CrimeReads

The Daily Journal, Sunday, April 28

In today’s Journal ▪ Topic: Back Cover Blurbs ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Topic: Back Cover Blurbs Over at PWW today, Karen posed an excellent question that keeps a lot of writers up at night: How to create a back-cover blurb that will draw the reader’s interest yet will not “give away” too much (or any) of the book. DWS has written extensively on this topic, though only a bit here and there. I don’t believe he’s ever done even a lecture on the topic, though if he did I would immediately recommend it. Still, I’ve … Read more

The Daily Journal, Thursday, April 25

In today’s Journal ▪ Adios Robert ▪ Topic: Voice (and some stuff on dialect) ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Yesterday, my friend and I spent a full day and evening visiting, reminiscing, philosophizing, swapping lies and generally just shooting the bull. It was a great time. This morning, though, I got up a little late and Robert had already left. Robert, if you decide to go home via I-10, I hope you’ll give me a call so we can at least meet in Benson for lunch or a cup of coffee. Either way, thanks for the … Read more

The Daily Journal, Tuesday, April 23

In today’s Journal ▪ Pro Writers Writing blog ▪ Topic: You Have a Choice ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Well, for the second day in a row the post at PWW didn’t go out via MailChimp as it was supposed to. As a result, I deactivated the “missed-post trigger” plug-in that obviously isn’t working and activated another one. I also went into MailChimp and re-set the posting time to 9 a.m. So we’ll see. UPDATE: The PWW post went out! Woohoo! I’ll leave the posting time at 9. Wouldn’t want to upset anything. In the meantime, … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, April 20

In today’s Journal ▪ Quote of the day ▪ Topic: On the Value of Pre-Orders ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Quote of the Day: “We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green.” G. K. Chesterton *** Topic: On the Value of Pre-Orders Well, apparently I’m still having trouble with Heinlein’s Rule 4 … Read more

The Daily Journal, Thursday, April 18

In today’s Journal ▪ Dean Wesley Smith’s free offer ▪ Topic: Always Learning ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Dean Wesley Smith is incredibly generous. He is giving away his Pop-Up Workshop #9: “How Authors Hurt Their Own Writing and Sales and How to Stop.” No catches. No gimmicks. The Pop-Up consists of twelve videos plus a short story prompt. See the link to his post (and the first video) in “Of Interest.” ESPECIALLY if you think you don’t need this (critical voice) SIGN UP. Seriously. Topic: Always Learning Every morning I search the Internet for items … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, April 13

In today’s Journal ▪ Not a lot ▪ Topic: Take Your Time ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest (a LOT of links) ▪ The numbers Not a lot around the internet this morning, so probably a realtively short post today. I did take a few minutes to improve the copyright notice. It appears at the bottom of every page. Stop by http://prowriterswriting.com and take a look. Topic: Take Your Time (Revisited) As I was discussing with one of my mentoring writers a day or two ago, sometimes it’s necessary to take your time while writing. Yes, I write around 900 … Read more

The Daily Journal, Tuesday, April 9

In today’s Journal ▪ Today I’ll start ▪ Topic: The New World of Publishing ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest (a LOT of links) ▪ The numbers Today I’ll start that new novel. I’ve had four days away from fiction writing, and frankly, I’m jonesing for it. Or as my wife put it, “Honey, you’re getting grouchy.” (grin) I thought I’d start writing again yesterday, but I wasn’t ready. Instead I spent a lot of quiet time with Jim Glaser and thought about the recent visit with my old friend and did some other things to slowly move myself back … Read more

The Daily Journal, Tuesday, April 2

In today’s Journal ▪ Inexpensive classes available ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers There are some inexpensive online classes available in police procedure and other topics (offered by RWA but not all about Romance). If you decide to take any of these classes, offered in Lee Loffland’s post from yesterday, please let the rest of us know what you think of them. For info see https://rwakissofdeath.org/coffin. For a list of upcoming RWA Kiss of Death classes see https://rwakissofdeath.org/coffin-classes. *** Wow. Rolled out late this morning. I couldn’t see the clock and thought it was around 2 or … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, March 30

In today’s Journal ▪ Yesterday ▪ On the novel ▪ Topic: On Writing Series… ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Yesterday I was thinking about going out into the desert behind my house for some target practice with my “new” 9mm. I realized the few rounds I fired at that old coyote the other day were the first ones I’d ever put through that piece. But instead, nagged by the constant PHP warning on all the websites I managed, I decided to look into upgrading the PHP version. (Don’t ask me. All I really know about it … Read more

The Daily Journal, Tuesday, March 26

In today’s Journal ▪ Yesterday I read ▪ Update on my challenge ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Yesterday, I had the pleasure of reading the first few pages of a story from a relatively new writer. Hey, we all start somewhere. The writing was good, though the writer is currently too wrapped around the wheel of the myths he was taught in school. Again, we’ve all been there. But this writer is different than many. He wants to improve his craft. He was honest enough to post specific questions (which pointed to his being wrapped around … Read more