Goals and Life

When I started this blog in the summer of 2012, my intention was to share my writing story and my writing goals. I did well with that for quite a few years, posting long lists of goals I had for each week and how many of them I had accomplished the previous week. All while I was still working full-time!

I don’t know what happened. Life, I guess, but for the last three or four years, I’ve been posting here very sporadically. I think it’s time to put the train back on the tracks.

Last summer, I started writing on paper in a tablet my weekly goals. I think it helps to have that pad of paper staring at me whenever I sit at my laptop in my office. That doesn’t mean I am a rock star about accomplishing what I’ve written down, but at least it reminds me of what I wanted to do.

On that list for this week is:

1)     Study 3 John. Last summer I returned to the Bible Study group I had gone to seven years ago, but then when I went back to work parttime in September, I was no longer able to attend. I've been trying to keep up with what they are reading each week and hope to return to the group soon.

2)     Sew 2 bags. I mentioned those two weeks ago. The little book bags I’ve been sewing to sell with my books at upcoming craft shows.

3)     Edit the Covid Chronicles. Back when the Covid-19 pandemic hit three years ago, I started writing a journal of how my days were going, especially what it was like working in a family practice clinic and all the challenges we went through. I’d like to publish it, but sometimes I still don’t know; it's pretty personal. I’ll see how I feel after I get through this round of edits.

4)     Do something with health insurance. Well, this is too long a story to write about here, but I’ll just say that as I get closer to being fully retired, I need to get some sort of health coverage and marketplace insurance didn’t work out for me when I was on it for four months last year.

5)     Vacuum and wash the car. It certainly needed it, but the real factor was that Hubs and I have been talking about buying a different vehicle so I thought my current one should look presentable as a trade-in. 

Here it is Friday, and I can say that even though I haven’t accomplished all these goals yet this week, I have at least worked on all of them. 

Hmm? So here’s the question. Do I write this blog on Fridays and switch my list from Sunday thru Saturday over to Friday through Thursday? Or figure out a day of the week that works better for this blog? Can you see why I have such a hard time checking off anything on that list?

Oh, and one last thing. I need to do something to promote my latest book every week. I know you are sick and tired of hearing about it and even though I have two reviews on Amazon now, I need to keep pushing it! 

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading. Chris

And, as mentioned last week, I'm always planning road trips. 

 

A Plea and Other News

I’ve spent the last four months publishing and promoting my latest book, “Prior to Now”. You’re probably tired of hearing about it, but I’ll have to keep bugging you. My current goal is to get a dozen reviews, so if you shop Amazon.com and have read my novel, please, please, PLEASE write a review. Even if you didn’t particularly care for this book, mediocre reviews carry more weight than none.

The other bit of news which I have not shared is regarding the first three books I wrote.

Jeremiah Zeiset took a chance on me ten years ago and published my first book, my memoir, “A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven”. His publishing company was Life Sentence Publishing at that time, but over the years, as their focus evolved, the name changed to Aneko Press. Jeremiah and the rest of his staff are wonderful to work with, have always responded to my annoying emails within hours, and treat their authors like friends.  

“A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven” was published in the fall of 2012, and the two devotionals followed a few years later. After any books have been in print for that long, sales dwindle. Thanks to the capability of Amazon to print books on-demand, they aren’t languishing on a book store shelf somewhere, but they still languish in the virtual world.  

Jeremiah contacted me a few months ago, asking if his organization could turn those books over to me. He would no longer have to keep track of those few sales the books are making, and I would have control over promotions, prices, and any future edits I thought were needed. It was a win-win situation for me and Aneko Press. But I do have to admit to a momentary grief as I cut ties with the publisher who gave me my start. I’ll forever be grateful to Jeremiah for that.

So, moving on, I might mention those three books a little bit more here and on my social media. Each of my books is a baby of mine, and I will never let one of them slip away.

Have a good weekend. Chris

 

All Sorts of News

So much has been happening over the last few weeks. Yes, copies of my latest book, “Prior to Now”, have arrived, and I’ve sold eleven of them so far. Initially, I only ordered twenty, so I really need to order another batch this weekend.

I also signed up to sell them at three craft shows in the next two months. Last spring, I got this crazy idea to sew little bags for all my co-workers when I retired (which never happened – the retiring part, not the bag sewing). A few months ago, I came up with another crazy idea – to sew bags to sell with my books.

I have totes full of scraps of fabric. I collect pieces of cloth like my husband used to collect comic books. In my spare time, I could sew dozens of these book-size bags. But then again, since I haven’t retired yet, I don’t have nearly as much spare time as I had planned.

In between sewing and pushing my new novel on people, I’ve also been editing the Chronicles of Coping with Covid, which I started writing just under three years ago. I’m still not sure what I will do with the finished project. Publishing to Amazon all on my own gives me a bit of a rush. I mean, yes, it’s time-consuming and frustrating at times, but so gratifying in the end. We’ll see. It’s kind of scary reading what I wrote during those worst months of the pandemic; it really sounds like I lost my mind. Would reading what I went through help anyone who went through the same slipping away of their sanity?

But the most exciting thing that happened this week, which I had no control over, was that I received my first review on Amazon. And it was more glowing than I could ever have dreamed. Did I really write a book worthy of that praise?

Read “Prior to Now”, and then you tell me.

Have a great weekend, Chris 

The fight is over and much thanks to you all

Hands down, without a shadow of a doubt, the best day in the life of a writer is when that box of books is delivered.

Getting “Prior to Now” to print has been a long, arduous journey. As many authors would probably admit, writing the book is the easy part. Editing it, publishing it, printing it and selling it are all the bigger challenges.

It dawned on me just now, that even though I’ve shared short excerpts from the book here already, that the following excerpt, way at the very end, is the one I need to share today.

 

Acknowledgments

For me, writing is a fairly hermit-like process. I always hate asking people for help, and with access to just about anything via the internet, I can find most of my answers without bugging anyone. But sometimes, there is nothing like interacting with a live human being.

My thanks go out to the following people:

•Sherry Kropidlowski for coming up with the title.

•Joyce Repinski for being the second person to read the book and give me some helpful pointers. (Of course, my husband was the first to read it; he is appreciated more than words can ever express.)

•Rita Davis for all the suggestions on making the story easier to follow.

•Denise Dorsey-LaCanne for being my most supportive friend over the final few months of this writing process. 

•Nick Confer, my son, for spending hours getting me through the technical snags of getting this in print.

•Val Confer, my daughter, for giving me her laptop when mine died just before I started formatting this book. 

•Ryan Schlader, from Linn County, Iowa, for clarification regarding cellars during the time and place of Prior Gulch.

•Dave Baltes, retired Army Colonel, for his insight into pre-Civil War weapons.

•David, from Milton Historical Society, for the informative tour of the Milton House Museum. I’m sorry that I didn’t get his last name. 

There are probably many more people out there who have helped me out in the smallest way, even if it was just praying for my success. I’m sorry that I can’t acknowledge you all. Just so you know, you are all important to me.

Chris 

A Snippet and Insight

I read this headline on-line this morning: “Critics say Florida aims to rewrite history by rejecting African American studies.” Click this link for the article.

And here’s a snippet from my latest novel.

          “And now, it’s illegal in this country to talk about our ethnicity,” Ellen was the first to sober. “Or about anything which makes us different from each other.”

“Which is why the government has sent us on this stupid mission,” Kimberly replied.

“I wish they weren’t rewriting history this way.”  

Michael laid a hand on Ellen’s arm. “Others may do it, but we aren’t going to rewrite history.”

“That’s right,” Kimberly hadn’t wiped the grin from her face. “But we can rewrite the now.”

The original working title for this book was “Save Our School”. I know. Dumb. But my working title usually is; the words all have to be written before a few stand out and ask to grace the cover.

My next title was: “Rewrite the Now”, which came, obviously from these lines. Much better than the first title, but still not the zinger.

On one of my blog posts about the book a while back, when I was asking about possible covers and titles, one of Hubby’s cousins came up with “Prior to Now”. Love, love, love it. Perfect. Says it all.

When I came up with the name for the town where the story takes place – Prior Gulch – I didn’t plan on using it in the title. I guess it all works out.

So there’s a little book background for you as well as insight into why this story is prevalent today.

Dred Scott and his wife outside the courthouse in St Louis. Have you all read his story? Or has it already been erased from our history books?  

Click this link to order your copy of “Prior to Now”. Once you’ve read it, I would really appreciate your review on Amazon. Thanks a million. 

FINALLY!!!

On December 5, I released the e-version of my latest novel, “Prior to Now”. I planned on releasing the print version just a few weeks later. It was basically ready to go, only needed work on formatting.

But as you may recall, my laptop died and I had to borrow my daughter’s for a few weeks. Our internet went out shortly before that, came back on for nearly a month and then went down again. The entire time, I continued trying to get the darn thing formatted on Amazon’s platform. My son worked with me on it for hours; we were getting so close.

Finally, last Wednesday, I thought it looked pretty good online and ordered a second proof. The first proof, which I received on December 16, had two unforgiveable mistakes. I quickly fixed them and suddenly everything went awry. Two little mistakes! And I wasted a month getting the stupid manuscript formatted again. I don’t know what happened, and I nearly gave up on it a few times.

Sure, the e-book was languishing out in cyber-space and hopefully on the electronic devices of a few readers, and I can’t explain all the mistakes in that version! I need to redo it, but as you can imagine, I am pretty gun-shy about touching anything anymore.

Sorry to ramble. Last Wednesday, shortly after ordering that latest proof of the paperback, my laptop ran aground again. This time with what I feared was a virus, an insidious worm crawling into the very meat of the device, tearing at the fabric of everything I had stored on it. My overactive imagination pictured all of my writing – including that final copy of “Prior to Now” – becoming infected with smut and profanity. My beloved characters bleeding out and never realizing the dreams they had been striving to achieve.

Oh, my goodness, no wonder I don’t sleep at night!

Anyway, Hubby and I broke down and took both our computers to a computer doctor. Hubby’s desktop was released back to us after a cursory exam, but they admitted my laptop for complete testing – I imagine things like an MRI and complete lab work. Okay, not really.

When I picked it up this past Wednesday and Dr. Kyle gave it a clean bill of health, tears sprung into my eyes. I told Kyle that this was even better news than when they told me my colonoscopy was normal. I know – I’m the one who needs to see a doctor, the kind commonly called a shrink.

Oh, and while, the laptop was in the hospital, I got a message on my phone saying that my Amazon book order couldn’t be delivered on Monday. Well, we were in the middle of an ice storm that day, so I wasn’t surprised, but was still disappointed that the copy of my book was waylaid two more days. 

When it finally arrived in my mailbox, shortly after I picked up the laptop, I thought that maybe, just maybe, things had turned around. That I would be able to release the paper version yet this week.

And – ta-da – there it is! With two tiny little errors which I just did not have the strength to fix. Find the errors and I’ll give you a prize. Maybe one of my other books. But you have to buy “Prior to Now” first. And after you’ve read it, a review would be awesome. I need the money to pay for my counseling sessions. 

Fresh out of high school in the late 1850s, Emma Thomas becomes the schoolmarm in the small town of Prior Gulch. She is devoted to the students she teaches but has also been entrusted with keeping a secret about her schoolhouse.

Sarah Ford is in her thirties and recently divorced. Nearly two hundred years after the schoolhouse was built, Sarah moves into the house next door and soon learns of the old building’s secret.

Pushing sixty, Ellen Jenkins has been working for the federal government for ten years. She and her team are sent to the schoolhouse to destroy it because of its secret, but she will do anything to save it.

What is the secret of this small brick building? And will these three committed women be able to save its history?

"Prior to Now" available now in e-book and paper version on Amazon.com. 

Click here to order yours. 

I'll have signed copies available also in a week or two. 

Still Struggling

 My apologies that it has been nearly a month since I posted an update on my latest novel, “Prior to Now.” The technological setbacks have snowballed, and though the e-version is available (despite its imperfections), the print version is still a nightmare.

I’ve lost track of how many versions of it I have uploaded to Amazon and after hours of reviewing each, have still found formatting errors. I don’t remember having any of these problems with the last book, “The Truth Beyond the River.” I think it took two run-throughs for me to be satisfied with it.

Anyway, with any amount of luck, I’ll get the latest copy approved by today or tomorrow and make it available for purchase.  

In the meantime, here’s another excerpt. It’s short, but I share it to remind myself – to remind us all – that we really don’t have that much to complain about.

Emma dressed the injuries of field hands whose backs were covered with fresh wounds on top of jagged scars. She comforted crying babies when their mothers drifted off to sleep, too exhausted to hold them after their exodus. The men and women had marched through woods and fields for several nights in a row, hiding during the day in dried-up river beds or abandoned sheds or in the mire under the feet of lowing cattle in barns.

Click on this link to download the e-book, or maybe, by the time you read this, the print version will be there as well. Chris 

Prior to Now by Chris Loehmer Kincaid