Kate Wilhelm Has Left Us… I just want to spend a minute tonight remembering one of my mentors and a fantastic person. (No reason to send me sympathy. Save that for her family at this point. And go buy her books, the greatest way to honor a writer. I first met Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm at a convention in 1981. And then again in the summer of 1982 at Clarion writers workshop in Michigan. Then later that summer Nina Kiriki Hoffman and I made the sixteen hour round-trip drive from Moscow, Idaho to Eugene, Oregon, to sit in Damon and Kate’s living room every month for a workshop they…

Found a Fun Book Tonight On the Shelf… Kris and I were going through a shelf unit in our living room that held mostly books we had no idea where they came from, but they had been there a long time. And bingo, up popped a hardback in good dust jacket of Stephen King’s The Stand. First printing, first edition. Guess what is headed quickly for eBay? (grin) We found a bunch of the Grant limited editions of King’s Dark Tower series as well. A fun bunch of discoveries. And we are finding original art we didn’t know we had in other areas. Amazing how things get bought, treasured, then…

I Bet This is Familiar To Most of You… Going along just fine one moment, into the story, and then suddenly I could barely keep my eyes open or see the screen. Something to do with about four hours sleep last night I am betting. (grin) But got about 1,600 new words on the Marble Grant novel, so closer to finishing so I can start the new book, whatever that might be. I ended up today getting up way early, then spent the afternoon in meetings and doing some exercise for the first time in a while as well (That might have contributed to the suddenly loss of a brain…

I Said I Would Start Reporting… So I actually have something to report. SHOCK!! I was worried for a time there earlier. But got in here around 2 a.m. and worked for over two hours on the book I have been playing at off and on for a while now. And I also got the next issue of Smith’s Monthly ready to turn in as soon as I finish the novel. No point in actually reporting word count on this book, so the new book I will be starting shortly I will report every word. Got a couple ideas on how I might be able to frame the reporting as…

Spent the Night Cleaning Up Stuff… We all know how that goes to get ready to write after a while away. Got all the March workshops started up, all assignments done, my brain back over on the book I hadn’t done much with since before the Anthology workshop, actually a week or more ahead of that because of all the reading. So tomorrow night I will start tracking the writing. It will be a slow start I am sure. I can warn you all right now, this will not be the easy, smooth process I sometimes make things look like here. First off, I have a huge orange cat that…

Guess I Must Be Tired… I was going to do this article about why some long-time professional writers tell beginning writers completely bad advice for the right reasons. But alas, I sat down for a short time in my reading chair to rest my eyes and woke up over an hour later. So that article will have to wait for another night. And thanks for the feedback both here and in emails on the new webinar-based workshops. I think they will be fun and we’re trying to work out how they would work exactly. A couple of the former coast workshops we have had to cancel might work in that…

Some Fun and Fantastic Stories At The Workshop This last week fifty professional writers were here on the Oregon coast sitting in front of seven editors listening to us talk about short stories they had written. And maybe some of the editors even bought some of the stories, but that was not the point of the workshop. Just a nifty side affect. I learned a ton, read some fantastic fiction, and had a lot of fun. Thank you, everyone! Also, what was fun was all the networking. And on Friday evening I was talking with Loren Coleman (owner of Catalyst Games) and Chuck Heitzelman (owner of Bundlerabbit) and a few…