• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    New Year: First Day

      New Year After much dithering and pestering people around me and working out details, I have finally decided to just go for this new challenge. All outlined in the Topic of the Night that is above this. ——- THE DAY Pretty standard up to a point. Headed up to WMG Publishing around 3 p.m. and talked with a couple of other professional writers there for a time before getting to work. I did a bunch of workshop stuff and getting the office ready for Monday. Then headed to the grocery store to get dinner and went home, took a short nap and cooked dinner. Then I got in here…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Finishing Off The Year

      FINISHING OFF THE YEAR Hope everyone made it through the night and are starting this new year with some writing and fun. ——- THE DAY Standard running around to banks and such. Lots of fun. (Nope…just kidding on that.) Then walked with two other professional writers and talked about this past year and the coming year. I’m pretty happy with the 1.2 million plus words I wrote last year. As Kris said in her blog about how writers are focusing back on writing this year, my focus is to increase my writing in 2016 as well. So are the other two writers I was walking with. It really is going…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    More Year End Stuff

      More Year End Stuff Kris and I went to see Star Wars. No I will not talk about it here or anywhere for that matter. (grin) Stay safe on New Year’s Eve. It’s amateur night with the drunks. Dangerous out there. ——- THE DAY After the movie we had a nice late lunch. Then I headed up to WMG offices to work on year-end stuff there. Then home to cook dinner and get my 10,000 steps done. Haven’t missed since November 11th. Then in here to get the new chapter of Heinlein’s Rules up. Then after some television, I started into the big switch of computers. I bought a brand…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Working On Year End Stuff

      Year End Stuff Mostly a normal day. Dialog workshop announcement below. New chapter of Heinlein’s Rules book above this. And for fun I looked at how many words I wrote so far this year. Ready?…. 1,257,000 original words. 711,000 of that was fiction and nonfiction. The rest was e-mail and blogs. I did not count replies on the various comment sections I moderate. That’s Pulp Speed Two.  (Pulp Speed One is over a million words, Pulp Speed Two is over 1.2 million words. Pulp Speed Three is over 1.4 million.) ——- THE DAY Got a bunch of walking in and planning for 2016, did workshop stuff, cooked dinner, got…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Just Dripping Along

      Just Dripping Along Every day I sort of get some more words on the Dead Hand novel. Not that many, but that’s because I haven’t been giving it any focus, meaning time. Hope to change that soon. I’m enjoying writing it when I get there. ——- THE DAY Managed to get some errands done and then to WMG Publishing by 3:30 p.m. Headed out shortly after to walk with two other professional writers. Got way over 10,000 steps today. Made it back to WMG Publishing offices to work on moving stuff and workshop stuff until 7 p.m.  Home to cook dinner, then back in here to do workshop assignments.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Productive Day

      Productive Day Workshop stuff done, moving stuff done, nonfiction written, and some fiction as well. Not bad. ——- THE DAY Managed to get some errands done and get to WMG Publishing offices around 3 p.m. Worked there on workshop stuff and moving stuff until I had to run more errands a little after 6 p.m. Home to cook dinner, then in here to do workshop assignments. I was also way behind on my 10,000 steps, so after getting the assignments done, Kris and I went to watch the Voice finals and I paced while doing so to get my 10,000 finished. Then in here to work on Heinlein’s Rules.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Too Many Hours

      Too Many Hours Far, far, far too many hours in front of a computer today, not a bit of it writing. I got up and moved around regularly and rested my eyes, but didn’t even have time for a nap. So no writing tonight. Back at it tomorrow and back at Heinlein’s Rules as well. —— Anthology Workshop Notice Those in the anthology workshop, ten of you missed the first assignment. Second assignment is now posted. ——- THE DAY Got up early again, dealt with some business issues I didn’t want to have to ever deal with, then managed to get to the store and to WMG Publishing to…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Learning is Attitude

      Learning is Attitude Tonight, for the third night in a row, the storm hit again. Flooding all over the entire Pacific Northwest, and power was out here for three hours tonight. But now that the power is back on, I’ve decided to just go on as normal until it flickers and goes out again. After 20 years living here on the Oregon Coast, you get used to this, sadly. At least the power came back on after three hours. —– THE DAY Made it through the monsoon rains to the snail mail, the grocery store, and then to WMG Publishing around 2 p.m. for work on continuing to set…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Return on Assets

    Return on Assets A number of very nice people who are deep into accounting and MBA reminded me today in letters and a couple of posts, that I was wrong as to what “Return on Investment” actually is. Well, sort of, and I forgot to do as I often do here to say, “I am talking in general to get the idea across to those without business and accounting experience. What I was actually talking about (realizing publishing and copyright is a very unique business in some ways) was Return on Assets, with your stories being assets. For those of you who don’t know what Return on Assets is, here…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Figuring Writing Investment Return

    Figuring Writing Investment Return The topic tonight comes from a couple people asking how a writer could figure ROI (Return on Investment) on their writing without following the numbers. More on that below. —— THE DAY Slept late, raining solidly here today. Nasty kind of rain, not our normal dump and then the sun comes out. I did errands, snail mail, bank, grocery store, other things, then got to WMG offices around 5 p.m. Worked there until 6:30 on Smith’s Monthly, then home to cook dinner, then back to WMG to work on Smith’s Monthly and do some work on the new store. Then home to do workshop assignments and…