From Writing to Traveling to Just Being Still

​Wow, July 4th has come and gone, and if I’m looking at the calendar correctly, I have about a month until I return to my apartment in Poland. That’s right, we are at the heart of summer vacation, that time of year when educators rest and recharge. I’m doing the best I can to accomplish that while still keeping up with my writing. Here’s to another random update from writing to traveling to just being still in no particular order.

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1. For whatever reason, my new fantasy book won’t end. At the time of this posting, I’m 150,000 words in. That’s right, this is basically two books in one, at least if I’m looking at my older romantic comedy book lengths. This is not a romantic comedy. It’s a return to what I remember from Dungeons and Dragons with more angst, family dynamics, and for far too many words. There isn’t enough fighting, but then again, dialogue is more of my forte. While most fantasies lean towards lengthy, I didn’t expect to be working on one book since the end of March. 500 pages in and hopefully, within the next week or two, I’ll finally be at a good stopping point. 

2. I should preface that the new book is taking more time because I’m only writing once daily for ninety minutes. I didn’t want to spoil one of the high points of my day, so as consistently as possible, I write from 7:15 to around 8:30 at night. Since I’ve been in Maryland, I have added editing to my morning plate for my new Polish travel memoir. Some might remember the name Forever Poland. That’s still the working title. It seems a bit over the top for me, so expect a change between now and the end of the month. 

3. Bookbub promotion number two showed a significantly better return on investment simply from the cost point. I ran a Free Reads promotion for my The Fox and the Girl series book bundle and, as a result, got around 5,500 downloads from Kindle, 500-ish from Apple, 100 from Barnes & Noble, and 500+ from Google Play. That’s pretty good, considering I went into the middle-grades category at a total price of $40. I haven’t looked closely at the review ratings, save for Apple and Amazon, because that’s where the contrast was before with my Rusty Star promotion. With Apple, The Fox and the Girl (bundle) had one rating prior to the promotion and now has 12. Amazon went from 18 to 43. For fun, Google Play has 3-5-star ratings. 

In comparison, Rusty Star had about 16,000 downloads and currently has 122 Amazon ratings and 53 on Apple. I continue to give props to Apple readers who have a higher rate of reading and rating the books they download. 

Now, numbers aside, the big factor in discussing the return on investment is simply that I sold multiple copies of Lane (book 4 in the series) after all these downloads. Google Books generated 2 purchases, 4 from Apple, and 9 on Amazon. That’s around $60 in royalties and a net profit on this promotion. While this is great news, I was hoping it would be the same for my Russell Stokes books. I’m still in the hole close to $400.00 from that promotion run. So is life.

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4. The new apartment in Wroclaw is perfect as a riverside vista and retreat can be. I slept in my new bed for three nights before taking the train to eastern Poland and then returning to the USA via Turkey. A fun fact I might have mentioned in passing is that I accidentally filmed my apartment building two summers ago, when I visited Wroclaw. I was trying to find my hotel for the evening and took a wrong turn. That turn brought me farther down the same street and, lo and behold, to my future home. 

5. Białystok and I are still good friends, even though they continue to tear up my favorite park around Branicki Palace. Honestly, the entire area was fine when I first visited three and a half years ago. Clearly, someone didn’t agree, and the construction continues. Maybe next time, they’ll call it good enough, and we can go back to the way things were. The greater question is what happened to the Mona Lisa tattoo parlor? Now that was a special place.

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6. Augustow’s train station feels like quite the walk to the city center. Upon first arriving, there are trees everywhere, and the mile and a half, maybe two miles to civilization keeps things interesting. According to Google Maps, there is a side trail through the woods that might shorten the distance, but when wheeling luggage, I didn’t want to take my chances. On a cooler note, the city is a perfect retreat. I wished I had been there more than one night, as it deserved more time. The water alone screamed for swimming and a proper boat ride along the different lakes and canals.

7. Suwałki is a quiet city, and that’s saying something. It’s the first place since Płock, where I wanted to just stay in my apartment and take in the silence. Even though I consider myself great with directional sense, I managed to misread a landmark and ended up at a ski mountain instead of the lake I wanted to visit. Speaking of said lake, the lack of a proper swimming hole was a bit of a buzzkill. Come on, how can you not have a few good swimming spots near a boat ramp? Where else do boaters go to cool off? Oh… that’s right, they can jump in from anywhere the boat goes. Note to self. 

8. Ecoline buses are worth the price and the trip. I took a bus from Suwałki to Vilnius. Not only did the ride only take three hours, but the trip through the countryside of both Poland and Lithuania, with lakes, rivers, and fields, was something I didn’t know I needed until it happened. I know the train is functional too, but if I had to do this route again, bus, hands down.

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9. I can finally count Turkey as a real country visit, having left the airport for once. Using the Turkish Airlines promotion, I was able to stay overnight between connecting flights. My hotel on the Black Sea was exactly as described. How can you beat pristine waters, gentle breezes, and views without an audience? To top it off, I met some very friendly tour ambassadors. Turkey pays these cats well. 

10. Since my left calf refuses to give me the exact reason it won’t let me run longer than a few miles, I’ve turned to swimming since my return to Maryland. The last time I did any training in a pool was in 2012… That was a special period where I ran from side to side or in the deep end for an hour, hoping it would simulate running. As for actual swimming laps, I haven’t done that with any regularity since my senior year of high school. So let’s do the math, it’s been a while. Don’t worry, I bought googles and a swim cap since I have to at least look the part. 

11. I took the train from Boston to Washington D.C. A few years ago, I took this beauty, the regional version, and paid heavily with a serious crick in my neck after a 12-hour ride stopping at every station along Route 1 and then some. Fast forward to 2026, I thought this trip might be different, with the Acela seven-hour jaunt. Days later, my neck still disagrees. To the old people who decided they would hoard all of the overhead bins, pretend you’ve been on a train before and know that the oversize bags go at the front of the car, not crammed in the bin across from you, because you don’t know how to manage your bags. Finally, the woman who rode next to me from New York City onward. I don’t know what was worse, watching you plug in across my legs, your computer, then phone, and then proceed to balance email, social media, puzzles, and actual calls. When it looked like you were able to maybe just be, more calls, a podcast no less, and the sushi dinner that had been sitting in your bag for two hours. No wonder my neck hurt from trying to ignore the noise by looking out the window the entire time.

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12. Even a day trip to Lubec, Maine, is better than no trip at all. The stillness is one thing, the fog coming in another, and even better, the scent of sea roses is one that can’t be matched. Note to self: make a point to return in late June, after a recent rain, to take in that smell one more time. Honestly, there is nothing quite like it. Maybe next time the clam diggers will be at a different beach, giving you even more peace. If not, it’s still downright one of the more serene places to be in the States.

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13. Last but not least, in vlogging news, I’m going a different route now. No, I’m not deleting the channel, that would be stupid. Instead, no more keywords, no more stupid SEO friendly titles that are overused and frankly not authentic. Let’s be clear: I like to walk around and take in the sights. There’s nothing crazy about this concept. If I’m doing this in Wrocław, one of the largest cities in Poland, I can’t say I discovered a hidden gem, or Poland’s best-kept secret, when there are so many other people living there. We’ll see what this means for views, but at least I’m no longer trying to sell an idea or catch phrase to get clicks when there’s so much more to life and other things to spend my bandwidth on.

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