A Finish Is a Win!

Back in the day when I was a runner, I remember lining up for my first marathon and everyone was talking about how “A finish is a win.”  They were so right!  I took what I hoped was going to be a six-month project and turned it into an almost 3 year effort.

32 years later I finished another marathon of sorts ~ my first book is out!  We finished the “The Wonder of RV Living” and navigated the process to get it online at Amazon.com.  (If you forget the book title, just put “Randy Warner” in the search bar.)

During those almost three years I had a lot of help.  I read a lot of blogs and the notion of getting friends to proof-read the manuscript was something I decided to do.  Surprisingly quite a few people said they’d do it and I’d like to thank:

• Allisanne
• Bonar
• Dave
• Don
• Gerri
• Kris
• Stephanie
• Sue
• Wes

The gist of Vol 1 is all the planning and preparation that went into taking the leap.  Why did we do it?  How did we do it? What about this and what about that?....questions, questions and then more questions. 

I purposely kept it under 200 pages and this only goes into the two years leading up to us deciding to go for it and then the first few months on the road.  

That’s all for now.  I hope to publish 2 more volumes this year - we will see about that. Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Why Write a Book?

Year ago someone mentioned that I should write a book.  Really?  Why should I do that? What would I say?  How does one do that?

I dismissed the idea then, but now, I'm a few weeks away from completing "The Wonder of RV Living, Vol 1 in the Roadrunner Chronicles".  I thought "Roadrunner Chronicles" already has some familiarity with RV blog readers, so I'll continue here with it.  It has been 18 months in the making.  I've had some expected false starts, weeks of having the words flow, followed by the ups and downs of getting across the finish line.

I can't say for sure when it will be out on Amazon for purchase, but I'm working hard to make it happen before Thanksgiving.  We will see.

Why do that?
May main motivation was that it would be a nice Christmas present.  I thought it would be cool to send a copy to each of my three brothers.  It still may happen and I'm only one year off my original goal of Christmas 2017.

I also thought that it might be helpful to pull together some information and send it along to folks who are curious about "How We Became Full-time RVers".  For others, I thought actual "Stories From Our Adventures" might be interesting.  Those two ideas comprise Part 1 and Part 2 of the manuscript.

Now, I look at it as a way to remember these great years on the road.  Last winter when we were at Palm Creek Resort in Casa Grande, AZ to see friends Karen and Steve, I remember RV neighbors who showed us there hardcopy book of their book on the trip they took on a boat around the Great Loop.  It was amazing to have a copy of their adventures in my hand and be able to read about it.  More motivation to get the Roadrunner Chronicles (Vol 1 - the book) completed.

How I started:
Rewind back to almost three years ago when I learned a friend was writing a book.  Wow - that was interesting.  Wes has a very good command of words and a knack for painting pictures with his words.  His Little Book of Misadventures got me thinking, "Ugh - There is no way I could do that."  I know I don't have nearly as a creative mind or story-telling creativity.

On the other hand, we have stories.  We've been living the dream for over 9 years now, and I have my own approach.  It began here with the blog Roadrunner Chronicles.

Where We Are:
Over 70,000 words, thirteen chapters, I'm now almost done with the second edit and thinking I have one more to go.

I have a couple more changes to make before I am happy the book cover, but it will be some variation of this.

That all for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles -  next week, I'll share the titles of some of my chapters.  Thanks for taking a look today!