The Journal, Friday, 12/23

Hey Folks, Just a placeholder post today. A family situation came up in New Mexico, so I have an unscheduled road trip today. Nothing bad, but a blessing in thick disguise. Sure glad I built up a slight lead in the edit. After today I’ll have a small deficit, but nothing I can’t make up in short order. I hope you all have a wonderful day. Back tomorrow. Of Interest Check out Dean’s 12/22/16 Daily (http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/122216-daily/). … Read more

The Spring

In jeans and an olive-drab t-shirt, Mark Smith sat on his front porch in the late evening hours of November first. His M-14 rifle—well, the civilian version, a reasonable facsimile still in 7.62 millimeter—lay across his lap. Over the past half-hour, he’d disassembled, cleaned and reassembled the rifle. It was a weekly chore, and it kept him connected. The sounds of some inane sitcom filtered out through the door, complete with the laugh track. He shook … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 12/22

Hey Folks, Well, a really blah day out here today. Probably today I’ll just edit and build that bank. I’ve pretty much written off the rest of December for writing fiction. Not officially but just in a “don’t sweat it” kind of way. It’s something I tend to do, and I’m not sure why. A year ago (or so, at the end of a 12-month period) I was closing in on 750,000 words for that year. … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 12/21

Hey Folks, Not sure what today will entail. Editing for sure, and probably writing. Otherwise who knows. Well, I took an unscheduled trip to the grocery, a pure pleasure in my “new” 1995 Toyota Taco(ma) pickup. Then back here to post a photo of the pickup on Facebook. Then I wrote the topic below, and finally moved to the edit. It’s 11:30 a.m. already. * * * Well, I edited off and on while playing with … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 12/20

Hey Folks, Probably today will be a nonwriting day, and possibly a non-copyediting day as well. My son will be here in a couple of hours to help me buy, register, etc. a Toyota Tacoma 4WD pickup. I suspect much of the day will be devoted to that and visiting. I don’t get to see my children nearly as much as I like. Still, for resources alone, this is a Journal entry you don’t want to … Read more

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Hi Folks, Note: This post was originally scheduled for 12/24/2013. It didn’t post to MailChimp, so I’m posting it again now. Besides, it’s kind’a timeless. A little pre-Christmas fun. Enjoy. Well, here we are. We’ve made another approximate revolution around the big yellow ball of fiery gas and come full circle to that time of the year when humans are expected to be giddily happy. And true to form, most of them are, bless their hearts. … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 12/19

Hey Folks, Rolled out right at 3:30, wide awake, then honestly did nothing for almost the first two hours. Babies to take care of and all that, so I got nothing accomplished. I took care of some small things around the house, then turned my attention to the edit from around 8 until noon. In that time I got 36 pages done, so I increased the bank by one. Now to fiction for the balance of … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 12/18

Hey Folks, Rolled out at 3, and by 4 the baby wanted to go outside for awhile. We did, and then (around 5) I put her in the house and went to the Adobe Hovel to explore writing some fiction. I started a magic realism story. I didn’t get very far (only a few hundred words) before my cigar was finished and I headed back to the house. Then an unexpected trip to the store for … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 12/17

Hey Folks, When discussing consistency in a seminar I taught a year or two ago, I mentioned as an example, that the writer should use either “toward” or “towards” throughout the manuscript. I also said, almost in passing, that “toward” is the American version of the word and “towards” (most often pronounced “t’ords”) is the Brit version. I wasn’t talking about the use of the word by a particular character or in a writing set in … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 12/16

Hey Folks, Today, as it turned out, is another nonwriting day. But read on. There are good things in this edition of the Journal. Windy here. Big wind. Strong stinkin’ wind. Even the cats don’t want to go out. Windy in New Mexico too. Two large trees hit my son and daughter’s house in Roswell. Damaged the roof and cut the electricity. Sigh. While visiting Amazon yesterday to place my short story and novella in their … Read more