• Cave Creek,  Challenge,  Misc

    Card Sharp Silver… Day 15

    Strange Times… I know the world (because of really bad reporting) believes that Nevada was late locking down, but actually the governor shut all casinos and restaurants and developed the phrase “Stay Home for Nevada” about three weeks ago. Actually a few days ahead of when San Fransisco shut down. And a week later he put teeth in the order and started yanking business licenses that refused to close and arrested a few nut cases. He just finally had to call it by the official name five days ago to get national news reporters from spreading the rumor that Las Vegas was open for business. The Strip is a ghost…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Notice The Construction?

    Having a Great Time… Old web site just finally gave up the ghost, and this was the theme I will be using for Smith’s Fiction web site, so just went and got it for this. Thankfully I got my blog up so I didn’t miss my streak. So some group mind help. Even with this new theme, every time I save a post it says “Updating Failed” so does anyone have any idea what I am missing. The post is saved fine, and then when I go to publish it, it says “Publishing Failed” even though it published fine. Anyone got any idea what I am missing? More than likely…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  Misc

    Card Sharp Silver… Day 6

    Going to Ramp Up Speed Tomorrow… Since the Cave Creek Kickstarter that this novel Card Sharp Silver is a part of has been extended a week, I am going to see if I can finish this book in that amount of time. So got to ramp up to about 4,000 or more words a day to do that. Possible. Only four hours a day. Artificial deadline, I know, but a fun one. Today however, I managed about 1,000 words again. Just too much other stuff and no focus. Started off at 11 am doing email on my internet computer. Did that and some business until around 12:30 pm. Then with…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Running Early

    So No Time for Anything Tonight… Other than trying to type this to hit my daily blog streak with a 19 pound cat on my lap wanting attention. It is rare that he does this, rare like in never, so I am making due. But he is a flopper and a shover and my lap is just not that big anymore. Pictures of Gavin on my lap as I tried to type this…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Book Ads and Workshops Going Classic

    Yup, We Do Ads! For anyone who has picked up the paper version of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, you notice a lot of ads for many WMG books and magazines. But you will also see 1/3 page ads for books from the author of a story in the magazine. That’s right, we give the author a free 1/3 page ad to put with their story to advertise another book of theirs. We can’t do it in the electronic editions, but we do it in the paper version. From industry standards, the black and white ad is valued about $300 for the third page. So for the , we are offering any…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Couch Surfing…

    Took On A Whole New Meaning Tonight… When that earthquake hit tonight, the second one in two days, it was again a roller, so sitting on the couch felt like sitting on a surfboard in gentle waves. Up and down and up and down and lamps moving back and forth as the couch rolled up and down. To be honest, I felt a little motion sick after a bit. We are on the top floor of our tall building, so it was a little worse because of that, but everyone around town tonight on the news said it felt the same way. We are 130 or so miles from the…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    We’ve All Been There…

    New Computer Day… And it seemed like such a good idea at the time this morning. I must have been short of sleep, because I don’t take drugs. And I don’t drink, at least at that time of the day. I bought the new computer, a big and powerful Mac about three months ago for work on the Make 100 Challenge I am doing. I loaded all the Adobe Suite onto it, loaded fonts, loaded the Microsoft office onto it, and did very little else with it, mostly doing some learning on InDesign and other small stuff. But I always intended to move it into the main position in my…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Paul McCartney Took My Night

    In An Amazing Three Hour Concert… Living in Vegas just sucks, as you might be able to tell. (grin) We saw Lady Gaga’s jazz concert a few weeks ago and it was fantastic and tonight Kris and I headed out to dinner at the Mandalay Bay, then took the tram a mile or so and walked a short distance to where Paul McCartney and his band were playing. Three straight hours, he never stopped and never left the stage. He’s 77, looks fantastic, sings better than ever, and puts on an amazing show. And then for one song Steven Tyler got up on stage with him. Just wow. They don’t…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Tomorrow Starts…

    Ramp Up On Exercise… Going to hit it hard. I kind of let my steps and other stuff slip after the Licensing Expo. So tomorrow I ramp for the summer. Going to 12,000 steps a day and try to keep that as a streak and no more than 1,200-1,500 calories a day intake on most days. That will drop two pounds a week, a top line on healthy weight loss. It’s a famous diet I am using. Eat Less and Move Around More. I’ve lost over 60 pounds doing that so far, and I got a marathon to run this fall. Marathon running weight is exactly 25 pounds under where…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Very Weird Movie

    Destination Wedding… Starring Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. The only two people that talk during the entire movie, a running discussion. Kris and I decided to stay home tonight and watch a movie and that one popped up and looked interesting and wow was it strange. I doubt it cost much to make and I doubt it even made its money back, and I bet anything critics hated it, but the writer and director Victor Levin clearly had some fun. If there was such a thing as a Pulphouse movie, Destination Wedding would be it. It is not a normal romantic comedy. It’s not a normal anything, actually. I loved…