In Today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* A New Short Story
* Bradbury Reminder
* The Writing
* A Marketing Idea
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
On IP Valuation: “If you built say a theater complex … and you opened it for business and the first night it made $500, if you were a writer you would think that theater complex was only worth $500.
“But in the real world, you would know that is not how property is valued. The theater complex would be worth far, far more than one night’s income. Your story, your novel, is a property. One tiny bit of income is not how the property is valued.” Dean Wesley Smith
“Where multiple drafts will smooth down the rough edges of your voice, cycling keeps your voice sparkling, fresh, and full of all the texture and sharpness that it naturally exudes.” J. Daniel Sawyer in Becoming an Everyday Novelist (I recommend checking out J.D. Sawyer’s website, blog, and books.)
A New Short Story
“Big Steve Jensen” went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. I love the voice in this one. Go check it out.
If you enjoy the story, please click Like. That helps with my Substack algorithms. Then tell Everyone else. (grin) You can leave a comment if you want. I always respond.
Bradbury Reminder
Today is Saturday. Just a reminder to get your Bradbury Challenge story info in to me before the Journal goes live on Monday.
The Writing
For sheer emotional content, stop-action transition scenes, and stop-action action scenes, Blackwell Ops 36: Temple’s Dream will be the best novel I’ve ever written when it wraps in a day or two. As it should. I’ve learned a ton while writing it.
Of course, I recommend BO-36 for entertainment value, but I also recommend studying this one if you want to learn some next-level techniques.
Had a good writing day to close out January, with over 6500 words in a new short story written for Bradbury, plus more on the novel.
I was having so much fun with the novel I actually wrote for a half-hour beyond my usual close of business. My wife called to remind me what time it was. (grin)
And this morning I’m itching to get back to it.
A Marketing Idea
I learned this by looking at Amazon.
To see what I’m talking about, go to Amazon and type Blackwell Ops into the search bar. (You don’t have to buy anything.)
Then click on any Blackwell Ops book and scroll down to “Shop this series.”
As you’ll see, Amazon’s offering that series in batches for a minimal discount. For example, you can buy “the first 3” for $17.97, “the first 5” for $29.95, etc. (Currently they’re offering “all 33” because BO-34 and BO-35 are still available only through preorders.)
So I figured maybe I should do the same thing on my own StoneThreadPublishing online store. If you want to buy any of my work, I recommend buying it there. You save money, and I make more.
In the near future, I’ll make time to do that, but the prices will be much lower.
For example, you’ll be able to buy “the first 3” for $13.50. (My usual dollar discount per book plus an additional 10% discount.)
So “the first 5” will cost you only $22.50 vs. the Amazon price of $29.95, and “the first 10” for only $45.00 vs. the Amazon price of $58.90.
Not a bad deal for a boatload of entertainment AND a boatload of study material.
If you enjoy following particular characters, I also plan to offer omnibus collections of some of my other recurring Blackwell Ops characters like I did with the Soleada Garcia 7-volume series.
In fact, I think I’ll create a new “series” for my online store called Omnibuses.
Those omnibus editions currently will include at least Charlie Task, Jack & Georgette Tilden, maybe one for “all the ladies” other than Soleada Garcia, Jeremy Stiles, Philip Dunstan, Buck Jackson, John Quick, and Jack Temple.
I don’t usually get all that excited about a new marketing idea, but I’m actually excited about this one. Why?
Without doing any more fiction writing, I’ll publish at least EIGHT new major publications. And all I’ll have to do is take a day or two off writing new fiction. That’s not a bad deal.
Note: Yes, I’m aware I could put out one omnibus a day or something like that, and if that suits you, more power to you. I’m personally better at putting my head to the ground and my butt in the air and plowing ahead to get it done than going about it piecemeal.
Then I’ll be caught up all at once. I can put together new omnibus collections as more recurring characters come to me with their stories.
Talk with you again soon.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 790
Writing of “Miami to Belize”
Day 1…… 1294 words. To date…… 1294 done
Writing of Blackwell Ops 36: Temple’s Dream
Day 1…… 2476 words. To date…… 2476
Day 2…… 1484 words. To date…… 3960
Day 3…… 2837 words. To date…… 6797
Day 4…… 4223 words. To date…… 11020
Day 5…… 3366 words. To date…… 14386
Day 6…… 3123 words. To date…… 17509
Day 7…… 1289 words. To date…… 18798
Day 8…… 3609 words. To date…… 22407
Day 9…… 5245 words. To date…… 27652
Day 10…. 5216 words. To date…… 32868
Fiction for January…………………… 121355
Fiction for 2025………………………. 121355
Nonfiction for February……………… 790
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 32770
2025 consumable words…………….. 147615
Average Fiction WPD (January)…….. 3915
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 2
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 106
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 274
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.