• On Writing,  publishing

    Do I Do This? Or That?

    The Dilemma of Focus and Choice… I got a hunch this will be very familiar to many, if not all of you. Right now, in this new life here in Las Vegas, I have been focusing first (and with a lot of attention) on ramping up brand new habits of writing. Writing in the mornings. I have talked about that and actually it is working so far. But it is taking a focus. And I noticed today that the focus on the writing has taken away the focus on the running and exercise. Now, I am still getting over 10,000 steps per day. So that level of exercise is still…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    ASK KRIS ANYTHING Webinar

    Announcing Something Brand New! Ask Kris Anything webinar is now available for sign-ups on Teachable. This might be one of the best ideas Kris has come up with outside her fiction. Listening to Kris answer your questions and other writer’s questions live for an hour every month for a year will be an amazing learning experience. Here are the details… Ask Kristine Kathryn Rusch Anything For one hour every month, Kris will answer questions live on a webinar.  Any type of question, any form of question.  Kris has been doing a weekly column on the business and life of publishing and fiction writing for a decade now. She has won…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Book Challenge Update

    Haven’t Missed a Day Writing… But have missed a couple of mornings. For example, I missed this morning going to the buffet for my writing sessions because I had an appointment with my audiologist at noon to get me to the next step with my new hearing aides. I am now supposed to wear them as much as possible, meaning all the time. My phone is now linked to them and I can answer the phone through them, and listen to music and news shows and you name it. Let me simply say, “Cool!” And in a crowded room, like at a table at a restaurant, I can put my…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Writers of the Future Volume #35

    Book Will Be Out April 9th or So Winners will be announced as normal in a ceremony in Hollywood. And this year I will be there as a presenter, I suppose. First time in a long time. Take a look at the cover below. See my name on the cover? That’s because I have a story in it, written for that wonderful cover by Bob Eggleton. Yes, I got asked, and I was so happy to do the story. And since Bob’s cover was such fun, I decided to have fun with the story as well. In fact, the story will be the first published story of one of my…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    2020 Anthology Workshop Moved Up One Week

    For A Good Reason… Everyone who is signed up for 2020 Anthology Workshop should have gotten a letter from me about this. If you think you are signed up and didn’t get a letter, or want to sign up (filling quickly), write me at dean.wmgworkshops@gmail.com The point is that I wanted to let everyone know that the dates for the 2020 Anthology workshop have been moved one week sooner, to February 21st through the 26th. Everything else is the same and we will start writing in November like normal. The reason for the change was the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino contacting us and giving us an option to change…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    Emotion Workshop…A Sample

    Lifetime Subscriptions… You should already know that the Emotions workshop is in their subscription. Anyone with a lifetime subscription to workshops can take a new workshop when it starts up or wait and take it any time down the road. And you don’t have to tell me you want to be in it. Lifetime subscribers are automatically in. One subscriber asked if it was better for me to have them take it first time out or wait until later. For me, it makes no difference. But for the subscriber, it might be better to wait and get out of the crowd. (grin… not that many people taking it the first…

  • On Writing,  publishing

    Want To Listen To Me Talk?

    I Was Interviewed… By the folks at the Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair had me talk about writing into the dark and other stuff. They cut out the interviewer, so it seems like I just go on and on, which I tend to do at times. (grin) Take a look. Might be worth a few details for the time spent listening. And I forgot to mention, this is a video interview. https://selfpublishingadviceconference.com/how-to-write-a-novel/ or this link might get you there as well. https://wp.me/p9MsJE-Oi  

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Power of a Streak…2,417

    That’s How Many Days I Have Written Something… Without Missing!! How silly is that? Power outages, sickness, travel, you name it, I have lived it since August 1st 2012 when I started this writing here. My friend Bill died in August of 2011, so to get back writing a year later after dealing with his estate, I started writing posts here about what I was going to do. And the power of the streak just kept me going. Often the posts were nothing more than “I’m alive, here is a workshop.” Other times I have written chapters of books here. And will do that again coming up. When I count…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Eight Days In

    Going Fine… Afraid to say too much here early on because of the three misses last fall. But so far this new writing schedule is working as I had planned and hoped. I made it to the restaurant 5 of the last 8 days, and wrote every day some. Worst day was only 600 words, best days over 3,000. But my focus is now back on writing every day and that feels wonderful. After eight days, the novel is at just over 15,000 words, so not averaging 2,000 words a day as I wanted, but close and I’ll take it in start-up with new schedule. I have written some almost…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Cover For A Book…

    And This Cover Has A History… When I get started writing a book, after I get going, I tell Allyson what it will be, the title, and she does me a cover way before I am done. I love having the image to see the book as I write. And sometimes my creative voice puts the cover image into a scene as well. That is always fun. Doesn’t always happen, but fun when it does. So I had started a Cold Poker Gang novel called Side Pot and Allyson did a cover for it with this great art. I loved it, got stalled on the book and moved on. (You…