We invited daughter Tiffany and her husband Kenny, along with granddaughter Hailey, her husband Toby, and great-grandbaby Tyler, over for dinner yesterday. It was going to be a simple affair of hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, along with baked beans and homemade potato salad, but Terry still had to run to the grocery […]
Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that we didn’t get any rain yesterday. The good news is that the temperature was in the upper 70s, and I took advantage of it to finally get much of the grass mowed in our backyard. It needed it because it was turning […]
The temperature has been hovering around 90° for several days now, and we have not been doing much outside. But it was slightly cooler yesterday, and we took advantage of it. Earlier, during the hottest part of the day, I knocked out another thousand words in my new Tinder Street book. Meanwhile, Terry was busy […]
Well, another one is done! Yesterday afternoon, the e-book of Big Lake Homecoming went live on Amazon. I had hoped to have it out before now, but one of my proofreaders, Roberta, has been out of commission for a while. The book came in at just over 75,000 words, not counting front matter and the […]
I have been busy getting things done for the release of my latest book, Big Lake Homecoming. After Terry edited and proofread the last chapters, I sent them off to Judy and Roberta to go through. I got Judy’s back and made her suggested corrections, and now I am waiting for Roberta’s. I hope to […]
After the usual routine yesterday morning of feeding critters, posting the blog to Facebook, and answering emails, we made a trip to Walmart to pick up a prescription. Back home, I spent some time doing research for the next book in the Tinder Street series while Terry did some banking and paperwork until it cooled […]
We are currently down in the Apache Junction area visiting with Terry’s parents and sisters. Yesterday we had an early Easter dinner with them, with lots of delicious food and great conversation around the table. Family times are definitely the best times. Though this area had triple-digit temperatures for most of March, breaking one record […]
My new book, Debt Collector, went live on Amazon yesterday evening. I uploaded the book at 7:08, and in just over an hour it was available to download or to read on Kindle Unlimited. This is my 62nd book, and the 14th in my John Lee Quarrels series about a small town cop in the […]
Yesterday evening I finished Debt Collector, the 14th book in my John Lee Quarrels series about a small-town Florida deputy. I started writing the book on January 12th and finished March 14th, which was two months and two days. Of course, I didn’t write every one of those days because we have a life, and […]
Is it too early in the week to quote Shakespeare on a Monday morning? I mean, after all, I’m kind of a Renaissance man. Even though we’ve had some chilly nights down into the mid-30s, I was surprised to see a couple of beautiful roses on one of our bushes in the front yard yesterday. […]
A common piece of advice that many authors get is to stick to one genre. If you write science fiction, romance, westerns, or mysteries, those are the books your readers are going to be looking for. Authors are told it will only confuse readers if they suddenly start writing in a different genre than what […]
It took months longer than I had originally planned, because sometimes life gets in the way. But Baby Boom, the seventh book in my Tinder Street family saga, came out yesterday. This is my 60th book, and I’m rather proud of that. A lot happens in this installment of the series, which covers the post-World […]
Terry and I have been working hard to get my new Tinder Street book, Baby Boom, ready to publish on Amazon. She is about halfway through the final read-through, and I’ve been making her suggested corrections as she goes. While Terry was working on the last read-through, I also put together the front matter of […]
Yesterday afternoon I finished writing the last paragraphs of Baby Boom, the seventh book in my Tinder Street family saga. That makes sixty books for me since I began this wild ride, and I’m still having as much fun as I did when I started. I printed those last chapters off for Terry to edit […]
It has been raining off and on for the last three days here in Arizona’s high country. We’re not going to complain a bit because it’s been so dry for so long that our forests desperately need all the moisture they can get. Tomorrow and the next day, the Phoenix area is supposed to get […]
Yesterday was another good writing day for me, somewhere around 3,500 words. I’m getting very close to completing Baby Boom, the seventh book in my Tinder Street family saga. As I mentioned before, each book covers a five-year period, and this one is from 1946 to 1950. I’m now in the final year, and things […]
When I was a kid I frequently heard my father say, “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” I’m sure that’s true, because left to my own devices, I always found some kind of trouble to get into. But one thing happens to all of us as we become adults. We want the next generation to […]
A number of people have sent messages asking if we are safe from the flooding here in Arizona. Yes, we are, and thank you for your concern. The worst of the flooding occurred in the Phoenix area and also in the small town of Globe, which is about 90 minutes south of us, where they […]
Anyone else who does much online research will tell you that it’s very easy to find yourself going down a rabbit hole that you never intended to. It can be a waste of time, but it can also be fascinating. You just never know what you’re going to discover along the way. While doing research […]
After reading yesterday’s blog, several people made comments, sent me Facebook messages, or e-mailed saying they can see the difference in my picture. I’m currently flirting with the 70-pound weight loss mark and hope to get there within the next few days. But everything in life has consequences, both good and bad, right? I have […]