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And a Lawyer Friend Said, “I Told You So.”
Writers Insist They Know Copyright… Without even beginning to learn it. Right? Copyright seems so simple on the surface. My work is mine, all mine, and nothing else matters. At least until it does. And then writers, full of bad information, make the worst decisions and someone takes advantage of them and they often lose their work and wonder what happened. But for a writer to get prepared for critical and money-making decisions ahead of time… that is just too much work, too much time, too much money. Kris and I came up with a way to make the time and work easy with Bite-Sized Copyright every Monday morning, and…
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Value of IP…
Most Writers Never Think of This… But again most writers don’t understand copyright, which is a form of Intellectual Property (IP). Now some writers understand that anything they write has value, although I must admit it takes early stage writers a period of time to get past their egos and their false assumptions that they know what is good or bad in their own work. Interestingly enough, value of IP doesn’t much care about quality, at least in the early stages. Also 90% of all writers I have talked to have zero understanding that the work product they create around a book or story also has IP connected with it…
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Remember the Time Travel Bundle of Books
Reposting This… At www.storybundle.com/timetravel Here is the introduction blog I did for the bundle. I posted this a week or so ago, but got a hunch a bunch of sf readers missed it. This is a stunning group of writers and a lot of time travel stories. You don’t want to miss this one. Plus I have a Thunder Mountain novel in this one, Kris has a Diving novel, and we put in one of the big collections of 20 stories we did a few years back. So here is the intro blog I did for the start of the bundle… TIME TRAVEL FUN… Time travel fits in any genre…
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I’m Feeling Fine
Just Can’t See… So I want to thank you all for hoping I get feeling better soon. Your good thoughts mean a great deal. But honestly, except for a slight cough from the cold I caught at 20Books, I feel great. I did the 5K yesterday and actually ended up with over 7 miles of steps that day. Another four miles plus today. The issue is I have what is called Optic Neuritis which has no known cause. (I do not have MS.)For some reason my immune system attacked the membrane around the back of my eye, making it swell and stopping most of my vision in my only good…
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Raise a Drink for Greg
At The Same Time All Over the World… Those of us who knew Greg Bear, or had met him, or admired his work, raised a drink in toast to him. Astrid Bear, his wonderful wife, came up with the idea and I thought it was perfect. As Kris and I tend to do when we lose a friend like Greg, or Mike or Gardner, or Eric or Dave or… or… or… we talk about the last time we were with them. Our favorite moments with them, favorite meals out of hundreds and hundreds. We remembered that time at breakfast or that time in the convention suite. That time in a…
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Two Recommendations…
A Book and a Movie… First off, on the topic I told you about last night, I have been writing (like well over a hundred novels and hundreds of short stories) in the last ten years with one eye. Sp when my good eye had troubles a month ago, I sort of freaked out, then settled in to trying to figure out how I would keep going. Just who I am. For a decade in Lincoln City, the town, the environment, and the house we lived in was slowly killing Kris. Turns out in hindsight, she has a deathly allergy to mold. It was not bothering me, but killing her,…
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Coming Clean
Eye Issue… Since I have mentioned this on a number of workshops and places, figured for a short post I would tell you all here. Many of you know I only have one eye. Back right before I started this streak on this blog, about eleven years ago, I lost almost all the vision in my right eye to a stroke in the back of the eye. I caused it, and I have lived with the one eye ever since. Well, about four weeks ago, I woke up mostly blind. (Now if that doesn’t twist you up, nothing will.) I thought it was just eyestrain, as I have had a…
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Behind On Email…
For Reasons Out of My Control… I am behind on email responses to people. Please be understanding and I will get caught up shortly. If you have been waiting for a response from me for over two weeks on an email, chances are it is lost and you need to send it again if you still need a response. As for stories waiting in workshops, I am under twenty stories left to read in four different workshops, so gaining on it. Maybe one more week on that if luck holds. Tonight I am under deadline getting in the holiday issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. And then after that I have…
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AI Art and Audio…
Topic of a Lot of Discussions Among Writers… Lots and lots of early adaptors in the indie writing world are trying AI. For audio, the technology is jumping ahead at full speed and the prices are slowly coming down. For nonfiction, I like the idea and think the quality and technology is almost there now. For fiction, I personally am still on hold until the AI can use my voice and other issues are fixed. But I do know a lot of writers who are trying books with audio. Still too expensive in my opinion, but it does save time. Also limits markets at the moment. The AI art for…
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NOTICE!!! My Old E-Mail is Toast
Can’t Get It Working… So if you have been sending me things to dean@deanwesleysmith e-mail address, I have not seen them and have no idea where they are going. Not one clue. It seemed to be killed when we took this site to a new host. So please send them again to my workshop address, which is under the contact me tag above if you don’t know it. Sorry about that. I have spent far, far to much time trying to get that old address working. So I am tossing in the towel.