In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Recommendations
* Bradbury on Writing
* The Fireman
* Of Interest
Quotes of the Day
“I don’t believe in college for writers. … The intellect is a great danger to creativity. … You must never think at the [keyboard]. You must feel. … If there’s no feeling, there cannot be great art.” Ray Bradbury
“All my characters write the books. I don’t write the books. All these characters come to me and say, ‘Listen to me,’ and I listen to them and I put it down, and that’s how the books get written.” Ray Bradbury
“I like to think of myself as part of the universe waking up, and looking around and saying, ‘Hey, this is remarkable. Look at this.'” Ray Bradbury
“All these lovers (characters) surround me, and they love life, and they tell me about it.” Ray Bradbury
Recommendations
I watched a few short videos with Ray Bradbury yesterday and this morning. During one of those he mentioned that while in the library as an adult he often wandered into the children’s book area to find something purely fun to read.
Who knew? But that made an impact on me for some reason.
Then when I checked The Killzone Blog this morning, Steve Hooley had a brief post on St. Patrick’s Day. At the end of the post, he mentioned the fifth book (of six) in his Mad River Valley series.
The book—United We Stand, Dude—is listed as “Clean Teen and Young Adult Fantasy, set in the magic Mad River Valley and the enchanted forest of Cedar Heights.”
The cover was attractive, so on a lark I clicked through, and I used Amazon’s Look Inside feature to read a bit of it. I was hooked. What a fun story! And the price was only 99 cents!
(Note: The Look Inside feature made this sale. If you currently have books listed on Amazon, be sure the Look Inside feature is activated. There, my marketing tip for the day.)
I scrolled down and bought all six books, and I have to say I would have bought all six at a higher price. As I told Steve in a comment on TKZ, now when I’m not writing, I intend to forget everything and go play with him and his friends in the Mad River Vallley.
I recommend you at least read the Look Inside for United We Stand, Dude (see https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3FB7T72/). Be sure to check out the “Introduction—Prologue, Epilogue, or Paralogue.” Great fun. I love stuff like that.
Bradbury on Writing
I always learn or re-learn something when I listen to Bradbury. In my recent foray into his wisdom, I learned that I need to free up my mind and fall in love again, with writing fiction. Release any pressure and just have fun. It was an inexpensive and invaluable lesson delivered in less than a minute.
On a separate note, one of the better Bradbury interviews I listened to was “Bradbury 13, Episode 9 interview {1984}” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOJIjJmoX38. Within the first three minutes or so he talks about the process of writing the short story “The Veldt.” Excellent.
By the way, I have a whole long list of YouTube video URLs about Bradbury. If you’d like to view or listen to them, email me and I’ll send you the list. Free, of course.
The Fireman
By the way, during recent browsings I found you can download a free PDF copy of the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction (magazine), which contains “The Fireman,” the short story that was the first version of what later became Fahrenheit 451.
To download the issue free, click https://archive.org/details/galaxymagazine-1951-02/page/n5/mode/2up, then click either Get PDF or Get ePub on the left side.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Why Short Stories?” at https://franktheodat.substack.com/p/why-short-stories.
See “An Evening with Ray Bradbury 2001” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W-r7ABrMYU. About a half-hour. Thanks to Frank T. for the reminder.
See “Update to Award On the Full Challenge” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/update-to-award-on-the-full-challenge/. If you already own a lifetime subscription, Dean has added other awards.
See “St. Patrick’s Day Books and Traditions” at https://killzoneblog.com/2023/03/reader-friday-st-patricks-day-books-and-traditions.html.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 680 words
Writing of Wes Crowley: Deputy US Marshal 2 (WCG9SF4)
Day 1…… 3231 words. Total words to date…… 3231
Day 2…… 2990 words. Total words to date…… 6221
Day 3…… 1805 words. Total words to date…… 8026
Day 4…… 2025 words. Total words to date…… 10051
Day 5…… 1451 words. Total words to date…… 11502
Total fiction words for March……… 1451
Total fiction words for 2023………… 54275
Total nonfiction words for March… 10100
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 51430
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 105705
Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 72
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: Because It Makes Sense, I preach trusting your characters to tell the story that they, not you, are living. See My Best Advice for Fiction Writers at https://hestanbrough.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/My-Best-Advice-for-Fiction-Writers.pdf.