• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly

    Now That’s a Series

    Smith’s Monthly Series Page on Amazon… It even impressed me. Wow. Shows what just dinging along every month can do. 37 titles up there, plus I will be doing 11 more in the next six months. Sorry I’m bragging a little, but if you want to see a series, even though some of the old covers are still on the titles shown, take a look at this. Got me excited to get these new ones done and in and out to Patreon supporters and subscribers. https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B00YO07JG0/ref=sr_bookseries_null_B00YO07JG0 Anyhow, wanted to brag about how cool that was. As for the rest of the day, I had a WMG meeting and then Kris and…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly

    Story Twenty-Six

    DAY TWENTY-SIX… As I said last night, on my wall here in the office is a breakdown of the Smith’s Monthly issues I am working on. Ten issues ahead. I have started to put some of that on the widget to the side of the posts, and will update all that in a week. Patreon folks and subscribers, you will be getting ten issues over the next five months as I get caught up. (grin) For three years I tried to start off most issues with a Poker Boy story, but have only written one and have two others. So for the ten issues on the board that will come out as…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly

    Decisions on Smith’s Monthly Issues

    Decisions: Smith’s Monthly… As I said yesterday, I will update the decisions and writing being done for putting together the next three issues of Smith’s Monthly. I will usually do this every other week on Friday, when very few people drop by here. The widget on the right will be updated as I finish stuff, even though I don’t talk about it in a blog post until a weekend. I talked with Allyson at WMG Publishing today about the serial in Smith’s Monthly and we came up with it being fun to put the non-fiction writing book Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing in three installments. Granted, the book is available…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly

    Putting Together Smith’s Monthly Issues

    Putting Together Smith’s Monthly… As I keep making changes to this site and get going on year four of my magazine, I thought it would be fun to sort of let you all follow along with putting these issues together. You have been watching me write stuff here for three years, so why not the next step for the next year? So over on the right side I have listed the next three issues of Smith’s Monthly and what I have ready for them now. The assigned stories are there at the moment, but might change out if I write some new ones. I like to lead off each issue…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly

    Three Years of Smith’s Monthly

    Three Years of Smith’s Monthly That’s right. In three years I have filled a 60,000 to 80,000 word magazine with novels and short stories every month. All my own writing. I wrote every word. For 36 issues. (Issue #36 is going out to subscribers electronically and will be posted to Patreon tomorrow.) 36 novels. Over 170 short stories. And you have all watched me do it right here, right out in public, every day for the last three years. Through the ups and downs.  I also wrote a bunch of nonfiction books at the same time, but they were mostly not around Smith’s Monthly. I want to thank the subscribers…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly,  workshops

    A Celebration

    A Celebration I want to have the 36th issue out of Smith’s Monthly this month. (Go ahead, try to wrap your brain around that. A novel, four or five short stories, serial novel, all mine, every month for 36 months. Yeah, go ahead, imagine doing that. (grin)) Why this month? Because this is the 36th month since the first Smith’s Monthly came out. So since the writing is slow at the moment due to massive amounts of other things which will clear shortly, I decided to put my entire first published novel, Laying the Music to Rest, in the 36th issue. Thought that would be cool. I had been serializing the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly,  Topic of the Night,  workshops

    Back To Regular Fun

    Back to Regular Fun We hit the final hours of the Kickstarter this afternoon and it finished strong. Wow, just wow. Thank you, everyone. And through Kickstarter, when everything is done on their side, I will send out to everyone a survey for the information we need to fulfill the rewards, including the workshop and lecture stuff. That will happen in the first week of October. So now I want to get my focus back on three things. First, I am doing my best to ramp up my running. Second, I want to talk about the two fantastic bundles I have books in. And third, back to the novel and some…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly,  Writing in Public

    New Smith’s Monthly Issues

    New Smith’s Monthly Issues Turned in Issues #31 and #32 and will turn in Issue #33, the June issue of Smith’s Monthly, when Kris finishes reading the novel I just wrote. So almost caught up to the dates on the magazine. ——- The Day Roamed out to our original store, now called the south store and helped out there for a time with a rush of customers. Kind of fun. Then headed to WMG offices to work on workshop stuff for a time. Then home to take a short nap and cook dinner. Then, after a little e-mail, I sat and read for a while. (Some of you wondered if…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Smiths Monthly,  Writing in Public

    Writing in Public: Month Two Summary: September 2013

    Month #2 Summary of this Writing in Public challenge. September, 2013 Well, this second month was more interesting for me than the first one. It was a day shorter than August, but I also didn’t travel in September. As it turned out, my numbers for the two months were very close. I have those word counts below. And again, even though I knew I was going to give a general summary of the day here every day, it changed my behavior not at all. Not at all. And yes, I do read. I just didn’t sit down for three hours and read a novel this month. As Kris calls it, I’m…