Hey Folks, Happy belated St. Valentine’s Day. I was thinking only yesterday that I needed to buy my wife a card because I was vaguely aware this day was coming up sometime or other. Yes, I post a Daily Journal, meaning I’m pretty much always aware of the day and date, yet somehow “vaguely aware” is my standard. Sigh. * * * I spent a couple hours just reading selected articles on various newsletters. There are … Read more
Hi Folks, Happy St. Valentine’s Day. Today we have a guest post by professional fiction writer Dean Wesley Smith. Dean has made his living as a professional fiction writer for four decades. This post was originally published on his website on January 23, 2017. Here we go. Excuses… Last week I came to the sudden realization that most of us modern writers are lazy. While at the same time convincing ourselves we are not. We convince … Read more
Hey Folks, This Journal is kind of a social thing for me, isn’t it? I enjoy chatting with my friends each day. Thanks for being there. If you didn’t read the topic in yesterday’s Journal you might want to read it before reading the one below. Just sayin’. You can find it at http://harveystanbrough.com/daily-journal/the-journal-sunday-212/. * * * Very strange night here. One of the things that annoys me most are when people say, “One thing about … Read more
Hey Folks, I encourage you to read the topic below, and tomorrow’s topic as well. Both rehash things I’ve talked about before, but in a different way. Topic: Writing Off Into the Dark, Revisited When I was a GED/college instructor, and later when I taught writing seminars, I soon found that not all students “got it” when I approached a topic from a certain perspective. So I soon learned to gauge student reactions, most notably their … Read more
Hey Folks, Today in my writing I’ll begin with more cycling and a little more stitching. I could have maybe done another hour yesterday and finished that up. A big part of the reason I didn’t is in the topic below. This has been a physical trial of sorts, and to a greater degree, a mental and emotional trial. You’ll see what I mean. I hope within a couple of days I’ll be back to my … Read more
Hey Folks, Not a long post today. A little under the weather again here. During my morning reading, I got stuck for a little while on an opinion columnist named Ian O’Doherty. He writes for the newspaper, Independent Ireland. I enjoy his columns not because I agree with everything he says (I don’t) but because his arguments are well-reasoned and well-written. In case you’re interested in a foreign perspective, I’ve included a link in “Of interest” … Read more
Hey Folks, Welp, I lost a subscriber. Either too little in yesterday’s Journal or too little about writing. Mea culpa. Sorry. I hope the guy will occasionally drop by the website to see what’s there. That being said, I can’t be ‘on’ all the time. Been there, done that, got the shirt. Maybe somebody can, but I can’t. So…. I’m expecting the novel to break loose and run any time, especially now that it’s taken on … Read more
Hey Folks, To the few of you who might have known him, Cololnel Robert “Bob” McCartan, USAF Retired, signed off on his last tour of duty last night in Tucson, Arizona. I first met the colonel several years ago at either the SSA Wrangling with Writing Conference in Tucson or at one of the several writing seminars I taught. It was my great honor and pleasure to call him Friend. After undergoing successful knee replacement surgery … Read more
Hi Folks, This is gonna sound WAY oversimplified, especially given the nineteen PAGES of comma rules in the HarBrace College Handbook. But it’s true. If you use these five rules, you can’t go wrong: 1. Never put a comma between a subject and its verb or between a verb and its object. Also you must realize that a subject may be compound, as in “John and Ray went to the store and bought a television and … Read more
Hey Folks, Wow. That has to have been the best super bowl ever. And I saw only two blatant penalties that could have been called on NE and weren’t (and one on Atlanta), so no asterisks by this game. Topic: Allowing Myself to Change My Mind Slow start this morning, which means… I was slow to decide which novel to open. As I wrote here yesterday, in public, I planned to cycle through The Claim, beginning … Read more