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On this page
- This site has moved!!!
- Writing this year 2/9/08
- Writing update
- Workshop Schedule for 2008
- A quick Update 12/22/07
- Interesting few weeks 10/17/07
- Update 9/20
- Store Picture #5
- Store Picture #4
- Store Picture #3
- Store Picture #2
- Store Picture #1
- I'm Back
- A writing question 7/26/07
- The Race...Another writing question
- A Writing Question
- Today
- More walls
- Second stage
- How it started
So you know what the idiot who's typing here looks like...
What fun. Just got copies of an anthology I wrote a story for a few years back. The anthology is If I Were An Evil Overlord and it is edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davis and publised by Daw. My story is very weird, as you might expect. The title is "The Life and Death of Fortune Cookie Tyrant."
Kris also has a story in the book, along with Nina Kiriki Hoffman, David Bischoff, and Esther Friesner, among others. 14 stories in total. Worth the money.
I'll have some covers of some short young adult books I wrote up here in a few weeks, plus the story behind those.
Cheers
Dean
I've had a ton of stories and novels published overseas, but every time I get a copy of the book, it's always fun. I can't read them, and in this case, can't even read my name, but it's still fun. So this time I thought I'd share.
This is the top-ranked Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine published monthly in Japan. I had a story called "Sprinkle on a Memory" published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Hayakawa asked to reprint it. I got more from Japan than I did originally from Ellery Queen. And they changed the title to "Sprinkler on a Memory" which is just fine, even though it takes out the double meaning of the title.
And I like the art on this one, even though it is amazingly simple.
Cheers
Dean
The second book in the Treasure Raiders series written under my pen name Sandy Schofield. This series is basically Young Indiana Jones meets the Davinci Code. Five young boys are forced to have adventures around the world looking for ancient treasure while searching for a kidnapped father. Pure pulp and great fun.
This is the second book in the Wild Boys series written under my own name. In 1866, six young boys head west, through the wilderness, chasing a gang of bad men who kill without remorse. The wild west like you've never seen it before. Historically as accurate as I can make it.
I'll put up more covers as I get them. I've written four in each series so far, and am contracted to write three more in each series. Great fun.
Cheers
Dean
I sure hope everyone is having a good holiday. This is one of those holidays we all celebrate in a very personal fashion in some respects. So my wishes are for all of you that today is a good day of celebration and memory.
As for updates here. Writing is slow at the moment because all my energy is going to start up the store (Pop Culture Collectables) and get all this stuff moved out there. In July, the focus will turn back to writing and my evenings will free up again. Or at least, I'll have enough energy in the evenings to write instead of just lay on the couch and moan.
Well, supposedly, on a test launch of Adventure Boy books, I have two children's picture books, based on the short novels I wrote, coming out in Nordstrom's top 50 department stores this week.
I have yet to see these, but have been told they are using the art from the short novel, and someone inside the company took my story and reduced it down to simple stuff for preschool age. Weird that my name is on the books. The two short novels the preschool picture books are based on will come out in two months, again in a test launch in Nordstrom's top 50 stores.
Then the other six shorter books I wrote in the two series will come out one every month starting in September, and in wider distrabution in the fall and winter, meaning to bookstores and Amazon and such.
At least, that's what I've been told. I sure hope I get to write more, because they were fun, but who knows in publishing. I'll keep you all informed. And if someone happens to be in a Nordstrom's after the first of June, let me know what the Adventure Boys books look like with my name on them.
What fun. Two unplanned books that I really didn't even have to write. That's a first for me in this business, having two books published with my name on them that I didn't write and haven't seen. Yet they are based on my work. I wonder how I count these in my published book totals?
I also did a rewrite for the proposal and chapters for what I call my "movie star" book. It's a thriller and a ton of fun and I sure hope that the publishing gods allow the book to happen. Working with the movie star is great, and the movie star wants to really be involved, which is fantastic. Much better than me working in a vacuum, hoping to get it right.
Anyhow, just working away on various things. I've had a number of trips lately as well, including one to Idaho to see my mother and friends. Had a blast, but had to cut a side trip to play some poker in Nevada short to get back to work in the store construction. (Contractors don't wait this time of the year.
More updates to follow as I learn more about the Adventure Boys books, and other writing projects on the horizon. One thing I can say this fine holiday where we celebrate those who have gone before us, I have an interesting life.
Flowers are in bloom, sky is clear, the air crisp, a slight breeze off the ocean. It's time to get away from this computer for a while.
Cheers
Dean
As many of you know, the forum part of this site will be going away very shortly. I just couldn't keep it up against the spammers, and I couldn't stop others from putting copywritten material on the forum. So it will be history.
After that, I will answer questions here in my blog about writing, questions that I get through e-mail if I feel the question is worth answering for one reason or another.
But for the moment, my attention is in remodeling a space I rented for a new shop. The shop will sell Pop Culture stuff, including a ton of comics, marbles, games, toy cars, and things like that, plus jewelry and watches. You know, all the stuff I've collected over the years.
Mostly it's a front for my eBay selling, since I was getting tired of shipping stuff, but loved selling on eBay. So I decided to hire a person to do the shipping, but I didn't want them in my office, and I wanted more control of my eBay habit, so putting it all in a store front was the best solution.
However, the really strange little off-the-road mall didn't have a spot open except for a massive room (over 1,500 square feet) that had been used for storage for decades. The owner of the mall and I made a deal. He and I would get all his stuff into other areas of storage, and I would remodel the space. The costs would be basically me paying ahead on rent. No money our work out of his life, but as it turned out, a ton of work on my part. A ton. And since I needed to lose a few more pounds (I'm down almost 60 pounds from my heaviest), I decided to do most of the work, with the help of a great guy named Steve.
Construction work is hard work. Wow. And old writers like me are just not cut out to do it every day for weeks. But somehow, with the help of Advil, I've been pulling myself out of bed every day and working 9-10 hours of construction. As they say, what doesn't kill you will make you stronger. I am much stronger, with my old muscles back, and some hard-earned new ones.
Anyhow, today we finally got the last of the sheet rock hung and nailed, and tomorrow is the inspection on that. For those that are interested, we had to do the following steps.
Clear everything out. Then all new flooring, which is 3/4 inch plywood, screwed down to big old planking under it. (You could see the ground through the old planking floor.) Then inside the non-comforming walls that were there, we had to put brand new stud walls on all four walls, floor to ceiling (14 feet in some places). To make matters worse, over the decades (this is a very old building), the floor had settled a lot. On one side, the front side of the huge space had a floor seven inches above the back side, and across the room, on the same line, the front side was six inches above the back side.
And everything slanted and rolled. We had to build plum walls. And we had to build because of that huge shift down the middle of the room, what look like counters across the center. And we had to frame in all the old huge timber-sized posts, which were charred from an old fire 30 plus years before.
Tomorrow, after the inspection, we start on the drop ceiling, which I have never done before. That should be interesting. I call it nine hours on a stair-master work-out. We also start mudding and painting the walls, and after all that, we put down hardwood floors. I'll show more pictures as the next stages go along, but for now, here are the first four stages.
This is insane, but getting close to finishing. Then we move in the 16 huge glass display cases I have bought, and start filling it. And that's when the real fun begins.
I'll be back to writing in late July, early August, unless a publisher really needs something sooner, of course.
Cheers
Dean
This picture is as we were starting to move years of stuff out of the place.
Floor is mostly down over the old planks, and we are just starting to build the new walls. Picture is looking along the left wall toward the back. Remember, this is 1,500 square feet, about the size of a three bedroom house.
Here shows the counters we had to build to level the floor problems.
This was taken right after we got all the rock hung and nailed this afternoon. Waiting for inspection to pass before we start with the suspended ceiling. Notice the new insulation in the ceiling as well. And inside all the new walls before we closed them up. I hate insulation.
More pictures as each stage finishes.
I got a pretty interesting writing question tonight, so thought I would kick off this new way of answering writing questions with it.
This is a question about marketing short fiction, and how to go about it exactly. What follows is my opinion, of course, and remember, I used to be a major short fiction editor. Interestingly enough, even with all the changes on the novel side, for short fiction, not much has changed at all since I came into the business almost 30 years ago.
So, who do I, and how should you, market short fiction?
Some basics.
1... Always start at the top market, the one that has the highest circulation, pays the most, and gives you the most value in credits on your cover letter.
2... When the story comes back from the top market, send it to the next best market, and so on.
3... One story, one market at a time. No simultaneous submissions in short fiction. All kinds of reasons. Novels are a different matter, but for short fiction, one market at a time. (If you have enough short fiction stories out circulating, you won't notice the time passing.
4... Your bottom market should never be below a pay rate of around 5 cents per word. If you can't seem to find a market at that level or above, you aren't looking very hard. Hold the story until you find the new market. Or a new one opens up.
Now, for me, having as many short stories out as I can is a good thing. (Remember, only one story per market at a time.) In the past, I had over 70 short stories in the mail at once. Different short stories, and none below professional level markets (5 cents and certain circulation). And I kept them out there for a long time.
If you only focus on one or two stories at a time, you are not playing the odds. And you are rewriting too much, which is another discussion we had on the forum.
As Denise Little said at a workshop for short fiction where she was the editor in residence, if you take longer than a day to write a short story, it's not cost effective from a business sense for a professional writer to do them. I agree. It usually takes me about four hours or so to write a five thousand word short story. If I sell it for 6 cents a word to an anthology, I have gotten paid $300 for the four hours. Okay wage, not great, but not bad.
(I tend to count all the words in fiction I write as 10 cents per word value, so five thousand words is $500 for the day, and I'm happy.) (Ten cents per word is $10,000 for a 100,000 word novel, with no other sales but a standard advance. That's where I get the 10 cent per word number.)
Anyhow, don't take long to write short fiction, mail it to a top market, keep it in the mail, and write a lot of it and keep it all in the mail. Follow Heinlein's Rules. And never short-change your own talent by sending a story to a lower market just for the worthless credit. Stay on the professional levels. You will be very glad you did in the long run.
Now, back to the final days of construction on the new store for me. Getting so close, it's starting to get exciting.
Cheers
Dean
On the topic of short fiction mailing, something else came up that might be of help to some of you, or at least one professional writer thought so, and I agreed.
A little history first.
A long time ago, in a land far away, I was a young writer, hoping to someday make a living at my writing. On a lark, and to give to a writer's workshop I attended every week, I started a little magazine called "The Report." At first, it was three double-sided pages that I gave away at the workshop. It had things like who turned in stories the previous week, who mailed what, some funny writing comics, and art cribbed right out of old public-doman magazines. Funny art.
After about twenty-five issues, I started sending it out to friends as well who were not in the workshop, and the scope of the thing expanded. I started taking in articles and opinion pieces about writing from other professionals, the most famous of which is by Nina Kiriki Hoffman on the secret of selling fiction being in the placement of periods on the page.
Anyway, somewhere along the way, I came up with the idea of trying to track rejection times. (I was dumb, young, and didn't know any better.) It was the first time anyone had done such a thing, and Geoff Landis offered to do it. It was an idea I have regretted ever since. Do not track rejection times. Silly thing to do.
However, about that same spot in the run of The Report (it ran about 78 or 79 issues total and I'm talking somewhere around issue 40 that this started), I came up with another bright idea. How about those of us getting the report for free track who many stories we have in the mail.
So I invented what came to be called "The Race" even though it is not a race against anyone but yourself. By counting points in The Race, you can have a quick and handy way of keeping track of how many stories and novels you have in the mail.
The race basically works like this:
You get one point for every short story in the mail.
You get three points for every novel proposal or chapters and outline you have out. (Only three points per book, not per submission
You get eight points for every full novel manuscript you have out to market.
That's it. People reported their race total to me a week ahead of the pub date of The Report and the back cover page became The Race page.
And interesting things happened, many in hindsight that is clear now, looking back at those old copies. Those of use where were at the top of the race went on to become professional selling writers. Those who couldn't manage more than five to ten points in the race every week never made it. Not one of them.
Those of us who lead the race at 50, 60, 70 plus points were Kevin J. Anderson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Ray Vukcevich, Geoff Landis, and me, among other names you would recognize from many novels and stories and awards.
Why do this? Simple, actually. It gives you a real check-in goal every week. You start thinking of mailing stories as a big game, not something fearful and deadly. You start thinking "I've got to get that story finished and in the mail so I can get that extra point this week." Or, even more important, when a story gets rejected, you fire the thing back into the mail the next day to keep your race point.
Over the years, I've come and gone from different start-ups of races. Right now, there is a regular web-site that a bunch of writers of all levels have joined into to report their race points and give encouragment to each other. This is a private group, but there is nothing stopping any of you out there from taking this idea and running with it with your friends, with your workshop. The very first time I published The Race results, there were four of us on the chart on the back page of The Report. Nina and me and two others who didn't make it. The last time I did a report with The Race on the back, there were 27 writers reporting in. Kevin Anderson was leading, followed closely behind by Kris Rusch. I was in fifth place, about 15 points back. And I had over 70 short stories in the mail at that point.
I have heard of two different writers actually breaking 100 points in the mail. They are now both selling stories and novels regularly.
This is one of the many mind games that can help you practice, help you follow Heinlein's Rules.
Write and mail a short story every week, and trust me, in just a little over a year, your points will be up there, and you will start selling. Again, this is the secret of writing. It's called writing a ton and mailing it all.
I hope The Race works for you. It is an idea I have been proud to have come up with. And it works for me. And many, many others.
Have fun.
Cheers
Dean
It's been crazy busy around here, and after two months of construction work at 12 hours a day, I finally made a health mistake that cost some time as well. I'll get to the writing question and answer in a moment. I've been asked a few, and might get to them later this week and next as well.
The health mistake turned out to be stupid on my part. I seem unable for any length of time to remember that back in 1973, I suffered a massive heat stroke in Palm Springs, California, and was in the hospital for most of a week. Well, once you have been downed by such a thing once, you become pretty sensitive to heat, and yet, over the years, I've managed a number of times to do bonehead things that either tossed me back into the hospital or came close.
This time it was back in the hospital again. Sigh.... First off, I was worn down by the work on the store, and trying to push to get it open and stocked somewhat during our tourist summer here. For the first two months, I managed, even while sweating and working in hot conditions, to do things right. I replaced the lost stuff like salt in my blood from so much sweating, and got sleep, and everything. I got stronger, lost weight, and was pretty pleased with myself.
Then, a week ago, to help Kris get started running races (I have finished a marathon), I went for a five-K race with her on the beach. A fun run. (I made it too, thank you very much.
That's when the stupidity started. I went right back to work, and kept working, drinking water, sure, but nothing else to repair the damage I had done to myself. (I know better, but somehow, I just didn't think of it. Stupid, yes.) A couple of days later I started getting tired, started aching in joints. I figured it was just the hard work catching up to the 57 years old overweight body. (I still did nothing, ate little salty food, drank no Gateraide, nothing.) A day ago, the fever got so bad, I was down all day, and by six yesterday morning, the fever hit 104 and Kris was dragging my sick old body to the hospital.
Six hours in emergency, with more people swarming around me than I thought could fit in a room, they couldn't find what my body was fighting against. X-Rays, cultures, more blood lost and tested than I want to think about. Nothing. I had been given pills to reduce the fever, but nothing was working. And I was so gone, I was in and out of awareness for most of it. Mostly out. So they hooked me up to a saline (sp?) solution and twenty minutes later, the fever was headed down. Another bag of the stuff and I was feeling better.
About 20 hours of sleep, a lot of salt and other electrolite stuff, as well as potasium (all spelled wrong I'm sure
Pictures of the store shortly. It is way too much fun and turning out much better than hoped. And I should be back writing in two weeks, with a really cool assignment for a thriller I have to write. More later on that.
As for the writing question, it is basically which is a better way to come into publishing... writing novels or starting by writing short stories?
Answer, as with many things in publishing is "It Depends." Thank God JK Rowling didn't start by writing short stories. But there are advantages to doing so first.
Let me quickly outline both sides of this, and if I miss something, e-mail me and I'll add to this answer.
Short stories are great practice, in short bursts, that help you learn craft. You get a sense of finishing something, if you are following Heinlein's Rules, you are mailing what you write, so you are learning markets. And once you start selling, the credits DO HELP you get attention with editors. A few stories in Asimov's and trust me, at a convention, editors will be looking for you to ask you about your novel. Not kidding.
BUT, if you don't read short fiction regularly, and love it, don't bother. Write what you love to read. If you only read novels, then write novels. It will take you longer to learn, but who cares if you have a few hundred thousand words of clunky short stories on your desk, or three clunky novels. It was all practice, and you have to write it to learn.
So, the answer to the question is "It Depends." You can get attention and learn quickly with short stories, but if you don't love them, don't even try. Stay with the novels, and figure you're going to sell novel number four or six or (as Steven King did who was selling short fiction) eight.
Have fun, stay salted, and enjoy.
Cheers
Dean
Well, not sure if anyone is still around after the last two months of me just not showing up here.
So, some quick high points of the last two months. I'm back writing, but slowly. I knew that starting up this hobby/store was going to be work. And I figured I'd give it the summer and be back at writing in September and that's what happened. The store is still chewing up a lot of time, as expected at the moment, but over the next few months, that will settle down. I have THREE fantastic employees, the first month the store MADE money above all costs, and I am stunned at how well it is going and how really cool it looks.
Stunned. A brand new store should not make money on its first month. But it did, and it will for the second month and so on. All is on track and starting to settle down into a hummmmm.
So, I'm back writing. I'm hammering on a redraft of a romance novel I tried and failed at last year. No pressure to get it right, just fun. We'll see if I can hit it this time. Then firing on a thriller after that.
Kris and I will be headed to Florida in January/February for what promises to be a great writer's conference. It's called Space Coast Writer's Conference and I'll post more information about it later this month and a link to their site.
At some point I'll take some pictures and show you all what the store looks like, since I put up construction pictures. I look at those pictures and just shake my head. How the place got from that to what it is now is just impossible to believe. What was I thinking when I started this silly thing?
And, of course, it cost more and took longer than I expected, so I really got to get back to writing even sooner to make up some of that.
Thank you, everyone, who wrote me and wished me well after my last post here about my little fight in the hospital. In hindsight, I was really stupid to let it happen, and very lucky to have gotten through it without some sort of major damage to something. Just medical bills, which luckily, are mostly covered by my insurance. Phew... suckers can get big real fast. So thanks, everyone. All is well.
Novel workshop the end of October I'm really looking forward to. About 15 professionals sitting around for a long weekend working over each other's books. I learn a ton every time we have one of those.
I had a book come out this last month or so. The last volume of Strange New Worlds. #10. Right about now I would be thinking of reading in October, but this year I'm not. I actually think I'm going to miss the Trek stories after ten years of reading every October.
Kris has a new book out right now as well. Retrieval Artist series called "Recovery Man." It's gotten great reviews in Publisher's Weekly, Romantic Times, and Locus. Go find it and buy it. All the books in the series stand alone. Mystery/CSI on the moon. Great stuff. Great science fiction.
Now, off to rest, back up to the store tomorrow morning, then maybe even some writing tomorrow night. Nice to be back in the chair with a computer. I missed it, even though I lost a bunch of weight doing all this work.
Cheers
Dean
Go back and look at the pictures in the blogs about ten entries ago. One is called "How it started." I look at that and I can't believe this place.
Then you can see how much we did. See why I lost weight this summer?
But the store turned out to be wonderful.
This picture is from the front door looking into the store. Beside me on the right and on the left are two large glass cabinets with drawers full of watches. Drawers and drawers full of watches. Right now I think I have over twenty different Mickey Mouse watches out for sale, including one from the very first year of Mickey Mouse watches, a pocket watch that works like a charm.
Standing near the couches looking toward the right side of the store where there is a wall of Hot Wheels cars.
Main Marble case. 500 plus marbles dating from 1800's to 1930's or so.
Comic section. This will hold about 25,000 comics when full.
Well, back writing fast and furious. I have a book due on October 1st, and another thriller for a movie star that I may need to write fairly fast in the next month or so.
Feels good to be back focusing on the writing again. Building the store was fun, and trust me, it's a great place to be, but it also feels great to be back to work.
Right now, Kris is off in France doing a book tour for her Smokey Dalton books that she publishes under her Kris Nelscott name. They are bestsellers in Europe. At some point, they should be here as well, but so far it just hasn't worked yet. If you haven't read any of the six, go find one and do so. You will become a fan of the series.
I'm going to be in Florida in January for a conference there. I'll post the link here shortly. Getting back to writing is also getting me back to here as well. It feels odd to be back here without the forum going. I've gotten a few questions and will try to get to them in this next week, or after the first of the month when I get this book done.
Jury duty this month on top of everything else. Of course, there's not a chance I'll ever be on a jury. Once they find out I have three years of law school, and have published over 90 novels, I tend to be the first to go. So, I get to go over to the courthouse, sit around and talk to other juriors, then go home. One more week of that, doing my civic duty.
Well, back to work. When I can give more information about the projects, I will.
Cheers
Dean
The topic title says it all. No real writing in the last few weeks, but Kris finally got home after a month-long adventure which saw her in New York three different times, Paris three different times, London two different times, and five days in Rome. She has a LOT of air miles. All the trip was for writing, both book tours for her Nelscott books in France, and meetings and such in France, London, and mostly New York. (She also managed to work in some Broadway and London Stage plays, of course.)
I held down the home fort and fed the cats and tried to remember which bills I had paid and which ones I had forgot. After over 21 years with Rusch, I guess I'm just lost without her around. I did just fine, but another month would have seen things really fall apart.
Also, once again, I ran into corporate stupidity that came out on my side. It has nothing to do with writing. Here in our little town, we have a very large discount mall with about 80 shops. Well, these shops are owned by large corporations. And every so often, when a store decides to move from one side of the mall to another, or quit the mall all-together, a friend of mine gets a call and he and I go scrambling down to the store. There, we always find a construction crew tearing apart all that was left from the old corporate store and stripping the space down to an empty shell. Everything goes into the dumpster.
This time the call came at eight in the evening and the stuff they were tossing was fantastic cherry wood shelves, with a beautiful cherry-wood counters and a ton of ceiling fixtures, lights, and so on. Well, from eight in the evening until two in the morning, we made trips with a truck hauling out huge shelves, then back there before eight in the morning to keep going, staying just barely ahead of the stuff hitting the dumpster. We worked until the middle of the afternoon and ended up pulling out over 2,000 square feet of drop ceiling, tiles and all, a ton of lighting, and 28 huge shelf units, a massive wrap-around front counter, a ton of glass shelves, and a bunch of other stuff.
Just the two of us. More physical labor than I want to do again any time soon. But I kept up with a strong person twenty years my junior just fine, thank you. And yes, I understand the business and tax reasons why these companies can't keep this stuff, but it is a real sign of a really sick toss-away culture that they have to throw this stuff out. My friend and I and the contractor clearing the stuff out figured the costs of the fixtures we were saving would be over 40 thousand when new. At least.
I then tore out all the regular old pine shelves in my store, (which meant emptying them) and have spent the last two days in more physical labor putting in nine of the nifty new shelves. Wow, do they class up this place even more. Stunning. My store manager is now in the process of putting everything back out on the new shelves and I'm back trying to get caught up with eBay.
With luck I'll be back writing this next week, or after the novel workshop that's being held in my office building next weekend. More than likely after the novel workshop.
So, I'll report back about then, and also by then we should have a few workshops nailed down to firm dates and such. I'll report those here as well and get a workshop topic started.
Now, to rest some very tired muscles.
Cheers
Dean
It's been crazy. Flat out crazy.
First off, things were humming right along and then old mother nature decided to pound us here on the Oregon Coast with a nasty little storm. At our house on a hill overlooking the Pacific, we hit 125 mph winds. Nasty. Lost some trees, of course, and nicked a roof, but otherwise got off pretty good compared to many around the area.
And we were without power or phones for about three days. Lots of fun.
So, we get back up and running sort of and I get this phone call. An author is in trouble and could I write a book quickly from a two paragraph outline to save the author? So I wrote a novel. Real fast. It won't have my name on it and I can't tell you what it is, but just let me say that my 94th book was a lot of fun to write.
Of course, I got behind on a ton of other stuff and just today finally got caught up enough to come back here. Kris and I both this year are just skipping Christmas and working right through. No kids, so we can do that.
On the home page I talked about how writers can get into all the short story anthologies being published. If you are interested, read that, look at the three books I just had stories in, and then write me if you have sold a professional short story or two or more or a novel or two. Trust me, it's a blast writing stories for those anthologies. I tend to write the story for the book that is just a little off and weird.
For example, my story in the coming book FRONT LINES is called Dinner on a Flyin' Saucer. The first line is:
Ethel was lookin' at me like a skunk done crawled up my ass and was making a nest.
Yeah, it goes from there.
At some point in the very near future, I will have a new area on this site dedicated to the workshops. They are not beginning writer workshops. They are, like the anthology workshops, for professionals, or writers who are working darned hard at becoming a professional. And since we found such a great new home for the workshop, we're going to do a bunch in 2008. The list is this:
--Novel Workshop 1st weekend of Feb.
--Anthology Workshop first weekend of March (Feb28-March2nd)
--Novel Workshop 1st weekend of April
---How to Market Your Work (week-long workshop in May including how to find an agent and what to do with them when you do.)
-- When to Quit Your Day Job (how to survive in the business of writing fiction full time...basically, we let you run through 10 years of your career as a practice run...) That's June 13-15
--- Short story workshop with Sheila Williams and Kristine Kathryn Rusch in September.
--- Master Class for two weeks in October. (6 instructors)
--- Novel workshop in November.
If interested, write to me and make sure you put Workshops in your header, otherwise my spam filter kills you if it doesn't know you. I will give you more details. Or watch this site and I will put up the details.
Well, back to work now. Feels good, for the moment, to be almost caught up. Have a great holiday season and write a lot.
Cheers
Dean
Following are the workshops we are doing here on the Oregon Coast in 2008. These are all "graduate level" workshops, meaning they are designed and aimed at writers who have gotten through most of the early stages and are starting to sell, or very close, and want to someday make a living with their fiction writing. If interested in any of these, just e-mail me at Dean@deanwesleysmith.com
--- Feb 1,2,3. NOVEL WORKSHOP. Cost. $200. Includes two nights room and John Douglas’s fee for reading all the work. Workshop starts at 6 pm Friday and ends at noon on Sunday. Fee must be paid with manuscript on January 1st. Clarion style workshop focused on novels. Run by Dean Wesley Smith. All reading is done the month ahead of each workshop. Finished novel by January 6th required.
--- Feb 28, 29, March 1, 2. DENISE LITTLE ANTHOLOGY WORKSHOP. $500.00
Includes 3 nights room. Writing workshop, must bring computer and printer. You will write a short story at this workshop and another short story ahead of time to assignment. Denise Little is the Executive Editor for Tekno books. This workshop is how you get invited into all the paperback anthologies put out by Daw and others. Tekno does them all pretty much. Denise tells me she may have live anthologies for this workshop, which means you will be writing for actual market and as last time we did this, she might buy stories right in the workshop. Nothing for sure, but at least you would get your work in front of a major short fiction editor.
--- April 4,5,6. NOVEL WORKSHOP. Cost $200. Includes two nights room and John Douglas’s fee. Workshop starts at 6 pm Friday and ends at noon on Sunday. Fee must be paid with manuscript on March 1st. (e-mail list will start in January) Same as January Workshop on details.
--- May 3 through 10. HOW TO MARKET YOUR WORK. Cost $1,000. This is a combination of Agent workshop, proposal workshop, marketing workshop, and much more. For anyone wanting to really understand agents, this is the workshop. Starts on Saturday at 6 pm. Ends late on Saturday night (10th) so travel Sunday is possible. Includes eight nights of room. Fee must be paid in full any time before April 1st. (Refundable) E-mail group will start in February for this one. Must bring a computer and printer and if possible, have a computer set up for wireless access. The hotel has wireless and you will be using it for the workshop. This has a very intense focus on how to write novel proposals and queries, how to find good markets, how to get through the road blocks set up by publishers, how to deal with agents, how to find them, how to know when they are going bad, and so on. Everything to do with getting your work sold.
---June 13,14, 15. WHEN TO QUIT YOUR DAY JOB. The game. Spouses welcome and encouraged to attend. Price includes your spouse or partner. Cost $300. Price includes two nights room. Need to bring a computer and printer. E-mail group will start in March. Payment must be made in full before June 1st. (refundable) This is not open to anyone who is planning on going to the Master Class in October. This is basically all business, with Kris and I and Loren Coleman running everyone through ten years of a writing career. Everyone makes decisions for their own career, and gets to watch everyone else do the same. This is as real a dry run for your next ten years as we can make it, right down to writing speed and life issues. A very intense three days.
--- September 11, 12, 13, 14. SHORT STORY WORKSHOP. Instructors: Sheila Williams, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Dean Wesley Smith. Cost $800.00. Includes three nights room. It will be different than what Kris and Gardner used to do, but will still be intense on short fiction craft. And what a way to get to know Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov’s and let her see your work in a more personal setting. Must bring computer and printer. You will finish a short story while at the workshop. Workshop starts Thursday evening at 6 pm. Ends Sunday noon. Fees must be paid in full before August 1st, but can be paid at any time. (This workshop, like the Denise Little, is first paid, first in the Anchor. Anchor has 21 rooms. After those rooms are full, the price goes up to $1,000. (Hotel across the street is far more expensive.)) E-mail list will start in May. Fees are refundable if you can’t make it.
---October 4th through 18th. MASTER CLASS. Cost $2,500. Includes 15 nights. Instructors are Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Loren L. Coleman, Ginjer Buchanan, John Douglas, and one more New York editor to be announced. Write for information.
---November 7, 8, 9. NOVEL WORKSHOP. Cost $200. Includes two nights and John Douglas’s fee. Workshop starts at 6 pm Friday and ends at noon on Sunday. Fee must be paid with manuscript on October 1st. (e-mail list will start in September.) Same a January novel details.
And that's the schedule if anyone is interested and at the right place in your career. Feel free to pass this along to others.
Cheers
Dean
Well, with all the work firing up the workshops, I've also been writing like crazy as well.
I have chapters and a synopsis out to a few futuristic romance editors. and will mail chapters and synopsis of yet a different book in paranormal humorous romance in the next day or so. All those are under the name Dee Schofield, if they sell and get published. New pen name for me. I'll shout if one of them sell.
And I got the big thriller I wrote a few years ago back out to an editor. It should have been in the mail for years. Ahh, well. I know better too, but at least it's back out again. I'll shout if that sells. It's under the pen name Dean Edwards.
And I have two other thrillers out on the market, including one I'm writing with a movie star. (Can't tell you, don't ask.
A good writing start to the year. Now to just keep firing.
Kris and I will be in Cocoa Beach Florida for the Space Coast Writer's Conference over January 25th and 26th. It is a mainstream writer's conference. They even want us to make a speech together. Oh, that's going to be fun.
And at this point I plan on attending World Science Fiction Convention in Denver in August.
Workshops are coming along great. Everyone who is attending is now reading on the Feb 1st novel workshop, and the Denise Little Anthology workshop is just about full and the first writing assignment for a book will go out to the attending writers in a week or so.
The rest of the workshops are slowly filling up, with the big Master Class almost full. It's going to be a fun year doing workshops again. After three years, I sort of missed them. Of course, at this point one year from now, I'm sure my tune will be different.
So, short and quick this time. Working on surprises for this site and hoping to do some really nifty stuff with it this spring, so hang on. This might just get back to some of the fun of the old forum. Who knows.
I hope everyone is having a good start to their writing year.
Cheers
Dean
The writing is going well, even with a ton of distractions so far. I decided at the start of the year to get out a bunch of books that were just hanging around my office, either written or mostly written.
So out on editor's desks is Dead Money, the poker thriller I wrote a number of years back.
Out on editor's desks are two futuristic romance novels (paranormal some call them), one is finished, one is just chapter and outline. Both under a pen name I will announce here if they sell.
I still have the big "movie star" thriller that is out there, making the rounds as well. It has come close a few times and I have a hunch it will hit at some point. And I have a second thriller out making the rounds I call a "talking head" thriller. Both of these books the publisher came to me to write and I am ghosting them, so no more information than that.
I also have out a western I ghosted that should be out this summer, but alas I can't tell anyone about that one either.
Headed out to editors on Monday is a humorous suspense novel, all finished. And right behind it will be another paranormal romance, chapters and outline done.
I have a half dozen more books mostly done, or done, that I'm slowly working my way through and sending out, plus doing new stuff as well. Great fun, actually. Not sure why I didn't have many of these in the mail years ago. Oh, I remember why. Agent problem.
So, all is going along just fine and dandy. Having a blast writing again and being free to just mail stuff where I want when I want. Very freeing, trust me.
As for the workshops, we had the first one, a novel workshop, last weekend. It went great, with a ton of fantastic discussions. I'm very much looking forward to the coming workshops. They can really pump up the old writing energy, that's for sure. I'm glad Kris and I decided to bring them back this year. I'm sure we'll be tired of them again by the end of the year, but at the moment, they are great fun.
Store is just chugging along as well. I got a wild hair idea and we switched everything around last week and it looks great. On the new web site, when it comes up (same address, no problems there), I will post new pictures. I was gone for a week and talked to my store manager only once to check in. It is running like a clock without me, as it should. I just get to go in when I want, play around on eBay, and then leave when I want. Now that's the kind of store I like to have.
So, except for this awful winter, with one storm after another pounding the coast here, all is well. Stay tuned for the change in look on this site, and the return of give and take discussions about writing.
Cheers
Dean
If you have reached this site, please just remove the "mt" from the address and just leave www.deanwesleysmith.com and then hit return to go to the new site.
It is still under construction, but still nicer than this place.
At some point we will put a forwarding from this site automatically.
Thanks!
Cheers
Dean
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