Daily Journal

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Speaking of Lawrence Block * The Numbers Quote of the Day “You never really know exactly what’s going to happen next in any truly engaging piece of fiction. Because good writing is never a matter of assembling a boxful of component parts according to a sheet of directions, and that holds true even when you’re the one who handcrafted the parts and wrote the directions.” Lawrence Block in “Chapter 1: Organic Writing” of Spider, Spin Me a Web Speaking of Lawrence Block You can find more quotable bits on pretty much … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Notes on Play vs. Work * A Note Re Subscriptions * Humans Are Mortal (Who Knew?) * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “It is difficult to be afraid of anything about which enough is known.” Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (again, via Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week on “Overcoming Fear” Yes. “…about which enough is known.” This is exactly why I write this Journal. So you will know enough to overcome your fear of WITD. The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting To take … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Overcoming Fear, a history * Ugh. Admin Stuff * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “If you don’t believe in yourself, why is anyone else going to believe in you?” Tom Brady in 1440 Daily Digest “Let’s talk, you and I. Let’s talk about fear.” Stephen King, opening words of the Foreword to Night Shift (1978, Armchair) Dr. Mardy continues. “A little more than two decades later, fellow horror writer Peter Straub wrote about these two brief sentences: “’With its deliberate repetition of the first two words, its … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Writing (Practicing) Is What Matters * Musings * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.” John Wayne, quoted from his 1971 Playboy interview Writing (Practicing) Is What Matters Over ten years of practicing writing into the dark, I’ve pondered that overall topic countless times. WITD has become part of me. It and the first three Heinlein’s Rules are … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Admin Note * You Can’t Teach Writing * Heinlein’s Five Rules and The Critical vs. the Subconscious Mind * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Talent without effort is wasted talent. And while effort is the one thing you can control in your life, applying that effort intelligently is next on the list.” Mark Cuban, quoted in 1440 Daily Digest Admin Note Yesterday, due to a problem at my webhost server, I didn’t post TNDJ on the actual Journal website. I couldn’t access any of my sites. I … Read more

In today’s Journal * Yesterday * The Bradbury Challenge… * On Being Prolific * The Absolute Essentials of Cover Design * The Numbers Yesterday Yesterday my previous novel, Blackwell Ops 25: Rafe Andersen, went live at all vendors. Also yesterday, I scheduled my latest novel, Blackwell Ops 26: Tailor Morse, for release on August 10. Then I uploaded it to my Payhip store, where it’s available early if you want it. An Editorial Review from My First Reader Russ Jones wrote of Blackwell Ops 26, “This one has to be the tightest, best-written Blackwell Ops novel of all; reading it … Read more

In today’s Journal * Introduction * A Moustache Hair Delivered This Post * Of Interest * The Numbers Introduction I have no way of knowing whether you’ve noticed, but sometimes events conspire and line up just right. Turns out I finished a novel on Friday, and then my bride (she prefers to remain anonymous, so we’ll call her “Mona”) returned home on yesterday after a week or so away visiting with her sisters in California. Hence this post on Sunday. One sister flew out here from Indiana. We’ll call her “Dory.” She visited with us for a few days before … Read more