Harvey Hey Folks, Dangerous as it sounds, sometimes I feel as if I’ve been through it all as a writer. I say “dangerous” because such a feeling is the surest way to stop learning and reach a plateau. Which is to say it’s the surest way to death as a writer. When we reach a plateau, a flattening-out of the attempt to keep learning, little things we’ve learned but haven’t yet tried tend to sift down through … Read more
Hey Folks, Last night I got started setting up the website for Pro Writers Writing. There isn’t much to see yet, beyond Robert Sadler’s excellent design for the logo that stretches across the top. I anticipate launching the new site in mid-March or a little later. Pro Writers Writing will be a blog similar to the Kill Zone blog. However, whereas TKZ authors are all traditionally published, our group will focus on successful independent writing and publishing. … Read more
Hey Folks, If you remember, Dean Wesley Smith had a challenge during which he proposed writing 10 novels in 100 days. At first it faltered, so he restarted it. Now, he’s announced it’s faltered again. (Actually, he says it’s “still going on” but then says the restart didn’t work well.) I wish him luck on the re-restart, whenever it happens. I suspect he will successfully complete this challenge once he gets going on it. I can’t … Read more
Hey Folks, I’m taking “applications” for first readers, for my current work in progress (WIP) and in general. If you’re interested, email me directly at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But first, you might want to read the rest of this post. (grin) Being a first reader is yet another way you could support this blog and get to read some great stories to boot. What I Write I write war/action-adventure, black-ops stuff, crime stuff, detective stuff, SFF (science fiction/fantasy) … Read more
Hey Folks, Recently I received an email in which a writer wrote (toward the end of some lengthy praise of my “process”) “I only wish I could write like you.” During an exchange of emails, I eventually determined the writer was talking about my ability to turn out a lot of quality short stories and novels fairly quickly (though I’m pretty much a slug by old pulp standards). And what the writer really meant was that … Read more
Hey Folks, Today I feature a guest post from Dean Wesley Smith, republished here with permission. Enjoy. Say your goal is to walk across the United States. About 2,800 miles. So say your writing career (in a modern world) lasts over forty years like mine and gets you 280 books written. Got to make the numbers round for this metaphor. (grin) So every 100 miles is a novel in your hike across the United States. So … Read more
Hey Folks, I have a real treat for you today, via my friend, writer Christopher Ridge. Chris brought to my attention a presentation by Ray Bradbury to participants in a university writing program. You can find the link toward the end of this post. The video is almost an hour long, but it’s Ray Bradbury, for goodness’ sake. Who can’t listen to Ray Bradbury for an hour? On writing? Of course, I was hooked at the … Read more
Hey folks, I interrupt our regularly scheduled posts to offer you, my readers, a special deal on some brand-new books. (grin) Yesterday I got everything finalized for Blackwell Ops: Jack Tilden (action-adventure thriller novel) and got it up for pre-publication sale. I also sent it to my donors. You can see the cover and read the description here. The regular price of Blackwell Ops: Jack Tilden is $5.99, but if you’d like a copy, you can … Read more
Hey Folks, First, Happy New Year. I hope last night was fun and safe for everyone. Second, you might have noticed I didn’t post last Tuesday, on Christmas Day. I’d like to say that was out of reverence or whatver, but it wasn’t. I wanted to leave up the post on Challenges for another week. After all, today’s a great day to begin a new challenge. (grin) Let me be clear: if writing fiction wasn’t the … Read more
Hey Folks, Well, I’m leaving this post up for another week. Not because I don’t have plenty else to write about, but because… It’s that time of year again. The new year is rapidly approaching, and with it comes new opportunities and new resolutions. A time to reset writing goals and maybe jumpstart our writing. What better way to start than with a personal challenge? We use challenges to stretch ourselves just a bit beyond what … Read more