The Journal: Yesterday

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Another month gone
* Yesterday
* Yesterday also
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.” George Bernard Shaw

Well, another month gone. That feels significant for some reason, though with me it resonates only with stalled numbers and missed opportunities. I won’t go into that. Too depressing.

Yesterday I sold my Chevy Colorado pickup. It’s a 2007, so it was made back when they still actually looked like a mid-size pickup. A few model years later, the Colorado looks more like a full-size pickup, though still with the weird, sloped roof. Who needs to streamline a pickup? Just let it be a pickup already.

I originally bought the Colorado from a cousin when my uncle passed away. But I never enjoyed driving it or riding in it. The seats and ceiling were too low, and even at only 5’8″ every time I got into the thing I had to consciously think of where to put my knees.

So I was at an estate sale on Saturday. As my wife and I turned back toward my pickup, I noticed a man admiring it. Joking, I said, “I’ll sell you that pickup if you want it.”

He looked up, not grinning, and said, “Really?”

And we were off and running. Then yesterday we met at a notary public where I signed over the title, he handed me a wad of cash, and we went our separate ways.

Now I’ll go find something that’s old, tired, and needs a little love. Something like my old ’87 4Runner, a beat-up old thing that I loved dearly. Unfortunately, I passed it along early to one of my offspring, who promptly sold it out of the family because he was upset with me. Oh well.

Chances are, whatever I get will have vent windows (remember those?), a manual transmission, and an in-dash ashtray. Not that I need an ashtray any longer, but just so I can fondly recall a time when we were still allowed to make up our own minds about personal matters.

Yesterday also, a friend emailed to tell me he’d received an email from Amazon announcing the first book in the Wes Crowley gap series (Assignment: Brownsville). First time that’s ever happened, to my knowledge.

And a week or so ago a lady emailed me to say her Amazon Alexa had told her about a book release I had upcoming. Probably the same book, but I don’t know. She didn’t mention the name of the book and it doesn’t really matter. It’s all very strange. I just hope Amazon keeps the announcements coming.

Anyway, neither of those announcements happened because of anything I did, other than writing the book in the first place and making it available through Amazon and D2D. It’s all very mysterious to me, but then in this day and age, as technology taketh away, so does it giveth. Or something.

Talk with you again later.

Of Interest

See “Some Unconventional Advice…” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/some-unconventional-advice-about-how-to-write-the-dmn-blurb/. Mostly, see PG’s take. But seriously, to learn how to write sales copy for fiction, see Dean Wesley Smith’s How to Write Fiction Sales Copy at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0178MQVX2/.

See “33 Common Literary Devices…” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/33-common-literary-devices-definitions-examples-and-exercises/.

See “How to Write a Mystery – A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/08/how-to-write-a-mystery-a-handbook-from-mystery-writers-of-america.html. I own this book and it really DOES have a lot more in it that Debbie Burke didn’t give away in her post. I recommend it.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 590 words

Writing of WCGN 5: Tentative Title (novel)

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

Total fiction words for August……… 6933
Total fiction words for the year………… 623282
Total nonfiction words for August… 8790
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 155220
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 778502

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 13
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
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.