In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Finally a Great Writing Day * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Writers, we are so flipping weird.” Dean Wesley Smith Finally a Great Writing Day After a few days layoff while I was dealing with some medical issues, I had a great day of writing on yesterday. For the first time on this novel, I cleared 3000 words. Barely, but I cleared it. Then some interruptions occurred. Today I have an appointment with my heart guy (the plumber, not the electrician) in the early afternoon. I wrote … Read more

In today’s Journal * More on Kindle Vella * Vin Zandri on Vella * Of Interest * The Numbers More on Kindle Vella Since I talked about Vella briefly yesterday, I poked around a little. To learn more about it, I recommend “Kindle Vella: What Is It?” at https://prowritingaid.com/kindle-vella. (Note also this is ProWritingAid touting their own services.) You can also check out “Kindle Vella: Description, Features, and Tips for Authors” direct from KindlePreneur, a great source of information on all things Kindle, at https://kindlepreneur.com/kindle-vella/. Finally there’s “Kindle Vella – Start a Story” at https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GKWM7L5U6ESNFT5X. See the “Contents” section for … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Sentence Length * An Old Review Is New Again * You DO Know About Draft2Digital, Right? * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “For whatever weird reason my mind wanted to write a ‘sweet romance’ genre story and it grew into a [short novel of 26786 words] of all things. Go figure. I stayed the hell out of the way and let this character tell her story…. I’ve never written romance and I don’t write romance—I’m strictly a speculative fiction guy—but there you go.” George Kordonis I love … Read more

In today’s Journal * Correction #2 * Bradbury Challenge Participants Correction #2 Well, crap. I won’t go into a long-winded explanation, but somewhere or other I lost a day. I was thinking today was Sunday. Only the arrival of the trash truck convinced me otherwise. Apologies to George, Balázs and KC, who tried to tell me. Anyway, in an extremely rare second post in one day, here are the Challenge results for the past week. Yeah, I could’a waited until tomorrow, but this should get everything back on track. Bradbury Challenge Participants During the past week, in addition to whatever … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Correction * I Found Gold * The Quandary of the Sagging Middle * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.” Albert Einstein Correction Yesterday I wrote that I would report on the Challenge on Sunday. Um, nope. Mental typo. I’ll report each week on Monday until this thing is over. Sorry for any confusion. I Found Gold You all know how relatively thorough and meticulous I am with my filing system. I talked about it in “Organizing … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A Few Thoughts on Craft * No Writing Yesterday * Bradbury Challenge Reminder * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “[T]he asymmetry in the city’s response can’t but make some residents suspicious, and such suspicion is clearly a wider phenomenon at this moment. In episodes of government by crisis, some interests find themselves more aligned with officialdom than others.” Matthew Crawford from “The danger of safetyism” (Thanks to Matt P. for the link) “[W]e would do well to remember that bureaucracies have their own interests, quite apart from … Read more

In today’s Journal * A New Story * WPS Office Set Aside * Of Interest * The Numbers A New Story Yesterday a new story went out via my substack. If you aren’t subscribed and would like to read it, click “Layers”. Afterward if you want to subscribe, click the button at the end of the post. I noticed one kind of strange thing, and I hadn’t noticed it before. The POV character of the story is a guy named Thomas Pilsen. A character by the same name stars in one or two other stories and/or novellas as well, in … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Still Testing WPS Office * Where Do My Characters Come From? * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “We fluff them and fold them and nudge them and enhance them and bind them and break them and embellish them beyond measure; then, as we drive them up to the college interviews that they’ve heard since birth are the gateway to the lives they were destined to lead based on nothing more than our own need for it to be true, we tell them, with a smile so tight … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * LibreOffice Pros and Cons * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Mae West LibreOffice Pros and Cons Sorry I’m a little late this morning. I had to go fasting for labs this morning. Strictly routine. Also, I thought I would post reviews (pros and cons) for both LibreOffice and WPS Office in the same post a day or two from now, but that is not to be. The post would be far too long. So … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Not Tag Line Verbs * More on Ways to Backup Your Files * Testing Office 365 Alternatives * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.” Sigmund Freud “Every standalone is a new shot at discoverability.” Chuck Wendighttps://terribleminds.com/ “Just because some corporate drone is familiar with what books sell doesn’t make them an expert on what children should be reading. It does, however, represent virtue signaling to other … Read more