The Quiet Grazing of Cows - And Another Book in Beta-Release!
Life ebbs and flows along. Cows keep grazing - and I keep writing/editing/publishing books.
Hi,
Glad to have you open this once again (or even for a first time). Yes, life (and writing) goes along on this farm with trials, tribulations, joys, and marvels. And my daily/weekly writing continues as well. Glad to share this all with you.
Farming News - They are moving through their latest paddock with abandon, looking for the most tempting morsels.
Writing News - 5 books published now, out of 8. Meanwhile, my reading has become more discerning, which is teaching me about writing.
Fiction News - 5th in series. Did you get your copy of the new anthology?
Expectancy Factor - That point about how an opportunity arises with every problem or disaster…
Farming News
Cows and Calves down at the “Bottom” another week. Here’s one of their favorite watering holes:
A couple of acres of pond and some Lily pads that came in on the feet of an unknown duck or heron, years ago..
Of course, those pads graze just like grass. But the cows can’t get all of them, since many root too deeply in the water - and cows only swim if they absolutely have to…
The day I took this was a bit overcast. And it’s been raining this week and should continue. Better than that drought we were going through.
Next week I should have some more darling calf photos. I was surprised again today when one of the heifers I kept back just a year ago is now well over my elbow height and still growing. She’ll have her own first calf next year. Life goes on that way.
That cow with the bum foot is still getting along just fine. Limping, but it’s a long healing process. But she seems to be better off with all this lush grass and her herd than she was at the barn-hospital. I check on her daily, along with the rest. Her calf as well, who is putting on size and weight.
Other farm duties are calling me to do repairs outside of their pasture, while it’s too wet to mow for this coming week. Everything has it’s time.
When this heavy clay soil is moist, it’s good for replacing gates - more on that just below:
Tiny Home News
The wife was overjoyed to find a quart of Jersey milk at the Amish store. And more overjoyed when the first pint turned into butter so quickly. And that second pint was done before she was finished cleaning up the first one. She says that its because Jerseys produce more fat in their cream.
You have to get the buttermilk out of it, which is a lot of rinsing in the coldest water you can stand. After churning, she forms it by hand up into a pat that she can either use immediately or cover in plastic-wrap and freeze. The first went to replace the butter she keeps in a butter-keeper on the counter, the second went to the freezer. (You can churn your own butter out of whipping cream - just check videos online. Pour a pint into a quart jar and shake until it separates. A bit more to it than that, but I’ve done it before, myself.)
And my wife found that a bit of buttermilk in the mashed potatoes enhances their flavor - I concur. Meanwhile, it’s a great half-and-half replacement for coffee.
We’ll check to see if there’s more cream at the store tomorrow, on our trip to town - after we visit the auction.
Our little plot of land — the lawyer is taking care of submitting our land title with the Recorder of Deeds and then will mail us a copy. We’ll then get a postal address. And figure out how to get a mail box - a first for me.
That driveway’s gate posts are getting replaced over the next few days. By yours truly. All while the ground is still mostly saturated. But the trick around here with these heavy clay soils is digging holes by fillling it up every day with water when you finish digging all you can. This is so the next morning it’s plenty soft to dig some more. I’m planning to dig the hole down 3 feet and put in a hedge post and remount the gate - which then should last a few decades.
Hope to have some pictures of this adventure for you.
Writing News
Published another book in the WriterpreneurOS series.
Writerpreneur: The Basic Formulas of Fiction - that’s a beta-reader edition for you early adopters. I’ll have a commercial link for you next week.
Here’s what was already published (links for your use.):
Writerpreneur OS - why authors have to learn and run a business as an entrepreneurs in order to make a decent living.
Writerpreneur: Copywriting for Authors - the evergreen principles and proved techniques that have come through the ages, ever since the first copywriter was hired (since about 1905).
Death by Advertising Anthology - a nice cozy series of short stories that follow the interesting lives and mysteries of a writer, his loves, and his offspring - though five generations.
Coming soon - only available on store.livingsensical.com:
Writerpreneur: The Journey from Algorithm to Artisan - a collection of 19 ebooks into a big bundle - for that Kickstarter - only available from my site.
Cracking the Cashflow Code - ebook only, but included in WriterpreneurOS.
The WriterpreneurOS Workbook - reader magnet for the Kickstarter, ebook only, from my site.
The Only Two Ways to Write a Story - by John Gillishaw, excerpted, also in the public domain, also a reference work from my site..
With those last four up on my own site, I’ll be mostly ready for that Kickstarter - other than a short course I plan to build for it.
I checked on Lulu this week, and they haven’t changes much on the platform. So we should be good on that for Kickstarter fulfillment.
At that point, I’ll nearly be Kickstarter-ready and start the countdown for that launch. It’s about three weeks for the proofs to arrive if everything goes well, so figure we’ll be into mid/late October for that Kickstarter launch.
WriterpreneurOS Posts
This is a selection from that latest book above - something I’ve not seen anywhere else - and it answers questions about the cross between pantsers and plotters. So you can have that fresh prose and still wind up with the polish you need to publish it at professional standards.
Fiction Posts
Fifth book in the “Death by Advertising” Anthology posted this week.
This is completes the second part of Triangle, and sets up the next book quite well. (But I’m not going to give away much more than, yes, it’s another relative who continues the family legacy - but not as a writer…)
ICYMI: Here’s the full list of stories we’ll be re-telling. Probably end of October when they are all done - that third one is a longish novella, so I may have to split it up.
Death by Advertising
The Caretaker (under the C. C. Brower pen-name)
Triangle - A Memoir , Part 1
Death by Sales Pitch
Triangle - A Memoir, Part 2
Last Chance
Death by Marketing
The Chrysalis Cure
I’m searching around for fiction book collections that don’t interact with the Ghost Hunter series to post after these.
We’ll probably dust off “The Hooman Saga”. (Dystopian novel - girl escapes a moon slave colony to save the Earth with the help of telepathic wolves — who have become the dominant species on earth.) That adventure starts with Book II. More on that when we get there. Has to do with timelines (much like the first three Star Wars started out with IV.)
Expectancy Tips
I’d point out how disasters and opportunities are fraternal twins.
Napoleon Hill kept coming back to this point in his books - that underneath every huge mess is an equal or larger opportunity. W. Clement Stone used to say “That’s Good!” as a habit when someone would bring him really bad news - and then set about finding what was good about it. Worth looking up again in Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”.
I’m sure it’s something to do with the balance of this universe…
Future Works
Once I’ve nailed down the Professional Writer set, I’ll probably be doing the Expectancy Factor series next. Look for that in the coming Spring - along with it’s own Kickstarter. Because I already have all these books sitting here from my two decades of writing, and two decades before that of middle-aged living.
Meanwhile, the small farm book based on updating Five Acres and Independence will take some research. That will be a series - that I’ll discuss more as I get closer to it.
Somewhere, I pull out a massive collection of fiction books, along with the books I compiled as I trained myself to write (even though this will change as I come out with the Campbell trio of books to round out the WriterpreneurOS series.
Figure that between two and four years, I’ll have all this stuff nailed down and published. Then I might just go back to fiction. And perhaps illustrated books and maybe graphic novels.
Still working on my bonuses in the paid subscription area. You can visit https://store.livingsensical.com for my numerous discount-priced collections of books, courses, materials. As usual.
Kickstarter Previews
Still need your feedback on the Kickstarter preview.
Please visit the preview and use their comment area to tell me what needs to improve - or just give me (needed) attaboys.
Kickstarter display page here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1481356435/1548894263?ref=a5wy7u&token=315549e4 (Feel free to share that preview…)
Sign up to be notified when it goes live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robertworstell/writerpreneur-cracking-the-cashflow-code-non-fiction-book (Sign up now. Share that link with anyone you know who it could help.
PS. I discovered late pledges have been implemented by Kickstarter - so mine will have these for all who missed the initial roll-out. Lots of great stuff. When we get back to it.
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.
PPS. Again, do upgrade to the paid newsletter version. That helps me keep the lights on - so I can keep all this coming to you. As much or little as you want…
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AND you can always buy me a coffee…
Here’s that new beta-reader advanced copy - still available
