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How To Write a Holiday Crime Story Workshop…
All Letters to Those Signed Up Are Out… Thanks to all of you for the support of the WMG 2020 Holiday Spectacular. Really appreciated. In the letter are the instructions on how you can sign into either the December 1st workshop or the January 5th workshop. Your choice. If you can’t find the letter I sent you, look in the address you used for Kickstarter first. Then look in your spam filter. Then once you have exhausted all possible locations where my letter might be, then write me and I will make sure you are on the list from Josh first, and second, if you are I will send you…
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I Have Books In Three Bundles…
At The Same Time… This Never Happens… I am usually happy to be in a bundle every three months or so. So folks, if you want to get some amazing reading by other authors, and get four of my books, (And four of Kris’s books) now is the time to grab all three bundles. A couple of them are vanishing fairly soon, so don’t miss them. Here are descriptions and pictures and links of all three bundles. In the www.StoryBundle.com/Crime I have a Cold Poker Gang novel BAD BEAT, and I have a collection of best crime stories from Pulphouse Magazine that I edited called Twist of a Knife. Plus…
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GOOD CHEER HOLIDAY BUNDLE…
This Just Went Live!!! That’s right, just tonight, and I think this is an amazingly special bundle of holiday stories of all kinds and types. Perfect reading for this holiday season in so many ways. And one of the coolest things in this bundle is a book that explains the importances and contains all of The Santa Claus Stories by L. Frank Baum. Yes, the Wizard of OZ L. Frank Baum. With all his Santa Claus stories, he helped cement the images and traits we take for granted now for Santa Claus. And now, for the first time ever, they are gathered together and reprinted in one book, WITH ALL…
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The True End of Trade Publishing…
At Least As Anyone Knows It… Trade publishing is what I call traditional publishing. The reason for the word “trade,” very, very, VERY simply put, is that the publishers don’t sell directly to readers, they sell into the trades. The trades in publishing are a distribution system that is an old-fashioned channel to get books from an old-fashioned printing presses to warehouses to distributors to bookstores and then into the hands of readers. (By the way, three of the major trade printers have filed for bankruptcy or shut down. That is another really bad sign that causes books to be extremely delayed.) Trade publishers do not care about readers and…
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Taking Another Rest Day
I Got All Regular Assignments Done… Will finish tomorrow some assignments and letters I am behind on, then read some stories I just found from the Space Opera class that I haven’t read yet. I will do those tomorrow as well. But tonight I am going to just rest, go watch a movie, get a good night’s sleep. Nothing wrong. I know people worry that when I say I am not working until three in the morning I must be sick. But nope, just learning to take some time away from this computer a little more. Plus my one eye is forcing me away often just to be safe. And…
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Two New Classes… Two New Storybundles
All Kinds of Fun Stuff… I have three books in nifty StoryBundles right now. The first one is the Space Opera Storybundle and my collection, A Billion Earths is exclusive to the bundle, so you can get it along with some other really nifty books by great writers. The second book is an anthology I edited called A Twist of a Knife (best mysteries from Pulphouse Magazine.) It is in the Twist of a Knife Storybundle along with some other wonderful mystery books. I also curated this bundle and I also have my Cold Poker Gang novel Bad Beat in there. Three books in two Storybundles. How much fun is…
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Stay Home and Be Careful
Thanksgiving Weekend… Here in the States, this coming weekend is a major holiday, and because of it, and because of people not being careful, many more thousands and thousands will die sometime between now and Christmas. But that can be stopped or slowed if everyone just was careful. Stay home and cook your own meal for the holiday. Make family members that you love who live in other places stay in their own homes as well. Connect online. And if you do have to go out, don’t get near anyone without a mask. And wash and sanitize your hands like crazy. Kris and I live on the top floor in…
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A Problem I Am Just Starting to See…
Submissions to Major Magazines… I flat believe that everyone writing short stories and who wants a writing career long term should get into the habit of sending short stories to major magazine markets. I have gone over the reasons may times. All upside when your stories start to hit. And I have just assumed it was some fear thing that stopped writers from submissions of stories to major magazines. Fear caused by baseless critical voice issues that I just assume that if a writer can’t get past the fears, they will never be a long-term writer. And I think all of the above is true still. No opinion change on…
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A Challenge For Everyone for 2021…
My Challenge of 70 While I Am 70 Pushes Me… So I got a comment about structuring a short story publishing challenge for 2021 for others, especially writers just starting out. And I think it’s a great idea for a bunch of reasons for most writers. So I thought I would go into the reasons and the idea here. Challenge: Publish 52 Short Stories Stand Alone In 2021 Note, I did not say write, I said PUBLISH. Stories would have to be stand-alone, most selling for $2.99 electronic and $4.99 paper. (Under 3,000 words sell it for $1.99… never 99 cents.) A lot of writers I know have collections published…
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Sort of Rest and Errands Day
Yup, New York Times Bestsellers Just Do Regular Stuff… I have sold more millions of books than I want to think about and last time I counted was five years ago now. And here I talk about workshops and helping writers and doing posts with observations and about my running or bundles my books are in. But this is a filler blog about my day. Feel free to jump to tomorrow. So today was errands. And rest. So I am wasting your time, you know, to show how writers are just normal folks, as you all know. I wanted to rest today because, to be honest, I just sort of…