In Today’s Journal
* Election Day 2024
* A Cover Blurb Speaks for Itself
* The Writing
* A Reminder
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Election Day 2024
I will not tell you whom to vote for. That is neither my place nor the place of anyone else. But it is incumbent upon us all to urge others to vote.
You vote anyway, either by casting a ballot or by not casting a ballot. Please do the former, and make your voice heard.
That is the single most important activity you can achieve today.
A Cover Blurb Speaks for Itself
I have discovered a new favorite poet: Christopher Fried. My personal list of favorites is not easy to break into. It includes Howard Nemerov, Anthony Hecht, Yeats, Frost, Keats, Dickinson, Siegfried Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen.
Christopher Fried graciously invited me to write a cover blurb for this collection. I seldom write blurbs or even reviews, but for Analog Synthesis I made an exception. That exception was based largely on the sheer power of his poem “A Buck Stares at Life.” (You can read that poem and others free at Mr. Fried’s website: http://christopherfried.com/a-buck-stares-at-life.)
As I recently wrote in The New Daily Journal, an instructional almost-daily newsletter primarily for fiction writers, “The whole purpose of the poem—defined by Coleridge as ‘the best words in the best order’—is to gesture toward a scene, inviting the reader to take a look and form his or her own opinion.”
In Analog Synthesis, Mr. Fried has done just that over a variety of topics, and he has done it very well. In a world steeped in ambiguity and irreconcilable symbolism, Fried’s poetry stands out as both accessible and filled with deeper meanings. That is not an easy task to pull off.
I have my own favorite Fried poems from this collection, including “Portals,” “The Day Death Walked into a Restaurant,” “Not So Similar,” “Crocodiles and Tigers,” “Pop Pulp (Spillane),” and several others, but I will not elaborate on them here. My purpose here is to encourage you to buy this book, and I do so without reservation. If you buy Analog Synthesis, you are in for a thoroughly delightful read.
Harvey Stanbrough
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominated novelist, essayist, poet, and writing instructor
The Writing
The novel has been a little rough lately, but I anticipate a good day of writing fiction today. That will be interrupted only by exercising my desire and responsibility to drive to the polling place and cast my vote.
I won’t take my laptop with me as I often do to various waiting rooms. But I do hope the lines are so long, even in my small town, that the wait would justify adding words to the novel.
A Reminder
In a post a few days ago, I mentioned possibly starting ‘Down in the Weeds,’ a new occasional newsletter for serious fiction writers, in January 2025.
If that is something you might be interested in (no obligation) please let me know via email at harveystanbrough@gmail.com or via comment on that (or this) post.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
How to write best-selling book marketing copy
I still recommend DWS’ How to Write Fiction Sales Copy
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 530
Writing of Blackwell Ops 30: John Quick Returns
Day 1…… 2155 words. To date…… 2155
Day 2…… 3930 words. To date……. 6085
Day 3…… 3042 words. To date……. 9127
Day 4…… 3057 words. To date……. 12184
Day 5…… 5268 words. To date……. 17452
Day 6…… 1500 words. To date……. 18952
Day 7…… 3194 words. To date……. 22146
Day 8…… 3236 words. To date……. 25382
Fiction for November…………………. 13198
Fiction for 2024……………………….. 850330
Nonfiction for November…………….. 4750
Nonfiction for 2024……………………. 339170
2024 consumable words…………….. 1013539
Average Fiction WPD (November)…… 3300
2024 Novels to Date……………………….. 15
2024 Novellas to Date……………………… 1
2024 Short Stories to Date………………… 18
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..…… 97
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………… 255
Short story collections…………………….… 29
Disclaimer: 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.
If you are able, please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. Thank you!