The Passive Voice

The Journal, Saturday, December 2

Hey Folks, I didn’t plan to post again this soon. With my return feeling imminent, though, I figure what harm could it do. A friend wrote to me privately. In his email, he mentioned the desk, said he’d like to see it and wondered whether maybe it has magic powers. Actually, it might have. I thought I’d share my expanded response to him with you. My Desk As I mentioned yesterday, my desk is walnut, stained naturally in a warm medium brown. The finish on the leading edge of the large surface shows some wear, primarily in four places: where … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, November 16

Hey Folks, Okay, so my challenge is a copycat of Dean’s current short-term effort. UPDATE: Not a copycat, not quite. My short-term challenge is at least one short story per day for the rest of November. If I miss one day, my challenge is busted. Dean’s challenge apparently was to write 20 short stories in the last 20 days of November. Not quite the same thing as having to write one per day. If he misses a day, he can simply make it up later. (See “Of Interest” below.) In my case, I’m doing this primarily to jumpstart my writing … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, November 12

Hey Folks, Well, the last day of the visit of two of my sons, their wives, and five grandchildren (3 knights-in-training, 2 warrior princesses). It’s been something akin to exhausting, but also great fun watching the cousins run and romp and play together. On the adult side, we’ve all shared good visits, mixing and matching and drifting among each other. Today will be a day of final visits and hasta-la-laters, then laundry etc. to move back toward a semblance of normalcy. For what’s left of the day, I’ll watch Casablanca for the billionth time (and enjoy it). Tomorrow, my life … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, November 9

Hey Folks, Tomorrow marks the 242nd birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Happy Birthday and Semper Fi to any Marines out there. Sometime tomorrow, I’ll get off by myself and drink a toast (probably a shot of Beam Devil’s Cut) to those brothers and sisters who are no longer with us. To those who are still around, May your days be vibrant, your evenings calm, your heart safe and warm at home. Semper Fi *** The air is damp and chilly this morning. Probably around 40-some degrees, but damp so it feels colder. We got 3/10ths of an inch … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, November 4

Hey Folks, In “Of Interest” below, I mention a Smashwords podcast. It’s all about how to work with beta readers. As such, it extolls the virtues of letting readers into your work and (I’ll bet) mentions none of the downsides. You all know that I often employ a first reader. That’s one avid reader who knows exactly what to look for (specific places where confusion ensues, inconsistencies, and OBVIOUS wrong-word issues IF they pop out at him) and what to leave alone (literally everything else). Sometimes, with some stories, I ask Kenneth to look for certain overall things: Is there … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 11/2

Hey Folks, Hmm… a meandering, personal-thought journey in today’s Journal…. I’ve still been thinking about challenges, but I think that’s almost over. I thought about a challenge in which I would write at least one opening per day during the month of November. If the opening took off, I’d write it. If not but if it piqued my interest, it would go into my Openings file. Either way, I’d still have to write a new opening every day. But something didn’t feel quite right about that. Mostly it felt too contrived, probably because it was. The main thing, I think, … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 10/31

Hey Folks, Happy Hallowe’en. I’d planned to return to my WIP novel today, but didn’t. Other things took priority, but it was still a good day. No more pushing it. I’ll write when it’s time. In the meantime, a brand new bundle launched today. The Trouble Comes Calling bundle contains my mystery novel, The Platinum Blond Perturbance. You can see the ad for the bundle at the top of the left sidebar on my website. The photo will take you to the bundle page. *** “I’m not really that knowledgeable about police work. The real story is in the psychology … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 10/29

Hey Folks, Well, I didn’t stay up for the whole game last night but I still woke up later than my usual time. Sorry to see that Houston lost their first home game in the post season. Plus although I’d like to watch a seven-game series, I was also kind’a hoping Houston would wrap it up at home. This morning I tweaked my website again. Most notably, I changed the home page back to the ProWriters Blog, moved the bundles into the left sidebar, and moved Writer Resources onto a dedicated page. And frankly, that’s about all I did today. … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 10/28

Hey Folks, Getting back in the habit of walking every day. Only a mile, but still. I’ll increase that later to maybe as far as three, but I won’t go nuts with it like I did a couple years ago. Today started out pretty good. Had to clear a clogged outside drain. That was okay, but then it turned into a lot of other stuff that was mostly unnecessary. Had to do it to see that it was unnecessary though. So I had a few of those wasted hours, where I might as well as rolled them into a ball … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 10/25

Hey Folks, Well, trying to use the camping trailer as a writing hovel just isn’t going to work. It’s constantly too cold or too hot and there are myriad other problems I won’t go into here. I’m just gonna have to bite the bullet and do my writing in my office. I’ll have to let the separate small desk and the separate, dedicated writing computer constitute my “space,” and that will have to be enough. I think I’ll also add a different, dedicated chair. Sitting in the same chair to write fiction that I use when I’m browsing the Internet … Read more