Guns & Magic

 

I’ve been following Dean Wesley Smith’s “motivation” posts on his blog. I’ve also been doing a lot of reading around other blogs and the Web in general, gathering information, tips and inspiration. I’ve stewed it all down and come up with my writing goals for 2010.

 

In 2009, my primary goal was “Finish The Journal 5″. I achieved that goal (eventually), and I will, of course, continue working on The Journal during 2010 (it is, more or less, my “day job”). But for 2010, my primary goal is:

 

 

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Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing, illustrated by Joe Ciardiello.

 

It’s a very short not-really-a-book.

 

-David

 

Bigger Than Life: The Creator of Doc Savage by Marilyn Cannaday.

 

-David

 

Again, Dangerous Visions: 46 Original Stories edited by Harlan Ellison.

 

-David

Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller.

 

-David

 

I added about 600 words to the last chapter of the Horse Girl book. This makes the ending less abrupt, and actually includes Stevie running. Re-reading the book the past few days as I was getting ready for self-publishing, I realized it needed more of a payoff at the end. Hopefully, it’s there now.

 

-David

Why They Wrote: Dickens, Thoreau, Flaubert, Clemens, Stevenson by Rhoda Hoff.

 

As an elementary school level biography of famous 19th-century writers, it’s adequate. Unfortunately, it provides no bibliography or other proof of scholarship. So … it’s hard to credit some of the details. You don’t know if you’re reading apocryphal stories or actual history.

 

-David

 

I’ve been learning the vagaries of desktop publishing this week.

 

I am now the proud owner of Adobe Acrobat 9 and Serif PagePlus X4. So far, they’re proving to be useful.

 

I have plans to offer a handful of ebooks for sale from The Journal‘s Web page. Plus, I’m thinking I’ll offer some of my existing, thus-far-unpublished novels for sale here. And if I ever do launch my own online magazine, I’ll need the DTP skills for that too.

 

DTP isn’t for everyone. I’m not entirely sure it’s for me. But the software tools make it bearable. Once you understand them. The part I expect to be the most challenging is designing the covers. Not looking forward to that. Overall, though, I’m enjoying the experience.

 

-David