• Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Why All The Stretch Rewards?

    Why Give So Much Away? Got that question a lot this time, more than any other campaign we have done, although I must admit, that question is pretty normal for our campaigns. If a person does a $5 pledge to get an early copy of RESCUE TWO in electronic form, as I write this they get ten more books and nine workshops worth $1,350.00. But that is about to jump one more goal to eleven books and ten workshops. Why do this? Why give so much away? Two major reasons, actually. First, this is a campaign for my new Seeders novel RESCUE TWO. It stands alone, but gives a good…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Another Friday Night

    Over The Years… I think it is a total miracle that I have not missed on this blog on a Friday night. Some of you know I tended bar for 17 years, and just about always on a Friday night. So back in 1987, when I went freelance with writing and editing and publishing, I swore I would never spend another Friday night or another New Year’s Eve in a bar. But for some reason, after 35 years of not going anywhere on Friday night, the itch to go out and do something on Friday night is still there. I never want to do anything in reality, but it is…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    RESCUE TWO KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN NOW LIVE!!!

    ALL KINDS OF GREAT STUFF!! Including a ton of different workshop stuff, and with every award you get a copy of my new Seeders novel RESCUE TWO. Rescue Two Kickstarter. The two special workshops are on science fiction. — WRITING IDEA FICTION Special Workshop. All the ins and outs of writing idea fiction and how to do it and how to come up with ideas. You can take it starting April 12 or May 3rd. And remember, this is the only place to get this workshop. — WRITING ABOUT TIME Special Workshop. All the ins and outs of writing about time while in space and how to do it and…

  • Challenge,  motivation,  On Writing,  publishing

    Challenges (Wrong Information Out There)

    Not Sure How This Information Got Spread… But I heard yesterday from a person who didn’t feel that spending $600 and then not being able to write on something a year in would be a good thing. And that they would lose their money like putting it in a slot machine. I wrote back and said that the challenges don’t cost anything. Yes, you spend the $600 to get into the mix. But if you miss, you get $600 in credits for anything on WMG Teachable except for another challenge. So in other words, you buy $600 in credits for any workshop or anything, and then get to have some…

  • Challenge,  publishing,  Recommended Reading

    Less Than Two Days Left!!!

    Cattitude Story Bundle About to Vanish!! You don’t want to miss all this fantastic reading. Ten different novels with cats as one kind of focus or another, plus a collection and an anthology. This will end on Thursday evening. Don’t let it slip by. https://storybundle.com/cats And what is amazing is that for one low price of $20 you can get all the books and stories. Really fun stuff in all kinds of different genres. And great writers. If you bought all these books on Amazon, you would pay $50 or more. So test out some new authors, read some fantastic cat novels and stories. Nothing like cat fiction to cheer…

  • Challenge,  publishing,  Recommended Reading

    Searching for Art

    Hours Spent… I finished my short story fairly early tonight, so was going to go get some sleep but then decided to check our account on Deposit Photos and discovered that I was going to lose my monthly number of art downloads if I didn’t use them in the next ten hours. Yikes. So for two hours tonight I downloaded art that I might use for February stories that I haven’t done covers for. Didn’t end up using all of the credits, but used a bunch of them. Eyes just ran out of gas (or something like that.) And don’t forget that the fantastic Cattitude Storybundle only has five days…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  publishing

    Brandon Helps Us All Once Again

    Brandon Sanderson’s Second Kickstarter… Brandon’s campaign is about to break the record for the largest campaign in Kickstarter history. It is over twenty million as I start to write this and still climbing. And he is doing this in the FICTION category with four books. Three years ago Loren Coleman and I got it in our heads that Kickstarter could be another sales-of-books source, like a bookstore for preorders. We started a free Kickstarter for Fiction Writers place on Teachable, and Loren wrote an entire book on Crowdfunding for Fiction Writers, which is basically the bible. Our intent was to make Kickstarter pay attention more to the Fiction category like…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Aliens Among Us

    A New StoryBundle… Hold on, you can’t buy it yet. I have not put it all together yet, to be honest. I am looking for some great science fiction novels or novellas with aliens in them. Turns out they are harder to find than you might think. But, of course, I am being  selective because I love doing these bundles and work hard to make them the best they can be. The one going right now is CATTITUDE and if you love cat stories and haven’t grabbed it yet, don’t wait too long. It will be gone soon. So I am being selective looking for novels or novellas that focus…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Cool Collections Workshops Starting in March

    Four Different Collections Workshops They last nine weeks, you write five stories, I help you put the entire book together and the week #9 assignment is that you publish the collection that didn’t even exist before you started the class. Great fun!! And yes, by putting in the code MidWinter, you get them for half price. Also, if you hit every assignment and publish on the last day, you get a Pop-Up Credit worth $150.00 So this is a fantastic deal, especially during the sale. Collection Classes focus for March/April are SPIES RELATIONSHIPS FANTASY HEROES/HEROINES Relationships can be about any kind of relationship, not just romance. Remember, during the nine…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Multitasking Big Time Today

    Not Even Counting the Sale And Bundle Stuff… Today, after my normal email, I went to work on doing the final layout of Smith’s Monthly #58. It will be out next week and up on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/deanwesleysmith Then after that Kris and I walked a few miles to a great lunch place and spent some time there working on different workshops, getting them all planned out. I have also recorded a new class called CLIMBING OUT OF THE RUBBLE which will be part of the Master Business Class, the licensing class, and also on the Decades Ahead class. It will be up by Monday in all three. It will be…