• Challenge,  Misc,  On Writing,  publishing

    Ghost Novel: Day 6

    As I said in every post so far, I’m going to have one post per day here for the “ghost” novel writing process that I was hired by a New York publisher to do. I am now aiming for 9 to 10 days to finish this novel. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I am only talking about the writing process and my day around the writing process. I will add to this post at different times during the day right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process.  At the end of each post I will…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing

    Ghost Novel: Day 5

    As I said in every post so far, I’m going to have one post per day here for the “ghost” novel writing process that I was hired by a New York publisher to do. I am now aiming for 8 to 10 days to finish this novel. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I am only talking about the writing process and my day around the writing process. I will add to this post at different times during the day right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process.  At the end of each post I will…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing

    Ghost Novel: Day 4

    As I said in the previous posts, I’m going to have one post per day here for the “ghost” novel writing process that I was hired by a New York publisher to do. I am aiming for 7 to 10 days to finish this novel. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I am only talking about the writing process and my day around the writing process. I will add to this post at different times during the day right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process.  At the end of each post I will add up…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing

    Ghost Novel: Day 3

    As I said in the previous posts, I’m going to have one post per day here for the “ghost” novel writing process that I was hired by a New York publisher to do. I am aiming for 7 to 10 days to finish this novel. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I am only talking about the writing process and my day around the writing process. I will add to this post at different times during the day right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process.  At the end of each post I will add up…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Ghost Novel: Day 2

    As I said in the previous post, I’m going to have one post per day here for the “ghost” novel writing process that I was hired by a New York publisher to do. I am aiming for 7 to 10 days to finish this novel. I can give ZERO hints about the content of the book, so please don’t ask. I am only talking about the writing process and my day around the writing process. I will add to this post at different times during the day right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process.  At the end of each post I will add up…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing

    Ghost Novel: Day 1

    As I said in the previous post, I’m going to have one post per day here for the ghost novel writing process.  (And no, this is not a novel about ghosts, this is me ghosting a novel because I was hired by a publisher. I explained all this in previous posts.) I will add to this post at different times today right up until I head to bed so you can follow the process.  At the end of each post I will add up the daily word count and project word count. You want to see what a professional writer’s day is like, I’ll put it up here, every day…

  • On Writing,  publishing

    Starting Ghost Novel On Friday

    Schedule now set. Finishing up a fantastically fun workshop here tomorrow, finishing up taxes on Sunday, finishing up two short stories that are due on Monday-Wednesday, meetings at WMG and Ella on Thursday, so starting the ghost novel when I crawl out of bed on Friday morning. Stay tuned.

  • News,  On Writing,  publishing

    The Ghost Novel Writing Is On for Next Week

    As I have said a few times over the last six months, I was hired to write a ghost novel for a major author. I will never tell anyone who the author is or even why I am writing this for this author. Not a word. Ever, so don’t ask. But I can tell you that when this comes out of New York, it will be a major bestseller because this author’s books always are. I have been paid the advance, so I plan on starting the novel next week as soon as this great workshop that is going on here at the coast is finished. Character Voice and Setting…

  • Misc

    A 1973 Picture for Fun

    In the lecture on Heinlein’s Rules, I talk about my writing years between 1975 and 1982. But frighteningly enough, I had a couple of professions before I took up writing while in architecture and then law school. I was an avid skier and golfer, but in 1971 I quit skiing and teaching skiing and went fully to golf, turning professional in 1972. Yeah, I know, hard to imagine me as a golf professional looking at the pictures at the top and side of this blog. But I was pretty good in those days. (I got worse every year for decades after those years. They were my peak.) I was what…

  • Uncategorized

    Some Star Trek Fun and History

    Last week in the mail I got this huge packet of royalty statements from Pocket Books. Now understand, when I say huge, I mean huge. Maybe 200 pages. I’ve written shorter novels to be honest. These statements are only for the books I did with Pocket Books that are still in print in one form or another. And a bunch of them are Star Trek books of one sort or another. Looking through those statements, it reminded me that I got a letter recently from someone questioning my credits. This poor person could not believe that anyone could have written over a hundred novels and since I was lying about that,…