The Journal: Finished My Drawings and…

In today’s Journal

* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

I finished up my drawings yesterday, basically one overall map of the ship and three close-up views of individual rooms, in about two hours. Now as I’m writing, I can glance up at the overall view and not have my characters going the wrong way to get someplace. (grin)

I remembered I’d already mapped out the subsurface moon colony back when I wrote another novel, either The Thirteen-Month Turn or In the Siberian Fields, so I didn’t have to do that again. The colony was built to last, I guess. (grin)

Then I went back to the Hovel, but I decided to wait and start fresh on the novel today. I’ve already gotten input from two of my first readers on Cazadores, so I applied their recommendations.

Since my first readers found very little to complain about in the novel, this morning I decided to read through it again myself (most chapters). I found a few more things, and also decided to change one last name and one first name.

Then I ran another spell check and spent some time looking for art for the cover.

I’m happy with the book, so I’m going to publish it today as soon as I put everything together.

Why am I telling you this? Because I’ve decided to give everyone a copy of this short novel (40,000 words). Here’s the description:

The Cazadores Lounge and Lonely Place is an out of the way bar with a good Cajun band, a great dance floor, a continual crowd and a brand new bouncer.

Marie Fonteneaux is the biggest draw and the owner’s girl. She attracts the attention of men young and old, and almost all of them have only the best intentions.

But the ones who don’t? Well, from broken-down barns to thickly overgrown woods to the swamps along the Bayou Teche, Acadia guards her secrets well.

Search tags will be psychological suspense, thriller, crime, Bayou Teche, swamps, alligators, and Louisiana.

If you’d like a copy of the book, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com and let me know which format you want: Kindle, Nook/Apple or PDF. (Patrons needn’t email. You will automatically receive a free copy.)

I got absolutely NO writing done today. The program I use to design covers (an early version of Serif PagePlus) is getting old. It took me only a few minutes to design the cover for Cazadores, then over 2 hours to get it to save right so I could transfer it to a .jpg file. Sigh.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Short Story Workshop” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/short-story-workshop/.

See “Lessons Learned from Writing True Crime” at https://killzoneblog.com/2020/01/lessons-learned-from-writing-true-crime.html.

See “Why Your Books Should Be In Print Too” at https://prowriterswriting.com/why-your-books-should-be-in-print-too/.

Via Nate Hoffelder, for a “free all-in-one solution to setting up a new author website,” visit Author Website in a Box at https://www.authorwebsiteinabox.com/.

See “He Said. She Said. 15 Keys to Writing Great Dialogue” at https://annerallen.com/2020/01/15-keys-writing-dialogue/.

See “Welcome back to The Digital Writer” at https://preview.mailerlite.com/l6b5s8/1342186282561836180/x2c1/.

The Numbers

Fiction words today…………………… XXXX
Nonfiction words today…………… 500 (Journal)

Writing of Algae Prime (SF novel?)

Day 1…… 2421 words. Total words to date…… 2421
Day 2…… 3312 words. Total words to date…… 5733
Day 3…… 2205 words. Total words to date…… 7938
Day 4…… 0578 words. Total words to date…… 8508
Day 5…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 60029
Total fiction words for the year………… 60029
Total nonfiction words for the month… 26640
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 26640
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 86669

Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 2
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 46
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 199
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31