KillZone Blog

The Journal, Monday, July 30

Hey Folks, First, thanks to writer friend Bob C. who sent a URL for an article for the “Of Interest” section. You will find it below. With it, Bob sent an email that read in part, “This struck me as a con artist who knew just the right buttons to push for a certain well-heeled market of aspiring writers. The lesson here is that there are a ton of people hovering around would-be authors looking to take their money.” From the article, “Today Anna March … offers private literary consulting — manuscript consultations for $1,600 to $3,000 and coaching for … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, July 28

Hey Folks, Today’s Journal entry is all about writing advice, the Kill Zone blog, and the “Of Interest” section of this Journal. In my own hunt for writing advice, I seek out other professional writers who are farther along the road than I. Once I find them, I gauge whether their advice is valuable to me overall. If a blog post is rife with misspellings and wrong word usages, awkward phrases and misplaced modifiers, or if they display a certain level of ignorance about the language (for example, ignorance of the difference between “likely” and “probably” or “if” and “whether” … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, July 26

Hey Folks, A few decades ago I started writing aphorisms and definitions, more as a mental exercise than anything else. Be forewarned: Of the definitions, some are serious, some are attempts at humor (ala Ambrose Bierce) and all are cynical. Which, if any, you perceive as humorous will depend on your own life and experiences. So today, here are a few random thoughts, definitions and aphorisms. Except where noted, these are original to me. If any of them spur story ideas, please feel free: From a poster I saw on Facebook — “The past is in your head. The future … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, July 25

Hey Folks, Still not fully back up to speed with my writing. At times, I’ve found myself actually hoping “other things” (website construction, copyedits, etc.) will come up so I can delay it a little longer. It’s a conundrum. I want to write. I want to give myself wholly over to my stories and play with my friends. For me, there is no better feeling than being lost in a good story as it unfolds. And then there’s that legacy thing I talked about a couple days ago. And of course, if someone else said to me, “But I really … Read more

The Journal, Friday, July 20

Hey Folks, Gird your loins and prepare for an onslaught of words. You know how I get. (grin) Before I begin, my apology to anyone who’s subscribed to the RSS feed for the big site. During construction this morning I inadvertently created two or three new “posts” that should have been pages. So if you got those, just delete them. No worries. Posts from over there go out once a week, on Tuesday. All right, I’ve revised my Writer Resources page. Pretty dramatically, actually. Basically, I replaced the gaggle of individual links that were there with an ungaggle of links … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, July 18

Hey Folks, Today’s post is long. It’s all about professional resources… I went through my links yesterday, deleted any authors’ websites that are about nothing but the author, new releases, etc. I’m keeping only those that offer some insight for other writers. And I’ll be rearranging those today to make them easier to find. One person responded to my call for resources yesterday. (Thanks, Gnondpom.) The ones that were already listed in my Writers Resources or that I’ve added are preceded below by an asterisk (to let you know you can find them on my site later). The others are … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, July 17

Hey Folks, Oops. Well, I didn’t get this out yesterday. Not used to the new time yet, I guess. So I wrote most of what’s below yesterday, but I’ll count it today. A request — if anyone knows of any writer’s blogs (or group blogs, like Kill Zone, or organizational blogs) where professionals hand out anything of value to other writers (regardless of genre), please let me know. You can comment below or email me privately at harveystanbrough.com. Kill Zone still has a few authors who post valid posts now and then, but it seems to be devolving. Of course, … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, July 14

Hey Folks, No writing yesterday, of course, and I started a new copyedit. This one will take only a few days at the most. Today I have more for you in the “Of Interest” section, so I’ll post this. Dean has a great post today on Pulp Speed. He talks at length about pulp writers. I recommend you read the post through at least twice. Chances are you’ll find new valuable nuggets on each read-through. The post is so valuable, I’ve linked to it on HarveyStanbrough.com in the Writers Resources tab. Some folks look at pulp as if it’s a … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, July 11

Hey Folks, Just in case it wasn’t obvious to anyone out there, my previous Journal entry was a sarcasm-laden spoof. Upright is not a matter of degree. Neither, at least for me, is it a perpetual state. But like a goal, it’s something I strive for. There’s a fine line between encouraging false hope and preying on those who fall for it, and encouraging writers to believe in themselves and their own abilities. Anyone who promises to solve all your problems and make you a success (for a fee in real life or free in politics) is probably a scammer. … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, July 8

Hey Folks, I’m a guy who generally doesn’t “should” on people. (Thanks to my friend Lloyd Chaves for that bit of sleight of mind.) Today I stumbled across one of the worst articles I’ve ever seen on writing. I won’t mention the name of it here (or the URL) because I don’t want to advertise it. But it was all about a number of steps to achieve efficiency as a writer. Four of the “tips” were the same old time-worn crap everybody repeats almost constantly: find a good place to write (really? thanks for that); find time to write, etc. … Read more