The Passive Voice

The Journal, Friday, 8/18

Hey Folks, Much of what follows is me thinking aloud. If you get something of value from it, good. But mostly it’s me using you as a sounding board. Sorry about that. Wow. I’ve been at this literary stuff a very long time. And the marketing stuff. Both in-person, glad-handing bookstore managers and sitting for hours at book signings and all that, and the much less costly and smarter electronic marketing. In fact, after I did some basic math I finally gave up (by and large) on book signings, etc. unless I happened to be speaking at a conference at … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 8/17

Hey Folks, Do Yourself a Favor and please read “Voyage to the Otherworld: A New Eulogy for Ray Bradbury” (via The Passive Voice) at https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/08/15/voyage-to-the-otherworld-a-new-eulogy-for-ray-bradbury/. *** The workshop yesterday was SUCH a blast! Everybody was on time, attentive, and hungry to learn. What can be better than that? I’ll definitely do this one again in a month or two, but on a Saturday. Mostly so some of those who wanted to attend this time but couldn’t can do so. I think of this as a “master’s level” workshop. It was a lot of things I’ve learned and made my own … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 8/16

Hey Folks, I’ll be off to teach my workshop this morning at around 9, so I’ll post this early. Looking very forward to seeing some old friends again, and making one new friend. I’m also looking forward to seeing how the workshop goes. (grin) UPDATE: Well, I forgot to post it early. The workshop went even better than I expected. I’m psyched. (grin) As a reminder, in the workshop, I’ll cover Hooks, Openings, Grounding the Reader in the Story, Physical and Emotional Cliffhangers, Pacing and Endings. At the end of the workshop, I’ll also talk a bit about Process. There … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 8/15

Hey Folks, Via The Digital Reader, The Huffington Post (whom I would never and am not now promoting) published an article titled “The 4 Great Myths of Book Publishing.” You can read the full article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-4-great-myths-of-book-publishing_us_5988e9ebe4b08a4c247f252d/, but I’ll save you the trouble. There are actually a lot more myths about traditional publishing than four, but we’ll go with the ones they list. According to the article, the myths are that a traditional publisher will aggressively promote your book to the widest possible readership, ensure your book gets on the shelves of all the nation’s bookstores, print your book’s text … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 8/14

Hey Folks, I know at least one writer who still does extensive research before writing. That said, most of us use the hunt-and-peck method. In the midst of a story (sometimes a sentence) we pop online for a moment, do some quick research on the type of tree the hero is leaning against, which months a particular river flows, etc. Then we pop back into the story, add what we learned and move on. Most often, that search is accomplish on Google or Bing or one of the other popular search engines. For us, now there are a lot more … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 8/12

Hey Folks, Well, I know at least part of today will include a trip to Sierra Vista. I hope part of the trip will include lunch. (grin) This morning after my routine, I designed two covers, created two promo docs, then published two short stories to D2D and Amazon, then uploaded them to BundleRabbit. Finally I added the covers and universal buy links to the Short Fiction page on my website. I took a moment to do some multiplication. Goodness. I have 181 short stories now. Went to SV around 10 and got back a little after 1. I’ll work … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 8/8

Hey Folks, Well, I got a good night’s rest last night. Still not feeling up to par, but a little better maybe. I decided to offer the ebook edition of The Rise of a Warrior to users of Facebook (and you) free of charge. You can read a description of the book at http://harveystanbrough.com/the-rise-of-a-warrior/. The Rise of a Warrior is a stand-alone book, but it’s also chronologically the first book of the Wes Crowley series. All you have to do is email me to let me know whether you want Kindle, .epub or .pdf. Thus far (about 6 hours into … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 8/7

Hey Folks, A little under the weather today. Nothing serious, just blah. Not sure how much writing I’ll get done, if any. Feels like a day of doing zip. I added my most recent novel, a whodunit mystery, to the website. You can see it at http://harveystanbrough.com/the-implications/. Topic: Ebook Editors (actually, formatting programs) This stuff was going to go into “Of Interest” but it’s too important. Especially for those who are new to ebook publishing or thinking about ebook publishing. If you fit either of those categories, or if you are frustrated with your current formatting process or software, here … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 8/1

Hey Folks, Well, five are signed up for the writing intensive now. Three slots left, and one more would-be attendee is thinking about it. Today I’ll endeavor to finish my July novel. (grin) Whenever I finish, I’ll have 8 novels or novellas at the beginning of the 8th month of the year. With my annual goal of 15 novels or novellas on the year, I’m going to plan to write two novels per month for August, September and October. Absolutely no reason I shouldn’t be able to do that. During August also I’m prepping for and teaching the intensive, and … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 7/28

Hey Folks, I get a lot of questions that I can answer, in general, with this one sentence: “In storytelling, no single aspect is more important than the ability to pull the reader into the story and keep him there.” I’m hoping to teach an intensive on how exactly to do that in the near future. The intensive will be geared for no more than 8 attendees. Two writers are already signed up. I’ll cover Openings, Hooks, Grounding the Reader in the Story, Physical and Emotional Cliffhangers, and Pacing. Given time, I’ll talk a little about Endings as well. The … Read more