thomas leverett weblog

general report

As many of you know, I've been steadily more and more sucked into the publishing business. I'm at 27 books on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Leverett/e/B00HCOJ882) - and that's down from a while ago, but I'm still working on more. It's marketing them that really takes most of my time. I've had a pretty good reception - in spite of being entirely 100 percent indie, I still do ok out in the world. But that's another post or two.

Things on the personal scene have convinced me that I should finish my "Language is a self-organizing system" book sooner rather than later. My wife and I are both getting older and most of our kids, but not all, will be achieving some measure of independence in the coming years. I, however, may never have the time or clarity of mind if I don't get to it pretty quickly. So I've been moving that to the front of the to-do list and even copied it out to read critically - I've actually written about 80 pages of it. My brother has been teaching linguistics so he may be helping me pull it together.

Some things on my bucket list, I may never get to. This includes learning Scottish Gaelic, which I think would be a perfect retirement occupation. I am retired and should theoretically be able to do whatever I want in this regard. My father began learning Chinese when he retired. But here's a difference: He never found enough people to speak it with. I am convinced that I can find enough, and that getting online and finding them is part of the challenge.

I am now in the area of central Illinois where my grandchildren - well, step-grandchildren, actually, live - this means I should really start up the quilt that they are in line for. I have actually made three. But I have nine grandchildren now, so six more are waiting. And I'm actually spending more time with them. It's getting harder to tell them to "hold your horses" and wait!

On the book front, there are really several more that are dying to be finished. One is a continuation of the Leverett series: Prairie Leveretts. One is a book of Quaker plays. There is also a book of ESL reading exercises, but whenever I get close to it, I think, this is too much like work, and I put it down. Such is retirement. If you worked as hard as I did, you don't want to remember it every time you turn around.

That self-organizing book has to be written, though. It's called Vowels in an Elevator. Keep your eyes open for it. One of these days you'll turn around, and it'll be done.

posted by tom @ 12:00 PM