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Last Bits of Smith’s Monthly #63
Just Finishing SMITH’S MONTHLY #63 Up Tonight… Fun thing to do on a Friday night. As many of you know, I do all the layout of the magazine, and every month I have a blast with it. There are four original stories in this issue, plus another collection of stories and the novel that is the header of this web site. MELODY RIDGE, which is a combination Jukebox Novel and Thunder Mountain Novel. It is the origin story of all my jukebox stories. So I wanted to put the collection of the short stories, with how the jukebox stories came about, and how thirty years after I started them I…
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Exercise
Slowly Building… Very slowly, but making progress. And to do that, just like writing (or pretty much anything), I need a goal to build the habits. I have twenty pounds to drop to get to a decent running weight. Thirty pounds to feel lighter. So about three months or so ago, I actually started to pay attention to what I was eating, calories (yes, I know, but this is the way that works for me.) Eating rounded meals and watching it all, and over the last month I very seldom missed my 1500 to 1800 calories day. Portions and better snacks helped. My regular search on my phone is how…
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Just a General Day…
We All Have Them… Seems like nothing really got done, yet when I look back at the day, a lot actually did get done. I got a lot of email done before Kris and I headed out for a great lunch at a new place we wanted to try. It’s a keeper. Did my first two miles of exercise around the casino the new restaurant was in. Got to stay inside since it is summer heat here. Then I headed to the grocery store and did the shopping, then home and cooked dinner. Then I recorded a week of one of the new workshops. After that I headed to the…
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Kickstarter Workshops
The Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Kickstarter Has Great Writing Perks! A lot of our different Kickstarter campaigns have writers workshops and class perks. Our current Pulphouse Fiction Magazine Subscription 2020 Kickstarter seems to have some really great ones. For example, not only can you get two major Lifetime Subscriptions at half price, but you can also get 3 Regular Workshops, 3 Pop-Up classes, or 3 Classic Workshops at half price. And with each one you get a year’s subscription to Pulphouse. In the Stretch Rewards, if we make them all, you will get the following new Pop-Up Classes worth $150 each for no cost. Just for supporting the Pulphouse Magazine campaign…
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Science Fiction In Real Life
Just Got to Be Aware of It… Late this afternoon, because it is 110 degrees outside, Kris and I went down to the Resorts World hotel complex. Just finished a year ago, three major Hilton brand hotels in the same massive building. The reason was to walk and get exercise without going to a gym. And there was a small restaurant there that we wanted to try for dinner when done walking. If you walked into the lobbies of all three hotels, then back along the casino and then up and back in the huge interior mall that’s bigger than Fremont Street and then back, it was a one mile…
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Fixed Some Stuff
My Site Is A Fraction Better… All the stuff across the top of this site now directs to full pages. Fiction, Series Reading Order, Nonfiction and so on. All link now to full pages with buy buttons and a ton of information, and all up to date. That’s a stunner. And many of the books are in our own WMG store. Not all, but as we do new, they get put in there, and the old books are added when we touch them. What I also found fun today was when I saw the image of all the issues of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine so far. I hope everyone knows we…
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Quick Solutions Series
First One Is Up… The first class in the Quick Solutions Series is called: How to Make More Than Coffee Money This new series of workshops is a cross between a classic workshop and a Pop-Up. Each one has three parts, each part has an assignment you do for yourself to help in the learning. Then there is a very pointed story prompt that if you want you can send to me to read. This first one has 18 videos, but I will warn you, the answer to the title question is not focusing on how to make quick money. Just how, over time, to make more than coffee money.…
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A Fun Teaser
I Did a Podcast About Writing… With John Goodwin for the Writers of the Future Podcast. I always have a lot of fun talking with John and I think that comes across here. This is a very short teaser they put together on YouTube for the podcast I did with them, with a bunch of pictures of me and others at the event. One picture you can see me and my long-time good friends Keven J. Anderson and Rob Sawyer. Fun picture. So take a look. The topic of this teaser is a Hubbard essay on writing that even going on a hundred years after he wrote it is worth…
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How To Keep Learning When the Money is Tight…
For Most Writers, It Is Always Tight… But the question is real and wow do I remember a ton of years where I had an intense desire to learn and no money. How do you keep learning? Now, some background on me. I went to three years of law school. I paid my way through college by playing on blackjack teams. I also tended bar and drove school bus and owned a bookstore. Yup, did all of that while going to law school. I got done with law school and my own desire was to be a writer, not a lawyer. But I had spent all the money and three…
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Lifetime Subscribers Special Bonus
Lifetime Subscribers Should Have Gotten a Letter from Me… If you did not, chances are that means you have your email on Teachable turned off and are not getting any notices. Since we are not doing any full, site-wide half-price sales anymore, WMG Publishing thought it would be a nice gesture to offer those of you with Lifetime Subscriptions to any of our series a special Flash Sale. This is just for the lifetime subscribers. Sorry. And a one-time thing only good until Sunday night. So if you are a lifetime subscriber and are interested and didn’t get a letter from me, write me directly or message me here and…