In Today’s Journal
* A New Short Story
* Bradbury Reminder
* Shopify vs. Payhip and More
* More on Dialogue
* Only for Readers of TNDJ!
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
A New Short Story
“Down to the Wire” went live Friday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. This is an odd short story. Go check it out. It’s free.
If you enjoy the story, please click Like. Comments are welcome too. Both help with my Substack algorithms. Then tell Everyone else.
Bradbury Reminder
Today is Sunday. Just a reminder to get your Bradbury Challenge story info in to me before the Journal goes live on Monday.
Remember, if you finish a story earlier in the week, you can send the info to me early too. It never hurts to avoid pushing the deadline.
Shopify vs. Payhip and More
A couple of days ago I had a question about whether Shopify or Payhip is better.
If you’re wondering too, I recommend checking these posts re Shopify and Payhip:
- Marketing Shopify Payhip Maybe start reading at “This is an excerpt from a comment I left on Dean’s post:”
- More on Marketing via PayHip
- Payhip is Easy
- More on Payhip
- Organizing Your Book Files and More
- An Excellent Question
I’ve had my StoneThread Publishing direct sales discount store on Payhip for around a year. Any questions, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
More on Dialogue
To follow up on yesterday’s post, More on Description, below is an excerpted dialogue exchange between the POV character (Sam Granger) and his contact, Janice Hopkins.
Yesterday you saw Janice through Sam’s eyes. Today, you’ll hear both characters through Sam’s ears.
If you care to look back and put these together, chronologically the following passage is sandwiched between the description of the motel room and the character description in the excerpts in yesterday’s post:
I flipped back through the listing pages again, found the listing for Janice Hopkins, and dialed the number.
She picked up on the first ring. “A’yello.”
“Hi, Janice. You don’t know me. I’m Sam, and I’m in town to offer a real-time solution.”
“Really?” Her voice had a western twang. That surprised me a little. She added, “I only see a few of you guys a year. What d’y’think you’ll need?”
“You have the passphrase?”
“Oh. Sorry. For a real-world problem, right?”
“Thanks.” I hesitated. “I don’t suppose you do drop guns.”
“No, sorry.”
“That’s all ri—”
“Well, wait. I do have a little Saturday night special. A Charter Arms snub nose .22 revolver. But I don’t have a suppressor for it.”
“How responsive are the cops around here to gunfire?”
“From a .22? Not very. A lot of kids plink rabbits hereabouts.”
“At night.”
“Ah. Depends on the neighborhood. Well, and whether you can pry ‘em out of Joie’s.”
I started to ask whether they respond quickly to shots in the northeast part of town, but I decided against it. “What’s Joy’s?”
“It’s a local restaurant. Great food, and not too expensive. But it’s not close to you either. You have a Denny’s right next door.”
“Yeah, I saw that when I drove in.” I’ll want to take my time with the hit. “Listen, back on topic, bring me something small, okay? A .22 or .25 is fine, but with a suppressor. I’ll get it back to you. A semi-automatic’s fine.”
“Done deal. And I assume you’d like it soonest?”
“If that’s possible.”
“I’ll see you in a half-hour. Play your cards right, you can buy me supper at Denny’s.” She chuckled.
I glanced at the bedside clock. It was 6:03. “Ooh, I hope I didn’t interrupt your supper. I can wait a while if—”
“Nah. I’ got nobody to wait on. I’ll see you shortly.” She hung up.
I only looked at the receiver for a moment, then set it in the cradle.
Other than keeping my Aspen safe, I’d been focused on nothing for the past 24 hours beyond finding Templeton and erasing him from society. Maybe relaxing a little over supper wouldn’t be a bad idea. Janice seemed pleasant enough, and I’d have to eat anyway.
As always, I hope this helps. Any questions, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
Only for Readers of TNDJ!
In yesterday’s issue of TNDJ, I published an off-the-grid stretch goal just for readers of TNDJ. You don’t even have to be a TNDJ subscriber.
Be sure to take a look at that special offer. You can find it
Support the TRUE PULP Kickstarter today!
And for goodness’ sake, don’t feel embarrassed or awkward about taking this deal.
You’ll be helping me and the other authors in the anthology get paid for our work, and you’ll be getting some great reads and even collectibles offered only through the Kickstarter.
And shouldn’t we all be helping each other?
Thanks!
Of Interest
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: “The End, or the Beginning?” Excellent.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 810
Writing of Blackwell Ops 45: Sam Granger | Ghost Trail 2
Day 1…… 2637 words. To date…… 2637
Day 2…… 3648 words. To date…… 6285
Day 3…… 3483 words. To date…… 9768
CUTS…… -4437 words. To date…… 5331
Day 4…… 3212 words. To date…… 8543
Day 5…… 2715 words. To date…… 11258
Day 6…… 2044 words. To date…… 13302
Day 7…… 2280 words. To date…… 15582
Day 8…… 2901 words. To date…… 18483
Day 9…… 2863 words. To date…… 21346
Day 10…. 3922 words. To date…… 25268
Day 11…. 2765 words. To date…… 28033
Day 12…. 3544 words. To date…… 31577
Fiction for June………………………. 18275
Fiction for 2025………………………. 481727
Nonfiction for June……………………. 6390
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 1325400
2025 consumable words…………….. 607757
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 11
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 27
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 115
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 297
Short story collections……………………. 29
If you are able, please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. Thank you!
If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:
- On Writing Fiction
- Gifts
- Writing Resources
- Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.