Author on the Road

Camping brought us new acquaintances on our weekend and vacation stays, but would we find friends along the way if we made this drastic change in our lives.  I had two novels half done on my laptop and one in publication.  Making a drastic change meant changing a writing routine as well as changing our lives.

Just a few weeks before the long awaited day when I could say goodbye to slogging through fall down pours and winter boots we found it – the RV of our dreams; we thought.  Writing was pushed to the back of my mind to dismantle a house filled with memories. 

We left the house for good in June and were officially full-time in our RV.  The printer sat on the dashboard of the motor home, my lap top alongside it, my research tucked away in a basket beside my seat at the front along with my Bible and worship books.  I was ready to work on my novels; the big change was behind me.  But first I wanted to get to know the people that came every weekend (the seasonals) to the RV Park; spend hot summer days in the pool, visit our retired friends more often, and there were still those committees that needed my attention.  There was the whole summer after all to get at least one story finished before we left our home state and started the real adventure.

The summer went by in a whirlwind of sleeping late, lazing in the pool, trips to town and spending weekends seeing our children and grandsons, extended family and friends.  A few nights I would light up the computer screen and work on that novel, but all too often it was checking the email and playing computer solitaire.  And there were those books I always wanted to read waiting to have the cover opened.

At last the day was coming to take to the road and experience the adventure of travel to new places – but the book had to be finished and by some miracle the final chapter was written and the draft edited before working our way to Mustang, Oklahoma where Tate Publishing lives, grows and thrives.  Meeting the people that made They All Fall Down a reality seemed all the more important when a contract for Brimstone and Water was waiting to be secured.  The RV life was giving me that opportunity that few have the chance to embrace. 

While visiting in Mustang I arranged for a web page to be created for They All Fall Down and discussed the contract for Brimstone and Water.  But there was little time for contracts when a new adventure brought us to our 4-month stay in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  Time slipped away before I knew it with only a book signing arranged while we were there.  It was time to start thinking about the new novel getting published while the next one was being written.

Since then several changes happened in 2011 and 2012 that interfered with writing but somehow Brimstone and Water made it through the initial editing process prior to our move to Kentucky and workamping at Amazon for the peak season.  We were somewhere on I-65 heading south when I received a phone-call regarding cover design choices.   The layout design was sent for approval shortly after leaving Kentucky for the Panhandle of Florida where a short time later the final electronic read through arrived to catch those last misspelled words and misplaced punctuation marks.  We were moving on to Alabama shortly after the final file was emailed back to the editors and the proof copy of Brimstone and Water would find me there. 

A year has passed since Brimstone and Water launched in a time of chaos and uncertainty with the death of a dear friend and my 94-year old father-in-law. Our saving grace during it all was our home on wheels.  The past year brought book signings, presentations and a crash course in social networking.  Our RV lifestyle offers opportunities to tell people we meet I am an author when asked what I do.  It also allows me to seek out venues where ever we travel.  The third novel is written and it will soon be time to work through the process again while researching the next.  And all the time the home on wheels continues to bring new adventures while writing excites the imagination.

To read the full story check in at http://pumpupyourbook.com and visit the virtual book tour for Brimstone and Water.

Happy writing and reading to all that visit me here.