A New Wes Crowley Novel

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A New Wes Crowley Novel * Adobe Walls * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Life is like a 10-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.” Charles M. Schulz (Today is Schulz’ birthday.) “Before I came here I was confused about this subject. Having listened to your lecture I am still confused. But on a higher level.” Enrico Fermi A New Wes Crowley Novel For my new novel, I’ve started another Wes Crowley story. For anyone who’s new to this Journal, my first novel was about Wes Crowley, … Read more

The Novel

In today’s Journal * The Novel * New Goal * The Great Pretender * Of Interest The Novel A very happy Thanksgiving indeed. (grin) The novel wrapped yesterday at 57,535 words after I cut just under 5,000 more words and wrote maybe a hundred words to wrap it. But I thought it would be silly to add more “cuts” to the totals under Numbers and then try to figure out exactly how many new words I wrote to wrap the story, so instead I’m just reporting the final count here. If you’re keeping score, I cut around 14,000 words out … Read more

Happy Thanksgiving

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Happy Thanksgiving * It’s All Substack * The Great Pretender (preview) * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I’ve brought you something to wear over your dress and I do not want to hear your views on killing animals to provide coats for the wealthy. I have it on the best authority that these ermine committed suicide.” Ann Cristy “In a meat-eating world, wearing leather for shoes and even clothes, the discussion of fur is childish.” Karl Lagerfeld “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Wayne Gretzky That last one … Read more

Fear

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Welcome * Fear * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.” Billie Jean King “In Heinlein’s Rules, Product Focused writers have trouble with Rules #1,#2, and #3. Process Focused writers have a horrid time with Rules #4 and #5.” Dean Wesley Smith Welcome to my hometown friend Leslee E. and several other new subscribers since I started posting to Substack. Fear Most writers who are steeped in the myths are also mired in the fear of rejection. They are what … Read more

Why Does Anyone Believe Anything We Say?

In today’s Journal * Why Does Anyone Believe Anything We Say? * Of Interest Why Does Anyone Believe Anything We Say? A fiction writer, by definition, is a liar for hire. Why does anyone believe anything we say? Lawrence Block (IMHO, with Stephen King the other Stage 5 writer working today) even came completely clean. He wrote a nonfiction book titled Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers. (The paper edition is actually less expensive than the Kindle edition at the moment.) I understand there’s an unwritten agreement, that it’s all right, even preferable, to lie … Read more

Substack and the Novel

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Substack * The Novel * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn of falsehoods.” Robert A. Heinlein (Thanks to Dan Baldwin) “Common sense is not so common.” Voltaire “Re common sense, what’s common to some is a luxury to others.” Yours truly Substack I’m setting up a substack again to see what I can do with it. As a result, this Journal will be coming to your email inbox again. I hope that’s more convenient for those of you who still … Read more

Another Myth

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Another Myth * The Novel * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Write a short story every week. It’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” Ray Bradbury “A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.” Lorrie Moore “The short story is about One Event; longer fiction is about a series of interrelated or connected events.” Harvey Stanbrough “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” … Read more

New Short Story of the Week

In today’s Journal * New Short Story of the Week * The Novel * Of Interest New Short Story of the Week Since I was a little late posting the most recent installment of my Short Story of the Week offering for readers, I thought I’d post a novella instead. This one’s a little over 15,000 words and it’s never been posted free before. To see the story, visit https://harveystanbroughwrites.com/category/short-story-of-the-week/. If you’re learning anything from me, this might be a golden opportunity for you. Maybe study this one for description, pacing, and detailed action. The Novel As you can see … Read more

Goals and Goal Setting

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Goals and Goal Setting * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence, has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.” Isaac Asimov “As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.” Ray Bradbury Goals and Goal Setting … Read more

An Excellent Question, and an Epiphany

In today’s Journal * An Excellent Question * Update, and an Epiphany * Of Interest An Excellent Question In response to my post “Mostly Dean Koontz,” Peggy K. asked an absolutely excellent question. It felt so important and maybe necessary that I was going to reprint her question and my response as today’s Journal post. However, I also experienced an epiphany yesterday shortly after I replied to Peggy. So today’s post is about that eiphany. I feel as if it’s one I’ve been straining to find ever since I started writing again. So please read Peggy’s comment and my response … Read more