It’s pretty simple – reading and writing and not much else.
Currently this weekend I’m at home alone as my wife and son headed off to check out Garnett Ghost Town with some friends.
So I’m staying home most of the day and that means I’ll probably read a bit, do some work on my in-progress puzzle, and write some on my books.
When it comes to the books I’m writing, well…I’m kind of in a hard spot.
First, let’s take the main effort, which is the 9th book of the Mountain Man Series.
It’s called “Brock’s Betrayal” and the ‘Brock’ is none other than William Brock, brother of English Brigadier General Isaac Brock.
Never heard of ‘em? Well, they lived back during the time of the War of 1812, and Isaac Brock actually took part in the Detroit campaign and that got him knighted.
Alas, he died at the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812.
Why does this matter?
It doesn’t.
The point is that I’ve got some British characters going up against my fur trappers, and the main reason goes back to Book 7 and Fortin’s furs.
The British want ‘em, the Americans want ‘em, and the Indians want ‘em.
Hey, it’s $25,000 worth of furs, or $450,000 in today’s money.
So that’s what the book is about – our intrepid group of fur trappers making their way back from Oregon to Montana so they can get those furs.
As usual, nothing goes right.
So that’s Book 9 of the Mountain Man Series and I expect to have it out later this month.
The next book I’m working on is the untitled Book 6 of my Montana history series.
Boy, this one has been slow-going.
Currently I have 223 pages of that book written and I expect it’ll get up to 350 pages or more.
It covers Montana history from 1960 to 1990 and that’s a time period in Montana that doesn’t have a lot written about it.
As you can see from that rough Table of Contents above, I’ve got some interesting stories, lots of politics, quite a bit on farming, lots on tourism, and then some miscellaneous stuff that I just thought would be interesting.
I decided to pick up Joseph Kinsey Howard’s Montana: High, Wide and Handsome again at the library to just read through it a bit and get a feel for the language.
I’m doing the same with Bernard DeVoto, as those two authors really captured the essence of the West a good 70 years ago or so and I want this book to sound similar.
I think it’ll be one of the best books in the series…when I get it all done.
And what’s stopping me from getting it done? Mainly it’s my own procrastination, worries, and hang-ups.
Another biggie is that the last book in the series sold less than 10 copies.
Here’s how my Montana history series sales look overall:
Nothing has replicated the success of that first book. People liked that one a lot, and I hope as we get into uncharted Montana history territory, they’ll like this new one too.
Here’s what the covers for the final two books will look like…minus the titles and such.
I want to capture the promise that the 60s through the 90s held for the state, then the loss of that promise in the 90s, 00s, and 10s.
That’s why you get these two covers for the final two books of the 7-book series.
I won’t cover those last three decades for another year or more, perhaps releasing the final volume in 2017 or maybe even 2018.
Again, it doesn’t really matter as many people are not interested in reading this stuff, just Montana history from the 1860s.
Oh well.
I started and I’ll finish. Maybe in a few decades people will be thankful, but maybe not.
I’ll be happy, however, both because I set out to do something and then I finished it, and also because I increased my own knowledge of Montana history substantially.
So I feel good about that.
I hope you’ll feel good when you can pick up these books we’ve talked about today. I know you’ll like ‘em.
Until then, enjoy the weekend and whatever is on your own agenda.
Thanks!