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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.
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Email Issues
GMail is My Account… If anyone is expecting me to respond to an email sent to the dean@deanwesleysmith.com address, send it to my gmail email address, which I have been using now for years. The .com email, with the move to this site’s new home, seems to have finally given up the ghost. And it was bad and spotty before. I will try to return it next week to a functioning status, but please don’t use it. Thanks!!
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Might Be A Few Minutes of This Site Being Down…
Tuesday Morning and some through the day… Yes, the site is moving to a new host after that last stupidity. Everything is already moved as I type this, but tomorrow morning all the direction stuff will be switching over. Site this place might experience a little downtime, but should be short. And for a short time it will read “Not secure” as things switch over, but it is and will read secure in short order. After that I will spend a number of days cleaning up stuff that has desperately needed to be cleaned up for a few years now. Other than the slight breaks, and the “not secure” for…
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Sitting and Laughing….
Just Couldn’t Stop Laughing… I got sent this newsletter that I tend to read every month. It is from a major traditional published person, a former editor and so on, who has her head so far up the ass of traditional publishing, I have no idea how she sees anything clearly. And she often does not. She pretends to pay attention to indie publishing, then does a sad and so uninformed piece of Pay-to-Publish, I got disgusted. But that is not what made me sit and just laugh and have a hard time stopping this afternoon. She did an article about how the AALA (American Association of Literary Agents) revised…