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Clearing the Decks
Getting a Second Shot Thursday… So I wanted to have projects that were due immediately done in case I am down for a day or so with a reaction. So tonight Kris and I turned in all six of the Colliding Worlds books to WMG Publishing, including introductions. That turned out to be a really fun project in a lot of ways. Also tonight, we turned in the last three Year of a Cat anthologies, including all the introductions. So that’s nine major books in one night, turned in. (We had been building toward that, of course.) So after I get through the second shot (maybe tomorrow night, maybe Friday),…
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Downside of Being Disorganized…
Just Because I Like to Write… Yup, me and Heinlein’s 4th Rule have a sort of love/hate relationship. As I have said often, I have no idea how many short stories I have written. Number ranges from 400 and up. Maybe way up. Over 200 have been published in Smith’s Monthly alone. So while putting the next issue of Smith’s Monthly together, I had a story manuscript in paper, but could not find the file anywhere. So a few days later I had my writing computer basically give up the ghost (lost nothing but the mouse said “Nope” and I tried three different alternatives and all of them said, “Nope.”),…
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Holy Smokes!!! Was That Fun!!!
And a Lot of Work… Tonight, for the last three hours straight, without a break, I have been doing a master class in putting collections together. That’s right, tonight I finished up putting sixty of my science fiction stories into six volumes. Kris had already done hers and she had already divided her stories up into the six volumes and sort of labeled then with a rough idea header that she used. But as those of you who watched the video on the Kickstarter can tell, Kris’s idea of a rough header and mine do not often match in thinking. But I did the best I could since she got…
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Herding Cats (Writers)
Totally Insane… I have learned this lesson now over 15 years of trying to help writers with workshops and other projects. And I learned the lesson way before that, back in the late 1980s as an editor. The lesson? Writers as a class are pathologically incapable of following even the simplest instruction. When it comes to writers, I do try to be clear as much as I can. The other day I talked here about manuscript format and just a surface reason for it in fiction. I even went so far as to give a link. Made little to no difference even on manuscripts I am getting for classes since…
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I Got Nothing…
Day Was A Day Off… Got up after four hours sleep and ran/walked a 5K at sunrise with Kris. I wasn’t planning on running, but did anyway. So bottoms of my feet were sore when done. Made breakfast when we got home, then passed out for three hours and had lunch. Then Kris and I piled into the car and went back to the scene of the crime from that morning and did another 5K. This time Lisa joined us, so while Kris went off running, Lisa and I walked the 5K through the desert and the rabbits and had a perfectly fine time. (Kris ran both races without stopping.)…
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Short Story Covers In #46
Laying Out the February Issue of Smith’s Monthly And I need short story covers. There are five short stories in Smith’s Monthly #46, so I started about 11:30 tonight after Allyson saved me earlier in the evening from my own stupidity with DepositPhotos. So from 11:30 until 1 am, I did five short story covers. Four are in my Smith’s Stories branding look, and Poker Boy stories have their own branding. But I had templates for both, so the longest time it took was for me to find the art that would fit the story. And in the Poker Boy story, the branding. The hardest story was the story titled…
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Formatting Meets Craft
Something So Basic… A little bit back I mentioned a bunch of workshops Kris and I were thinking of offering, and almost everyone said they would like to try “Advanced Pacing.” Now, that would be really fun for me to try to explain. I knew that, but then I got a bunch of stories in that I needed to read for a workshop. And half of them didn’t know basic fiction manuscript format, even though the rules said the stories had to be sent to me in that form. All of the problem ones had put extra lines between paragraphs, making it just damn near impossible for someone like me…
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Only Hours Left in Colliding Worlds Kickstarter!
Ends Today (Thursday) at 5 pm West Coast Time! This Colliding Worlds Kickstarter campaign hit all five stretch goals, so wow are all backers going to get a lot of cool stuff. Including a sixth volume of Colliding Worlds. The extras above the reward you pick includes six books of science fiction, two Classic Workshops and two Pop-Up classes. Also this is the last few hours to get the two special science fiction writing workshops. They are only offered through this campaign. How to Write Science Fiction Short Stories. How to Write About the Vastness of Space. Both workshops are three weeks long, each cost $150, and you can write…
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There Will Be A Sixth Book!
…Of Science Fiction Short Stories… That’s right, we hit the 5th stretch reward in Colliding Worlds Kickstarter Campaign, so Kris and I are now putting together the sixth book of science fiction short stories. 120 stories now in a six volume set. Everyone will get the sixth volume in electronic form, but if you want the first five, you need to pick that reward or add them to another reward. And if you are getting the original five in trade paper, we will send you a sixth trade paper without any extra cost and if your reward is the signed/limited hardbacks, we will send you a sixth signed/limited hardback without…
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Colliding Worlds Kickstarter… Only About 60 Hours Left…
Don’t Miss This One… A great deal of science fiction reading from me and Kris, special workshops (two of them you can only get through this campaign,) and a bunch of other nifty things. And if we hit the next stretch reward, the five volume set becomes six volumes of our science fiction short stories. Check it out at Colliding Worlds Kickstarter Campaign. And only a few hours left to watch the video with me and Kris talking about collaborating. We had fun. About 60 Hours Left… The old fiction technique of a ticking clock is real with this campaign. Measured now in hours left.