In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Welcome
* New Short Story
* About Yesterday
* You Can Subscribe on the Website Now
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“At a formal dinner party, the person nearest death should always be seated closest to the bathroom.” George Carlin
“At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.” W. Somerset Maugham
“I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends….” Ricky Nelson in “Garden Party” Enjoy a blast from the past. (grin)
Welcome
Welcome to Ashley! And to any other new subscribers or reader of the Journal. I hope you will find it useful.
Be sure to check out the Archives and other free downloads at the Journal website.
New Short Story
Another short story went out yesterday. You can read it here.
If you want to subscribe to my free short stories, simply click the Subscribe link that occurs right after the end of the story.
About Yesterday
Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had in awhile. I wrote a little, but not much. I was too concerned with whether I could drag my troglodyte self through the tech required to hook up with Vin Zandri for the podcast we’d scheduled. (grin)
I won’t go into the hilarious but gritty details, but we got through it. When Vin sends me the link (probably today), I’ll post it here so you can all see the debauchery.
There was some discussion of writing and so on, but mostly we just had fun. Which is how we both write too, as it turns out. Who knew? (grin)
Picture two teenage boys finding a string of firecrackers on the street. That kind of fun.
Then, just as we were wrapping up the Vin & Harvey Show, my buddy Robert from Dallas called. Thing is, I ended up having to use my phone to participate in the podcast with Vin.
So when Robert’s call came in, I abruptly thumped the red phone icon thingy to make it stopped ringing.
Of course, I called Robert back right after that. There was another very brief delay due to another intensely personal requirement I had to attend to, but we finally got to chat. Robert only calls occasionally, maybe once a month or so, so I wasn’t going to abide not speaking with him.
We swapped lies and told stories on ourselves (yeah, and others—they know who they are—for about an hour and a half. Then I finally hung up (well, ended the call, ugh) and went down to the house to make a sandwich for lunch. If you’re wondering (I know you aren’t) thin-sliced turkey with mustard on a sourdough muffin. Good stuff.
While I made the sandwich, I regaled Mona with tales of my morning, mostly about dragging myself into Technology Land. She laughed so hard she was almost crying.
Then I headed back out to the Hovel, but I didn’t write much more. After all the jocularity (Father Mulcahey, M.A.S.H.) I needed to just sit and rest.
As a really bad writer would put it, “A good time was had by all.” I wish you all could have been there.
And personal thanks to Big Philly and the other writer (If you’re reading this, “other writer,” I’m sorry. I wish I could recall your name. Email me and introduce yourself.) who showed up to watch the live podcast. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did and as much as Vin seemed to.
So that’s m’story and I’m stickin’ to it.
Today I’ll be neck-deep in the novel again. And I’m glad. That’s probably the only place where I can have nearly as much fun as I had with my buddies yesterday.
Oh, and listen: If you’ve read this far, thank you. If you’re having a terrible time with critical voice and haven’t read my book, Quiet the Critical Voice and Write Fiction, email me (harveystanbrough@gmail.com).
As a result of having such a fun day, I’m feeling a bit beneficent — as thorougly uncharacteristic as that is — and I’m giving that book away to Journal readers. All you have to do is email me and let me know which eformat you’d like. (No, I’m not against paper books. I’m just lazy.)
You Can Subscribe on the Website Now
I finally found (and manipulated) an imbedded form and added it to its own page on the Journalhttps://hestanbrough.com. So now you can subscribe to the substack and receive the Journal free in your inbox each morning if you want, without even going to Substack. Or you can click here. (grin)
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Merriam-Webster adds 690 new words to its dictionary I’m still waiting for them to add “strainge,” meaning an oddity so strange it strains the mind. (grin)
How lunar lava tubes could host China’s future moon base Meh. I like my way better in The 13-Month Turn.
Why Bookstores Can’t Avoid Politics See PG’s excellent take.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 840
Writing of Blackwell Ops 11: Jeremy Stiles (novel)
A Circle of Doubt
Day 1…… 5214 words. To date…… 5214
Fiction for September…………………… 62576
Fiction for 2023………………………… 214885
Fiction since August 1………………… 120125
Nonfiction for September……………… 23870
Nonfiction for the year……………… 198340
Annual consumable words………… 413225
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 4
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 6
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 75
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)… 234
Short story collections…………………… 31
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Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.