• Challenge,  Misc,  On Writing

    Got Up Very Early…

    Halfway Through My Night, Actually… To go with Kris as she ran, biked, and swam in a Reverse Triathlon. She started off with a 5K run, then did 10K on a bike, and then 300 yards of swimming. I was her support staff, to hold her stuff, get her water and such and help her through the transitions. She completed it and did fantastic! She is flat amazing. Read her post on Facebook about how life conspired against her on the training and she still showed up and finished. I often get questions about what it takes to become a long-term, full-time fiction writer. My answer is never quit, and…

  • Challenge,  Misc,  publishing

    Adding Fun and Games to Copyright Valuation…

    The Music Industry Is Always Ahead of the Publishing Industry… Often by about a decade. That seems to be the fact in the case of valuation of copyright. I assume that everyone has heard of major song writers and artists selling entire catalogs. Justin Bieber just did it, lots of older artists have done it for tons of money. Each deal is different and interesting. But they all had one thing in common. There was a valuation of the catalog of songs and such owned by the artist. So thanks to a New York Law Journal article, some of the methods used to value an artist’s music catalog are discussed.…

  • Challenge,  Misc,  On Writing

    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…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  Misc,  On Writing,  publishing

    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…

  • Challenge,  Misc,  Recommended Reading

    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…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    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…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    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…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    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,…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    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…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    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…