• Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    Feed the Obsession

    By Mark Leslie… This is an amazing Kickstarter campaign called Feed the Obsession that has just under a week left and is doing great. Over 200% funded and nearing it’s first stretch goal where everyone gets yet another major collection of stories. Kris and I both have stories in the book, as well as a lot of other professional writers. It is going to be an amazing book. So Kris and I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to do a special workshop to help the campaign out. A workshop we have been looking for a reason to do. It is a three-week workshop called How to…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    23 Years Ago

    In a Land Far, Far Away… Dean and Kris had some great times with some friends… Or so the story goes… That’s right, back in the late 1980s and through most of the 1990s, Kris and I used to travel a lot to conferences. In 1992 it got excessive and we went to 26 different ones. By 1997, we had cut way, way back and basically only hit a few big conventions and a couple fun ones. One of the big conventions in August 1997 was the San Antonio World Science Fiction Convention. That’s right, San Antonio in August heat. Late August heat, actually. So it wasn’t the biggest world…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign

    Doing Something New…

    Late Pledges on a Kickstarter Campaign… This is only new for us. Many large campaigns do this to one level or another. We have done 14 campaigns before this one and never tried this. One of the reasons we wanted to do this is because it makes the surveys much nicer. Now granted, the standard Kickstarter surveys are just fine, but with an after-sale company, the surveys look better and allows for a clean ability to get the person’s add-ons. Also, it would have made fulfillment quicker, except for the fact that WMG Publishing had to evacuate our offices last week, and I was slow putting the entire thing together…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Deadlines

    Got to Love Them… I wrote four short stories in the last week or so, got two more to do I found out today. Actually thought I only had one, but had missed one. And in a wonderful meeting (wonderful because everyone at WMG Publishing is healthy and our offices are still there), I got a number of other deadlines set. When focused, I work great to deadlines, and at the moment I am focused on writing and exercise. So I should be fine. My writing deadlines for the next month. (Yes, I do mean one month.) — Two new original short stories. — Introductions and author intros for Cat…

  • Challenge,  running

    Last Fall

    Kris and I Ran a Lot of Fun Runs… Wow, that seems like a long time ago. But the running group I have joined put on four or five of those, and are trying to put on three of them this fall again. They were the group behind a large run called Vegas Strong to benefit the shooting victims. That would be running in a week, but was cancelled because it was just too big to be done safely. The other three they put on are still under review and might work because the runners can go out in waves. I used those runs last year to stay motivated and…

  • Challenge,  running

    Exercise Update

    A Bust of a Week… Managed one 8.5 mile day, another 5 mile day, and the rest right at 3 miles per day. Mostly because I’m letting blisters on the bottom of my feet get better. Painful little suckers. So tomorrow (actually about eight hours from right now) I will be joining the running group again to do 3 miles to start the day. With luck, that will get this coming week back on track. And then cut the intake down some on the food and I’ll be back on course. Need the weight to come down so the milage can go up. My first marathon is December 5th. Might…

  • Challenge

    Another Friday…

    Of Doing Next To Nothing… And feeling fine about that, actually. Sometimes you just have to take some time off. So I did very little email. I watched a lot of news coverage about the fires in Oregon. And for the first time in weeks, I allowed myself to sleep in. And then I took a nap, actually two of them. I went out and got us lunch from one of our favorite restaurants and brought it back (we don’t eat in restaurants at this point, just take-out). I did a bunch of organizing of files in the new office, seeing what it will be like to work my way…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Special Workshop…

    Only Through A Kickstarter… A special three-week workshop through a very, very special Kickstarter campaign put on by great editor and writer, Mark Leslie for his Obsessions Anthology. Feed the Obsession Kickstarter campaign. Kris and I both have original stories in this anthology, along with some other fantastic writers. And since the object of this campaign is an anthology called Obsessions, we offered to do (just for the Kickstarter campaign) a special three-week workshop. Exclusive 3 Week Horror Fiction Workshop “How to Write an Obsession Story (That people want to read.)” Or “How to Write a Horror Short Story.” The reason this is exclusive is because you can only sign…

  • Challenge,  News

    Community To East of Lincoln City

    A Heartbreaking Video… This is a video from two guys going up into the Panther Creek area just to the east of Lincoln City.  Completely gone. Hard to imagine, and they only got into a small area of Panther Creek. I sure hope everyone got out of there. Wow. And below the video is an image of Highway 18 (main road in and out of Lincoln City from Portland.)  

  • Challenge,  News

    Evacuated

    WMG Publishing Evacuated Out of Lincoln City, Oregon… Actually, all the employees did. And all of our writer friends also got out safely. But wow, what a mess it was there early this morning. The New WMG Publishing offices are in a level 2 evacuation zone. And all employees homes are in the same zone. Seems last night the fire that started up in the valley going toward Portland grew immensely and came into the north side of Lincoln City. To what extent we don’t yet know. Massive rumors of all sorts of stuff. No writers lived in that area, thankfully, but family of some of the WMG staff do.…