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My Filing System
I Am Both Organized and Not Organized For 67 months, I did Smith’s Monthly Magazine. Had one short break in the middle somewhere and now it has been on hiatus for over two years because of the life rolls. But it is coming back. Soon. The last few days I discovered once again why I loved doing that magazine and what is really important to me about it almost more than anything. It is my filing system. Every month I would publish four or five or six short stories. I never repeated a short story, so there are 270 different stories in those 67 issues. There are also novels and…
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Update On My Challenge…
Going Along As Expected… I had a really bad start to March for various reasons, and missed some days on my daily story challenge. I expected times like that to happen. But missing some stories does not mean I have failed. Snort. Not by a long shot. This is a very long year and I would have been delusional if I had thought I could actually write a story every day without missing for an entire year. (Have any of you have a memory of bad days during your year?) But I still plan on having 365 stories by the end. I am on target for that. And here is…
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A Question About My Challenge…
“Am I Running Out of Ideas?” That was the question and it is a good question if you believe in all the myths of fiction writing, as we all do and did in our early days. For me, just to be clear… I never write down ideas. I mostly just ignore them. I never know what I am going to write ahead of time. I sometimes don’t know until the end of the story. I finish all stories I start. I use a trigger like a title of a phrase or image of a character to start my stories. I write stories only for myself and no one else. And…
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Since I Am Now Writing At Pulp Speeds Again…
Just For Fun… I wanted to bring this Pulp Speed post back again just for fun for me to read again as I am firing along now for almost two months at Pulp Speeds. I figured I could use it again as well. (grin) (And yes, tomorrow I will list the story I wrote today and the one I will write tomorrow… Challenge still going fine.) (I wrote this post around 2014, then brought it forward to 2016, then 2017, and just about every year or so since, skipping 2022. Last time here was October. And this month March… I made the Pulp Speed class a regular workshop again so…
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Last Day to Get Craft Class on Early Bird Discount…
And Challenge Going Onward… So first off, today is the last day to get the CRAFT IN THE 21ST CENTURY done by Kris for $200 for the 9 weeks. It will switch to $250 late Monday night. This class on WMG Teachable is something Kris really wanted to do. She will be recording videos every week and they will come out on Monday some time. The first week’s videos are now up. No assignments, just learning about how some craft things have changed in the 21st century. 9 Weeks of Mondays. Early bird price is $200 until Monday night late, then it goes to $250. Here is the video of…
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February Story #10 And Workshop Updates…
UPDATES ON IN-PERSON CLASSES Kris is starting to work on the reading list for the Gothic in-person workshop. So thought I would give you all an update on the spots left for each one. Gothic May 5-8th, 2025… 2 Spot2 Left Time Travel October 13-16th, 2025… 2 Spots Left Adventure January 12-15th, 2026… Waiting List World Building May 4-7th, 2026… 1 Spot Left Detectives. October 12-15th, 2026… 2 Spots Left That’s it. Not Many spots left. The cost is $750. And we are thinking about a class before Licensing Expo in late…
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Story #2 February…
Yes, Restarting Numbering Each Month… I know I got 31 stories done in January. Restarting keeps the number lower so I don’t think of eating the elephant too much. And gives me a monthly target for stories completed. Tonight’s story was a late starting story because I had a ton of other stuff to do, so I went for a character with a lot of voice that I am having fun with and that is my new character, Private Detective “No-Neck” Crunch. All the story titles start “A Woman Who…” And the last part of the title is a hint to where he will find the body of the woman…
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Ate the Elephant For a Time…
Had To Sit Down and Take Deep Breaths… You see, I have four big whiteboards on one wall of my office. They have the titles of the short stories that are in the first 50 issues of Smith’s Monthly. I stopped at Issue 50 because I ran out of room on the boards. There are 220 titles of stories written up there. 220 stories, covers an entire wall. I hope to do 365 stories this year. I happened to glance up at the wall of story titles and my mind went, “That is just 2/3rds of the number of stories you hope to write this year.” Wham!!! I went from…
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January Challenge Stories
Managed A Story Per Day For 31 Days… I have some adjustments to make, such as starting earlier in the day. But very happy with going from zero to full speed on fiction. 101,280 consumable words. That’s on pace for about 1.2 million words this year. Not up to my average yet, but close and a lot of things in January cut into that word count, so we shall see how it works in February and March. Working to get back above 1.3 million words. Here are the story titles for January… List of JANUARY Challenge Stories The Notes She Left Behind… Thunder Mountain A Lost Darkness… Marble Grant Death…
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Story #29…
Two More Stories to Complete January… Considering I jumped from zero to full speed overnight, I will take it. I will do an inventory of the stories and word counts from January in a few days. On the publishing side, Kris has read 12 of them and I will be putting the first collection of ten together as soon as I work out an issue with doing the covers. The idea is for me to do a collection every two weeks once I start them. I will also be putting some of the stories in issues of Smith’s Monthly. Thinking the restart of that now March. I will also be…