The Journal: Yesterday and Bundlerabbit

In today’s Journal

* Yesterday, I wore out a mouse
* Yesterday, also
* Yesterday, III
* By the way
* Bundlerabbit
* A very short PQ Topic: Less Can Be More
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Yesterday, I wore out a mouse. (Microsoft Mobile Wireless Mouse 3500 in Lock Ness grey)

Over the past several years of writing fiction, I’ve always had the same mouse with my writing ‘puter. Over the past six-plus years I’ve gone through probably three or four writing ‘puters, but whenever I changed from one to the other, that mouse went with me. I considered it my “writing mouse.”

A couple days ago, it finally stopped working. That mouse and I clicked our way through over 60 novels, 8 novellas, and well over 200 short stories. But I finally wore it out. So I ordered two more copies of exactly the same mouse, and they arrived yesterday. But I think I’m gonna frame the old one and hang it in my office somewhere.

Yesterday also, during a break from writing, I designed a cover for Rider Jones: The Marshal (formerly Rider Jones), created a promo doc and put it up for pre-publication sales on D2D and Amazon. That’s the cover over on the left.

Finally, yesterday III, I was writing along when I realized I had no idea what day it was. In the story, I mean. And back when I was writing the earlier titles in the Wes Crowley saga, I hadn’t kept up a reverse outline.

So I stopped writing and spent the last two hours of the day scrolling back through Book 11. Fortunately the sequence of days in the timeline were correct. I patted myself on the back and waded into the beginning of Book 12, the work in progress.

I discovered a few glitches, repaired them, and was surprised to learn the entire story from the beginning of Book 11 through the first 10 chapters of Book 12 took place in a scant two weeks. Actually, the newly constructed reverse outline (well, timeline really) itself is interesting reading.

Now I’m thinking I might extend the timeline all the way from the beginning of Book 1 and maybe publish it as a companion volume to the series as a whole. After I’ve finished the current WIP, of course. What fun!

By the way, if you missed yesterday’s post, and if you would like a free copy in Kindle, Apple/Nook or PDF format of the first book in the series, Rise of a Warrior, you have only to email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. This special promo will end when I finish the current book.

Bundlerabbit

I had a question about whether I use Bundlerabbit, whether I like it and so on.

I do use it. It has a great user interface that isn’t clunky at all. With a little practice, you can upload a new title there in only 2 or 3 minutes, and it provides yet one more sales venue for your work.

The idea of Bundlerabbit is to allow curators to “bundle” your work with similar works in an anthology of short fiction or an omnibus of longer works. You can also choose to be a curator if you want.

To get an idea of the possibilities of using Bundlerabbit as a writer, visit my Deals! page at https://harveystanbrough.com/bundles/. As you can see there, my work currently appears in eight different bundles.

One caveat: If you own the Apple-friendly publishing program Vellum, they prefer you use that. If you do not, you can still upload an .epub file. Bundlerabbit doesn’t accept any other file types. BUT if you use Draft2Digital (or Smashwords) you can upload the .epub file you get from there to Bundlerabbit, so it really isn’t a hassle at all.

A very short PQ Topic: Less Can Be More

I found at least two new PQ (persistent question) topics in an article I posted a link to in yesterday’s “Of Interest.”

One is that in description Less Can Be More. What a silly, inane thought.

Okay, let’s just clear the decks on that one. No lengthy discussion required. No, less cannot be more. Less can only be less. You can have too much of something, or too little, but neither of those is addressed by the nifty, cool-sounding but inane “less can be more.”

The other one, which the author of the article tied to “less can be more,” is that Readers Like to Fill-In the Blanks. I’ll address that one in much greater depth as the PQ topic for tomorrow.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Making Better Magic Systems, Lesson 3 ” at https://mystorydoctor.com/making-better-magic-systems-lesson-3/.

See “Making Magic Systems Better, Lesson 2 ” at https://mystorydoctor.com/making-magic-systems-better-lesson-2/. In case I didn’t post it earlier.

See “The Power of Quirky-Smirky Assonance and Alluring Alliteration” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/the-power-of-quirky-smirky-assonance-and-alluring-alliteration/.

See “Moving My Internet and Writing Office” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/moving-my-internet-and-writing-office/.

See “Do You Need Hygge?” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/05/do-you-need-hygge.html. It’s a slow news day.

See “(Writing) Each Book Is A Different Story” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/writing-each-book-is-a-different-story/. A very slow news day.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 820 words

Writing of Wes Crowley (novel, tentative title)

Day 1…… 3089 words. Total words to date…… 3089
Day 2…… 3871 words. Total words to date…… 6960
Day 3…… 5202 words. Total words to date…… 12162
Day 4…… 2900 words. Total words to date…… 15062

Total fiction words for May……… 36724
Total fiction words for the year………… 408003
Total nonfiction words for May… 9650
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 94510
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 502153

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 8
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 61
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.