• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Story #29…

    Two More Stories to Complete January… Considering I jumped from zero to full speed overnight, I will take it. I will do an inventory of the stories and word counts from January in a few days. On the publishing side, Kris has read 12 of them and I will be putting the first collection of ten together as soon as I work out an issue with doing the covers. The idea is for me to do a collection every two weeks once I start them. I will also be putting some of the stories in issues of Smith’s Monthly. Thinking the restart of that now March. I will also be…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Story #28… Poker Boy

    I Will Do a Full List After the 1st… But still going… Story #28… Two title halves were “Who You Calling…” and “Sweet Cheeks…” No idea what “Who You Calling Sweet Cheeks?” was going to be about until I started typing and up popped Poker Boy. Started it in the afternoon this time, got about 700 words done and the rest about 1 this morning, finishing fast and easy. Love stories that do that. I just kept typing until I found the end. I will do a word count as well, and I got to do an introduction and covers to the first collection. Kris has now read eleven of…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Story #27…

    Just Kind of Stumbling Along… Got some adjustments to make, but about to drop this challenge into the publishing part. That’s going to make it even more interesting. Story tonight was a Bryant Street story and I started it with a play off of Serling’s old Twilight Zone episode starts. Kind of fun. Also I think I got it finally why writers have trouble with valuation of their own property. Here is the analogy. If you built say a theater complex with all kinds of extras involved. And you opened it for business and the first night it made $500, if you were a writer you would think that theater…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing

    Valuation and Story #26

    Been Working On Copyright Valuation… Trying to figure out a way to explain it. But so many elements to it, it makes it tough. But writers believe, especially indie writers, that their work has no value. Yet every time you license a book or story to say, Amazon, and they license it to a customer, you are making money from the value of your work. You license a copy from your own store to a reader, you are making money from the value of your work. Same with doing a Kickstarter campaign. And on and on and on… Copyright is property. So is trademark. So every time you create a…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing

    Story #25…

    Having Fun With a New Character… A detective character in my Poker Boy world who helps ghosts who are trapped move on. This is the 4th or 5th story from this character’s POV so far. I do that in these challenges, get stuck on a new character and write a bunch of stories, like every third story, for a few weeks before moving on. The titles all start with the phrase “The Woman Who…”  Tonight it was “The Woman Who Hates Heights.” Also did some story reading. Going to be really picking up speed on that over the next month, finishing up the stories for the Space Opera Study Along…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing

    Creative Process

    I Was Paying Attention Today… For a moment, at the beginning of the new story, because I was tired. Only lasted a paragraph or two before I went down into the story, but figured this might be interesting to a few of you. I started off with my half-title sheets like normal. Saw the phrase “The Last” and then a couple of pages later, keeping the phrase “The Last” in my mind, my creative voice spotted “Summer Girl.” “The Last Summer Girl” Depending on how the story went, I could hyphenate Last-Summer to change the meaning. Fun title. No idea of a series jumped to mind, so I just started…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    New Lifetime Subscription and Story #23

    Yes, New Lifetime Subscription… On WMG Teachable we have lifetime subscriptions to the 90 plus workshops, to the 90 plus Pop-Ups, to lectures, and to Study Alongs. And we have the large Lifetime Everything (on Teachable) Subscription to all 400 plus classes and growing seemingly every week. We also have a Lifetime Subscription to In-Person classes. That was closed for eight years and we just opened it back up for a few, with one left. (Write me if interested in the last one before we close it again.) For one year or so, we have been doing some classes on the WMG Writers Store. It is a Shopify store and…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Quick Workshop Update and Story #22

    Story Challenge Still Going… First I want to update a few things on workshops. We have one Lifetime Subscription to All In-Person Workshops left available, then we are going to close it down again. Last time that was open was 2017. And there is only one left now. Cost is $3,000 and write me if interested. We have one mentorship open with me. It lasts for as long as you want it to last and I am here to answer question and be your supporter and cheerleader. I ask that you report to me regularly on how things are going and I will help with covers and sales copy and…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    A Tiring Day…

    Story #21 of Challenge… Had a great time today walking briskly 1.5 miles, then hitting golf balls for an hour, then back. Did this with Ron and it was great fun. I think I did a little better than I did the first time a month ago. But wow am I out of shape. Even though I am down about six pounds from the first time, that kind of full-body movement is great and tiring, especially for stretching out the shoulder. But wow was I exhausted when I got back because of the five hours of sleep, so spent three hours this evening catching up on sleep. Finally made it…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Story #20

    Have Not Missed a Day So Far… Today turned out to be novel day in my story challenge. I have been going through the stories and spell-checking them so Kris could read them. (She has read three in the last three days so far. I’m giving her one a day.) So trying to stay ahead of Kris reding, I pulled up Story #9 to spell check and remembered it was a novel start, I had written a ways into it and could not wrap it down into a short story. So I figured why not try to figure out a wrap now? 1,000 more words on the start and nope,…