New Focus

In prior years, no matter how early I got my solo hike done, I didn't really get to writing the book until the fall. Part of that was that I had other trips to write about, and part was that I wanted to let the experience sink in a bit.

That's not what is going to happen this year.

This year, I'm hoping to get out two big hiking books, which means I need to get cooking on this one before I start doing other trips for the summer. So I've already started the write up, and I plan on getting the words completed by July 1. Although I will allow that if I haven't yet done the Stanley Lake to Marsh  Creek section, I won't be able to have that part finished.

The other thing that I'm going to focus on this month is production work on the Queens River guide. Every day, I'm going to do some production work and some writing and I'm just going to keep hammering at this until it is where I want it to be.

What stopped me with the Queens guide was that I was done writing, but I wasn't sure what photos to include. With the Chamberlain, I didn't have quite as many trips to choose from, but I've been going to the Queens River area for 4 years now, often multiple trips per season. On my computer, I've got my photo files all out of order, so I didn't know where to start.

I finally decided to start by changing the names of the folders so they would have dates instead of camera codes. Then, I'll put them into folders based on location. Actually, that's a longer term project. For now, I'm only moving all the Queens River pictures into a folder, and then I'll keep going on production work.

The next step will be choosing which pictures show important areas along the Queens. Junctions, crossings and destinations will be key, but I also want to include a few pictures that are simply beautiful.

All the while, I'll be writing more and more words on the solo trip. The fiction is pretty much dropped for now, but I'll come back to it.

After all, I need to find out how that story ends.