Weather Cooler. No New Calf. Back to Editing Before Publishing.
Still one last calf to go. Otherwise, our little acreage for our own farmlet is sorted out and will be ours this coming week. Not without some angst. But it's all for the better.
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 - Shifting weather keeps us hoping daily for the last calf to drop. That cow in the barn is still getting better. We have our acreage.
Writing News - A couple of more research books arrived this week, but I elected to review and final-edit my first book again to get it published - but then…
Fiction News - Last episode published this week. A preview listing of the next series (with a family of writers) in various escapades.
Expectancy Tips - Visiting relatives gave me a change to pull out an old tool from my deep bag of solutions.
Farming News
No new cute calf this week. Sorry.
Cute cat photo is the next best thing, I guess.
The still-pregnant cow momma is under scrutiny every day, and allows me to scratch her back as I check her over. Still contented - while we wait…
The old cow and her calf up at the barn are doing even better. Her swollen ankle has continued doing well, and I’m looking at how she limps every visit, plus looking over the remaining swelling as much as I can, with every twice-daily check of that expectant cow above. I can afford to pamper the old cow a bit, and do. The other day, I even found some green apples that had dropped - and threw them over the gate somewhere near her. I noticed that she’d gobbled them all up by the next day.
It’s cooler for these last few days, which seems odd for August. But just wait - it’s almost September, where it’s traditional to have hot weather for the first few days of school - back when school only started after Labor Day…
Tiny Home News
Canning more Amish green beans to supplement our garden’s production.
And my wife told me this morning that she might have to get a (nother) new canner, since the one she just got this year was so big, it took hours to come up to pressure.
A little quick search found that she can can with her unused “Instapot” pressure cooker. So she’s checking out YouTube videos on how to do that. (Of course, feel free if you have any tips to share - just reply to this newsletter in your email, or in the app…)
Also got some Amish okra to can - so that’s also something new to look up.
We have our land now. Just have to file the deed after the lawyer works his (overpriced) magic on the form. At that point, the Recorder of Deeds will give us our postal number (not that we want to get any mail up there right now.)
And we should have an estimate on the waterline and sewer system (I’ll tell you about that later, something to do with all the clay soil we have.)
Things are going along now. We might really be able to have power, water, and Internet by this winter - and celebrate Christmas with the tiny home at it’s final location.
Writing News
Two more books this week. But I don’t have to scan them in.
There’s another book by Dwight Swain, Film Scriptwriting, which has around 80+ pages on what a story is, characters, dialog, and so forth. Again, Swain was one of the original three instructors at that OU Professional Writing training. I’m looking to see how his descriptions here match up with his book on The Selling Writer.
The second book is also mostly unknown - Building a Story Brand, by Donald Miller. This aligns the basic plot of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to any business’ brand. I found this referenced in a podcast by Tim Grahl, where it was pointed out that Miller’s approach tells you just how to write your Kickstarter sales page. In this case, the reader is the hero and the Kickstarter author is the mentor, giving them a plan they can take action on. You’re inviting that reader onto an adventure.
That approach also cements Campbell’s idea as the singular way people are hard-wired for story. Because the Hero’s Journey is compiled from all our most famous legends and myths. It is the common model we most want all our stories in - and if you think this through, our current genres of mystery/romance/adventure/redemption - all are really the same story-model with slightly different structures.
Still haven’t gotten my hard drive fixed in all this work and distractions.
I pulled up my WriterpreneurOS draft again, and was doing a line-edit on it - a final step to publishing it. Not too surprisingly, I found a ton of material that was about content marketing and social media - so had nothing to do with writers becoming entrepreneurs. Pulling all of that out (saving it to another file, of course) still left me enough for a 200-page paperback - whew.
It was good to be away from it for so long. New eyes to see needed improvements and such.
One interesting point: content marketing is still marketing. The difference was pointed out to me this last week, that writers would never refer to their carefully-crafted output as “content”. That does give us a view about how marketers think about books. And while they know how to market a book, it’s rare that they would write more than a handful in as many years. Writers have the other problem of learning how to market their continuing book production. And that is what this series is for - to provide training on three needful areas: how to form up and run a business, how to copywrite, and the story craft of writing perennial-selling books.
That’s what’s still ahead of us. As long as you keep opening these up, I’ll keep updating you. (Of course, if you have questions, fire away…)
WriterpreneurOS Posts
We’re back to wrapping up the Cashflow Code serial again. There’s 10 total, so only another two.
Fiction Posts
We’ve wrapped up the Erotika Jones serial. Hope you kept up with them all. This last one has all the prior ones listed out and linked - just in case.
Now, the next series I’m taking up looks to be about a family of writers - running across several generations. It comprises two interlocking trilogies, plus a bonus story that is loosely related to those other six - a bonus.
Death by Advertising
The Caretaker (by C. C. Brower)
Triangle - A Memoir
Last Chance
Death by Sales Pitch
Death by Marketing
The Chrysalis Cure
All under the J. R. Kruze pen-name, except as noted. And they vary from short story to novelette - so I may have to split them up a bit to fit into newsletters.
You’ll see how these are all inter-related except the last one - which I might edit some details into it so it will (and wrap up one of the mystery threads inside it by doing so.)
As these stories go along, their Book Universe Notes will tie things together for you.
Set your calendars - the first one comes out Saturday…
Expectancy Tips
Funny how relatives can bring out the best in us - while irritating the hell out of us at first.
We got our land, as mentioned above. But not without some unnecessary drama brought up at an inappropriate time by a certain someone.
That drama resulted in an impasse - with me in the middle.
So I simply pulled another tool out of my deep tool bag to handle it.
It’s an old version of the Huna Ho’o’pono-pono. Which is a form of healing prayer, more common after the Christian missionaries converted many of them - way back then.
It goes like this:
“I’m sorry.
Please forgive me.
I love you.
Thank you.”
What this does is to release your resistance to what’s happening and bring a bit of grace into your life. And somehow, it works to resolve things for the best of all concerned.
You just simply keep repeating this over and over until you feel things ease off. Said to yourself is fine, out loud (by yourself) is better.
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.
A Special Offer Returns
Continuing along - the beta-readers version of Cracking the Cashflow Code is now available. It will be available at this link until I start the Kickstarter release, you can download the new and improved edition (especially if you already have it from earlier.)
That link is also Pay What You Want - a nice way to donate.
Here’s the link: https://livingsensical.gumroad.com/l/CashflowCode
AN ASK: if you’ve downloaded it, please give some feedback. Leave it in the comments, send me an email. Something, anything. Like it, could be better.
NOTE: This will be a bonus for the Kickstarter. Publishing decisions will be in the next few weeks.
Thanks for being there, opening this.
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Leave a comment if something strikes your fancy.
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…
(Meanwhile, I’ve put my archived newsletters and articles all available as free on Substack, instead of behind a paywall.)
AND you can always buy me a coffee…
Here’s that new beta-reader advanced copy - still available: