A New Page

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* A New Page
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“[Gesturing] is about thinking and communication, and is a sophisticated aid to both.” staff writer for The Economist in a review of Susan Goldin-Meadow’s book Thinking With Your Hands

“I tend to take a really long time to write. My last book took 14 years, not because I wanted it to, that’s just what happened.” Daniel Mason, author of four novels

Sorry, but why bother?

A New Page

My youngest son visited yesterday and part of today. As a result, I didn’t do much yesterday, but I haven’t been much in the mood to write the past few days anyway.

But I did slightly edit (mostly paragraphing, pacing) several short stories to add them to my Stanbrough Writes website and then to my Stanbrough Writes substack.

As are most things in my life, that was the result of something else.

As you probably know, you can subscribe to my Stanbrough Writes substack to receive a short story once a week on Friday in your inbox. Like the Journal, it’s free, and I never thought of making it a paid service.

Then a new subscriber (Thank you, L.N.) “pledged” (a substack word) $80 for an annual subscription. Substack let me know. Of course, I get the $80 paid subscription only if I turn on paid subscriptions in Substack.

Fine. I went to Substack to turn on paid subscriptions.

Only there was a catch: Substack uses Stripe exclusively to process payments. No choice. Stripe or nothing.

Fine. So I jumped through all the little Stripe hoops for about 5 minutes to set up an account. No big deal, and I pushed down my natural hatred of being coerced. I got through it.

But right afterward, I received a “warning” email from Stripe. They would COLLECT money for me, but they wouldn’t be able to SEND my money through to my bank account (they had both the routing and account numbers) unless I gave them a different physical address.

To take off on an old Seinfeld bit, Stripe apparently understands how to “collect” the money, but they don’t quite get the concept of “sending” the money, and for me, the sending is really the more important part.

It seems their system didn’t “recognize” my physical address. And of course they and other not-so-distant cousins of Neanderthals don’t allow using a PO box for a business address. (Substack itself recognized PO Box 604 as my business address.)

Apparently the folks who run Stripe live in a place where the post office will deliver mail to a physical address. I do not. Here in Saint David, it’s a PO Box, a rural box, or nada.

I have encountered this problem before. UPS, among others, didn’t “recognize” my address even after UPS drivers had physically delivered items TO my address. Go figure. (For the record, ironically FedEx never had a problem with recognizing my address.)

Anyway, I did try to resolve the issue with Stripe, but of course you aren’t allowed to talk with a human being who can actually, you know, REASON.

So I just closed my Stripe account, went back into Substack to “unlink” Stripe from my bank account, then went to my Stanbrough Writes website and set up a new page titled “Donations Accepted.”

So there went roughly three hours I’ll never get back, all because some 20-something or 30-something MBA thought it would be Gosh Just A Really Nifty Idea to disallow PO boxes as business addresses and require a physical address that’s recognized by some random assortment of zeroes and ones.

Okay, I feel a little better now. But I’ll just say, it’s a very good thing I don’t know where the MBA’s golf course is located. ‘Cause I’m old and I really, really, really don’t worry so much about consequences.

(By the way, if you happen to work for Stripe, PLEASE refer this post as high up the chain as you possibly can. Just so the morons might begin to understand what a stupid policy they have in place and how much business it might be costing them. Not that I hold out the slightest hope the message will sink in. You cannot reason with a dirt clod.)

Anyway, I went back to reliable old PayPal and set up a new subscription form (monthly and annual) and a new donation button.

Then I emailed my gracious would-be donor and gave him the URL for that page. And I told him exactly what I’m about to tell you and what I wrote in the intro to that page.

You may subscribe to your writing instructor’s substack at StanbroughWrites.substack.com completely free of charge if you want to. I’m currently offering a short story every week. I’m thinking soon I might start serializing some of my novels on there too.

(If I were you, I certainly would subscribe, if only to see whether my instructor applies all the stuff in his writing that he tells me to do in mine. Unfortunately, I could never do that with the people who taught me because they don’t give anything away.)

But whether you do or don’t subscribe, hey, no worries.

The subscription will remain free for those who want it. But for those who are able and who would like to pay for a subscription or donate, you are welcome to do so. All subscriptions and donations are gratefully accepted. If you do want to pay to subscribe or if you want to donate, visit https://harveystanbroughwrites.com/donations-accepted/.

To subscribe, select either a monthly ($9) or annual ($80) subscription, then click the Subscribe button. (My short stories sell for $3 each, so I see the monthly fee as a $3 discount and the annual fee as a $76 discount.)

To make a one-time donation, scroll down just a little on that same page and click the Donate button. That’s all there is to it.

And yes, you may also pay for a subscription or donate via personal check. Mail it to PO Box 604, Saint David AZ 85630. However you choose to support my efforts, Thank You!

But again, you can subscribe completely free. You don’t have to pay for a subscription, and you don’t have to donate. No skin off my teeth. (Well, no teeth, so….)

Then I realized I had only one more story pre-posted and scheduled. At the moment (some of you will see what I did there) that’s a drawn-out process. As I mentioned earlier, I schedule a post to the Stanbrough Writes website, but then I schedule the same post to the Stanbrough Writes substack.

Really, I only use Substack so I can send those stories and this Journal to your inboxes. Maybe I’ll switch to doing it a different way again. Maybe even (shudder) pay money to provide a service that doesn’t pay me.

Or maybe I’ll do what Dean does: just post what I want to post and let you come look if you want to. I’ve visited his site every day since February 2014. Whatever, I’ll figure something out.

And yes, I know I could post the Journal and the stories ONLY to Substack, but I won’t do that. There’s just something about having them available on my own website that turns me on.

(Ohh, brain spike! Maybe I’ll make ALL subscriptions to the Stanbrough Writes substack paid, but let readers read the stories free of charge if they come to the Stanbrough Write website! Hmmm. Shadows of Mohammed Ali:

If you come to me,
the stories are free.
If deliver to you,
the stories are, um, er, paid. Well crap, that didn’t rhyme.)

So anyway, for now everything’s still free. Yesterday morning, I scheduled stories in both places out through September 1. Later I’ll schedule more.

And as for Stripe and all its executives, they can bite me. I know my own physical address, and my house doesn’t disappear just because their machine doesn’t recognize it.

May all their children be born naked, and may they triple-bogey every hole on the course for a year. Amen.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Gestures are a subtle and vital form of communication” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/gestures-are-a-subtle-and-vital-form-of-communication/. And character gesturing and facial expresssions should be included in your fiction.

See “Attend Licensing Expo With Me” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/attend-licensing-expo-with-me/.

See “Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Orphan Archetype” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/character-type-trope-thesaurus-orphan-archetype/. Read about it, learn, then forget it when you’re writing.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 1380

Writing of Rose Padilla (WCG10SF5)

Day 1…… 4283 words. Total words to date…… 4283
Day 2…… 3963 words. Total words to date…… 8246
Day 3…… 1463 words. Total words to date…… 9709
Day 4…… 2445 words. Total words to date……12154

Total fiction words for June……… 12154
Total fiction words for 2023………… 110022
Total nonfiction words for June… 7830
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 117250
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 227272

Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 73
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 221
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

I.M. An angel, my angel, left this earth on April 11, 2023 just before 10 a.m. My life and my world will never be the same.

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark, adherence to Heinlein’s Rules, and that following the myths of fiction writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.