the writing life

The Journal: Very short post today

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Very short post today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.” PG Wodehouse Very short post today. I was going to publish this Journal entry yesterday, but we had a wide power outage in southeast Arizona and the power came back on a little too late to file this. As it turns out, I didn’t have a lot to … Read more

The Journal: Magic Realism, Writing, and the WIBBOW Rule

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * How I came to write magic realism * The WIBBOW Rule * A Note on Covers * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Writing to me is an advanced and slow form of reading. If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. … It took me a long time to do a short book; a long time to leave the world of language and the building up and shaping of the book, but once it … Read more

The Journal: Better Than Usual

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Update on my construction woes * Better than usual * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “A successful runner doesn’t see the finish line in a race; he sees ten yards beyond it. That’s his goal and the visualization keeps him moving beyond the expected end. A good writer does the same thing – pushes beyond the obvious limit to ensure a successful conclusion.” Dan Baldwin in “The Long and Short of Endings” (To subscribe free email baldco@msn.com.) “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let … Read more

The Journal: Just Chatting

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Just chatting * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Written stories belong to their individual creators as individuals. Copyright laws around the world reflect this belief and value. … Stories don’t belong to cultures or people who bear some similarity to the characters in a book.” David Vandagriff (as The Passive Guy) harkening back to my previous Journal post Just chatting this morning. I haven’t talked with you in a few days. That omission was unintented. But really, I haven’t had much to talk about, at least regarding … Read more

The Journal: Cultural Appropriation

In today’s Journal * “Cultural Appropriation”… whatever * Of Interest * The Numbers I’m a little under the weather and not in a good mood besides, so I’ll keep this short. In fact, I’m publishing it at all mostly to get the “Of Interest” stuff out to you. I was going to write a whole long rant on so-called “cultural appropriation” but I changed my mind. Aren’t you glad? Suffice to say, the actual purpose of a phrase like “cultural appropriation” is to intimidate and infuriate, not to effect actual change. To make that vein on the forehead bulge in … Read more

The Journal: October Already and TMI

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The first of… October? * The return of Blackwell Ops 8 * A little personal good news * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called. I merely try to write as the character would write.” James M. Cain in the preface to Three of a Kind “[M]y style is rural rather than urban; my ear seems to like fields better than streets. I am glad of this, for … Read more

The Journal: Start a Writing Career

In today’s Journal * Start a Writing Career * I finished one * Of Interest * The Numbers Start a Writing Career I’m one of those writers Dave Farland talks about in his article, linked in today’s “Of Interest.” I don’t worry a lot about sales. I follow Heinlein’s Rules. I write, submit to a market or indie publish, and write again. But marketing and sales? The very concept puts me to sleep, with the exception of two rules: 1. The opening of a book sells that book, and the end of a book sells the next book. So I … Read more

The Journal: Dare to Be Bad and a Lot More

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * There’s a link * If you hadn’t noticed * I have a really cool problem. * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “[T]here are no real repercussions of mailing a story that fails. No editor reads anything that doesn’t work and no editor will remember your name if your story doesn’t work. … The reality is that no one notices, which I suppose for some people is worse. But there are no real risks.” Dean Wesley Smith “I would also turn every story in to a workshop [critique … Read more

The Journal: Dark Scenarios

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Musing on Autumn in southeast Arizona * Short stories abound * Dialect revisited (lightly) * Writers of the Future contest * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “[Y]ou have hopes and then you plan to fulfill them by doing things in the present: that’s utopian thinking. Meanwhile, you have middle-of-the-night fears that everything is falling apart, that it’s not going to work. And that’s dystopian thinking. So there’s nothing special going on in science fiction thinking. It’s something that we’re all doing all the time.” World-renowned science fiction … Read more

The Journal: Dialect

In today’s Journal * Topic: Don’t Write Dialect Unless You Know How * Of Interest * The Numbers Topic: Don’t Write Dialect Unless You Know How Simple, straightforward advice, right? And it makes sense. Few problems will jerk a reader out of your story faster than poorly written dialect. But it’s also a paradox. After all, how can you learn how to do something if you don’t try? But if you try, you’re not following the advice. I have both a book (Writing Dialect) and an audio course (How to Write Effective Dialect) on the topic. But even in those, … Read more