Some Writing Updates And Other News

Hello Readers!

How are you all doing in this crazy time? Well, I hope. So far my family and I are doing okay. My eldest son did get the virus, but, thankfully, mildly. He wasn’t with us at the time, so we weren’t in any danger of getting it handed to us. I am considered at risk, so it was good he was living elsewhere at the time.

I don’t mind the isolation. It’s given me the opportunity to chill and get back to writing and some deeper Bible study. I haven’t been in a store in months. We do the online shopping/pickup thing with Walmart and Aldi. And, of course, Amazon. I may never see the inside of a store again. Nor will I be buying some products from local stores. Got better deals through Amazon for a few staples.

I apologize for the long interval in posting. When last I wrote, we were in the process of buying a new place, and I’m afraid all writing projects got shelved for some time. I’m sure you can imagine the fun of packing and moving . . . and then unpacking . . . I’m determined that this will be our last move! I am the one who does 99% of the packing and unpacking, so yeah . . . last time! Getting too old for this crap!

Each time we have moved, more stuff seems to get lost. Which is annoying, but it’s certainly pared down what we have to find places for. This is a much bigger place than our last one. We came from stuffing ourselves into a bitty little mobile home – about 600 square feet for four and some animals. Very small yard with NO privacy. I have social anxieties, so in the five years we lived there, I never went outside much – to a mobile home 14X80. And a yard that’s at least private on one side and much, much bigger. AND a river that flows on the private side. So cool! Oh, and train tracks just across the river. Love hearing both the sounds of the river flowing and the trains going by. Although, with the Covid thing, they haven’t been running as often as they were before.

I have a bigger office to write in, a bigger master bedroom, and a bedroom for the boys. Closets! There were no closets in the last place. The place has a sun room that for us is more of a sunny mudroom. After a year here, that room still needs some tending to. Hoping that can happen soon. Like this week . . .!

Even our animals are happier here than where we were. We’re able to let our cat, Sinatra, outside. In fact, we no longer have a litter box in the house. Took a year for him to get used to the idea, but it finally happened. So  happy!

Our Rat terrier mix, Kai Cei, goes out to sun herself on the porch. We have to hook her up, or she’ll wander off. She’s 14 now, and hard of hearing. Pretty mellow little girl, who doesn’t chase anyone’s cats anymore. But–don’t let her catch sight of a chicken.

And our neighbors have several. So far we’ve only had to fear for them once. I don’t mind them wandering over when they are let loose for a while. They eat ticks and other such creatures, so I’m happy to see them over here on the rare occasions they’re allowed out of their pen.

As for my writing endeavors, I’ve resumed writing the third in my romance series, and have done many new edits on the others, which I haven’t released yet. As the third book is a continuation of the other two – kind of, sort of – I need to make sure they all mesh before I release them again.

Which I’m eager to do, as they have brand new covers, brand new titles, and have been updated a good bit. Gotta love ebooks. So easy to fix the flaws, add new content, make a new cover, and republish. Now if I could only  hit upon the sweet spot for price.

Ride ‘Em Tough continues to be the most popular of my short stories. Thanks to Eustace got a new cover and has seen some action for that. I revised it as well, and am much happier with it. Ending is much better now, I think.

Once I relaunch the romances, I’ll be reducing their price back to where it was. And I’ll be bundling the three together. So I’m hoping I can finish Stormi’s story soon. I reread what I wrote in an earlier version and absolutely hated most of it! I don’t know what I was thinking. What I have now is so much better. So letting some time go by does help the creative process for sure.

A train is going by now. With bells and whistles! It’s 2:15 am. I should be in bed! Heading off now. Seems like that train is longish one. Could be 100+ cars! Love those!

Night!

 

 

 

 

So . . . Yeah . . . I Write Poems . . . Sometimes . . .

Not often. Haven’t written a poem since, well, 2001 maybe, or 02. Oh, no, wait! Wrote one this year . . . for Thomasyna. Rather an amusing verse, not probably a perfect rhyme, but hey–she threw it together in a few minutes. Being in a hurry, you understand. Maybe I’ll post it here as well, but it’s in one of the last four chapters of the book.

Wrote my first good one back in the ’70s, and it’s the one that gets a lot of attention on the two sites I have it posted. I don’t actually frequent these two writer’s site, although I pay for one of them. Just wasn’t feeling I was going anywhere with them. I’ve since returned to them, having decided to try to make a go of them.

Thing is, joining any sort of social site is a little agonizing and overwhelming to me. I have social anxieties;  online rooms are just the same to me as a real room packed with people. Doesn’t matter if I know each and every person there or it’s full of strangers. The feelings are just the same no matter what. After a while, I want to run. Or, I’m frozen in the seat I’ve dropped down in, and likely won’t move out of it until my courage totally fails, or everyone else has left the building.

Makes life a little tough. Especially when, as an author, I’m supposed to be networking and getting my name out there by whatever means will work. And since these two sites have generated the most feedback for me on my poems and short stories, you’d think I’d’ve stuck with it. Maybe built a bigger reader base.

Same thing for my author websites and even the personal ones. I sit here staring at the screen, willing my fingers to work, and often they run scared. Brain shuts down . . . ideas freeze . . . and the sites are neglected. Visitors quit coming, cobwebs shroud what’s already there . . .

Big sad mess.

Anyway, I’ve decided to bring those poems out into the open and post the reviews of them here. Tell the story behind each one. I’ve found it amusing to discover the different views each reviewer takes on them. Read the poems and their corresponding reviews and see if you agree or have a different opinion!