And, of course, by that I mean Happy Solstice! I’m headed for Seattle Monday for a quick trip to celebrate Yule hosted by my daughter (at her mother’s house). Will be back here in Las Vegas in a few days.
Mostly, the weather here has been sunny and mild. Warm all through November, but cooling down this month. I’ve spent a lot of time sitting on my patio in my new Adirondack chair writing. It will be mid-50s today, so I plan to get out there again this afternoon. It’s been one of the great pleasures of being in Vegas.
So, you might ask, what have I been writing?
I’m so glad you asked.
As you might remember, I have a long-running series posting at StoriesOnline.net called “Team Manager.” It was a sudden inspiration that struck me in mid-March, and by the end of May, I’d released Team Manager SWISH! online and as an eBook that instantly became my best seller of all time with over 900 copies sold so far! I know that’s a drop in the bucket for some of the authors I know, but it was a major victory for me and provided the down payment on my new home. Since that time, I’ve completed two more books in the series. The second, Team Manager SPRINT!, was released in October and Team Manager COACH! is finished and slated for release on February 1, 2022. Which means, of course, that I’m now busy writing the fourth book in the series, Team Manager CHAMP!, with a mid-June release in mind.
But wait! There’s more!
In addition to interrupting my writing of Team Manager with the writing and release of Jackie the Beanstalk, in July and August, I interrupted it again to write a 150,000-word tome for NaNoWriMo this year, titled Bob’s Memoir: 4000 Years as a Free Demon. As you can well-imagine, knocking out a work that long in such a short time (30 days) means there is a fair amount of re-writing and editing to be done, but I’m happy to say that it fills pockets of time while I’m focused on Team Manager 4 and even my rough draft isn’t half bad. I can usually figure that a NaNoWriMo book will require a 90% rewrite by the time it’s finished. It looks like Bob might only require 50%.
In between times, I’m still trying to make time for two other books that I interrupted in order to write the first Team Manager book and haven’t managed to get back to yet! I don’t think I’ll run out of words to write anytime soon.
So, as I head north for this quick Solstice break, I’m thinking of the three ritual questions that I always ask.
1. What do you want to leave behind from this year?
That is a fairly easy question for me. I had my second heart ablation in February and I’m done with it. Haven’t had a bad flutter since. I hope I’m joining many others worldwide who are ready to leave illness, disease, and sickness of mind and body behind.
2. What do you want to be remembered from this year?
That, too, is an easy one for me. The family and friends celebrated a joyful occasion this summer as my daughter got married. I am so happy to see the amazing young woman she has grown into and to welcome a fine son-in-law to the family. I love them to bursting!
3. What are your hopes for the year to come?
Well, that one is always a tough one for me. Selfishly? I’d like a couple of new books to break old sales records. I’ll be happy, however, to see a year of friends and family, safe travels, and good health. It doesn’t really take that much to make me happy.
Whatever winter holidays you are celebrating this month, I hope you have a joyous time and that your own answers to the above questions prove positive.
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