The Daily Journal, Wednesday, February 13

In today’s Journal

▪ Draft2Digital
▪ Behind the scenes: an announcement
▪ Crime Writer Sue Coletta
▪ The daily diary
▪ Of Interest
▪ The numbers

Draft2Digital, the ebook distributor where you can also create print books, has a new refer-a-friend royalty program. At least it’s new to me.

Basically, if someone opens a new account at Draft2Digital and uses my link — https://www.draft2digital.com/referHS — I earn 10% of D2D’s royalty share (not yours) for the next two years.

As you know, I’ve been recommending D2D as a distributor for the past couple of years. So if you haven’t joined yet, now’s the time. (grin)
***

Behind the scenes, I’ve been working to put together a group of at least seven independent writers and publishers who will collectively form a blog similar to the Kill Zone blog.

However, whereas TKZ authors are all traditionally published, our group will focus on independent writing and publishing. TKZ is also focused pretty tightly on the thriller and mystery genres. Ours will address topics of interest to all genres.

The goal is to have a new post every day. So if there are 7 of us, we’ll each post once a week. If there are 14, we’ll post once every two weeks, and so on. I have a good cadre, so now I’m opening it up to others.

Taboos: No politics, hot-button topics or language others might consider foul.

Fair Game: What’s worked well for you in writing habits, personal challenges, “How to Write Like I Do” pieces, publishing, formatting, cover design (if you design your own or have sources to recommend) and so on. The sky’s the limit.

I have the website URL and I plan to launch it as soon as everything’s ready to go.

If this is something in which you’re interested, and if you feel you have something original to contribute, contact me via email.
***

Awhile back, Crime Writer Sue Coletta asked whether I’d like to write a guest post for her blog. Specifically, she wanted a “true crime” piece about an experience I had while I was a cop in a small town in the mid-1970s.

I wrote it, sent it off, and apparently she’s going to post it this coming Saturday.

I’m grateful to Sue, but I’m also fair. I emailed this morning to tell her if she experienced a slew of unsubscribers on Sunday and Monday, I’d be expecting a bill. (grin)
***

Rolled out a little after 3 (summoned rudely by the lady cats), stumbled out to the Hovel and wrote the stuff above. I also wrote a few emails re the stuff above.

Wrote about 3000 words (I know because I wrote three sessions), then took a walk around noon. Came back and wrote some more.

For the first time in a long time, today I didn’t check my word count as I was writing.

Ended up with a pretty good day and a few sizzling scenes.

Talk with you again tomorrow.

Of Interest

See “A Whole Lot of Travel” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/02/a-whole-lot-of-travel.html.

See “Got Pushback On App Idea” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/got-pushback-on-app-idea/.

See “Really Cool Award News” at https://kriswrites.com/2019/02/13/really-cool-award-news/.

See “Nine Lessons from a Small Indie Publisher” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/nine-lessons-from-a-small-indie-publisher/.

Fiction Words: 5757
Nonfiction Words: 530 (Journal, email, guest post)
So total words for the day: 6287

Writing of Blackwell Ops 3: Marie Arceneaux (novel)

Day 1…… 1699 words. Total words to date…… 1699
Day 2…… 3766 words. Total words to date…… 5465
Day 3…… 4601 words. Total words to date…… 10066
Day 4…… 3535 words. Total words to date…… 13601
Day 5…… 3415 words. Total words to date…… 17016
Day 6…… 1845 words. Total words to date…… 18861
Day 7…… 3093 words. Total words to date…… 21954
Day 8…… 1528 words. Total words to date…… 23482
Day 9…… 2467 words. Total words to date…… 25949
Day 10… 5757 words. Total words to date…… 31706

Total fiction words for the month……… 34828
Total fiction words for the year………… 118231
Total nonfiction words for the month… 12430
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 37840
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 156071

Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date………………………… 2
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date……… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 39
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31