The Journal, Friday, 7/7

Hey Folks, Long post today. Sorry about that. But I think you’ll like most of it. I’ve been a bit remiss in not mentioning another bundle that contains one of DWS’ SF books. The Sci-Fi July Fever Fun bundle is on sale at https://bundlerabbit.com/b/sci-fi-july/. I’m not in this one, but if you enjoy great SF, it’s bound to please. Topic: “Real” Books vs. Ebooks On my Facebook pages, I recently announced the BundleRabbit bundle (Guns of the West) that includes two of my books, two of DWS’ books, and one each by five other writers. (You can see it at … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 7/6

Hey Folks, Topic: On Original Thought Know what? Anyone who wants to be a writer should strive, every day, to have at least one original thought. On politics, religion, social hot buttons, or whatever. To become a successful writer — by which I mean a writer who turns out work regularly and that work is regularly sold and read — the writer should strive ALL day every day to have original thoughts. If you’re mimicking the sound bites that pass for news and social repartéé — well, good for you. But chances are, you won’t be successful, or not as … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 7/4

Hey Folks, In addition to being Independence Day, today is the birth date of the most important person in the world to me. My wife, Mona Gay Griffith Stanbrough (who much prefers to remain anonymous), was born on this date roughly 39 years ago. (grin) Happy birthday, sweetheart. Wow. Yesterday, not five minutes after I posted this Journal, I ran across this quote from The Passive Voice: “Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 7/2

Hey Folks, I always hate registering a zero for fiction writing for the first day of the month. But it is what it is. I didn’t clear the decks quite well enough to approach my much-touted WIP challenge in July. My wife’s birthday and vacation are both this month, and my son recently moved to Arizona, so visits will ensue. I’ll get back to the challenge sometime in the future. No rush. For now I’m going to not think about challenges other than the ongoing novel-a-month thing and just get back to writing. Yesterday, ideas were lining up outside my … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 6/30

Hey Folks, Yay! The last day of what turned out to be a major transition month for me. At least as far as life and websites go. This morning I realized there’s a glitch in my challenge plans. The challenge is to write a short story every day “in public,” meaning I’ll post it scene by scene over at hstanbrough.com. But sometimes a story grows into a novel. I usually recognize a budding novel at around the two-thirds point of a story. Last month, in only 8 stories, two also wanted to be novels. That made me wonder, for a … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 6/28

Hey Folks, Well, frankly I was too tired to keep going yesterday. I didn’t upload stuff to BundleRabbit, and I didn’t update my novel-novella page and my short fiction page on my website. So probably one more nonwriting day today. I’m getting a lot of “writing related” stuff done, but I’m not writing. Writing is putting new (fiction) words on paper. Ah well. Either way it should be a banner July. Guess we’ll see. *** Had a guy unsubscribe today from the big blog. I wouldn’t mention it but he listed the reason as “Did not sign up for list.” … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 6/25

Hey Folks, Well, the best laid plans, etc. An unexpected trip popped up for tomorrow morning. We’ll leave here around 6 for a 10-hour turnaround to Flagstaff to pick up Bryan. Job Corps finally decided they have a slot for him. They called a few days ago (did I tell you that?) while I was in New Mexico. Originally, Mona was going to drive to Casa Grande (about 3 hours) to meet Roy and drive Bryan back here. But due to circumstances, Roy can’t do that now, so we’ll drive to Flagstaff to get him. Then on Tuesday, I’ll drive … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 6/23

Hey Folks, Well, here we are back at HEStanbrough.com. Yep, I’ve moved the Journal back over here. Much more on that in the topic below. *** Thirty-three years ago today Mona found out I’m a much better judge of women than she is of men. That’s when we tied the knot, and she hasn’t figured out how to untie it yet. (grin) *** The first gem I took from Dean’s current post (see “Of Interest”) when I started reading was this: “Challenges get me focused for short bursts of time on writing.” There you go. That’s the reason to establish … Read more