The Passive Voice

The Journal, Thursday, May 31

Hey Folks, I keep hammering away at this. But as an instructor, I know some folks “get it” when they hear information one way, and some get it when they hear it another way or from another source. With that in mind, see Kris Rusch’s “Business Musings: An Agent Nightmare Revealed” at https://kriswrites.com/2018/05/30/business-musings-an-agent-nightmare-revealed/. Yep. It’s so important I added it to the main body of the Journal. And shared it with several writer groups on FB. *** Today should be a writing day, and it probably will be. It might be a percolation day. A percolation day is a day … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, May 30

Hey Folks, Had a great walk this morning. Fourth day in a row. My wife agrees that we should walk every day that we can and then we’ll take a day “off” only when the weather won’t permit us to walk. But it doesn’t rain here much, so…. Then again, we aren’t going all that far yet either. Only a mile or so. Later we’ll have to leave a little earlier on days when she has to go to work, but we’ll figure that out. There’s about a 1/4 mile dirt road from the highway to our house. I can’t … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, May 26

Hey Folks, Still thinking of how to handle the two main websites, HarveyStanbrough.com and HEStanbrough.com. For a moment, I even thought I might leave both sites as they are and add a twice-monthly post for readers to HarveyStanbrough.com. And keep up the weekly Pro Writers posts. But that’s a lot of work. And I already do a lot of work. (grin) I also thought, very briefly, of moving this Journal back over there. Been there, done that. And it didn’t work well, especially given that this is a semi-daily blog. Right now, I have weekly Pro Writers blog posts scheduled … Read more

The Journal, Friday, May 18

Hey Folks, Rolled out a little after 3 this morning. I read until around 5, mostly on the Internet, mostly the stuff in “Of Interest” below, then wrote this edition of the Journal. I think I could finish the novel this morning, but I’m going to leave it until Monday. I don’t want to risk leaving a paltry, ragged edge today of maybe less than a thousand words and then have to come back and finish on Monday. I suspect I have another 3,000 to 5,000 words to the end. So given the choice, I’d rather leave the whole thing … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, May 8

Hey Folks, Okay, a lot of stuff in “Of Interest” today re crime novels and thrillers and Amazon and other things. Crime Writer Sue Coletta is an excellent resource. First some admin stuff… Happy birthday to my eldest daughter, Audrey. Today is her 44th. Thanks to all of you who remain subscribed to this Journal because you find it interesting, motivational, or educational. I probably haven’t said it for awhile, but I do appreciate you. When I was still in the USMC a lifetime ago, I overheard two much older guys talking about ways to stay young. One of them … Read more

The Journal, Monday, May 7

Hey Folks, The “Of Interest” section is huge today, and filled to the brim. Rolled out a little late this morning, but not too bad. After my experience yesterday with writing a short story at what amounted to megaspeed for me, I look forward to what might happen today. I started the day with a half-ton of reading. Everything in “Of Interest” plus a few similar items and side articles. Fascinating stuff. The thing is, everything goes into the subconscious. Even if you don’t write crime/detective/mystery novels, bits of what you read in these articles will bubble to the surface … Read more

The Journal, Friday, May 4

Hey Folks, Draft2Digital, the distributor through which I distribute most of my books, is hosting a FREE webinar on May 10 on Marketing. This should be great advice for marketing both ebooks and paper books. It will be presented by Kevin Tumlinson, who’s a best-selling author in his own right and the marketing director for D2D. I urge you to sign up (registration is required for attendance) and attend. To register for your free ticket(s), click https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-to-create-a-proper-marketing-plan-for-your-next-book-tickets-45685445397. *** I’ve decided to retitle The Storytellers. It’s, uh… evolved. In a play on the syllable count in the song title “Like Desperados … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, May 3

Hey Folks, Well, I saw that MailChimp added the May 1st post to the May 2nd post. Weird. In his post today, Dean’s hawking a new writing-book bundle Kris put together. Even if you’re otherwise not interested, this one includes The Heinlein’s Rules lecture. That alone is worth the money for the bundle if you haven’t heard that lecture. Just sayin’. See https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/writing-books-bundle-and-lecture/. Yesterday I reported writing over 6000 words of fiction in what was my personal biggest day ever. This morning I went back and double checked. It was difficult for me to believe that total. Honestly, I felt … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, April 25

Hey Folks, Well, I guess I’m nothing if not an experimenter. It would be more than easy for me to take a day off today and do nothing but read and maybe even nap. I don’t nap. And I don’t mean as a general rule. I mean at all. I guard against it. I shudder at the thought. The inability to avoid napping, for me personally, will signal the beginning of old age. Had a rough night. I doubt I got more than two hours’ sleep in total. And I checked the clock every time I woke up, or had … Read more

The Journal, Monday, April 16

Hey Folks, Well, I don’t have a lot to report today, but a really good “Of Interest” section. I was determined today to have less than 25% of the edit left to finish tomorrow. With that in mind, I leaned into it from around 4 a.m. until I stopped at around 3 p.m. So a good 11-hour day, with a few breaks here and there. As I write this I have 15% of the edit left to do, so I should finish it tomorrow. Then, unless the gods frown on me. I should be able to return to my WIP. … Read more