In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Wow * A Horror Show of Myths * Audiobook Narration, and a Brief Memoir * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Anton Chekov (Widely attributed advice emphasizing active, sensory imagery over passive statements.) “Caress the details, the divine details.” (Highlighting how intimate, precise descriptions bring a fictional world to life.) “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” Elmore Leonard (A famous rule of thumb reminding writers to keep descriptions invisible and natural.) Wow Welp, … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Report * From 1440 Society & Culture * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Only in the novel are all things given full play.” DH Lawrence “I haven’t found a drug yet that can get you anywhere near as high as sitting at a desk writing, trying to imagine a story no matter how bizarre it is.” Hunter S. Thompson (Thanks to A. Schrater for this quote) The Bradbury Challenge Report Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer. We … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Stupid, Annoying Pop-Ups on Websites * Of Interest Quote of the Day “It’s important to remember that copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself. To qualify for protection, the expression must be captured in a tangible form.” Dave Chesson (see yesterday’s Of Interest) Stupid, Annoying Pop-Ups on Websites All the pundits say putting a pop-up on your website is a good idea ’cause you can offer a free book or whatever and capture an email for your mailing list. I don’t use pop-ups anywhere, and I’ll tell … Read more

In Today’s Journal * BO-54 Is Offically Published * All Quiet on the Western Front * Of Interest BO-54 Is Officially Published Blackwell Ops 54: A Most Unusual Day is officially out there. A few days ago, I noticed a glitch in one of the episodes that went live on Stanbrough Writes. And I’d noticed a few other glitches in other installments earlier. Of course, still about half the novel was left to post in installments. So yesterday morning I opened the Word doc and cycled over each remaining chapter, allowing myself and the characters to touch it as I … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A Quick Note to Say Thank You * Stage 4 Breast Cancer * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “When you can make your reader forget they’re reading a made-up story, you’ve struck gold. … Believability is all in the details.” Janice Hardy (First item, Of Interest) “I found myself deleting paragraphs I had spent a long time writing, not because I had written them poorly, but because they had become unnecessary. Once I started paying attention to what my characters noticed, those details began carrying the emotional weight on their … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Stage 4 Breast Cancer * The Bradbury Challenge Report * Of Interest Quote of the Day “It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.” Ernest Hemingway Since I accidentally omitted the attribution yesterday, I repeated the same Quote of the Day again today. I can’t hear any advice from Hemingway too many times. Stage 4 Breast Cancer Sorry, folks, this takes priority today. My son has a friend who is almost like another son to me. Now his … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Humility? Nah * One Other Note * Of Interest Quote of the Day “It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.” Humility? Nah Yesterday or the day before I mentioned that A Most Unusual Day is “the best novel I’ve ever written.” A reader emailed to ask “Why do you think it is the best of so many? Of so many kinds? Just curious?” I thought my response might touch a chord with some of you: “Honestly? Because … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The Novel Wrapped * Of Interest The Novel Wrapped Well, the novel wrapped yesterday with a little over 43,000 words. I didn’t keep track of the specific writing days like I used to, but I started writing it on July 8 and it wrapped on August 6. So a couple of days under a month. So an average of something around 1500 words per day. Maybe I’ll take the time to update my Annual Production spreadsheet, but probably not. Writing the next story is the priority. That and I have a few things to do around … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * On Authorial Integrity Quote of the Day “Never share your work in progress with anyone until it’s finished.” Not attributed to anyone in particular, but passed along by pretty much every creative writing instructor ever. On Authorial Integrity or Tricks of the Creative Subconscious This is for those of you who implicitly trust your characters and yourself and who write into the dark (and those who aspire to WITD). A couple of days ago my friend Authorial Integrity slapped me hard across the face and told me to wake the hell … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A Presentation-Process Post * Don’t Get Wrapped Around the Wheel * Of Interest Quote of the Day “When you write from truth, criticism lands differently. Sure, it might sting…but it doesn’t shatter you, because you know what you made is real. You were there. You put something honest into the world.” Jaime Buckley I excerpted the above quote from a must-read post Jaime wrote recently for Writers in the Storm. For the link, see Of Interest. A Presentation-Process Post Interesting how my writing process—or rather, my presentation process—has changed since I … Read more