AnneRAllen.com

The Journal: Playing Catch-Up and a Personal Note

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Playing Catch-Up * The Older We Get (a personal note) * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Inspiration is throttled by indecision, hesitation and self-doubt.” Dan Baldwin “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” Dorothy Parker Playing Catch-Up Early this month, Bob C. wrote, “I stumbled across this today and thought it was excellent: https://literariness.org/2019/01/02/analysis-of-elmore-leonards-novels/.” If you’re a fan of Elmore Leonard’s work, there you go. Bob also related this personal anecdote: “I’ve always been a huge Elmore Leonard fan, maybe because I met him when … Read more

The Journal: A Great Quote and a Lot in “Of Interest”

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I’m not much of a fan of starting a novel off with unanchored dialogue. It’s hard to start investing before we know where we are, who the characters are, and how we should be contextualizing the conversation.” Nathan Branford, former literary agent Yes. In the opening of every chapter and every major scene, remember to ground your reader (pull him into the setting) Today will be similar to Saturday for me, with a necessary trip to Sierra Vista and much … Read more

The Journal: A Reminiscence

In today’s Journal * Happy Veterans’ Day * If you’ll allow me a reminiscence… * Of Interest * The Numbers Happy Veterans’ Day, or as Marines call it, Recovery Day. (grin) We often joked that if an enemy of the United States ever wanted to attack this nation, they should do so on November 11 while the Marine Corps was nursing a collective hangover. Yesterday I spent the day with my wife, my youngest son and eldest grandson and with my friends (many in memoriam) from the Corps. For the first time since I joined, I didn’t toast my fellow … Read more

The Daily Journal, Tuesday, June 4

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * I learned today * A value too good to pass up * In honor of a promise * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Quote of the Day “Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing.” Sylvia Plath Harvey’s addendum: “Yes. And ‘A writer is the worst judge of his own work’ is as valid for work you think is horrible as it is for work you think is good. So don’t prejudge for your readers. Follow Heinlein’s Rule 4, publish it and let the readers decide whether it … Read more