The Journal, Wednesday, 10/25

Hey Folks, Well, trying to use the camping trailer as a writing hovel just isn’t going to work. It’s constantly too cold or too hot and there are myriad other problems I won’t go into here. I’m just gonna have to bite the bullet and do my writing in my office. I’ll have to let the separate small desk and the separate, dedicated writing computer constitute my “space,” and that will have to be enough. I think I’ll also add a different, dedicated chair. Sitting in the same chair to write fiction that I use when I’m browsing the Internet … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 10/24

Hey Folks, One of my new favorite quotes: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration. The rest of us just get up and go to work.” ~ Stephen King Stephen King introduces the 1986 edition of The Running Man with an essay titled “The Importance of Being Bachman.” The essay is nothing short of a gem, and I encourage you to read it. I took the liberty of transcribing it into a Word document, then saved it as a PDF file and added it to my Free Stuff page on my website. Please go there and download it. Read it. If … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 10/23

Hey Folks, I was going to talk about Dean’s age-based challenge frenzy, but you can see it for yourself in “Of Interest” and draw your own conclusions. I’ll turn 65 in a few weeks. I tried to set up an interesting goal that has something to do with the numeric designation of my age, but I kept coming back to “Why?” I mean, if setting such a goal increased my actual productivity and made writing fun again, that could be something. The closest real challenge I could come up with was to write 52 short stories (one per week) during … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 10/22

Hey Folks, Tomorrow — Another Memorial Day — On October 23, 1983 the Barracks in Beirut was bombed. Please remember. *** I didn’t roll out until 4:15 this morning after watching the Yankees sigh their last for the season last night. Oh well. What a powerhouse they have for the next few to several years. We have a trip to Sierra Vista scheduled for today. I’ve already decided (at 8:20 a.m.) that I won’t write any fiction today. Still in deck-clearing mode. I wouldn’t want to bump into myself in the fog. Soon, as a friend would say, all will … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 10/21

Hey Folks, Well, I spent much of the morning on the Jerry Jenkins website I told you about yesterday. Here are my recommendations: — take advantage of the free giveaway for signing up for his newsletter. You can always unsubscribe later. — take advantage (with a grain of salt, as always) of the appropriate blog posts and other items listed on his Resources page. — take advantage of his blog, which I finally found at https://www.jerryjenkins.com/blog/. — be careful of spending money. Like many of these sites, it exists primarily to upsell you on other products. — avoid getting a … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 10/20

Hey Folks, I love finding new resources, and I was handed one yesterday. A guy who represents another guy sent me a link to the second guy’s work and asked me to look it over. There are so many scams in this world, at first I thought this was just another one. It wasn’t. I looked it over briefly yesterday, then added two links to my website, one on Character Development under Writers’ Resources and one pointing to Jerry Jenkins’ website. That one’s under both Writers’ Resources and Quick Links. Then this morning I spent a couple of hours reading … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 10/19

Hey Folks, Enjoyed a brief conversation with a dear friend from Dallas this morning. That was a pleasant surprise. Thanks Robert. Of course, in my current state I probably sounded grouchier than normal, though I don’t think I actually was. Part of our discussion was about my current endeavor to leave cigars behind. And in that, I’ve had an even more recent epiphany. If I had a cigar stashed away somewhere and happened across it, there’s a very good chance I would at least light it and take a couple of puffs before putting it out. Of course, that would … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 10/18

Hey Folks, Not sure what the day will hold. I’ve been a bit depressed lately, mostly because I’m allowing myself some remembrances of a camaraderie I’ll never know again. Sigh. I miss it like air. I mentioned this to an acquaintance a few days ago and he said, “Well, at least you have the memories. Not everyone has them.” Well duh. Of course, what he said is true, but it didn’t help. Not that it was intended to, I suppose. When he said that it reminded me of the scene in Men in Black in which Agent J caught Agent … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 10/17

Hey Folks, Well, I emailed DWS yesterday about CreateSpace closing their online store. He wrote, “Saw it. No books ever sold out of there anyway, so no great loss.” So there’s another take on it for you. *** I was going to recommend James Scott Bell’s column over at The Kill Zone Blog, but I decided not to. The title is “Use NaNoWriMo to Repo Your Mojo.” All well and good. But if you go look it up on your own, PLEASE take it with a huge grain of salt. I’m glad NaNoWriMo exists, and I’m glad so many people … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 10/16

Hey Folks, Here we go. The first day of the rest of my writing life. (grin) And I’m going to start it in Sierra Vista at a brake shop. So my restart on writing might be one day late. We’ll see. In major news from the department of Well That Sucks, via The Digital Reader, see “CreateSpace to Close its Web Store” at https://the-digital-reader.com/2017/10/13/createspace-close-web-store/. Note that this estore closure does NOT affect CreateSpace’s other services. For more on that, I recommend you read the original announcement at CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/Help/Index.jsp?orgId=00D300000001Sh9&id=50139000000oxUN. The biggest immediate impact is that CS pays (well, has paid) … Read more