Submitted nine short stories today. Got nine more to submit before this stockpile is cleared. That’s not counting five more stories that are rough drafts in need of cleaning.
Today was productive. I finished editing a novella and submitted it. I wrote ten new pages into the novel. The novel is now 351 pages and 71,595 words. I have three more chapters for Part Two to write, but then I’ll have a whole third part to write and that’ll be another fifteen to twenty chapters before I’m done with this draft.
I also read three chapters of the Bible today. I just finished Judges. Tomorrow I’ll start on Ruth. There is still a lot in the Bible that bothers me. I just finished a chapter where a man throws his woman out to the mob so they can rape her all night long. When the woman dies on the doorstep, the man wants revenge on the men who raped her, and God is on his side.
I’m still hoping the New Testament will turn all this craziness around like some people have been telling me. But I cannot believe that so many Christians preach portions of the Old Testament. So far, the Old Testament promotes genocide, slavery, rape, kidnapping and forced marriage, and a number of other things that make me very angry.
Yes, there are some things in there that make sense to me and sound good, but a lot of it is disturbing.
Wrote 13 new pages into the novel. It’s now 303 pages and 62,103 words. Also edited ten pages of a novella. I’m tired. I’m going to bed.
Every once in a while, Michael Knost posts a question on Facebook about books that we’ve read. For example, his latest question about books was “What was your first book that made an impact on you as a reader?”
I’m often among those who responds. I love books and I appreciate the invitation to share about the books I’ve read. Though, to several different questions that Mike had posted over the years, my answer was “The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton.”
This copy here is the exact same copy that I read when I was 12 or 13. I kept it all these years. It was just lying around the house when I was a kid. I believe it came in a box of used books that our aunt Charlotte gave us.
There is no book that I love more than The Outsiders. I relate to Ponyboy in a lot of ways. This is also the only book that I’ve read more than a few times. I read it several times when I was a teenager, and I read it a few more times when I was in my twenties. I plan to read it again. It’s on my to-read list, I just haven’t gotten to it yet.
The Outsiders influenced my writing. I feel it every time I’m writing a story. The emotions that I try to bring out of my characters and hopefully my readers. I’m always trying to write something that will shatter even the toughest of my readers. But I’ll probably never pull it off the way S.E. Hinton did.
Well, today was productive. I wrote ten new pages into the novel and I edited 10 pages of a short story.
I’m sad that Mike Resnick died. He once explained to me how he was able to write around 15,000 words a day, finishing novels in a few days. Resnick was one of the writers who inspired me to just bang down one story after another.
It’s great when I get paid for a story. It’s even better when the editors decide to pay me more than what was previously agreed on.
This was a very productive day. I might’ve kept going, but the Astro-Ray game started and Verlander is pitching. This is Game 4. If the Astros win today, they win the division. If they lose, there’ll be Game 5.
The Braves and Cardinals are 2-2, so are the Dodgers and Nationals. They’ll all settle in their Game 5s.
Oh, and the Yankees already swept out the Twins.
I just finished a new novella. 18,430 words and 84 pages. It’s an international conspiracy thriller. It’s a rough draft and needs cleaning, but that will come later.
I’m offloading some of my oldest stories this year. Bare Back Magazine just bought my story “The Carnival” for their October 2019 issue. This is my third sale to them.
I don’t remember exactly when I wrote “The Carnival”, but it was at least ten years ago.