In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* WPS Office
* Comments on the DVD Seminars
* Of Interest
Quotes of the Day
“Selling catalogs [of our novels and stories] to Alternative Investment Managers of Equity Funds and Hedge funds is in our future.” Dean Wesley Smith
“PG wonders how humankind was able to evolve from pond scum into its present form without trigger warnings.” The Passive Guy in a comment on the last linked article in “Of Interest”
“Hope is like a road in the country; there never was a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.” Lin Yutang
“The kiss originated when the first male reptile licked the first female reptile, implying in a subtle, complimentary way that she was as succulent as the small reptile he had for dinner the night before.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Writing is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.” ~ Jules Renard
WPS Office
As I write this, it’s still yesterday, Wednesday. WPS Office downloaded and installed easily. I had to drag a couple of unwanted shortcuts to the recycle bin, but otherwise no problem at all.
The suite did take over without being invited, making its various components the default programs to open my files, but thus far it seems at least as good as Office 365 so I’m leaving it as-is for now. Being free makes the program even better.
The Standard version is free, and that’s all I need. But there are also Premium and Business versions available. If this works out, I will purchase a Premium license, not because I need more features but to help support the creators of WPS Office.
Maybe best of all, the program is intuitive if you’ve used Microsoft Word. (A friend emailed yesterday to remind me of Scrivener, but mentioned it has a steep learning curve.)
You can see the different versions of WPS Office along with their pricing and attributes at https://www.wps.com/pricing/.
Comments on the DVD Seminars
“Just letting you know that I received the DVDs today. I am so happy to have them. I have only gotten about 20 minutes into Creating Realistic Characters and already I have learned so much. The information is invaluable, I can’t wait to watch the rest! I know I am going to be getting a lot out of these for a long time. Thanks for the fast shipping too.” CP
“The DVDS came this afternoon and I’ve already started absorbing the info. Great stuff! Thanks again for making these available.” FT
And there have been other comments, all good. I didn’t expect the seminars on DVD to receive such a warm reception. If enough people want them, we might see whether the files are still good enough to burn more DVDs. If this is something that would interest you, please let me know.
For the time being, to see the remaining individual seminar DVDs, please visit https://hestanbrough.com/the-daily-journal-archives-gifts-dvds/. The cost is $25 for one, or $23 each for two or more.
Of course, I also have the audio seminars, and those are available directly via email. You can view those topics, complete with course descriptions, at https://harveystanbrough.com/lecture-series/.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Adding Fun and Games to Copyright Valuation” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/adding-fun-and-games-to-copyright-valuation/. Despite the stupid, flippant title, you want to read this.
See “Here’s how to observe comet 2022 E3 (ZTF) before it disappears forever” at https://interestingengineering.com/science/observe-comet-2022-e3-ztf.
See “What time is it on the Moon?” at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00185-z. A great thought exercise and especially of interest to would-be lunar explorers and SF writers.
See “Humanity May Reach Singularity Within Just 7 Years” at https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a42612745/singularity-when-will-it-happen/.
See “To Warn or not to Warn: The Controversy around Trigger Warnings in Literature” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/to-warn-or-not-to-warn-the-controversy-around-trigger-warnings-in-literature/. How very silly humans can be, thinking that what fake-offends them matters in the slightest to anyone else.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 610 words
Writing of Wes Crowley: Deputy US Marshal 2 (WCG9SF4)
Day 1…… 3231 words. Total words to date…… 3231
Day 1…… 2990 words. Total words to date…… 6221
Total fiction words for January……… 43043
Total fiction words for 2023………… 43043
Total nonfiction words for January… 16780
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 16780
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 59823
Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 72
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer because of my zen-like non-process. If you want to learn it too, either hang around or download my Journal Archives at https://hestanbrough.com/the-daily-journal-archives/, read them, and try WITD for yourself. For the time being, the archives are free.