Month: March 2022

The Journal: Audio Courses

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Audio Courses * Of Interest Quote of the Day In Saudi Arabia, “The religious police’s official Arabic name dates back hundreds of years, but still sounds Orwellian in English: the Committee for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue.” from an article in The Atlantic on the Saudi crown prince (Nothing to do with writing, but a really cool quote anyway.) Audio Courses Yesterday, to my delight, a young woman named Monica Arac de Nyeko ordered several of my audio courses. I’m naturally curious, so I keyed Monica’s name into … Read more

The Journal: Here Come the Fatalists

In today’s Journal * Here Come the Fatalists * Of Interest Here Come the Fatalists Fatalists? Do I have the term right? Isn’t that what you call people who focus on telling you what you will surely never be able to do so you shouldn’t even try? Whatever you call them, I don’t like them. People have called me negative before, but I’ve never told writers a bunch of things they can’t do: I’ve always focused on what they CAN do, on how much they CAN achieve, on their positive capabilities. Believe in yourself and you can do anything. Trust … Read more

The Journal: More Brandon Sanderson

In today’s Journal * More Brandon Sanderson * Mentorships Discontinued * Of Interest More Brandon Sanderson Another very short but important post today, primarily to mention two things: First, I took the time to look around and find Brandon Sanderson’s “318-R” course, the course on writing that he teaches at BYU. It’s free online (with his blessing) in a series of YouTube videos. I encourage you to watch at least the Course Overview (58 minutes) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ZDBOc2tX8&list=PLH3mK1NZn9QqOSj3ObrP3xL8tEJQ12-vL. If you go to that particular URL, you’ll see not only the Course Overview video, but the list of the other videos on … Read more

The Journal: A 20-Million Dollar Kickstarter Campaign

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A 20-Million Dollar Kickstarter Campaign—in Fiction * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Kickstarter for all sizes has now officially become a great place to start the sales of your new book. Even if you get just a few hundred, or five hundred, or a thousand, it is still money and readers you didn’t have before.” Dean Wesley Smith A 20-Million Dollar Kickstarter Campaign—in Fiction A very short post today to pass along what is, to me, very exciting news. According to DWS, Brandon Sanderson’s second kickstarter is about to surpass … Read more

The Journal: Not a Good Day

In today’s Journal * Oh Well… * BundleRabbit Is Now PubShare * Of Interest I’m a little grouchy today. My apologies in advance. If you don’t want to put up with my grousing, I suggest you skip down to the “Of Interest” section. Oh Well…. Although he “love[d] the book idea and cover” for my SF novel For the Good of the Galaxy:The First Nine Days, Dean declined to include it in the upcoming StoryBundle. The reason? I don’t have a large-enough social-media presence, and therefore don’t have the platform to promote the bundle widely enough to be fair to … Read more

The Journal: Aliens Among Us

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Aliens Among Us * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Lessons here? Sure. Show up every day, every minute. When you make a promise to write and you don’t do it you are letting yourself down, not to mention whoever would have benefited in however many ways by reading your efforts. You’re never too old to start until it’s too late. It’s not too late today.” Joe Hartlaub (see the second item in “Of Interest”) Aliens Among Us Outside of a workshop, I’ve never seen Dean Wesley Smith put out a … Read more

The Journal: Ten Tips for Healthy Writing

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Ten Tips for Healthy Writing * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.” Benjamin Brewster Wow, does THAT ever pertain to writing! “‘To write’ is an active verb. Thinking is not writing. Writing is putting words on paper.” Roberta Jean Bryant’s first law of Writing from her book Anybody Can Write In writing, “practice” also is putting words on paper. Topic: Ten Tips for Healthy Writing In the first item in “Of Interest” today, Debbie Burke … Read more