In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Competing with the 2024 Write Stuff Storybundle * More on Marketing via PayHip * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, ‘No, I went to films.’” Quentin Tarantino Hmm. So like reading and then writing instead of going to writing school. I like it. “[T]echnology’s essence is a way of seeing, grasping, and comprehending What Is and What Matters.” Matt Perryman (see Of Interest) Competing with the 2024 Write Stuff Storybundle DWS and KKR just announced … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Shopify? * PayHip? * Of Interest * The Numbers Shopify? Do any of you have direct experience with Shopify or with PayHip or other similar storefronts? I encourage you to check them out for yourself, but I’ve written my personal thoughts, for my personal situation, below. In Dean Wesley Smith’s previous post (Fiction Branding… Part 6) he touted the benefits of Shopify. Over the years, I’ve come to trust him on almost every matter about writing and marketing. (He also wrote a second post on this topic. See Of Interest.) But … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Writing “Fast” and Quality * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.” Carl Sagan “Seriously, that master class on writing should be mandatory listening to on the first day of every writing class at every college or university. Extremely valuable and inspiring.” Tim Weller, in a comment via email to me re the YouTube vid I livestreamed on Sunday. (grin) … Read more

In today’s Journal * The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting * The Livestream on YouTube * Another Reason for Cycling * Of Interest * The Numbers The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting To take part, write at least one short story per week (or add to your novel), then submit the story title, word count, and genre to me each week for publication in the Journal on Monday. The whole point is to have fun and grow as a writer. You can join or rejoin the challenge at any time. There’s no cost. During the past week, in addition to whatever other … Read more

In today’s Journal * Two Reminders * Reading Your Own Work * Of Interest * The Numbers Two Reminders One, Bradbury Challenge information—for those who are in the Bradbury Challenge to write at least one short story every week, story information is required before the Journal goes live tomorrow morning (Monday). Two, tune-in at my YouTube channel this afternoon at 1 p.m. Arizona time to see whether it works this time. You know, if you want to. Reading Your Own Work I very seldom read my own work. For one thing, knowing I committed typos drives me nuts. For another, … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * A New Short Story * Once More Into the Breach * Who Thinks Like That? * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Do Androids Dream of Electic Sheep?” title of a novel by Phillip K. Dick And do schizophrenics dream of eclectic sheep? “I’m totally ready to set this thing on fire.” Stacy, my server tech at my webhost, venting her frustration re a “mailscanner” she was trying to get rid of a few days ago. A New Short Story “An Untapped Field of Endeavor” went live yesterday … Read more

In today’s Journal * Philip K. Dick, Anyone? * Of Interest * The Numbers Philip K. Dick, Anyone? From an article in 1440 Daily Digest: “Neuralink develops invisible, wireless brain implants designed to restore control and movement to people with limited mobility due to brain-related issues. “The procedure involves the use of a proprietary robot surgically implanting a coin-sized transponder underneath the skull. The Food and Drug Administration authorized Neuralink to conduct human trials in May. “The company also plans to offer the implant to healthy people to allow bodily integration with computers.” So as I titled this post, Philip … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Every Novel Writes Differently * It All Depends… * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I’ve also been doing a ‘how I wrote these’ history of each [of six short stories and a few novelettes] on my website. Start here. [Scroll down.] It’ll lead you to the others.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch (See Of Interest) If you’d like to see how Kris came to write some of the stories featured in her current Kickstarter, click the link above. “When I stand before God at the end of my life, … Read more

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * No, But I Saw the Movie * A Few Notes * Of Interest * The Numbers No, But I Saw the Movie This is a guest post by Michaele Lockhart. If it looks familiar, it was first posted in the old Pro Writers Writing (PWW) website for which Michaele was a weekly contributor. Ah, the movies…. Our lives brim with audio-visual cues. Movies and television shows and even YouTube videos clamor for our attention. We’re conditioned to experiencing the world accompanied by moving images and sound. Does this mean that writing … Read more

In today’s Journal * Personal Responsibility and Generative AI * A New Novel (or Series) * Of Interest * The Numbers Personal Responsibility and Generative AI Recently I was glad to see that Amazon now requires publishers (writers) to verify, by ticking a radio box, whether any part of the story or novel they’re publishing was the result of generative AI. Why? Because it goes to personal responsibility. Ticking the first box amounts to an admission that yes, the writer created the work at least in part using generative AI. Ticking the second box verifies that no generative AI was … Read more