Hey Folks,
Do Yourself a Favor and please read “Voyage to the Otherworld: A New Eulogy for Ray Bradbury” (via The Passive Voice) at https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/08/15/voyage-to-the-otherworld-a-new-eulogy-for-ray-bradbury/.
***
The workshop yesterday was SUCH a blast! Everybody was on time, attentive, and hungry to learn. What can be better than that?
I’ll definitely do this one again in a month or two, but on a Saturday. Mostly so some of those who wanted to attend this time but couldn’t can do so.
I think of this as a “master’s level” workshop. It was a lot of things I’ve learned and made my own through hundreds of thousands of words of practice in stories and novels over the past almost 3 years. I’m thrilled to be able to pass along some of that.
***
I planned to write today. I did write an opening, but it didn’t work so I tossed it out. Then I thought (it was early) I’d go out and mow the yard while it was cool.
Mower wouldn’t start.
I began reminiscing about my days as a fairly good shade-tree mechanic.
I had an old ’64 Ford Falcon back then. Some days I fixed it at night so I could drive it to work the next morning, then fixed it at lunch so I could drive it home after work.
Hmm. Guess I wasn’t all that good or I wouldn’t have had to keep fixing it.
The poor thing was held together with spit and bailing wire. It had a brake cable off a bicycle for a throttle cable.
So anyway, I started “fixing” the lawn mower.
Now it’s almost 1:30, and I just got it back into good enough shape to take it to a lawnmower repair guy. Sigh.
Frustrating day. I’m gonna call it and go read.
Back tomorrow.
Of Interest
Via The Digital Reader, an extremely important post: See “5 Ways a Book Cover Could Hurt Sales — And How to Fix It” at https://insights.bookbub.com/ways-book-cover-hurt-sales-fix/. Not kidding. Go read this.
Via The Digital Reader, “Kindle Unlimited Funding Pool Grew in July 2017 as the Per-Page Rate Dropped” (and, ahem, writers are abandoning Kindle Unlimited as a result) at https://the-digital-reader.com/2017/08/16/kindle-unlimited-funding-pool-grew-july-2017-per-page-rate-dropped/.
If your head is a little off, via The Passive (?) Voice, see “What if Tarantino Made Spaghetti and Meatballs?” (film) at http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2017/08/what-if-tarantino-made-spaghetti-and-meatballs/.
Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 370 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 370
Writing of “” ()
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for the month……… 13581
Total fiction words for the year………… 376559
Total nonfiction words for the month… 8770
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 127880
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 504439
The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………………… 629 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novel Goal (15 novels or novellas)………………… 8 novels or novellas
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 26
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 181