• Challenge,  motivation,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    More Challenges for the New Year…

    Our Regular Four Challenges Enter the 2025 Holiday Sale… For years now we have had four challenges that writers can jump into at any point during the year and start at any time. — THE GREAT CHALLENGE which is to write and send to me one short story a week. — THE GREAT PUBLISHING CHALLENGE which is to publish one major thing a month. (Collection, novella, or novel.) — THE GREAT NOVELLA CHALLENGE which is to write a new novella every month. — THE GREAT NOVEL CHALLENGE which is to write a new novel every two months. Very few people have tried the novel challenge and only a couple of…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Talking About Advanced Craft….

    So Much To Learn and It Never Ends with Craft.. I am always calling very advanced and successful writers “Stage Four” writers because they do things in craft and storytelling to hold readers. And readers never see what the writer is doing and most middle stage writers can’t see it either. Sort of like watching a chess master when you “play” chess. You know the pieces and how they are supposed to move, but you can’t see what the chess master is doing. So a few years back Kris and I put together 18 Advanced Craft Workshops. They are nine weeks long each. We did six in 2023, six more…

  • Branding,  Challenge,  publishing,  workshops

    Discussion About Publishing…

    So Much To Learn and Do… Indie publishing just eems overwhelming, I know that for a fact. I am going to be doing a lot of my own layouts and publishing on my challenge in this coming year (I will announce what I am doing with the challenge after Christmas as I ramp up.) And I am trying not to panic. Failing at times. So I have really been giving a hard look at all the details now involved with publishing and sales. And slowly realizing I need to figure out a way to organize all that I am learning and have learned to keep the panic down to a…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    32 Years…

    Kris Did a Great Post On Facebook… About our 32 wedding anniversary. We tend to celebrate the day we met, which on May 4th this coming year will be 39 years. But the wedding on the top of our tree farm 32 years ago was very special and a ton of fun. We did it at the last minute, with great friends coming without notice. Professional writers and close friends Chris and Steve York stood up with us and thankfully they haven’t regretted it too much in the last 32 years. Well, maybe a few times… (grin) Here is a picture of us teaching in our old office in Lincoln…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  workshops

    Challenges for 2025…

    I Love Challenges… Of course, most of you know that. And at some point I will be talking here about my personal challenge and goal for 2025. Today, I sent out a letter to everyone in the three Beautiful Trophy Award challenges for 2024 to see how they were doing and to get a sense of how many trophies we will need to have hand made. If you did not get that letter, make sure your email is turned on with WMG Teachable. The “Beautiful Trophy Awards” are hand-blown glass floats made in small glass shops on the Oregon Coast. They are stunningly beautiful and every one is different. We…

  • Challenge,  Misc,  publishing,  workshops

    Interesting Copyright and Workshop Fun!

    Copyright Notice… Kris and I went to see Wicked (part one) tonight. Great movie and I am a fan of L. Frank Baum’s work in all manner. I have read all 14 of the original OZ books, some numbers of time, and most of his short stories. At one point before my house fire, I even had 12 of the original hardback with dust editions with the fantastic (Denslow and Neill) art. So I am sitting watching the credits tonight and made note of the credit given to the author of the derivative novel, Gregory Maguire. But unless I missed it, not one credit to the original Baum source material…

  • Challenge,  The Kris and Dean Show,  workshops

    Last Day of Santa Series Kickstarter!!

    SANTA SERIES KICKSTARTER… Last Hours!! We have a fantastic Kickstarter campaign going for the Santa Series by Kristine Grayson. And yes, electronic books will be sent to you on the 20th (This Friday) so time to enjoy them ahead of the holiday. Campaign ends at 7 pm West Coast Time tonight. And three deals on workshops in this campaign as well will end in a matter of hours. Get The Kris and Dean Show Does Die Hard for its original $50 price, plus you get a Santa book. Get the Kris and Dean Show Prepping for 2025. This just got started with the first webinar and goes for eight weeks.…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  workshops

    2 Days Left!!

    SANTA SERIES KICKSTARTER… For just two more days we have a fantastic Kickstarter campaign going for the Santa Series by Kristine Grayson. And yes, electronic books will be sent to you on the 20th so time to enjoy them ahead of the holiday. And three deals on workshops in this campaign as well. Get The Kris and Dean Show Does Die Hard for its original $50 price, plus you get a Santa book. Get the Kris and Dean Show Prepping for 2025. This just got started with the first webinar and goes for eight weeks. Normally $500 but you can get in through the Kickstarter campaign for $400. Get Pop-Up…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  workshops

    Days of a Campaign…

    Got Some Questions As To Thinking On Campaign Length… Right now we are doing a seven day Kickstarter Campaign called The Santa Series. We often do nine day and at times 15 days such as the Holiday Spectacular. So I was asked what was the thinking on the different lengths and why not go to a full 30 days? No reason that we can see to go 30 days. The entire center is a dead area for almost every campaign. The goal in any campaign is to get backers to get your new book or project before it comes out for general sale. Keep that in mind. So thirty days…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Fail to Success…

    Got A Number of Questions About That Statement… Fail to Success… Most writers, when they set a goal like a page count daily goal, or a number of products finished, get stuck on the number and if they do not hit their goal number start repeating to themselves that they have failed. Horrid thing to do to yourself. Just horrid and very negative and leads to all kinds of other problems. I do exactly the opposite. I tend to set goals that are product-finished driven. Number of stories, number of novels, books published and so on. I do not get into what will be in the stories or content or…