Daily Journal

The Journal, Monday, September 10

Hey Folks, First (so I don’t forget), I have a late-morning appointment in Tucson tomorrow, so there might not be a Journal entry. The place is a couple hours away, so it blows a lot of the day. Of course, I’m planning for it. I expect to get up early and write early, then make the rounds of the Internet afterward and file the Journal entry. We’ll see. *** Saw an ad for a “writers retreat” for which registration is about to close. The cost is $40 to “hold your spot” and then an unadvertised amount due by the end … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, September 9

Hey Folks, I’ve had a sense of urgency about time and life since I read a book when I was around ten years old. If I remember correctly, it was Cheaper by the Dozen, in which siblings talked about growing up with their efficiency-expert father, Frank Gilbreth. As a result, I developed a kind of “do it right now because you might not have time later” thing. Right or wrong, that philosophy has guided my life ever since. To this day I hate wasting time. It really is the most precious commodity we have. In my life, the philosophy extends … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, September 8

Hey Folks, Topic: On Being a Hack Writer Character stands up tentatively from a brown metal folding chair: Hello. My name is Harvey Stanbrough and I’ve become accustomed to the idea that I am a hack writer. Character resumes his seat. Someone yells, “Scene.” That doesn’t mean I write stories about taxicabs, but that I write far too fast and turn out so much work that no possible way could it be any good. (grin) Never mind that my poetry and fiction is taught in at least two university English programs. I must be a hack. How else could I … Read more

The Journal, Friday, September 7

Hey Folks, Do you use telephones? I don’t like them. Rarely, if we’ve worked out the details ahead of time via email, I’ll talk with a very good friend via phone, but that’s about it. And two times out of three in the past year when that happened, the friends (Marines from a few decades ago) were dismayed, and said so, that I sounded so “old.” Isn’t that uplifting? (grin) Well, several months ago, an acquaintance I literally haven’t seen for 30-some years asked whether I would judge a writing contest for her writers organization. I said yes. Yesterday, she … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, September 6

Hey Folks, Very long but very informative post today. I hope you’ll get your favorite beverage and hang in there. Wow. According to a staff member at Reedsy, “The New York Times recently reported that short stories are ‘experiencing a resurgence’ with both readers and critics alike. In 2017, sales of short story collections shot up almost 50% over the previous year. In the past five years, three of the most prestigious prizes in fiction — the Booker, the Nobel, and the Folio — were awarded to writers best known for their short stories. “In other words: the short story … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, September 5

Hey Folks, Today you get to see evolution, Harvey Stanbrough style. You know how much I like playing with numbers, right? So yesterday afternoon, I opened each short story in The Storyteller and checked the word count. Yeah, I’m just that anal. In the short stories alone (there are 11, not 10 as I previously reported), there are 50,061 words. The novel itself is only 55,140 words, including the short stories. So you can see why I said the “novel” actually is only a framework to showcase the short stories. Anyway, as I wrote earlier, I probably won’t ever publish … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, September 4

Hey Folks, Ugh. I rolled out way late this morning at 4:30, so I’m still sluggish as I write this. For anyone out there who still thinks writing is “hard work” (and if you have or want a Facebook account), drop by and spend about 6 minutes watching two guys build a swimming pool with only what they found on-site. It’s wonderful and inspiring: https://www.facebook.com/TRNDVideos/videos/1572658269504526/?t=0. I will add that they couldn’t do that here. Our “dirt” is rock and clay and mesquite root, three of the more resistant substances known to man. Still, what they did was one hell of … Read more

The Journal, Monday, September 3

Hey Folks, Happy Labor Day. I wrote a whole long post yesterday, mostly whining about Heinlein’s Rule 4. Then I forgot to post it until about 5:30, and of course by then it was too late. Well, that’s why I call it an “almost daily” Journal. I counted yesterday’s nonfiction words (530) in my writing, but I won’t make you suffer through it. I consider myself an adherent to Heinlein’s Rules, yet lately I slip and fall when I approach Rule 4. In brief… 1, 2, and 3 — I write, I finish what I write, and I don’t rewrite. … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, September 1

Hey Folks, New day, new month. I got Nick Spalding 1 (I’m still not sure of the title) sent off to my first reader yesterday. Writing that one filled in a lot of previously unknown details about a secondary character who took a larger role than I expected. So now I have to go back through NS2 and tweak it here and there. Should be fun. This won’t be a rewrite. Mostly I’ll be cutting some of Nick’s private thoughts re that character. So there’s that. No writing today other than this little bit. A shopping trip to Sierra Vista … Read more

The Journal, Friday, August 31

Hey Folks, The end of August! Where in the world did the time go? And it’s 2018! Shouldn’t it still be around 1978 or so? (grin) Anyway, some very exciting news today, especially for those of you who design your own book covers. One of the best publishing suite companies is England’s Serif. Their products are intuitive, and they easily rival Adobe at a small fraction of the cost. Serif finally came out with the new Affinity Publisher (beta version) and is offering it free at https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/. I just downloaded my copy. Based on my long use of Serif products, … Read more