In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* A New Wes Crowley Novel
* Adobe Walls
* Of Interest
Quotes of the Day
“Life is like a 10-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.” Charles M. Schulz (Today is Schulz’ birthday.)
“Before I came here I was confused about this subject. Having listened to your lecture I am still confused. But on a higher level.” Enrico Fermi
A New Wes Crowley Novel
For my new novel, I’ve started another Wes Crowley story. For anyone who’s new to this Journal, my first novel was about Wes Crowley, a Texas Ranger back in the late 19th century. An orphan of abandonment, Wes started in the Texas panhandle and ended up 60-some years later in the fictional fishing village of Agua Perlado in the state of Guerrero, Mexico.
But between two of the novels in that 12-volume Wes Crowley Saga, there was a 16 year gap. And I kind’a missed Wes, so one day I started writing “Gap” novels to fill in that 16 years. I’ve written five so far.
And then a few days ago, I had an idea for another Wes novel. That’s the one I started yesterday morning.
Santa Fe will be the 6th novel in the Gap series and the 18th Wes Crowley novel overall, but it will also be the first novel in the Santa Fe subseries if the series takes off the way I think it might. How cool is that? And even after the Santa Fe subseries ends, there probably will be more novels to write in the Gap series.
Adobe Walls
On a related note, I also posted another free short story yesterday, “Adobe Walls.” I was in a Wes Crowley mood, and “Adobe Walls” is the very first story that started me on that road. It gave rise to the 17 Wes Crowley novels and several other short stories.
I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on that story. If you aren’t on that list and you’d like to read the story, click https://stanbroughwrites.substack.com/p/adobe-walls.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Coming Out of a Fog” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/coming-out-of-a-fog/.
See “Alternative Book Review: Letter To A Protagonist” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/alternative-book-review-letter-to-a-protagonist/. What a cool idea for a way to leave reviews!
See “More than half of young readers credit BookTok with sparking passion for reading” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/more-than-half-of-young-readers-credit-booktok-with-sparking-passion-for-reading/.
See “No, Books Should Not Have Content Ratings Like Movies” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/no-books-should-not-have-content-ratings-like-movies/. My knee-jerk response is why not? People who are frightened of such ratings often have a reason to be. But see PG’s take.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 410 words
Writing of Santa Fe (novel, tentative title)
Day 1…… 3877 words. Total words to date…… 3877
Total fiction words for November……… 40754
Total fiction words for the year………… 202279
Total nonfiction words for November… 18450
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 194080
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 396359
Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2022 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2022 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 68
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog I share my experiences, good and bad, as a prolific professional fiction writer. Because It Makes Sense, I trust my characters to tell the story that they, not I, are living. This greatly increases my productivity and provides the fastest possible ascension along the learning curve of Craft because I get a great deal more practice at actually writing.