In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* About Contest Entries
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“There’s no shame in failing. The only shame is not giving things your best shot.” Robin Williams
About Contest Entries
Hey folks, I’m back in the Hovel and trying to get back into the swing of things.
For anyone who missed it earlier, I’m running a new contest for short stories. It could result in an anthology titled Echoes of Chandler. You can find the contest rules here.
In that post in “Notes” below the rules, I included a link to a downloadable PDF manuscript format guideline and a second link to a post that describes in detail how to use the Paragraph Formatting Tool.
Stories for this contest can be in any genre. They don’t have to reflect Raymond Chandler’s style, but they should reflect a level of setting description that will invite the reader into the story and hold him there.
Giving you another opportunity to learn how to write in-depth description was the primary reason for this contest.
I received two comments and several emails saying those writers had never heard of Raymond Chandler. Shrug. So what? Excellence is excellence. The guy was a master at writing description.
Of Interest
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: “In Praise of Discontent”
The Key to Writing Authentic Characters
Dean Wesley Smith’s Personal Challenge Update
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 230
Writing of Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty
Day 1…… 3250 words. To date…… 3250
Fiction for July..………………………. 5840
Fiction for 2025………………………. 526647
Nonfiction for July…………………….. 12000
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 163630
2025 consumable words…………….. 682663
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29