A Time of Family - and Reuniting

I hope your family is in good spirits, and considerate of each other during these holidays. Ours were, even our cows. (And yes, I continued writing and publishing during all this...)

Hi,

Thanks again for being here and opening this. For being part of this community.

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• Farming News - Cows found new pasture by the house - imperfectly.

• Writing News - Covers for three paperbacks pending, research continues into writing craft.

• Fiction News - The Hooman Saga continues its serial. New TOC page.

• Expectancy Factor - Attitude and Vision go hand in hand toward Success.

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Farming News

Dry and warmer now.

Cows found their way up to the pastures by the main house. Some hole in the fence I’ll have to find later. For now, they are good to graze there.

This was fortunate, since Mother wanted them up at the house so our younger family members could see them up close. And I wanted them to be able to graze the areas by the house through January and so leave those bales until February.

The unfortunate part was leaving some of their calves looking for that hole - and if they can’t track the trace of the cows, they’ll wander to get as close as they can as the crow flies.

So it was a noisy night, with calves and cows calling to each other. But they start and stop this in pieces of time, alternating with quiet.

I’m writing this newsletter over a few days, since Christmas is on Wednesday - the time I usually use to cobble this together.

This morning is Tuesday, Christmas eve. And once there is enough light, I’ll be out to open a few gates and reunite the momma cows and calves.

All before breakfast, which has the tradition of a breakfast at my sister’s nearby. Timing has to be pretty good on all this. Because breakfast is at 8am, and sunrise is 7:25. I don’t like my cows to be stressed, but it’s OK to stress myself, I guess.

Coffee next.

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Yes, I found some time in the early morning around here to get the cows and calves back together. And the next night was quiet. And yes, I’m still wondering about the holes they found to exploit. Maybe I’ll have time today to go and find/repair them.

Otherwise, another enjoyable Christmas is complete. Relatives are all relative - you have to take their words and action into consideration. And that’s the point of living thorugh these visits - being considerate, regardless of how you are treated. Everyone is there to touch base, to connect, to update themselves.

Two busy days of visiting with those who’ve travelled here and travelling to visit others nearby. Meanwhile, the farm is the base I come back to. As I always have.

Mine is living in the luxury of wide open spaces - not the prairies or Montana. Still, I remarked to my wife how some roads we travel on are perfect in their opens space and their quiet. There’s those perfect moments which are enjoyable in short or long stretches — that make life so much more livable.

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Little Orphan Andy is doing well. He’s decided to stay by the barn instead of with the herd. Even though the gates are all open. I’ve been feeding him some corn mix daily, as well as putting some hay out. Mainly so that this doesn’t get eaten up by other cows and he has some extra nutrients to grow with.

Without his momma’s milk (unfortunately weaned at four months) he doesn’t get all the nutrients he needs. Corn mix has protein and hay has roughage. He also has all the green fescue and other grasses that will grow in this weather. And I have the special minerals that I provide to other cows.

I’m thinking he should get a pan of apple cider vinegar with apple slush in it, as this will give him probiotics to help his digestion.

In short, he’s being pampered. To make up for his hard life so far.

Plans are to keep him around as a first-heifer bull - as he’ll be stunted and lighter than my main bull (who is continuing to gain weight).

And that leads us into the chess game we do around here with two herds in the Spring (but more about that later.)

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Tiny Home News

Told my gravel guy to go ahead and do our driveway and level that ground out for the new shed base. He said the ground was going to have to dry out or freeze first.

I should get my personal loan this week. Just wanting to get the right time to have that conversation. After Christmas.

I pass by the site twice daily on my pasture walks, so it’s a practice in visualizing what’s coming soon.

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Writing News

I’ve had to put off my next research and compiling - because I got an idea this last week to publish two study guides. These are now published as ebooks on my aggregator (Draft2Digital) and making their way through the distributors. After that will be creating paperbacks, which is a lot more detail-intensive. They are about 400 pages each.

One point of these books is to introduce writers in how to dissect classic works so you learn how books are made. The perennial-selling classics keep selling because they duplicate the age-old plots and models we had since caveman days and still look for. But in those books are also the scenes and technical devices which made those great books great. Your new version is based on that eternal model and just updated. If you do it right, you have another perennial-selling book of your own.

The third member of the OU Professional Writing team in its heyday was Dwight V. Swain. His “Techniques of the Selling Writer” is still in print. What I found recently is that after he was hired on to that faculty, he kept writing and selling his pulp fiction in the early 50’s. So that makes a usable way to see his examples of what he was teaching.

I’ve got 8 of his novella’s, which will set into two thick paperback-sized books so the readers of my Writerpreneur Guides can now dissect his work to see how he walked his own talk. He wrote Sci-Fi action stories, but the “genre” doesn’t matter when you’re looking for successful story structure.

Again, you combine Brande and W. S. Campbell’s approaches, where you read for impression, then read backwards to dissect, then read a third time to see any other elements or devices you may have missed.

I’m still wrestling these two new books into paperback, in addition to that “Lost Books” volume I was in progress on (and is also now published as an ebook) — well, it’s a fight between all the farm work, holidays, and those.

That makes three books published this week. I’m catching up.

Another Breakthrough

I’ve been working on these Campbell books for some time. I want to use his texts to bring his stuff back to use. There are four books, nearly a thousand pages, and all out of print - but not out of copyright. So that makes it a revamp/rehash job.

Also, it’s writing style runs from near-academic to a modern style out of the 50’s. The idea is to bring it back into a more readable style.

Yesterday, I saw what I needed to do. There is no real need to bring all of it back. I really just need to write the book I’ve been needing - which is what I haven’t found anyone else covered. Essentially, what made this course so successful.

The bottom line is that their instructors collaborated with their students every week on what they were writing. Short of that, I can bring these text books out which students can learn on their own and self-critique their works, comparing them to other perennial-selling classics.

That was the reason for bringing those two Swain study guides out this week. And when you take them to study their craft, they are amazing. Sure, you have to get by your own genre preferences, as they are all 50’s pulp Sci-Fi, but how Swain gets you started and keeps you riveted is a good model. Plus, a pro writer can study any book in any genre (even academic) and improve their own craft.

After I get those books above pushed through print-on-demand (and my holiday visitors gone, plus an annual farm calendar I’d forgotten until 3am this morning) then I’ll be simply extracting, organizing, and revamping all this into shape. Then bring them out as 200-400 page paperbacks.

Most of my income comes from non-fiction paperbacks. But to write good non-fiction, you have to really master fiction writing and copywriting.

So the wheel turns.

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Also published this week (ICYMI):

Writerpreneur Guideposts

This fifth lesson continues an 8-part mini-course covers the eight elements of getting your book marketed. Three more chapters to go. This one examines the story of one of the most viral marketing examples of this last century - and how one radio celebrity made himself a millionaire after one recording. Yes, this is broken down into key principles.

Fiction Posts

Sue is continues to learn from Tig about this Earth, which is quite different from the world she read about in her textbooks on the Moon.

The trek continues toward the wolve’s protected valley, while she has to run in her clumsy space suit to keep up - because danger trails them…

If you can’t wait to see how this comes out, Here’s the book link to get your copy.

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Expectancy Tips

You can and should have an overall encompassing vision for your life. What you want to accomplish and what quality you want to live your life at.

Nightingale pointed out a lot about attitude. Because it was the core of his own studies into goal achievement. Attitude is actually prior to deciding on your vision — but you come back to this and refine it once you have your core vision pretty well set. Attitude is always malleable. Whild you can decide to have a chronic expression and approach to the world around you, you can also decide what is the best attitude to approach life with to achieve your vision. Whether a vision is hard or easy to achieve has a great deal to do with your own attitude toward it and toward the world.

Nightingale held that one should have a calm, cheeful, expectant attitude at all times. And that you should practice this every day, for 30 days — to make it into a habit.

Certainly, a smile is the most rewarding thing you can give away. And if you find yourself sour for any reason, going around to cheer people up is a great way to cheer yourself up. You only get as good as you give, goes the old saying.

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Thanks for being there, opening this.

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I hope your life is not too interesting to be overwhelming, but sufficiently engaging to keep you amused. (Like some of us here...)

Robert

PS. Again, you can always email me about anything.

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Pssst — This sale is rolling along… Lots of great indie writers out there.

My books are found under: Robert C. Worstell, S. H. Marpel, C. C. Brower, J. R. Kruze, R. L. Saunders