Bradbury, and On Comfort Zones
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* Blackwell Ops 36: Temple's Dream
* Writers Write (On Comfort Zones)
* A Fun Day
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” Vince Lombardi
The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
The whole point of the Challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer. There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
Balázs Jámbor "Nothingness" 2500 literary
Vanessa V. Kilmer "Untitled & Undocumented" 2805 fantasy
Harvey Stanbrough "Miami to Belize" 1417 Erotic Fantasy
Dave Taylor "Runt” 2,237 Mystery
Dave Taylor “Bodies in the Roundhouse” 4,421 Paranormal/Horror
Bradbury on Steroids
This one requires you to write at least two short stories per week.
Christopher Ridge "Grandpa's Nightmare Wars" horror 1727
Christopher Ridge "My Neighbor is a Vampire" horror 3404
Congratulations to all of these writers!
Also, congratulations to Alexander Nakul for finishing a new novel, his third, and for publishing a massive collection of his work at AuthorToday. (If you have Chrome and right click, you can choose "Translate to English."
Blackwell Ops 36: Temple's Dream
As I expected, the novel wrapped yesterday in short order. As I did NOT expect, the characters threw me an exciting new curve ball several paragraphs into the final chapter. Incredible. MAN I love these characters! (grin)
Temple's Dream will release on March 1, 2025. You can read a description at my publisher site.
If you'd rather read it before March 1, you can purchase a copy now, at a discount, on my StoneThread Publishing online store.
Writers Write (On Comfort Zones)
A few days ago a writer emailed to ask
"Do you stick with the Blackwell Ops series one after another because writing those novels is so comfortable for you?"
In other words, does writing BO novels keep me in a comfort zone, AKA 'safe' zone?
The short answer is yes.
The slightly longer answer is yes too. Mostly because the POV characters keep walking up and introducing themselves to me, usually with only his or her name.
That's how most Blackwell Ops novels begin.
I'm very fortunate in that way. I'm fortunate both to have wandered into the Blackwell Ops world one day in the first place, and I'm fortunate that the characters seem to be queued up.
The characters seem to be standing on line in their dungarees and pea coats and watch caps, bending their shoulders against a stiff, icy breeze, and shuffling their boots as they wait their turn to tell their story. (grin)
Sometimes a character is even so strong and I like him or her so much that when the current novel ends I write a 'sequel' of sorts either next (as I will do this time) or soon.
Other times a different character steps up from the line and introduces himself, and off we go.
In the past several BO novels—each has featured a male POV character—there has also been a strong female lead. That often leads to some interesting, um, what one BO character calls "complications" and situations too.
And so those novel become not only psychological suspense, but thriller/action-adventure with a strong romance element.
But the writer's question caused me to think a little about comfort zones.
And my longer answer is maybe, but I don't really have or need a comfort zone that I'm aware of. Nor do I want one. Shrug. I just love telling stories.
Even as I'm writing Blackwell Ops novels, I also write a short story each week. So that also breaks up the opportunity to slip into a particular comfort zone.
Certainly some of those short stories are also in the Blackwell Ops world, but most of them are not. I shrug and write whatever comes next.
But specifically regarding having a comfort zone in novels...
Although it seems like a long time ago to me now, I wrote the first of four non-Blackwell Ops novels, When the Owl Calls, in June of 2024, so only seven months ago.
That was a sequel of sorts (though each was a standalone novel) to Jonah Peach, which I wrote way back in December 2019, so no 'comfort zone' influence there either.
And since June of 2024, I wrote both The Case of the Wayward Accountant and The Darling Members Club (both Stern Talbot, PI mystery novels) in October 2024. Then in December of 2024 I wrote The Waller Files, another Stern Talbot mystery, as well as four other Blackwell Ops novels.
So again, I can't really say I'm locked into any particular comfort zone other than writing in general, either fiction or nonfiction.
To me, writing—but especially writing fiction—is a truly exciting endeavor. There is literally nothing I would rather do.
So maybe I do have a comfort zone. Maybe my comfort zone is being uncomfortable and exhilarated and writing into the dark.
A Fun Day
Yesterday was a boatload of fun. I knew I wanted to start writing the next novel. It will feature the same main characters as in the novel I just finished, so that'll be great fun all by itself.
But once I sent the PDF off to my first reader, I decided to go ahead and do the promo doc and the cover.
Then I decided to go ahead and do the cover for the next novel too. That one took some doing, and I got to use both the "Cutout Studio" and the "PhotoLab" of the program I use to adjust both of the photos I'm using for the cover.
That included a lot of "glasses off and eyes to the screen" detail work, but it was well worth it and a lot of fun.
To put it into perspective, it took me all of maybe five minutes to do the cover for BO-36, and almost an hour and a half to do the cover for BO-37.
That brought me up to a little after 11 a.m. I wanted to start on the new novel, but I also didn't. I finally decided to take off the rest of the day.
Today I'll apply the changes my first reader recommended, then cycle over the last chapter again (something about it bothers me), and publish the final version to Amazon and D2D. Then I'll start the new novel.
By the way, awhile back
I mentioned I might look for an agent and maybe go hybrid.
Yeah, I'm not gonna do that. I queried a New York agent I knew a long time ago who was thrilled with my work. By the time she got back to me, I had finished the novel I pitched to her and written two more.
More power to my buddy, Vin Zandri, and of course your results might vary.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
When Writing Sucks, the Writer's Fingerprint....
Go Minimalist and Gain the World!
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1160
Writing of Blackwell Ops 36: Temple's Dream
Day 1…… 2476 words. To date…… 2476
Day 2…… 1484 words. To date…… 3960
Day 3…… 2837 words. To date…… 6797
Day 4…… 4223 words. To date…… 11020
Day 5…… 3366 words. To date…… 14386
Day 6…… 3123 words. To date…… 17509
Day 7…… 1289 words. To date…… 18798
Day 8…… 3609 words. To date…… 22407
Day 9…… 5245 words. To date…… 27652
Day 10…. 5216 words. To date…… 32868
Day 11…. 3572 words. To date…… 36440
Day 12…. 1281 words. To date…… 37721 done
Fiction for February………………….. 4853
Fiction for 2025………………………. 126208
Nonfiction for February…………….... 2810
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 34790
2025 consumable words…………….. 154488
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2427
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 3
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 107
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 274
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
Thanks UH!!!