In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Book Sale Redux
* Of Interest
Quotes of the Day
“I can see how using our critical minds to revise a manuscript could spoil the original product. And yet, I think we have to use both sides of our brains to come up with the best story. If only I knew how to do that.” Kay DiBianca, in response to my second comment on her post at TKZ
And my response:
“In every case, Kay, the ‘best’ story is the authentic story. To find that you only have to trust the story that unfolds around you and your characters as you’re running through it.
“In the ‘real world’ it’s trusting your neighbors’ account of their trip to Zambia instead of correcting them as they’re conveying it.”
Book Sale Redux
My wife told me we have only 6 full sets (of 10) of the Wes Crowley novels in trade paperback that I mentioned yesterday. I guess we have a few strays too. Anyway, here’s a low-res photo of the 10 novels stacked up:
To see all of my novels, visit https://stonethreadpublishing.com and click on the tab of your choice: Mystery, Action-Adventure/Thriller, Science Fiction, or Westerns and the Wes Crowley saga. Visiting that website is a little surreal for me. Hard to imagine that I actually wrote all those stories.
Well, plus 9 novellas—those are mixed in with the novels in whatever genre—and 0ver 200 short stories in thirty-some 5- and 10-story collections. You’ll see tabs for those there too. Plus all the nonfiction books. Whew! That is a lot of writing, especially since April 2014, and especially considering I wasn’t writing for around two years of that time.
I really should take the time to add-up how many millions of words of fiction and nonfiction I’ve written since 2014. The number of words in all the the articles, essays, poems, blog posts, etc. before that are lost to time.
I recommend that you younger writers figure out your word-count totals now, and keep track of them as you continue. Someday it might be a matter of great importance to you. Not everything we achieve in life is quantifiable. Writing is.
Anyway, if you see anything that interests you at the publisher site, let me know via email and I’ll send it right out.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Get a Masters in Publishing” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/get-a-masters-in-publishing/. I still recommend a bachelor’s in Marketing instead.
See “Editor/Janitor” at https://killzoneblog.com/2023/04/editor-janitor.html.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 400
Writing of Wes Crowley: Deputy US Marshal 2 (WCG9SF4)
Day 11… 0323 words. Total words to date…… 19819
Day 12… 2445 words. Total words to date…… 22264
Day 13… 3184 words. Total words to date…… 25448
Total fiction words for April……… 17276
Total fiction words for 2023………… 83464
Total nonfiction words for April… 18300
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 80560
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 164024
Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 72
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 221
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark, adherence to Heinlein’s Rules, and that following the myths of fiction writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.