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The Magic Bakery: Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine… Beyond Next Year. As I said last chapter, it has been my observation that most writers never look more than a year out, if that. And that lack of being able to see five years and ten years and fifty years into the future causes all sorts of really bad decisions. Now, I wish I could say I had been an exception to this in my first few decades or so in publishing. Nope. Kris was a bunch better at looking long term and making decisions based on that vision. But I wasn’t. And wow did I make some boneheaded mistakes because of that lack of vision. So now…
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Too Much Other Stuff
Yup, We All Have Them… Meetings and then I spent a couple of hours up at WMG working on collectable stuff. We (meaning me and Josh, the North store manager among other jobs) are madly working to dig out a massive collection I bought about four years ago and haven’t done anything with. But at the WMG stores and offices and warehouses, to dig out one thing, it takes moving around a ton of other stuff. But almost there. The collection? Well, for libraries, they used to bind newspapers to make them easier to store and handle. The Oregonian, the main Portland paper, was bound in large black books, each paper…
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The Magic Bakery: Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight… Success and the future. Now there are two words that almost every writer I have met can’t fathom or even see when it comes to their own writing and business. Now granted, some writers give those two words lip service, and in different workshops Kris and I work at getting writers to think ahead. It feels like walking into a brick wall. Success and future planning when it comes to writing and a publishing business are just not possible for almost every writer to fathom. And honestly, I understand that. My goal, for a very long time, was to make a living at my writing. I had NO concept…
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Open Driveway and Other Distractions
It Was a Saturday… Got off to a slow start because our wonderful neighbor came to help me get rid of a big metal post that was partially blocking our driveway. All gone now, but the work got me off to a very late start. I ended up recording half of the first advanced business lecture and worked on workshop stuff up at WMG, then went out for a walk. But on the way back it looked like it was going to rain, so I ran the last quarter mile. A start. Then to the grocery store and home to cook dinner after a short nap. Then read some fun short…
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Movie and Dinner
Fun Day… Started off with WMG meetings, then Kris and I headed into the valley to catch a movie. Guardians of the Galaxy. Great fun. Great heart. Then a nice dinner and drive home. We got back around midnight and we went to watch news and some television. So I didn’t make it this computer until after 2 a.m. I answered some e-mails, then did some Strength Workshop assignments. Then I took a break and sat and started a novella Kris had just finished in her Diving Universe. I only intended on reading a little of it, then going to read some short stories for the May short story challenge.…
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TICKING CLOCKS
Offers That Will Vanish Shortly… A summary of offers that are vanishing shortly as we head into the summer months. Details below on each… 1… Write Stuff Bundle… one day left. (update: finished and deleted from this post) 2… Lecture Subscriptions…. Just a week or so left. 3… Strengths Workshops… Just a few weeks left. 4… Novel and Short Story Challenges… June 1st. —————— NEW SPECIAL LECTURE SERIES STARTED I will record six new lectures in May and through June. One new lecture per week in this special series will be added. Each lecture will consist of between 9 and 15 videos. These are Advanced, Advanced lectures, taking up where the…
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No Writing Tonight
Just a Crazy Busy Day… It was a Monday. Errands from the moment I left the house until after five. Then workshop stuff at WMG, then home to do e-mail, take a nap, cook dinner, and then back on workshop assignments. Today and tomorrow has April workshops ending and May workshops starting assignments. Crazy amounts of stuff, plus doing some reading on the Strengths workshop and on the short story challenge. (Yes, still taking sign-ups on the Strength workshops.) Plus Kris gave me a brand new novella I wanted to get reading. Yeah, I have a tough life, reading stories. But alas, someone has to do it. (grin) But no writing…
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A Very Diverse Sunday
I Did Just About Everything Today… One of those days that I worked on just about everything. Started off the day with a writer’s meeting at WMG. Fun discussions. Then Kris and I went for a walk to get some milage in (I didn’t hit five, but got to four miles again). Then I stayed at WMG to work on workshop recordings and the new lecture series stuff coming. Then home to take a nap and cook dinner. After that I managed all my e-mail and workshop assignments before heading to my writing computer. I got two sessions on the novel of just at 1,900 words. Then back to this…
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Fun Auction Tonight
Saturday Night Fun… Missed my five miles today, got four, because I wanted to rest my legs. And had fun at the auction. Every month here in town (on the first Saturday of the month for the past 35 years) there is an auction. More social for me since I seldom miss one, but also there are no minimums and trust me, antiques do not sell out here on the coast. A person could make a living buying antiques worth thousands for $50 here and hauling them to California. But tonight in the hour I was there I managed to get an entire box of silver. Mirrors, combs with silver…
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Thirty-One Years Ago Today
I Met Kris 31 Years Ago Today… I had just left the Nebula Awards ceremony in Berkley and was visiting my father for a day or so in Arizona before heading to Taos, New Mexico for a week-long writer’s conference. 12 writers hand-picked by Algis Budry were invited. The workshop was free but on short notice we had to get there on our own, pay our own room, and so on. The instructors were Grand Master’s Fred Pohl and Jack Williamson, plus Gene Wolfe and Algis Budrys. Four of them, twelve newer professional writers. I would have sold anything to make it. So before I left my father’s house (far before…