Time is a Fickle Thing (Post #18)

“Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations.” – Faith Baldwin, N/A Date

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I am alive! I know I have not posted an update since May and, oddly, it is all for the right reasons. Or life's reasons. I have some exciting 2025 updates on book sales and an update on my much delayed "Parabellum" book. Let us dive into it!

First and foremost, I apologize for my lack of updates if you do read these blog entries on a monthly basis. I put family as a priority and that was the central issue to be absence. Long story short, my son has been very sick off and on since his birth in 2024 and we are frequent flyers to the local Children's Hospital. With that said, the little man had four surgeries at the end of June that were very important and will hopefully set him up for a long and fruitful life. Those surgeries were very taxing on us as a family, as some of those surgeries were also exploratory in nature and the stress of possible further medical complications was a major issue. Between taking care of him and adjusting to a few family changes with our two older daughters, summer was gone before we knew it. Finally, at the end of September, I had emergency abdominal surgery, which forced me to cancel an event for selling my books and make several work adjustments. I am healing, but recovery has been a bear.

As for book sales, we last left of with Post #16 (Trust the Process) and Post #17 (Take the Opportunity) with not only meeting my original 22 book goal but also surpassing that goal by 4 books to 26 books total! It gets better, so hold on. This summer, in person, I was able to sell 12 books this summer with one book donated (13 total). Including the donation, we have now officially sold 39 books this year, which now makes 2025 my highest selling year. Thank you to my readers and fans who enjoy my books or, even if you didn't it, thank you for taking a risk on this small-time independent author. With all that said, I know 39 books may not seem like a lot---especially to other authors---but between my family obligations with 3 children and my full-time job, I feel that I do the best I can with the time and financial resources I have available. So, I count 39 books as a win-win.

Finally, to No Tears (Parabellum). I will say this: Part One is a masterpiece, the perfect one-two punch as a climax leading not only up to Book 4 from the previous 3 No Tears books but also as a very solid action-packed opening to Book 4 (I haven't touched it since I finished it). With all that said, I have gone through several drafts of Part Two and at one point had Part Two done and was starting Part Three. But the more I read it myself, the more I realized the tone, speed, and direction were off. I tried several attempts to incorporate what I had already written in Part Two into new writing and expand it, but the more I did that the more I realized I was justifying Part Two and not enjoying it. And if the author cannot enjoy his own work....would the readers? So, I made the difficult decision to start over on Part Two. I still have my earlier drafts, so not all is lost, but just like with No Tears (Inheritance), I am taking the high road and rewriting 2/3 of the book. I felt this was the right decision for Parabellum, if not necessarily the easy decision.

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“There is no honorable way to fight. When you are fighting for your life, it does not matter how you fight, as long as you survive. Fight dirty, it will not matter how you ended it to the dead man.”

Marcus Felix Brutus
pg. 174; A Story of the Beginning (Revised Edition)​