Wow! Has it been a month since I last wrote in the old blog? Time flies when there is a pandemic, when you're working from home with your day job, and you have a deadline looming - like TOMORROW!
Writing my latest Falcon Guide, "Hiking Waterfalls of Alabama", has been a real challenge. There was a lot that kept me off the trail. Some personal injuries, weather, visiting waterfalls on my list that have since been tagged as being closed to the public since the last time I visited, but it's all good and I think you'll like the finished product. Only problem is - it's not finished and the deadline is - TOMORROW!
It's not that I'm a procrastinator. I always have a schedule laid out and I had planned to have this wrapped up the beginning of March, but here I am, still cleaning up maps, changing which photos to use, re-wording the manuscript. I can't tell you how many times I have re-written the manuscript or how many times I have re-ordered how the hikes will appear in the book. The book will be divided up into regions - waterfalls of the Bankhead National Forest / Sipsey Wilderness, then the north, central and south regions of the state. I finally decided that the Bankhead / Sipsey area should come first. Then within all of the regions, I started re-ordering the hikes first one way, then another, then another. trying to make them more logical in their presentation. Every time I do that, I have at least 4 maps per hike plus photos that have to be renumbered - and sometimes re-edited.
The sad part is that after all of that, I usually end up right back where I started. But that's a good thing. All of that hashing makes for a better book. And don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. It's my own doing. I am fanatical about all of this. I guarantee you that I will not be satisfied when I turn it in tomorrow, but I will quickly get over it when I get my first 'atta boy.
On the horizon, the new podcast, "Bama Bound", work on a new mystery, and I'm fleshing out the possibility of two new historic titles. No rest for the weary!
Till next time - cheers!
