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January Challenge Stories
Managed A Story Per Day For 31 Days… I have some adjustments to make, such as starting earlier in the day. But very happy with going from zero to full speed on fiction. 101,280 consumable words. That’s on pace for about 1.2 million words this year. Not up to my average yet, but close and a lot of things in January cut into that word count, so we shall see how it works in February and March. Working to get back above 1.3 million words. Here are the story titles for January… List of JANUARY Challenge Stories The Notes She Left Behind… Thunder Mountain A Lost Darkness… Marble Grant Death…
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Golf, Kickstarter, and Story #30
Fun Day! It was a stunningly beautiful day and professional fiction writer Ron Collins and I walked down to the Strat to hit golf balls. Ron is a good player and I used to be. But now I am 20 pounds overweight and have a new Titanium shoulder, getting any kind of control of the ball is a challenge. And a lot of fun. A lot of laughs, actually. But toward the end of the hour I had worked out a few things and was managing to hit shots against the back fence. Without hitting either side fence. Then this afternoon I started writing before taking a nap and cooking…
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Story #25…
Having Fun With a New Character… A detective character in my Poker Boy world who helps ghosts who are trapped move on. This is the 4th or 5th story from this character’s POV so far. I do that in these challenges, get stuck on a new character and write a bunch of stories, like every third story, for a few weeks before moving on. The titles all start with the phrase “The Woman Who…” Tonight it was “The Woman Who Hates Heights.” Also did some story reading. Going to be really picking up speed on that over the next month, finishing up the stories for the Space Opera Study Along…
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Quick Workshop Update and Story #22
Story Challenge Still Going… First I want to update a few things on workshops. We have one Lifetime Subscription to All In-Person Workshops left available, then we are going to close it down again. Last time that was open was 2017. And there is only one left now. Cost is $3,000 and write me if interested. We have one mentorship open with me. It lasts for as long as you want it to last and I am here to answer question and be your supporter and cheerleader. I ask that you report to me regularly on how things are going and I will help with covers and sales copy and…
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Story #15 on Day #15
Starting Stories Toward Publication… Starting in a day or so, after the dust settles here from the In-Person Space Opera class, I will start getting a story per day to Kris to read. I will be doing covers for each story as I go along and of course writing a new story per day. But the story Kris sees will be a few weeks behind where I am at in the writing. Then the next step in making sure I have something to do with these stories is to put the first 10 into a collection, maybe with an unpublished story from a previous challenge. I will do the introduction…
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SERIES COLLIDES KICKSTARTER Ends Tonight
Ends at 7PM West Coast Time… There are two very special workshops only available in this campaign. How to Write Series Endings and also How to Write Cross-Genre Series. And the stories you write for both I will look at, if you want me to, for Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. These workshops will have sessions in February and are three weeks long. The tag line on this campaign is… 2 WRITERS, 36 SERIES, 100 STORIES Kris and I know how to write and teach series, so don’t miss these. Ends at 7PM tonight The Series Collide Kickstarter. It also has stretch goals that allows backers to submit stories to Pulphouse Magazine…
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SERIES COLLIDE Kickstarter Ends Tomorrow…
Two Fantastic Special Workshops Included… How to Write Series Endings and also How to Write Cross-Genre Series. And the stories you write for both I will look at, if you want me to, for Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. These workshops will have sessions in February and are three weeks long. Don’t miss the Series Collide Kickstarter. It also has stretch goals that allows backers to submit stories to Pulphouse Magazine in February, March, and maybe more. And all five of the Collides Series are available, over 520 stories, half from me, half from Kris. So help us pass the word. Take a look! This is a good one. Look at the…
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Space Opera Workshop Starting Here…
And Kickstarter Only Has Three Days Left… All kinds of stuff going on at the moment. Fun. Don’t miss the Series Collide Kickstarter. It has in it. couple of great workshops that will run in February, and also so far we have hit a stretch goal that allows backers to submit stories to Pulphouse Magazine in February. And we have a special stretch goal working right now to hit extra backers by late Monday. So help us pass the word. Take a look! This is a good one. UPDATES ON IN-PERSON CLASSES More signed up again today so after today here are the spots remaining in the In-Person classes…. Gothic …
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Story #8 and Backing Up Work…
Back It Up!!! I learned this the very hard way back in 1985. I came back from the Portland airport to my house in Lincoln City to find it all boarded up and my mint collection of Astounding pulps hosed down on the front yard. Seems the fire started in the electrical box in my office. I lost all my stories that were not in the mail at the time, meaning about 100 short stories. I lost my first two written novels as well that were beside my typewriter that had melted into a puddle. I lost it all. Years of writing. It took me years to get back to…
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7th Story and Kickstarter Success…
NEW WRITERS HAVE NO HISTORY… And I honestly would not expect a new fiction writer coming into publishing for the first time to have any perspective on what happened, often before they were born. So I am trying to imagine what a new writer faces today in 2025. A dumping ground on social media of really bad opinions and information that just makes it all seem impossible. And with their craft, they carry a ton of destructive baggage from teachers. Rewriting, polishing, beta readers, workshops, you name it. A hundred ways to destroy anything original in a new writer. Then the publishing world itself looks totally overwhelming. Publish your own…