It’s not a lot. Certainly not enough to live on, not yet. But… a little money. There are actually changes to my numbers when I check KDP, most of the time.

That’s cool.

What’s not cool? The reaction I’m experiencing. As excited as the sales make me, I find myself become a bit complacent. More hesitant to write, rather than more eager.

It’s weird. It makes no sense. It makes me wonder if I should be looking into retirement communities I can’t afford. Since clearly there’s a part of me that just isn’t motivated.

Fortunately, these moods aren’t lasting long. Once I actually force myself to fire up the word processor, I get into it again and enjoy writing the next project.

But this pull toward inertia is… troublesome.

We all understand that whether you’re browsing books on Amazon or browsing maternity clothes at babiesnbellies.com, the more products you have to offer, the better chance you have of making a sale. Right now, my published works consists of two titles. I have three or four short projects I could put out quickly, and get to where I need to be a lot faster.

But would the EMBER COLE series suffer as a result? SHADA is Book 1 in that series, and if I divert into a few short fiction projects before I put out EMBER, the second book in the series, I could frustrate readers. It’s a constant juggling act. I need to be cloned.

It takes longer, of course, but always helps me catch some previously-missed mistakes, and I take that opportunity to brush up the eBook version as well, with the same corrections. But now that’s all done and my full energies can be redirected to the follow-up to SHADA, EMBER.

Speaking of EMBER, I tried leaping ahead and making new progress, but it was slow-going and awkward, so I leaped back to the middle to finish the updating process. I know my characters so much better now than I did the first time through. That’s where writing SHADA helped a lot. But I’ll be in fresh progress territory soon enough.

That’s all for now

We arrived in Portland as scheduled on Friday at around 12:15 PM Pacific Daylight Time. Do you think we’d have time to take a breather? Nope. Turns out our apartment went through a management change since we did our paperwork and things were confused. We got them sorted, but it’s a good thing we kept our paperwork on file to ensure that the new management team had a copy of everything. Other than that kink, it all went down well, and I appreciate the new management team rolling with the punches with us.

We unpacked, getting the dog, cat and Dad settled. With nowhere to sit, unfortunately, Dad was pretty much stuck to his bed as the only option. The cable guy arrived on time and we got TV and internet connected smoothly. Love it.

Then the shopping spree was on. First it was off to the Portland airport, where Ikea was located. We ordered two sofa-beds, a couple desk chairs, an entertainment stand, and had it all picked and delivered for us. None of that would arrive until the next day, though. So off we went to Wal-Mart; out we came with two overflowing shopping carts full of items we needed. Everything from bedding sets to towels to lamps and more. Just an insane amount of items, but considering how much we had to leave behind in Minnesota, it was all needed.

It was pretty late by the time we got home, unloaded the car again, and picked up Dad for a late supper. We ended up going to Applebees, and they had karaoke going on, and I sang “Bed of Roses” by Bon Jovi in spite of being epically tired. Great crowd response, and it made me feel relaxed to sing.

The next day, we did some unpacking but tried to conserve our energy for the big delivery. The items from Ikea came on time, as scheduled, and between Andie and I, we put everything together. Having the beds there was the biggest blessing, because on the first night in Portland, only Dad had a bed; Andie and I spread out our bedding and pillows and, other than that, pretty much slept on the floor. Not good for waking up feeling good. Yet we were both so tired we slept anyway; just not well.

Once all the Ikea items were assembled, Andie and I went out on our date night. We found a nice local place called Ram that had good food. Then we walked over to Target and picked up a few overlooked essentials (like fans!) that we were able to carry back without a car.

Finally, today, we made a second trip to Target to get the final round of essentials; TV trays, desks to hold our PCs, and various sundry items. We also enjoyed our first real meal in our new home and watched some Ice Road Truckers.

But Monday’s coming, and somehow we’ve found ourselves put-back-together enough to start working again. Never would have guessed that, but I owe a lot to my wife, who’s an awesome planner.

So, everyone, say hello to Craig Hansen – newly-minted Oregon native and novelist!

On Tuesday, we headed out from Keystone, SD and made what turned out to be our longest day of travel, bar none: 480 miles through Wyoming into Montana, stopping at Livingston, MT, for the night.

There are good and bad qualities about our Montana experience. First, it was the first state in our trip that showed me the grandeur of what I would consider “real mountains.” Sorry, but the are where Mount Rushmore is in western South Dakota, while nice, are foothills compared to those found in Montana.

They appear as ghosts on the horizon, then slowly come into view as you blaze across I-90 going 75 mph. By the time you’re among them, the scope and size of the tall pines really begins to speak to you.

On the downside, we were disappointed with our accommodations in Livingston. The hotel had advertised itself as pet-friendly, but wasn’t… at least, not friendly toward dogs. (That’s in spite of the fact that we have papers declaring Shadow a service animal for Dad’s mental health.) So much for “Quality” Inn.

Also bad? Their “free WiFi” was free, but it was about the speed of dial-up service. Really disappointed in that bit, as it prevented us from even pulling up email or Facebook, let alone doing an update on our journey west.

The next day, we set out again and it took most of the day to just get out of western Montana. It’s a HUGE state! And from Livingston, it seems almost 100 percent downhill at a six-percent grade, and so keeping our over-stuffed, overloaded 2002 Kia Rio Cinco in second gear most of the way was almost a necessity to feel any level of control. Doesn’t help that the speed limit mostly stays at 75 mph even during the tightest turns.

Idaho was just more of the same; but it only lasted under fifty miles from where we went across. Still, 75 mph going all downhill made it hard to relax at all, whether I was driving or the one riding shotgun. Ugh.

We saw a few wildfires along the way. And I swear, I don’t know where they grow potatoes in the state since from our view on I-90, it’s all one long downhill roller coaster with nothing but mountains and tall pines.

Finally, we reach Couer d’ Alaine and I had a chance to turn a shade other than green. By then we were only a half-hour from Spokane, Washington. Finally, the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific Time Zone!

We stayed at a Howard Johnson’s Inn there, and had our first truly great meal of our trip, at a little family-owned Mexican restaurant named Casa de Oro. Only slightly pricier than Don Pablo’s back in Minnesota, but a wonderful place in its own right, excellent customer service, and I loved the Chili Colorado! Plus they were very accommodating to my wife’s gluten-free needs and our no-pork issue.

Before we went to Casa de Oro, we checked out the HoJo internet and it was fast! I looked forward to posting a huge update last night… but by the time we got back, some miscreant guest had sabotaged their entire WiFi system and it was down for the duration of our stay.

Adding insult to injury, HoJo Spokane had electrical work scheduled for 9 AM the next morning, so even though we didn’t have to check out until noon, there was no reason to stick around because all power went out shortly after the complimentary breakfast… meaning no AC on a ninety-degree day in Spokane.

In all, Spokane was a lot of fun in spite of these couple problems because it felt like civilization again after nearly two days of mountain roller coasters and such.

So we hit the road early for Pendelton, OR, and arrived around 1:15 PM. Spent time with Andie’s mom, then checked into Motel 6 to freshen up. It was very hot, and the room very cold, and then when I hit the hot shower I almost fainted. I’m not a fan of the showers here, and the Internet pass cost $3.00/day/laptop, but it’s fast and it works, so I’m happy to have it! The room’s a bit small, a bit basic, but a nice refuge.

Later we went out to eat here in Pendelton with Andie’s sister, sister’s husband, and her mom. We went to a Thai restaurant here and the food was amazing. They had a house specialty beef dish called Tiger’s Delight or something like that, and it was awesome! The meat was tender with a nice char to it, smokey, and it had a sauce that went with it.

This was the amazing part. I tasted the beef without the sauce. Nice. I tasted the sauce without the beef. Nice. But when you mixed the two, it brought out a saltiness (not extreme) that neither the beef nor the sauce displayed or even hinted at on their own. Between the Thai place here and Casa de Oro in Spokane, it’s hard to say which place was better.

We took Dad to play at the casino where Andie’s mom works. He turned $50 into $73, so that wasn’t bad. I turned my $5 into about $7.24, so I guess I’m only ten percent of the gambler my father is. But that’s okay. I wouldn’t want to put more than $5 at risk per visit. What he does with his money is his business.

And now we’re back. Tomorrow starts early, and we’re only maybe three or four hours away from Portland. The traveling is almost done. Then the moving in begins.

Good night from Motel 6. We’re too tired to keep the light on for ya! But next you hear from me, it’ll be from our new home in the greater Portland area.

As I write this post, we’re two days away from heading out, which will take place on Sunday. Our apartment has already been picked over by people we’ve been giving stuff away to, we hauled thirteen boxes over to the post office to mail certain things we don’t have room for to our new address, and by tomorrow I’ll probably not have my desktop PC up and running anymore until we reach Oregon.

(I’ll have my laptop and my Android in the meantime.) I’ll also have my Kindle to read when I’m not driving, and an ipod shuffle to listen to when I don’t feel like reading. Although I expect my wife and I to talk a lot, too.

So, for the next week of ROW80, don’t be surprised if I’m mostly silent. Moving is intense work and we have about 2,000 miles between us and our new home. And Mount Hood in the way. (Among other things, LOL.)

All best. See you out west!

I think I’ve done okay in my first month. Considering it’s a book that’s not in an uber-popular genre, selling 14 copies in the first 30 days is nothing shabby. It’s not great, though, either. It’s not “make a rent payment” great, at any rate. And you don’t need an online business degree to understand that.

Readers will probably be more drawn to SHADA, the short novel prequel to EMBER, as well as to EMBER. Both are young adult paranormal suspense and quite thrilling stories. That should help. Plus, I love the cast.

I have given some thought to an online business degree like my wife has, but that would simply be a distraction at this point in my life. Better to keep writing and lean on my wife for advice!

That includes beta-reading a novel, creating a cover for a cover client, performing some eBook formatting duties as a subcontractor, and catching up on my blogging. It’s not a lot, but it is all stuff that needed to be done and some of it even brought in some much-needed cashflow.

Soon I’ll be ready to move on; I want to get a start on my next writing project before MOST LIKELY gets back to me. If it gets back to me by the end of the week, I may be announcing publication of MOST LIKELY as early as this time next week. Stay tuned!

But here’s a list of the projects I’m juggling.

1) EMBER – I started this novel way back in November and it’s been on hold for a couple months now; it’ll be time to go back to it soon, but is it my very next project? Maybe not.

2) UNTITLED EMBER PREQUEL – I have come up with a solid idea for a short novel I could publish in good conscience for 99 cents, that would serve as an introduction of sorts to the Ember series. It revolves around Ember and two of her friends, and an adventure they had together the summer before the novel EMBER begins. Being able to offer readers a 99-cent book is important to my marketing goals for selling my longer, $2.99 novels.

3) IDEA WAREHOUSE (working title) – I have a pure suspense story that’s not YA at all that would be a lot of fun. Mild paranormal overtones to it, too. I definitely see it as a short novel I can introduce for 99 cents, but whether it’s a priority right now or not is up in the air.

4) DATING THE MESSIAH – This is a theological-inspirational title from a Messianic mindset; I plan to pen several books of this nature outside of my fiction pursuits, because they play into the other side of my life, Messianic ministry. DATING THE MESSIAH proposes some new ideas on when Yeshua the Messiah was born, when he was crucified, and how old he was at the time of his death and resurrection.

So I have a lot of good projects in the works, as you can see. Right now, I’m thinking the EMBER prequel might be the best choice; but I could leap over to DATING THE MESSIAH if I decide to prioritize a ministry book, or need a break from fiction.

One thing my novel is not about is electronic pickpocketing; it’s actually a novel of Christian fiction that should provide a good read, whether people are Christians or not, because it doesn’t get preachy even though it features a Christian main character.

The novel will be going to my editor sometime early this coming week; I’m hoping to have the novel back and ready to upload yet in early May.

Here’s a look:

The cover for MOST LIKELY was designed by Glendon Haddix of Streetlight Graphics.

The nice thing about the eBook model is that they will be basically for sale forever, which is a nice way of building potential retirement income as well as income today. With Social Security benefits not necessarily a sure thing in the future for my generation, that’s great news.

Still, that’s a long way off; I’m hoping to get somewhere around two novels, two short novels and one nonfiction title out this year alone. That should be a nice launching position for me. Hopefully at least a couple of those catch on.

Making a go of a writing career is a huge challenge. Fortunately I have a book that’s in the final pre-release stages, so I should be debuting my first title soon, and I have other projects in the works as well. Having some nice sidelines like this makes the transition a bit smoother.

The good news is, I enjoy doing eBook covers.