By Gramps for CrossDove Writers

            Since dealing with the passing of my father in late December of 2020 and the celebration of his life which we finally had in July of 2021, this Grumpy Gramps has been isolated and quiet.

            That is going to change and in doing so I want to catch folks up as to where and what I have been doing.

            Since mid-November of 2021, I was given the opportunity to help resurrect an area newspaper publication with a rich history. In doing so I began giving the new owners of the publication as much coverage of the smaller school sports in the area as well as several profiles of area business and administration leaders.

            While I had been running a website covering much the same for a couple of years, the amount of coverage on the website paled compared to what I wanted to give the newspaper folks and became very, very bush for the seven-month period of mid-November to the end of the school year in late May.

            Busy enough that I got away from doing my own writing, so for June and July I chose to take a near full sabbatical from the newspaper to concentrate on my own writing.

            Let me catch you up with my own work.

            I run three websites, one of which is https://wheezingaway.com that deals with living and battling a chronic illness and/or disability (both of which I do), my CrossDove Writers business, and a site that discusses food, talkingfoodwithpapabill.com.

            In the past two years I also wrote a bunch of short stories, many of which are being compiled into an anthology which I am hoping will be coming out by the end of 2022.

            I have self-published three books, two “The Bottle, The Genie, and Me” and “Nature’s Way – A Community of Un-Perfect, Perfect Living” written by me (Will Dursens) as well as a novel written by my great-grandfather in 1905 which was never published, “The Caves of McKinley Island”.

            The two books I wrote can be found on amazon under the author name of Will Dursens while “The Caves of McKinley Island” can also be found on amazon and is a book of love for me as I spent a chunk of six months editing and rewriting sections of my great-grandfather’s novel of a pirate story along the pacific ocean at the turn of the last century where the good guy rescues and falls in love with a lady held captive by the menacing pirate Big Jim Leary.

            My sometimes-daily battles the past 10 years with COPD, severe Asthma, and a heart condition, I am also working on a book of daily meditations for those with a chronic illness and/or disability.

            As a proud preacher’s kid, I am also working on somewhat of a memoir of my days growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska tentatively titles “My Fishbowl on Delhay Drive”. This is a book in progress and most likely will not get done until near the end of the year or early in 2023.

            The website for CrossDove Writers will post occasional bits and pieces of my three books as well as a few of my short stories written on a weekly basis.

            Oh yea, another book in the works is an anthology collection of short stories I have been writing over the past year. It will be a collection of a variety of styles of reading from romance to fantasy, to mystery, to reality – all being written during wanderings within my mind.

            My biggest goal for the remainder of 2022 is to not only bring Grumpy Gramps out of isolation, but to do so with my previous style where my writings may give a sometimes be testy, sometimes be tasty, sometimes humorous look at the life I am traveling with family, friends, community, nation and of course my favorite buddy – my dog Frosty Lou.

            So, while you now have been caught up with the where and what Grumpy Gramps has been doing, coming up you will get a glimpse at current happenings and bumps of my road of life.

With that – hugs, prayers, blessings, and happy thoughts from Grumpy Gramps.

(Copyright@2022, CrossDove Writers – no part of this posting may be printed, copied, or used without written permission by CrossDove Writers and Grumpy Gramps.)