In today’s Journal
* New Stories on Stanbrough Writes
* Personas vs. Pen Names
* My Chair Arrived: Review
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
New Stories on Stanbrough Writes
No writing yesterday, only a little cycling. My chair came in, so I had to build that, and we went grocery shopping and out to lunch, and I did some other stuff.
I spent a few hours of admin time posting a dozen more short stories to my Stanbrough Writes substack.
But as I was posting a “new” story, I seemed to remember that I’d posted it before. That’s a little embarrassing even if the stories are free. Which they are.
So I brought up the dashboard, looked at the list of titles I’d posted, and sure enough I found two repeats. One of them was “Pete and the Angel,” which went live only last week as the final magic realism story in a series. So that repetion was sort-of all right.
I couldn’t do anything about the other one, “The Death of Federico Parizzi,” so that’s that.
But I’d also already posted two others I planned to post yesterday. Fortunately, I caught those, deleted the posts, and put two new ones in their place.
Then I stopped posting for awhile and did something I should have done a long time ago: I took the time to make up a spreadsheet.
It holds only the story title and the date I posted it to SW. But it’s searchable, of course, so now before I post a new story to the substack, I check to see whether I posted it previously.
Personas vs. Pen Names
A pen name is just a fake name. Period. I recommend not using one unless you have a very good reason. Make yourself more discoverable.
A persona is an actual personality. My personas each even have a head-shot photo and a brief bio.
For more about this topic (from about ten years ago), see Of Interest.
I used to write under four different personas plus a few pen names, but I take a pill for that now and write only under my own name. You know, most of the time.
When I wanted to write something really “off,” I put on the persona (and personality) of Eric Stringer and let him write it. He isn’t bothered by stuff like that. I think he’s a little psychopathic.
When I wanted to write magic realism, I put on the persona of Gervasio Arrancado. He still lives there, at that place on the horizon where reality folds into imagination.
For those of you who enjoy fractured fiction, my guest author for the next several weeks on Stanbrough Writes (after “Little Bit: A Cautionary Tale of Love” and “Blackwell Ops: Sam Thurston”) will be Eric Stringer.
Eric’s bio on StoneThread Publishing reads
“Eric Stringer is a miserably failed newspaper reporter whose father was obsessed with one soft spot after another and whose mother didn’t love him enough to care that she didn’t love him enough.
“In fact, she swapped him to a camel jocky she met along the border in southern California for a hit off his crack pipe and a swing on his banana hammock.
‘Eric was born in poverty and clawed his way up to debauchery and tearing the wings off young maidens.
‘His life took a noticeably unfortunate turn when he was sentenced to a term in prison for failing to vote multiple times in an election. He lived in Chicago at the time, and the law’s the law.
“That’s where he began to write stories about all the strange and unusual things he saw both inside and outside of his own imagination. After his release in 2014, he continued unabated, although he did move out of Chicago.”
I and the other personas still believe Eric is the guy who bumped off Nick Porter, another of my personas.
If you’d like to read the brief bios of the other personas, check the links below:
Nicolas Z “Nick” Porter Nick was my Hemingway-ish persona.
MJ François MJ retired several years ago and moved to the Bahamas or someplace.
My Chair Arrived: Review
I like spreading good news. Here’s the 5-star review I left for my chair:
“I have severe arthritis in my lower spine. But I’m a full-time writer and a prolific novelist, so I spend a lot of time at my desk. The Oline ErgoPro Ergonomic Rolling Desk Chairhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XTZVLSZ is a godsend. I’m very specific about the tools of my trade.
“The 4D adjustable armrests are essential to help me avoid carpal tunnel syndrome, and the gentle mesh fabric and the excellent lumbar support alleviates the pain in my lower back. I’ve had chairs that cost considerably more, and this one matches or surpasses them for comfort.”
That’s it for today. Any questions or comments about anything, feel free to email me.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
The Professional Writer: Pseudonyms & Personas
The Professional Writer: Pseudonyms & Personas (Part II)
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 830
Writing of Blackwell Ops 21: Johnny Mercer
Day 1…… 4190 words. To date…… 4190
Day 2…… 2599 words. To date…… 6789
Day 3…… 3380 words. To date…… 10169
Day 4…… 2812 words. To date…… 12981
Day 5…… 1726 words. To date…… 14707
Day 6…… 1866 words. To date…… 16573
Fiction for March…………………….…. 9784
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 174376
Fiction since October 1………………… 477431
Nonfiction for March…………………… 5000
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 104190
2024 consumable words……………… 278566
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 4
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 86
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 239
Short story collections………………… 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
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