an exaggeration. I first learned of the book when several of my friends were reading and speaking well of it during our sophomore year in college. I was a nominal Christian at the time and had never heard of C.S. Lewis, the whole Narnia thing having passed me by in the 1950s. I marked this as a book I should read.

Over the years, beginning in 1975 when I read The Screwtape Letters, I came to know Lewis better and better. Mere Christianity eluded me, however, or I avoided it. Then my co-teacher of our adult Sunday school class thought this might be a good book to have a lesson series on. I picked up a copy and started reading it. I bogged down a couple of chapters in, and set it aside.

A couple of months ago I asked if my co-teacher had a biography of Lewis I had loaned him. He returned it along with a copy of Mere Christianity, saying he was pretty sure I had loaned that to him as well. I couldn’t find a copy in my house, so I accepted it as my own.

I read it in 15 sittings in October and early November. I didn’t find it all that hard to read, and wondered why I bogged down on previous readings. Lewis has a different way of looking at things and describing them in non-church language.

The contents of this book were adapted from radio broadcasts Lewis made during World War 2. Lewis went on the BBC to provide information and comfort for a war-weary land. In the Preface to this book, he explained his purpose.

…I have thought the best…service I could do for my unbelieving neighbors was to explain and defend the belief that has  been common to nearly all Christians at all times.

He also explained what wasn’t his purpose.

…I offer no help to anyone who is hesitating between two Christian ‘denominations’. You will not learn from me whether you ought to become an Anglican, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic. This omission is intentional.

Why did Lewis decide to make his broadcasts in this manner?

…the questions which divide Christians from one another often involve points of high Theology or even ecclesiastical history…

And Lewis achieved this in the book. He talked about “mere” Christianity, or, perhaps another way to understand it is Christianity stripped of everything that divides us. leaving only what unites us. The examples of this in the book are many, and I’ll not give them here.

Lewis is considered an intellectual, which was probably the reason I delayed so long to read this, thinking it would be difficult to understand. It really wasn’t. The first few chapters deal with moral codes that are common to all cultures. Where do they come from? Lewis concluded that the universality of these codes was evidence that they came from God, an important discovery on his road first to theism then to Christianity.

If you haven’t read this, I urge you to do so. It was excellent, and will help any Christian better understand the faith.

For this book, there’s no question that this will become part of my permanent library. I don’t think I’ll reread it immediately, but will someday.

book reviews, letters, poetry

Book Review: Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet

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This isn’t the volume I read, but I don’t have my camera right now to take a photo of it. Same book, different wrapper.

Some time ago, I picked up the book Rainer Maria Rilke: Letters To A Young Poet somewhere. When I picked up the book from my reading pile recently to read it, I found a receipt in it dated 9/21/2009 for $0.99 plus tax from the Goodwill store in Andover, Kansas. We used to stop at that store occasionally, so I assume that’s when I bought it. It’s been in my reading pile in my closet for a long time.

I bought it because I love reading letters, and I love poetry. What would be not to like? I don’t know much about Rilke, other than having heard his name in poetry/literature circles, and, after reading this, I still don’t know much about him. The first letter is dates February 17, 1903, when Rilke was just 27, so he appears to have gotten some notoriety early in his life as a writer and poet.

A younger man, Franz Xaver Kappus, also an erstwhile poet, had written to Rilke, apparently asking for advice and passing along some poems for Rilke to critique. Rilke wrote back, their correspondence being in German. He declined to provide the requested review of Kappus’ poems, instead talking about his life as a poet, and giving the young man advice of what he could expect.

As I read these letters, I didn’t come away with much advice as to writing poetry. It did give some insight into Rilke’s life. Although, it almost appears that Rilke was playing the role of the unreliable narrator. To read the letters, he was always sick, always moving around, and never able to work, even finding it difficult to sit and write letters. From these letters I got the impression that Rilke’s best and productive days as a writer were already behind him at age 27 to 34.

That wasn’t true, however. A quick study of his life shows that Rilke had a number of books published during the years these letters were written, books of both poetry and prose. It’s true he moved around a lot, as he sought places most conducive to his frail health and his writing. I think each of the ten letters in the book came from a different place.

I’m glad I bought the book and finally, after allowing it to sit for ten years, read it. However, except for the measure of enjoyment and distraction it gave me it wasn’t all that useful. Now I have a decision to make: does it go into my library or do I donate it to a thrift store?

In favor of keeping it, as I said at the outset, I love reading letters and I love poetry. I should keep it. I wouldn’t know where to place it on the shelves, in my collection of volumes of letters or in my poetry collection. It’s not poetry, so I suppose it would go under letters. The question, though, is will I ever read it again? Did I find enough value in it to ever take it back off the shelf and re-read it? I can’t predict the future, of course, so who knows what I might want to read in twenty years. I have enough un-read books in the house already that I won’t have a need to re-read anything. From that perspective only, it should go.

Then there’s the decluttering factor. As we have been getting ready for our Thanksgiving gathering this week, we have once again become acutely aware that we have way too much stuff. Things need to go. Wednesday I took a load to Helping Hands, our favorite thrift store. With that load taken, I see no dent in the amount of clutter.

So, I’m afraid this 123 page volume, slim as it is, will soon find its way back to another thrift store and there await rescue by someone else who likes either letters or poetry or both. May it give pleasure to someone again.

book reviews, C.S. Lewis, critique group

Book Review: The Oxford Inklings – revisited

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Read it in 2014-15 and gave it 5 stars; re-read it in 2019 and haven’t changed my mind.

Four years ago I read The Oxford Inklings and posted a review of it. I put this book on the shelf and forgot about it. Forgot that I even had read it, though in the back of my mind I knew I had that book somewhere in my library.

Lately, with my interest in C.S. Lewis enhanced—not that I ever lot interest in him, but from time to time it bubbles to the top of my thoughts and I have to read a book by or about him. Well, after having trouble a while back trying to find something from a Lewis book to go into Acts Of Faith, I realized I needed to consolidate my Lewis books into one place. As I was doing that, almost accidentally I saw The Oxford Inklings hiding in a place I never would have expected it. I looked at it and couldn’t tell if it had ever been read. So I took it up to the sun room and decided I would read it right away.

I remembered a story late in the book, or thought I did. If I get to that part and that story is in there I would know I had indeed read this. Rather than look ahead and try to find that, I decided to just read it straight through and wait until I came.

As I read the book, it seemed new to me. Although I thought I had read it before, reading it now I felt like it was a new book. Had I read it or not? I found it gave me good information. I was about to say no, I hadn’t read it before. As I got close to the end, it began to feel familiar.

At last I came to the period that described Lewis’ declining health, and there was the scene I remembered. Yes, I had read it. Obviously I hadn’t retained it as much as I should have.

I see I gave the book 5 stars before. I stand by that. It does a good job of describing the Inklings and how the group revolved around Lewis more than the others. Members came and went. The three with the most time in the group were Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Lewis’ brother Warren. Others were there for a few years, or for a longer time but not attending each time they met. A few didn’t write and were there just to critique.

We aren’t the Inklings yet, but we are helping each other improve and move our writing forward.

Their goal was to make their writing better. They read works and received criticism on the spot. Back then easy means of printing and copying weren’t available, so their criticism was through listening and commenting. How different it is now. Our writing group, Scribblers and Scribes of Bella Vista, has the advantage of receiving works ahead of time and taking time to read and make comments in writing. We also read and comment at our monthly meetings (soon to be twice a month), but typically have copies of what others are reading.

But, I must go back to the book and close. If you’re interested in C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, their books, their circles, how writers go about their business, this is an excellent read. I highly recommend it—again.

Bible study, Health, home improvements, Writing

A Busy Day With A Twist

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Writing the Leader’s Guide for this has taken more time than writing the book, and it’s just as long.

Here it is Friday evening, and I’m just now getting to my post for today. I have three book reviews backed up, but I haven’t felt like writing those posts yet. They take a little more time to write, and with other things going on I didn’t feel like taking that time.

Today was very busy. I started at the computer, with my end-of-week stock trading tasks. At the same time I was putting finishing touches on the leader’s guide for Acts Of Faith. There may be one chapter that I need to do just a little more work on, but, except for that chapter, I believe I’m done. Over the weekend I’ll re-read it, add that little bit of stuff, and it will be done.

After that I went outside to continue clearing downed tree trunks away from the lot south of us. Midway through my first saw cut my left baby toe started hurting, suddenly and badly. I thought I must have done something to break my toe. I couldn’t work without pain, so I sat down on the tree trunk and pulled my shoe off to find a nail through it. It wasn’t stuck in my toe, but I couldn’t tell if it had punctured it or not.

I had wanted to work about an hour and a half, but I decided to cut it off at an hour. I got a lot done after the nail incident. I knew, however, I needed to get inside and find out what I’d done to my toe. I soaked my feet in Epsom salts, then looked at it and had my wife look also. Neither of us could find a puncture mark. Still, I contacted my doctor about it. My last tetanus shot was eight years ago. I heard back from the nurse and she said yes, I needed to get the shot.

We had to go pick up our newer van from the body shop, and I had to go by Lowe’s to return a light and pick up the right one. After that I went by the pharmacy and got the shot. They say it’s going to hurt for up to three days, but so far no pain. Nor does my toe hurt. I think that the nail, while it punctured my sneaker, didn’t puncture the skin.

So now it’s evening. We’re done with supper and watching a little tv. I’m about to get us some dessert (probably some fruit). I hope to read a little later.

One thing I learned recently, that just really came to my consciousness today, was that writing the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith has been significantly more time consuming than writing the Bible study was. It’s also almost as long as the Bible study, both in words and page length. I don’t know how long it will now take me to get it to market, but I hope in a week for the e-book. I hadn’t planned on issuing it as a print book, but perhaps I will. I’ll have to think about that.

Bible study, C.S. Lewis, home improvements, Writing

A Blustery, Productive Day

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Sleet has turned to snow. Not much accumulation expected.

Hello winter, on Veterans Day. At midnight we were 50 degrees. We woke up to 39 degrees and falling. Right now it’s 25. The wind is howling and snow is falling. If it were continuous snow and heavier this would be a blizzard. That’s okay by me. I’ve nowhere to go tonight, no reason to leave the house except for getting something I left in the van last night.

I’ve been productive today. I was up at 6:45 a.m. Before long I was in The Dungeon with coffee. For about two hours I split my time between working on my book in progress and stock trading. Did some general reading as well. I put in four options trades, all rolling out existing positions. Three of the four filled at my limit. I touched-up and expanded another chapter in the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. That’s only three of 17 chapters that have the expanded information in the Leader’s Guide, but at least it’s a start. I fear, if I continue along this path, I’ll never get it done. There’s always something more I can add.

The cardinal was much prettier from my view. A downy woodpecker is at that feeder now, but I don’t think I’ll be able to capture him.

After breakfast around 9, with a little sleet coming down, the wind whipping the trees, and leaves rapidly leaving their branches, I broke with my routine and came out to the sunroom. While I have two books I’m currently reading for research, I decided to start a new one for pleasure. It’s a book of essays edited by C.S. Lewis. Only one of the essays is by him. One is by Tolkien, the others by other of their friends. I’m going to enjoy this, I think, if I understand it. I managed to get through the 10 page Preface today.

Inside around 10:30, I did a little work to use existing materials to “build-in” the microwave over the oven. This has been open for a while, the wife didn’t like it, but trying to get a suitable build-in kit to fit a 30+ year old opening is difficult. I managed to get the old kit to work, and it looks presentable if not perfect. They I began putting furniture back in place in the living room. It had all been moved last week for carpet shampooing. I finished the cleaning on Saturday, put some furniture back yesterday, and finished the living room today. I hope to get three heavy pieces back in place in the entryway, and that pre-Thanksgiving company work will be done.

Then I began a task for my old company, an engineering review of a submittal for a project in the City of Centerton. I spent over two hours on that, taking a detailed look at the drawings and assembling my comments. I still have the drainage report to review, which I will do either tonight or tomorrow. This works keeps me in coffee money.

Coffee, books, a computer on my lap, snow and wind outside, cool temperatures inside. What more do I need right now?

Speaking of which, after retrieving that item from the van (and foolishly checking the mailbox, forgetting this is a mail holiday), I heated some coffee and came once again to the sun room. The sleet has turned to snow—not much snow, just enough to make it feel like winter. This is an early snow for us, although last year we got our first snow on November 13th or 14th, so about the same.

For the first time I’ve taken my computer to the sun room and am typing this post there. In front of me is the deck, snow and leaves showing, birds coming to the feeders. To my rights I see the tops of pin oaks being whipped by the wind. To my left is my reading table piled with too many books, also with my coffee. The temperature out here is 59 to 60 degrees; just enough to keep the plants comfortable, and about where I like it.

A big gust just blew snow off the roof in a very picturesque way. I need to wrap up this post, get some photos loaded, then get to my research reading. I’ll have over an hour and a half for that before supper. Unless I decide to make that cauliflower/sweet potato dish. I’m thinking about that.

Christmas, family, home improvements

The Holiday Crunch Time Has Begun

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Yesterday we began the big clean-up. Not just of clutter. We’ve actually been doing a relatively good job the last few months of not letting the clutter get away from us. No, this is the Big Clean-up, the kind that requires hours and takes a lot of concentration and effort.

Maybe I should say the Big Preparation, because after the clean-up comes decorating for Christmas. I’m not one to decorate early for Christmas, but this year everyone is coming for Thanksgiving. We want to be decorated for Christmas, so that’s a big amount of work.

Yesterday we began this all. The main concern is the carpet in the public places of the house, which is in much need of shampooing. But first, of course, we had to dust and vacuum. We did the dusting in the main public areas, and vacuumed the dining room, hall bathroom, and main traffic ways between rooms. I then did the shampooing in the rooms that I vacuumed. I figure on doing this in three or four segments, allowing us to move about the house with minimal restrictions while the carpet is drying.

This morning I checked, and the carpet looks good where I worked yesterday. I see one spot I may need to re-do; I’ll have to wait until the sun is more fully on it. But, at first look I’m pleased.

Today, the living room. Tomorrow the entryway. After that, Christmas decorations commence. Writing takes a back seat for a little while.

Bible study, C.S. Lewis, poetry

Late In The Day

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This morning, when I should have been writing a blog post, I worked on a financial spreadsheet. Now in my 11th month of retirement, knowing what our financial condition is at present, I had never made any projections into the future. This morning, in about an hour, I was able to build a nice spreadsheet to make those projections. It’s not done yet, but it’s close. I need to enhance the formatting, and maybe add another bell or whistle or two, but I’m pleased with the progress I made. It was long overdue.

Now it’s evening. I had a busy Monday with taking the wife to a doctor appointment, doing a couple of errands while she was busy. At home I changed out our modem, which was two generations old. I walked to the post office and mailed a copy of Acts Of Faith to a former pastor.

After that I read, finishing C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. I’ll be writing a book review of it soon. I did a little research for teaching AOF, and have somewhat relaxed in the evening. Through this I had no time for original writing. Yet this evening I anticipate some reading for research in a future book, or maybe in the Leader’s Guide for AOF.

I wanted to start another book, something closer to pleasure reading, since all my recent reading has been or still is in support of my current works-in-progress or future planned works. I also wanted to grab something off my reading pile, which is on a bookshelf in my closet. I went in there and found the perfect book: Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Readers of this blog will know I love reading letters (though I haven’t written about that for a while). I don’t know a lot about Rilke, so I’m looking forward to knowing more about him through his letters.

I guess, since I consider myself a poet of sorts, I can’t say this is completely a read for pleasure. I’ll see where this leads me. As always, I’ll report back with a review.

Church History Novels, critique group, goals, Sharon Williams short stories

October Accomplishments; November Goals

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It’s Friday, so a regular posting day. And, it’s the first of the month; time to blog about achievements and goals. Here are the goals I set at the beginning of October, and how I did on them.

  1. Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. Almost made this. I missed last Monday.
  2. Finish the short story “Tango Delta Foxtrot” and come close to finishing the editing process. Shared the first scene with my writing group, for critique later. Didn’t work on this at all. Other writing wound up taking precedent.
  3. Attend writing groups on the 9th and 16th. Yup, did this. I enjoy going to my writing groups.
  4. Finish the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. As of this morning I’m a little more than halfway done with it. This is doable, though might be a stretch. If I get it written, publishing will be in another month. I am very close on this. I think it’s just a chapter and a half of new writing to do, then go back and format it for e-book. I had a snag thrown at me on this, concerning how much I need to write about the second part of each chapter. My thoughts right now are to finish it as intended, then perhaps go back later and expand it.
  5. Issue my first newsletter. It may be shorter than I want, and may not have as many items as I planned, and for sure won’t have a lot of subscribers, but, hopefully, it will go out. I did not do this. I’m not sure why I hesitate, but I do.
  6. Continue an aggressive reading program, at least an hour a day. I’m in the midst of two books, one in print and one e-book. I should finish both and start one or two more. Yes, I continued this reading program, and perhaps expanded it a little. Some of it is for research on my next church history novel.

So, all it all October wasn’t a particularly good month for achieving goals.  I’ll try again in November, though with much family coming for Thanksgiving, achieving any goals may be difficult.

  1. As always, blog twice a week on Monday and Friday. I may have to write some ahead and schedule their posting.
  2. Attend writing groups. One group is considering adding a second meeting in the month, so it might be three instead of two meetings total for the two groups.
  3. Finish Tango Delta Foxtrot. I think this is about two hours of writing. Surely I can do that.
  4. Finish reading in two books that are research for The Teachings. This is quite doable. I’m not reading all of Josephus—just enough to know about a certain action in Jerusalem at the beginning of the war in 66 a.d.
  5. Finish the Leader’s Guide for Acts Of Faith. This should be doable, in the original concept only. I’ll be working toward publishing it in December, most likely as an e-book only.

I think that’s it. I may be able to accomplish a couple of other things. If so, I’ll report on them on or around December first.

Author | Engineer