Category: Updates
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Spinning Plates
I remember as a kid watching a juggler balance more spinning plates on sticks & his body than I ever thought possible. While most everyone else in the crowd was fixated on another, more risqué, street festival act, I couldn’t stop watching his antics like pretending to stumble before catching a falling plate at the…
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Something From Scratch
I recently started rereading Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. Not exactly sure why I picked it up—other than the possibility that one of my journal explorations about my current writing process reminded me of something from one of his essays. Even though I’m only a third of the way through it,…
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Comment Tango
As I close in on my two goals of polishing the first 23 episodes of my upcoming serialized novel & honing the book description, it’s time to turn some of my writing attention elsewhere. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, once I release the first four episodes sometime in mid-October, I’ll have nearly two months…
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Midway Mark
Looking back over my previous posts, I realize when it comes to writing, most of my attention centers on process instead of product. No surprise there, but I decided to try shifting that slightly. So, I took a hard look at the scheduling side of setting up my upcoming serialized novel on Kindle Vella. With…
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The Luddite Ring
I can’t help but notice more & more references to the benefits of becoming a social media Luddite. The trend to openly embrace avoiding social media seems to be gaining steam in some quarters, even while more tech advances & opportunities dominate the lives of those in the mainstream. It’s only when I grapple with…
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Message in a Bottle
Not sure what really drives me on to write these posts. Granted, early on the volume of traffic on my blog was substantial enough to make the writing time I dedicate to these posts worthwhile. But given that the number of visitors & views has steadily declined over the past few months toward the single…
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Free Rein
Nothing like coming up with a new title & a finalized book description within a few days of each other. That’s what I get for spending hours & hours on the two of them, especially the latter. It’s crazy how challenging it can be to winnow a book description down to 500 characters—note, dear reader,…
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Diamond in the Rough
As I wrap up my serialized novel to launch on Kindle Vella next month, I can’t help but think of its distant cousins—unfinished novels, stories, scripts, poems, character sketches, & random ideas—whiling away the time in file cabinets, boxes, & on digital gadgets. Of course, I could go the philosophic route by claiming they were…
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The Lag
I’m at an interesting juncture in my independent author’s journey—one that I’ve read about in articles & posts by “experts” & greenhorns alike. For want of a better term, I’m calling it the Lag. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve known all along that Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown might not be the…
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Realignment
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m in the last stage of prepping my first serialized novel to launch on Kindle Vella sometime in September. For me, that means doing my own line & copy editing, as well as proofreading—yes, dear reader, I’ve chosen not to hire an editor at any stage of my…
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Companion Novel, Phase 2
Episodes 1-7 (from summary) When I first decided to serialize the summary for Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown as practice for doing likewise with a companion novel, I thought it might not prove that valuable from a writing standpoint. After all, the summary was already complete & has been available for some time on…
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Episodes Update 7-28-23
Episode Links 1: Bottom Line (6-16-23) 2: Tough Sell (6-23-23) 3: Here On Out (6-30-23) 4: Do Me a Favor (7-7-23) 5: Like Clockwork (7-14-23) 6: Ping Pong Balls (7-21-23) 7. First Deal (7-28-23) Full Story Available Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown Oregon (Brief Description) Before the Meltdown the thought of being tried for…
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Episodes Update 7-21-23
Episode Links 1: Bottom Line (6-16-23) 2: Tough Sell (6-23-23) 3: Here On Out (6-30-23) 4: Do Me a Favor (7-7-23) 5: Like Clockwork (7-14-23) 6: Ping Pong Balls (7-21-23) Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown Oregon (Brief Description) Before the Meltdown the thought of being tried for any crime, let alone gunrunning, never crossed…
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Episodes Update 7-14-23
Episode Links 1: Bottom Line (6-16-23) 2: Tough Sell (6-23-23) 3: Here On Out (6-30-23) 4: Do Me a Favor (7-7-23) 5: Like Clockwork (7-14-23) Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown Oregon (Brief Description) Before the Meltdown the thought of being tried for any crime, let alone gunrunning, never crossed her mind. After all, even…
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Episodes Update 7-7-23
Episode Links 1: Bottom Line (6-16-23) 2: Tough Sell (6-23-23) 3: Here On Out (6-30-23) 4: Do Me a Favor (7-7-23) Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown Oregon (Brief Description) Before the Meltdown the thought of being tried for any crime, let alone gunrunning, never crossed her mind. After all, even the prosecutor had to…
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Episodes Update 6-30-23
Episode Links 1: Bottom Line (6-16-23) 2: Tough Sell (6-23-23) 3: Here On Out (6-30-23) Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown Oregon (Brief Description) Before the Meltdown the thought of being tried for any crime, let alone gunrunning, never crossed her mind. After all, even the prosecutor had to admit in court that until four…
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Episodes Update 6-23-23
Episode Links 1: Bottom Line (6-16-23) 2: Tough Sell (6-23-23) Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown Oregon (Brief Description) Before the Meltdown the thought of being tried for any crime, let alone gunrunning, never crossed her mind. After all, even the prosecutor had to admit in court that until four years ago Pearl was a…
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Episodes Update 6-16-23
Episode Links 1: Bottom Line (6-16-23) Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown Oregon Before the Meltdown the thought of being tried for any crime, let alone gunrunning, never crossed her mind. After all, even the prosecutor had to admit in court that until four years ago Pearl was a pillar of the community with a…
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Experimenting with Episodes
Episode 1 I’m still having such a great time serializing my new/old companion novel I mentioned in previous posts that I decided to try a warm-up practice using Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown. It may seem strange to post separate episodes of a longer sample I’ve been including as a page on this website…
