The Journal, Thursday, May 10

Hey Folks,

A little rambling today…

This morning I rolled out closer to the time normal human beings get up. That might become the routine since the sun’s coming up earlier now. Doing so enables me to ease my way into the day, spend some time with my wife in the morning and evening, and gives me more of a normal workday.

This is me trying to rationalize staying up later at night and getting up later in the morning. But it seems worthwhile, at least so far. We got rid of regular TV programming and the $100+ per month we were paying for the privelege of being bombarded with commercials every several minutes.

Now, thanks to my bride, we have Netflix and Amazon Prime, so we can watch what we value without commercial interruption. It’s wonderful.

Oh, and the kitten is feeling much better. My thanks to those of you who asked about her.

***

I actually received a speaking invitation from my friends at Panhandle Professional Writers in Amarillo Texas. I last spoke here twelve years ago, in June of 2006. Unfortunately, I can’t attend, but it was still very nice of them to ask.

At one time, I traveled to and spoke at conferences all over the nation. At the height of the frenzy, I made 18 conferences in one year.

Sometimes I literally woke up wondering which city I was in. But regardless, it was heaven. I’ve always enjoyed sharing what I know. Being paid for that sharing really was the icing on the cake.

I only wish my knowledge about writing then, when I was able to travel long distances at what seemed a sustained rate of speed, was what it is now. (grin)

Of course, there are the audio lectures I recorded (http://harveystanbrough.com/lecture-series/). The two I most often recommend are Course 10 — Poetry Techniques for the Fictionist — and Course 11 — Writing Off Into the Dark.

But folks seem more drawn to video than audio. So I’ve considered making a series of YouTube videos with new lectures. I’m not too sure about that though. It seems time consuming, and time, as they say, is money.

And really, I’d rather spend my time writing the next story. (grin)

I’ve also decided to add my last 20 or so books to Smashwords, so I can at least offer them for sale in the Smashwords store.

My main distributor now is D2D, but I’ve sold quite a lot directly through the Smashwords store in the past. So I’ll start that process this afternoon, though I almost physically tremble when I think of how clunky the Smashwords interface is.

Anyway, today is Thursday, so a half-day for me. So the plan was to write this morning, frantically. Then this afternoon I planned devote to admin stuff like uploading books to Smashwords.

I went to the Hovel at around 8:30, then did a little more on this Journal entry. Around 9:30 I went back up to the house to exchange coffee for water. While I was there I checked email and found a reminder that the live webinar on marketing starts this morning at 10.

So much for writing this morning. (grin) Maybe later, but maybe today will be another day “off,” at least from playing with my fictional friends.

See you soon. ​

Of Interest

To view the book-marketing video from the webinar, click https://youtu.be/2XTd9NcgWWc.

If you’re interested in the ins and outs of fingerprinting (Knowledge Is Good), check out Lee Lofland’s Graveyard Shift blog at https://www.leelofland.com/the-graveyard-shift-blog/.

The first two entries in the series are “… Fingerprinting from A-D” (https://www.leelofland.com/eye-of-newt-and-toe-of-frog-and-fingerprinting-from-a-d/) and “Fingerprinting: ‘E’ Before ‘I’…” at https://www.leelofland.com/fingerprinting-e-before-i-in-this-handy-guide/.

To be sure you don’t miss others in the series, I recommend subscribing.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 630 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 630

Writing of Two Old Gringos Waiting for a Train
Brought forward………………………………………………………………… 23877

Day 10… 1108 words. Total words to date…… 24985
Day 11… 6073 words. Total words to date…… 31058
Day 12… 3857 words. Total words to date…… 34915
Day 13… 3767 words. Total words to date…… 38682
Day 14… 3338 words. Total words to date…… 42020
Day 15… 2817 words. Total words to date…… 44837
Day 16… 3117 words. Total words to date…… 47954
Day 17… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 22969
Total fiction words for the year………… 184255
Total nonfiction words for the month… 3110
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 52580
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 236565

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 3
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 30
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 5
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182