• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Time Crunched…

    That Describes the Day… What little free time I had today went to watching The Voice final. Stunning music.   Also had a fun hour plus in the store I hadn’t intended to have. I had planned on working with Josh and Dan for a short time to get an area set up to start working on a massive project. But then this nice guy came in, a collector who knew my old friend Bill. Josh and I got talking with him and he ended up buying two boxes of some L. Ron Hubbard leather books we had in the back warehouse. By the time that was finished, Josh was way…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Running, Workshops, and Writing

    And Pretty Much in That Order… Got out of the house late and then had to run errands. Two banks and both of our stores. Then I spent an hour, with Kris’s help, getting myself so I could get some music over my bluetooth headphones from my phone. Then I headed to do my short run, which trust me, did not feel short or quick, even though it was only three-quarters of a mile. I made it, but it was not a pretty sight. Problem is I don’t have a pace or breathing down yet, so my pace was just under a 9 minute pace, way too fast to be…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  running

    Started Running Finally

    Not Much in Distance, But a Start… Like every book or story, you have to start with a first line, a first word. Today, finally, I figured out how to motivate myself enough on the running to get the goals I want done. And interestingly enough, it is a twisted gambling structure that helped me get started. Now, for the folks who love to toss money away in casinos, yet feel they are winning, there are gambling systems. A Martingale is one. (Really silly.) Another is a simple Positive Progressive Betting System. All that one does is give some structure to betting and make a gambler feel lucky at times…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Great Writer’s Meeting Tonight

    23 Professional Writers Talking Business… Once every six weeks or so we have a gathering up at the WMG Publishing offices of the professional writers in the Pacific Northwest that can make it. 3 hours of nothing but business. You get 23 pros in the room like that, all focused, and it is great fun. Topics ranged all over the map tonight, from a fantastic reader survey to Hollywood to Book Pricing to Ads, and on and on. I took notes. Lots of notes. Thanks everyone, for a fantastic and learning evening. —————- JUNE ONLINE WORKSHOPS… All have openings at the moment. Information at www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com Any questions at all, feel free…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  running

    Too Much Other Stuff

    Yup, We All Have Them… Meetings and then I spent a couple of hours up at WMG working on collectable stuff. We (meaning me and Josh, the North store manager among other jobs) are madly working to dig out a massive collection I bought about four years ago and haven’t done anything with. But at the WMG stores and offices and warehouses, to dig out one thing, it takes moving around a ton of other stuff. But almost there. The collection? Well, for libraries, they used to bind newspapers to make them easier to store and handle. The Oregonian, the main Portland paper, was bound in large black books, each paper…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Open Driveway and Other Distractions

    It Was a Saturday… Got off to a slow start because our wonderful neighbor came to help me get rid of a big metal post that was partially blocking our driveway. All gone now, but the work got me off to a very late start. I ended up recording half of the first advanced business lecture and worked on workshop stuff up at WMG, then went out for a walk. But on the way back it looked like it was going to rain, so I ran the last quarter mile.  A start. Then to the grocery store and home to cook dinner after a short nap. Then read some fun short…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Movie and Dinner

    Fun Day… Started off with WMG meetings, then Kris and I headed into the valley to catch a movie. Guardians of the Galaxy. Great fun. Great heart. Then a nice dinner and drive home. We got back around midnight and we went to watch news and some television. So I didn’t make it this computer until after 2 a.m. I answered some e-mails, then did some Strength Workshop assignments. Then I took a break and sat and started a novella Kris had just finished in her Diving Universe. I only intended on reading a little of it, then going to read some short stories for the May short story challenge.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    TICKING CLOCKS

    Offers That Will Vanish Shortly… A summary of offers that are vanishing shortly as we head into the summer months. Details below on each… 1… Write Stuff Bundle… one day left. (update: finished and deleted from this post) 2… Lecture Subscriptions…. Just a week or so left. 3… Strengths Workshops… Just a few weeks left. 4… Novel and Short Story Challenges… June 1st. —————— NEW SPECIAL LECTURE SERIES STARTED I will record six new lectures in May and through June. One new lecture per week in this special series will be added. Each lecture will consist of between 9 and 15 videos. These are Advanced, Advanced lectures, taking up where the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    No Writing Tonight

    Just a Crazy Busy Day… It was a Monday. Errands from the moment I left the house until after five. Then workshop stuff at WMG, then home to do e-mail, take a nap, cook dinner, and then back on workshop assignments. Today and tomorrow has April workshops ending and May workshops starting assignments. Crazy amounts of stuff, plus doing some reading on the Strengths workshop and on the short story challenge. (Yes, still taking sign-ups on the Strength workshops.) Plus Kris gave me a brand new novella I wanted to get reading. Yeah, I have a tough life, reading stories. But alas, someone has to do it. (grin) But no writing…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Very Diverse Sunday

    I Did Just About Everything Today… One of those days that I worked on just about everything. Started off the day with a writer’s meeting at WMG. Fun discussions. Then Kris and I went for a walk to get some milage in (I didn’t hit five, but got to four miles again). Then I stayed at WMG to work on workshop recordings and the new lecture series stuff coming. Then home to take a nap and cook dinner. After that I managed all my e-mail and workshop assignments before heading to my writing computer. I got two sessions on the novel of just at 1,900 words. Then back to this…