• Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  publishing

    Time to Rest… Blast from the Past

    All Good Intentions… I spent all day in meetings, then working at my computer at work doing workshop stuff, then home at this computer and then reading. I rested my eye regularly, but still too tired in the eye to write much tonight or read much more. So the planned blog is replaced by this placeholder so I can keep my streak alive. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, how about a blast from the past on this Thursday? In this picture from the 1960 World Science Fiction Convention taken by Jay Kay Klein, Ron Ellik, Randall Garrett, Mark Irwin, Isaac Asimov, L. Sprague de Camp, Dirce Archer, and James Blish watch BJo…

  • Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  Recommended Reading

    Fantastic New Bundle… Escapist

    We All Need to Escape… Especially in these times and in this bundle is some fantastic escape fiction. Not only does it have a Fiction River anthology in it with a bunch of stories (including one from me) but it also has my origin Poker Boy novel called The Slots of Saturn. And it has an amazing collection of Kris’s stories, plus novels and stories by some amazing writers. This bundle really, really will help you escape, I promise you. Just Poker Boy and Front Desk Girl fighting Ghost Slots will do that, I promise. (grin) The full official write-up and all information is below. Get it for a limited time at…

  • Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing

    The Years Go By

    A Great Picture… Not sure where it was taken recently. At one convention or another, but it came across Facebook and I was stunned at what a great picture it was of four of the greatest writers in science fiction. And how we had all aged. (We all used to look young, honest.) David Brin (on the right) is almost exactly my age. Greg Bear (on the left) is a year younger. Vernor Vinge in the blue jacket is six years older than me and Gregory Benford is nine years older than I am. And they all started publishing in the middle to late 1960s except for David who started…

  • Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing

    Superstars Workshop

    Going Back for the Third Time… I wanted to announce that in the first week of February 2018, I will be once again teaching at the Superstars Writing Conference. I will also be going in a day ahead to do one of their craft days as well. I’ll talk more about this over the year, of course. But so far confirmed for next year are Brandon Sanderson, Jonathan Maberry, Jim Butcher, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, James A. Owen, Mark Leslie Lefebvre (Kobo), Dave Farland, and Mark Coker (Smashwords). Should be great fun.

  • Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing,  Recommended Reading

    Nifty Bundle from BundleRabbit

    The Haunted Bundle… In case you folks are not familiar with Bundlerabbit, you should be. They are doing some really interesting new things. Get on their mailing list for some amazing deals from top writers. I am part of a bundle there called the Haunted Bundle. You can buy the bundle not only through Bundlerabbit, but through Kobo, Amazon, and other places. Nifty, huh? Twenty stories. Kris has a story in the bundle as well. (The story I have in the bundle is a “Ghost of a Chance” story that originally appeared in Stories from July.) One nifty feature of the site is go to the location of the bundle…

  • Fun Stuff,  Misc

    A Writer in the Air

    LAS VEGAS FUN… Las Vegas is a ton of fun. Not only did I write an entire novel while there, but I also enjoyed time with my friends. First photo is looking back at the six blocks. I am on the left. Second photo is me getting closer to the landing. The third picture is me and my friend Lenny hanging over the landing pads. That will give you an idea about the video below. The video is a short version of my flight on the Slotzilla zipline in downtown Las Vegas from the viewpoint of that helmet cam I was wearing.  Short version means I cut out all the…

  • Fun Stuff,  Guest Blog,  Recommended Reading

    A FUN CHRISTMAS PRESENT

    A GUEST ESSAY…SOME FUN FOR EVERYONE… Those of you following this blog know I never do anything with guests and don’t ask me to because I will always say no. Always. But in this case, I read Judge Bubba’s most recent Christmastime Essay/Letter and got such a kick out of it, as I have with all his letters, that I asked Judge Bubba if I could do this and he graciously said, “Sure, why not?” Some background. When I am in Boise visiting friends, I tend to hang around with lawyers and judges. I am not sure why they let me tag along at times. I only have three years…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing

    Blast From The Past

    Great Old Picture… From my first moments at science fiction conventions back about 35 years ago, Jay Kay Klein was there, taking photographs. I have no idea how many thousands of pictures he took of me over the decades, but it seemed that every time I turned around there was a flash. And it never once bothered me. Jay Kay Klein started taking photos far before I arrived on the scene and kept up taking photographs of sf authors and fans until just before his death at 80 in 2012. He was a very, very nice person, published some decent stuff over the years as well, but was a stunning…

  • Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing,  Recommended Reading

    Joanna Penn Blog

    Joanna Penn Blog About the Master Business Class Joanna Penn was here at the coast last week along with forty or so other professional writers. It was wonderful meeting her for the first time. So if you want to know a few things Joanna took away from the Master Business Class last week (and see a picture of her and Kris and me), she did a great blog about a few of the things. Worth the read for writing thinking. http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2016/10/28/coast-masterclass-2016/ ——– You can support this ongoing blog at Patreon on a monthly basis. Not per post. Just click on the Patreon image. Thanks for your support.