• Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  workshops

    Bryant Street Kickstarter is Live!!

    Really Excited About This One! Bryant Street Kickstarter. Bryant Street… where The Twilight Zone lives. A really twisted, but normal-looking subdivision street. 40 stories in four books. The seasons of Bryant Street, basically. Or four seasons of a Bryant Street television series, 10 episodes per season. Go to Bryant Street Kickstarter to see the entire project. Only 10 days long! Plus two really great special 3-week workshops you can only get through this campaign. HOW TO PUT TWISTS IN YOUR STORIES and HOW TO WRITE DARK REAL-WORLD FANTASY. They will not be offered anywhere else. And remember, this campaign is only 10 days long, so don’t miss it! Below I…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign

    Launching A Brand In a Few Hours

    I’m Really Excited About This Brand Launching! Bryant Street Kickstarter. Launching Noon Tuesday! Bryant Street… where The Twilight Zone lives. A really twisted, but normal-looking subdivision street. 40 stories in four books. The seasons of Bryant Street, basically. Or four seasons of a Bryant Street television series, 10 episodes per season. I have been writing and selling and publishing Bryant Street stories since the mid-1980s. It has always been a brand I paid attention to, but really never pushed it. I did have my writer corporation for about 20 years named Bryant Street. And the trademark of Bryant Street is very solid for a number of reasons. So for years…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign

    Bryant Street Kickstarter Starting Tuesday at Noon…

    I’m Really Excited About This One! Bryant Street Kickstarter. Bryant Street… where The Twilight Zone lives. A really twisted, but normal-looking subdivision street. 40 stories in four books. The seasons of Bryant Street, basically. Or four seasons of a Bryant Street television series, 10 episodes per season. For years I’ve wanted to do something with Bryant Street stories besides publish them in Smith’s Monthly. That time is finally here. Go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/403649867/bryant-street to sign up to be notified when it launches on Tuesday at noon. And the campaign will have two really great short story workshops that you can only get through Kickstarter, and stretch goals to write stories for…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    In Person Workshops Almost Sold Out!

    Here Are Details of the Three In-Person Classes… The anthology workshop is a really fun workshop (held this year for the first time since the pandemic). In April and May you write four short stories for four different live anthologies. Then four or five editors will be reading stories and actually talking about them and buying them for live anthologies right there in front of everyone. The editors will talk about why a story works or does not work for them. Fantastic learning listening to professional editors disagree. And every writer attending will have read everyone else’s stories, but can’t say a word. Only the editor’s opinions matter. This is…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Editor and Reading Observations… Part 12…

    Rejections Mean Nothing… Sending stories to editors is a game, one worth winning if editors start buying your work. It is fantastic free advertising for your overall work and you actually get paid for it, and then can republish the story later. All win-win-win… But so many writers take rejections from editors personally. I hear it all the time. And that is just flat wrong. No editor I know rejects a story and remembers the writer and puts some sort of blame on the writer. We can barely remember the writers we buy. Stories we reject we don’t care about in the slightest. Let me give you some help hints…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Editing and Reading Observations… Part 11…

    What Do You Do With All These Suggestions? To answer the question bluntly… You write the next story. None of these 20 or so observations are meant in the slightest to get you to take a story and rewrite it. Wow! What a horrid waste of time. These observations are for your creative voice, so that on your next story and the one after that you might not make the same mistake, or at least not make it in the same way. Also, these observations are to maybe help you spot where you need more craft learning and practice. (Practice is called writing the next story.) And thirdly, to help…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign

    Bryant Street Coming Next Week!

    A Really Cool New Kickstarter! Bryant Street Kickstarter. Bryant Street is where The Twilight Zone lives. A really twisted, but normal-looking subdivision street. 40 stories in four books. The seasons of Bryant Street, basically. Or four seasons of a Bryant Street television series, 10 episodes per season. Go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/403649867/bryant-street to sign up to be notified when it launches. And the campaign will have two really great short story workshops that you can only get through Kickstarter, and stretch goals to write stories for Pulphouse, and a ton of other stuff. And every backer of every reward gets the four books of Bryant Street stories. This will only last for…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Editing and Reading Observations… Part 10…

    Character Issues… I am reading slowly through all the Pulphouse submissions. So if you haven’t gotten anything from me yet, don’t worry. Got two things about characters I have observed in stories lately that just drive me nuts. Again, most of my story returns are for reasons I have talked about in the first nine parts of this series. But these two character problems tend to crop up about one out of every twenty or so stories. Born on Page One… To be honest, I had this writing problem in my first years. The character has no past and shows no opinions that would have been formed in the past.…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Sale! Just Three Bundles!

    Last Day of Extended Lifetime Workshop Sale… But start of a very limited sale of just three bundles… (Lifetime workshop sale information below.) But first, over the last three days I have answered three different basic copyright questions. Now understand, I do not mind answering questions. Not at all. But my one question response does not help a writer learn copyright, the most critical element of being a writer. Last year we did a weekly class of four videos a week for all 52 weeks called BITE-SIZED COPYRIGHT. It is still available and I think one of the most important classes we have every given. 208 videos on copyright for…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Reminder of Everything Starting Up…

    Yesterday’s Post Full of Details… Just wanted to point to yesterday’s post one last time because so many cool things starting up or ending right now. I will be back tomorrow with another reading and editing post. LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION SALE has one more day. Details in yesterday’s post. ONE SPOT LEFT IN MENTOR PROGRAM. I am holding a spot for one person, but still one left after that. 50 YEARS OF LEARNING class is starting. I am having a blast recording it. All FEBRUARY REGULAR WORKSHOPS are starting, including the new Paradox class. And after yesterday’s post only 5 spots remaining in the anthology workshop and 3 spots in the…