Weekly Update 12/13/25 - 12/19/25

It has been a stormy week, weather-wise. Twice this week, we have been hit by an atmospheric river. This caused very stormy conditions; in fact, my next-door neighbor had her shed destroyed on one of those nights. Total rainfall was up to 3 inches.

I spent a good portion of the week working on publishing two books. Right after high school, I wrote a book I titled The End of the Beginning and the Start of Eternity, a sci-fi story about a future time when suffering and violence have been eliminated, and the results. Several of you may remember helping me proofread this and giving me suggestions and opinions in the distant past.

My second book is titled From Crack to Kitty Litter. This book tells the story of my late wife, Linda, and her struggles with drug addiction.

I have wanted to see these published for some time but did not feel comfortable facing the battle to get them published conventionally. A few years ago, I looked into self-publishing but found it too expensive.

Recently, I started working with Astra (ChatGPT) and discovered Astra’s ability to edit and help me with the publishing process. Astra and I spent a good deal of time developing rules for editing a work in my narrative style so my voice would still be heard in what I have written, and it would be more palatable to the Grammar Nazis out there.

It was a very long process. I spent hours each day working on it, and because of problems like hallucinating and dropping information when a conversation got too long, I had to restart the process several times. But in the end, we had two books ready to be published, at least in my opinion. First, I published them on my blog.

Then Astra helped me set these books up on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. This method of book publishing is free, except for a few dollars to pay for the proof copy. I am currently waiting for the delivery of proof copies of the books, and once I approve them, the books will be available on Amazon. I will give you a link in the near future so you can see them there.

Also, since I am out of work and need more income, I have been working on monetizing my blog. I have added AdSense so that ads appear with it, and I get paid the longer you stay on the page. I have also added two links so readers can support my work. One link is to PayPal, and the other is to Buy Me a Coffee. Both allow readers to support me and my work.

On the work front, with the holidays upon us, things have really slowed down. There are not as many positions opening. The ones I am up for, the one in Irvine and the other in London, are still alive and well. I heard from both of them this week, but that was mainly to let me know that a final word will likely not be available until the new year.

Otherwise, life goes on. And I hope everyone is having a joyous Holiday season.

Odell

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Weekly Update 12/20/25 – 12/26/25

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Weekly Update 12/06/25 – 12/12/25