The Editor's Letter

Good Saturday to you! The edited manuscript arrived with a letter from the editor, as opposed to your normal letter to the editor from the local newspaper. This letter gave the editor's overall impression of my work and made suggestions about the plot lines, the characters, dialogue, and structure of the novel. I have some work to do, but again, as a first time author, this was expected. Other interesting problems that I carried throughout the book included: grammatical errors, punctuation, a lack of wases and wereses, and that dreaded passive voice.

The most interesting to me is how I learned through three years of college to avoid using 'was' or 'were' like they were some sort of transmittable disease. In academic writing this is a major rule, but the editor made liberal use of the two little words. The story is set in 1893 and narrated by one of the characters in 1958 so using wases and wereses does make it much easier. It seems such a small thing, but when telling a story don't you use was and were all the time? I know I do. Speaking of that college writing, I had at one time trained the passive voice out of my writing, but it crept back in somehow. I'll have to blame it on the blogging.

Larger issues have to do with my trying to write too much into the novel. Is the novel an epic journey as Ted is tossed out of England and ends up in the West, or is it the story of the coming together of the team to fight crime, or even a story about the changing West from Old West to the Industrial Age? Now that the editor kindly mentioned this, it does make clear the dilemma. I have so many ideas, but not all of them can fit in the first book. I wanted Ted in his home much more quickly, but added in more stories to the journey west. Some of it must wait for future novels, I'll get the team together in Sidney quickly and focus on the incidents that add up to someone trying to knock off my new state marshal. A major rewrite, but not an impossible task. I just need to give up some of my precious words. But I get to write new ones too!

Compliments on my dialogue and characters though, except for the overuse of he said/she said. Not a problem there, I had no idea how often that should be put in, so I went kind of whole hog on it. Time to go in and trim that porker down a bit! Good questions from the editor on the likelihood of some events in the story. If the editor is confused by something, no doubt readers would be as well. More work to do on explaining some things better. So where do I stand on getting the book to the reader? For that, I came up with one of those crude western analogies.

Imagine for a moment that I am a cattle rancher. I want to serve a nice steak, my novel, to a diner who is the reader. The diner comes into a restaurant some miles away, but I have no way to get the steer made into a steak on the plate. Through some stumbling about in the world of publishing, I have found a butcher for my steer. This butcher is the editor.

My first submission turned out to be three steers, but the butcher only needed one. I must decide which steer will be the first steak and store the other two carcasses for later use. The butcher then started trimming away the parts that don't belong on a steak. Too much fat is the redundant paragraphs, sentences, and phrases where I said the same thing too many times over and over again, redundantly, like hammering on the same nail until the wood is all dinged up, and pounding the same point home too many times, and you get the picture. Other parts were missing, like trying to serve up a steak with an odd hole in the center. As I rework the steer(novel), the future submissions will become a nice steak, the broiling of it, and the addition of the nice side dishes such as the book cover, descriptive blurb and so on to make a satisfying meal for the customer.

The story ideas are good and the characters are loveable. Learning can be difficult when a person is at that point of feeling pretty dern stupid. No, the editor's letter didn't make me feel that way. Like many new authors, I want my first work to be just by-golly, wow, perfect! The kind of skipping past the learning and getting better part we tend to want in this 'get it shipped the next day and pay for it later' world we live in. More good news: I can take much of this criticism and put it to use on the other book that is nearly complete as I have most likely made many of the same mistakes.

Enjoy the Thanksgiving Saturday! Bucky

The First Edit Impression

Good morning! The first copy of the copy edited manuscript arrived this morning. My first impression is pretty much as expected: a lot of marks and comments. That is good news. I would have been deeply suspicious had the editor simply said something like, "It seems okay to me." Like all writers I have read many books, and though I do not want mine to sound exactly the same as all other novels, if that is even possible, I can tell that from the reader's view the novel needs a lot of work before publication. Of course, part of me wants to get a 100 on the test, a slap on the back and a "good job", a new 'star' in the writing world comment, on my first try, even though the other part of my mind says that it ain't nearly there yet.

Now the work begins on my part. Accept or not to accept suggested changes, corrections of my grammar and syntax to be implemented, including that ol' dreaded passive voice, and then a review to hopefully read a novel that reads like a novel. I thought that I once had that passive voice thing fixed in my writing, but it seems that I've gotten sloppy again somewhere. Regarding grammar and syntax, I will never claim to be a pro in those areas. In college writing I depended heavily on Word's correction features. Note to self: check the settings in Word again, they must have reverted to the defaults at some point.

The edit took exactly the time quoted when I turned the manuscript in to CreateSpace. How long it will take for me to return it to the editors for a second round will be seen as I get started today and continue through the holiday weekend. I used to hate being on call or working through holidays back in the corporate world. This is different in that it's an 'I want to' instead of a duty that came to me through assignment or the short straw.

I am excited to have the manuscript back to see what a professional editor thinks. A quick glance at the comments section shows both likes and dislikes, and the occasional verbal head smack on my part. The "you know better than that" goes without explicit statement, but I'll take the hit! I read one comment wherein the editor confused who spoke to whom. That is my fault and needs to be fixed. I am glad to know those things before I attempt to publish. If I confuse a professional editor, I really have screwed it up!

Further impressions and notes as the manuscript review continues!

God bless you on this Thanksgiving weekend,
Bucky

Sticking to the End

A cool Saturday afternoon on the high plains, even colder (in a manner of speaking) out east where our Cornhuskers got stomped by Michigan this afternoon. No entry last Saturday, deer season began out here and I was out in the field. On the other hand, there has been nothing to report on the book publishing. The four weeks to edit my copy for the first time should be finished next week just before Thanksgiving. I expect that this first round of editing should look a lot like those tests that I didn't study for back in the day: lots of corrections and comments. The only difference will be that I never took a test 98,000 words long!

I have heard nothing on the book cover design yet, but that is not a concern at this point. The editing will probably take a few more months (multiple rounds at a month or so each) and the next book should go in soon. Whooee, that is one odd shade of lipstick! Sorry, watching an old Budd Boetticher western, Decision at Sundown. The actress was married to the director, so I suppose that explains how she can get away with orange lips in his movie.

So, how can I help my neighbor? I don't refer to the persons living in the house next door, but the one out there like me. You may know him or her; a job lost to the recession a couple of years ago; the savings from bank accounts, IRA's, or 401k is about gone, and yet, like me, he or she hopes this new career will work out. Now the time has come to put our work out there, to see if we can make it without a big corporation paying us every two weeks. I'm there with them. Do I stumble at the end? Cave in to the temptation to seek work with an employer once more? These questions seem rather melodramatic to me, or maybe that should be, 'of me'. Trusting in what God has called me to do seems so much easier.

Using my retirement funds and savings to live on, risking my house, and paying to publish a couple of novels that I do not know will sell seems a bit like a poker player who hasn't looked at his cards going all in. Did I 'write' a straight flush or a hand full of junk cards? Actually, that's not a bad line; maybe I have learned something in these three or so years of working on this writing thing. Praise the Lord for this new life! The thought of going back to the old corporate job, no matter how good the pay, just makes the blood run cold.

Have a great week! I plan to write my first impressions of the editing job as soon as it arrives. Until then: trust in God, have a great Thanksgiving, and just believe!

Bucky

A Bit Slow This Week

The first work, The Rumble of Wheels, is going through the 4-week editing process. After what looked to be a nothing week, the promotional text and author bio arrived today, or perhaps yesterday. I don't recall checking the Member Dashboard yesterday though I try to do that on a daily basis. I will plead one small excuse. The roofers were here yesterday. My advice: do not try to write in your home office when the house is getting a new roof. The cats and I looked pretty much the same at the end of the day: hair standing on end, claws out, and big, staring eyeballs; you know, sort of like people do after the latest Paranormal movie.

Promotional text is a purchased package of descriptions for the novel and the author. The Createspace specialists make very short, short, and extended descriptions such as you might find on the dust jacket flaps for a book cover, or on the back book cover of paperbacks. I downloaded the descriptions and they did a far better job than I could manage to do in the questionnaires. The author bio even sounded interesting. The book description sounded like something I would buy at the bookstore. Hope they get it in sometime soon. I want to read this one! An odd feeling to be sure when I realize that I wrote the thing.

The work on the first of the Tribulation Warriors novels continues. I did not turn it in this week as I realized that through a bit of mucking around in it I had, well, mucked it up. The logical flow of events between Rome, Virginia, and Wyoming had become confusing even to the writer (oops, that's me!).

For your enjoyment, the promotional text for my first novel, and a bit about some fellow who thinks he can write.

Title: The Rumble of Wheels
Author: Bucky Denzil
This is a working draft of your promotional text. Please let us know what changes need to be made. Should you choose to revise on your own, please adhere to the character limitations next to each description. The sections that do not have a character limit included do not have a restricted word count.

Sentence Description (200 characters, including spaces) A unique work of Christian historical fiction, The Rumble of Wheels by Bucky Denzil relates the story of Toledo Ted, who becomes the new state marshal of western Nebraska.

Short Description (2,000 characters, including spaces) The Rumble of Wheels by Bucky Denzil tells the story of Theodore Lagenfells. When his English aristocratic father dies his elder brother becomes the titled heir, and with the help of four thugs, arranges for Ted’s passage to America to avoid any trouble. Just in time for the Panic of 1893, Ted lands in Boston and is recruited by Pinkerton’s Detective Agency, which has mysteriously been keeping track of him. Ted ventures out to explore the new country on horseback, but gets lost in the white birch forests of upstate New York. Exhausted, he promises his life to Jesus, and following the south shoreline of one of the Great Lakes, he arrives in Toledo, which is far short of his intended destination. From then on, he is dubbed Toledo Ted. Training for his job takes him to Chicago during the Columbian Exposition, and although posted to Denver, he never quite makes it to Colorado because of his habit of leaving the railroad to explore.

In Omaha, Governor Crounse arranges with the Pinkertons to hire Ted as the state marshal for western Nebraska, and sends him off to Sidney. Everyone seems to know Ted will be arriving in town, and Sam, a civil war veteran, preacher, teacher, and bounty hunter, gathers together some deputies. A team that includes Zeph De Beers, who is heir to a diamond fortune and originally from South Africa; Long Rain, a local farmer, farrier, and gunsmith who comes from the Nez Perce tribe in Idaho; and Bo, a farmer and blacksmith who tinkers with just about any machine or technology. However, the reader soon learns that someone wants Toledo Ted six feet under. Could it be the mastermind behind the recent train robberies? Or Jayne Crowe’s father, Big John, who is opposed to Ted’s interest in his daughter? Feelings can linger a long time in the West. Does the threat to Ted’s life have something to do with the Wyoming range war? Faith-filled and fun to read, this Western thriller is guaranteed to keep readers gripped until the very last page.

Extended Description

Narrated with a few anecdotes and comments by Long Rain, a member of the Nez Perce tribe, The Rumble of Wheels by Bucky Denzil tells the tale of Theodore “Toledo Ted” Lagenfells. Set in late nineteenth century America, the story opens with Toledo Ted, the new state marshal of western Nebraska, clinging precariously to a cliff face while he wonders how long it will be before Zeph, one of his deputies, doubles back to check on him. Birds are eating the seeds he gathered in his britches, and he can’t help but laugh—carefully. Following yet another stage robbery, Zeph had galloped after the crooks while Ted turned his horse, Artos, up the bluff to cut off the gang’s escape route. However, the dust from the prairie brought Artos to an abrupt halt, and after a short flight, Ted found himself in this predicament. Trying to swing a leg up only causes him to almost lose his grip several times, and he is sure it is only a matter of time before he drops into what he is certain is a vast ravine below. “Are you busy down there, marshal?” says a voice from above. Ted wonders if it might be God speaking to him, until he identifies an amused Long Rain, who happens to be another of his deputies. When Ted dares to look down, he discovers the ground is not too far away. A big ledge breaking up the cliff stands a mere foot higher than a fully outstretched Ted, who lets go with a grateful sigh, sending the birds fluttering in every direction. Flexing his hands to get some feeling back into them, Ted can see Zeph on the stage road below. The gang has made a successful getaway yet again. As Long Rain waits for his orders, Ted wonders what would happen if the quiet, yet capable Indian ever met up with his bombastic and inept brother in England, the new Lord Lagenfells, who is behind the very reason Ted landed in America in the first place. As time goes on, it’s obvious someone wants to end the new marshal’s life, but who could that be? The mastermind behind the robberies? Ted shows an interest in Jayne Crowe when he visits the Fair Breezes Ranch, a misnamed ranch if ever there was one. Does her father, Big John, want him killed? Ted doesn’t know, but when he finds out, it all has a lot to do with betrayal. “Toledo Ted is much like us,” says the author. “We pick up names we don’t like, are often wrong in our assumptions, and have friends and a God who cares about us.” Humorous, compelling, and full of dramatic action, The Rumble of Wheels is a fun and entertaining read.

Back Cover Text (250 words or less)
Everyone in Sidney seems to know that Toledo Ted will soon take over as the new state marshal for western Nebraska. He has quite a history. Born Theodore Lagenfells, he’s the second son of a late English lord. Unfortunately, with the help of a bunch of thugs, he was shipped off to America when his brother inherited the estate. Arriving in Boston in 1893, he was hired by Pinkerton’s Detective Agency, but on his way to Chicago to learn his job, he ended up in Toledo, completely lost, and turned to Jesus for guidance. Having a tendency to wander off, Ted eventually found himself in Omaha, and this is when Governor Crounse asked him to deal with the lawlessness in a town that has run rotten long enough. Meanwhile, a motley crew of deputies eagerly awaits Ted’s arrival, but it soon becomes apparent that someone wants the new marshal dead and buried. An action-packed thriller, The Rumble of Wheels shows God has a sense of humor, and will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very last page.

Denzil “Bucky” Buckle served in the U.S. Marine Corps before joining the workforce as a dishwasher, cook, truck loader, dock foreman, security guard, cable installer, cabling systems designer, and finally a network administrator. Just before getting the boot after nearly twenty years with Cabela’s Inc., Bucky earned a BS in Information Technology. Raised in Nebraska, the author shares his life with two very particular and well-fed cats.

Author Biography (1,000 characters, including spaces) Raised in the panhandle of Nebraska, Denzil “Bucky” Buckle failed at studying nuclear engineering before he served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Grenada and Lebanon. He then joined the working world as a dishwasher, cook, truck loader, dock foreman, security guard, cable installer, cabling systems designer, and finally a network administrator. Just before getting the boot after nearly twenty years with Cabela’s Inc., Bucky earned a BS in Information Technology. He has written a Christian daily devotional for more than five years and is the author of The Rumble of Wheels, a Western thriller filled with faith, fun, and adventure. As long as the litter box and feeding duties are taken care of on a regular basis, Bucky is allowed to live with two cats.

First Person Author Biography (1,000 characters, including spaces) Raised in the panhandle of Nebraska, I failed at studying nuclear engineering before serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in Grenada and Lebanon. I then joined the working world as a dishwasher, cook, truck loader, dock foreman, security guard, cable installer, cabling systems designer, and finally a network administrator. Just before getting the boot after nearly twenty years with Cabela’s Inc., I earned a BS in Information Technology. I have written a Christian daily devotional for more than five years and am the author of The Rumble of Wheels, a Western thriller filled with faith, fun, and adventure. As long as the litter box and feeding duties are taken care of on a regular basis, I am allowed to live with two cats.

First Person Author Biography (140 characters, including spaces) Raised in Nebraska, I worked for 20 years with Cabela’s Inc. & earned a BS in Information Technology. The Rumble of Wheels is my first book.

A Week of Questions

Top o' the morning to ya! All about questions this week. A questionnaire for the promotional text creation. Another for the copyediting, and still anther that I cannot recall the purpose of. The week became rather busy, so maybe there were only two questionnaires. The questions involved...wait for it... what is the book about? I did find it easier to write a summary, but still... Kind of hard to summarize a novel in only a few sentences or paragraphs. I guess the Cliff Notes version will have to be written up by someone who is a lot better at it. Other questions had to do with me. Aha, that was the other one - cover creation.

What does a person write about himself? Looking at the many novels I have in my library it becomes obvious that a 20-page biography is out of the question. There is so much to tell, but quite a bit may not be all that interesting to someone looking for a new book to purchase for that long flight back home. I tried, just for fun, to write up a paragraph in the manner that is seen on books in the store. I'm paying up front for this cover creation service; should I be trying to do their job for them?

Both numbers arrived this week. The ISBN assignments and the LCCN. A writer has the option of accepting the free ISBN assignment from Createspace or purchasing one through another service. The number can only be used for this publishing project. You cannot use the same number for a hardcover edition with Harper Collins for example. (Of course I'm hoping for a hardcover deal too!) I saw no reason not to simply accept the free ISBN. The LCCN has a fee and is not necessary for publishing. Of course I want the Library of Congress to catalog my first novel. A kind of vanity thing perhaps, but I paid the fee. Once assigned by Createspace, the writer simply acknowledges the number. It ain't like you can ask for a different one.

The link to upload the file became active this week too! This is the file, the novel, the ticket to fame and loot. Okay, so right now it isn't exactly a page-turner. A lot of copyediting will be needed first. My written voice will not make the bestseller lists without a lot of help from editors. Not a problem, just uploading the file seemed like a milestone in the process. No special formatting involved. Createspace accepts many formats and software. I used Microsoft Word 2010 and the docx file type, but the text is the main thing. After that, the wait begins. 4 weeks to edit a 98,000 word manuscript, and then back to work for me.

In the waiting time, I will be starting the process for the second novel, the first in a different series, and updating the blog on that as well. I wrote both novels at the same time simply because my mind seems to work that way. Some sort of attention-deficit thing perhaps, but I didn't do one novel in order and then start another as some writers do. To use an old-timey IT reference: you might say that some writers are serial printers and I am more of a parallel printer type.

Cover proofs, promotional text, and other things will probably arrive in the waiting time too. I did select a book size from the standard sizes. If a writer included photographs, I could see specifying a custom size (with a fee). As my work is simply the black text on the white (cream-colored actually) page novel, I looked on my bookshelf; found a size I liked that matched one of the choices, and selected the check box. There are many more options, some with fees and some at no cost. Look at books that caught your eye in the store or library. You may want to pay more to get exactly what you want.

At one of our local library's dead book sales, I discovered that a title on the spine makes a big difference too. If you don't have that big name to put on the spine like "Stephen King" or "James Patterson", the title becomes even more important. I don't recognize "Loewen", but Lies my Teacher Told Me, with the first word in big red letters over a scenic background grabs my attention. I use that book as an example because even on the shelf above my writing desk it stands out quickly. The little things are important.

Have a great week and God bless!

Bucky

Publishing the New Way

Three years and a bit in the making, I began the process to publish my first novel this week. Not the traditional process, mind you, but the self-published way. The more traditional method is to seek an agent or publisher, send a cover letter, wait, and hopefully an agent will respond wanting to see a full proposal. I visited many a website researching this method and couldn't help but feel pretty much unwanted. More than one literally said, "Don't call us; we'll call you!" I had thought that an old Hollywood cliche, but I now stand corrected.

Of course the first thing to note about self-publishing is that you don't have to literally print the book all by yourself. The publisher I selected offers many options for editing, describing, marketing, and illustrating books. One thing I did not see was an option to print my book in a nice hardcover format. As a first-time author, I may not have seen that going the traditional way either. Having not used this blog for too many postings yet, I decided yesterday that I would give you a week by week log (on a weblog no less!) of what goes on with this process.

On Tuesday, I signed up for an account with Createspace, the publisher mentioned earlier. The following day I received my first call. Bryan, led me through some initial setup on the web account and I created a horrendously difficult password that, alas, I had to write down - a major no-no from my days in the IT department. I'll get that memorized as soon as possible and destroy the paper copy. Later in the day the Createspace account notified me to take the next step and enter my personal or business account information for receiving royalty payments. Unfortunately, the payments won't begin until after the first book is published. There are no advances in the self-publishing world. I guess self-publishing means that I get to trust in God to take care of my "self" until the book starts selling copies.

During the initial consultation, Bryan asked a few questions and set up a meeting with the next level, the publishing consultant, who would call me. The phone meeting with Sarah took place on Friday and the first thing I discovered is that I am a bit of a disaster when it comes to verbally selling my own book. Listening to my verbal synopsis of the book, you might wonder whether I actually wrote the thing! I suppose that after using more than 98,000 words to write the novel, I am allowed to have a little trouble describing it in a few hundred words. In any case, Createspace offers services to take care of my shortcomings in that area as well.

Among the other services I selected, including cover design, interior layout, book description, marketing, Library of Congress Control Number, and others, one service stands out - copyediting. I had thought that traditional publishers would be all over this, but I read in one book that this is no longer the case. Strangely, the book listed something like seven different editors who apparently don't do the kind of editing a first-time novelist really needs. Remember the Jack Nicholson part in Wolf? Yeah, it kind of led me to believe that publishers did that kind of thing. Anyway, Createspace does offer basic and comprehensive copyediting. Although I believe that I have the talent to be the next bazillion-copy, best-selling novelist - just like every other first-time author - I can read my copy and tell that it needs something to make it read more like the great novels you can find in your bookstore.

Finally, I started two projects on the member dashboard. One for the first novel, The Rumble of Wheels: A Toledo Ted Adventure, and another for my second novel. As this process moves forward, I will do weekly updates each Saturday until the publishing date. Next week I am to expect contact from the design team assigned to my book. The damage thus far: just over $3,000 for the options mentioned above. A more experienced (or less verbally and graphically challenged) author might need to purchase less to get started. As a first-timer, I decided to risk more to get the professional help I need (pun intended).

The grace of God be with you this week!

Bucky

Rules for Recently Rib Racked

A few hours ago, I found out that my old high school chum, Jim, had cracked a rib while doing an Endo on his bicycle. This came as no small surprise to me as none of my memories from 30 years or so back had indicated that Jim would be one to become involved in full contact bicycle gymnastics as a hobby, or even as a serious sport. In thinking of his new condition, various dark and humorous thoughts immediately sprang to mind. As only the truly sadistic sod would try to make a friend laugh during such a time, I jotted down the following rules for the friends of those having suffered a recent rib or torso injury.

1. Under no circumstances should the patient’s friends, or soon to be former friends, gather to exchange jokes and laughs with the patient. Jokes are banned for the first six weeks of recovery. Patients may find friends who have never before shown a talent for joke telling to be suddenly overcome with an urge to share the latest joke, even to the point of making up new jokes on the spot. This should be strongly discouraged. As soon as I heard the bad news from Jim, I immediately thought of a joke about a fortune teller and a kumquat; never mind that I cannot recall jokes on a normal basis and have never made one up as far back as anyone can remember. As the patient nears recovery he or she may notice this strange condition among his former friends drying up to the point of vanishing entirely as soon as the first good belly laugh is observed. This is of course assuming that the patient hasn’t by this time evicted all but those friends possessed with the humorous demeanor of an undertaker or hanging judge.

2. Sneezing is out – as in all the way out. In fact this would be a good time to discuss with the patient’s primary physician the possibility of nose removal or of simply blocking up the sinus cavities with Jell-O or Silly Putty or some such substance. As the mere mention of sneezing can cause an urge to sneeze to start a tickle in the nasal passages, all talk or writing about sneezing, sniffles, allergies, pepper, talcum powder, dust, or pet dander should stop immediately.

3. Allergy season must be cancelled at once. No patient suffering from rib or torso injuries should be allowed to participate in allergy season.

4. Sneeze-causing pets must be shaved immediately or dipped in an industrial-strength depilatory. It is a well-known fact that pets will immediately shed at least one coat upon sensing a patient with rib injuries or torso sutures in the area.

5. If a sneeze has become inevitable, it is the responsibility of all of the patient’s friends to assist in gathering up all sutures, staples, and assorted body parts ejected by the blast. Children should be restrained from chasing down and playing with the bouncy parts if at all possible. The patient is excused from this as he or she will be, as the physicians like to say, “Holding on for dear life” with all available limbs and appendages.

6. A sack should be kept handy to prevent small children and those with weak constitutions from viewing the facial expression of the patient who must cough or sneeze while recovering from rib injuries. While the sack does little to prevent the ejection of various dangly body parts from unsuppressed sneezes, the expression of the suffering patient my cause others to “seize up” or have nightmares.

7. If possible, spouses should refrain from ‘cheering up’ the patient with various comedy routines and Three Stooges rip-offs until a later date.

8. Persons bringing old Bill Cosby tapes as get well gifts should be immediately clubbed. CD’s and DVD’s should be the minimum technology allowed. What century do they think this is anyway?

Denzil “Bucky” Buckle – by whatever name or derogatory term you knew him from his former life, served five weeks in Mercy Hospital in Dubuque, Iowa in late 1998, including one simply smashing week in the Intensive Care ward. His observations of recovery and hospital time have been published only in his blogs and fondest nightmares. He took up writing as a profession after getting the ax for nearly 20 years of mostly loyal service to Cabela’s Inc., a major outdoor sporting goods retailer. His first novel, The Rumble of Wheels: A Toledo Ted Adventure should be completed within the month.