the writing life

The Journal, Friday, January 26

Hey Folks, Wow. It’s been an eventful week, and it isn’t over yet. Mona and I both caught the creeping crud hyper-flu that’s apparently going around in various parts of the US. I am a writer, so my first thought was Conspiracy. But I was too weak to even think about writing (or holding my head up) and besides, The Stand was already written. Got another copyediting job in late last week or early this week. (Thanks for the referral, Robert!) I’m publishing this today only to let you know things finally SEEM to be clearing around the Stanbrough camp, … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, January 20

Hey Folks, Another note on process. Despite the word count I posted earlier for The Keeper of the Promise: The Origin Novel, after omitting the two short stories I mentioned yesterday, and after a few thousand words of other cuts, the novel finally came in yesterday at 56620 words. Last night as I glanced over it, I realized it was mostly complete and flows well. The one thing I didn’t do was set up the protagonist as a series character with a lead-in to the next books. Not good, since I wrote the thing in the first place to lead … Read more

The Journal, Friday, January 19

Hey Folks, Well, the ending of The Origin Novel snuck up on me this morning. I figured it would be at least a few more days, but I turned a corner and there it was. It’s now titled The Keeper of the Promise, with The Origin Novel as the subtitle. As you know, much of the process on this one was me cycling back through stuff I’d already written. I started with five short stories. When the dust cleared, I had cut two complete short stories that didn’t figure into the novel (or did so only peripherally) plus about another … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, January 18

Hey Folks, Be sure to hit the “Of Interest” section below. There’s a lot there. It will seem overwhelming, but I read all of the info there in less than an hour. Either way, you don’t want to miss it. *** Well, the water heater started leaking last night. One of those times I’m glad I’m renting instead of buying. The owners know us well and trust us, so we do pretty much anything we want to the house and the property, but when big expenses come up (like replacing a water heater) that’s on them. It’s all good. I … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, January 17

Hey Folks, Out to the Hovel at around 5:30 this morning. For newcomers, the Adobe Hovel is a storage building about 200 feet from my house. The walls are earth and about three feet thick. There’s no Internet there, so it makes an excellent writing environment. In fact, I leave my writing ‘puter out there most of the time on an ancient old folding card table. I wrote for a session, then back to the house to check on things around 7. Back out for another session around 8:30, then back to the house at about 10. I’ll do one … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, January 16

Hey Folks, Not a lot to report today. We had a quick trip to Sierra Vista to resolve the second life roll. Fortunately it turned out to be a much less eventful than it might have been. I wrote early this morning for an hour or so, and then a bit more after we got home. Those numbers are displayed below. Feels good to be back to the novel. See you then. Of Interest Linda Maye Adams posted “Perfectionism and Reading Fiction” at https://lindamayeadams.com/2018/01/15/perfectionism-and-reading-fiction/. See what you think. I might tackle this topic myself in a day or two. You … Read more

The Journal, Monday, January 15

Hey Folks, I planned to make yesterday the the 12th writing day of the current novel. But I decided to take the day off. As it turns out, today will also be a day off. I hope tomorrow will be the 12th writing day. The novel is going fine when I tend to it, but my recent life roll had a little larger impact than I expected. And then there was a second one waiting when I got back from New Mexico. At least it was lesser in intensity, though no lesser in importance. Just things to take care of. … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, January 13

Hey Folks, Well, leave it to fate for interesting stuff to happen while I’m on the road. See (or listen to) “25 Book Promotion Tips” at http://blog.smashwords.com/2018/01/25-book-promotion-tips.html. For ideas on how one writer’s mind works, see Dean’s “One More Adventure Day” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/one-more-adventure-day/. It’s very short, but interesting. I wrote a little on the novel last night, but nothing to mention. More to keep my hand in than anything else, I think. By the way, I now have books available in nine different bundles, ranging from SF to action-adventure to romance to westerns. To check out these incredible values (newest … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, January 11

Hey Folks, Slow start to the day but a few great emails from friends. Thank you for those. I frittered away the first few hours with nothing of any importance (other than those emails). I moved out to the Hovel at around 8:45. I wrote much of what appears below, then started on the novel at around 10. Especially for the newer readers of this Journal, a bit about process today. I recommend hose of you who have been with me for awhile read it too, though. I might say something you need to hear, or say it in the … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, January 10

Hey Folks, A personal good-news item that might be of some interest: My wife and I have been married for almost 34 years. When we married, I brought three children to the mix and she brought one. We never used or allowed the term step-anything (son or daughter, brother or sister). We saw no reason to differentiate among the children. After all, the situation was no fault of theirs. For various reasons, I was never able to adopt our eldest son, who was originally named Jason Griffith Smith. Also, Jason’s maternal grandfather passed away a few years ago, and he … Read more