The Journal: A Cat Picture

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* A Little More on Censorship
* A Breath of Fresh Air (and Cat Shoulders)
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel sh*t from a sitting position.” Stephen King

“I wish that future novelists would reject the pressure to write for the betterment of society. Art is not media. … We need characters in novels to be bree to range into the dark and wrong. How else will we understand ourselves?” Ottessa Moshfegh from Twitter

A Little More on Censorship

To provide more or less equal coverage on the other side of what some folks see as a political question, see the first item in “Of Interest” today.

I won’t go into how much I believe or agree with in the article. I won’t even mention what I personally believe is the primary source of cancel culture. You can make that determination for yourself, as well you should. Besides, the particular source of censorship doesn’t really matter to me.

As I wrote yesterday, censorship and cancel culture in all forms and from any party is just flat wrong. You certainly have the right to decide what you will allow your minor children to read, watch or listen to, and of course, you have the right to decide what you will personally read or watch or listen to. But nobody has the right to “cancel” the voices of others and thereby determine what those others will read, watch or listen to.

My personal take? If you don’t like a book, close it, donate it, and find something else to do. If you don’t like something on television, change the channel. But don’t set out on a hate campaign to ban the author or television series. Again, it isn’t up to me, you, or anyone else to decide what others read or watch.

A Breath of Fresh Air (and Cat Shoulders)

Dean’s post today is about a new member of what he calls “promotion central” (I suppose because he and Kris write so much about their cats). So I thought I’d share something that feels “clean” after the stuff above and yesterday. Something that actually matters.

Around 10 years ago, my wife and I were visiting my mom at her home in Lovington New Mexico. One of my sisters was there too. I was sitting in a rocker-recliner near the sliding front door.

One of my young neices came through the door with all the energy of a child. She was carrying a tiny kitten, maybe 2-month old.

She dropped the kitten in my lap, then disappeared.

The kitten took over. She sat there looking up at me for a moment, then bathed herself a little, then curled up and lay quietly on my lap. She stayed there for the rest of the visit.

My mom, sittin on the couch in front of me and leaning slightly forward, her fingers clasped between her knees, said, “Harvey, I’ve never seen her do that before. The girls have dropped her in everyone’s lap when they were sitting in that chair, and she was on the floor and out the door again before the girls could get turned around.”

So Little Bit came home with us.

She was not one who was happy being alone or locked in a kennel at night. Soon we left her out, and of her own accord, she started sleeping each night while curled up on my left arm. I loved the baby smell of her little shoulders.

Ten years later, she still does, and she’s taught me a great deal. More than anything, she’s taught me that humans, and especially those in power at any given time, sometimes think a great deal more about (and of) themselves than they should.

She’s my little heart, my little angel, and the most calming influence in my life. Here’s a picture. She was kind enough to pose for this portrait when she was a little over a year old. I wish you all the same sweet presence.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Morality Plays and Goodreads Threats” at https://countercraft.substack.com/p/morality-plays-and-goodreads-threats.

See “A Future Member of Promotion Central” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/a-future-member-of-promotion-central/.

See “Get Thee to a Party” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/06/get-thee-to-a-party.html.

See “OverDrive to Acquire Kanopy” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/overdrive-to-acquire-kanopy/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 740 words

Writing of WCGN: Assignment: Brownsville (novel)

Day 1…… 2890 words. Total words to date…… 2890
Day 2…… 3178 words. Total words to date…… 6068
Day 3…… 3124 words. Total words to date…… 9192
Day 4…… 2977 words. Total words to date…… 12169
Day 5…… 1001 words. Total words to date…… 13170
Day 6…… 3791 words. Total words to date…… 16961
Day 7…… 3569 words. Total words to date…… 20530

Total fiction words for June……… 30113
Total fiction words for the year………… 484062
Total nonfiction words for June… 7430
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 113660
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 598262

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 9
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 62
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.