Well, it is moving ahead. I am at about 72,000 words. It has been a challenge to work on the book with the activity to pack and prepare to move. There is not much to do today, so hopefully, I can get a solid amount of work done to get closer to the goal of completing the first draft. I still intend to publish this final piece of The Wilson Chronicles around the end of November.
Okay, it’s only October. Yet here we are, a two foot deep frift accross the driveway. Yuck!
There was a very cool thing, though. A natural snow sculpture in the backyard. Take a look, I think it is very cool. It is about seven feet high.
Of course, then you have the other side. The front door needed some serious work to clean out. Even so, look at the cool snowart above the door!
Anyway, it’s too early for this much snow, and we are forcast for more tonight. Hopefully we get a warm spll after this.
It’s interesting to stop a moment and think about the genesis of The Wilson Chronicles. But I have published other books as well. So, where do the ideas come from?
My first book, Surviving The Radicalization of America, began as a thought to rebut the radical turn America was taking back in the late nineties and early two thousands. There were plenty of issues: Iraq war, abortion, hate filled speech, far right and far left politics begining to highly verbalize, and the diminishing fourth estate. I saw these and I felt the need to write down what I thought, hence, the book is an early version of how I perceive our culture and the changes we are experiencing. Its a hard read today, since I don’t really write like that anymore. But still, the jist of it is still accurate and it is interesting to see that the things I talked about are still on top of the agenda today. Makes me wonder about our species and change.
The second book, Growing Leadership; Managing Developmental Chaos, originated as a means to talk about how we take people from workers to supervisors to managers to leaders. I was in the USAF for twenty five years and participated in some superb team building, training, and actions that provided a clear path to leadership. In the private sector, I found the urge was to push people to leadership, but not necessarily give them the tools they needed. I worked at combining the best of both to arrive at a process that works. It is a joint leader/follower book, but it can be used by one person to improve their individual leadership.
The third book, Principled Leadership; A Balancing Act for a Lifetime, was one I published as a followup to the first leadership book. It isn’t enough to become a leader, you have to sustain it through all the trials and challenges that come your way. I know for a fact that without standing on principle, the chaos of life, from small problems to false allegations, can overwhelm you. But standing on principles provides a clear and strong grounding and means to sustain your professional and personal leadership through any storm.
The fourth book, The Siege at Azulon, was my very first attempt to break out of the serious mode and write a work of fiction. Its a story set in a fictional place, with kings, princesses, fair maidens and knights, along with the occassional witch. This was probably one of the books that I had the most fun writing. Reading it now, I can see my writing style was not ready for it, as it is a hard read. But the story is good and it ties into my chronicles work. The genesis of this was purely to write about an idea I had for a group of people from back in the days of castles and nobility, to create an action story along with romance.
The fifth, sixth, seventh and future Wilson Chronicles books are a joy to write. The story originated from a dream many people have – what would you do if you suddenly became ridiculously rich? That was the beginning, but it was not enough. There had to be a purpose and a cause for the story, not just someone becoming a hedonist. So, the cause of saving our species from an asteroid strike (something that is in the news regularly), then saving us from extinction, became the catalyst of the story. However, I am more interested in the people in the story, so it eventually morphed into a fiction story encompassing romance, action, adventure and science fiction.
I do love to write, but equally importantly, I love to dream, keep the imagination alive. Nothing can be imagined that cannot be done. It is in the action of people that we achieve our results. Do we work together? Do we stay true to our values? Do we continue to place belief and faith in God at the center of our life?
There are a lot of questions to pursue. I hope to be writing about a myriad of subjects for years to come. I do hope you enjoy the works.
Glenn
Yay!!! The Wilson Chronicle, Book 3: Federation to Empire, is available! I am so excited to get this third book complete. Hope everyone reads it and loves it!!
It has been a heck of a journey, but finally, book 3 has a cover!! Yay!! So, it is still in draft form, but I have approved it and now my book, The Wilson Chronicles, Book 3: Federation to Empire, is being finished up to print.
I have to say it is a milestone. Never in my life did I think I would be able to put together a story this long, while keeping it entertaining and moving. Book 4, Andromeda, is at 65,000 words, so a ways to go yet. But I’m getting there.
Of course, we have sold our house and are moving into an apartment for a while, so that is a distraction. Not to mention, being home all day can be a little less than demanding or challenging for good mental stimulation of the story, so I might just go get a part-time job to fill in some time.
It is a waiting game, getting books written, edited, covers designed, published and printed. But really, I have to tell you, it is a wonderful feeling when you hold that book in your hand!
I added some photos of our short visit this weekend to some backroad sites in North Dakota. We left Thursday and traveled to the Pembina Gorge area. It is really strange, but its like the flatland opened up into this huge valley. When you are at the bottom, you feel like you are surrounded by mountains – there’s even a ski lodge with chair lifts! Very pretty, out of the way, saw coyote’s and turkeys, among others.
When we left there, we went to the old Sprite missle complex by Nekoma. What most people don’t realize is this is actually where the aliens are kept, not Area 51. It is a bizzare site, still fenced in, everything in place. It looks like it has been frozen in time. Pretty cool.
The next day we went to the International Peace Garden. It was a gorgeous day and perfect for walking the gardens. The flowers, even in this late date, were blooming and bright! An added surprise was the cactus terranium with cactii from Africa, North America and South America. Very cool.
It’s nice to get out and see what is close to home sometimes, instead of feeling you have to go to a destination to relax or have fun. This was a great roadtrip and my wife and I had a blast. I would encourage everyone to explore their own backyard. You never know what gem you will find.
Okay! As you know, The Wilson Chronicles is my current project. I’ve been at it for about two years. Book 1: Unlimited Possibility, and Book 2: Lightspeed!, are published. Book 3: Federation to Empire is complete and pending publication. Book 4: Andromeda, is nearly finished.
I view these four stories as the core development of a group of stories. These are the trunk of the tree, and future stories will be the limbs. I am already working on two books, Dhakini, and The Vortex of Time.
One of the hardest things to do is stay focused. Life is good, and it is a distraction from imagining and writing! A wonderful distraction, but nonetheless, involvement in daily routines and activities keeps you away from it. I don’t think non-writers would understand this. Writing is not just telling a story, it is a counseling session for the soul.
Yet, without those distractions the story would falter. It is during the times you cannot write that ideas suddenly appear. It is during those times with family and friends, travel, chores, etc., that inspiration occurs.
Well, I have three books in the bag, one nearly complete and two in the works. I think this project will keep me busy for several years. Life is good.
As if self publishing itself is not tough enough of a chore, then comes along trying to get your books available everywhere and technology seems to be hendering it. I published my first book of The Wilson Chronicles in December of 2018, but it is still not available through Barnes & Noble!
The difficulty is that BN says they can’t see it at the distributor, but Amazon can. They have book 2 up, but not book 1. Probably one of the more frustrating things I have experienced.
I have talked with my publisher, BN, Ingram, etc., and no one seems to want to fix it. My publisher suggested we re-publish the book with a new ISBN and see if that works – at my expense, of course. But what if it doesn’t work? It just seems silly.
This is proof positive that technology does not make life easier, but creates more complicated ways for people to not take responsibility; or to make something simple complex.
There are many truly sad things about where we are as a society. For example, it is truly sad we are unable to work together and fix what is broken. No, instead we spend our time and energy on blame, power, and other meaningless pursuits or unhelpful activities.
Our major cities have problems. Poverty, crime, illiteracy, lack of respect for the law. Yet who is actually focusing on repairing these items? No one, it seems. Chicago is the murder capital, with the deaths of many citizens a regular occurrence; yet more coverage goes to someone killing five people with an “assault” weapon (of which an AR-15 is not), than on actual solutions to the problem.
Failed garbage cleanup, failed schools, failed faith, failed belief, and failed leadership. This is not a foundation for the future success of our people or our country, or for the world as a whole.
I would like to hear a candidate for office, for once in his or her life, stop spending so much time blaming the opposite political party or ideology, or dividing us by race, sex, age, etc., and spend more time talking about actual solutions to real problems for Americans.
Contrary to the Democrats socialist dream of everyone sharing and being equal, there is only one winner for President, just like there is only one person in the classroom with the best grades, one winner in a beauty competition, one gold medal in a sport. People are not equal, but they should have equal opportunity. People generally compete in life to get ahead, from getting a job, a promotion, or elected. Embrace competition, just don’t use it against people.
The Americans who live in some of our worst cities deserve our support to fix their lives and help them embrace personal competition. But don’t just bring up solutions that give them more money or more benefits, that makes them more dependent. No, give them better education, better healthcare, better opportunities, and safer streets, so they can take better control of their own lives and improve from within, feeling a sense of growing pride in themselves. Allow them to have all the tools they need to have the equal opportunity we all deserve.
But please, the multi-trillion-dollar giveaways are not solutions. You cannot take all that everyone who has worked hard at accomplishing away from them and give it to those who don’t have as much and think for a moment that you have either solved an issue or created a perfect world. That is stupidity and arrogance, not intelligence and compassion.
In observing the culture we live in, there is been a behavior that I believe most people are aware of, but maybe not seen in this light. I have tried for quite some time to quantify what that behavior is, but this morning it hit me. Groupthink.
We often hear about group think as it relates to small groups. The Cuban missile crisis is used extensively to discuss this phenomenon. Groupthink is simply a tendency within a group or organization, or perhaps even a culture, to promote or establish the view of a particular segment of a dominant group. It means people drop their personal responsibility or deny their own critical thinking skills, and follow the norm of said group.
Today the far left, the left leaning media and the apparent leaders of the democratic party (grouped as leftists), suffer from this phenomenon. It is the only thing that can explain how when something happens or someone says something from outside of the leftist group, they all immediately produce the same response.
For example, the constant talk by leftists of President Trump as “racist.” Regardless of what he says, he is targeted by this group. It is obvious to most of us that he is not, but the leftists continue to pound home the same message. Most of them probably don’t even know what the anger is about, but being in the leftist group, they are angry.
I believe this is a significant failure of our educational system, among others, because they appear not to be teaching critical thinking, but group conformance.
It’s sad to see it like this, but I am not aware of a different means to interpret these actions. Oh, I am certain there are die hard communists, socialists, etc., lurking in the background. But that doesn’t address the groupthink concern. How can we break this up? Not sure, but it would take a lot of time, reform of education practices, bringing civility and respect back into our culture, and a lot of prayer.
Glenn Jackson, Author 