Well I had to take a sabbatical from all my other interests. I had to get back to writing. I gave myself a year to get the manuscript done and half of that went by with little to no writing. I had done a great deal of research but at some point you need to say the research is done and put the virtual pen on the virtual paper. I even took this week off from work and have been writing. I am in the groove and back to loving it. Though I have to quite chasing bunnies down their holes. I keep coming up with questions I “need” to know the answer to even if it is going to be nothing more than a foot note in the book. I spent the better part of three hours trying to track down a newspaper from 1861 that referenced a false gold discovery. My book is not on mining. But it is a snip it of the areas history that ties in. How long do you search for those thing when in the end they will only be a couple of sentences? One “problem” I have is I am consider myself a proper researcher in that I prefer primary documentation over secondary documentation. This particular story is an 1884 recounting of an 1861 story. I am not content with the 1883 recounting I want the 1861 story. But that takes up a lot of time and at some point you just ave to say “save it for another day”. At any rate I am moving forward on my little book. As I am getting the manuscript done I have played with a little of the layout and looks like for every 7-8 pages of text I am going to get 15 pages of finished product (heavily picture laden) If that holds up it looks like it will be about 200- 250 pages. Considering it is a small railroad and only 10 years of history I would say that is respectable.
In addition I have landed another couple writing gigs, so I have two articles to write and a collaboration on another book. All of which basically has to be done by March. But this is no poor me post, I love it. 15-20 years ago I would have laughed at you for even suggesting I would like history much less be writing about it. I also have have to find time to finish up current 1:20 projects as they will be a static display for the NP convention next year and I have to build an HO depot for a Museum. When did all this happen?