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Day 1,000
Day 1,000 Now ain’t that a kick? 1,000 days of writing this blog without missing a day. 95 more days before it becomes three years of counting. Now that’s a streak. I’ve talked about the power of streaks, but going to do so again in the topic below. ——- The Day Got to the office around 2 p.m. and then went off and did errands, then walked with two other writers, getting back to the store around five. I worked until about 7 p.m. in the new store, then home to cook dinner. Then assignments, getting that done around 11 p.m. and taking a nap before going to watch some…
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Author Earnings Report
AUTHOR EARNINGS REPORT Today a new Author Earnings report came out form Hugh Howey and Data Guy. Normally these reports are amazing, especially watching the trends from quarter to quarter over the last year plus. But this time they went even farther. They got 82% of all books sold in paper, audio, and ebook on Amazon. And they talked a lot about the dark matter, the huge area of books that sell very, very few copies yet make up a lot of the volume on Amazon. This report is a stunner. Take your time and read it. I’ll give a few of my opinions below in the topic of the…
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First Day
FIRST DAY As expected, knowing I was going to get started today on the run up to ground effect writing, I gave the writing more attention, meaning I actually thought about it during the day. And between now and the end of August, I will go back to detailing out the day as I have done at times in the past. Skip it if it bores you. ————— The Day Made it through a bunch of errands starting at 1 p.m. and then to the regular Wednesday meeting by 2:30 p.m. That lasted until 5:30, but good stuff happening. Then I worked upstairs for about two hours, including two trips to…
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Topic of the Night: Ground Effect in Writing
Ground Effect in Writing The definition of Ground Effect: In fixed-wing aircraft, ground effect is the increased lift (force) and decreased aerodynamic drag that an aircraft’s wings generate when they are close to a fixed surface. When landing, ground effect can give the pilot the feeling that the aircraft is “floating.” M.L. Buchman once said that when the writing is steady and going at a good pace, pulp speed pace, it feels so, so easy, as if there is a ground effect under the words being produced. Wow, did he have that right. I felt this a few times last year, once in July, another in the fall during a month…
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Another Month Down
ANOTHER MONTH DOWN For those of you who have been following along with my writing adventures over the last 34 months (986 days in a row or so), you know that this May was my worst month by far writing fiction in all that time. My worst month before was just under 30,000 words. This crushed the old record, and it was all purposeful. My focus and energy went to starting up our new store and I had a blast doing that. So I did what I advise others to do, when the focus is elsewhere, don’t force the writing, let the writing remain a fun place, not a place…
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Busy Holiday Day
Busy Holiday Day Here in the States this is a major holiday weekend, runs through Monday. So today, as with many people, I worked all the way though the day. Spent a lot of time up at the store, worked on workshop stuff getting June workshops ready. Then binged on a few episodes of Daredevil. Then back working on workshops. Writing will start on the 1st. Had a false restart a few days back, which is also normal for me. Got the date set now and will be fine firing forward with the writing on the 1st. ————— Online Workshops Still lots of room in all of them. I worked…
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More Holiday Stuff
More Holiday Stuff Here in the States this is a major holiday weekend, runs through Monday. The Day I managed to get to WMG offices where we hold the writer’s lunch back behind the new store. It’s a cool feeling going in through a store to get to a secret writers hideout. Very few of us there. And then I spent the rest of the day and into late at night working on workshop stuff. ————— Online Workshops Still lots of room in all of them. Class #51… June 6th … The Business of Writing Class #52… June 6th … Character Voice/Setting Class #53… June 6th … Author Voice Class #54… June 6th ……
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A Holiday Weekend
A Holiday Weekend Here in the States this is a major holiday weekend, runs through Monday. However, only one of our employees took any time away, the rest are all working through the weekend. So it feels normal except there are a lot of people in town. The Day I managed to get a lot of things priced at the new store and work on workshop stuff. But once again too tired to get to the writing. Must still be recovering from the last few months. (grin) ————— Online Workshops Still lots of room in all of them. Class #51… June 6th … The Business of Writing Class #52… June 6th…
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Kris and Her Awards
Kris and Her Awards Over the years, Kris has won many, many awards and been nominated so many times, I doubt she knows how many. She is the only person ever to win a Hugo Award for both her fiction and her editing work. And one night at the Edgar Award ceremony for mystery, she was nominated for best novel under one name and for best short story under another. But this month Kris won two major awards. That’s right, two! I think that is amazingly cool. To me, an award voted on by readers only, without politics, is the best reward there is. Period. The Anlab Award for Analog SF Magazine and…
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Topic of the Night: Restarting Your Writing
Restarting Your Writing All of us, for one reason or another, stop writing for a time. Sometimes it is health reasons, sometimes it is family reasons, or sometimes it is because we just forget, which happens right about now for a vast number of writers. For me, I stopped about thirty days ago to focus on opening a new collectables store, comic book store, and book store combined. Great fun. And even though I thought about writing along the way since I was teaching and still around numbers of writers who were writing, I really flat didn’t want to write. And I didn’t force myself. And I had no illusion that…