[LS] Had to print a $$ proof copy. Grass is longer, calf sorting takes the stage.
Spring is when I sort and send. Yearlings who don't make the grade find other homes. Hope springs eternal
Hi,
Pictures of my $60 printed proofing copy are below. Officially looking for beta-readers (free download link also below). Grass is coming along - doesn’t grow if you’re watching it. Investing this week in a lot of farm activity to give me more time for other things later - like writing…
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Farm News - Sorting the yearlings this week. Preparing for new offspring later this month.
Writing News - Bought a print-out of my book and bound it - to help my in-house beta-reader in her welcome role.
Expectancy and Survival - Not as hard as people are saying these days. Let me tell you about safeguarding your food when you shop…
Farming News
My bales are just wisps of their former selves. And I navigated a dry year successfully. So far.
This week was sorting calves and moving some to market. Started off with pregnancy-checking the four heifers I’d saved back last year. Three were fertile, in their last trimester (meaning: on schedule with the rest to have their first calf this spring). One was “open” meaning not-pregnant.
While I was there, I got an appointment to turn five of our yearling (born last year) bull-calves into steers. Since the auction is held on Thursdays, this means sorting out what I don’t want and shipping these. Added to that is getting the heifers I’d saved back last year tagged and let loose. A brother-in-law assisted in getting the heifers tagged and released today. A head count of what I want to save vs. what I can sell at auction tomorrow (as you get this) means I’ll be shipping six bull calves and one heifer.
Always bittersweet, this time of year. Still cute at this age. But I’m hoping they find better homes, and are kept to live long and productive lives.
Oh - the work at getting these calves tagged cost me another phone. Cracked the front screen. But I was wanting another phone anyway - be careful what you expect.
As I said, I’m open to having unpaid interns come out to learn all this… (just bring a ruggedized phone.)
Tiny Home News
Cold this week. But we have a queen-sized bed in that loft, and it’s easier to find each other when we aren’t so far away.
And the hail storm this week passed us in favor of the St. Louis area.
Still, there’s some satisfaction that the ceiling ( that I can reach out and touch while laying in bed) is one I built and know just what it will need to fix - if ever. Still, that metal roof can take a lot of impacts. And we heard the walnuts bounce off it last fall, as you may recall.
Meanwhile, we are planning for a “normal” sized home. Might be a mobile home, might be a “barndominium” (look that one up - fascinating options).
Then this Tiny Home on Wheels will be parked out back as a guest cabin…
Writing News
My in-house beta-reader (yes, my loving wife) is proofing that 250+ page book. So she requested I get a print-out. A virtual trip to the local Staples got it printed out, and an actual trip got it picked up and spiral-bound so the pages don’t go everywhere (at least they are numbered).
Plenty of room at the sides for notes. Because I sent a trade paperback version (6x9 inches) to be printed off on a letter-sized page (8 1/2 by 11 inches).
Funny that this custom printed one cost me over $60 and the full copy with color cover will be around $20 as a paperback - full price.
Still, this makes it possible to read in bed, with highlighters and pens clipped into the spiral.
And I’m officially asking for beta-readers. (But you’ll have to print your own copy from the free download until the paperback comes out.)
Here’s the link: https://livingsensical.gumroad.com/l/WOS01-beta-readers
Find the oopsies. Leave comments, reviews. Ask questions. Be one of the first anywhere.
Between 250 and 300 pages, depending on format. Available are epub and PDF. No charge. (Free download, in other words.)
Nearly 20 years of writing-publishing-entrepreneuring - all rolled into a single book. And updated. Condensed.
Current Book Planning
The copywriting book got a lot of progress this week. It’s a collected book, where I am excerpting other’s work and editing the whole thing into shape. And I’m learning a lot through this - exactly the point.
These books are tools that I’m needing to learn my craft. I’ve got all these books that tell how to do things, but they are longish and thick. Distilling them down to the simple basics is natural to me - editing those into a book where the common data is more easily found gives a trail blazed for others.
Meanwhile, most of the earlier ones I’ve quoted from are in the public domain and I sell editions of these as well. So look forward to a big library for downloading your own. And I’ll get those paperbacks into shape and offered at all distributors as well.
And this writing-publishing a form of learning on its own.
The rough copy is over 350 pages right now, and will get smaller as I whittle it down.
I start out with the classics that show up on every Big Copywriter’s suggested reading list. Then I start with the oldest and come forward. I only include passages where they tell a new evergreen element about copywriting.
It was some surprise to find out that the two most common types of advertising in 1905 are still the two most common today. Because the really hard work takes training and costs more to produce. The more things change, the more they stay the same…
First part is finding these evergreen elements and approaches. I’m not sure that anyone has really added anything since Eugene Schwartz in 1966. But Joe Sugarman is the best read if you’re just getting started. Schwartz and the older classics are still needed - but just five or six books can give you a complete library to master.
The second part is exploring the writing devices that Schwartz lays out. And I may have to review these other books when I get into that. But most of them say nothing about style options. And I did find where Schwartz recommended W. S. Campbell - and how that influenced one of his writing devices.
Campbell wrote a whole book on writing devices, which we’ll cover later.
Still More Books Planned
My rambling thoughts this morning before I rose reminded me of several books I have after this 5-plex Writerpreneur-OS series. Of course, there’s that Expectancy Factor, and an update to Voisin’s books on managed grazing. There’s a long-forgotten course by Napoleon Hill that needs revamping. And the update of “5 Acres and Independence”.
Just so you know where all this is heading.
And if I ever get bored, I might come out with a picture book about that tiny home building process…
Expectancy and Survival
Not as hard as it’s been laid out. Never is. Never has been.
Saw an interesting newsletter today about the audience booing - loudly - at SXSW. The video was about AI taking over our lives. And this was a tech-friendly crowd. Enough is enough, I guess.
Reminds me how printed books have become more popular over the years - they continue to outsell ebooks, always have.
Politics are depressing. Best to take in very small doses, along with a healthy portion of skepticism. Balance with fresh air, sunshine, exercise, lots of smiling for no good reason.
Get outside these cultural bubbles our cities have devolved into.
I always enjoy the quietude of the Amish neighborhoods when I visit there. My farm as an interstate and railroad within a few miles, and the noise can be heard if you listen. Also there’s a blinking red light of a cel tower not too far off, while our local air port sends small planes overhead on occasion.
None of these get to sample the wild fruit and fresh apples we have on this farm. A side benefit to the miles I walk every day.
One point may be helpful. Something Napoleon Hill wrote up in the late 1960’s (paraphrased):
The content you read is either opinion or factual. Opinions aren’t actionable, even where based on fact. And as useful as the paper they are written on - if that.
The factual stuff either helps you attain your goals or not. Facts can be verified.
Discard everything that doesn’t help you achieve your goals.
Goals, expectancies - same thing.
Right now, some parts of some cities are getting the worst hit, per report. It’s not all cities, it’s not all bad. Still, keep your larder stocked.
And read optimistic newsletters. We become what we think about, after all.
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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