ah, the retired life. what i have done is to put a lot of energy into writing, and it's just a natural product of having a little time, and kids growing old enough to want to be in the other room playing internet themselves. they are now all over eleven, so they have minds of their own, and something like forty-three years of active parenting is fading into teen parenting, which also isn't easy, but which at least allows one to write a novel.

my novel (scroll down if you're really curious) is actually a kind of success, in that a week or two later its ratings are still under a million, and people are telling me "i couldn't put it down," and things like that. i am about to put out a family-related book, third of a series, but am thinking of writing another novel while i'm on a kind of roll.

the novel i've got my eyes on is the texas novel, which was maybe about half done before it got stalled out. it was actually my second one; my first is also stalled out, and it was my third that i actually finished and published. but the texas novel is about addiction, and family helping each other, and guns, and the pure corruption of academia. my problem really is that it's so blatantly set in lubbock that i can't help make it be about tech, and i still work for tech, so i feel some obligation to conceal the truth.

i resolved that problem with the iowa novel by simply changing all the characters so that there was nobody who even remotely resembled the real people involved. i'm not sure i can do the same for texas people in that there is only one university there, only one department, etc. i may have to do that part of a novel in some other place.

but it's ok, the novel is still only in its planning stage, even though it's half-written, and such things will solve themselves.

the marketing is busy and good. what i do is i read other people's work, and they read mine. everyone wins. i grow my audience. i read lots of cool things. i find out what's out there.

slowly, people find me and read my iowa novel. well i've been here all along. and when i get it together, i'm going to put just passing through: true stories from out there, which stars this very blog, out on the table. it's just a matter of time.