Yet Another “Been Too Long” Post

Yes. Blame whatever makes you feel good. We made it through the holidays and are now starting the new year. For those that care the next two paragraphs are quick catch-up summaries, one for the freelance/writer career and one for family. Then I’ll write other stuff after. Maybe.

Freelance writing is bringing in a little money. Not a ton, but a little. It couples with Fiverr gigs for now. The income is generating enough to cover monthly freelance costs after paying us, so that’s a start. A ways to go until it covers a mortgage though. The trickle should only grow over the next few months. Until fiction writing can start taking over, hopefully this spring. At the end of this are the latest articles I’ve written and had published. I’ll also update my portfolio page soon. Nonfiction writing is going alright considering. I need to finish the research for book 2 and write it. Book 1, How To Register A Drone, sold a copy the day before Christmas and has had some Kindle page reads. (Kindle page reads is how authors get paid for books in the Kindle Unlimited program.) I’ve done effectively no advertising for it, but once book 2, on licensing regulations, is done I may start. Book 3 will be a study guide leading to a training course. I may need to invest in an actual commercial grade drone (unless someone has one sitting around?) to do that one properly. (Another side business could come of that I suppose.) I also released a journal while learning how to create them that I’ve done literally 0 advertising for. I honestly don’t even know how good it is printed, I didn’t order the proof. It was largely to practice going through the publishing process that I released it and forgot about it. It sold a copy in early December. The next journal is one made more or less specifically for Heather, but I’ll release it as well.

The baby is going to be here soon, likely still in this house though. We’re checking every house close to our spec as it hits the market here. We had one we were ready to put an offer in on, but in a rare situation the buyer’s financing that fell through in the final hour was a FHA buyer, and there was another FHA offer coming in at the same time as ours. We couldn’t beat the assessment inspection timeline, nobody but another FHA could. It hurt for a couple of days, but we’re back watching for something to hit that fits us. The kids are both in scouts, cub for Gideon and daisy for Cecilia. Not much else to say about family. We’re all here and doing as well as we can.

Hmm. Now that I think of it, there isn’t much else to write. My main motivation for today was to get the latest articles I’ve written out there. There are multiple, so tweeting them will take a few days. Here’s the list, I’ll try to remember to tweet one each weekday until I’m through it.

Is Your Big Data Project Ready for Apache Ignite?

Do Data Pros Belong in the IT Department or Somewhere Else?

How Do Your Data Analytics Priorities Stack Up with the Rest?

How Data Analytics & the IoT are Revolutionizing CityManagement

The Value of a Comprehensive Incident Response Plan