Month: May 2025

In Today’s Journal * Last Day of the Contest! * A New Short Story * Bradbury Reminder * Of Interest * The Numbers Last Day of the Contest! Today is the last day to enter the Echoes of Hemingway short story contest. Here’s the whole thing: Everyone is eligible. No entry fee. Cash prizes. No rights grab (see The Fine Print below). Deadline May 31, 2025. 2000 to 7999 words. Stories must be new and unpublished. If I receive enough quality entries, an anthology will result, so please provide a bio of up to 200 words or so. All stories … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Writing Out of Sequence * Inkers Con * Of Interest * The Numbers Writing Out of Sequence This is an awareness post. You might have noticed I’ve experienced a little trouble writing my current novel. Everything flowed great on Days 1 & 2 of writing this story. Then I reported a non-writing day. I did okay on Day 3, then had another non-writing day. Both of those non-writing days, I was right here at my desk, cycling over a specific couple of chapters of the story and wondering what the hell happened. The story felt stuck, … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * I Get Questions * Of Interest * The Numbers I Get Questions A young writer friend email me with a pair of questions yesterday, two of the biggies: ​”Is making art (in this case, stories) pointless? I mean does it help people at all?” Those questions are straight out of the critical mind, and every writer (artist, etc.) who ever lived has experienced them. Is it pointless​ to write stories, novels, etc.? No, of course it isn’t. Do our stories help people at all? Yes, of course they do.​ At a … Read more

In Today’s Journal * A New Short Story * How Important is an Opening? * Only Four Days Left * Not to Complain Here But… * Pulp with a Legacy! * Of Interest * The Numbers A New Short Story I just posted a really good, intense, mind-bending short story story that’s bonus content for The Darling Members Club, the novel I just serialized at Your Morning Serial. The short story contains spoilers, so I suggest reading the novel first. You can find the first episode here. After you’ve read that, check out “Old Times.” Starting on June 1, I’ll … Read more

In Today’s Journal * DWS Attitude of a Fiction Writer * The Modes of Language * Of Interest * The Numbers DWS’ Attitude of a Fiction Writer I read the following some years ago on Dean Wesley Smith’s website and saved it. I thought I’d pass it along today. 1. Sustainability. Can you keep doing what you’re doing now for 5, 10, 15 years? 2. Have Fun. The Secret to doing whatever: have fun. If what you’re doing isn’t fun, it isn’t sustainable. 3. Never write to market. 4. Defend Your Work (even from yourself). Don’t write by committee, don’t … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The Bradbury Challenge * Information Flow * New Release Alert * The Writing * The Numbers The Bradbury Challenge There is no cost. The only requirement is to report at least one short story per week in the following format. Feel free to jump in at any time. The following writers reported these new stories: Christopher Ridge “Death with a Twist” 2810 noir Dave Taylor ” Welcome Home Soldier” 3,663 Magic Realism Congratulations to these writers. Information Flow This is one of those next-level things I keep talking about. A great example popped up yesterday morning … Read more

In Today’s Journal * A New Short Story * Bradbury Reminder * Only Seven Days Left! * A Different Reminder * Still Thinking About Recording * D2D EPUB Validator * Of Interest * The Numbers A New Short Story “Fireball” went live Friday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out. It’s free. Hint: Expect irreverence. If you enjoy the story, please click Like. Comments are welcome too. Both help with my Substack algorithms. Then tell Everyone else. Bradbury Reminder Today is Sunday. Just a reminder to get your Bradbury Challenge story info in to me before … Read more

In Today’s Journal * The Pulp Writer Work Ethic * Of Interest * The Numbers The Pulp Writer Work Ethic Note: This is an enhanced version of a guest post I wrote for Frank Theodat and his Ink & Grit series a while back on Pulp, Pipe, and Poetry. First, my creds. When I say I’m “prolific,” I mean I’ve written 115 novels, 10 novellas, and just under 300 short stories in nine years. How? Although I don’t see myself as a pulp writer—I’m just a writer—I have a pulp writer’s work ethic. Writing is what I do. A lawyer … Read more

In Today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * One True Sentence * Another Interesting Meme * Update on Kickstarter * The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” – Ernest Hemingway in A Moveable Feast Happy birthday to my own papa, Harvey C. Stanbrough, who died in 1997. He would’ve been 87 today. One True Sentence For a fiction writer, that’s the essence of Everything Else. One true … Read more

In Today’s Journal * From One to Another * The Writing * Of Interest * The Numbers From One to Another A friend asked a few questions via email yesterday, and I thought some of you might benefit from the responses: “I was shocked and pleased to note that you had stopped submitting to Smashwords directly (but not to their retailers). … On the flipside, it seems that Draft2Digital has expanded everything it does very nicely. That’s good.” Yes, I stopped submitting my work to Smashwords a few years ago because even the submission process was clunky. But a year … Read more