In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* A New Short Story
* Bradbury Reminder
* The Novel Wrapped
* Note
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“One cannot grow fine flowers in a thin soil.” Virginia Woolf
“If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” Sam Walton
A New Short Story
“Old Times” went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out. It’s free.
If I remember right, that’s a Stern Talbot PI short story. (I went back and read it. It is a PI story, and it’s a GOOD one. Go. Look. Tell me I’m lyin’.) (grin)
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 Saturday. Just a reminder to get your Bradbury Challenge story info in to me before the Journal goes live on Monday.
The Novel Wrapped
Blackwell Ops 40: John Staple wrapped. It will be live on my StoneThread Publishing discount store later this morning.
In a happy coinkadink, Blackwell Ops 38 went live around the world today (one day after BO-40 wrapped)
BO-39 will go live on April 12, and BO-40 will go live around the world on April 26.
So I’m still chugging away at releasing a new novel every two weeks. Thus far the publishing streak is up to 17 novels in 34 weeks.
How?
- I write into the dark, cycling as I go
- I send the finished novel to my excellent first reader
- I make any changes my first reader recommends that I agree with
- I publish the finished novel for pre-release sales to D2D and Amazon two weeks after the previous novel (in my case, always on Saturday)
- Amazon sends me email reminders that the previous novel or two will release on a certain date, which motivates me to keep writing on the current novel
- Lather, rinse, repeat
Oops. I didn’t write my short story for this week yesterday, so I’ll probably write it today before I cast about for my next novel.
Note
The first two links in Of Interest below are to a paired set of posts. For that reason, the first link is a repeat. I recommend reading it before reading the second.
Of Interest
We’re Entering the Age of the Artisan Author
Exposing Yourself For Fun and Profit
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 380
Writing of Blackwell Ops 40: John Staple
Day 1…… 3397 words. To date…… 3397
Day 2…… 1651 words. To date…… 5048
Day 3…… 1960 words. To date…… 7008
Day 4…… 1777 words. To date…… 8785
Day 5…… 1310 words. To date…… 10095
Day 6…… 3346 words. To date…… 13441
Day 7…… 3322 words. To date…… 16763
Day 8…… 1061 words. To date…… 17824
Day 9…… 1452 words. To date…… 19276
Day 10…. 4706 words. To date…… 23982
Day 11…. 2131 words. To date…… 26113 done
Fiction for March…………………….. 73885
Fiction for 2025………………………. 259716
Nonfiction for March………………….. 25630
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 79560
2025 consumable words…………….. 332766
Average Fiction WPD (March)……… 2639
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 7
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 111
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 281
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.
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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.