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My Story A Day Challenge…
Going Okay, But… The “but” is coming from critical voice, of course. It has been a stupidly busy first two weeks of the month and I got into a bad habit right out of the gate of starting the story too late at night. Way, way too late. Problem with that is being tired I tell my creative voice to do something short, and a lot of my Marble Grant stories and Bryant Street stories are in the 2,000 word range, so even though I never plan it, I default back to them. Amazing how powerful the creative voice is. It wants me to finish a story a day, but…
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Story #15 on Day #15
Starting Stories Toward Publication… Starting in a day or so, after the dust settles here from the In-Person Space Opera class, I will start getting a story per day to Kris to read. I will be doing covers for each story as I go along and of course writing a new story per day. But the story Kris sees will be a few weeks behind where I am at in the writing. Then the next step in making sure I have something to do with these stories is to put the first 10 into a collection, maybe with an unpublished story from a previous challenge. I will do the introduction…
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SERIES COLLIDES KICKSTARTER Ends Tonight
Ends at 7PM West Coast Time… There are two very special workshops only available in this campaign. How to Write Series Endings and also How to Write Cross-Genre Series. And the stories you write for both I will look at, if you want me to, for Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. These workshops will have sessions in February and are three weeks long. The tag line on this campaign is… 2 WRITERS, 36 SERIES, 100 STORIES Kris and I know how to write and teach series, so don’t miss these. Ends at 7PM tonight The Series Collide Kickstarter. It also has stretch goals that allows backers to submit stories to Pulphouse Magazine…
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SERIES COLLIDE Kickstarter Ends Tomorrow…
Two Fantastic Special Workshops Included… How to Write Series Endings and also How to Write Cross-Genre Series. And the stories you write for both I will look at, if you want me to, for Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. These workshops will have sessions in February and are three weeks long. Don’t miss the Series Collide Kickstarter. It also has stretch goals that allows backers to submit stories to Pulphouse Magazine in February, March, and maybe more. And all five of the Collides Series are available, over 520 stories, half from me, half from Kris. So help us pass the word. Take a look! This is a good one. Look at the…
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Space Opera Workshop Starting Here…
And Kickstarter Only Has Three Days Left… All kinds of stuff going on at the moment. Fun. Don’t miss the Series Collide Kickstarter. It has in it. couple of great workshops that will run in February, and also so far we have hit a stretch goal that allows backers to submit stories to Pulphouse Magazine in February. And we have a special stretch goal working right now to hit extra backers by late Monday. So help us pass the word. Take a look! This is a good one. UPDATES ON IN-PERSON CLASSES More signed up again today so after today here are the spots remaining in the In-Person classes…. Gothic …
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Story Eleven and Mentors
Talking About Mentors I did a one-shot class last year about what I learned from my mentors over 50 years of writing. It was fun to do, looking back like that. It is on Teachable and still available. No one gets successful in this publishing business alone, that’s for sure. And now Kris and I do our best to get our years of knowledge passed on to the next generations through workshops, blogs, and mentorships. Back when we were coming into the business, a mentorship was more of let’s talk when we are both at the same convention. Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm were different, slightly. They taught at Clarion…
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Story #10 New Character…
Creative Voice Picking Up Speed… Feels great to be honest if I would just give myself more time each day. Today I wrote a 2,500 word story with a brand new character in my worlds, Private Detective Crunch. The story is #10 in ten days. “The Woman Who Fought Mice” was today’s story. I am finding it interesting that even though tired after a long day, I sit down at my dedicated writing computer, pick two half titles and slam them together and next think I know I am about 500 words in and cycling back. Today was just business, business, business, a nap, cooked dinner, watched some of the…
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IN-PERSON WORKSHOPS ALL SET!!!
Space Opera In-Person Workshop Starts Monday… Right here in the WMG office in Las Vegas. We wanted to make sure it would work and it will. And will be great for writers attending for a ton of reasons, not the least of which is food and comfort and being able to have your own coffee in the room. (grin). So not having to mess with the problems of scheduling with hotels, and going back to what we had planned in 2019 before you-know-what hit, the craft workshops will all be in the WMG office for the next two years. And for the craft workshops, we are avoiding the summer. Just…
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Story #8 and Backing Up Work…
Back It Up!!! I learned this the very hard way back in 1985. I came back from the Portland airport to my house in Lincoln City to find it all boarded up and my mint collection of Astounding pulps hosed down on the front yard. Seems the fire started in the electrical box in my office. I lost all my stories that were not in the mail at the time, meaning about 100 short stories. I lost my first two written novels as well that were beside my typewriter that had melted into a puddle. I lost it all. Years of writing. It took me years to get back to…
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7th Story and Kickstarter Success…
NEW WRITERS HAVE NO HISTORY… And I honestly would not expect a new fiction writer coming into publishing for the first time to have any perspective on what happened, often before they were born. So I am trying to imagine what a new writer faces today in 2025. A dumping ground on social media of really bad opinions and information that just makes it all seem impossible. And with their craft, they carry a ton of destructive baggage from teachers. Rewriting, polishing, beta readers, workshops, you name it. A hundred ways to destroy anything original in a new writer. Then the publishing world itself looks totally overwhelming. Publish your own…