In Today’s Journal
* My Quote of the Day
* Robert Duvall
* Stanbrough Writes
* That Isn’t to Say
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
My Quote of the Day
“The fundamental component necessary for success is believing in yourself, believing yourself capable.” Harvey
Robert Duvall
Character actor Robert Duvall has passed away. I always hoped to meet him, specifically to thank him for his portrayal of Texas Ranger Augustus McCrae in Lonesome Dove.
That character was in my mind with every novel and short story I wrote in the Wes Crowley saga. He called the role his personal “role of a lifetime” and said such a film probably won’t come around for another 100 years.
He likened his Gus character to “the American Shakespeare” and a modern-day knight (1860s to 1880s). Had my saga ever been optioned for a film, I would have wanted Duvall to play Wes.
If two films should be mandatory viewing for every young man in America, those films are Lonesome Dove and Secondhand Lions, and both starred Robert Duvall.
Here’s a brief Instagram video featuring Mr. Duvall. Fair winds and following seas, Gus.
Stanbrough Writes
Yesterday, I pre-posted the last eight short stories to the publishing queue at Stanbrough Writes. The last story will go live on April 25, 2026.
I intend to leave the Substack open as long as possible so you and others can come here and read free: Stanbrough Writes.
You might want to save that link to your bookmarks in case you’re sitting around bored one day and want something quick to read. If you know anyone who enjoys good short fiction, clue them in.
My fiction is available pretty much everywhere ebooks are sold. To see a great deal more of it, please visit my online discount store.
Note: I did not ‘read over’ any of the stories before I posted them to look (yet again) for typos or misplaced (or inadvertently repeated) phrases. My focus is on Story, not perfection.
I didn’t even reparagraph any of the stories to improve pacing. Instead, I chose to let each story stand as a marker of my skill level at the time, so you get what you get.
That Is Not to Say
typos and mistakes in my fiction don’t bother me. Of course they do.
But I don’t like living in the past or focusing on negatives. Forward is the only way toward achievement. Plus, I always bear in mind that what’s perfect to me is rubbish to others.
As I told a critical friend recently about a glitch he noticed in “Johnny Baby,”
Had I noticed the unnecessary repetition in the story after the fact (as you did) I would have felt appropriately embarrassed, shook my head, and determined not to let it happen again.
But after I beat myself up for roughly a split-second, I would have simply moved on. Likewise, if something like this happens to you in the future, dear writers, I advise you to consider your error, learn from it, and then move the hell on.
You have to know who you are.
I am both a pursuer of perfection and an achievement-based life form. Of course, those two things are diametrically opposed.
But I’m also human, so I have to choose. And frankly, the latter—achieving things I’ve never achieved before—is a great deal more attractive and important to me than seeking perfection. Besides,
Treading water in pursuit of perfection is always a regrettable waste of time and the best possible way to ensure literary death by drowning.
Perfection is always a laudable goal, but it can never be a destination. You can’t hover over anything long enough to make it absolutely perfect even for yourself and still manage to achieve much of anything at all in terms of volume.
All of that said, most of my stories and novels don’t contain any ‘large’ errors. On the other hand, I always bear in mind that they are, after all, only a few minutes’ or a few hours’ entertainment. Nothing more important than that.
But let me start over
and give you a dry-land allusion this time: Again, I am an achievement-based life form, and to achieve anything of substance, I must continue moving forward.
Of course, if I insist on moving forward, eventually I will stub my toes. When that happens, I’m faced with a decision: I can either safely stand still or creep forward, setting aside potential stumbling stones and forego ever achieving anything, or I can stride forward into risk and simply accept (and learn from) whatever comes.
The latter is much more attractive to me.
I prefer practicing due diligence as I write and cycle and engage my worthy First Reader, but while he’s reading my previous work I’m typically striding forward to race through the next story with my characters.
My goal is to present each story and novel as cleanly as possible. Sometimes I fall a little short, but I consider those acceptable losses, the result of being human. I seldom commit typos or other mistakes even in emails or in the Journal.
But I also work an average of 12 to 16 hours per day every day (not complaining, my choice). As a result, I’ve become very good at achieving things and equally good at letting go of small errors that I notice or are pointed out to me after publication.
Errors are regrettable, but they simply don’t matter in the vast, overall body of what I love to do and what I’ve accomplished.
I wish the same for every one of you in every endeavor at every stage of your journey.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 910
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 910
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for February………………………. XXXX
Fiction for 2026…………………………… XXXX
Nonfiction for February.…………………. 15460
Nonfiction for 2026………………..……… 35050
2026 consumable words………………… 35050
2026 Novels to Date……………………… 0
2026 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2026 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29