The Journal, Saturday, September 1

Hey Folks, New day, new month. I got Nick Spalding 1 (I’m still not sure of the title) sent off to my first reader yesterday. Writing that one filled in a lot of previously unknown details about a secondary character who took a larger role than I expected. So now I have to go back through NS2 and tweak it here and there. Should be fun. This won’t be a rewrite. Mostly I’ll be cutting some of Nick’s private thoughts re that character. So there’s that. No writing today other than this little bit. A shopping trip to Sierra Vista … Read more

The Journal, Friday, August 31

Hey Folks, The end of August! Where in the world did the time go? And it’s 2018! Shouldn’t it still be around 1978 or so? (grin) Anyway, some very exciting news today, especially for those of you who design your own book covers. One of the best publishing suite companies is England’s Serif. Their products are intuitive, and they easily rival Adobe at a small fraction of the cost. Serif finally came out with the new Affinity Publisher (beta version) and is offering it free at https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/. I just downloaded my copy. Based on my long use of Serif products, … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, August 30

Hey Folks, After checking email and Facebook and a few reliable sources for “Of Interest,” I was about to move straight to the novel this morning. Then I had a thought and wrote a bunch of stuff below. But I got there eventually. I mentioned yesterday that I had a glimpse of the end of my WIP. So now I guess I’m anxious to get there. I guess that’s why I was eager to get straight to the story. Once I know the end, I want to finish the thing and get on with the next one. Finishing is possible, … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, August 29

Hey Folks, Via The Passive Voice, the author of an article at Fast Company states one of the goals of a “3D novel” she wrote was to articulate “some of our generation’s concerns in the sense of … how can we find a future worth living for.” That got my curmudgeonly hackles up. Maybe because I’ve always had one foot in my father’s generation and one in my own. Maybe because I’ve been close to death a few times. Maybe because I think manufactured-drama is a silly way to shore up your own sense of self-esteem. Yawn, stretch. Yeah, well, … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, August 28

Hey Folks, A new, educational quote about writing, especially for any beginning writers and rewriters out there: “If you write one story [or novel], it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.” — Edgar Rice Burroughs *** Well, I wrote some today. But I had a thing, a clingy thing, in the back of my mind, bugging me. I was supposed to receive a UPS package (cigars) yesterday, but coincidentally, yesterday was the day our road (an alley, really) was closed as workers were putting in a new gas line and something … Read more

The Journal, Monday, August 27

Hey Folks, Well, one of my novels is in a new bundle from BundleRabbit: Cosmic Clashes. So that makes eight active bundles. (grin) You can see all of the bundles that contain my work at http://harveystanbrough.com/bundles/. *** Worked through the day yesterday and finished the copyedit. Looking very forward to getting back full-time to my own WIP today. *** My first reader is excellent. Chief (to me) among her finds were places where my character “secreted himself” instead of simply “hid.” (grin) In every case, those were places where I allowed the language to take precedence over the story. I … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, August 26

Hey Folks, As I expected, no fiction writing yesterday. If I write today, I’ll report it on Monday. I received feedback on my previous novel from my first reader yesterday, and this morning I applied that feedback and (I hope) enlisted her aid as the first reader for the one I’m working on now. (grin) Now I just have to come up with a couple of titles. One for Nick Spalding 2 (the one I finished) and another for Nick Spalding 1 (the WIP). In the meantime, here’s Part 2 of the topic I started yesterday. (You can see Part … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, August 25

Hey Folks, A lot going on today, so if I write any fiction, I’ll report those numbers for today and tomorrow in Monday’s Journal. Topic: Preaching to the Choir, Part 1 Yeah, Parts 1 and 2. I was going to post the whole topic, but it came in at around 1500 words, so Part 1 today, Part 2 tomorrow. (grin) By “preaching to the choir,” I mean reminding folks of things they already know, but maybe of which they can use an occasional reminder. I received a particularly interesting blog post in my email, one that reminded me of myself … Read more

The Journal, Friday, August 24

Hey Folks, Well, if you publish your books to print, don’t miss “Of Interest” today. Extremely important news. It’s been awhile since I stopped taking my books to print, so I was behind the curve on this one. Please spread the news to any other writers or writers groups you know of. *** Out to the Hovel a little late. I got a two short, disjointed sessions done, then one good third session and wound up with just over 2000 words of fiction on the day. But I’m feeling a little under the weather so I’ll cut my losses and … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, August 23

Hey Folks, If you own your own hosted website, this will be of interest to you. It’s important enough that I’m putting off my own writing to report. Below in “Of Interest,” Kris Rusch talks about problems with a particular web host. Having had similar experiences with that web host, I concur. So I’m searching for a new web host. The first lesson is not to believe everything you read online, at least at first glance. For example, I clicked a link that offered the “Top 15 Web Hosts.” But when the page came up it listed only 7 hosts, … Read more