The Journal, Wednesday, September 5

Hey Folks,

Today you get to see evolution, Harvey Stanbrough style.

You know how much I like playing with numbers, right? So yesterday afternoon, I opened each short story in The Storyteller and checked the word count. Yeah, I’m just that anal.

In the short stories alone (there are 11, not 10 as I previously reported), there are 50,061 words. The novel itself is only 55,140 words, including the short stories. So you can see why I said the “novel” actually is only a framework to showcase the short stories.

Anyway, as I wrote earlier, I probably won’t ever publish the novel as a novel. (Remember I said that for later.) But I might leave it intact and publish it as a collection titled Two Old Gringos Waiting for a Train and advertise it as a prologue, 11 short stories, and nine Intermissions. (grin)

Following the example set by Ernest Hemingway in The Complete Short Stories: The Finca Vigia Edition, I once published a short story collection with either 10 or 13 (I forget) short stories and a series of vignettes.

I inserted one vignette after every story from the first to the next-to-last. And if you read the vignettes as a whole, they comprise another short story. So that was kind of a neat thing.

I enjoy writing short stories, but I enjoy writing novels more.
***

An idea struck this morning for the cover of Two Old Gringos Waiting for a Train. (Ah, the evolution begins.) It was two old gringos, waiting on either side of a No Loitering sign.

For awhile it didn’t work out because I couldn’t find the two original pics I needed. So I wasted an hour or so looking through stock pics.

Then I ate breakfast and headed for the Hovel around 8. Then I looked in one more place and found the original pics I wanted.

So I took another hour and a half (of my writing time) to manipulate them into a cover. Sigh. (The evolution continues.)

This is why, as a publisher, sometimes I don’t wanna play anymore.

Now for a brief break, then back to the Hovel to write. (Yeah, right.) That’ll be about 10.
***

Nope. (The evolution develops.) I opened The Storyteller (now titled Two Old Gringos Waiting for a Train) and glanced at it. I found some problems. Small, but annoying.

So I sent a note to my donors asking them to trash the one I sent them yesterday. Then I read the prologue and each Intermission throughout the book and made a correction here and there.

Finished that by 11:30. Now back to the house to send off the new version and maybe have a bite of lunch.
***

Nope. Since I have a cover, I spent the afternoon creating a promo doc and distributing Two Old Gringos to D2D and Amazon. (Sigh. The evolution is complete.)

Then I took an hour to clunk-grind-clunk through creating a special version of the manuscript for Smashwords since they still work with hammers and chisels over there, and uploaded that one too.

No fiction writing, but at least one more novel is out there, as well as 11 short stories.

By the way, since there seems to be a lot about writing in the prologue and Intermissions in Two Old Gringos, I thought I’d open it up to any of you who would like it. So if you’d like a copy, email me.

Also, if any of my donors would like the .mobi version instead of the PDF I sent, email me.
***

When I don’t start writing by 2 at the latest, I don’t usually write that day. From 2 to 4 is kind of a no-man’s land for me. I can CONTINUE working on something I’ve started before that time, but I can’t start something during that time.

I’m the chief cook and bottle washer around here, and I don’t want to just start something and then have to interrupt myself to slap supper together for my hard-working bride. So there you go.

Of Interest

See “Changing My New Office for the Challenge” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/changing-my-new-office-for-the-challenge/. Might be a gem or two there for you.

Talk with you again soon.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 690 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 690

Writing of

Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 0
Total fiction words for the year………… 314731
Total nonfiction words for the month… 2760
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 120576
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 435057

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 7
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 33
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 6
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193