• On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Workshop Credit Sale

    I Was Reminded… Because of one of my posts, a couple people reminded me that often this time of the year, before Christmas, we offer online regular workshops at the same rate we offer them in the Fiction River Kickstarter. But only for a short time. I looked back and we have done this three years in a row now, so thanks, folks for the reminder. We’re going to do it for the 4th year starting today. So here is how it works. — Any regular workshop credit can be bought for $250. (Regularly $300) for the next week. (7 days, ending on November 19th) –You can buy as many…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Finally Done With A Warm-Up Book

    Yup, Finished the Short Novel… It’s a Thunder Mountain novella or short novel. Finished it this morning. Those who are following my 100 day challenge with letters will get a uncorrected copy of it in a week or so. I think I will send along another Thunder Mountain book or two as well to them because this one might take a little knowledge of the Thunder Mountain books. Kris will let me know about that after she reads it. I am finally getting the entire schedule thing worked out and am writing again solidly, now in the mornings. So tomorrow I will start a brand new book (no idea which…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Fun Event Today

    The Big Expo… Kris and I spent a large part of our afternoon not only getting into the Las Vegas Convention Center, but then picking up our bibs and all the bling and such for the runs this coming weekend. (We came away with 6 shirts from the thing. We are both going to run the 5k on Saturday evening. Then on Sunday I’m going to do the half-marathon. 13.1 miles or so. I had planned on the full marathon, but I can’t finish it in five hours which is the limit they allow before they open back up all the roads. Besides, I am still too heavy and I…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Valor: Military SF Bundle

    I Have Had the Privilege of Curating a Story Bundle… This one is called Valor: Military Science Fiction. And wow is it a good one. https://www.storybundle.com/scifi Even though I am not known for writing military science fiction, I may have written more military sf novels than just about anyone. Not kidding. Why is that? I am known for writing Star Trek and that is military science fiction at its finest. But often readers don’t think of Star Trek as military science fiction. It is just Star Trek. My second published novel was a Star Trek novel in the Deep Space Nine series under a pen name and written with Kristine…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Thanks To Those I Met This Morning

    Some Wonderful and Very Smart Writers… It was great to meet so many names that I knew from here or workshops, but had never put a face to. That was super fun. Thank you! I had to be up this morning early (so no writing this morning) to be at the 20BooksTo50K Conference here in Las Vegas. I had 40 minutes to give a short course on Writing into the Dark, a topic that takes six weeks to go over in a regular workshop. (Just starting now in November, actually. Information below.) I had fun with the forty minutes and no one shot at me from the audience, so I…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Anthology Workshop Started Up

    And There Are Now Seven Openings… I started the 2019 Anthology Workshop group list. And will be sending out hotel information and first story information over that list shortly. So if you were planning on attending the workshop in March, which we start writing for in three weeks, contact me now. That’s right… there is three weeks of writing three stories at the end of November and early December, then time off for the holidays, then three more weeks of writing in January. Then a lot of reading. So really the workshop starts at the end of November. So time is almost up to sign up for this one. And you…

  • On Writing,  publishing

    A Reminder of the Lifetime Subscriptions Now Available

    Posted Series Workshop Reading List… First, I need to announce that the first video from Kris in that workshop is up along with the reading list. So those of you signed up for the Study Along Series workshop, or have a lifetime subscription to the Study Along, be sure to check that out. Now, here are the details on the Lifetime Subscriptions now available. We have been doing these workshops now for nineteen years plus and we plan on keeping going with a lot of fun and new things, not counting all the workshops available in each subscription already. REGULAR WORKSHOP LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTION You get all regular workshops and classic…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    New Future Series of Workshops Starting Up

    A Really Fun Series of Workshops… Starts on Wednesday… We spend so much time on all these workshops helping writers become better storytellers and better at business, but we haven’t spent that much time helping writers deal with their futures and the future of their writing business. And to be honest, we get really tired of writers spending all the time to learn craft and the business and then not know how to sustain and end up gone in a few years. The problem was the topic was so huge, we didn’t know where to start. We first boiled it down to six different six-week workshops. Finally we managed to…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Typing Fast vs Being Prolific

    Two Very Different Things… I know a ton of writers who can type and write per hour a lot faster than me. In fact half the writers taking the Speed workshop ended up being a lot faster hour-by-hour writers than I am. So how in 2017 did I write seventeen novels and about sixty short stories and very, very few other writers did that much, not counting all the blogs and editing I did? The answer: I spend more time in the chair. And I have cleared out the myths. I honestly don’t care what you think of Bob Ross, folks. But in two posts my writing was called “happy…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Killing Another Sacred Cow… Having Fun Makes Your Writing Bad

    Having Fun Equals Writing Poorly… Wow, I flat hadn’t seen that one before until a couple of really insulting comments on my blog I did about Mariah Carey having fun. Then it dawned on me that I bet a lot of writers think that if something is fun to do, it can’t have value, that it can’t be any good. Check in with yourself to see if you are one of those folks. Then ask yourself where you learned that myth. I know the myth about you must “struggle for your art” and that happy BS.  But I had never flipped that slimy rock over and looked at the other…