New Anthologies, and Read Your Work Aloud

by

In Today’s Journal

* New Anthologies Added
* Read Your Work Aloud
* Progress Report
* The Numbers

New Anthologies Added

Yeah, I know. I haven’t gotten back to you on your submissions for the contest yet. Soon. I promise. Probably later today.

In the meantime, I’ve added a new Anthologies section to my StoneThread Publishing online store.

If you enjoy anthologies, click the link to visit the store.

Then click the Anthologies tab in the menu.

There you’ll see the recent Echoes of Hemingway anthology. It contains twenty short stories in the style of or inspired by Ernest Hemingway.

You’ll also see three older anthologies I published through StoneThread back in the day:

  • Body-Smith 401 and twenty other stories is an homage to the great Ray Bradbury.
  • Things You Can Create contains twenty-two stories to honor Science Fiction Grand Master Jack Williamson.
  • The Least He Could Do contains twelve short stories with everything from crime to terror to amateur and professional detectives.

Stop by and check them out. Browsing costs nothing.

Read Your Work Aloud

A writer recently asked whether I still read my work aloud or whether I have a good enough feel for writing that I don’t have to.

The short answer is yes, I still read my work aloud. It’s a great rule to follow, a great habit to get into.

For my novels, I’m fortunate to have an excellent first reader. That is, an avid reader who reads strictly for pleasure (Not Critically!) and reports back to me with any

  • misspellings or wrong words,
  • omitted words,
  • repeated words (the the) that spell check misses,
  • any inconsistencies (thanks to cycling and my reverse outline, there are very few of those), and
  • any place where he feels booted out of the story and why.

Making any corrections Russ catches never takes more than a few minutes.

During cycling, I also read some passages from my novels aloud, especially during high-action scenes or when there’s dialect involved.

For my short stories, I almost always read those aloud. I don’t send those to my first reader.) If you subscribe to Stanbrough Writes (free short story every week) and spot any glaring typos, I probably didn’t read that story aloud.

When we read silently, it’s a quick process.

When we read silently, the path to the brain is more direct: eyes to brain, done.

As a result, we are more apt to fill in the blanks and skip over or “read-into” the story any omitted words, especially small words like articles and pronouns.

Reading aloud is a slightly slower process because it goes to the brain via the eyes then the mouth then the ears. Reading aloud will almost always catch omitted words, and it will even point out awkward sentences, the almost-always inadvertently humorous misplaced modifiers, etc.

As a bonus, reading aloud will enable you to more fully immerse yourself in your characters’ world, and what could be better than that?

Try it. You’ll like it.

Progress Report

Getting lazy in my old age. Two days ago I dug two post holes (each three feet deep), sank two 4×4 posts, and cemented each of them in.

Yesterday, after letting the concrete cure overnight, I backfilled the remaining holes with dirt and built the frame for the new gate (pressure-treated 2x4s).

With any luck, this morning I’ll cover the gate with a section of fencing, add the hinges and latch, and hang it.

Then I’ll cut the old fence and connect it to the gate on both sides to keep the cats in the yard (and the coyotes and javelinas out) while I drive a couple more t-posts and string the new fence.

In the meantime, my bride’s putting together a series of red square stepping stones, leveling dirt, and doing other things my back will no longer allow me to do. It’s the age-old complaint: Getting down to the ground takes only a second, but getting back up requires and act of congress and a friend with a winch. (grin)

Anyway, a few more 2-3 hour morning sprints should do it. I hope.

Talk with you again soon.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 680

Writing of Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty

Day 1…… 3250 words. To date…… 3250
Day 2…… 1110 words. To date…… 4360

Fiction for August..………………….. 1110
Fiction for 2025………………………. 527757
Nonfiction for August………………… 5190
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 173590
2025 consumable words…………….. 693733

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29

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.

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Questions on writing and publishing are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.