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Holy Smokes!!! Was That Fun!!!
And a Lot of Work… Tonight, for the last three hours straight, without a break, I have been doing a master class in putting collections together. That’s right, tonight I finished up putting sixty of my science fiction stories into six volumes. Kris had already done hers and she had already divided her stories up into the six volumes and sort of labeled then with a rough idea header that she used. But as those of you who watched the video on the Kickstarter can tell, Kris’s idea of a rough header and mine do not often match in thinking. But I did the best I could since she got…
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Herding Cats (Writers)
Totally Insane… I have learned this lesson now over 15 years of trying to help writers with workshops and other projects. And I learned the lesson way before that, back in the late 1980s as an editor. The lesson? Writers as a class are pathologically incapable of following even the simplest instruction. When it comes to writers, I do try to be clear as much as I can. The other day I talked here about manuscript format and just a surface reason for it in fiction. I even went so far as to give a link. Made little to no difference even on manuscripts I am getting for classes since…
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Formatting Meets Craft
Something So Basic… A little bit back I mentioned a bunch of workshops Kris and I were thinking of offering, and almost everyone said they would like to try “Advanced Pacing.” Now, that would be really fun for me to try to explain. I knew that, but then I got a bunch of stories in that I needed to read for a workshop. And half of them didn’t know basic fiction manuscript format, even though the rules said the stories had to be sent to me in that form. All of the problem ones had put extra lines between paragraphs, making it just damn near impossible for someone like me…
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Only Hours Left in Colliding Worlds Kickstarter!
Ends Today (Thursday) at 5 pm West Coast Time! This Colliding Worlds Kickstarter campaign hit all five stretch goals, so wow are all backers going to get a lot of cool stuff. Including a sixth volume of Colliding Worlds. The extras above the reward you pick includes six books of science fiction, two Classic Workshops and two Pop-Up classes. Also this is the last few hours to get the two special science fiction writing workshops. They are only offered through this campaign. How to Write Science Fiction Short Stories. How to Write About the Vastness of Space. Both workshops are three weeks long, each cost $150, and you can write…
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Colliding Worlds Kickstarter… Only About 60 Hours Left…
Don’t Miss This One… A great deal of science fiction reading from me and Kris, special workshops (two of them you can only get through this campaign,) and a bunch of other nifty things. And if we hit the next stretch reward, the five volume set becomes six volumes of our science fiction short stories. Check it out at Colliding Worlds Kickstarter Campaign. And only a few hours left to watch the video with me and Kris talking about collaborating. We had fun. About 60 Hours Left… The old fiction technique of a ticking clock is real with this campaign. Measured now in hours left.
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How I Did In January… My Challenge
I Learned and Did Fine… In my opinion. Here is what I said I wanted to do in 2021 on January 1st. (You remember, before the insurrection.) “So my challenge for 2021 is to write a story per day for the year, plus write a novel per month, plus publish over 70 major books.” Well, so far, so interesting. I managed 6 short stories in January, right up to January 6th, then got distracted for a few days. Then as I went back to it, I realized that my tracking systems for short stories sucked beyond words and I couldn’t even remember much about the six I wrote a few…
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March Workshops are Available
April Workshops Tomorrow… It is Friday, so I decided to get some chores done. So I managed to post and get live all the March regular workshops. List Below. And tomorrow I will post and get live all the regular April workshops as well. I am leaving two spots open in April for new workshops and one open in March. So thanks everyone, on the feedback yesterday. And going to give some thought to writing a short book on the Stages of Publishing as a series of blog posts, then put the entire book in Smith’s Monthly before I publish it stand alone. And do the workshop as well in…
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Ideas On My Lists for Pop-Up and Workshops…
I Have A List… Actually two lists, tacked on my computer with thoughts of “That would make an interesting Pop-Up” and the second list is possible workshops. Thought I might share a few of the residents of those lists here. Comments are welcome, but be nice. Remember, it is only your opinion and someone else may really love the idea or hate it. And saying you like it does not commit you to taking anything. Kris and I are always looking for more ideas if you got something that you think would be a good idea for writers to study or learn or that you want to study or learn.…
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A Sixth Volume in Colliding Worlds
That is the New 5th Stretch Reward!!! That’s right, if we get to that 5th stretch reward in the Colliding Worlds Kickstarter campaign in the next seven days (we are getting close to the 4th), Kris and I will put together a sixth volume of our science fiction short stories. (Yes, we do have enough. We even have enough for a seventh.) COLLIDING WORLDS Volume #6. So that means there will be 120 science fiction stories in the set of six books if we hit that level. We will not do that extra book if we don’t make the stretch reward. But if we do, everyone who has backed the…
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Colliding Worlds Five Volume Set…
100 Science Fiction Stories… Fifty from Kris, fifty from me, in a five volume set. Colliding Worlds We are slightly over halfway through the campaign and it is doing great. We hit the third stretch goal, so everyone gets more books and two classic workshops. Basically, tThis is us having a great time. We have also talked about doing joint collections of some sort of another, and then Gwyneth came up with the idea of us putting 100 of our science fiction stories in the same set of five books called COLLIDING WORLDS and both Kris and I loved the idea. Really, if you have a few minutes, watch the…