The Next Jeb Taylor Book Truly is Coming Along...

I've worked through several convolutions as I've adjusted to living and writing in my Lakota LQ trailer. Started out with a couple efforts setting up a folding table in back, once all had been unloaded. That didn't work out so well. Especially in the winter. It's tough to keep that back there heated up enough to sit and whittle words, even on the "Warm" southern desert.

That and the constant set it all up__Break it all down was a sticker that jabbed at me. So I kept thinkin' on it.

Just a short time ago, I returned for this years winter camp in that southern desert. I jumped off on an idea I've had and just did it. My thought was to "remodel" the LQ section a mite. I replaced the couch with a desk and chair... Truth be told it's working out as good as I'd hoped, maybe better.

So... much of my days are now being spent sittin' there in the comfort of my plush 'executives' chair... ha ha ha... whittling on what will be that next Jeb Taylor story.

Something I've said before is that I "Write out loud". Seems to me you just about have to. If you read your own words silently your mind has a way of skipping over goofs. It makes it "sound" the way you think it should, rather than how what you put down actually does.

Sooooo... I - ALWAYS - read the paragraphs I just wrote out loud. That goes a long way toward stoppng you from skipping over your mistakes. It also exposes 'Awkward' wording. Fixing that lets the words flow more smoothly.

The mind will slip right past sentences that trip the tongue. But it still has an effect on the reading. When the words flow smoothly it's more pleasant to the "ear" of the reader. That is an "intangible" thing a writer really needs to pay attention to in his (or her) pursuit of telling a better story.

Then there's the goofy punctuation that it helps expose too... (Yeah... one of my weaknesses)

Only trouble is when I'm writing in a campground somewhere... and people start looking funny at the guy who sits in his trailer all day talking to himself! bwahahahahahaha.

For me there's one more benefit. It helps me "Hear" the voices for sure and for certain. More than once I've read what I thought were good words but when I heard them out loud I thought; "He'd never say that like that"... and it gets fixed...

For Example;

Well... time to get back to talking to myself. The Taylors have went and got themselves into an almighty jackpot and I'm hungering to find out how they get out of it!

- BK Gore

My Writing Shed is a Horse Trailer

The past months have seen many changes. Some good... some not... some... just pure awful.

After 36 years the greatest failure in life has resulted in divorce. I am not one of those who found reason to celebrate. I am sad for those who do. Something is very wrong, I think, when a person's perceptions are so broken that they celebrate such a soul tearing personal failure.

But it is what it is. Life is not over. It only bears another deep and searing scar... and you go on.

My home of the past six years or so was a fifth wheel trailer. Going forward... my home is A Lakota LQ (Living Quarters) 3 Horse trailer.

With but 170 square feet or so in the front/LQ part it's not spacious... but it fits me fine.

In the back, where the horses load... or will... is where I do my work now...

The Horse compartment, once they are unloaded and swept out... becomes my "Writing Shed"...

There's an old saying in the Cowboy world; "I never sold my saddle"...

My return To Horse is supported by the fact that in deed "I never sold my saddle"...

I've made progress in that return to the life I never should have left... but it's temporarily blocked by economic reality. The cost of rebuilding and re-equipping has slowed the journey.

... but I'll be returning to Sidney Montana for the beet harvest in October again this year.

That is in the interest of collecting the dinero to continue my return "To Horse".

Back to my "writing shed"... How appropriate is that? I write, so far, westerns. Now... I write westerns with my Writing Shed sitting in a horse trailer.

That, in light of my recent personal failures is moving along in fits and spurts. Some days I can write... many... my mind is occupied elsewhere and the only words that come aren't proper to share, and damn sure aren't part of a Good story.

The next in the Jeb Taylor series, tentatively titled "The Blood Runs true" is finally nearing completion. Though I'd planned on it being published in the spring, as always, life managed to rise up and get in the way.

After many diversions and obstructions I am back to work on it, and hope to complete it this month__and hopefully (fingers crossed on both hands while looking skyward) I can publish it in September... if not... October?

I have become superstitious in the extreme about stating a hoped for publishing date... I expect to have The Fates descend on my this time as well! ;)

Before I go I thought I'd let you know I recently did an interview on an Online "Radio" show called The Wild West Showdown. If it tickles your fancy you can check that out and give a listen.

Till next time...

- BK Gore