The Journal, Wednesday, February 7

Hey Folks, Not sure what I’ll do today for writing, other than this. We’ll see. In the meantime, Dean and Kris have come up with two new workshops. See “Of Interest” below. As it turned out, I wrote a blog post for HarveyStanbrough.com. Almost a thousand words. Some of you will like it. It’s titled “The Use of Italics, Revisited.” I moved the other pre-posted ones out, so the new one will post next Tuesday. Well, also as it turned out, today I finished cycling through the short story that I’m turning into a novel. It took about two hours … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, February 6

Hey Folks, Mostly today I’m posting this Journal to pass alone the “Of Interest” section below. We got home on Sunday around one p.m. It was good to settle in without scenery flashing past the car windows. Of course, there were little chores to do, mostly unpacking, etc. On Monday, I was up early and actually wrote a little on the current WIP, but not enough to really talk about. Just a little cycling, during which I added only a couple hundred words. My wife headed back to her job, and I suppose I could have spent a lot more … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, February 1

Hey Folks, Well, here we go again. I was out in the Hovel poking around and found another short story that I’ve wanted, for awhile, to turn into a novel. The short story is titled “Going Back,” and it was considerably larger than itself even when I first wrote it. I’m interested to see where it will go and to watch it develop. As I glanced over it, the characters begain speaking to me and my fingers began moving over the keyboard. Before I realized it I’d added over 1000 new words. Feels good when that happens. I’ll be interrupted … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, January 30

Hey Folks, I meant to post this yesterday. I really did, but there wasn’t a lot to talk about. Mostly I worked on the copyedit yesterday, as I will today and tomorrow, and took care of a few household chores. *** Well, the hits keep on coming. On the tail of losing a paternal uncle a few weeks ago, yesterday I lost another one. I am now officially the Old Man of the Stanbrough clan. Clifford Jerry Stanbrough was a tin-can (destroyer) sailor, a gunner’s mate, in the early 1950s. After that, he enjoyed a long career as a photographer, … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, January 28

Hey Folks, I think we’re nearly over being ill. Other than this tiny bit of writing, I’ll spend the rest of the day doing nothing. The plan for tomorrow is to write and to work on the copyedit I received recently. Awhile back I mentioned that I wish Mark Coker over at Smashwords would publish a print version of his podcasts for those of us who would rather read than listen. Finally this morning I found he’s been doing that all along. You can find the Smart Author Podcast homepage at https://www.smashwords.com/podcast. Once you’re there, you’ll see all the episodes … Read more

The Journal, Friday, January 26

Hey Folks, Wow. It’s been an eventful week, and it isn’t over yet. Mona and I both caught the creeping crud hyper-flu that’s apparently going around in various parts of the US. I am a writer, so my first thought was Conspiracy. But I was too weak to even think about writing (or holding my head up) and besides, The Stand was already written. Got another copyediting job in late last week or early this week. (Thanks for the referral, Robert!) I’m publishing this today only to let you know things finally SEEM to be clearing around the Stanbrough camp, … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, January 20

Hey Folks, Another note on process. Despite the word count I posted earlier for The Keeper of the Promise: The Origin Novel, after omitting the two short stories I mentioned yesterday, and after a few thousand words of other cuts, the novel finally came in yesterday at 56620 words. Last night as I glanced over it, I realized it was mostly complete and flows well. The one thing I didn’t do was set up the protagonist as a series character with a lead-in to the next books. Not good, since I wrote the thing in the first place to lead … Read more

The Journal, Friday, January 19

Hey Folks, Well, the ending of The Origin Novel snuck up on me this morning. I figured it would be at least a few more days, but I turned a corner and there it was. It’s now titled The Keeper of the Promise, with The Origin Novel as the subtitle. As you know, much of the process on this one was me cycling back through stuff I’d already written. I started with five short stories. When the dust cleared, I had cut two complete short stories that didn’t figure into the novel (or did so only peripherally) plus about another … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, January 18

Hey Folks, Be sure to hit the “Of Interest” section below. There’s a lot there. It will seem overwhelming, but I read all of the info there in less than an hour. Either way, you don’t want to miss it. *** Well, the water heater started leaking last night. One of those times I’m glad I’m renting instead of buying. The owners know us well and trust us, so we do pretty much anything we want to the house and the property, but when big expenses come up (like replacing a water heater) that’s on them. It’s all good. I … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, January 17

Hey Folks, Out to the Hovel at around 5:30 this morning. For newcomers, the Adobe Hovel is a storage building about 200 feet from my house. The walls are earth and about three feet thick. There’s no Internet there, so it makes an excellent writing environment. In fact, I leave my writing ‘puter out there most of the time on an ancient old folding card table. I wrote for a session, then back to the house to check on things around 7. Back out for another session around 8:30, then back to the house at about 10. I’ll do one … Read more