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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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Pattern of Work
When the World Lets Me… Which is has for the last few days. Great fun. I start off doing email when I first get up and get going. Usually around noon or so. Then errands and lunch. Then around 3 or so I go down to our office and work down there for about an hour and a half, putting things together, sorting, putting up shelves, you name it. Basically physical work. Then more email, then a quick nap and then dinner. After dinner I am in here doing other stuff, including assignments and misc work at my computer. Often reading some. (Remember, bad eye so computer time is limited.)…
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Why The Vastness of Space Workshop…
Because It Is Fun To Learn and Use In Fiction… Really is that simple. Problem is, so many writers (and I have read three just lately) who do not know space terms and measurements, or do not know how to fake it, or go around it. And using a term wrong is deadly to a story. The problem is that for almost all humans, understanding real distances in space is just almost impossible. Unless you work on it and are interested in it, your mind will not even pretend to grasp the real distances of space. But this does not mean you can’t write space opera and science fiction. Quite…
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COLLIDING WORLDS Kickstarter Campaign
100 Science Fiction Stories… Fifty from Kris, fifty from me, in a five volume set. Colliding Worlds This is us having a great time. We have also talked about doing joint collections of some sort of another, and then Kris came up with the idea of us putting 100 of our science fiction stories in the same set of five books called COLLIDING WORLDS. Really, if you have a few minutes, watch the video. We talk about our writing process a little as well. Each book will have ten science fiction stories from Kris and ten from me. You can get all five volumes in electronic edition, trade paper, or…
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Quick Blog
Web Site Acting Whacky… So going to post this quick to keep my streak alive in case something goes wrong. Plus I am late tonight. I got late because I finished a short story after all the assignments from the workshops. Then I spent a couple hours on the Cave Creek novel. So good progress on writing today, and I spent a bunch of hours down in our office working on getting stuff in order down there while we had cleaners up here. And a couple hours out looking for supplies to use for my marble collection display and sorting. Found some. Busy day. Productive. And Kris and I watched…
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Some Updates
On Different Streaks, Challenges, and Exercise… — Today is 3,084 straight days I have done a blog a day here without missing. Yup, that’s nuts. — I am slowly ramping back up my exercise, gaining a little bit more a week on a walking streak. I let myself relax and not push after the marathon because I wanted to just not think about it over the holidays. So going to take me another month or so to get the steps back up to pre-marathon levels. And maybe two months to drop the weight down to marathon level and then keep it going down. So all fine there. — I’m a…
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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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Stay Organized…
In Other Words, Do As I Say, Not As I Have Done… Spent more hours tonight than I care to think about getting organized from at least three or more years of not being organized, just writing. Yes, I am reverting to a spread sheet for some stuff, and file folders to gather up story files. But trust me, when you get upward of a hundred short stories that are not tracked or in any kind of order, and you are writing as much as I am, it is time to organize. Don’t wait until then. Too stupid for words. And even more annoying, I found at least five, maybe…
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My Novel…
Never Sure What That Means… I do know that if a writer is constantly referring to their novel in those terms, the chances are they have made that book so important, it will take a very, very long time to finish, if ever. You never hear a professional writer talking like that, in those terms. They might say my current project, or my current book, or something along that way. But “my novel,” never hear it. And when I do hear some beginning writer say that, my first response is to ask, “Which one?” But alas, that would be rude because EVERYONE around them should know about THEIR NOVEL, don’t…
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The Problem of a Writing Rut…
Especially with Short Stories… I am not talking about writing short stories themselves. I am talking about a topic rut. Honestly, never noticed this before now. I can get writing on novels and stay in the same topic for one or two novels before needing to break free and write something else. No issue. With novels could always tell when I was burning out on a topic or series. I come back to topics and subjects all the time over years of time. No issue there either. But had an interesting, if not short-term thing happen tonight. I didn’t want to write another cat story. I was burnt out on…