Bradbury, and Some Housekeeping – a journal of a writing life

In Today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge
* In Case You Missed It…
* I Get Questions and Comments
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“To do something well is so worthwhile…. life is measured in achievement, not in years alone.” Bruce McLaren

“It’s so interesting how much you can do when you get out of your own way.” Dave Taylor

“Write hard and clear about what hurts.” Ernest Hemingway

The Bradbury Challenge

The whole point of the Challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer. There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. Feel free to jump in at any time.

All of that said, the Challenge is for those whose intention is to write a short story every week. It isn’t just to send a short story every now and then as the mood strikes you. If you want in, jump in, but then try to stay in.

I mean, congrats on writing a new story, but unless you intend to challenge yourself to write one every week, please don’t submit your story info to the challenge.

During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:

Vanessa V. Kilmer “blue & black” 3157 Speculative
Alexander Nakul “Grandma’s Deadly Trick” 4197 Noir, Sci-Fi
Christopher Ridge “The End of this Whole Mess” crime 2150
Dave Taylor “That’s How It All Began” 3,413 Sci-Fi/Time Travel
Dave Taylor “Mr. Hemmingway’s Solution” 2,301 Paranormal

Congratulations to all of these writers.

Pulp with a Legacy!

I have a story (“No Way Alive”) in the upcoming anthology True Pulp, edited by bestselling authors Troy Lambert and Vin Zandri. They’re even doing a Kickstarter for it beginning on June 3.

But there’s a preview page up Right Now at Kickstarter. If you have a moment, please stop by and check out the True Pulp Kickstarter.

While you’re there, do me a personal favor and click “Notify me of Launch” to show your interest. The more people who click before the release, the happier the Kickstarter algorithm will be. Early interest helps a lot.

Storytelling at Depth

Since I just announced a new short story contest (see links above), I published a short series of three posts on Storytelling at Depth.

In the first post, I talked about the Cliffhanger/Hook combo.
In the second, I talked about Grounding the Reader.
In the third, I discussed The Elements of Pacing

I Get Questions and Comments

I got a couple of good questions a few days ago from Bob B. (Thanks, Bob!) and a good comment from Joseph L. Wiess (Thanks, Joseph!).

Here are Bob’s questions and my responses:

1. Why do you post separately on Amazon rather than using D2D?

No reason. I’ve just had a KDP account for so long I kept going there myself after D2D stood up. I know others who upload to Amazon and Kobo and Apple and maybe even B&N and send everything else through D2D.

2. Are you aware of any hard data that compares publishing wide with publishing only to Amazon in terms of maximizing sales results rather than publishing potential?

No, no hard data. I know others who are far more patient with the publishing process than I (including Vin Zandri).

They publish to KDP Select (exclusive) for three months to get the benefit of using the KPD Select tools for marketing etc., then pull the work out of Select (though it’s still available on Amazon) and go wide.

If you have that kind of patience with publishing, I would even recommend doing the same. I just go wide from the beginning, mostly because I don’t have that kind of patience and it’s one less thing for me to keep up with.

And from Joseph L. Wiess…

D2D’s POD is Ingram Spark, and with it going to Ingram Spark, bookshop.org picks up your books as well. Several other indie bookstores draw from Ingram Spark’s warehouse.

The Writing

I thought the novel was going to wrap yesterday. Then the characters thew me a massive curve ball that complicated the story. That pleased me to no end.

I’ve never celebrated finishing a novel, except maybe my first. Conversely, I tend to celebrate beginnings and mourn endings, as with births and deaths in real life.

Anyway, I always feel a little down when I know a story’s about to wrap, but the complication will keep me writing (and will keep me with these characters) for at least another day or two. For me, that’s a total win.

Of Interest

ADVANCED MAGIC BAKERY… Chapter Two

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 780

Writing of “Federico, Soleada Martinez, Cancún, and the Plan”

Day 1…… 3899 words. To date…… 3899 done

Writing of Blackwell Ops 44: Sam Granger | Following the Ghost Trail

Day 1…… 3613 words. To date…… 3613
Day 2…… 2893 words. To date…… 6506
Day 3…… 1824 words. To date…… 8330
Day 4…… 3025 words. To date…… 11355
Day 5…… 3697 words. To date…… 15052
Day 6…… 3428 words. To date…… 18480
Day 7…… 1013 words. To date…… 19493
Day 8…… 2993 words. To date…… 22486
Day 9…… 3310 words. To date…… 25796
Day 10…. 4379 words. To date…… 30175
Day 11…. 3952 words. To date…… 34127

Fiction for May………………………… 61131
Fiction for 2025………………………. 439544
Nonfiction for May…………………….. 16870
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 117960
2025 consumable words…………….. 550994

Average Fiction WPD (May)………… 3396

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 10
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 26
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 114
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 296
Short story collections……………………. 29

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.