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A Lesson…
But Few Will Listen… The advice: Never let anyone tell you to not write something because it won’t sell. Never decide to not write something because it has been done to death before. Why I say no one will listen is because so many indie writers are wrapped up in writing to market, writing what they think will sell, or what some unknown person on the internet thinks will sell. And every indie writer thinks they have to be original with ideas and plotting when nothing is every original in either one. Tonight I read a story by an author. A really old idea, one I had seen a hundred…
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2020 Holiday Spectacular
Is Now Live!! The 2020 Holiday Spectacular Kickstarter campaign is now live. Just as we did this year, for those who get the 2020 calendar in this campaign, you will get an original holiday story delivered to your inbox every day from American Thanksgiving (November 26th) through January 1st, 2021. (Yes, sort of an Advent Calendar using original short stories.) What a fantastic way to ride out of this crazy year. Over 25 professional writers have written original stories for this and the entire project is edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, award-winning editor. Kris also does an introduction letter every day for each story, so it is also like getting…
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Blog 3,000 Days in a Row!!!
Without a Miss… Think that through…. That is 8 years, two months, and 19 days. A blog every day. Sometimes more than one blog a day if circumstances required it. Computer crashes… Yup! Internet connection failures… Yup! Power outages… Yup! Sickness and hospital stays… Yup! Kris very sick… Yup! Major move to new city… Yup! Major business office move… Yup! Biggest problem was nights I was too tired to care and had nothing to say… Those were the hard nights. Why do this? I have no damn idea, to be honest. None. Whatever reason I started this daily blog for (as I also started Smith’s Monthly on the same day) is…
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Time Travel Story Bundle
I LOVE TIME TRAVEL BUNDLES… I have one of my Thunder Mountain time travel novels in this bundle. It is called Warm Springs and might be the most complex time travel novel or story I have ever written, and that is going some. And I am not curating this one, Kris is, which makes it even more fun since her take on Time Travel and my take on it are very different. So here is her blog introducing the time travel bundle called The Big Time Bundle… It is her words from here on out… Call it a guest blog, sort of… ——- The Big Time Bundle – Curated by…
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Caution on the November Writing Challenge…
It Can Be Deadly… If not done with the right attitude. What most of the people running the November challenge believe is that if you produce 50,000 words of typing, you can turn it into a story later. They push writers to write sloppy. And that is deadly. The math for 50,000 words in November is not that tough to figure. Basically 1,700 words a day. That’s about two hours a day. Not hard. So why not write a novel with those 50,000 words? Why write sloppy and then put the typing in a file and never go back to it??? Seems like a total waste of a month. Why…
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Making Writing Important
Deadly Issue… I talk about this problem writers have in many different workshops and in many different ways, hoping that I am heard. Most of the time my words go right by, or the writer nods and says, “That makes sense.” Then a week later has built up a project to be important without really thinking about it, and then wonder why critical voice has stopped them cold. I have had a couple people lately ask me why I can’t remember my own stories, or why I miss on Rule #4 and not the first three. I usually just laugh and say I am old and have a bad memory,…
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November Workshops Now Up
All On Teachable… December workshops will be also up and able to sign up in a few days. And last call to jump into the October workshops this weekend. They will vanish on Monday or so. I initially was going to push back the start date of the November workshops until the 10th, but then decided that the 3rd is fine because most people don’t start workshops for a few days anyway. And the first weeks are normally the easiest. For those who have been living in isolation, the 3rd is the US election. So here is the list of the November and December workshops. I am pretty sure that…
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Having Fun In Week #2…
Of the Making Money Workshop… I just spent the last few hours recording the second week of Making Money with Your Fiction Writing Workshop. Oh, my, I think I was punchy. (grin) But for me it’s a fun topic and I was having fun. I also realized while showing off an issue of Smith’s Monthly that by the time #45 comes out, it will be 2021, and Issue #44 came out in summer of 2017. Wow, 3.5 years between issues. Sort of been a crazy time, that’s for sure. But I am so excited about bringing it back. I have about eight or nine novels done and waiting to go…
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Writing Update
Some Stories and Progress on Card Sharp Silver novel… I’ve been kind of dinging along on the Cave Creek novel, doing a couple thousand words per night. Also doing some cat stories with my new series character Pahket Jones. She’s in the Poker Boy universe and so far he has appeared in one of her stories and she has appeared in a new Poker Boy story. I’m having fun. Hard not to in the Poker Boy Universe. The Cave Creek novel, Card Sharp Silver, will not only be in a future issue of Smith’s Monthly, but will be sent to everyone for the Shared World Class, along with some bible…
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Money and Kickstarter Workshops Starting
How To Make Money With Your Fiction Writing… Yup, that workshop starts on Wednesday this coming week. Should be a very interesting one, but don’t take it if you want to learn about advertising on places like Facebook and so on. That is not how to make money past a moment in time, maybe, if you are lucky. We’re not even hardly mentioning that. This workshop is how to make money over the long haul and build the income. If you first thought is that you know how to do that, you really need this workshop. If you first thought is you can’t imagine what we will talk about besides…