KillZone Blog

The Daily Journal, Monday, January 14

Hey Folks, In today’s “Of Interest” DWS talks about trusting your character(s). As usual, he’s spot-on, and with a very timely post. And there’s an absolute must-read from The Kill Zone blog. Enjoy. Topic: Averting a Conscious-Mind Attack Yesterday, in addition to what I wrote and reported here, I also took a wrong turn in the story and wrote 560 words that I didn’t report. How did I know it was a wrong turn? Because the writing began to trudge along. I’d write a sentence, then stop. Then I’d think “Just write the next sentence,” and I did. And then … Read more

The Daily Journal, Sunday, January 13

Hey Folks, Some good stuff in today’s “Of Interest,” as in the purloined topic, “Crappy First Drafts,” which I blatantly stole from my friend, Dan Baldwin and his Writing Tip of the Week. One note on James Scott Bell’s examples at the Kill Zone blog: Nobody, and I mean nobody, says “ta” for “to” or “ya” for “you.” Folks in Minnesota say “ya” occasionally for “yeah,” but even they never say “ya” for “you.” When writing intelligently (meaning with the reader in mind), dialect and accents are not rendered “over ta the saloon” or “What ya doin’?” (Read them aloud. … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, January 12

Hey Folks, First, to new subscriber M. Shephard, thanks for jumping in! Good to have you along. *** I made a new friend (well, acquaintance) early this morning. A guy wrote me out of the blue to request all six books from my current special offer. He went on to say he graduated high school a year before I did (different school) and knew several people from my hometown. He also said he’d only recently found my books and had just finished reading The Wes Crowley Saga (all ten books in one edition) and loved it. Talk about a great … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, January 10

Hey Folks, Wow. I rolled out at 3:45 after the first really good night’s sleep I’ve had in a while. Almost 9 hours. (grin) I breezed through the stuff in the “Of Interest” section (a GREAT section today, by the way), then took a short break, and I’m turning to the novel at 5. Topic: Some Special Book Deals I interrupt our regularly scheduled topics to offer you, my readers, a special deal on some brand-new books. (grin) Yesterday I got everything finalized for Blackwell Ops: Jack Tilden (action-adventure thriller novel) and got it up for pre-publication sale. It’s scheduled … 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

The Journal, Monday, January 7

Hey Folks, A fairly short Journal entry today. I’m sure you’re relieved after the past few days. (grin) Wow, what a day. A dear friend asked yesterday for a copy of a short story I wrote a couple of years ago titled “Ila and the Piñon Tree.” She wanted to review it for me. So I sent it to her. This morning, she emailed to say some of the text was missing. She was right. What made it even worse is that this edition also contained the Spanish translation by the editor of EstePaís magazine. After about a 20-minute search … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, January 6

Hey Folks, Well, I’ve decided I’m going to write another Blackwell Ops story. Not because I’m not interested in Nick and Marie anymore, or in Stern Talbot, or in the other ideas I listed yesterday. I want to start the challenge with another Blackwell Ops book because I don’t want to take the time to read over the last Nick Spalding book to refresh my memory about the main characters. (grin) I’m just that lazy. And if I start with another Stern Talbot book, I’ll have to include a new technique I re-learned recently. I’m not sure I want to … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, January 5

Hey Folks, A long post this morning, so consider yourself warned. (grin) This morning, writer Mark Alpert over at the Kill Zone blog titled his post “Five Ways to Become a Happier Writer.” All well and good. I thought I was in for a real treat. Uh, no. The more I read, the more depressed I became. The five points he laid out are valid. But the stuff he wrote below them, for the most part, was “not to my taste,” as Dean says. (grin) Now, I’m aware all writers are different. But frankly, Mark’s post left me wondering why … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, January 3

Hey Folks, Today’s “Of Interest” is long and loaded with great links. I encourage you to read them. You’ll learn a ton. I considered pasting an excerpt of Kris Rusch’s post on Pricing here, but I decided against it. All you have to do is click the second link below and you’ll get the whole thing. And it’s good. To see what I was going to paste, scroll down to “Here’s [sic] the other things you need to do on setting the right price”. *** Whether or not you decide to use BookFunnel (mentioned recently by Kris Rusch), for some … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, January 2

Hey Folks, Our second snowfall of the year (yes, here in the desert) started this morning. Creating, of course, the illusion that the world has shifted on its axis and it’s going to snow every day during 2019. (grin) This is a “real” snow, with about 4″ on the ground at the moment and plenty more coming. My wife’s considering granting herself a 2-hour delay if she goes in at all. Fortunately, my own commute to the office is only about 200 feet outside my back door. (grin) *** We have one little hummingbird who stays with us year-round. He … Read more