In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * One Subscriber * Another slightly shortened day * My Best Advice for Fiction Writers: Part 2 * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I don’t know how you perceive my mission as a writer, but for me it is not a responsibility to reaffirm your concretized myths and provincial prejudices. It is not my job to lull you with a false sense of the rightness of the universe.” Harlan Ellison “This wonderful and terrible occupation of recreating the world in a different way, each time fresh and strange, is an act … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Dwindling Numbers * Yesterday I got a late start * My Best Advice for Fiction Writers: Part 1 * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “History is dramatic license, covertly-financed with a sprinkling of gold dust from the newly-enthroned.” Stewart Stafford “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” George Orwell Dwindling Numbers Fewer and fewer writers are looking at this Journal, at least the version that I send out via email. Recently the view rate is moving between 15% and … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Novel * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Maybe I am wrong, but I tend to the think of the back of book blurb as an advertisement. The only one we will get free forever!” Dan LaBash “She is so odd a blend of Little Nell and Lady Macbeth.” Alexander Woollcott, of Dorothy Parker “The English have an extraordinary ability for flying into a great calm.” Alexander Woollcott “The scenery in the play was beautiful, but the actors got in front of it.” Alexander Woollcott The Novel The novel is … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * An Interesting Exchange * Absurdities Abound * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.” P.G. Wodehouse “I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don’t remember what I did before that. Just loafed, I suppose.” P. G. Wodehouse “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.” P.G. … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Who’s In Charge Here? (Guest Post) * Correction * Because This Directly Feeds * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “What If You’re New to Writing and Don’t Know How to Fix Things?” title of an article by Tiffany Yates Martin in Jane Friedman’s weekly blog digest Lucky you. You’re as pure as your characters. Now you only need to push down the myth that things need to be ‘fixed.’ Run a spell check, have a first reader check for wrong words and inconsistencies, then publish and start the next story. … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * One Writer Disagrees re Marketing * The Passing of an Era * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Starting a novel for me is always fun. The key is to not care, and I do mean that exactly as it sounds. If I allowed myself to care in the slightest, made writing the novel some major thing that I had to pick carefully on, I would freeze down and never write a word.” Dean Wesley Smith “The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * I’ll Get to the Lie * The Number One Lie Professional Fiction… * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.” John le Carre’ “Forever is composed of nows.” Emily Dickinson I’ll Get to the Lie in a moment, but first, as a preface, something I got from a friend via email. No doubt he thought it was funny: “In a brief exchange in a book I read a while ago, two undercover FBI agents were on … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * No More Editing * Why No Streak Challenge? * Mentorships End * A New Story * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” Alfred Hitchcock “Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders.” Alfred Hitchcock “If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.” Alfred Hitchcock “Wanting or believing in something—the concept of critique groups, for example—does not validate its usefulness.” Harvey No More Editing I’ve decided … Read more