Just thought I would make an update here. The second book is coming along well. Hopefully, it will get done this year.
On another note, my computer and my wife's computer both went out. She lost her boot drive and my operating system crapped out. Both simple problems but a series of weird circumstances has made it ridiculously hard to fix the simple things. The computers are 7 years old, so this is to be expected. The good news is that no information lost, just a delay as I get my house in order, so to speak.
In other news, my Amazon KDP Select obligation just ran out so I am now in the process of publishing to Barnes and Nobles, Create Space (printed books) and Apple. B&N is as easy as Amazon. Create Space wasn't so bad, though I have some unresolved questions. I now understand why other Kindle books charge $15 for a one-off printing. The less said, the better.
Apple is really tricky. They prefer you use an aggregator so their "help" isn't very helpful. If you don't have a macintosh it is non-existent. Still, it seems there are online converters to the ePub format and there's a service I have heard of called "Macinclouds" where you rent an on-line macintosh. I think I can use this to publish through Apple, but we'll see.