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Why So Many??
Got That Question the Other Day… Why have I done so many Kickstarters? Done 44 of them, working right now on building #45. My honest answer. I like to get my books and Kris’s books and our projects to readers. That simple. And here in 2024, that is the first step in telling readers what is available. Just as with any kind of promotion, Kickstarters take time to build up followers, but first question I always ask someone who is complaining about book sales is have they done a Kickstarter? Answer is almost always no. Fear. Too busy. Too much work. All the reasons for the answer “no.” And when…
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Writing, Learning, Fun…
New Structure Format… Coming Out of Writer’s Block… I have for some time now not been writing at the pace I usually enjoy. This is from three life events. Going blind for a time, major shoulder injury and surgery, and then a discovery with our business. But as with all Writer’s Blocks caused by life events, I am emerging back into the light and my creative voice really wants me to pick up speed. So now I am deciding on what to do next. And I hope sort of a start on December 1st with a ramp into 2025. I know what I want to do on the publishing side.…
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New Blog Structure…
Or Actually an Old Structure I Am Going Back To… Three parts of the blog if I can every night. 1… Something About Writing or Publishing 2… Something About Learning or Workshops 3… Something Personal and Fun or My Writing. I will miss one part or another, depending on time and events. But will attempt to have something for all three each day. Yeah, I know that is nuts. 1… Notes From An Editor… Part 2 Reading stories over the last four days made me realize something in general as the editor of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. I love just whacked out weird stories that work as stories. You know, the…
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Notes From An Editor… Part 1
Make It Interesting… When an editor reads a story, just as with any reader, they take their own personal likes and dislikes into their decision to buy or not buy. This is why you can often tell an editor’s voice on a project after reading numbers of issues or anthologies they have put together. That “voice” is their likes and dislikes coming through. I am no different. I have certain basics I look for in a Pulphouse story. First, stunningly well written, meaning the author is in charge of their craft. Second, something a little different about the story in some fashion or another. Third, it has to be interesting…
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Advice From A Fiction Editor
Might Work As A Title… I think I will call this series “Advice from a Fiction Editor.” I have about ten more stories to read that are from workshops as assignments, then I will change out hats and read as the Pulphouse Fiction Magazine editor. Pulphouse is not open for submissions and never will be, so what am I reading? Backers of the Pulphouse Kickstarter in July get monthly prompts and using the prompt can send me a story for consideration. I did this last year and I had a blast and I bought some stories. Great fun. And what is interesting is that the writers are actually (because they…
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Kris Reding Program…
Something Really Fun and Limited Kris Is Doing… She has decided to help a few writers with their writing craft over the next six months. Here is how she put it in her own words on her Patreon page… Kristine Kathryn Rusch On Reading It’s been quite the year. Even though Dean and I have found it hectic, a lot of good has happened. I feel like I’ve recaptured a lot of joy in my life, much in writing, and even more in reading and editing. I do miss a lot of the reading I do for the in-person workshops. To think about stories on the macro and micro levels…
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Dedicated Fiction-Writing Computer…
A Critical Part of Any Fiction-Writer’s Life… Many of you have heard me at one time or one place or another talk about the critical nature of having a dedicated fiction-writing computer. There are a ton of varied reasons for this. But I have been sort of shocked this week at learning how few writers have them and then wonder why their production is not what they want it to be. It is 2024 as I write this. Our computers are full of about a zillion distractions, from emails to YouTube to Facebook and on and on and on. A dedicated fiction writing computer has one thing on it… A…
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What Is Prolific?
Got That Question a Number of Times… Mostly because of my Pulp Speed post and then the post about systems slowing a writer down. My answer the question “What is prolific?” is always “It depends.” Pulp Speed of any level if you are turning the words into books and stories and getting them out on the market would be prolific. Especially if done every year. If your goal is to just write a few books before you move on, 50,000 words a year would be fast enough for you, but no one would ever call you prolific. Writers who tend to be called prolific after a few years are writers…
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Writing Process…
Heinlein’s Rules and Pulp Speed… Had a great (but sad) back-and-forth discussion today with a writer who read my blog last night and said Pulp Speed would never be for him. I had no problem with that. Every writer is different and that’s great. Then this writer reminded me that he wrote rough (and sloppy) first drafts and rewrote three and four times and is lucky to get 100,000 words of fiction a year out, even though he spends three to five hours a day at it. I mentioned Heinlein’s Rules and how his writing method had trapped me for six years before I found Heinlein’s Rules and Bradbury and…
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Pulp Speed Post Once Again…
Just For Fun… I wanted to bring this Pulp Speed post back again just for fun for me to read again as I work to ramp back up. I figured I could use it again as well. (grin) (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 April. And we do have a classic workshop on how to do it.) Not at all sure why this idea of writing at Pulp Speed sort of hits me right. I think because it flies in the face of all the myths. A writer has…