KillZone Blog

The Journal, Saturday, August 18

Hey Folks, A few days ago, for some reason, the RSS feed for Kristine Kathryn Rusch failed, on my end or on hers. You’ll remember I referenced this in “Of Interest” when Dan Baldwin told me of a great new post. This morning I explored her site a little more. Finally, on the Contact Kris page (https://kriswrites.com/contact-kris/) I scrolled down and found two subscription forms. One is to “Subscribe to Blog via Email” and the other is to “Subscribe with RSS.” (Both of these are only for the overall blog. She also writes several smaller occasional newsletters to which you … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, August 16

Hey Folks, I’m writing this early (around 6), but probablly a non fiction-writing day today. It’s a half-day anyway, and a laundry day and I have a copyedito to work on. Some of you probably are rolling your eyes, but the plan “this time” is to write first in the morning on most days (beginning tomorrow, I hope) and to edit in the afternoons until the copyedit is finished. I know. Been there before, but my mindset is a little different this morning. As I was telling a friend earlier, I’m in a Hemingway-esque state of mind. I wrote the … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, August 14

Hey Folks, The following is about professional (or aspiring professional) writers, which I’m beginning to believe are born, not made. They are driven. Their overall number-one priority, the one thing to which they always return, is writing. Now, some write part-time because that’s what they enjoy doing. Some write a memoir to leave for their family. Some simply enjoy attending writer conferences or writers group meetings and immersing themselves in the life for awhile. Maybe they enjoy talking about writing. Maybe they enjoy rubbing shoulders with writers and agents and publishers. And all of that’s fine. Nothing wrong with it. … Read more

The Journal, Monday, August 13

Hey Folks, I wish I’d found me before I started writing novels. I mean, if I were not me, I wish I’d found me. Something like that. I did rediscover Dean Wesley Smith after a long absence. And I learned a lot from him, often plucking free gems from his blog posts. But most of the in-depth stuff that I learned from him came at $300 a whack. Not that I regret any of it. Knowledge is priceless, and paying $300 for a huge shortcut in the learning curve is pretty inexpensive really. You know, depending on what’s important to … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, August 12

Hey Folks, Well, I took pretty much a full day off yesterday. I did a lot of things and had a great visit with my buddy, but I did no fiction writing at all. And three or four times, when nothing else was going on, I yearned to get back to the story. One of those good/bad feelings. So today it’s back to writing for at least awhile. I’ll set up the writing ‘puter in the Hovel, and every time I have a half-hour or so of dead time, I’ll head out there. We’ve been spoiled during this monsoon season … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, August 8

Hey Folks, Some great new (to me) memes on Facebook lately. One I saw read “How many grammar nazis does it take to change a light bulb?” The answer? “Too.” (grin) Another read, “I swallowed a dictionary. It gave me thesaurus throat I’ve ever had.” I know. Groan. But it’s still funny, so I thought I’d share. Another older one was, “The past, present and future walked into a bar. It was tense.” (grin) Okay, enough of that nonsense. *** To the Hovel early, three good sessions (with breaks) for a little over 3000 words, then up to the house … Read more

The Journal, Monday, August 6

Hey Folks, Wow. Not sure what’s going on with the Journal. I posted an entry early on Saturday, yet it didn’t “ship” through Mail Chimp until yesterday and it was dated for yesterday (though the actual post was dated correctly). Weird. And then I wrote a journal entry yesterday, but I forgot to post it. When I remembered, it was a few minutes after 5. So I’m leaving that post below. I’ll add minimally to it today and then post it. *** Well, no writing again today (Sunday). But knowing the novel will race along when I get back to … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, August 4

Hey Folks, In today’s “Of Interest,” the second entry is about what one writer does when he’s stuck in a story and unsure what to do next. If you read it and an impending sense of boredom doesn’t sweep over you, you’re probably a plotter and/or an outliner. And that’s fine. I want to say I disagree with the guy, but as Dean often reminds us, every writer is different. I will say that his post enabled me to understand how some writers can view writing as pure drudgery. I added the entry to “Of Interest” today to provide a … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, August 2

Hey Folks, Well, when the smoke cleared yesterday I had just over 3000 new words on the story. Feels great to be writing again. This one is in a different style than my pulp-noir mysteries or detective stories or mob stories. It has as much action, but the writing requires considerably more patience. It’s a good change of gears for me. Hmm. Maybe if I go back to reporting my daily/monthly/annual numbers at the bottom, I’ll report them on the day after (like I did in the first paragraph above) instead of the day-of. That will remove any pressure I … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, August 1

Hey Folks, Well, yesterday’s trip to Tucson was mostly a waste of time. The upshot was I have to go back in early September for another test. In retrospect, that is the test I should have had yesterday. But as with all things, it will be what it will be. Nothing to worry about. Just little annoyances, the largest of which is the putrid, festering intrusion of insurance company mandates into what should be purely medical decisions. Today, writing will be even more of a joyful escape than usual. *** The “first-page critique” offered by the Kill Zone blog has … Read more