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Las Vegas Workshops
All 2021 Workshops Now Open… You can sign up for any of the four we have announced here today. And I know 2021 seems like a long ways away, but in reality we start the group list for the anthology workshop in September of this year and the writers start writing in November. Of this year. And the reading list for the January craft workshop will go out in October. And so on. Plus it takes time to set these up not only for us, but for all of you to make your travel plans to Las Vegas. — One note on the April 2020 Short Story workshop first. Invites…
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But It’s Important!!!
Never Think That About Any Story… Or novel, for that matter. They are just stories. And telling stories is fun, right up to the moment that you make a story or novel important. That’s like taking a pin to a ballon. All the fun of writing just vanishes almost instantly in a pop. What actually happens is by making something important, you allow the critical voice to take over. You know that voice that lives in the front of your brain and thinks it knows everything. It shoves the creative, smart voice to the back and takes over. Writing out of critical voice is a struggle at best, and usually…
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Saturday Night
Fun stuff… I will talk tomorrow night about why only seven short stories are turned in over six days from over 45 writers writing this week for the anthology workshop. The rest all have less than 23 hours to the deadline. And I know exactly why that has happened this week. I caused it. I love messing with writers for lesson’s sake. (evil grin) I also just posted the second video in the Publishing Challenge about what I did this week on the publishing side. And in the Novel Great Challenge, I posted the second week’s video there about my writing this last week. I will be doing that in…
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And There Are Just Days…
Best intentions and plans go sideways for all of us… Really sideways. Today was one of those days. Had my iPad in its case, in my backpack, ready to head out this morning to go write in a buffet I like to sit and write in. All I had to do was make a couple quick Friday phone calls and out the door I would go. No issue. Yup, no luck. One business phone call lead directly to another and finally three hours later Kris and I wondered off to lunch and when I got home from that I did business until almost five. It was called a Friday when…
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Too Many
Lost Way Too Many Good Friends… And I know, I know, that’s part of living and being a survivor. But it sucks beyond words. Unless you are not involved with science fiction, or have been living under a rock, by now you know that writer and editor, Mike Resnick left us this morning. On blogs and Facebook and a billion other places, people have been talking all day about how wonderful Mike was (and he was) and how he was a great writer (he was a working writer like me) and how he helped so many people over the years. (He did.) He was also damned funny and a great…
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Smith’s Monthly Issues
Working on Three… Sort of at the same time. I have so many unpublished short stories and basically three books I want to include in issues, I figured I might as well put all three issues together at the same time. So, in other words, Smith’s Monthly is almost back!! But the problem is that some of these stories I wrote three years ago and I have no memory of them, so sort of have to put them back in my head, and that takes time glancing back at them. And putting a Marble Grant (one of my character’s in the Poker Boy universe) novel together because basically I wrote…
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It Was A Monday
So To Hit My Streak… I am only putting up the listings of the January regular workshops that are starting tomorrow and Wednesday. And those signed up for the How to Write a Holiday Story in January from the Holiday Spectacular Kickstarter, it is also starting tomorrow, so don’t forget that. Here is a list of the workshops: The regular workshops last six weeks and are $300. Some good workshops this month. And Writing Romance is brand new. Class #1… Jan 7th … WRITING ROMANCEClass #4… Jan 7th … Writing into the DarkClass #5… Jan 7th … Writing Sales CopyClass #6… Jan 8th … Depth in WritingClass #7… Jan 8th…
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Lost Five Challenge Writers
Five Short-Story-Per-Week Writers… They didn’t make it through the holiday season. And actually, that is fewer than I would have expected to lose. Middle of the winter, flu and cold season, holiday, travel, and who knows what else. A ton of reasons to not complete a story in a week, or even think about writing for a few weeks. And this year, with the holidays smack in the middle of the week so none of us had a clue if it was Monday, Tuesday, Friday, or what? Sunday deadline just seemed alien to many, me included. And what was amazing is that all five writers that dropped out over the…
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January Workshops Starting
Romance Workshop and Others… On January 7th and 8th, the regular workshops for January are starting. And that includes the brand new How to Write Romance workshop. Besides the Lifetime Workshop Subscribers who can take a workshop when they like, only one person has signed up for the Romance workshop. But I am still going to record it and have fun doing so. I want to work through it myself, to be honest, to nail down some points for my own writing. Plus a number of the Lifetime Workshop Subscribers have said they are interested, so will do it for them as well. The regular workshops last six weeks and…
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Book Birth Day
Kris Did An Awesome Post… And an important one. In fact, she and I have been thinking this way for a long time, just having a name for it now is really, really helpful in the attitude change that is required for this new world of writing. And as Kris does so well, she explained this attitude shift perfectly. So go read her post. You can find it at Book Birth Day. Might be a piece of advice that will save your career if you have been locked into the launch mentality of old publishing. Time to crawl out of the last century if you are and join 2020. Books…