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

The Hiatus Explained

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Hiatus Explained * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” Mark Twain The Hiatus Explained To anyone who’s annoyed at my announcement yesterday that I’m taking a few days away from the Journal, sorry about that. In a way, your annoyance is a compliment, but I promise, my intention is to be away only temporary. Oh, and to my mentoring students, I will still respond to you during this hiatus. No worries there … 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: It Worked!

In today’s Journal * Welcome * It Worked! * Of Interest Welcome Welcome to Chynna P, Russ J, gldlubala (GD, I think), Frank T, and any others who have subscribed recently. Glad to have you aboard. If you’re interested in a particular aspect of the writing craft, enter a search term in the Search box in the left sidebar at the Journal website. As an alternative or in addition, you may also download the free, fully searchable PDF archives. And of course, you may always email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. I’d be happy to help in any way with your writing … Read more

The Journal: Moving, and The First Reader

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Moving to MailerLite * Topic: The First Reader * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Binance executive Patrick Hillmann alleges hackers successfully used an AI-generated hologram to impersonate him on video calls with cryptocurrency firms….” Techjuice (Science fiction ideas, anyone?) “No passion in the world, no love or hate, is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft.” H. G. Wells Moving to MailerLite Hello everyone. This post will come to you twice today if everything works as planned. You will receive this one at 10 a.m. from MailChimp, but … Read more

The Journal: Do I Use a Copyeditor?

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Do I Use a Copyeditor? * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Science fiction is the only genuine consciousness-expanding drug.” Arthur C. Clarke “Without goals, training has no direction.” Natalie Coughlin which is why I recommend a daily word-count goal “So next time you sit down at your writing computer, just let the creative voice run and play…. You might be surprised at how much fun you have writing and how good what you write turns out to be (if you leave it alone.)” Dean Wesley Smith “Do or do … 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