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Reading and Going to Get Some Sleep
Running Tomorrow Morning… We will be up and out very early tomorrow morning so Kris can run a 5k and I can run some and walk some the same distance. Still not down enough pounds to run the entire way. Too afraid of hurting my knees, to be honest. But the pounds are dropping, so maybe soon. Otherwise I am reading challenge stories. Not going to finish them all tonight, so don’t panic if I haven’t gotten back to you on week #3 just yet. You folks are making me read all the way through and my one eye only has so much computer time. Besides, it’s Friday night. Pictures…
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Update on My Stuff
Still Working Into My New System.. But making progress. The web site (not this one, a new one) is making progress. Got a few things to fix and a ton of books to list, but that will take time. And I have been learning InDesign, the new one, so I can get ramping on the Make 100 Short Stories. That will take another week and I should have the first few covers done for Issue #45 of Smith’s Monthly. (I will post them here.) I need to finish up the novel that will be in that issue as well, a brand new Marble Grant novel that is mostly done because…
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Diving Universe Kickstarter
A Fantastic Kickstarter Project… Kris has a new Diving novel coming out this fall. It is huge. And she wanted to get it to her fans ahead of time, so she is doing a Kickstarter project. The name of the novel is THE RENEGAT. If you back the campaign at any level, you will get a copy of the book early, months before it comes out regularly. Also, Kris did two really cool special books for this Kickstarter. She took all her deleted sections and pieces from both THE RENEGAT and other Diving novels, did some essays, and put them together. It takes up two books and you get those…
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Week Three Great Challenge
Happy To Say Everyone Hit It… Everyone who is writing a weekly short story got a story in. And a new person started and a couple others have not yet started, which is fine. In fact, perfectly fine to sign up at any point still. The Great Challenge is not filled and I am enjoying reading the stories. (Remember, you get workshop credit when you miss.) I won’t talk much about this challenge going forward, since life will cause writers to miss from this point onward. That will just happen. My hope is that a number of them make it all the way. That would be so cool! But that…
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Writing Bundle One Week Left
This Has A $50 Lecture in It… In this spring’s writer’s bundle on Story Bundle, we put in a $50 lecture if you get the bundle. 13 writing books and one lecture for $15.00. Tough to beat. The Write Stuff 2019 bundle doesn’t have many days left before it goes away. Get it at StoryBundle.com Here the books included, plus once again the blog Kris wrote for the writing bundle. The 2019 Write Stuff Bundle – Curated by Kristine Kathryn Rusch This spring’s writing bundle has three themes: Finding Time to Write (no matter what your life’s circumstances are), Growing As An Artist, and Practical Business Advice. First, finding time:…
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Future Workshop Series
Fourth In The Series Starts Next Wednesday… Futures: Patience…. Pacing a Career. How, When, and Why? In this Future series for writers, we have available now (1) Refresh and Renew, (2) Opportunities, (3) Structure, and soon (4)Patience. You can sign up for them on Teachable at any point you want and go through them at your own pace. But this fourth one, Patience, will be paced like a regular six week workshop this first time through, starting next Wednesday. And we have a bundle available to get a discount if you buy all four. All four Futures Workshops are in the Lifetime Subscription as well and anyone with a Lifetime Subscription…
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Fantastic Writing Advice
“Write like everyone you know is dead…” Joe Lansdale said that in the post that he allowed me to copy here last night. And I wanted to point out that one simple things he says. Here is what he said on the topic in total: “Write like everyone you know is dead. To hell with everyone else’s opinion when you write. Write for yourself. I don’t have a perfect reader in mind. That works for some, but it makes me write for them which means I might not be writing for me. I have no idea what anyone else will like. I only know what I like, so I write…
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Great Advice from Joe Lansdale
Joe Allowed Me to Reprint This Here… It is an amazing post. Very clear and to the point. Worth the read. Thanks Joe, for saying this on Facebook and then allowing me to reprint it here. ———— Facebook Post April 23rd from Joe Lansdale: Each to his own, but the idea of multiple drafts is not necessarily a good idea. A writer can get lost in all those drafts, and think the more drafts the better the book. I polish as I go, so there’s essentially one draft, though by polishing as I go, I’m doing a lot of little daily rewrites. I don’t outline or plot, except subconsciously, I…
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Thinking of a New Pop-Up
Character and World Building While Writing into the Dark… Seems like a fun idea to talk about for a bunch of videos in the Pop-Up series, including techniques on how to do both character and world building while writing into the dark. Especially complex world and character stuff. I get a bunch of questions about this regularly, actually. Anyone even interested? It would open up in mid-May somewhere. In the meantime, Kris and I have a bunch of homework to do between writing to get ready for the licensing expo here in June. Going to be great fun and I hope to learn a ton and maybe make a few…
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Some Real Basics
Manuscript Format… Yup, doesn’t get any more basic than that, but so many newer writers have no clue what that even is. So I made it a requirement of The Great Challenge. I will count your story but not read it if you don’t have your story sent to me in a doc or docx attached file in manuscript format. A simple Google search will get you what it looks like. In fact, go to this link and there is even a picture of the first page of a manuscript exactly. https://www.shunn.net/format/story.html I found that link and others with a two second Google search. Oh, the horror… Point, I do…