Quotes of the Week

The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.

—James Baldwin

Sometimes good things fall apart, so better things can come together.

—Marilyn Monroe

I write to find what I have to say. I edit to figure out how to say it right.

—Cheryl Strayed

The best stories don’t come from good vs. bad but from good vs. good.

—Leo Tolstoy

A line of dialogue is not clear enough if you need to explain how it's said.

—Elmore Leonard

Go a little out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.

—David Bowie 

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.

—Stephen King

Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up in your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter, and lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.

—Jack London

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.

—Joyce Carol Oates

Don't listen to people that say you can't write a novel. If I can write one, anyone can. Just make sure you have a great editor.

—Martin Wilsey

Tuesday Tips: Flexibility

When it comes to writing tips, I am more a consumer than a provider. One thing I encourage in writers that want to actually finish a story, without getting wrapped around the axel, is to outline the hell out of it first. 

So I outline very heavy before I get started.

Every now and then a character is so good that you want to divert from your original outline to include more of the character(s).

I am hitting this now in my next novel, The Sec Chief.

In my writing, I like to have fully developed secondary and even tertiary characters that create a thread to connect to the next novel. In the current project, a character that will become the main character in my NEXT project appears briefly in this book. 

Her role has grown a bit. I allowed it. The outline has been modified downstream to account for the boulder that just dropped in the river.

The lesson is: Be flexible, as long as it makes the story better. 

--Just don't be a dog chasing butterflies...

New Audio Short: NOT FOR SALE

Ty Crowley was a cyborg soldier with no wars left to fight. With the right skills, maybe he could start one.

But first, he needed to find something he knows is... Not For Sale.

--NOT FOR SALE is another free, 30-minute short story. The first glimpse at characters you will see again.

See all my Audio Editions HERE!

Bailey is Hungry!

 

Free Audio-Short

The year is 2631 and a weapons designer with the help of a prisoner invents what should never exist.

McDonald is a Senior Research and Development Engineer, Material Sciences, and Artificial Gravity Specialist. His latest project will be a force that will change history, and he doesn't even know it. 

His ignorance will allow them to begin Injuring Eternity.

I Lost a Week!

I fell ill on Saturday, September 19th. 

The real kind of ill. I had a fever of 103, chills, nausea, puking,  fatigue, dizziness, fogged mind, body aches. 

We immediately thought it was COVID because I had not been sick in over 30 years. We called the Doc, got a COVID test, and took fever reducers every 4 hours while trying to stay hydrated. 

The COVID test came back NEGATIVE on Wednesday but my fever kept spiking. It hit 103.4 and my doc sent me to the hospital. They took me right in, rapidly took a huge number of vials of blood for testing. IV fluids, antibiotics, and antivirals were pumped into me. COVID, Flu, Mono, Hep A B &C, were all eliminated within hours.

Blood analytics began to reveal more clues. I had an in-office exam on Thursday and more tests. All the combined clues has it looking like a TICK born viral infection.

They took several more vials of blood. Best Phlebotomist Ever! We are not waiting for the results. Aggressive Treatment has ensued. 

Nothing like celebrating your 15th wedding anniversary in the hospital.

I'm on the mend. I've come out of the fog. Only fatigue and body aches remain. I'm glad I had an existing doc that will take a call and render advice at all hours. And a wife to make those calls.

--Now back to work... maybe after a nap.

Harlan Ellison Interview in 1976

I never saw this interview before this week. Worth a watch. 

Short Film Friday: The Original

Images that Inspire

 

Quotes of the Week

 
Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.

—William Zinsser

Whenever you write, whatever you write, never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are.

—Rod Serling

Don’t get it right, just get it written.

—James Thurber

Writers feel the grammar rather than knowing it. This comes from good reading. If you read enough, the grammar will come.

—Colum McCann

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

—John Steinbeck

I'm a writer and, therefore, automatically a suspicious character.

—Alfred Hitchcock

If a writer stops observing he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed.

—Ernest Hemingway

The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion.

—Frank Herbert

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything good.

—William Faulkner

Get both for less than $4 combined!

 

Coffee and Cat Boxes...

Like my page on Facbook!

We are having fun over at my Author Page on Facebook. Get early word on new stuff, freebies and more! I might just kill you in my next novel!

Short Film Friday: N[EON]

Images that Inspire

 

Quotes of the Week

If you are not discourage by your writing on a regular basis, you may not be trying hard enough.

—Maxwell Perkins

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

—George Orwell

The best time for planning a book is while doing the dishes.

—Agatha Christie

You must write. It’s not enough to start by thinking. You become a writer by writing.

—R.K. Narayan

You can't blame a writer for what the characters say.

—Truman Capote

Read, read, read. Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.

—William Faulkner

The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.

—Sylvia Plath

We all have time machines, don't we, those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward are dreams.

—H.G. Wells

Hot-tubs in outer space are a thing now...

 

Special price for the Kindle Edition!

 

Want a Signed Copy?

Want a signed copy of SHADOWS OF THE SENTINEL?

Email me at martin.wilsey@gmail.com or info@martinwilsey.com and I will make it happen! 

$15 a copy while they last! I take Paypal, Venmo, CCs, checks, and cash! I'll even trade for cool stuff!

Bailey not included!

--Who knows when I will be able to have another in-person book-signing!!

Quotes of the Week

 “How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”

― Ronald Reagan

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.  

--Henry David Thoreau

I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed.

—William Shakespeare

I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations. 

—David Bowie

Perhaps I write for no one. Perhaps for the same person children are writing for when they scrawl their names in the snow.

—Margaret Atwood

I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles. 

—Shannon Halen

No true artist will tolerate for one minute the world as it is.

—Friedrich Nietzsche