This month has been a challenge. May began as April ended, with family visiting for a graduation ceremony at SEU in Lakeland. Also, we had a pleasant visit from my sister and her husband. Following that, my sister-in-law graciously took Mom with her to the mountains of NC, then, things fell quiet.

I got back to work on The Practician manuscript working through chapter 24, but in chapters 25 and 26, I had to make major revisions, reordering the chapters, lowering the word count, and bringing the manuscript to version 7.1.2. Chapters 28 and 29 went smoothly, but when I reached chapter 31 I discovered a gross redundancy in the detective character, Heath Greyson, who was introduced in chapter 21. As a result, I have undertaken a massive revision of that chapter which will also be required in chapter 31. Although the manuscript moved up to version 7.1.3, I feel like I’m going backward.

I discovered this flaw as we were on the verge of traveling to my granddaughter’s high school graduation in Sugar Hill, Ga., then on to NC to bring Mom home from the hills. Since today is Memorial Day weekend, I suppose the revisions will continue into June. Also continuing into June will be my struggle with branding and the use of social media, especially Goodreads, to promote myself and my work. I’m convinced that those who tout the use of social media as a way to success in the literary field if they have themselves been successful, have been so for other reasons. But that’s a matter to be proven. For now, I feel compelled to follow instructions and learn for myself.

Hugh Howey had great success through Amazon’s KDP Select program. I’m reading his novel, “Shift” to get a feel for his talent as a writer. It’s not my genre of preference, but it helps me to study his model. I hope to learn something that will help propel me into the market with my own best-seller. I also finished reading Thomas Wolfe’s “You Can Never Go Home Again”. It has been a long and arduous read, if also a literary masterpiece. Also, I am close to finishing my reading of C.S. Lewis’s “Out of The Silent Planet”, which has itself been somewhat arduous.

On our trip north, we listened to Nicholas Meyer’s “The Adventures of The Peculiar Protocols” as narrated by David Robb. This is an excellent piece of work both from a literary standpoint and an audiobook achievement. We are now finishing up our listen of “The Return of The Pharaoh” also by Nicholas Meyer and narrated by David Robb. If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes, I highly recommend Nicholas Meyer. He has brought the detective back to life in stories and a style that exceeds Conan Doyle’s own interpretation of the character he developed. I have become a fan, and if ever I have a book of my own published in audio format, I want David Robb to narrate.

Finally, as I look around at the tragic madness of a depraved world, I am reading “Spiritual Warfare: Deliverance Ministry Basic Training” by I.R. Womack. Surely the problem is demonic in nature. Surely the church has an obligation to intercede.