As of November 11, 2025, I have six (6) completed manuscripts (novels) and am working on preparing for publication. This includes reading over the manuscripts, revising, rewriting what needs to be rewritten, filling “plot holes,” and proof reading. Then I have what we call “beta readers” read the manuscripts and tell me what “works” and suggest improvements for what could be improved. I have designed took covers for all of them.
The last step before publishing these books on Amazon is to register each one with the U. S. Copyright Office. In the event that someone plagiarizes my work, if I want to take the thief to court, my work must have the official copyright. This is done by registering it with the U. S. Copyright Office. Theft is unlikely, but it never hurts to be prepared.
As of today, November 11, 2025, there’s a glitch in this. With the government shutdown, there’s no one working in the copyright office and applications are not being processed. So I am waiting for the shutdown to be over to apply for registration for the manuscripts that are ready to be published. In the meantime, I am working on my other manuscripts to bring them up to being ready to be published. And, I also write short stories.
I’m 75 years old and have been retire from the 8-to-5 working-in-an-office world for almost eleven years. But with writing, I have more than enough to keep me busy.
I wish all of you a happy retirement, whenever that will be, and that you will have something interesting to keep you busy and keep your mind occupied.
Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress Photograph Collection.