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Smith’s Monthly Is Back!!!
After Three-Plus Years!! Finally, Smith’s Monthly is back!! Yes, I haven’t really been gone for over three years. Just the magazine has. The date on Issue #44 of Smith’s Monthly is May 2017. The date on this new issue #45 is January 2021. So over three years. For almost four years before that, I did an issue per month and didn’t miss. One new novel, four or five short stories, and part of a nonfiction book. Or earlier on, a serialized novel. Every month. And I enjoyed it. All those issues are listed in posts on Smith’s Monthly web site, one at a time, with contents and cover. (Many of…
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Working On Smith’s Monthly
Taking Longer But Almost Done… Maybe two more days before it is finished and heads for print, the first issue since 2017. Then I am going to start at once on the February issue and get out ahead. March right behind that. Why talking longer is the learning curve on InDesign complex magazine layout. Two columns with ads and everything. And second instead of being able to use some of the ads from the first 44 issues, I am rebuilding every ad. That is taking time, but that will get quicker as each issue goes by. So my work schedule is holding on both the last few chapters of the…
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That’s Annoying
Just One of Those Things… As last night, another annoyance caused by epic disorganization. And I do mean epic. Fixable, but annoying. This today comes from my inability to get organized in a meaningful and long-term fashion with my writing and publishing. And this concerns Smith’s Monthly. Today, I really dug into the layout of Smith’s Monthly Issue #45. Now understand, Issue #44 came out in the summer of 2017. I have a ton of ads and promotions about a lot of my books in each issue. You know… filler. Since the magazine is all mine, might as well promote some of the other stories and series and such I…
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New Year Starting…
Writing This Safely From Home…. …On New Year’s Eve, after midnight. 2020 has left the building. 2021 shows ugliness to start and promise over time. So thought I would talk about the writing challenge I am going to set for myself and some thoughts on how you could ramp up a writing challenge in the New Year. Here is how I would suggest you come at doing a writing challenge in 2021. Decide where you want to be at the end of 2021 with your writing. Some people use word count, I use project or story counts, but I do track words just for fun as well. On good years…
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Why I Do Smith’s Monthly?
Bringing Smith’s Monthly Back with Issue #45… What is Smith’s Monthly? Simple. It is a regular 70,000 word magazine with only my work in it. It has a novel, four or five short stories, and often part of a non-fiction book or a serial of another novel. Monthly. I did 44 straight months of the magazine (three and a half years) before life rolls got in the way, things like Kris getting sick and moves to Vegas and so on. I put the magazine on pause, knowing the time would come when I would be back doing it. And this is that time, finally. So with Issue #45, January 2021,…
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Smith’s Monthly Covers
Working On Four Issues at a Time… And making great progress. First new issue will be out in March, #45 in the series, and after that one per month. Each one will be between 60,000 and 70,000 words of fiction. In the next week or so I will have 4 issues done and in copyediting process. Tonight, besides putting issues together, I worked on the covers and such. So thought I would show you some of them. They are trim size 7 x 10 and the black bar with the spine wraps to both the front and the back side. First #45, both wrap and epub cover. Then #46, #47,…
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Patreon Post Up
Just Reposted #43 and Put Up New #44 of Smith’s Monthly… I wanted to take down the first posting of Smith’s Monthly #43 I put up a few months ago and repost it to the public on Patreon. I haven’t done a public post there yet, so I figured doing that would allow my Patreon supporters to have a month or so to read it before it went public. Then right behind that I put up Smith’s Monthly #44 for just supporters. I figured that now that Patreon has backed off its stupidity on the fees, it was time to get back in the game. Thank you to all of those…
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New Issues of Smith’s Monthly
Subscribers and Patreon Supporters Got Three Issues… That’s right, in the last week three issues of Smith’s Monthly went out. As many of you know, I’ve been working to catch up with the date on the issues. I was hoping to be caught up by the 50th issue, but not it might take a little longer. And coming shortly, meaning a few weeks, two more issues will go out. Issues #41-43 went out to subscribers and Patreon supporters over the last week. That’s a bunch of reading. (grin) And there was a new Thunder Mountain novel in the group. In the coming Pulphouse Fiction Magazine kickstarter drive starting Thursday, there…
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Short Story Finished
Doing Some Short Fiction Again… Reason is pretty simple. I only have enough short stories left of the stories I want to put in Smith’s Monthly to last a few more issues. I have about a hundred or so stories (some sold) in my files, but most of them are from what I call my “Horror Period” when I was getting nominated for Stoker Awards. I have nothing at all against horror, just not who I am as a writer anymore. I have put in Smith’s Monthly a few from that period, but most are just too brutal for even my tastes. Back in the Splatterpunk days was another world.…
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A New Day
THANK YOU FOR THE KIND COMMENTS… I got a lot of wonderful comments, both on last night’s post about finishing four books in one month, and privately. Thank you all. I forgot to mention one thing in last night’s post. All four of the books were final draft. I will not rewrite them. I did not write sloppy. Three books have been read by Kris so far and she loves them. All four will be going into WMG Publishing over the next week as I put together the issues of Smith’s Monthly they go into. And tonight I started a new novel called The End of Time: A Seeders Universe…