How can it have been eleven days since my last post? We have a lot to catch up on since I last wrote.
First of all, over the last week-and-a-half we took the Model Y on another road trip down to Ohio to celebrate my Mom’s 82nd birthday. We rented an A-frame cabin in the woods, complete with chickens (the one in the video was named Betty White) in Galena, Ohio. The Model Y, cruising on the latest version of FSD (v14.3.4), did almost all of the driving which eliminated a lot of the fatigue that comes along from long roadtrips.
It was great to celebrate my Mom and spend time with my family over those five days. The Airbnb had a swimming pond, hot tub, and plenty of nature to immerse ourselves in. It was all a great reminder of how important it is to spend this kind of time together with family. Despite the heat and tropical level humidity the time together flowed so effortlessly and enjoyably. Here are a few pictures and video clips from the trip if you'd like to see them.
My wife and I both decided that after driving 3000+ miles to Sedona Arizona and back and now racking up another 1200+ miles on this trip to Ohio I think we’ll be flying for these kinds of trips from here on out. Despite how much less stressful it was to have the car drive us we had so many near misses on the interstate highways due to distracted drivers that it just isn’t worth the risk anymore.
We were nearly sideswiped and ran into a concrete barrier by a distracted driver on I-270 in Columbus and then again in Wisconsin when a semi truck driver veered into our lane. There were many more instances than this but these two were the closest calls. I have no doubt that Tesla's Full Self Driving saved us from crashing both times.
One More Book
I had hours on end to do nothing but think on this road trip and decided it would be crazy to retire from writing books just yet. Almost the instant I made the decision to publish another book I was flooded with optimism and excitement so it’s probably the right decision. The book designer is secured and over the next few months I’ll be gathering some of the short stories I’ve written over the past three decades for a new book tentatively titled, “Walking with the Muse”. I’ll also be working on the book cover design. I have a vague idea of it forming in my mind but the entirety of it hasn’t fully presented itself quite yet.
If all goes as planned, Walking with the Muse will be available for purchase on Amazon by the end of October. Gathering the material together will be like a trip down memory lane. As I've been rereading these stories I'm transported back to the time in which I first wrote them.
There’s been such a surprising surge of interest in my books recently and I’m not entirely sure where it’s coming from. I just know the Amazon royalty payments are getting larger—which is very welcomed after so many years of stagnation. I also received word from the editor of an English magazine in West Sussex that they’ll be publishing one of my poems, "The Butterfly" and will be reviewing my most recent book, Poems from the Edge of the Apocalypse in their autumn edition which I’m hoping will spark some holiday sales.
If you've purchased a copy of Poems from the Edge of the Apocalypse I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd take the time to leave an honest review of it on Amazon. The book currently only has one review and I would like to grow that number before the book is featured in the magazine. Thank you in advance for that. : )
I'm ready to ride the wave again. Maybe, just maybe, my story as an author isn’t over just yet. I’ll say yes to that. After a long, dry spell in my career it feels incredible to feel the old familiar feeling of "warmer, you're getting warmer..." once again.
