The Digital Reader

The Journal, Wednesday, October 2

In today’s Journal * Two days ago * Of Interest * The Numbers Well, two days ago I got through about half of my novel or novella without recognizing an ending. So yesterday I continued to read off and on as more pressing personal events permitted. I got a little farther. Today will be much the same, still dependent on those more pressing matters. I’m posting today mostly to get the info in “Of Interest” out to you. Talk with you again soon. Of Interest For something every writer needs to learn, see “Just Bloom” at https://prowriterswriting.com/just-bloom/. See “Amazon is … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, September 24

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Today’s Journal is mostly * Topic: Have Faith * Still mostly on hiatus * The numbers Quotes of the Day Via The Passive Voice, “It all began with Adam. He was the first man to tell a joke–or a lie. How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said it before. Adam was not alone in the Garden of Eden, however, and does not deserve all the credit; much is due to Eve, the first woman, and Satan, the first consultant.” Mark Twain “The cure … Read more

The Journal, Friday, September 6

In today’s Journal * Today I’m investing some time * Topic: Read the Terms of Service (TOS) *If you’re an independent writer/publisher * The numbers Today I’m investing some time reading or reviewing terms of service for various platforms I use personally. It sounds boring, but if your copyright matters to you at all, I recommend you do the same. What prompted this post? In a recent newsletter, Nate Hoffelder (The Digital Reader) recommended using WordPress.com (not the same as WordPress.org). Read on…. Topic: Read the Terms of Service (TOS) First, everything you write, including blog posts, is automatically protected … Read more

The Daily Journal, Sunday, August 25

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Miracle * Topic: The Short Story as a Marketing Tool * Daily Diary * Of Interest * The numbers Quote of the Day “You and I as artists inhabit one dimension of reality—the material dimension. … Creativity has its origin in a different sphere—the plane of potentiality. Our job is to tune in to that sphere. And to trust it.” Steven Pressfield Harvey’s corollary: “Especially after we start writing the story.” *** Well, in a very small way in my tiny world, a miracle happened. When I came to the Hovel … Read more

The Daily Journal, Monday, August 19

In today’s Journal * Slow start today * Topic: Some Basic Tenets of Cover Design * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Slow start today as I’m still worn out from the wonderful trek Dan and I had around southeast Arizona yesterday. Weird. We didn’t do a lot. Mostly we were driving, stopping now and then to take photos. But I could easily spend today doing nothing at all. I had hoped to find some new cover-pics, but no luck there. However, I did find a whole town full of cover-pic opportunities (Douglas, Arizona). I will revisit that … 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, Friday, June 28

In today’s Journal * Thanks * Recap * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Thanks to Diane Darcy and Phillip McCollum. Both for their comments on yesterday’s post and for spreading the word about the book. Phillip actually plugged it on his blog. (grin) If any of you bought the Amazon version of Quiet the Critical Voice (and Write Fiction) and found it doesn’t have a table of contents, I’m not sure why they did that. If you email me, I’ll send you a Kindle version that DOES have a TOC. A table of contents is valuable in … Read more

The Daily Journal, Wednesday, April 10

In today’s Journal ▪ It’s so good ▪ I’ve been thinking (oh-oh) ▪ Writing flash fiction ▪ Pro Writers Writing ▪ Topic: How I Learn to Write ▪ Daily diary ▪ Of Interest (a LOT of links) ▪ The numbers Was my break really only four days long? When the floodgates opened again, it seemed as if it had been four weeks. It feels very good to be writing again. *** I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my 10-novel western series, The Wes Crowley Saga. I wrote it out of order. I wrote what ended up being books 4, … Read more

The Daily Journal, Friday, January 18

Hey Folks, I guess my inner child is more interested in finishing my WIP today (a Stern Talbot PI mystery) than I am. (grin) The mind controls the inner clock, and despite a relatively late night (for me), I came wide awake and rolled out at 1 a.m. this morning. This is a perfect example of the 2 year old subconscious mind standing at your bedside, tugging at your hand, and stage-whispering (so as not to wake up the person in the other side of the bed) “C’mon! Let’s go play!” I suspect, as he has all along, my 2 … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, January 3

Hey Folks, Today’s “Of Interest” is long and loaded with great links. I encourage you to read them. You’ll learn a ton. I considered pasting an excerpt of Kris Rusch’s post on Pricing here, but I decided against it. All you have to do is click the second link below and you’ll get the whole thing. And it’s good. To see what I was going to paste, scroll down to “Here’s [sic] the other things you need to do on setting the right price”. *** Whether or not you decide to use BookFunnel (mentioned recently by Kris Rusch), for some … Read more