Boy, let me tell you, August was hectic! I had a lot of work to do for other people, so much so in fact that I really didn’t get as much done on my own books as I would’ve liked.
I’d originally wanted to release Priests and Prospectors this month, my second volume of Montana history. As it was, I didn’t even get to the Montana Historical Society in Helena to go through the photo archives until the last week of August. Hopefully the book’ll come along shortly here.
So what was keeping me from completing my latest book, the ones that fans the world over are clamoring for? Let’s take a look!
I’d originally wanted to release Priests and Prospectors this month, my second volume of Montana history. As it was, I didn’t even get to the Montana Historical Society in Helena to go through the photo archives until the last week of August. Hopefully the book’ll come along shortly here.
So what was keeping me from completing my latest book, the ones that fans the world over are clamoring for? Let’s take a look!
An Amazing Way to Learn Tarot in Just 10 Minutes!
I’ve been working on another Tarot book, and just in the past week I’ve really been pounding it out. Those of you that’ve been reading the articles on this site for awhile know that I wrote a Tarot card book for a woman in Australia earlier this year. She wouldn’t pay me so I changed it about and put it out under my own name. It’s now one of my bestsellers.
I wanted to see it sell even more so I thought adding some chapter to it would be good. For instance, I’ve only got 1 Tarot spread, and I’d much rather have dozens. I also don’t discuss all 78 cards. Well, I got so much new info that I decided to put it out in a new book called “Ten Minute Tarot.” You’ll be reading more about this in the coming weeks.
I wanted to see it sell even more so I thought adding some chapter to it would be good. For instance, I’ve only got 1 Tarot spread, and I’d much rather have dozens. I also don’t discuss all 78 cards. Well, I got so much new info that I decided to put it out in a new book called “Ten Minute Tarot.” You’ll be reading more about this in the coming weeks.
Too Much Editing Can Cause Brain Meltdowns
I can’t even begin to tell you how much editing and proofreading I’ve done this past month. I’d say it was well into the hundreds of thousands of words.
- First there was my own book, The Jongurian Mission. I gave this a complete line edit ahead of a big marketing push, and it paid off. In one day I sold more than 20 copies of the book and saw it go perma-free a week later. Now dozens of people are picking it up each day.
- Following that I got a lot of work for some guy in the Middle East. He had a huge university paper on conventional and Islamic banks in Spain and Morocco. I had to go through that whole thing, which was some of the dullest reading I’ve done in some time.
- Toward the beginning of the month I had a large editing job on another university paper, this time about corporate internal security measures and the role of a Certified Internet Security Officer (CISO). That one wasn’t as bad, but did require me to do a lot of structural editing as opposed to just spelling and grammar.
- Around mid-August I got a few technical manuals one after another. These were just like reading stereo instructions. In fact, that’s pretty much what they were. I’m not that fond of going over stuff like that, but it’s easy and it pays the bills.
- And then there were my other books. I’ve really been dragging on giving the third of my historical trilogy, The State of Qin, a good line-edit. I’ve been going over all of my novels again looking for mistakes. It’s also a good exercise in getting me back into novel writing mode, which I want to start when my latest two non-fiction books are finished.
The Ongoing Adventures in SEO Writing
I had a lot of jobs this past month, at least 35. These came from all over the world, and as usual, most of them were really great. They paid well and were easy to accomplish. Some, however, were anything but.
Well, those are just some of the things that I experienced as a writer this month. Obviously I spend most of my time writing stuff for other people, and less writing my own books. Hopefully one day that’ll change, although not in a bad way; I’d rather not get a 9-to-5 job right now.
This month was also busy because I moved to my new permanent home in Missoula, Montana. It’s not bad, although the neighborhood isn’t as close to downtown as I’d like. There are also few parks around for my son, Paul. Still, he and my wife Jenny seem to be adjusting well, and we’ve already met a few people. Moving back to the US after living in China for 5 years isn’t the easiest thing, but we’re making it work.
Well, until next month. And don’t be afraid to comment about your own month in review, whether it’s about writing, Montana, or even that new growth under the kitchen sink.
- Moving & Cleaning: I got a good job this month, a repeat hire, actually. I couple months ago I did some work for a Texas moving company and now I seem to be writing content for moving companies all over the country. Another job that came through involved a cleaning service in Canada. This was an easy job, but the employer was interesting, to put it nicely.
- Personality Profiles: One day I got a job for a guy who wanted information written up about different personality types. These would be things like phlegmatic, melancholic, and the like. He also wanted some kind of lesson plan for a staff training session. I did the write-ups for him but he was wholly unimpressed with my lesson plan and cancelled the job halfway through. I don’t know why this happens; some people think first drafts are final drafts I guess.
- Twitter Apps: A similar thing happened this month with a woman in Australia. She was putting some kind of Twitter apps together about crime prevention. I wrote up a few on women and children and how you can have your emergency numbers stored in your phone. It didn’t make much sense to me, since just about anyone can call 911 or their country’s equivalent, but I’ve found that more and more people are making up useless apps and Twitter thingamajigs. Hey, I’m making money off it at least!
- Poker Work: There was some guy in Slovenia with a poker site this month. He’s trying to put together what really seems to me like some kind of pyramid scheme involving poker networks. You know, sign your friends up and get a portion of their take or something. Anyway, as is usually the case with Eastern European countries, the writing wasn’t half bad, it’s just that there were so many grammar and spelling errors. Lots of copying and pasting from their site to Word and then complete edits and rewrites, and all for little pay; hey, it’s Eastern Europe!
Well, those are just some of the things that I experienced as a writer this month. Obviously I spend most of my time writing stuff for other people, and less writing my own books. Hopefully one day that’ll change, although not in a bad way; I’d rather not get a 9-to-5 job right now.
This month was also busy because I moved to my new permanent home in Missoula, Montana. It’s not bad, although the neighborhood isn’t as close to downtown as I’d like. There are also few parks around for my son, Paul. Still, he and my wife Jenny seem to be adjusting well, and we’ve already met a few people. Moving back to the US after living in China for 5 years isn’t the easiest thing, but we’re making it work.
Well, until next month. And don’t be afraid to comment about your own month in review, whether it’s about writing, Montana, or even that new growth under the kitchen sink.
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