This past week was full, full, full. Let me hit you with a few photos to illustrate.
I spent last weekend in and around Rapid City. This photo is from an alley in that town where a lot of graffiti is.
Spoke at the Rapid City Public Library and met a fellow writer and kindred spirit who I plan to spend time with on my next visit.
I finally went to Sturgis during rally week — on the very last day of it and without my bike and only for about an hour and a half, but I was there.
We went to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. Sam’s boyfriend worked there for a year prior to grad school and wanted to show her the things he’d worked on. We’d been there 8 years prior together.
Took a hike in Wind Cave National Park.
Visited Reptile Gardens.
Took the back roads home and came upon some of the prettiest landscapes ever.
And field upon field upon field of sunflowers!
Drove to David City and talked to a group of more than 30 people and sold a bunch of books!
In between all that driving, I also interviewed a former student about her horse that was attacked by a mountain lion in May. The story ran in today’s Norfolk Daily News, and I will include the clipping below for my paying subscribers. The paper didn’t use the graphic photos that she took back in May, so here’s what her horse looked like after he was attacked — close your eyes if you don’t want to see it.
It’s an interesting story. Consider becoming a subscriber to read it, or subscribe to the Norfolk Daily News — it’s not too costly to have an e-subscription which would also give you access to other stories I write for them as well as my bi-monthly column (the next one of that runs tomorrow). Here’s the link if you’re interested: Norfolk Daily News
Yesterday, the paper ran a special pull-out section called “Living Rural” in which two of my feature stories ran. One was about Mike Tabbert, an interesting guy I know who drives a school bus and is an amazing photographer and has a podcast called “Rural is Cool.” he interviewed me for it a few years back. Here is one of Mike’s great photos:
The second story was about the Neligh Mill because they tore down the two large elevators beside it last month, so the Mill is much more visible now as you drive through town.
I also attended my monthly writers’ group meeting and my monthly book club meeting this week, walked, read a lot, wrote the story about the horse, took the dog to the vet, and watched the final episode of “Jane the Virgin” that my daughter got me hooked on earlier this summer — I cried a lot.
There were many other things I did this week that I would NOT have been able to do if I were still teaching because this was the first week back for students in my old school. I can’t express enough how happy I am not to be teaching anymore and to have this time to focus on my writing and other things I like to do. It’s hard to believe that this is the third school year to start without me either being a student or a teacher in it.
Coming up, I will spend three days at the Nebraska State Fair helping to promote the Nebraska Writers Guild while also selling my own books. By the end of the month, I hope to have heard back from all my beta readers concerning my next book. Then I will tackle some rewriting and improving of it prior to releasing it later this year. I will try to share a few more portions of it with paying subscribers before I publish it.
Until next time.
Tammy Marshall
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