A Month of Writing

I knew it would happen sooner or later and today is the day. I posted on the wrong site. This post was meant for my writing site but is live here now. I will be posting my normal Wyoming blog post here soon. 

Another month has passed, fall is here, and the colors are terrific.

Writing totals for the Month

I had hoped September would see an uptick in my writing, but instead, I wrote a bit less than last month. This month totaled 17 blog posts and 11,291 words on all of my projects. This brings my total for the year to just under 167,000. I need to pick it up to reach my goal of a quarter of a million words, right now it looks like I will come in around 200,000. My original goal was 350,000 then lowered to 250,000. I am not sure if I set my goals too high, or if I have become lazy. This year is the first that I have kept exact totals so maybe next year will tell the tale of how many words I write each day, month or year.

Sales are up

Although my word total was lacking, my book sales were and still are up. I have three new books nearly ready to go and hope to update my Christmas book to a second edition and get it out before Thanksgiving.  If I do all of that, I should have a good writing month in October.

Saw these little guys in the park yesterday

What a September

Not much writing in September but it was a great month for everything else. We went back to southeast Nebraska for our 50-year high school class reunion – Class of 1966. I also spend some time in the Laramie Range, visited the old Iron mining town of Sunrise, spent a day at the world famous Spanish Diggings and half a day at one of my favorite places, Fort Laramie. My wife and I also, with the cooler temperatures, started our fall hiking at Guernsey State Park.

Sitting on rocks quarried thousands of years ago at the Spanish Diggings

Garden Book 

Oh, and the garden is looking good. Which reminds me, I have not mentioned that one of my works in progress is a gardening book. Tips for beginning gardeners at altitude, and a collection of short murder mysteries that take place in – you guessed it - the garden. It will be a short book, coming in at around 100 pages, but so far I like it. The others will be my second Blade Holms western mystery and the third in my series of children’s books.

No frost yet - but it is October, and coming soon

My two latest published projects, a book and short story, along with my other four books can be found here.

Thanks for keeping, Ghost of the Fawn, and Interview with a Gunfighter, consistently in the top 200 the past month, it is appreciated more than I can ever say.

Storm Coming

Today’s edition of Wyoming Fact and Fiction will be a bit of each, maybe more fiction than fact.

With a big storm heading our way, southeast Wyoming, depending on the area, is expecting anywhere from 4 to 20 plus inches of snow.

Remember that snowman who was always in trouble for telling too many tall tales?

That guy was a real Snow-Flake. J

I do like the look of things in nature covered in snow but anymore I am not real crazy about scooping it.

I remember one year we got about a foot of snow and like any good neighbor I got out as soon as possible and an hour of hard labor later, nice clean sidewalks. During the night, the wind came up and blew most of the snow back in place on the sidewalks. I shoveled again the next morning, this practice went on for several days. I shovel in the morning and the wind blew it back on my sidewalks during the night. The snow never did melt it just wore out from tumbling back and forth so many times. J

So how cold and snowy was it?

With thanks to Dr. Phil Robert’s and his brothers, David and Steven, the following weather information was taken from their book, Wyoming Almanac.

Most snow in one season, 491.6 inches --  Bechler River (Yellowstone)

Most snow in 24 hours, 41 inches --  Glenrock (Central Wyoming. and to think I used to live there)

Coldest temperature -63 --  Moran (North of Jackson Hole in the Grand Teton National Park)

Hope this storm doesn’t turn into one of those days. To think that two days ago I played 9 holes of golf and was quite comfortable by adding only a sweatshirt and a pair of golf gloves – didn’t play very well, too many boogies, but it was nice being out.

Golf course today after yesterday's dusting of snow - believe this gal is waiting to tee off

I have long wanted to own a personal home weather station. Well, guess what, I finally got mine. More and more people are getting them, I guess there is a way to put them online so that others can see what the weather is doing in your own little part of the world. So far I have not figured out how to get it online, but it doesn’t seem like it should be too difficult. If there were only, a USB cord attached!

Well, time to go out and find the snow shovel – looks like I may be needing it – Again.

I like winter but by February I start to think of Spring!