Welcome!

I’m Harvey Stanbrough.

No tricks here. If you’re a reader of SF, Mystery, Action-Adventure, Thriller, Western, or Magic Realism novels, novellas, or short stories, you’re in the right place.

I’m an old retired US Marine living in southest Arizona, and a prolific professional fiction writer by any standard:

  1. In just over 9 years I’ve written over 120 novels, 10 novellas, and well over 300 short stories across several genres. I’ve also compiled around 30 short story collections.
  2. I’ve never used AI (artificial intelligence) in my fiction or nonfiction and I never will.

All of that is in addition to hundreds of articles, essays, and blog posts. On a typical day, I write 3000 words of clean, polished fiction plus around 1000 words of clean, polished nonfiction. (See “For Fiction Writers” below.)

My logline: “I was born in New Mexico, seasoned in Texas and baked in Arizona, so I’m pretty much done.”

For a time, I wrote under a few personas and several pseudonyms, but I take a pill for that now and write only under my own name. Mostly.

You can read about my personas here. They each have their own short, interesting bio. If you see any novels or short stories floating around out there by Nicolas Z Porter, Eric Stringer, Gervasio Arrancado, Ray Sevareid, or MJ François, those are probably by me.

Some Navigation Notes

  • The first three tabs will take you to my publisher website at StoneThread Publishing.
  • The Short Stories tab reveals the covers of over half of my individual short stories. (I haven’t kept up with posting all of them.) Clicking any cover will take you to your favorite retailer where you can read the story description, etc.
  • The Free Story of the Week tab will take you to my Stanbrough Writes Substack. All the stories or serialized novels there are free.
  • The Reader Recources tab will take you to a listing of several reader resorces.
  • The Photos tab displays several photos in which readers have shown some interest over the years.
  • The For Fiction Writers tab…. If you’re also a fiction writer or are interested in what goes into making a fiction writer, you’ll find several links that will help both on the page itself and in a drop-down menu beneath it. (See more in “For Fiction Writers” below.)
  • Oh. The Donations tab. If you want to buy me a cuppa coffee or otherwise pitch in, that tab’s a link that will take you to PayPal.

To receive my newsletter, please click [FILL IN NEWSLETTER NAME AND LINK].

Yeah, I haven’t started the newsletter yet. It’s in progress.

In the meantime if you want to know anything about my books or stories, characters or settings or situations, please feel free to email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. I’ll always respond, usually within a few hours.

For Fiction Writers

If you’re fiction writer, you’re also in the right place.

As I mentioned above, on a typical day I also write around a thousand words of nonfiction in TNDJ, my instructive Journal. It’s free. You can subscribe at https://thenewdailyjournal.substack.com/.

I’ve written over a dozen nonfiction books on the craft of writing. None of them are fluff, and none of them push the writing myths you will find in almost all other how-to books on writing fiction. To see my books on writing, click Writing Books in the dropdown below the For Fiction Writers menu tab.

My instructive journal, TNDJ, is especially useful if you’re bone weary of trying to follow all the “rules” of fiction writing: outlining, character-sketching, world-building, (finally writing), then revising, seeking critical input, rewriting, polishing, and finally submitting or publishing the work. Note that only one of those “rules” is actual writing. The others are worthless and actually harmful.

The truth is, those rules are myths. They’re a great medium for growing mushrooms, but they won’t help you write. They will actually conspire to slow or stop your writing. I know because I used to follow them myself.

Do you know how I’ve turned out over 120 novels, 10 novellas, and well over 300 short stories in such a short time? I ignored those stupid, unnecessary rules, trusted my characters to tell the story that they, not I, are living, and served only as their stenographer.

In other words, I got out of my own way. (Stephen King, for just one of many, does the same thing.)

So again, if you’re tired of all that nonsense, you’re definitely in the right place.

When anyone tries to convince you all those “rules” are necessary, ask yourself what they’re getting out of it. Chances are they’re trying to sell you a book or a course that will continue the vicious cycle of harmful information.

It bugs the snot out of me that they’re getting wealthy teaching you stuff that will actually slow or stop your writing.

Three of my nonfiction books combine to teach you everything you need to know to become a fiction writer, and all three are on perennial sale at my online discount store:

But I’m not telling you all this stuff to get you to buy my books. If you want them and can’t afford them I’ll send them to you free. I just want you to experience the joy and freedom I experience as a writer. I’m paying it forward.

Harvey Stanbrough

harveystanbrough@gmail.com

PO Box 604, St. David AZ 85630-0604