• Challenge,  workshops

    In-Person Workshops

    Firing Up!!! Sent out all the reading list and hotel information for the Fantasy Caper In-Person Workshop starting on January 9th and ending on January 12th. Everything is on the Study Along class on Teachable. So if you are thinking of doing the Study Along, the reading list is there. If you are attending in person, the hotel information is there as well. First assignment will be sent out two weeks ahead of the start date of the workshop. And there are two spots open in the Fantasy Caper In-Person class. Write me directly if interested or have questions. If you are attending and did not get my letter today,…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Another Fun Day

    Saw Alan Cumming’s Show Tonight… Amazingly fun. Do not take children to it. He talked about aging, death, body parts, sex, and love, among other things. Great stories and funny as all get out. Plus the music and songs were stunning. Really tough life living here in Vegas. Plus today I got six miles of exercise, kept my calories to 1,100 calories so far. And burned 2,800 calories of energy. Tomorrow my goal is to empty a storage unit of about 40 boxes of books and move them into a different storage unit. Plus five miles exercise and low calories intake. A bit of business… Those in the January in-person…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    SORT OF TOOK A DAY OFF…

    Sort of… Did a lot of email this morning, drove to the other side of town and got steps in the Orleans Casino trying to find where to pick up packets for this weekend’s charity run. Wait until you see the pictures Kris takes. This is the lights run through a forest of holiday lights. Every year it sets off our season. Got home right about the time Kris did from the University, and we haded off to the Wynn Buffet for one of the most amazing dinners I have had in a long time. Kris had the chef come and walk her through the entire buffet (it is huge)…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    COLLECTION CLASSES 2023

    INCLUDES 2021, 2022, AND 2023 CLASSES I am in the process of launching two or three of these a night. So they will be appearing on Teachable as this week and into next week. There are 24 choices of Collection Classes including six new in 2023. Each class is 9 weeks long and you write five stories, do titles and blurbs and covers and publish the collection by the end of the nine weeks. If you turn in all nine assignments (5 are stories) you get credit for a Pop-Up of your choice. The title of the class is the theme of the collection, but no genre restrictions at all.…

  • Challenge

    Go Vote!

    If You Are In the United States… Go vote today, Tuesday November 8th. Nothing else I can say. No political posts on this site, so if you send one telling me how you voted, I will delete it. In fact, no comments on this post allowed. Just go vote. It really is that simple and that important.

  • Challenge,  publishing

    I Don’t Care!

    I Really, Really Don’t… I constantly get letters from people talking about traditional publishing in one fashion or another, assuming, I suppose, that I still care about the buggy-whip factories of publishing. And sometimes, like a few days ago, I post about something going on in traditional publishing that just makes me laugh.I do posts like that to entertain myself because I had to live in that traditional publishing world for decades. I can make snorting noises at it now if I want. I do have interest when copyright issues are being hammered out in court by a traditional publisher, or a trademark issues. But past that legal interest, or…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Behind On Email…

    For Reasons Out of My Control… I am behind on email responses to people. Please be understanding and I will get caught up shortly. If you have been waiting for a response from me for over two weeks on an email, chances are it is lost and you need to send it again if you still need a response. As for stories waiting in workshops, I am under twenty stories left to read in four different workshops, so gaining on it. Maybe one more week on that if luck holds. Tonight I am under deadline getting in the holiday issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. And then after that I have…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    An Interesting Opinion…

    From a Very Surprising Source… Some of you may be familiar with Mike Shatzkin, the great traditional publishing apologist for the last decade or more. I honestly stopped paying much attention to his Shatzkin File posts four or five years ago. But I still sort of follow his comments at times. It seems lately he just can’t ignore data anymore with indie publishing and with the blocking of the merger of two of the big five traditional publishers, he seems to be a little clearer on their position. And indie publishing and smaller publishers in general. Mike spends a bunch of the November 2nd letter talking about how Ingrams is…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  workshops

    Last Day for Holiday Spectacular!!

    Ends at 7PM Today… That’s right, ends at 7pm today (Thursday). Kickstarter is counting down the hours. The campaign hit the 5th stretch goal and is on the way to the next one. More stories, more workshops for everyone. And every backer this year gets 39 original holiday stories, one delivered every day from Thanksgiving, November 24th, through January 1st. Over thirty professional writers wrote for it. Hugo Award winning editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch did all the editing. Talk about fun. We call the 39 stories the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2022 Calendar. And they make fantastic gifts. Who wouldn’t love to get a gift that goes and goes and goes…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  workshops

    Two Days Left in Holiday Spectacular

    Less Than Two Days Left Ends at 7pm on Thursday. Kickstarter is counting in hours. The campaign hit the 5th stretch goal and is on the way to the next one. More stories, more workshops for everyone. And every backer this year gets 39 stories, one delivered every day from Thanksgiving, November 24th, through January 1st. Over thirty professional writers wrote for it. Hugo Award winning editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch did all the editing. Talk about fun. We call the 39 stories the WMG Holiday Spectacular 2022 Calendar. And they make fantastic gifts. Who wouldn’t love to get a gift that goes and goes and goes for the entire holiday…