Daily Journal

The Journal, Friday, September 14

Hey Folks, My buddy Dan Baldwin dropped by from Mesa (a 3-hour trip, much thanks Dan) this morning for coffee, a good cigar and a little philosophy slathering. Of course, we talked about writing too. While I was waiting for him to arrive, I decided to cycle back through the last part of my WIP. Almost two hours later, I finally realized maybe it would be better to just forget it for awhile. (grin) As I mentioned before, we’re going through a bit of a life roll out here. It’s some medical stuff that will be partially resolved sometime (we … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, September 13

Hey Folks, Welcome to a new member, Ilsa from Germany. And welcome to all other recent members. Glad you could join us. Some great stuff in “Of Interest” today, and that’s the main reason I’m even posting this entry. It would behoove you to click through. I’m focused on other things today, so no fiction writing again this morning, and probably none this afternoon. If I do write this afternoon, I’ll report it tomorrow. Talk with you again soon. Of Interest See “New Fiction River Kickstarter Award for Writers” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/new-fiction-river-kickstarter-award-for-writers/. This is a good one, folks. Don’t miss it! … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, September 12

Hey Folks, Something around four to five years ago, I created a persona named Nicolas Z Porter. Nick and I and three other personas (Gervasio Arrancado, Ray Sevareid, and Eric Stringer) enjoyed a wild ride. Overall, Porter was the persona under which I wrote stories that felt Hemingway-esque to me. They were more brusque, more on-point, stark shades of grey on a white background with the occasional splash of vivid color. Often the color was red-drying-to-black. Of the other personas, Arrancado wrote Latin American magic realism, Sevareid wrote science fantasy, and Stringer wrote weird, psychological-suspense stuff. Though Eric’s personality was … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, September 11

Hey Folks, I hope we all have a thoughtful day of concern for the horrendous events themselves, the lives lost, and the lives forever affected on both 9/11/2001 and 9/11/2012. *** I had planned to hit the sack early last night, rise early this morning, and give myself plenty of time to write a few chapters. Well, any plan is only as good as its execution. I stayed up an hour later than I expected, then experienced one of those on-again off-again awkward nights of sleep and rolled out late at 4. So I did my usual thing of going … Read more

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