Daily Journal

The Daily Journal, Friday, January 18

Hey Folks, I guess my inner child is more interested in finishing my WIP today (a Stern Talbot PI mystery) than I am. (grin) The mind controls the inner clock, and despite a relatively late night (for me), I came wide awake and rolled out at 1 a.m. this morning. This is a perfect example of the 2 year old subconscious mind standing at your bedside, tugging at your hand, and stage-whispering (so as not to wake up the person in the other side of the bed) “C’mon! Let’s go play!” I suspect, as he has all along, my 2 … Read more

The Daily Journal, Thursday, January 17

Hey Folks, Oof. Rough night. The moon was big outside I guess, seeping through and around the venetian blinds that cover all our windows. So the ladies (our two cats) played tag all night. Most often the tag consisted of the tagger pouncing unnannounced and landing on the taggee as if dropped from six feet up. And most often it occurred right next to my midsection. When I am jarred awake, I usually can’t get back to sleep for an hour or so, and last night was no different. So I think I got maybe 4 hours of sleep last … Read more

The Daily Journal, Wednesday, January 16

Hey Folks, I learned from Linda Maye Adams’ newsletter that the 2019 Superstars Seminar will run from February 7-9 this year. So I looked it up. (grin) The seminar focuses on the business side of writing, but according to the website they’ll also have a separate writing craft day on February 6. You can attend that as well, or separately. According to Christine Mandeville, the conference co-director, some sessions are full but there are a lot of extras. I recommend it. To see the lineup of instructors. the curriculum and the schedule, click http://superstarswriting.com/. To see the fees, visit http://superstarswriting.com/fees/. … Read more

The Daily Journal, Tuesday, January 15

Hey Folks, Well, Consequences released today. Woohoo! I got an email from Amazon letting me know that, so it released at D2D and Smashwords as well. I’ll upload it to BundleRabbit later today. Frankly, I’d forgotten what day it was, and at the moment I can’t remember what the story was about, except that it’s in the Nick Spalding series. How’s that for not making a particular book “special”? (grin) *** While I’m rambling, let me recommend Linda Maye Adams’ newsletter again. In it she occasionally drops a real gem. You can sign up by visiting her website at https://lindamayeadams.com/. … Read more

The Daily Journal, Monday, January 14

Hey Folks, In today’s “Of Interest” DWS talks about trusting your character(s). As usual, he’s spot-on, and with a very timely post. And there’s an absolute must-read from The Kill Zone blog. Enjoy. Topic: Averting a Conscious-Mind Attack Yesterday, in addition to what I wrote and reported here, I also took a wrong turn in the story and wrote 560 words that I didn’t report. How did I know it was a wrong turn? Because the writing began to trudge along. I’d write a sentence, then stop. Then I’d think “Just write the next sentence,” and I did. And then … Read more

The Daily Journal, Sunday, January 13

Hey Folks, Some good stuff in today’s “Of Interest,” as in the purloined topic, “Crappy First Drafts,” which I blatantly stole from my friend, Dan Baldwin and his Writing Tip of the Week. One note on James Scott Bell’s examples at the Kill Zone blog: Nobody, and I mean nobody, says “ta” for “to” or “ya” for “you.” Folks in Minnesota say “ya” occasionally for “yeah,” but even they never say “ya” for “you.” When writing intelligently (meaning with the reader in mind), dialect and accents are not rendered “over ta the saloon” or “What ya doin’?” (Read them aloud. … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, January 12

Hey Folks, First, to new subscriber M. Shephard, thanks for jumping in! Good to have you along. *** I made a new friend (well, acquaintance) early this morning. A guy wrote me out of the blue to request all six books from my current special offer. He went on to say he graduated high school a year before I did (different school) and knew several people from my hometown. He also said he’d only recently found my books and had just finished reading The Wes Crowley Saga (all ten books in one edition) and loved it. Talk about a great … Read more

The Daily Journal, Friday, January 11

Hey Folks, You’ll notice above it says The Daily Journal. That’s right. I have a new goal. The goal is to make this a truly “daily” journal again. That will ensure I write something every day, even when it’s only this little Journal. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you’ll come along for the ride. Or continue the ride. You know, whatever. (grin) The last time I missed a day was back on October 12, 2018. (Closer than I remembered.) So the plan is not to do that anymore. *** I started the day with a marketing effort. … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, January 10

Hey Folks, Wow. I rolled out at 3:45 after the first really good night’s sleep I’ve had in a while. Almost 9 hours. (grin) I breezed through the stuff in the “Of Interest” section (a GREAT section today, by the way), then took a short break, and I’m turning to the novel at 5. Topic: Some Special Book Deals I interrupt our regularly scheduled topics to offer you, my readers, a special deal on some brand-new books. (grin) Yesterday I got everything finalized for Blackwell Ops: Jack Tilden (action-adventure thriller novel) and got it up for pre-publication sale. It’s scheduled … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, January 9

Hey Folks, Well, the beat goes on. Just as I ended last year with the passing of my lifelong friend Kenneth Flowers in late December, this month was marred by the passing of my dear friend Penny Porter. Probably you’ve never heard of Penny, but she was a major help to writers around the globe as well as an excellent writer herself. Penny, along with her friend Dale Adams, was intrumental in starting the Society of Southwestern Authors (SSA) in Tucson Arizona. In its heyday, the SSA held an annual conference rivaled by few others in size and quality. In … Read more