The Journal, Wednesday, 7/19

Hey Folks,

Hemingway has long been my major influence in my writing. The man just has a way with terse sentences, regardless of their length.

I need to read some of his stuff. I thought I had most of his works, so I checked. I have his Complete Short Stories: The Finca Vigia Edition in both paper and ebook, and I’ve read it through several times.

I also have a few of his novels. A few. My library was sorely lacking in that regard.

Yesterday I did a quick inventory, then sat down and ordered The Old Man and the Sea, To Have and Have Not, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and Green Hills of Africa.

Yeah, it was THAT lacking.

I wanted them all in Kindle, but that was not to be. TradPubs jack their ebook prices so high (with practically zero overhead) that it’s MUCH less expensive to buy paper. So I bought paper.

For beautiful, poetic prose I call upon Isabel Allende. (Octavio Paz and Gabriel Garcia Márquez are close seconds, but nothing makes music like Allende’s prose.)

But for terse, tight, attention-grabbing, non-lulling stuff, I always go back to Hemingway. Everybody else whose work I like at all comes in at a medium to distant second. James Lee Burke is right up there too.

Today, and Writing

Got out to the Hovel a little earlier today. The story keeps sticking, probably because of the two major plot lines that are running through it. (grin)

But it keeps moving forward, albeit in bits and spurts, so I’ll take it.

Back tomorrow.

Of Interest

See Dean’s “Novel Three: Day Two,” a really good post, at http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/novel-three-day-two/. (Note too that he has a new bundle out, a really good one if you’re an SF binge reader. I’m a little annoyed that he chose not to promote the Guns of the West bundle.)

From his post, I encourage you to browse The Prolific Writer at http://www.theprolificwriter.net/. Some gems, some not so good things. You decide. I also added this as a link to Writers’ Resources over on the big site.

If you’d like to see a great author website, check out Chris Fox Writes at http://www.chrisfoxwrites.com/.

See “In Praise of the Alphasmart Neo” at https://the-digital-reader.com/2015/11/13/in-praise-of-the-alphasmart-neo/. (But this is exactly why I have a dedicated writing computer. You don’t HAVE to connect to the Internet.)

Fiction Words: 2181
Nonfiction Words: 400 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 2581

Writing of Graham’s Road (tentative title, novel or novella)

Words brought forward…… 1070
Day 1…… 3012 words. Total words to date…… 4082
Day 2…… 2675 words. Total words to date…… 6757
Day 3…… 2181 words. Total words to date…… 8938

Total fiction words for the month……… 12756
Total fiction words for the year………… 350713
Total nonfiction words for the month… 7930
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 115760
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 466473

The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………………… 601 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novel Goal (15 novels or novellas)………………… 7 novels or novellas
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 25
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 179