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Patreon, Master Class, and More
A Bunch of Stuff… First off, for those of you who are supporting my Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/deanwesleysmith, I have attempted to put up in raw form the first two stories from the challenge with covers. No clue if it worked and if only the correct tiers can see the posts. I will be putting up some Smith’s Monthly issues shortly for all supporters. But tonight trying to learn the ropes on this. If some of you who are familiar with Patreon would let me know how I did, that would be appreciated. Thanks!! Master Business Class Finally it has all 13 of the first basic foundation classes up. That is…
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A Day In The Life…
A Challenge Day… People ask me at times to detail out my days, so figured I could do it quickly tonight. I won’t do this every night because I would bore myself to tears, but this is what I did today. Rolled out around 11 am after going to bed at 3:30 am. Thankfully the construction in the condo beside us was light and let me sleep. Working on changing my eating habits to more healthy food, so actually made myself a couple waffles this morning instead of my normal breakfast bar (that is awful) and tomorrow I will switch to oatmeal and almond milk for breakfast with a little…
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Getting Tired of People Dying
Meat Loaf Just Died. 74… If I had a favorite musician, it was Meat Loaf. Never met him. Still… Dave Wolverton’s (Farland) funeral is today a couple hours from here. Good friend for 37 years. Not sure when Ron and Scott’s funerals are. More than likely about now. I don’t go to funerals. I didn’t even go to my mother’s funeral. (There were other reasons as well.) Seemingly 2022 is just going on like the last two years. Oh, joy… But I did get the 20th story done. The third Bryant Street story in a row. Watched some old Twilight Zone last night, got Rod’s voice stuck in my head,…
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Another Bryant Street Story Tonight
Both Upbeat… Sort of… Kris read the Bryant Street story from last night and said, “Wow, an upbeat Bryant Street story. I actually hadn’t noticed that it was. It was just twisted like all Bryant Street stories are. And in fact, last night’s story you could just see Rod Serling standing off to one side of the garage saying… For your consideration, a man in a house he hates, a marriage that broke years ago, trying desperately to find a way out. Blocking his exit, an old car, left abandoned for years in a field, now full of the twisted hopes and dreams that can only be found on Bryant…
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A Fun Ad
For the Crimes Collide Kickstarter Campaign… Gwyneth at WMG Publishing took the video that Kris and I recorded for the Crimes Collide Kickstarter and added all the nifty music and books and such. Then today for an ad promoting the campaign, she did a nifty video that is even more fun than the original video, all from the original video and dealing with mystery and crime, the focus of the campaign. This is the kind of thing that can be done when you are not afraid to try things and have fun and play. Think of this as an example of the billions of ways to promote a book or…
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A List of Stories So Far
Even Though No Covers Yet… Thought I would list the short stories I have finished. The titles and their series, if any. I think the first 17 are all in series, so clearly had some stories to tell in my series, although one is a brand new series. More than likely in a few months, I will be telling non-series stories as well, plus maybe even some new series as they come up. All titles came from my title sheets to start, a few got changed as I went along. So here are the 17 stories as of the one I finished a bit ago. Jan 1st… The Curious Reasons…
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Challenge Still Going
Brain Still On Novels For example, tonight I wrote a 3,600 plus word Thunder Mountain story called “Lost Canyon.” (Saw the phrase on some woman’s sweatshirt tonight at dinner and figured it would be a good Thunder Mountain story. So I wrote it.) Story works great and I wrapped it into a short story just fine and dandy. And if you don’t look too closely after the cute ending, you don’t ask too many “But what happens next?” I sort of explained in the story what happens next, sort of. Or I pretended I did, but in the novel it wouldn’t work out that way, of course. But that wraps…
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Crimes Collide
Basic Information On Crimes Collide Below I spent all day (except for a very short time watching football) working on CRIMES COLLIDE. Thank heavens I have all my stories that have been in Smith’s Monthly in a spread sheet. I would look at a story title, then grab the issue of Smith’s Monthly it was in to try to remember it and then see which one of the five books it went in and in what order. Kris already had her stories done and in order and had set some of the basic subjects for the five books, so I was putting my often very between-genre stories into a certain…
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Update On Challenge
Haven’t Missed A Story Yet… But one was almost four thousand words of a really fun novel that I couldn’t even wrap into a short story. But since I am writing novels as well in this challenge, it counts and I will have the rough on Patreon soon for some of you who are interested to see a novel start that not even I could wrap into a short story. The last week has been bumpy, beyond words, but I still managed to go 14 for 14. Not a clue how. I have not had the time to do the other stuff with the challenge, like do covers, for them,…
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Dave Farland (Wolverton) Has Left Us
Yes, Tonight It Is Sadly Official… Dave was kept alive for the day until all his children could get there and say goodbye, then he moved on. Damn it all to hell. Way, way too young. Dave and Kris and I were friends for 37 years. We did so much together over the years, it is impossible to remember it all. Over the last few years, Dave and I had some fantastic conversations about writing and our different approaches to teaching. It was great fun for both of us, great discussions, considering that back in the day, we were in writing learning groups together and learning from each other all…