The Journal: Two Mentors and a Little History

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Two Mentors and a Little History * Of Interest Quote of the Day “I spend a lot of time indoors blending with the furniture and scaring my cousin.” from “10 Fun Facts About Me” by Tari Philip Note: More on the unique voice. I love finding sentences that I suspect never have been said before. This is one of the most interesting sentences I’ve ever read. Thank you, Tari. Topic: Two Mentors and a Little History Today is the eighth anniversary of the day I rediscovered Dean Wesley Smith and … Read more

The Journal: Your Unique Voice, Part 2

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Your Unique Voice, Part 2 * AI For Audiobooks? * D2D Acquired Smashwords! * Of Interest Quote of the Day “I’m only the author. I don’t know anything. And I mean that honestly when it comes to my own work.” Dean Wesley Smith Topic: Your Unique Voice, Part 2 In my previous post I mentioned that to take advantage of your unique, original, authorial voice—to relax and let it flow—you must trust yourself. That’s the simple truth. In this post I’m going to break that truth down to help you … Read more

The Journal: Happy February

In today’s Journal * Aggregators (Distributors) and a new resource. * Of Interest Only a very short post today.For some reason I wanted to mark the passing of February 1 or something. Hey, a happy belated welcome to February 2022. Full disclosure, frankly I’m still wondering what happened to 1978. Anyway…. You can still get a PDF copy of my slightly outdated but still very useful book The Essentials of Digital Publishing, a $10 value, free if you email me and ask. The addy is harveystanbrough@gmail.com. Also, you can still get the full PDF searchable archives of this Journal all … Read more

The Journal: Two Very Important Posts

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Important Post 1 * Important Post 2 * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “There are nearly 20 million titles available for delivery tomorrow in today’s world; there were certainly well under a million available 20 years ago. And with most customers not reached through inventory in stores, it is usually not relevant where a potential customer is: in your country or someplace else.” Mike Shatzkin “[T]here really are only two companies that define the book business today. … Amazon and Ingram comprise the global infrastructure of the … Read more

The Journal: Thanks and More Of Interest

In today’s Journal * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers I’m still on hiatus. Just popping in mostly to share the items in “Of Interest.” Those of you who have commented or emailed, thanks for letting me know you’re still out there. I’ll be back before too much longer. At this point, I’m pretty sure my next novel will be Book 3 of the Othgygnrk Invastion series, mostly just to get the shared world going and illustrate to players some different ways they can play.  I hope to start that sometime in the next few days. I … Read more

The Daily Journal, Thursday, July 25

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Correction * Topic: A Reminder of What It Takes… * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Quote of the Day “[M]y creative voice is barely verbal. Maybe two [years old]. … [S]he whined, ‘I don’t wanna spend the rest of my life doing stinky licensing.’” (grin) Kristine Kathryn Rusch Correction While putting together my novel and novella inventory, I found what I thought was an error. I seemed to be missing a novel. But I added every new thing I wrote to my New Fiction spreadsheet as I finished … Read more

The Daily Journal, Friday, July 12

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The second quote of the day * Update: My publisher and I * European ebook aggregators * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Quotes of the Day “PG says there is nothing like a collection of first-world complaints to make you realize that life in modern America is a totally hellish experience. Lovecraftian to the max.” The Passive Guy “Left to myself, I’d be like you. I have a horror story and a gritty urban general fiction in me right now. BUT. I spent 15 years trying to be … Read more

The Daily Journal, Wednesday, July 3

In today’s Journal * A brief note * Topic: On Dialogue * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers A Brief Note My wife’s birthday is tomorrow, July 4. Yes, that’s what all the fireworks are really about. Additionally, my youngest son came down last night to spend the next few days with us. As a result, my time with the Journal (and all other writing things) will be limited for the next few days. I’ll strive at least to list some items in “Of Interest” for you, and should the mood strike, I might even write a topic … Read more

The Daily Journal, Tuesday, May 21

In today’s Journal * From Kris Rusch * Topic: A Digression * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers From the Too Good to Pass Up department, see Kris Rusch’s “Good News” at https://kriswrites.com/2019/05/20/good-news/. *** Topic: A Digression Note: Chapter 4 of How to Quiet the Critical Voice will appear here tomorrow. I had it ready to go, but this has to take precedence. Wow. Especially considering that I’m smack in the midst of writing a nonfiction book on beating the critical voice, I had to talk about this. For an excellent example of someone who for right or … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, January 9

Hey Folks, Well, the beat goes on. Just as I ended last year with the passing of my lifelong friend Kenneth Flowers in late December, this month was marred by the passing of my dear friend Penny Porter. Probably you’ve never heard of Penny, but she was a major help to writers around the globe as well as an excellent writer herself. Penny, along with her friend Dale Adams, was intrumental in starting the Society of Southwestern Authors (SSA) in Tucson Arizona. In its heyday, the SSA held an annual conference rivaled by few others in size and quality. In … Read more