The Journal, Friday, 8/7

The Day Rolled out at 2:40. Not quite as tired this morning. Spent a short while doing emails, etc. to wake up, then turned to the writing computer. Did a short session of around 700 words, then took a walk. Only went just under 4 miles, but it was over rocky, sloping terrain so it was a good workout. Also took time to get a lot of pictures as well as a few videos. Still learning … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 8/6

The Day Rolled out at 2. Not really sure why. Still tired and unmotivated. Anyway, after a few hours of doing basically nothing, I went for a walk. That was good to the tune of just under 6 miles, so at least I got my blood pumping again. Yay. I guess. Got back, made breakfast for myself and ate. Sat here to waste a little more time and then start this journal entry. Now to the … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 8/5

The Day Back on schedule, rolled out about 2:45. Actually, staying on schedule wasn’t difficult. Although every other state in the vicinity (north/south) was intelligent enough to stay on Central Time, Indiana’s legislature voted several years ago to put most of the state on Eastern Time (Doh!). But it worked out well for me personally. I went to bed around 10 p.m. local time (7 my time) and got up around 5 or 6 a.m. local … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 8/4

The Day After roughly 6 months of driving around the country, I’m back. Okay, it was only 11 days, inclusive, but I drove on both the first and last day, so “inclusive” is also true. Ugh. And yes, it seems like every bit of six months. ANYway, I’m back. Cleaning up email, running updates, issuing a refund to a guy who bought my computer and changed his mind, etc. Today, I am happy to report, will … Read more

More Real Dialogue Tips

Hi Folks, In the previous post I mentioned the nuances of the stuff between the quotation marks. Here’s a second installment on dialogue tips. This is all about the nuances. If you have questions about any of these, please ask in the comments section. Thanks! Well-written dialogue should be colorful, especially the dialogue of flat or secondary characters, and even more especially if the flat or secondary character is used to foreshadow a later event. Strive … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 7/27

Hey folks, just a note to update everyone and hope you’re hangin’ in there. Arrived at our destination today. I was thinking (wrongly, not at all unusual for me) that we’d be on the road three days, then here three days, then on the road again three days. Kind of a weird symmetry in that. But no. Actually, not counting today, we’ll be here four full days. The current intention is to head back early on … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 7/24

The Day Rolled out about 3. Checked email and did some other waking-up stuff. Good rain last night so no walk today. Not sure I can even get out of my driveway. (grin) No matter how the writing turns out today, more than likely I’ll be going on hiatus from this blog for a few days. I might post and I might not. I’ll be driving about 11 hours per day, so I don’t need the … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 7/23

The Day Rolled out about 3. Checked email and did some website maintenance and updates. Turned a quick 3 mile walk. Went out to the shed and loaded a bunch of my youngest son’s stuff into the pickup for the trip north. Really looking forward to the road trip. Sam Turner from SSA and RWA sent me a very interesting survey comparing readers’ choices in 2015 vs. 2013. There’s a lot of good information there if … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 7/22

The Day Rolled out about 2:30. No walk again today and maybe no writing. I have to be in Sierra Vista to visit my mechanic at 9 a.m. We’ll see how the day unfolds from there. I could have written earlier, but I didn’t. Well, I did write, but nothing good. During my waking up time, a comment on Facebook set me off. I spent the next three hours writing some nonfiction spurred by the comment. … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 7/21

The Day Rolled out about 2:30 after a rough night babysitting an ulcer. Definitely no walk today. Books 3 and 7 of the Wes Crowley saga came in from CreateSpace today. I order three or four copies of each major title I put out just to have a few on hand. Here are the covers of those two: I got some pretty good writing done today, but not fully up to speed. Took a lot more … Read more