Updates, Updates and More Updates

Indulge Me a Moment (Day 97)

Azure Rock near the summit of Azure Mountain in St. Regis Falls, NY. Coming soon from Falcon Guides.

In three days, on Friday, this humble journal will hit a milestone - 100 straight days of essays, a daily, little bit of history or humor or rocks.

In that 100 days, a few things have happened. First, Day By Day has recorded a net subscriber gain of 36. So the format appears to be growing and increasing our subscriber base. In other words, more people are coming on board than are leaving. So, that’s great!

Also, engagement on this latest run of 100 posts is looking very positive! Five of my all time top ten posts, in terms of likes, comments and engagement, have come from this run. The most popular post of the 100 run was on Horse Manure. Not sure what that says about you, dear reader, but maybe we’ll write more poop related stories?

At the beginning of this string, I wrote that I wasn’t certain if I’d be able to maintain this pace, but my compulsive behavioral traits combined with the dopamine of seeing your comments and likes have kept things going. I considered the possibility of capping this run at 100, but I’ll keep doing it as long as there’s interest and good health.

Something that I don’t talk about much because I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way is that I feel both enriched and satisfied with my job as library director while simultaneously missing a more robust writing life. It’s been weird to experience both those things at one time, but writing this daily journal - while often stress-inducing - has helped me feel connected to my writing life.

So, to that end, I thought I’d give you all a quick update on some writing happenings and what to expect from 2024 in my world of words.

Rocks - Sometime in the next month, we’ll announce the launch date of More NH Rocks That Rock: Memorial Stones. This is mine and Little Bean’s second (of four) planned field guides to special rocks in NH. The first was Famous Boulders. The third will be Rock Oddities. The fourth will be Tombstones. Pre-sale is already underway and all pre-sale orders will be signed by myself and Little Bean. Just follow the link above!

Fire Towers - My book Hiking Fire Lookouts New York, A Guide to the State’s Best Lookout Tower Hikes through Falcon Guides has a scheduled release date of June 2025. That means I’ll be finishing that book up this spring and getting it to the publisher by early summer. So if you see a bunch of stories here that have to do with the Catskills, you’ll know why!

Manchester Ink Link - I continue to write a monthly column, Transcendental Dad, for this wonderful Manchester-based digital publication. I’ve been honored by the NH Press Association as columnist of the year for two years in a row and am eager to keep that streak going! The column comes out on the first of every month.

NH Home - For two years I wrote a back page reflection for the bi-monthly magazine but this year I’m switching to features. I have one that’s currently on the stands and in March be sure to pick up a copy for a story about Tiny Homes!

HippoPress - I continue to write occasional features here. Look for an excerpt and overview story in March about our rock field guides.

Day By Day - If you’re reading this, then you know most of my daily social media-based long form writing takes place right here! And I appreciate all your encouragement and support. The main thing that would help is referrals that lead to subscriptions. And we’re having a little contest that could lead to prizes for the referrals. Check out this link! Day By Day Referral Leaderboard

So, on we go! We love all your help and enthusiasm. We love your suggestions for topics to write about and often do! We love that you recommend this site and help us gain subscribers, please keep doing that! And thank you so so much to everyone who has donated and kept me in the coffee and Little Bean in the juice boxes! Meantime, on we go, oars in the water, we beat on!