An Idea-Breeding Article

In today’s Journal * An Idea-Breeding Article * By the Way (the novel) * There’s a post * Of Interest An Idea-Breeding Article Note: I will share several ideas for a story based on the post I mention below. Please share your ideas in the comments too. You can’t copyright an idea anyway, right? Might as well share it and let everyone get some practice. (grin) This is not, as you might expect, especially for science fiction writers. This event and its fallout could be included in mystery, thriller, crime and other genres as well. Even romance, I suppose. I … Read more

The Journal: AI Audiobooks?

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * AI Audiobooks? * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Try to catch up if doing so is possible and will be challenging. If impossible to catch up, then simply reset the challenge and start fresh.” Dean Wesley Smith on whether to try catching up when you fall behind on a challenge “Ahh, the problems of being prolific.” Dean Wesley Smith AI Audiobooks? I currently have in my inbox (as probably do many of you) an email from Google Play Books. The subject reads “Create an auto-narrated audiobook.” As of this writing … Read more

A Slightly Belated Happy New Year

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Happy New Year * If any of you enjoy history * I Hoped to Post Links * My Only Real Escape * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “My subconscious mind always knows how to get from A to Z.” Novelist Robert J. Sadler Happy New Year More than one person has reminded me that even though I posted a Journal entry on New Year’s Day, I failed to say happy new year. I’d like to say I thought maybe that was implied, but maybe that isn’t true. … Read more

The Journal: Paper or No Paper

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Paper or No Paper * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.” Robert Benchley, via The Passive Voice Topic: Paper or No Paper In today’s “Of Interest,” DWS talks about the fear of publishing. It’s a good article, and I recommend it. However, his article is tied to his Great Publishing Challenge. Seems he received a lot of comments that (to him) indicate fear of some aspect of publishing as … Read more

The Journal: Licensing and Everything Else

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Licensing and Everything Else * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I’m thankful there are people out there who read what I write and who like what I make. I’m very lucky, and I know it.” Neil Gaiman Topic: Licensing and Everything Else DWS has said many times that licensing is a process, one that takes time. It has occurred to me that how long it takes from concept to actual production seems even longer when compared to the ability of today’s writers to write … Read more

The Daily Journal, Sunday, July 14

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * According to my friend Phillip McCollum * The Journal is on a diet * Update: We’ve learned tons * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Quotes of the Day “If it weren’t for received ideas, the publishing industry wouldn’t have any ideas at all.” Donald E. Westlake “The most frightening monsters are the ones who do not look like monsters at all, not until it is too late.” Kali Wallace *** According to my friend Phillip McCollum, it’s now possible to use Apple’s proprietary publishing program Vellum on a … Read more

The Daily Journal, Wednesday, July 10

In today’s Journal * Two topics today * Topic: Add-On Software * Topic: Ebooks and Print Books—A Comparison (reprint) * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers In a rare occurrence, we have two topics to cover today. The first is a little shorter, but important. The second is a little longer, but still important. So get your favorite beverage and settle in. Here we go. Topic: Add-On Software Add-on software, to my mind, is just silly. Why would any writer want extra distractions? A reader of this Journal directed me to Aeon Timeline, a company that makes Visual … Read more

The Daily Journal, Friday, April 12

In today’s Journal ▪ Thanks ▪ Trad pubs? ▪ Topic: Consistency Is Key ▪ A new icon for PWW ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest (a LOT of links) ▪ The numbers I read over yesterday’s post again last night, and wow did it sound needy. (grin) Anyway, thanks to all of you who commented on the post or in private emails to let me know the Journal matters to you. I appreciate it. I kind of figured it mattered to some of you, but I admit it’s nice to hear. If a particular edition of the Journal strikes you … Read more

The Journal, Friday, October 26

Hey Folks, I’m actually writing this on Thursday afternoon (yesterday). Wow. I figured it would take at least a full day just to find the appropriate cover pics for the five publications I want to put out soon. Or longer. Didn’t happen that way. I got lucky. And I can’t say enough good things about Unsplash, a place where you can download high-resolution images FREE and use them for any purpose you like. Unsplash even tags each photo with the photographer’s name, so it’s easy to give them appropriate credit for their work. Anyway, I started searching for photos yesterday … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, September 5

Hey Folks, Today you get to see evolution, Harvey Stanbrough style. You know how much I like playing with numbers, right? So yesterday afternoon, I opened each short story in The Storyteller and checked the word count. Yeah, I’m just that anal. In the short stories alone (there are 11, not 10 as I previously reported), there are 50,061 words. The novel itself is only 55,140 words, including the short stories. So you can see why I said the “novel” actually is only a framework to showcase the short stories. Anyway, as I wrote earlier, I probably won’t ever publish … Read more