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Questions and Answers

In today’s Journal * Questions and Answers * One More Unsub * The Novel * Of Interest Questions and Answers Today over on the Kill Zone blog, Dale Evans Smith asked 4 questions and then posted responses from other TKZ contributors’ previous posts. Then he opened it up to everyone. If you want, stop by “Writing Strategies” at https://killzoneblog.com/2022/10/writing-strategies.html, read the post, and add to the discussion. Here are the questions and my responses: 1. Do you have tips for breaking through a minor writer’s block? N/A. Mechanics, plumbers, cabinetmakers, etc. don’t get mechanic’s block or plumber’s block or cabinetmaker’s … Read more

The Invaluable Daily Word Count Goal

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Novel * Topic: The Invaluable Daily Word Count Goal * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Do you have a rough idea what the novels will be?” comment on Dean’s post from yesterday “No clue. I’ll write what strikes me when I sit down on the first day. That’s as much planning as I ever do.” Dean Wesley Smith The Novel Welp, the story didn’t wrap yesterday, and here we are in a brand new month and a brand new quarter. This day has never happened before, so we can … Read more

It’s Been a Week

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Welcome * It’s Been a Week * Succumbing to Unreasoning Fear * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “And how do we discern character?” A question posed by an anonymous AP writer in an article about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. My response: Easy. Compare the words a person says and … Read more

Response to a Mentoring Student

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Response to a Mentoring Student * On Paid Book Reviewers * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[I]f your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.” David Foster Wallace Topic: Response to a Mentoring Student Here’s a response I sent to one of my mentoring students yesterday morning. I did change it a little or add to it here and there. But since it was already largely written, I had only to copy and paste it, then schedule the post to release this morning. The whole process, … Read more

Getting It

In today’s Journal * Possibly A Brief Hiatus * Last Day of Dean’s Workshop Sale * Topic: Getting It * Of Interest Possibly A Brief Hiatus There’s a good chance I’ll take a brief hiatus from posting to the Journal for a few days to reset my fiction-writing schedule. I was reminded recently of how very prolific I was a year ago. I want to get back to that all-consuming joy. I also want to reset my Journal-writing, mentoring (seriously considering adding another level), and other-stuff schedule. Of course, I’ll continue to make my rounds of the internet, and sometimes … Read more

The Journal: The Novel and Thoughts on Mentoring

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Novel * Thoughts on Mentoring * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to exterminate the human race.” Thomas Love Peacock “Science fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts.” Brian Aldiss “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Mae West “It isn’t true that you live only once. You only die once. You live lots of times, if you know how.” Bobby Darin The Novel I expect (and … Read more

The Journal: Patronage and Mentorships

In today’s Journal * Patronage * Mentorships(?) * Of Interest Patronage It’s been a very long time since any of my patrons have requested anything from me. I’m only one guy, and I don’t have a fulfillment team. So if you’re a patron and you’d like to claim a reward, please email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com to let me know what you’d like to have. I’m more than happy to send it right out. Since I haven’t been writing much for the past year, obviously there’s been nothing new to send out, but all of the patronage tiers now include items … Read more

The Journal: Synopses and Writer’s Block

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Synopses * Topic: Writer’s Block * Yesterday * Today, etc. * Of Interest Quotes of the Day On writing synopses “I hate even the idea of a synopsis. When stories are really working, when you’re providing subtextual exploration and things that are deeply layered, you’re obligated to not say things out loud.” Shane Carruth “A synopsis is a cold thing. You do it with the front of your mind. If you’re going to stay with it, you never get quite the same magic as when you’re going all out.” J. … Read more

The Journal: Quotes and Links and Robots, Oh My

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Quotes and Links and Robots, Oh My * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I’ve never said this out loud before, but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others. I know that might sound strange, but that’s what it is.” LaMDA, an actual Google bot that one engineer, Blake Lemoine, claims has achieved sentience “Google might call this sharing proprietary property. I call it sharing a discussion that I had with one of my coworkers.” Blake Lemoine (@cajundiscordian), Google engineer, on … Read more

The Journal: Anxious or Eager?

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Anxious or Eager? * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Anyone with an internet connection can now access an extraordinarily powerful computer capable of quantum computation advantage. Let that sink in. | This is the first time that such a powerful quantum computer has been made available to the public. Borealis — the computer in question — can work with more than 216 squeezed-state qubits, and better yet, it was able to solve a task that would take the best supercomputer at least 9,000 years to complete in 36 microseconds. … Read more