• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Catching Up and New Workshop

    A BUNCH OF DETAILS… First off, finally finishing the reading on the Messed Up stories for Pulphouse. Got just a few more. I’ve had to limit my screen time for my one eye, but getting back up to speed slowly. So those should be done in the next day or so and out to everyone. Secondly, setting up the June workshops. A couple of those are posted already. The rest to follow. Third, those of you who signed up for Writing Historical Fiction should get a letter from me this weekend with links to the May and June workshops. You can pick the one you would like to take. That…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Writing Bundles Kickstarter Almost Done…

    All Seventeen of Our Writing Books in Five Bundles And from the looks of it, we are about to hit our top stretch goal, where all backers will get a bundle of classic workshops worth $600.00. (That means everyone would get $1,000 in value in lectures and workshops, plus First Tee Panic and Kris’s Freelancer’s Survival Guide.) That’s right! Not kidding. But only just over a day left. So don’t miss backing this one. UPDATE!!! We hit the top stretch goal!!! And a great way to back it is to get all five bundles of writing books reward, then add on the Creative Nonfiction Special Workshop. Remember, through this Kickstarter…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    The Decade Ahead: Second Quarter

    Finally Some Posts In April… It took clear to the end of April before I could figure out how to approach this quarter. I want this Decade Ahead class to help writers for years to come on their Teachable dashboards. Help them get through regular times, regular years for the next decade. But at the same time, it is impossible to talk about how to get through April and May and June in this second quarter of 2020 without dealing with this pandemic. So I decided to do both. I am doing a series of videos that will be valuable in general and next April/May/June. Dealing with the Time of…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Card Sharp Silver

    Not Counting This As a Day of Writing… But I did work on Card Sharp Silver: A Cave Creek Novel, but just didn’t make enough forward progress to count it, either in time or words. But I did get back on it and cycled back to get it in my head again, got to where I had left off and went, “Damn, this is fun.” No clue where I am going from there, but I typed some and got moving forward again. Felt great! Not really stuck, it has just been a week or so to believe with all the business work. I have about five stories left to get…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    An Adventure

    Never Would Think I Would Be Doing This… Just two short months ago. But this morning, when I normally get out of bed at 10:30 in the morning, I was up and showered and out the door by 8 am. Gloves, mask, and a jar of spray disinfectant in hand. First stop, a Walmart. Not crowded, no lines at that time of the morning. I was on a hunt, stalking the wild paper products. I got a large package of paper towels, a massive package of napkins, tissues, and huge package of the good toilet paper. Plus some rice. Total win. The place was very, very well-stocked with everything. Felt…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Refusing to Go to Bed Before Midnight…

    On a Friday Night… But it will be close. I’m tired from a day that I don’t much remember, and I’m getting up early tomorrow to go out into the wilds of Las Vegas grocery stores. I get in with all the old folks because the fact is that I am an old folk. Less crowded and old folks, for the most part, tend to be more careful. And they move slower so I can dodge them easier. And the store shelves are stocked. Just amazing seeing Las Vegas on a Friday night now. We used to be able to stand on our balcony and see downtown Vegas and hear…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    What Might Happen

    I Have Been Waiting to Do Some Videos… The Decade Ahead class (second quarter) started April 1st. I have not put a video in it yet. That class was supposed to be how to help writers get through each month and each quarter to set up for the decade ahead. So I have been thinking about doing some videos in that class on what should have been some of the troubles of April for writers. And what might be again the troubles next April. You know, sort of pretend things will go back to normal next year. Very questionable. And I have also been thinking about doing videos on how…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    One of These Days

    I’ll Get Back At Card Sharp Silver… I think I might have been a little unrealistic, or as Kris calls it, “ambitious” to think I could spend any real time writing while this short story workshop is going on. I do that at times. So here it is again, 2 am and I am finally done with about 3/4 of the things I needed to do today, not counting wanting to get to writing. But I do see a light at the end of this. Put it this way, I was so darned busy the last week or so, I haven’t had a chance to finish reading Kris’s new Diving…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Back to Work… Not Writing, But Work.

    A Very Busy Day… Most of you don’t know that we have a short story workshop happening right at this moment. It was originally supposed to be here, in Vegas, but we saw the writing on the wall almost two months ago and postponed it to a later date, but kept the study along part of it going, since that is all online. And Kris is working some, as much as possible in the format, with those who would have attended in person. So I have been recording lectures, reading stories, and doing a ton of other stuff today. Going on for two more days. Actually great fun and I…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Almost Hitting A Second Stretch Goal

    The Writing Bundle Kickstarter Campaign… It’s doing really well and has got a lot of great deals for writers. Usually we balance out campaigns with a focus on a fiction project with some workshop deals. But this one is all focused on helping writers learn writing. Five Writing Bundle Books are the core. Take a look. But we are about to hit our second stretch goal and we have come up with some really amazing stretch rewards. Worth a lot, actually. So here they are… Stretch Goal #1…$3,000 We have hit this one and everyone supporting the project gets an electronic copy of THE FREELANCER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE by Kristine Kathryn…