USA Roadtrips & Writing My First Novel.

Here we go - the last few days of April ahead.

Over the weekend I added 'Battling the Bozeman' into Goodreads to keep its four siblings company.

Sorta ashamed to say I haven't stopped by there for some time. I guess some things will always find themselves at the bottom of the list of priorities........

Anyway the great news which awaited me was 'The Tainted Dollar' had received another great 5* review - back at the end of January - of which I wasn't aware.

https://bit.ly/2vpMtb5

It would seem I need to call in on Goodreads more frequently in future 😀

Wishing you all a great week.

Keep well & stay safe.

Hey - Happy Friday all.

Ewa & I spent the last couple of days with my elderly mother, who's hanging in there - but is not what one could call 'chipper' any longer.

That's life - and the ageing process for you, I guess....

Anyway, it would seem I've managed to regain a little of the positive attitude which had previously sustained me (ably assisted by the occasional cider, of course 😀) on this writing journey. 

It was the eagerly anticipated path I happily chose for myself six years (yes, that long....) ago yesterday when I drove back from Bradford for the very last time - and turned my back on being at least well paid for my efforts 😀😀

It seems fitting then that today I've just published my fifth book - 'Joel 'Hatchets' Miller - Battling the Bozeman'.

While the previous books have certain characters (namely Jake Base) who, even if it's not 'their' story, always makes at least an appearance within its pages.

With this the 5th book everything is new. For one the location is Wyoming, rather than Texas and the SW states. All the characters are new - with their own distinct personalities.

I'm hoping it makes good reading for anyone willing to pick it up, and obtains some favourable reviews in time. At the moment it's just with Smashwords. It'll get to Amazon probably next week, I expect, as Friday night is cider night after all 😀😀 

Wishing you all a great weekend.

Have fun & stay safe.

Morning............

Since we arrived back from 2018's 'Ridin' With The Sheriff' book tour I've been markedly unproductive as far as my writing's concerned.

If the truths known I've probably written as many words since the first week of November last that I'd usually produce in a single day.......

The fact my elderly mother was hospitalized for some time just two weeks after we landed back at LHR has no doubt contributed massively towards the absence of the 'creative spirit'.

While there're only 140 miles between us it's where those miles are that's the problem. We're north of London, so it involves the use of the dreaded (and dreadful) M25 - the road Chris Rea so very aptly referred to in his 1989 song as the 'Road to Hell'. Since then it's only gotten worse as the number of cars has increased.

This morning, though, I felt a change in my outlook, coupled with a sense of optimism (which has been somewhat lacking) .......

Today I believe I'm going to write! 

Have a good rest of the week, all.

Stay safe X

Hey - happy weekend all.

I've been playing around with a great little program over the last year or so. It allows me to insert business cards & flyers relating to my books into scenic pictures, usually western themed ones we've taken while on holiday.

I use it mainly for my daily journey into Twitter land - where I make one (yes, just one) tweet a day relating to my own books.

Today's picture was one taken October of 2018 on US Route 163  heading south from Mexican Hat UT towards Monument Valley. This is pretty much the area made famous by Tom Hanks in the film Forrest Gump - and interesting to see it without the sun blazing down.

I think my 'update' worked out quite nicely.

Keep well, all - & enjoy the weekend.

Wow - it's been months since I last posted here.

It was a wonderfully busy 11 weeks between August and early November, travelling around seven states of the US on another 'Ridin' With The Sheriff' book tour promoting my western writing.

I was also taking pictures for the cover of Book 5 which is set on the Bozeman Trail.

We met with several 'old' friends (Dutch in Galveston, Chris and Maria in Vegas, Lonnie and Sarah in Arizona) as well as creating new friendships (Steven and Terry from Houston).

There were others we didn't get to meet with for one reason or another, but hey there's always next time eh? 😀

Did either of us want to fly back to Heathrow, while sitting in Phoenix Sky Harbor airport?Nope......not at all.

The high spots were many........and varied.

Getting to watch Lionel Richie in Vegas, eating Rocky Mountain Oysters (nothing to do with seafood) in Buffalo WY & also scraping two inches of snow from the car one morning (in September!) while there. Not forgetting the fulfilment of something I've wanted to do for years - handling several 'real' snakes. Many thanks to Lonnie and Sarah for setting that up! It'll stay with me long after Mr Richie has been forgotten 😀

I leave you with samples of the two book flyers we had waiting for us in Houston when we landed way back in August...... 

Keep well & enjoy the weekend.

Well the sun's most definitely shining and I'm about to commence the third and final edit of Book 5.

This will take around a month / 5 weeks to complete - which should fit in just nicely with the start date for our stateside trip.

Then it's all up to my proofreader extraordinaire, Dave, to cast his eagle eye over the 140k+ words and beat them into some sort of shape 😀 

The list of people who're interested in meeting with us on this 'Ridin' With The Sheriff' book tour of the SW states of the US is steadily increasing - which is very nice. 

I hope it continues to do so.

We'll have the chance to meet with some old friends that we haven't seen in 8 or so years - which is also great.

We're looking forward to lots of catching up with old acquaintances - as well as plenty of conversation with new friends.

As well as this there's also several hours of horse riding to get in at some stage during the trip, oh and of course spending a couple of hours in the company of Mr Lionel Richie (in concert that is - not personally 😀😀!)

For now it's on with the editing.............

Wishing you all a good week - in the sun if you happen to be in the UK.

Time flies, eh? It's virtually a month since the last post - not sure how that happened! So, Book 5 is getting its second thorough edit which is currently around 25% complete. As is usually the way while I'm attempting to be brutal with removing unwanted/unnecessary words I'm adding more detail as I go - and so it grows 😀 Just so long as it's as ready as I can make it by the beginning of August that's fine by me.

God willing, 17 weeks today should see us waking up in Houston, Texas - the 4th most populated city in the US. While the population of the city is considerably less than London it's also spread over 600 square miles. Consequently it doesn't have that 'cramped' feeling about it. Oh, and the sun shines - frequently! Here's a few pics of Houston from 2016 as we travelled north from Galveston up to San Antonio.

Yeah - I'm looking forward to getting back there.......... Have a good rest of the weekend all.

Keep well. 

Here's the first book related post of March - and we're already 3/4 of the way through it......... Yeah - time does fly! It never used to when I was, how shall we say, working a 'proper' job. Then, especially during the afternoons, the time dragged like a b*tch - every day! Now it gets to 16:30 hours before I get even half of what I had planned completed! It's been 5 years now since I did that last trip back from Bradford - yeah, I can't believe that figure either. 5 years - get outta here.....😯

Book 6 is currently carrying around 46k words. It's been fun re-visiting the lives of Alex, Dan and Annie. Another week or so in their company and it'll be time to put them to one side once again and head back to the Bozeman Trail with another edit of Book 5. I need to complete two more full edits (taking around a month each) and run through the list of over-used words etc by the end of July. It sounds a 'comfortable' enough time-frame, but we all know what happens to the 'best laid plans of mice'n men,' eh? 😀

Here we go - I've just managed to get another post in before the calendar clicks over tomorrow to March! I'm pleased to report February has been a whole lot kinder than the month of January was........😀 - at least there have been no more dentist visits!

Book wise I've just finished going through the 34k words which so far form the basis of what will become Book 6 - the follow up to Book 3 'Wagon Mound to Santa Fe'.

The question now is where next? The first edit of Book 5 took around 35 days to complete - and I've got two more reads to finish before we reach the mid-way point of August. Plus there's the list of 'over-used' words to run through, which is a similarly slow process. So, I think I'll spend the 31 days of March adding to Book 6 and return to the second edit of Book 5 at the beginning of April. Yeah, there we go - sorted.

I thought I'd leave you with a few pictures from 2016 - ones where there's not a single snow flake in sight! This is Arizona Falls in Phoenix AZ, which is a restored hydroelectric plant with several waterfalls. We happened across it by accident - and it was great to stand there when the late morning temperature was well over 100 degrees......😀