• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly

    Smith’s Monthly #46 Out Tomorrow

    In Theory…  That means that I will have gotten two months out in a row, and already working on Smith’s Monthly #47 layout (March issue) and putting #48 together (April issue). As I do covers for short stories, I’ll post them here. But I have a desire to do a novel quickly, so I may do one of those books that I talk about the writing moment-by-moment each day for 10 days. The reason I got onto this idea was way back (years and years ago) I did that here, put all the blogs together into a book called Writing a Novel in Ten Days. Well, that book is in…

  • Challenge,  publishing,  Recommended Reading

    Boss is Back!!

    Thieves Publishes Today!! Today New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s new Diving Universe novel THIEVES publishes today. THIEVES is a great book, to say the least. Great science fiction. Boss is back and diving the boneyard. And oh, wow, is the clock ticking. Some of you may have gotten this book early through the Kickstarter we did last fall. (Hardbacks are still stuck at the printer, sadly. And the game is still stuck in China.) So if you got to read it already and like it, help us pass the word. This is just an amazing addition to the Diving Universe. And for those of…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  publishing

    Lots of Fun Reading This Week

    Got Cave Creek Stories In… I need 30 stories for the three books. Ten per book. And got just about that number in total not spread that evenly over the books. So looks like I will have a second call out to those in the Shared World Class. I had no doubt that would be the case, but was surprised at the low number. Also, a note: The Shared World class originally said nine months, but now it will be going for at least another year. Lots of stuff already there, more videos on putting these together, and more anthologies down the road. And yes, it is still possible to…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    I’m a Copyright Junkie…

    I Know…. Sounds Painful… Today, I found some amazing articles on copyright and trademark. Basically IP. One pretty amazing article was on copyright, bad agents and lawyers, really bad contracts, divorce, and more twists and turns than anyone will be able to figure out because of all the stupidity over the decades. It concerned the Tom Clancy’s estate and Jack Ryan. I am not going to link to it because the copyright and trademark concepts in it will just give anyone who is not a copyright junkie the wrong ideas. A second court case article was posted about Dwight Yoakam suing Warner Brothers for continuing to sell his songs. Actually,…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Clearing the Decks

    Getting a Second Shot Thursday… So I wanted to have projects that were due immediately done in case I am down for a day or so with a reaction. So tonight Kris and I turned in all six of the Colliding Worlds books to WMG Publishing, including introductions. That turned out to be a really fun project in a lot of ways. Also tonight, we turned in the last three Year of a Cat anthologies, including all the introductions. So that’s nine major books in one night, turned in. (We had been building toward that, of course.) So after I get through the second shot (maybe tomorrow night, maybe Friday),…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Downside of Being Disorganized…

    Just Because I Like to Write… Yup, me and Heinlein’s 4th Rule have a sort of love/hate relationship. As I have said often, I have no idea how many short stories I have written. Number ranges from 400 and up. Maybe way up. Over 200 have been published in Smith’s Monthly alone. So while putting the next issue of Smith’s Monthly together, I had a story manuscript in paper, but could not find the file anywhere. So a few days later I had my writing computer basically give up the ghost (lost nothing but the mouse said “Nope” and I tried three different alternatives and all of them said, “Nope.”),…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    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…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing

    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…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing

    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.

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    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…