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Another Fun Day
At Writers of the Future… Writers here are great, people are nice, fun discussions. A number of us closed the bar tonight. Martin Shoemaker and a few others. And I got to meet one of my favorite artists, Larry Elmore. He and I ended up hanging around together and talking about the 1960s and art and other things for a couple hours. A wonderful man and great artist. So a really fun day. Tomorrow is the ceremony and dinner and then I will be headed home. A fun few days in the craziness of Hollywood. And if you emailed me anything today, I will get to it in the morning.…
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Short Post Tonight
Talking Tomorrow Morning Early… To the winners of Writers of the Future. Looks like a great group of writers. Today, after I got in, I got to sit beside Orson Scott Card and listen to Eric Flint talk, then Larry Niven talked about the great writers of science fiction. Tim Powers was there as well and then we went for a book signing where Rob Sawyer, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Keven J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Doug Beason, Jody Lyn Nye, and Dave Wolverton joined in. Had a great dinner with Jody Lyn Nye and Eric Flint, and a great conversation with Kevin J. Anderson before going to get my tux for…
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April Workshops Now All Live
Including the New Emotions Workshop… And even stranger, I am back writing again yesterday and today after our week out of touch worrying about our good friend Allyson Longuiera. She came through the brain surgery wonderfully and is now home and resting. Things at WMG Publishing will still be a little crazy for a time until Allyson returns, but Gwyneth and Josh are fantastic there and keeping things running as smoothly as can be expected without the boss in her chair. And everything with the workshops, The Great Challenge, and Ask Kris Anything webinar are going on as planned. Allyson wan’t involved in those except for planning stages and giving…
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Some Questions About the Great Challenge
Got Some Good Questions Today… So let me try to answer them quickly tonight. — First of all, if you are taking another workshop such as the short story workshop, those stories would count. If you are coming to the Anthology workshop, or one of Kris’s Vegas craft workshops, those stories you write for the workshop would count. Just write one story per week and turn them in to me (or Kris, if in one of her workshops.) — Yes, this challenge will go longer than 52 weeks if writers are still writing. The first week to start is April 14th, when the first prompt will appear. And first deadline…
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The Great Challenge
A New Writing Challenge… For the last few years I have done quarterly challenges that many people have enjoyed. And a lot of novels or stories have come out of those challenges that I enjoyed reading. So a new challenge, with a brand new form. One a little saner and a little crazier in the same breath. And again, the fee goes toward two workshop fees. Kris and I have been talking about this one for a while. Here are the basics… Every week, on Teachable, a new story prompt will appear. That prompt will be a video prompt that will be short, maybe with a writing tip with it,…
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Just Finished… The Lonely Silver Rain
By John D. MacDonald… It was the last Travis McGee novel, published a year before MacDonald’s death in 1986. I think I have read it six or seven times now over the years, always taken in by how MacDonald did Travis. I have typed in so many parts of those books, studying the style, the simpleness of it, yet how complex and clear he wrote. At some point I will try a character like Travis. Someday. In the meantime, I practice a lot of what MacDonald did on my Cold Poker Gang series. And speaking of that, the new Cold Poker Gang series book is nearing an end, I hope.…
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We Learn From All Story
Even Television Shows… Kris and I started watching the revival of Magnum P.I. which was very similar to the old one. But this new version has a lot of heart and more themes. We were actually surprised by the quality, as it is clear many others have been since it just got renewed for a second season. On thing they did right was add in a couple of elements on the team. (If you don’t understand team in fiction, this would be a good show to study and then take the Teams workshop.) There is a detective who does a great job of slowly becoming part of the team over…
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Mentor Program Update
Almost the First of April… Which means the first quarter of the year has gone by and I had a number of people (who are not in the mentorship program I offered this year) ask how that mentorship program is going. The answer is simply, from my side, wonderfully. In fact, I am enjoying it a great deal. Here is how I look at it. In essence, I am here for the writer. Any time for anything to help the writer move forward. I let each writer set the pace and I do my best to be supportive, but not pressure. As it first started, I was back and forth…
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A Question About Ask Kris Anything Webinar
Got This Question Twice… So figured I would answer it here. Kris is going to do basically 13 live webinars starting in April, one per month, for the next year. With each webinar starting slightly early and running a little late, that will be around 15 plus hours of Kris answering questions about any topic anyone wants to ask her about. The information about this is two posts back. You can sign up on Teachable. The question I got twice was how did we figure the price? Well, a regular monthly workshop has about 40 videos of about 6 minutes each on average, counting the response and assignment videos. That’s…
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Do I Do This? Or That?
The Dilemma of Focus and Choice… I got a hunch this will be very familiar to many, if not all of you. Right now, in this new life here in Las Vegas, I have been focusing first (and with a lot of attention) on ramping up brand new habits of writing. Writing in the mornings. I have talked about that and actually it is working so far. But it is taking a focus. And I noticed today that the focus on the writing has taken away the focus on the running and exercise. Now, I am still getting over 10,000 steps per day. So that level of exercise is still…