Quotes of the Day, Of Interest, and a Reminder

by

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Not Much to Report
* A Reminder
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“Hardcovers, considered permanent and as a result difficult to afford, were for upper class and/or educated readers. … Paperbacks were considered disposable, though, like the pulp magazines before them. So anything that was in cheap paper was considered cheap fiction, and not worthy of all the things we used to measure ‘good literature’.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch

“Algorithms, not creativity” Anthony Leung in Lexology

“I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.” Michael J. Fox

Not Much to Report

Not much to report today. I didn’t write fiction yesterday. Had a shopping trip to Sierra Vista and then wrestled with installing a new program on my writing ‘puter. Back at it today.

However, the Quotes of the Day above and the items in “Of Interest” below were too good not to pass along.

A Reminder

If you are

  • engaged in the Bradbury Challenge, or
  • would like to jump in, and
  • you would like to use the Journal as a place to report (for accountability) and-or
  • share your accomplishment with your fellow writers, then

send me your information in the following format anytime before the Journal goes live on Monday morning:

Author Name “Story Title” XXXX words Story Genre

If there’s a URL readers can click to read your story, include that too. I’ll make it work.

Notice the format needs no punctuation. Makes it easy to copy/paste without having to edit anything. (grin)

As I mentioned in the past, it’s a good idea to write your story(ies) earlier in the week rather than later. The hours and days can easily slip away from you. And yes, you may report your story as soon as you write it. You don’t have to wait until the deadline.

Of course, you may also participate in the Challenge on your own. The idea (as proposed by Ray Bradbury) is to write at least one short story per week for a year. Nobody, he said, could write 52 bad short stories. (grin)

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Quick Note On Author Tag Lines” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/quick-note-on-author-tag-lines/. I have to dissent a little. I say if you have it, use it.

See “Business Musings: Stars” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/business-musings-stars/.

See “Creative Machines? The Riddle of AI and Copyright Authorship and Ownership” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/creative-machines-the-riddle-of-ai-and-copyright-authorship-and-ownership/.

See “A good death” at https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/a-good-death-maid. Story idea? Grisly or humane?

See “Five key takeaways from the House Judiciary Committee hearing on AI and copyright law” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/five-key-takeaways-from-the-house-judiciary-committee-hearing-on-ai-and-copyright-law/.

See “Japanese government issues statement on AI and copyright regulation” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/japanese-government-issues-statement-on-ai-and-copyright-regulation/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 440

Writing of Rose Padilla (WCG10SF5)

Day 1…… 4283 words. Total words to date…… 4283
Day 2…… 3963 words. Total words to date…… 8246
Day 3…… 1463 words. Total words to date…… 9709
Day 4…… 2445 words. Total words to date……12154

Total fiction words for June……… 12154
Total fiction words for 2023………… 110022
Total nonfiction words for June… 5450
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 114870
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 224892

Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 73
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 221
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

I.M. An angel, my angel, left this earth on April 11, 2023 just before 10 a.m. My life and my world will never be the same.

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark, adherence to Heinlein’s Rules, and that following the myths of fiction writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

2 thoughts on “Quotes of the Day, Of Interest, and a Reminder”

  1. The first quote of the day made me think of a comment I saw on a YouTube video a few days ago. The video in question was an interview of David Foster Wallace discussing ‘serious’ literature as opposed to ‘commercial’ literature.
    The commenter said that they would never, ever consider reading books sold at airports or any such place because reading ‘should be work.’
    My eyes rolled back in my head so hard I’m surprised they didn’t get stuck.
    There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be educated by what you read, I love to read histories, essays, and books on theology, but to think you need to ‘struggle’ when reading is as foolish as believing you need to hover over every word in a story or book because ‘it is important.’
    This whole notion between ‘serious’ books and ‘commercial’ ones bugs me a lot. I find it ‘funny’ how a novel about a couple’s marital problems is considered a serious work of art, but somehow a book set in a fantasy world which is filled with rich cultures and its own mythology isn’t.

Comments are closed.