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First Report On Licensing Expo…
First Report To start off with, the best way I can describe this year’s Licensing Expo is great! And bigger. And no chance I saw everything in three days, And even with walking down an aisle two or three times, I still wouldn’t see something until the third day. It has been over a week now and we are still just starting to make contacts with some of the people there we connected with for various reasons. Steph even did an hour of “Speed Licensing” on Sunday. She will explain it on Writer’s Direct zoom meeting on WMG Writer Store. I can hardly even imagine it. (grin) Kris had some…
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Brain Not Fully Returned…
Licensing Expo Was Amazing… Took all my focus for most of last week and then this last weekend I slept because I have messed my schedule around so that I was getting up at 9 am, three plus hours before normal. Still on the 9 am schedule until after tomorrow, then will ease it back so I can get back to writing. But still not enough brain to even begin to describe a part of the expo. And not enough brain to do another chapter on the Advanced Magic Bakery. Maybe in a few days on both. I actually managed to only take one nap today. So maybe tomorrow. Plus…
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New Kris Mystery Novellas
Four of Them to Be Exact… Three are unpublished, one was published in the Holiday Spectacular Calendar and from there ended up winning the Derringer Award. Yes, it is that good. Four brand new short crime novels (novellas) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Where can you get them? In our next Kickstarter, that’s where. Still a number of weeks out, but take a look at the header and those covers (and the branding… none of these have the same character or are even slightly related, so take note of the branding.) Four fantastic mystery novellas. Amazing stories and reading. Yes, two weeks before it launches we got a “Project We Love”…
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Having a Great Time with Merch…
Drinking Iced Tea Out of My Poker Boy Mug… And I have a Poker Boy hoodie, a Bryant Street hoodie, and a Pulphouse hoodie to wear, plus a Marble Grant mug. Why am I even mentioning this? Well, after 50 years since I sold my first short story, this is the first time I have ever had any merchandise with my own characters and worlds and brands on it. And what have I discovered? Makes me want to write more. Not kidding. Just having this brand stuff and merch as a possibility, let alone being able to actually have the stuff, really has me energized to do more. And create…
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Gothic Study Along Workshop
First Story Assignment Up… The Gothic Workshop taught by Kris in person here in Las Vegas from May 5th to 8th is going to be great fun. Way too late to sign up for the in-person part, but on Teachable we have a “study along” class that goes on at the same time. (Actually delayed a few hours behind the one here because I am doing it using Kris’s notes.) Same story assignments and I read them instead of Kris. (She is way too busy with the writers attending in person.) Those who are signed up on the Study Along, the first story assignment is up now. So not too…
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Wearing Brands
Fun Wearing My Own Brands… I have got three hoodies for the Licensing Expo next month that have three of my brands on them. Poker Boy, Bryant Street, and Pulphouse. Amazing how much fun it is to wear your own brands and how much it can motivate you to write more. I had no realized it would feel that way for me. And I hope at the Licensing Expo to get some interest in the brands. Going to wear one per day. Some of you taking classes right now might see me recording in the Poker Boy hoodie. And speaking of a brand, we just put up THE KRIS AND…
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Calling It A Night…
Plans on a Blog On Cash Streams… But honestly too tired to get it written tonight. Stunning how many cash streams a writer can have these days. So stay tuned for that. Might give you a few ideas. Also I will have a blog talking about successful Kickstarters. Do you measure a Kickstarter by how much profit it brings in after costs, or by the gross number (how Kickstarter does it), or by numbers of backers??? So many writers get lost in the cool stuff they can offer. And also how does Kickstarter growth really work and how to measure it. Fun topics, all beyond my poor brain tonight. Attempting…
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Let Me Show You A Brand…
POKER BOY BRAND… I have been writing Poker Boy stories since 1987. And over the years I tried to settle on a brand look as it became clear that Poker Boy was a main part of my writing. Marble Grant, Ghost of a Chance books and stories, Sky Tate, Pahket Jones, and others like Detective Crunch are all in the Poker Boy Universe. Finally, with all the learning I have been doing on brands and trademarks, the brand for Poker Boy finally came together with the brilliant help of Stephanie at WMG. And the look of the covers is finally settled as well. So firing up a Poker Boy Kickstarter…
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Fun and Excitement…
Building a Brand… Right now Steph and I (mostly Steph) are building the Poker Boy brand. In all the years I have been writing Poker Boy stories (since 1987), I have never been able to come up with a look, a brand look, for Poker Boy. At times, his stories had covers that sort of illustrated an event in the story. At one point we went to these really nifty cartoon covers designed by comic writer Lee Allred. Then we gave up on those and I started putting really wonderful fantasy women on the covers. So with a bunch of brainstorming and just standing back and asking basic questions, we…
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Second Day of Challenge…
The Fiction Writer of 2025… Back in traditional days, when I came in, fiction writers had employees called “agents”who jumped to the writer’s beck and call and fetched drinks and chased money. They lived off of 10% and then 15% of what the author made and never said a word about a writer’s work. That was not their job. Writers were the artists, agents did the scut work. Writers built careers over dozens and dozens of novels, sometimes moving houses regularly. They did none of their own promotion because publishers had sales forces and there was only one way to sell books and that was through what was called the…