• Challenge,  On Writing

    Running Late Tonight

    Just Got a Late Start On the Story… So I am here, writing this around 3 am, which is late for me this last week or so. Ahh, well. (Didn’t help that my printer ran out of toner.) And no sleeping in tomorrow because got to put the final touches on a new Kickstarter campaign that is really, really cool. Not sure when we are launching just yet. Might be tomorrow, so stay tuned. This Kickstarter is for Kris’s different series, basically a Starter Kit of ten of the stories and novels that start ten of her series. All together. And, of course, you can get all the books in…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    May Workshops Starting Up!

    Four Collection Classes and Nine Regular Workshops… All starting Tuesday and Wednesday. The four collection classes are: — Space Opera Collection Class (new) — Portals Collection Class — Private Eyes Collection Class — Holiday Collection Class These all run 9 weeks long, you write five stories along the way, do your own cover and sales copy and publish the story in the 9th week. Great fun. Cost is $500 for the nine weeks and if you hit all nine assignments, you get a Pop-Up worth $150 of your choice.  Sign up on WMG Teachable. REGULAR WORKSHOPS STARTING Class #41… May 3rd … Covers 101 Class #42… May 3rd … Making…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Pithy Comment

    A Good One This Week… I find a pithy comment of the week every week to add into the videos in the Motivational Monday class. This Monday is the 5th week of the second quarter. If you sign up for the entire year, you get all the ones from the first three months in the first quarter, plus the five so far this quarter. Plus all the rest coming in this year. But this week I wanted to share the quote from Ingrid Bergman out wider, which I thought applied to writing and publishing spot on the money. And from a direction most writers don’t come from. Basically, what I…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  running

    May 1st Restart

    Some Months Make More Sense Than Others to Restart… For me, I am used May 1st to restart a number of things. First, I am restarting my minimum milage per day. I clock steps and for me 2,000 steps on my Fitbit is almost always exactly one mile. So starting May 1st I am going to hit 3 miles (6,000 steps) per day and then every week increase that by 500 steps. I need the exercise and why May 1st is a good time to do that is because as the weather warms up here in Vegas, I will be spending a lot of time daily at the gym, which…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Catching Up… To Do or Not To Do?

    A Great Question… I got that question from a writer just today and I had a pretty simple answer for him. But there is more to my answer than what I was able to give him at the spur of the moment. I said this: Try to catch up if doing so is possible and will be challenging. If impossible to catch up, then simply reset the challenge and start fresh. Sounds simple until you start figuring out if something is impossible or not. Sometimes you just know you have screwed the pooch. No catching up is possible. Reset and restart!!! But other times the added challenge makes it even…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Time of Great Forgetting…

    It Is Back, Stronger Than Before… In all my years of watching writers go through this period from April to the middle-end of July, break all streaks, get too busy to write, actually forget about writing and publishing completely, I have not seen a year this bad. I got a hunch there is one major reason. This is the first spring in two years that we feel (as a population) safe enough to get out and do things in most parts of the world. So wow, all that postponed stuff from the last two years is going to be done this year no matter what. I get that, I really…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  publishing

    Finally Getting Some Things Caught Up…

    Not Everything, Yet, But Gaining… Today I finished all the layout of Smith’s Monthly #60. Yes, realize or try to imagine 60 monthly issues. Five full years, although there was a 2 year gap in there when Kris was sick and we had to get down here to Vegas. But now still going strong. And I also did the introduction and got everything together for Smith’s Monthly #61. Will turn that in after a day or so. And also got a bunch done today on the next issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. Got to get that turned in. So all kinds of fun projects. And a very strange Sky Tate…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Mentor Focus Projects

    I Got Some Questions from Writers… So figured I would just lay out the idea behind the Mentor Focused Projects tonight instead of waiting any longer. The idea is that you have an area of publishing or writing that you would like some intense focus on, intense help to learn about for a period of time to learn it, then you would write me and ask if that area would be possible. Kris and I (and if needed Allyson and Gwyneth at WMG) will all consult, but everything will go through me. They would just help me make sure I got stuff correct that I was telling you. The cost…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    All Kinds of Stuff Today

    A Day of Finally Getting to Things… We all have those kinds of days. And I got a hunch I will be doing more and more of that this week and through next week as the craziness ebbs some after a stupidly long month of no time to breath it seemed. And yes, on the challenge, I missed some nights. But I will talk about that later and am writing fine now, so more than likely will start doing some extra stories next week to put in the missed slots. And I finally have my system in place. Part of what caused me to miss was my system collapsed, as…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Recommended Reading

    THE 2022 WRITE STUFF BUNDLE

    WOW, THIS IS A GREAT BUNDLE!!! And it has a $150 Pop-Up class in it as well, all part of the ten projects to help with your writing and publishing. Kris curated this and did a fantastic job. This one is worth grabbing, folks, and telling people about. You can get it at www.storybundle.com/writing. And while you are at Storybundle, Kris and I both have books and one of our major collections in Celestial Sagas bundle put together by Robert Jeschonick. It is a great one. So you can grab a bundle to help you with the writing and publishing and a bundle of great reading. So here is Kris’s…