• Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    Hadestown

    Amazingly Good and Worth Seeing!! Of course, most people know that. I didn’t, couldn’t even get the name to stick in my head until Kris convinced me to go with her tonight. My review… Wow! Hadestown tells the stories of two Greek mythological couples — Hades, god of the underworld and his queen Persephone, as well as the singer Orpheus and his love Eurydice. The basic plot is that Eurydice dies, goes to the underworld (aka Hadestown). And then shit happens. The jazz and blues music was amazing, the chorus did wonders, and the Three Fates at times stole the show, although the guy who played Hades had an amazing…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Creative Voice Having Fun

    Watching Two-Year-Old-Kids Kris and I always talk about the creative voice being a very, very smart two-year-old kid that knows a ton more about writing than your front critical voice will ever learn. Problem is the front voice doesn’t allow the creative voice to play, set it loose. Lots of reasons for that. So tonight, while I was over at Resorts World Casino, walking, I got to witness twice the creative voice at play in real-world dramatic fashion. (And yes, my 5-mile-per-day streak is still going and at 8 days now. Some running. But tonight, because of the heat, I just went to the mega resort of Resorts World and…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Redoing the Post From Saturday

    Figured A Lot of You Don’t Check In Here Over the Weekend… So here is Saturday’s post again about all the new stuff available and the half-price sale going on right now. Everything on WMG Teachable 50% Off! That’s right, everything. And a bunch of new stuff since the last sale. I’ll go over some of it. Go to WMG Teachable. To get the 50% off price, just hit purchase on what you would like to take, then on the next page put in the code: AugustRegularSale And hit apply and it will be 50% off. This sale lasts exactly one week. It does not include the in-person workshops, only…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    Explaining Depth

    And All the Workshops Attached to Depth… Since we are doing a sale with everything half off, and I got the question to explain exactly what Depth is and how all the workshops tie together, I figured this would be a good time to do it. To get any workshop at half price, just hit purchase on anything on Teachable, then use the code: AugustRegularSale And hit apply and you will get it for half price. 1… WRITING WITH DEPTH is the basis of all of the craft workshops we do. We offer it every month and I have not changed it much at all in the five or six…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    August Regular Workshop Sale Starting!

    Everything on WMG Teachable 50% Off! That’s right, everything. And a bunch of new stuff since the last sale. I’ll go over some of it. Go to WMG Teachable. To get the 50% off price, just hit purchase on what you would like to take, then on the next page put in the code: AugustRegularSale And hit apply and it will be 50% off. This sale lasts exactly one week. It does not include the in-person workshops, only everything on Teachable. New Stuff Included in the Sale! 9 Different Study-Along classes. (Also the Lifetime Subscription to Study Along Classes which is a fantastic deal even at full price. It includes…

  • Challenge,  Recommended Reading

    Ron Collin’s Take On My Last Post

    Very Much Worth Reading. You can find it here: http://typosphere.com/2022/08/19/pulp-speed-its-just-me-in-here/?fbclid=IwAR2M7fDfL_WSU4rusYyC72ugOU4XVNs4lb54IR9IFHpuSUKfWzMCoCohlPk And I think his comments are stunningly healthy and level on a topic like Pulp Speed that has little healthy about it, or level for that matter. Give it a read. Very much worth it. Thanks, Ron!

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Pulp Speed in Indie Publishing

    Indie vs Traditional Publishing and Speed… There are still writers working today who hit Pulp Speed, or very close to it in traditional publishing. You have to be a master of the business, have an ability to write anything, and the skills to work for many publishing houses to publish that much in traditional publishing. Just do the math. Pulp Speed is about a million consumable words per year. Say you do 300,000 words in blogs, short stories, and other misc stuff, that would leave 700,000 words for traditionally published novels. That’s ten 70,000 word novels per year. I did that for about a decade during the 1990s and there…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    The Annoyance of Streaks

    No One Talks About The Negative of Streaks… All we talk about is how they help us get stuff done, and how powerful they are to get us moving. And so much more. And all of it true. But sometimes, streaks are just annoying. For example, my very short streak of five miles of exercise every day is all the way up to three days now. And I can feel it gaining power with each day. But tonight, to get the last of those miles, I was walking alone in a hallway on the 7th floor of this building because one lap around that hallway is exactly 1/5th of a…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  Recommended Reading

    Past Crimes Bundle Last Day!!

    If You Want Great Mystery Reading, Don’t Miss This One!!! I’m going to reprint here my introduction to the Past Crime’s Bundle on this last day. I was amazingly honored to be able to put this together and work with these other fantastic mystery writers. But all good things come to an end, and this bundle and the deal to get the ten books will end on Thursday evening. So don’t miss it.  Just one day left!!  Go to www.Storybundle.com/crime So below is my blog/introduction to the StoryBundle that I think describes it pretty well. It Came Together This Way The past often brings out the best in crime. In…

  • Challenge,  running

    Exercise and Weight Update

    First 5K Run Is In One Month… Yikes, not having the weight-loss success I had hoped. In fact, I suck. I even gained a pound this last week. I have been eating much healthier. And fewer calories. The problem is the exercise. I get started, then get focused on something else and just flat forget. Start a streak, miss, forget. Two months now of that. Some good things are that my muscles and skin are tightening up, and it is getting easier to run, even though I am still heavier than I want to be. But wow, the intense discipline I thought I could bring to this has not arrived…