In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Bradbury Challenge * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” Arthur Ashe Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting Most of those who have joined in this challenge have written tens of thousands more words than they might have otherwise. You can still join in the challenge at any time. And if you’re a fiction writer, why not? There’s no cost, and the challenge is a great way to increase your inventory and jumpstart your writing. Chances are … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Preamble * The Essential Elements of a Story * The Challenge is Still on * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying them.” Harold J. Smith Preamble Even while posting less often to the Journal, I still visit certain sites each morning. I’m always looking for gems of new (to me) knowledge, but more and more often I’m finding bad or partial advice that, in my opinion, requires some clarification. That was the case this morning … Read more

In today’s Journal * Talk Among Yourselves * Of Interest * The Numbers Talk Among Yourselves Part 1 I have to be away for awhile. I mean, I’ll be here, just south of beautiful downtown Saint David Arizona, but I’ll be away from the Journal. As I wrote a few years ago in some poem, it’s time to reconnect some frazzled ends. (And yes, I took a shot at doing this not long ago, but the attempt never got off the ground.) For several years, things ran very smoothly for me. I had an established routine, and I loved it. … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Holiday Recap * Of Interest * The Numbers Holiday Recap I hope everyone had an enjoyable Independence Day celebration, if you chose to celebrate at all. We spent much of the day in Sierra Vista, first shopping at our favorite antique mall, then lunch at Culvers right at noon, and then a stroll through the several rows of booths at the annual Sierra Vista celebration at the Veterans’ Park. The whole time, a band played marches and other patriotic songs. Later, at home in St. David, we watched the national Independence … Read more

In today’s Journal * Happy Independence Day * Squash Blossom * Of Interest * The Numbers Happy Independence Day Here in the ‘States we celebrate our independence from England. It’s quite a kerfluffle over here, though I fear most of our citizens and permanent visitors have given up on the true meaning and gravitated more toward July 4 as a chance to blow stuff up and gorge on hotdogs and hamburgers. As I wrote a few days ago, here’s wishing all of you a safe, enjoyable Independence Day. Enjoy the brats and burgers and ‘dogs and sodas and suds, but … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Power of Word Count Goals (and Tracking Them) * Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That’s heaven. That’s gold and anything else is just a waste of time.” Cormac McCarthy The Power of Word Count Goals (and Tracking Them) K.C. Riggs The following is a guest post by K.C. Riggs, who is easily among my favorite writers. I highly recommend her novels, The Widow’s Circle and Number 5 in the … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * What Hell Looks Like * Restarting My Restart * My New Webcam * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I never read reviews. My job is to write the stories. It’s none of my business what the reader thinks of them, and every reader will have a different opinion. (Same reason I don’t seek or accept critiques of my writing.) ” Me, yesterday, on a post in TKZ “Jay Lake, who sadly passed away in 2014, used to say ‘stories belong to the reader,’ meaning that readers own … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * A New Story * Another New Story * My New Webcam * Revising My Schedule and Routine * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I did some financial planning, and it looks like I can retire at 85 and live comfortably for 11 minutes.” Anonymous (Thanks to Sam Turner for the Quote of the Day) A New Story “Spider” posted yesterday (Friday). You can read it over at https://stanbroughwrites.substack[dot]com/. You can subscribe there too, to get a new short story every week. It’s free. Another New Story I … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Trusting Yourself as a Writer * Video Stuff * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “There’s some sort of circle involving self-trust where the more you trust your ability to create, the easier it becomes.” Garry Rodgers, unknowingly helping me write this blog post Trusting Yourself as a Writer On Garry Rodgers’ Kill Zone blog post yesterday, I left this comment: “The lack of courage is the huge one. And to make it worse, the fear that immobilizes or radically slows so many has either no consequences or … Read more

In today’s Journal * Advice on Self-Publishing * Of Interest * The Numbers Advice on Self-Publishing First, please also see my Quick Guide to Self-Publishing & FAQs, Toward Efficiency in Epublishing, and The Essentials of Digital Publishing. You can download each of them, free, by visiting https://hestanbrough.com/the-daily-journal-archives-gifts-dvds/ and clicking the links. Please take advantage of these gifts. What brought this topic to mind? A writer friend asked a few questions yesterday about starting out in self-publishing. I thought I’d expand here on the answer I gave him. Picking the Name of Your Publishing Company—I’ve used StoneThread Publishing, my publishing company … Read more