I am working on a book inspired by Gardiners Island, privately owned by the Gardiner family for 300+ years. I may steal this conspiracy ... or make up my own.

Go Pope Bob!!!

I used to brag that I could write newspaper copy in my sleep. Then I went to work at a P.M. daily with a 9 a.m. deadline and got paid to do just that.

I closed that window when they charged my wife $5,000 for a block that was empty on the tax form.

My first day of journalism 101: nobody does anything except on deadline ... we're going to teach you how.
Me: OMG ... I've found a home.

Go Pope Bob! Don't mess with a boomer from Chicago. I know. I married one.

Remember ... when you get to that point where you have to stay up until dawn to finish the book ... the author had to stay up until November.

Two important rules for writers --
Work on the project that is closest to publication (3rd drafts, not 1st drafts).
Leave out the parts people tend to skip over. Compression is your friend. (This is Elmore Leonard's 10th rule, but it should be the first.)
#booksky #writers #writing

Mark Twain is given as the author of this assessment:

"Connecticut has the best kind of weather in the world, but it also has all the other kinds."

Seed of Chaos (bookcover) On sale now! Half price at danielhatchsf.com/seed-of-reason in advance of the April 1 release of SEED OF REASON (bookcover)

You don't need to read them in the right order, but I did write them that way.

danielhatchsf.com/seed-of-chaos

#booksky #sciencefiction

Remember ... the controlling fantasy of our time is "The Fisherman and his Wife" ...

Lemuria 7 by Allen Steele A press release from Fantastic Books: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Is there a Bermuda Triangle on the Moon? Billionaire inventor Edison Smith pays for the Lemuria 7 moon mission as a tourist trip, sending…

Fantastic Books will publish Allen Steele's "Lemuria 7" this July. Details in the press release on my blog: ianrandalstrock.com/2026/04/03/l...

I can't figure out why they want to promote Book 2 of a 3-book series.

Dining room table, bunkbeds, dining room hutch, 4 desks, 4-poster bed, 2 nightstands, storage table for the den ... and as of Wednesday, 6 science fiction novels, 29 novellas, novelettes, and short stories.

My first mass protest experience was in that Worcester plaza in Oct. 1969. It worked. The war ended, Nixon resigned, but I spent 4 years in the Coast Guard.

#NoKings in DC.

Want to know the secrets of writing narrative fiction? Here's a post about the two books every writer should check out.

danielhatchsf.com/2-books-ever...

#authorsandwriting

Not "after" ... no one came aboard the plane and shot them.

No it doesn't. They're supposed to have a fringe of white whiskers on their chin. Otherwise, yeah.

For the last 5 years, the publisher's husband covered the payroll out of his pocket. Newspapers haven't done well since the collapse of the advertising-based business model.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix ...

Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night ...

And don't get me started on "arrested for" ...

"Man accused of murdering his wife"
Accurate, precise description of what you actually know. Also, not libelous. You don't need a magic word of protection. It's not D&D.
The only protection against libel is public record, provable truth, and fair comment. Not allegedly, but really.

It's not even a word (it wears the flag of an adverb, but what verb does it modify. If you allegedly murder someone, are they not as dead?).

#writers #writing
Just a reminder for new reporters and editors ... about allegedly.
"Man allegedly murders wife"
"Allegedly" does not protect you from libel, which you have committed here. It's not in Times v. Sullivan. It's not in any law.

Two red flags here --

I got a website hit from Nigeria 2 days ago.

And the Hachette editor expressed interest in Book 2 of a series and asked if I had written anything else like it.