Quick Writing Question

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Serious question.  I’ve been tracking my daily word count for the last week. I’ve keeping a cumulative track in a spreadsheet as well as a daily count on a calendar.  It’s new words, so I just add that day’s count to the total every day.

I’m almost  done with the current WIP. I think the next thing will be a revision and expansion of something I didn’t get right the first time but think I know how to fix.

My question is how do I do word count when I’ll be editing and deleting as well as writing. Some scenes will be modified, cut, expanded, that sort of thing. Is there an easy way to keep track of what you’ve done that day?

Birthday Musings: Why We Need More Men Like J. R. R. Tolkien

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on this date (January 3) in 1892 in what is now South Africa. He needs to introduction here.

For this birthday observance, I’m going to use the quote on the left as my jumping off point. I’ve subtitled this post “Why We Need More Men Like J. R. R. Tolkien”.  That’s not just clickbait.

Tolkien wrote one of the most influential works of literature, one that resonates with people and is still popular nearly half a century after his death.  I want to briefly examine why that is. Continue reading →

A Birthday for Beaumont

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Charles Beaumont

Charles Beaumont was born on this date (January 2) in 1920.  If you watched The Twilight Zone marathon on the SyFy Channel over the weekend, you probably saw one or two episodes that he wrote. His birthday is often overlooked since he shares it with a more famous author, Isaac Asimov.

Beaumont died way too young in 1967, but he left a mark of the field of the fantastic that still lingers today if you know where to look and what to look for.  And not just because he wrote some of the best remembered episodes of The Twilight Zone, either. Continue reading →

When the Gods Fall

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Fallen Gods
James A. Moore
Angry Robot
mass market paperback $7.99
ebook $6.99

I would like to thank Angry Robot Books for the review copy of this novel.

I was quite irritated at the end of this book.  Note I said the end of the book, not the ending.  The ending was great.  I was irritated because I was at the end and there was no more book to read.  I wanted to keep reading.  I was irritated that I couldn’t and will have to wait for probably a year before the next book in the series comes out. Continue reading →

Christmas Spirits from Paul Finch

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In a Deep, Dark December
Paul Finch
ebook, $1.49

I’ve always enjoyed Paul Finch’s work, but somehow I missed this collection when it came out a few years ago.  And while the afternoon of Christmas Eve may be a tad late for some of you to enjoy these stories, you should keep it in mind for next year.

In a Deep, Dark December contains four short stories and one novella.  I took a detailed look at the novella, “The Killing Ground”, a few years ago.  You can read the review here. I’m not going to rehash what I said.  I did reread the story, and it held up quite well.  Instead I’ll discuss the other stories.
Continue reading →

Poe’s Shadow

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In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe: Classic Tales of Horror, 1816-1914
Leslie S. Klinger, ed.
Pegasus Books
Hardcover $24.95, Paperback $15.95, Digital $15.95

Here’s a little something for the horror aficionado, although I suspect most horror fans will have read many of the stories in this volume.

While Poe himself has no story in the volume (and why not, I want to know), his influence is seen in most of the selections, if for no other reason than Poe’s reputation has eclipsed most other writers of the supernatural from the Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries in the minds of the general public.  The horror fan will recognize most of the names, if not all.  The tales Mr. Klinger has chosen are not always the best known works by the better known authors such as M. R. James, E. T. A. Hoffman, or Arthur Conan Doyle.  I do wonder why W. W. Jacobs was not included in this volume; probably because his career extended to far past the period the anthology covers. Continue reading →

Not Enough Millstones

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With only a few exceptions, my posts are family-friendly.  If they were movies, most would be rated PG-13 or lower.  Not this one.  Consider it a hard R.  The content to follow deals with sexual predation of children and is not suitable for younger readers.  Some adults might want to take a pass on this one as well.  You have been warned.

“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”
Jesus Christ, Luke 17:2 (NKJV)

The Last Closet
Moira Greyland
Castalia House
ebook, $ 5.99

Moira Greyland, in case you didn’t know, is the only daughter of Marion Zimmer Bradley (MZB) and Walter Breen. MZB was a lauded feminist science fiction and fantasy author, best known for The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series.  Breen was regarded as one of the foremost numismatists in the country.

Breen was convicted of child molestation and died in prison in the early 90s.  Breen had been a known pedophile for decades.  He was banned from a Worldcon (Pacificon II) in the early 1960s because of his behavior around children.  This was quite controversial at the time.  A large number of fans didn’t think he should have been banned.  A number publicly stated that they didn’t think the children had suffered any harm from Breen.

My, how times have changed.  Now we have codes of conduct, microaggressions, safe spaces, and expulsions based on one person’s say-so.

None of this information about Breen is a big secret.  What has come to light more recently is that MZB was also a child molester, and according to Greyland, she was worse. Continue reading →