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September Workshops Are Up
They Start Very Early This September… On the 1st and 2nd. So they are now all available, including the new workshop COVERS 101. And yes, lifetime subscribers, September Covers 101 is in your subscription and you can take it the first time through or wait until later in the fall or winter. Your choice. (Boy, lifetime workshop subscriptions are an amazing deal.) Here are the workshops in September. Notice Kickstarter Basics Workshop is going to run every other month, so its next time up is in October. I will have the October workshops live in the next day or so as well. Getting ahead and caught up at the same…
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Short Story and Fun Project
Writing a Lot of Short Stories Lately… Tonight I just finished a new Poker Boy story for a project, got another cat story to write for the cat books, and have another story assignment. But one story assignment I hope you will all help me get comes through this really nifty Kickstarter campaign going on from the amazing Robert T. Jeschonek. Many of you know Robert from his fantastic stories in both Fiction River and Pulphouse Magazine, but he also writes amazing novels and sells his short fiction to just about every major market. And now he is editing this wild and fun idea and wants me to write a…
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Scary Scam
Invite to Judge a Contest… Today, in separate emails, both Kris and I got an invite to judge a contest. The point of the contest is to get writer’s work in front of agents and traditional publishers. Yes, Kris and I got that invite to judge a contest to help new writers get their work in front of agents. I will let you stop laughing now. This woman thought it would be a great honor for me to do that, since she had no idea at all who I was. So while laughing and trying to decide what to say in return, I made the mistake of looking up the…
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Catalyst Game Labs Press Release…
Thought It Would Be Fun To See… We do press releases at times for different things at WMG Publishing. They are not easy and you need a real reason to do one and also know who you are sending it to and why and how they will use it. It is an old art that is still being used fairly regularly, just not by indie writers much. This is the press release that was also in the Catalyst newsletter that just went out, talking about the collaboration between Catalyst Game Labs and Kris. Those of you who have been following the licensing stuff, this has been in the works for…
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Tough to Take a Day Away
Especially in this Covid World… Just can’t get up and go somewhere, to a show, to a restaurant for a nice dinner. All of us are in the same fix. But today I just wanted to get away, so as best as I could I only spent three or four hours at this computer today. Doing some email, some projects, things like that. Took a bunch of naps, watched the fantastic back nine on the PGA Championship, worked a little down in the new office on shelving digest magazines, but after a bit that felt like too much work, so I stopped even that. I went and got some pizza,…
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DIVING INTO THE WRECK Game
Just Added to the Kickstarter… Because we reached the third stretch goal, we just added in a nifty new DIVING INTO THE WRECK game to the kickstarter that you can now add on. Cool doesn’t begin to describe this game. Here is the pitch… DIVING INTO THE WRECK An Encounters Game from Catalyst Game Lab Boss Needs Your Help! Gear up, check your lines, and prepare to descend into the latest wreck discovered by Boss and her crew of salvage experts. Build resources, explore lost ships and abandoned space stations, and hopefully escape with something more than your lives. A cooperative push-your-luck encounters game. Players use a set of six…
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Year of the Cat Study Course
First Three Videos Are Up… … For the first three stories in book #1. And also the third book link is there for those of you in the class to get and read the third book. So starting a little late, but should be through the first two books by the end of August and into Book #3 in September on time and target. I emailed everyone signed up for the class, but so many people have opted out of email, so putting it here as well. Update on Kickstarter Best Practices… Loren and I are working on a pretty extensive checklist and study document to help fiction writers determine…
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Facebook Blog Post
Site Down for 12 Hours… And since I didn’t think it would come back up tonight and I wanted to keep the blogging streak alive, I posted a say-nothing blog on Facebook. But now, here at 2 am, the site is back up. So here is what I said on Facebook to keep my blog streak alive… ———- Blog post here tonight… Very short. 11 PM… My web site is down and even the pros and top developers at my server and another company are trying to figure out what has happened. They will get it solved, but more than likely not in time for me to write my nightly…
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Jennifer Lopez Quote…
From World of Dance… Kris and I liked watching both The Voice and World of Dance. It sure makes writing seem like an easy profession, and makes most want-to-be writers look like wimps, that’s for sure. But at times, in both shows, one of the superstars says something that makes Kris and I stop the show and write it down. On the show we were watching yesterday, there was a young dance group, a little ragged, but working hard and driven that was up against two professional dancers who were so good it was stunning. But they had no excitement, and one judge made a comment to them that they…
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Playing with Licensing
Masks… Annoying and Fun… About a month ago I ordered thirty WMG masks from a company. All good except that once I was done they said they would deliver them on the 8th of August. Haven’t seen them yet, but not a chance in the world I will ever use that company again. I felt scammed. So no matter how good they look, nope, just nope… So I found another company that promised quick turn-around and reasonable prices, so I ordered a four-pack of Pulphouse masks from them and got them five days later, from London. Not kidding. And they were easy to do, looked wonderful, were comfortable, decent priced,…