• Challenge,  On Writing

    ADVANCED MAGIC BAKERY… Chapter Three

    Chapter Three: Moral Rights This book is mostly how writers can use the magic of copyright to make money from licensing their stories. But copyright has a number of other uses. You own and control a copyright the moment you put your story in a form. You control the form. In our extended metaphor, the form is the pie. And you can control the slices of the pie you license, the terms of the license, and so on. Interestingly enough, while in that kitchen creating your most recent pie, you create some other advantages that are stunningly valuable that go along with that pie, but more than likely you won’t…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    New Kickstarter Launches At Noon!!

    MARY JO ASSASSIN books… I love writing Mary Jo stories. It is amazing how complex killing someone can get. At 1,000 years old and a member of the Assassin’s Guild, she is well trained and practiced. Oh, if you are looking for magic or swords or things like that, afraid none of that in these books. She is sexy and deadly and doesn’t age, but she does love her partner, another assassin, and a good Screwdriver after a job well done. (Vodka and Orange Juice.) She might be called a completely modern assassin. Leaves no trace and has a very powerful code of ethics. And she is one of those…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    How to Achieve Your Dreams…

    New Workshop Up… Got a hunch that some writers are going to return from the land of The Time of Great Forgetting and wished they had started this. It starts on June 10th and goes for 9 weeks, so right into the first week or so of August, after the Time has cleared for most. Get it on Teachable.  Here is the blurb about it… HOW TO ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS A step-by-step guide to Writing More, Getting More Readers, and Making a Living with Your Writing. 9 week class given by New York Times bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith and planned by both Dean and New York Times bestselling author…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Got Busy…

    Almost Forgot To Do This Blog… Spent a lot of time today working on the coming Mary Jo Assassin Kickstarter (Kickstarter Link). Then a bunch of time recording some workshops. Then email and a bunch of time preparing to really fire back up the stories tomorrow. You know, June 1st great restart. Almost have my sleep scheduled back in place to help the writing. At this point in the story-per-day challenge, I had a horrid three months, but I am far from giving up. That’s why the refocus tomorrow. Seven months can make up for a lot of the bad three months. Now I know for those of you lost…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Bad May? Three Days to Reset…

    I Actually Had a Great May… But very little writing. Lots and lots of great real-life stuff, great business stuff, and a fun Licensing Expo. I even changed my schedule a week or so back to get up at 9 am, which meant almost no time for writing in my normal writing time. Now I am still working on a short story per day challenge for this year, but I am a bunch of stories behind. Not tossing in the towel and won’t on this challenge. I still have seven months to go. And wouldn’t it be just horrid if I only got 300 short stories done. Oh, poor, poor…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  On Writing,  publishing

    SUPER GREAT CHALLENGES Questions

    And Yes… I Will Be Getting Back to Advanced Magic Bakery… As soon as my brain returns from the Licensing Expo this last week. As I expected, I am beat up, but really happy with the way the Expo went for us. I will talk more about it all in the future with what I can talk about. But some fantastic connections and ideas and possible licenses. Great fun and tiring. But right now there are two days left on the Early Bird discount on the five new SUPER GREAT CHALLENGES. Here are some questions I have been getting about the new challenges… — If you miss, you get the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Some Hints on the Super Great Challenges

    THESE HINTS CAN APPLY CHALLENGE OR NOT… Those of you who are thinking of going for the $10,000 Lifetime Everything Subscription by having a fantastic year writing and publishing, or those of you who are just wanting to streamline a fantastic year writing, let me give you some hints to help out. Hint #1… Plan your writing hours to be as consistent as possible each week. Set a time each day and hit it. Hint #2… If you need 5,000 words a week, plan to do 7,500 words. You can always use the extra words the following week. But if you only plan exactly what you need and things miss…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Write Stuff Story Bundle Just Went Live!!

    THE WRITE STUFF STORY BUNDLE 2025 Kris put together a great bundle this year. Check it out at www.storybundle.com/writing. Kris’s blog is below explaining all this great stuff. The 2025 Write Stuff Bundle – Curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch When I got into the writing business, it had been stable for decades. Traditional publishing had a monopoly on production and distribution. That part of the industry, based in New York (and London and other capitals for those of you outside of the U.S.), determined what we read, how long the books were available, and where we could buy them. Traditional publishing still exists. Fortunately, it’s not in charge of what we…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  On Writing,  publishing

    Rules for Each SUPER GREAT CHALLENGE

    The Early Bird Special Is Open For One Week… On any of the Super Great challenges, the cost is $600, but if you use the code: EarlyBird You get 20% off. ($480) (And yes, if you miss, you still get $600 credit.) Early Bird sale will last for one week. But if you make any of these new SUPER GREAT challenges, you get the LIFETIME EVERYTHING SUBSCRIPTION worth $10,000. Great challenges. So here are the rules to the new four SUPER GREAT challenges now up on WMG Teachable. —- The Super Great Challenge rules… — Write one short story per week for 52 weeks. — Stories must be minimum of…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    SUPER Great Challenges

    Blog Early Tonight Because of Licensing Expo… Starts tomorrow morning, so I might be late a touch on a few things, but will try not to. And will give a report here and on a couple of the classes later in the week. But quickly, I want to announce what is not up yet, but will be shortly on Teachable (shortly meaning a day or so.) THE SUPER GREAT CHALLENGES… Right now we have the following challenges you can sign up for at any time… Any genre… — The Great Challenge (write a story per week and send it to me for 52 weeks.) — The Great Novella Challenge (write…