James Scott Bell

The Journal, Sunday, April 1

Hey Folks, Long post today. Hope you had or are having a happy and uneventful April Fools Day and Easter. I’m finding if I can avoid the Smashwords blog on this day, I come through pretty much unscathed. Mark Coker got me (and a great many others) two or three years ago when he used the Smashwords blog to announce that Amazon was doing something very harmful to writers. They would soon announce they’d come up with an intelligent program that churned out novels, thereby negating the need for writers. Something like that. And yeah, I bought it. I emailed … Read more

The Journal, Monday, March 26

Hey Folks, Well, it’s Sunday as I write this, but I won’t post it until Monday, after I’ve written something. I only opened the boilerplate today to add the first bit in “Of Interest.” I’ll add others (if any) tomorrow before I post. Okay, now it’s Monday morning. The first thing I did was revise my “The Original Heinlein’s Rules” post (I added 450 words) and scheduled it for May 29 over on the big blog. When it pops up, I hope you’ll read it. It’s considerably different from when I posted it here back on March 9. Editing this … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, March 18

Hey Folks, Okay, from the time I awoke this morning, I decided today would be a nonwriting day. My wife and I are in the midst of straightening, rearranging and cleaning our house, and it’s actually kinda fun. Also I felt a day off might help separate my WIP and my probable next WIP from each other in my mind. As I’m writing in the former, it’s racing right along, no problem. But bits and dregs of my probable next project keep squeezing out from between the polyps in my brain. As I have only a few polyps left, I … Read more

The Journal, Monday, March 12

Hey Folks, Headed out to the Hovel again. Started by cycling back through the stuff I wrote yesterday, then moved into new stuff. All in all, around 800 new words in the first session. Up to the house to eat breakfast and get some laundry started. I put an announcement on Facebook, too, that StoneThread Publishing’s been busy of late. In addition to the latest Stern Talbot P.I. book, we also just published A WonderFull Life, a memoir. It’s by my wife. The Amazon link is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BDFXJ4Q. The universal link is https://www.books2read.com/u/3nOarR. Just in case. Of course, your best bet … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, March 4

Hey Folks, Well, in a great first session this morning, I got a little over 1300 words. Now I’ll be visiting until the kids leave, then maybe more writing. Anyway, I’m happy with the day’s production so far. Topic: Learning Yeah, I know we’ve talked about this before, but today I’m coming at it from another angle. Usually I recommend reading an author’s works. Then, if he or she does something you really like, take that author’s advice on how to do it. Of course, most authors don’t also offer instruction. Dean Wesley Smith and I are two of the … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, February 25

Hey Folks, Well, I basically took a day off yesterday. There really was nothing to report, and not even anything to shove into the “Of Interest” section. Today’s a little different, but only a little, at least thus far. Good stuff in “Of Interest.” I’m a little mired, but in a kind of good way. I have at least two fresh novels I could be writing — one SF and one probably Mystery — but a new genre in which I want to write keeps sticking in my mind. Only thing is, I’m not quite ready yet to write in … Read more

The Journal, Monday, February 12

Hey Folks, My excellent first reader, Kenneth Flowers (krf1952@gmail.com) got my 28th novel back to me via email yesterday with his feedback. I’m such a fortunate guy. He said he looks forward to the sequels, which served to remind me I wanted to write some sequels, that Keeper of the Promise was only the origin novel for a series. (grin) So there’s that. At the moment I’m deep in an SF novel, and then I hope to take a shot at writing a thriller. But sequels. Yes. I spent most of yesterday working on the StoneThread Publishing website and reading … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, February 7

Hey Folks, Not sure what I’ll do today for writing, other than this. We’ll see. In the meantime, Dean and Kris have come up with two new workshops. See “Of Interest” below. As it turned out, I wrote a blog post for HarveyStanbrough.com. Almost a thousand words. Some of you will like it. It’s titled “The Use of Italics, Revisited.” I moved the other pre-posted ones out, so the new one will post next Tuesday. Well, also as it turned out, today I finished cycling through the short story that I’m turning into a novel. It took about two hours … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, January 18

Hey Folks, Be sure to hit the “Of Interest” section below. There’s a lot there. It will seem overwhelming, but I read all of the info there in less than an hour. Either way, you don’t want to miss it. *** Well, the water heater started leaking last night. One of those times I’m glad I’m renting instead of buying. The owners know us well and trust us, so we do pretty much anything we want to the house and the property, but when big expenses come up (like replacing a water heater) that’s on them. It’s all good. I … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, December 23

Hey Folks, I’m psyched. Even yesterday, in 20° weather, I was thinking what a wonderful day it is to be alive. The same holds true today. I have some great things coming up in the new year. They have nothing to do with traditional new year’s resolutions — those always are losing propositions for me, invitations to fail — but the things I’m looking forward to do have a lot to do with writing (of course). And they’re made bigger and better and more fun by the fact that, other than a few vague ideas floating around in my brain … Read more