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I Never Look Back…
But At Times I Am Forced To By Circumstances… I write stories, one draft, cycling, and finished. For fiction, I have a person go over it to find typos. Kris reads it to help with the typos. I never look at a story again. Now I have published well over 400 short stories (a number of them from my early years and because they were horror, they no longer fit what I am doing, so I have never republished them.) But most I have put through Smith’s Monthly and then indie published. A bunch have been in anthologies I have never republished in Smith’s Monthly as well. Someday I will.…
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Updates On Workshops and Things
Lots of Updates… First off, everyone who signed up for the two special workshop in the Fey Kickstarter should have a letter from me with links to the workshops. If you did not get them and were signed up for either Writing Magical Systems or Combining Steampunk and Fantasy, check your spam filter and if not there, write me. Next, everyone who signed up for another workshop through the Fey Kickstarter should have a letter from me in one way or another as well. Next, the four Pop-Up give-away classes from the Pulphouse Kickstarter are still a couple weeks out. I’ll announce here when they are going out. (Everyone should…
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A Fun Bunch of Covers…
All Smith’s Monthly Covers in One Place… You really might want to check this out. Something I am very proud of. All 65 issues of Smith’s Monthly in one place. https://wmgpublishinginc.com/smiths-monthly-magazine/ Just go there and scroll down. I found it pretty amazing and I did them all. Four or five original short stories in every issue and a bunch of novels, non-fiction, and other stuff. I do a new issue every month and I still find it head-shaking that I am doing this. On another topic, this blog is short because I have to be up at 6:30 am tomorrow morning (yes, I don’t normally go to bed until 3…
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A Day of Nothing
I Seldom Have a Day Like Today… This one was by choice and schedule. This weekend I will be back in here doing workshop and business and emails. Started off getting up early to go with Kris to the gym. I did a 5k of mostly walking on the track while she was in a class. Then home for a shower and off to lunch with some local writers. Fun. Then headed way out in Summerlin to pick up our packets for the 5K Vegas Strong run on Sunday. Supposed to be about 5,000 people walking and running to honor the October 1st shooting here and support charities that help…
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Second Part of My New Challenge…
I Should Have Set This Up From January 1st… I started off the year with the challenge to write a short story per day for the entire year. I did fine for three months until the very issue I had been worried about before I started finally caught up with me. I wrote some stories through the summer, but back at my normal pace of about 50 new short stories per year. I was going to do 100 stories in the last 100 days, but the day before I was to start that, Kris and I were talking and I said, “I can’t figure out why my critical voice is…
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Fun Challenge
October Until The End of the Year Challenge… Actually, only part of it. A really fun publishing challenge. Shortly I will be putting up on Teachable all the Collection Classes for 2023. 18 different ones. Six from the first year we did them in 2021 (and if you bought the full year, yes, you can take them in 2023.) Six from the second year. And six new ones for 2023. I will have all of these posted in about a week or so. Each collection class is 9 weeks long and you write five stories during that time, as well as learn how to put a collection together, do the…
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Writers of the Future Deadline
Before October 1st… The quarter is over on Friday, the last quarter of Volume #39. So you have until Friday to get your stories in. Not only does Writers of the Future pay 8 cents per word, but if you get in the book you get a free trip to Hollywood, a free week-long workshop taught by top writers, and nifty prize money if you win one of the top spots. That speaks nothing about the fantastic awards show. Stunning, just stunning. And no worries about me already seeing the story. I am the editor. I will know your name if you win. But Jody Lynn Nye and a cast…
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October 1st…
Coming Up In Three Days… So many, many writers had really bad writing summers. And October first is a chance to save the year. Three months until the end of the year. You can get a lot of writing done in three months. Set a new challenge, focus on some project that will be fun and get you restarted. October 1st is a wonderful date. Wash away all the “I wish I had…” from the spring and summer and just sit down and have fun telling stories. Stupidly enough, it really is that simple. I will follow my own advice and let you know what I am going to do…
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Some Updates and Other Fun Stuff
First Practice Run… Actually, no real running, only 2.5 miles of walking because no one cared that the course was short. For me, the practice came at getting up so early to go running. It was fun. First real run is Sunday, with an actual 5k course and timing bibs. I figure this coming Sunday will set the mark for the slowest of the year as I do more and more running and the weight drops over the fall. That is the plan, anyway. (grin) Publishing Fun… I spent most of today laying out the next issue of Smith’s Monthly. I do all the covers, all the layout, and, of…
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Some Cover Fun
At Least Fun For Me… I love doing covers for the short stories I put in my magazine Smith’s Monthly every month. I always put in four or five original short stories every month. This month there are four original stories, a collection with six stories, and a full novel. A decent issue. So thought I would share the covers with you. Since I use templates, these four covers took me about 90 minutes to do. (Most time finding the art that fit.) They are all for original short stories. And also, a side note: Today is the last day of the September Workshop half-price sale. See the last few…