In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Novel and a Broken Truck
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“Writing is fun, and that’s why we do it.” Reavis Wortham
The Novel and a Broken Truck
I’m posting this mostly to get the “Of Interest” items out to you.
The novel continues to progress. I’ve had a few good days of writing, and a couple of slow days. Yesterday, due to a series of unfortunate events, I had only a little over an hour with the novel.
My pickup vaporlocked (I thought) a couple of days ago in a parking lot in the nearby town. (If you’re asking yourself why you should care, you shouldn’t. Feel free to skip down to “Of Interest.” I’m only filling space, but you might find this account fun if for no other reason than it didn’t happen to you.)
I left it overnight, and yesterday my wife drove me in to pick it up. But it still wouldn’t start. So we drove to a local garage, where the mechanic explained that his help called in sick for the day so he wouldn’t be able to leave to tow my truck. But he referred us to another tow service.
I called the tow-truck guy, and we drove to meet him. (Ironically he was at the same store where my truck was sitting in the parking lot.) My wife dropped me off and went to another store to pick up a prescription for me. Roughly a half-hour later the tow-truck guy exited the store.
As I was identifying the pickup for him, my wife showed up, and we followed him to his wrecking yard so we could pay him. Then we drove back to the garage to give the mechanic final instructions and fill out paperwork. Then, finally, we went home.
Later the mechanic called to say the problem was a failed fuel pump. Which explains why the truck felt as if it was running out of gas. It will be repaired on Monday, which is fine.
I’m not complaining. In over 55 years of driving, several vehicles have broken down on me in one way or another, but never far from civilization. The worst time, I had to walk about three miles back to a truck stop in a heavy, driving rain along a freeway. I remember it being dark, but that might’ve just been my mood. (grin)
So all is well in the Stanbrough camp. I hope it’s the same where you hang your hat.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Trademarks” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/trademarks/. Don’t hyperventilate. But read this a couple of times. (Forgive the one place where he wrote “copyright” but meant “trademark,” the part about categories. There are no categories in copyright.)
See “Those Little Incidents” at https://killzoneblog.com/2022/06/those-little-incidents.html. Just entertaining.
See “Artificial neural networks…” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/artificial-neural-networks-are-making-strides-towards-consciousness/.
See “Harvard-led Citation Cartel…” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/harvard-led-citation-cartel-rakes-in-millions-from-bluebook-manual-monopoly-masks-profits/. Mostly for any lawyers out there. But PG’s take is fun for anyone.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 490 words
Writing of Blackwell Ops 8 (tentative title, novel)
Day 10… 2303 words. Total words to date…… 20106
Day 11… 3134 words. Total words to date…… 23240
Day 12… 1257 words. Total words to date…… 24497
Total fiction words for June……… 18513
Total fiction words for the year………… 30290
Total nonfiction words for June… 6610
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 87220
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 117510
Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 0
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. I’ve never said WITD is “the only way” to write, nor will I ever. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among other topics.