The Digital Reader

The Journal, Tuesday, 10/31

Hey Folks, Happy Hallowe’en. I’d planned to return to my WIP novel today, but didn’t. Other things took priority, but it was still a good day. No more pushing it. I’ll write when it’s time. In the meantime, a brand new bundle launched today. The Trouble Comes Calling bundle contains my mystery novel, The Platinum Blond Perturbance. You can see the ad for the bundle at the top of the left sidebar on my website. The photo will take you to the bundle page. *** “I’m not really that knowledgeable about police work. The real story is in the psychology … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 10/30

Hey Folks, This morning, in a piece I was reading online, I saw this: “In my opinion, less is more, just as it is when you’re writing, period.” Oh dear god. I can almost see him primping. Every time I hear a writer say “Oh, in writing, less is more,” I want to suggest they write nothing at all then. Based on their reasoning, their canon of work should expand exponentially. But I can’t bring myself to do it. The vacant-eyed, slack-jawed stare that would ensue as the moron wondered whatever in the world I was talking about might be … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 10/25

Hey Folks, Well, trying to use the camping trailer as a writing hovel just isn’t going to work. It’s constantly too cold or too hot and there are myriad other problems I won’t go into here. I’m just gonna have to bite the bullet and do my writing in my office. I’ll have to let the separate small desk and the separate, dedicated writing computer constitute my “space,” and that will have to be enough. I think I’ll also add a different, dedicated chair. Sitting in the same chair to write fiction that I use when I’m browsing the Internet … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 10/23

Hey Folks, I was going to talk about Dean’s age-based challenge frenzy, but you can see it for yourself in “Of Interest” and draw your own conclusions. I’ll turn 65 in a few weeks. I tried to set up an interesting goal that has something to do with the numeric designation of my age, but I kept coming back to “Why?” I mean, if setting such a goal increased my actual productivity and made writing fun again, that could be something. The closest real challenge I could come up with was to write 52 short stories (one per week) during … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 10/20

Hey Folks, I love finding new resources, and I was handed one yesterday. A guy who represents another guy sent me a link to the second guy’s work and asked me to look it over. There are so many scams in this world, at first I thought this was just another one. It wasn’t. I looked it over briefly yesterday, then added two links to my website, one on Character Development under Writers’ Resources and one pointing to Jerry Jenkins’ website. That one’s under both Writers’ Resources and Quick Links. Then this morning I spent a couple of hours reading … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 10/18

Hey Folks, Not sure what the day will hold. I’ve been a bit depressed lately, mostly because I’m allowing myself some remembrances of a camaraderie I’ll never know again. Sigh. I miss it like air. I mentioned this to an acquaintance a few days ago and he said, “Well, at least you have the memories. Not everyone has them.” Well duh. Of course, what he said is true, but it didn’t help. Not that it was intended to, I suppose. When he said that it reminded me of the scene in Men in Black in which Agent J caught Agent … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 10/12

Hey Folks, First, welcome to “fan2orcas,” the most recent subscriber to this Journal. Glad to have you aboard. I’m going through a personal transition at the moment, so not a lot of substance here for a few days. But hang in there. It will pick up again soon. (grin) *** Woke up to good news this morning. I have another book, The Platinum Blond Perturbance (novella), in an upcoming bundle from BundleRabbit. I’ll post details on the website as they become available. The request for that book caused me to look at my other similar books. I realized I have … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 10/6

Hey Folks, Well, another long post, but one I think you’ll find is worth it. First, while searching for something else, I ran across an article titled “Master of Magic Realism Harvey Stanbrough is Offering a Free Short from His Collection of Cantina Tales.” You can see the brief article at https://davidjrodger.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/master-of-magic-realism-harvey-stanbrough-is-offering-a-free-short-from-his-collection-of-cantina-tales/. I remembered I had left a ‘thank you’ note in a comment below the article. I never received a reply or a follow-up comment. This morning I clicked the home page of that WordPress.com site, and I learned that David J. Rodger passed away the same day that … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 10/5

Hey Folks, Well, another long post today. Sorry about that. (grin) It turns out I wrote quite a bit yesterday, considering. I revised the total yesterday before the Journal posted, and today’s numbers are current.  I don’t remember the last time I had such a great day as yesterday. It’s like someone turned on a light. One thing I realized was that my current WIP isn’t “just” a PI-noir novel but a PI-noir suspense novel. That’s what it was wanting to be, and that’s where I took the wrong turn. Topic: Writing Environment The post by Nate Hoffelder in “Of … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 10/4

Hey Folks, Well, this is a long post. Awhile back, Nate Hoffelder of The Digital Reader mentioned that soon Google will begin prioritizing sites (in search results) that are secure (https vs. http). As a result, I was going to spend part of the day today converting my main website over to https. But the more I read, the more I suspect SSL is primarily a necessity for monetized sites, which mine is not. Everything on the site itself is free, and anything that can be ordered goes through a secure site elsewhere: Amazon, B&N, PayPal, etc. The cost involved … Read more