Michaele Lockhart

The Daily Journal, Wednesday, August 7

In today’s Journal * Last Saturday * Topic: I Rescind My Topic Statement * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Last Saturday, August 3rd, I wrote about flash fiction. A respondent from Japan and I have been exchanging comments on that post. In one of them he metioned “100 Word Story” at http://www.100wordstory.org/. Interesting website. That put me in mind of 55 Story, a book I bought a long time ago that started me writing flash fiction. You can find the current edition here. If you’re interested in writing flash fiction, I recommend the following (though all of … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, July 27

In today’s Journal * Because * Quotes of the Day * Topic: A Recommendation * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Because (according to MailChimp) so few of you click-through to items in “Of Interest,” I’m putting this early in the body of this post: See “Day Job Thinking” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/day-job-thinking/. This is a great, extremely important post. Please read it carefully, maybe a couple of times. By the way, I’m not complaining about the click-throughs. I like to believe you aren’t clicking through on “Of Interest” items because you’re already checking them on your own. But I … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, July 20

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: My Typical Early Morning * Daily diary * Of Interest (a lot today) * The numbers Quotes of the Day “The subjective opinions of a certain group of people at a certain moment in time say nothing about the value of your work.” JA Konrath “My advice to authors is to do a POD print book directly with Amazon for Amazon and directly with Ingram Spark for bookstores.” Lee Foster (This agrees with advice from Reedsy in yesterday’s “Of Interest.” “Caroline [Todd] practically leapt out of her chair and slapped … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, July 13

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * More on Licensing * According to Reedsy * Ebook aggregator PublishDrive * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Quote of the Day “From my close observation of writers… they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review. Isaac Asimov Which is why I generally don’t read reviews at all and recommend against it. What a reader thinks of your book is none of your business. *** Kris Rusch has just … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, June 29

In today’s Journal * Recap * Quiet the Critical Voice (and Write Fiction) and Change of Plans * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Yesterday I attended the Adding Suspense workshop and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s more of an awareness workshop than anything else, bent toward teaching the writer how to study the suspense element in other works. For the workshop, DWS broke suspense down into five major elements, yet those elements are intertwined when at work in the novel. It was interesting to see how they interact (and are interdependent) on the micro level. No telling how … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, June 22

In today’s Journal * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Well, my son was coming down to spend the weekend with us, but the interstate between here and Flagstaff was closed near Phoenix due to a wildfire. So he ended up having to turn around and go back to Flag. It’s all right. We’ll see him again soon. In the meantime, I slept for only a few hours, restlessly, and finally got up. But I was wide awake, so I came to the Hovel and went straight to the WIP. It wrapped as a novella after an hour … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, June 15

In today’s Journal * Happy Father’s Day (tomorrow) * I cast about my mind * Topic: How to Practice (and Improve) * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Here in the US, tomorrow is Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, in the US and elsewhere. I am blessed that my youngest son is visiting this weekend. *** I cast about my mind this morning, fishing for ideas for a topic for today’s Journal. I found too many, and they overlapped, but not in a good way. Rather than complementing each other, they contrasted … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, June 8

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the day * Be sure to read * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Quotes of the Day “Writing is not performance art. … Often it’s better to say you do money laundering or something else that the entire world isn’t convinced it knows how to do.” Michaele Lockhart on sharing a work in progress with family and friends “I think it’s a pretty good rule not to tell what a thing is about until it’s finished. If you do, you always seem to lose some of it. It never quite belongs … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, June 1

In today’s Journal * Thanks for the comments * By the way, Blackwell Ops 6 * By the way (again) * By the way, Part 3 * It’s already June 1 * Topic: Quieting the Critical Mind (Chapter 11) * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Thanks for the comments, Diane and Karen. They not only encouraged me (see what you did?), but they also help the Journal’s visibility on search engines. Interesting to me that Diane Darcy is a USA Today bestselling author and that Karen Riggs is a relative beginner. Yet neither is willing to accept … Read more

The Daily Journal, Saturday, May 25

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Dude, where’s my royalties * Topic: How to Quiet the Critical Voice (Chapter 8) * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Quote of the Day: “There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.” Flannery O’Connor *** In “Of Interest” you’ll see “Dude, Where’s My Royalties?” When I’d read the article, a quick scene popped into my head: Me tapping him on the shoulder. “Um, pardon me.” He turns around, smiling, his eyebrows arched. “Yes?” I try to maintain a polite smile and fail. “Why … Read more