The Journal, Monday, February 12

Hey Folks,

My excellent first reader, Kenneth Flowers (krf1952@gmail.com) got my 28th novel back to me via email yesterday with his feedback. I’m such a fortunate guy.

He said he looks forward to the sequels, which served to remind me I wanted to write some sequels, that Keeper of the Promise was only the origin novel for a series. (grin) So there’s that. At the moment I’m deep in an SF novel, and then I hope to take a shot at writing a thriller. But sequels. Yes.

I spent most of yesterday working on the StoneThread Publishing website and reading another thriller by Jack Higgins. The guy’s a master of the genre. Wow.

Today I’ll be going over Keeper of the Promise to apply Kenneth’s few recommended changes. I’ve also decided to change all unspoken thought in this novel to italics. For this one, it just makes sense. And then the balance of the day, I’ll probably work on StoneThread Publishing again. Should have it finished in a few more hours.

By the way, if you aren’t subscribed to the Pro Writers blog over at HarveyStanbrough.com, be sure to check the post tomorrow. It’s all about the italics thing.

***

Change of plans. My wife agreed to listen as I read Keeper of the Promise to her. I can make any adjustments as I do that. It’ll take a week, an hour or two per evening, but it frees up my time now to do other things.

Also, as I mentioned above, I still have some work to do on StoneThread Publishing too, but it’s nothing essential, so I thought I might get some writing done on my WIP.

Change 2: When I got out to the Hovel, Microsoft gave me a Gates Suppository in the form of a major update on my writing ‘puter. Truly annoying. You can go back and undo any update they add, but you can’t simply deny them the update in the first place.

By the time the updates were finished, I was out of sorts. I jotted down a few words that I don’t want to lose (for the WIP), then turned back to another Jack Higgins novel and read.

Back in a day or two.

Of Interest

See “Stuff That Takes Readers Out of a Story” at https://killzoneblog.com/2018/02/stuff-that-takes-readers-out-of-a-story.html#comment-59228.

Via The Passive Voice, for fun, see “Top Ten Peeves of Creative Writing Teachers,” a guest post by Melodie Campbell on Anne R. Allen’s website at http://annerallen.com/2018/02/top-ten-peeves-of-creative-writing-teachers/.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 430 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 430

Writing of The Age Exchange (novel, working title)

Brought forward…… 6985
Day 1…… 1285 words. Total words to date…… 8270
Day 2…… 1120 words. Total words to date…… 9390
Day 3…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 2405
Total fiction words for the year………… 40561
Total nonfiction words for the month… 3240
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 11260
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 51821

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 1
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 28
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182