The journal and sometimes blog of author, Joseph L. Selby.
-
The Impotence of Proofreading of Proofreading
For those of you who do not know, my day job is in publishing as well. I commute to Boston (writing the majority of my manuscripts on the train in and out of the city) and toil away in a cube for a major publisher. This is not the first publisher I’ve worked for. The…
-
Have Fun Storming the Castle
Current, non-syndicated television runs in 30 or 60 minute time slots. Of those slots, the actual program will run 20-22 minutes or 42-44 minutes respectively. Its this constraint that allows a writer–if he or she so wishes to apply herself–to know the plot, the outcome, and the bad guy (if you’re watching one of the…
-
Per Your Request…A LIST!
The ladies over at Coffey. Tea. And Literary have started a meme. I have 25 minutes to kill at work, and thus will fill that time with this meme rather than being productive. 1. If you could have a superpower, what would you have? Why? I would be a cypher. I would speak every language…
-
JEHOVAH’S HITLIST (Chapter 1 excerpt)
Since Blogger decided “schedule” meant “post now,” MSM part 2 was posted yesterday. Now, this being a journal and not a blog, I could totally go today without posting and that would be okay. But things are about to get busy for me at work. (Granted, it’s a new department and from what I can…
-
Wash Your Pants
My wife is inspired. This means: I don’t have to cook dinner (yay!), it will most likely be delicious (yay!), you get another post (yay!). Elizabeth Poole and I often discuss our differing writing styles. She’s a plotter. I’m a pantser. Once I get a solid grip on the plot and the characters, I can…
-
Another List!
Elizabeth Poole loves Westerns. I love Westerns! TOP FIVE WESTERNS! 1a. “The Outlaw Josey Wales” – Aside from giving me my namesake, this movie has a lot of things going for it. It was the first Western where all the Native Americans were played by Native Americans. They were also portrayed as the threat they…
-
In which I post a second time about semi- and/or unrelated topics
My wife went to Philadelphia this summer to see a men’s regional Barbershop competition. (My wife is a competitive Barbershopper.) While there, she bought me some barbecue chicken seasoning. The odor was pretty strong and I was unsure if I would like it. DEAR LORD THIS STUFF IS GOOD! I only bring that up because…
-
Description is Tricky
Hannah Mosk commented recently that her first drafts are very short. They end up being mostly dialogue. She goes in during revision and fleshes the story out to its full potential. I’m getting better at this, but it used to be incredibly hard for me not to do anything but dialogue. That’s where the story…
-
Fear and Cold Water
I made a mistake today. I posted a list of agents who actively participate in social media that I would like to work with. There was discussion on the list and whether it was appropriate. Checking my email quickly while I was at work, I found the discussion continued by an agent whose opinion I…
-
Filling in the Middle
I still haven’t started revision on THE TRIAD SOCIETY. Things keep cruising along with JEHOVAH’S HITLIST. One of my original reasons for getting TTS squared away was because I wanted to go to World Fantasy Con in Columbus. I’ve gone over the con website a dozen times. As con websites go, nothing on it has…