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Henry Kuttner
One of My Major Influences… Not so much for his writing, but for Kuttner’s ability to write a lot of stories. And his partnership and marriage to C.L. Moore. Henry Kuttner died in 1958 at the very young age of 43, so I never had the pleasure of meeting him. Or C.L. Moore for that matter, mostly because she stopped writing and left the field in 1963. But she was maybe the most important of the early women writers in science fiction. Kuttner (and Kuttner and Moore together) did well over 300 short stories and a ton of novels, publishing under more than a dozen major pen names, plus their…
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Dare To Be Bad
A Great Catch Phrase… Following is a post I wrote almost exactly ten years ago. Very little has remained the same in publishing in ten years, and especially through this pandemic, but I figured it would be a good time to bring this forward, touch it up a little bit. Many of you have heard me talk about this concept, and it is an amazingly freeing thing when applied. And my gut sense is that this would be a good Pop-Up topic to really dig into it for those who might need this. Anyway, here is the original post from ten years ago. Dare To Be Bad Kevin J. Anderson…
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Special Workshop Invites All Out
All Invites Have Been Sent… So if you think you are signed up for one of the two special workshops and did not get a letter from me for the special Writing Obsession/Horror Stories workshop or the Writing Historical SF workshop, please check your spam filters. If the invite is still not there, then first contact the person who did the kickstarter to make sure they had you signed up and paid. If you are, then contact me. No one can join these special workshops. They were only offered through the Kickstarters. However, we do have one new regular six-week workshop starting in October you can get into. Making Money…
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Publish 100 Cat Stories
Way Back Before Covid, We Did a Kickstarter… January. Seems like a billion years ago, doesn’t it? The idea was part of the Make 100 promotion by Kickstarter, so we decided to publish 100 cat stories in twelve volumes called THE YEAR OF THE CAT. We planned on starting publishing in May and we did. And do one book per month, and we have. Even with Covid and fires and who knows what else coming this year. So this month #5 just came out, right on time. #6 is turned in and Kris and I are working on #7. All fun. Part of that Cat Kickstarter campaign was a workshop…
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Another Way-Back Post
Just For Fun… This is a picture taken by photographer Beth Gwinn of a large group of writers and editors at Westercon in 2000 or 2001. Not sure. About twenty years ago. Looks like some sort of Locus Award ceremony. Sadly, a lot of the people in this picture are now no longer with us. And I suck at names, so I am going to miss a few. Very sorry about that. Starting on the right and going left is Kristine Rusch, Gardner Dozois, Connie Willis, Lucus Shephard, Ursula LeGuin, Tim Powers, Mark Kelly, Steve Barnes, Jacob Weisman, Beth Meachem, Tom Dohorety, Charles Brown, Nina Hoffman, and Janice Gelb. Thanks…
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Another Go At A Myth…
The Myth: Indie Publishing Costs a Lot to Do… Silly myth, but it is pushed hard by traditional publishing and by those who want to sell all their rights and let traditional publishing keep all their money. And it is pushed by just not knowing or getting information from the wrong sources. Remember, there are always people trying to stop you. So let me detail out the costs here as clear as I can. Let me make a couple of assumptions clear first. Assumption #1… For novels you must have copyeditor, someone who finds typos in your work. This can be a good friend, someone you hired at your library…
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I Gave It A Month
Total Failure… I am no longer trying to get up at 7 am to exercise and start my day early. About a month or so ago I said I would try it for the exercise aspects and because it was too hot here at any other time. I tried it, and some mornings it was actually in the low 90s, still too hot for me, but I got some milage those days. I ended up seldom getting more than five hours sleep, had to take naps all the time, ate too much, and was a ton less efficient than I am at night. So now, even though we are still…
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Last Day for Horror Workshop
Less Than 24 Hours Before You Miss the Chance… Kris and I are excited to be doing this special How to Write Horror (or Obsession or Dark Fantasy) Story workshop. But the only place you can sign up for this special three week workshop is through a Kickstarter campaign that is about to end. It is an Kickstarter campaign called Feed the Obsession by Mark Leslie that has just 24 hours left and is doing great. It hit it’s first stretch goal where everyone gets yet another major collection of stories. Kris and I both have stories in the book, as well as a lot of other professional writers. It…
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Reading Stories All Day
A Lot of Great Fantasy Stories… Today (Tuesday) is the last day of the Fantasy Study Along workshop that has been going on since Friday. Lots and lots of great fantasy stories in the three assignments. I have no doubt we will see a bunch of those in major magazines in the next year or two. Kris and I both read for long periods today, and it is now 2 am and I am just finished reading. And doing all the weekly regular assignments, like the Covers 101 workshop that is new this month. I still have stories to read for the Special Space Opera workshop, but those will have…
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Final Few Days…
To Jump Into a Brand New Workshop… There is an amazing Kickstarter campaign called Feed the Obsession by Mark Leslie that has just a few days left and is doing great. It hit it’s first stretch goal where everyone gets yet another major collection of stories. Kris and I both have stories in the book, as well as a lot of other professional writers. It is going to be an amazing book. So Kris and I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to do a special workshop to help the campaign out. A workshop we have been looking for a reason to do. It is a three-week…