End of the Hiatus

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * End of the Hiatus * TinyLetter? Um, No * About Paid Reviews * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is its exact opposite.” Bertrand Russell “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward.” Princess Diana End of the Hiatus I seem unable to stop playing with the Journal. There’s just too much to pass along, whether positive thoughts on writing, interesting posts by other writers, or warnings like the one below … Read more

Response to a Mentoring Student

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Response to a Mentoring Student * On Paid Book Reviewers * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[I]f your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.” David Foster Wallace Topic: Response to a Mentoring Student Here’s a response I sent to one of my mentoring students yesterday morning. I did change it a little or add to it here and there. But since it was already largely written, I had only to copy and paste it, then schedule the post to release this morning. The whole process, … Read more

Getting It

In today’s Journal * Possibly A Brief Hiatus * Last Day of Dean’s Workshop Sale * Topic: Getting It * Of Interest Possibly A Brief Hiatus There’s a good chance I’ll take a brief hiatus from posting to the Journal for a few days to reset my fiction-writing schedule. I was reminded recently of how very prolific I was a year ago. I want to get back to that all-consuming joy. I also want to reset my Journal-writing, mentoring (seriously considering adding another level), and other-stuff schedule. Of course, I’ll continue to make my rounds of the internet, and sometimes … Read more

The Journal: The Value of Goals

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * TinyLetter? * Topic: The Value of Goals * Of Interest Quote of the Day “I’m ready to finally take the plunge into WITD.” Chynna Pace I love that kind of committment. (grin) No “thinking” no “considering” no “maybe.” Just a healthy dose of Let’s Do This. TinyLetter? Has anyone else heard of TinyLetter? It’s by MailChimp, but it costs nothing and is absolutely no-frills. When I closed my MailChimp account, with its dying breath it said I might want to check out TinyLetter. I’m glad I did. TinyLetter is billed as … Read more

The Journal: Do I Use a Copyeditor?

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Do I Use a Copyeditor? * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Science fiction is the only genuine consciousness-expanding drug.” Arthur C. Clarke “Without goals, training has no direction.” Natalie Coughlin which is why I recommend a daily word-count goal “So next time you sit down at your writing computer, just let the creative voice run and play…. You might be surprised at how much fun you have writing and how good what you write turns out to be (if you leave it alone.)” Dean Wesley Smith “Do or do … Read more

The Journal: Playing Catch-Up and a Personal Note

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Playing Catch-Up * The Older We Get (a personal note) * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “Inspiration is throttled by indecision, hesitation and self-doubt.” Dan Baldwin “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” Dorothy Parker Playing Catch-Up Early this month, Bob C. wrote, “I stumbled across this today and thought it was excellent: https://literariness.org/2019/01/02/analysis-of-elmore-leonards-novels/.” If you’re a fan of Elmore Leonard’s work, there you go. Bob also related this personal anecdote: “I’ve always been a huge Elmore Leonard fan, maybe because I met him when … Read more

The Journal: Blackwell Ops 8

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Blackwell Ops 8 * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Ernest Hemingway “Storytelling is a natural, instinctive act. If we weren’t taught so stringently that plotting and criticism and rewriting were necessary, we would never bother with them. As a result, our stories would be far easier to write. They would also be better, by which I mean original and unique to the writer’s own (creative subconscious) voice.” Me in reply … Read more

The Journal: The Novel and Thoughts on Mentoring

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * The Novel * Thoughts on Mentoring * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to exterminate the human race.” Thomas Love Peacock “Science fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts.” Brian Aldiss “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Mae West “It isn’t true that you live only once. You only die once. You live lots of times, if you know how.” Bobby Darin The Novel I expect (and … Read more