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Day Two Prolog…
For July Challenge Writing Four Novels in July… Plus during the same time I will write this nonfiction book as a series of blogs here every night. So if this works, five full books in one month. This blog here will be (in altered form) the prolog to the book. Chapter One will be the first day of writing. This prolog is basically about my attitude and what I am doing to get ready for the challenge. First off, I can say what I am not doing. I am not planning any book ahead. I do know that the first book will be a Pakhet Jones novel, the first one…
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Writing Four Novels in a Month…
Again… This challenge is nothing new for me, but since I did this challenge the first time, I have felt that I have slowly lost control of my time in general and writing time in particular. And I can’t think of a better way to snap back into controlling my time and my sense of time than a writing challenge. Not challenging anyone else or suggesting any of you even try this. Just doing this for myself. My challenge is to write four novels in July. Pretty simple. I write 40,000 word novels, so about 160,000 words of fiction. (Pulp Speed 4, but with also doing these blogs to form…
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It Is Amazing…
After A Long Night… Today all three cats are getting along great. In fact, they all seem to be fine. Last night was a lot of hissing and such after we released them together. None of that today at all. We spent the day doing all the crap you do on the day after you move into a new place. Cable guy appointment (who was great) securing shelves, napping, and reading a lot of instructions on high-end appliances. I never did get my office together, but Kris got hers in good shape. So tomorrow I will be in my new office, will get email caught up, will record some workshop…
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Story Prompts
I Found An Interesting One.. Laying out Issue #50 of Smith’s Monthly this last week, I was going over six short stories written in five days about five years ago. They were stories in the huge book STORIES FROM JULY which I am serializing in six issues of Smith’s Monthly. 31 stories I wrote in 31 days, so not only am I putting in the regular five stories in every issue, but five or six more from STORIES FROM JULY, plus a full novel. A number of the stories from all those years ago I remember. And then there was a Seeder’s Universe story I didn’t remember at all. So…
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A Signpost Along the Road…
We All Have Them… Just like driving on any road, sometimes you notice the sign telling you where on the road you are at, sometimes not. For the last number of decades, I have paid little attention to the signs on my writing road. But my first decade or two, I sure watched the signposts, tried to figure out if I was even still on the correct road at times for where I wanted to go with my writing and publishing. And over the years, stretching this sad metaphor a little more, I fell off the road and took some bad turns that just took longer to get back on…
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Back to Writing Posts Here…
Tomorrow… I hope everyone got what they wanted from all the sales we did over this last year. We have some amazing stuff planned at WMG and here in the workshops for the summer and fall and into the winter. But right now I’m going to be working to get a bunch of stuff caught up and back on track. Licensing Transition, Cat Stories, and Decade Ahead as I mentioned earlier. Plus looks like later this fall the Shared Worlds class will go into its second phase, which will be a blast. And I am still on track, surprisingly, to hit my publish seventy books in my seventieth year on…
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LAST DAY OF THE LAST SALE
ALMOST DONE!!! Just so it is clear. This sale will end on today (Thursday) in the evening West Coast time. And that will be the last pandemic half-price sale. Hard to believe this is almost over. We started these last spring in a shut-down world as WMG’s way of trying to help writers stay in and stay safe and learning through the turmoil. We hoped after the first few we would end it, and every two months we did another because the pandemic was still strong. Now, for those who are able to get the vaccine, the pandemic fear is over and we are into recovery. The vaccine has turned…
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3 Days Left… The Last Sale
Going to Count Down These Three Days… Just so it is clear. This sale will end on Thursday evening West Coast time and that will be the last pandemic sale. We started these last spring as WMG’s way of trying to help writers stay in and stay safe and learning through the turmoil. We hoped after the first few we would end it, and every two months we did another because the pandemic was still strong. Now, for those who are able to get the vaccine, the pandemic fear is over and we are into recovery. And now time for WMG to start into recovery as well. Like everyone we…
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Sale Information, Romance Study Along Reading List, and More Covers…
First, Two New Covers… (Cat Picture at End of Post) I have to not only do the cover for #50 (coming out in a week or so) but I also have to do the cover for #51. Not only is the cover for #51 on the back cover, but it has a number of ads in the interior. The novel in #51 will be a new Thunder Mountain novel called Green Valley. I just did both of these tonight in this form. #50 I did the full spread as well. So here they are. Amazing how different the covers are from issue to issue. I love that, to be honest.…
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A Challenge Out of Nothing
I Can Make A Challenge For Myself Out of the Stupidest Things… A month or so ago I moved my office from our condo upstairs in this building to a bedroom in the condo on the ground floor. We will be using this condo for workshops in 2022, we hope, if a few more pieces fall into place. But for this last pandemic year, Kris and I used this condo for various things and for good reasons too many to mention, I decided to move my office down here. And it has been fantastic. With the move and such, I worked on a bunch of projects, but not a novel.…