• Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  running

    35,000 Close Friends Went Running

    Kris and I Joined Them… That’s right, what better thing to do than run 5K with 35,000 of your closest friends on a Saturday night in Las Vegas in the dark on narrow streets. (This was the run I fell in last year and got so badly damaged.) And tomorrow evening is the Rock and Roll Marathon that shuts down the the entire Las Vegas Strip, from downtown to beyond the airport. Tomorrow no one in their right mind will get in a car in Las Vegas. Not only is the Strip completely closed from 2 pm until after 10pm for the run, but on the Strip at 7 pm…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    If You Want To Watch My Talk

    It Seems It Has Been Posted to YouTube… Kris’s talk is not there yet that we could find, but a friend sent me the link to my 45 minute talk for the 20Books Conference. Seems being under the bright lights had a reason. So if you want to actually spend 45 minutes watching or listening to it, here it is. It is about attitude and those nine points I posted yesterday. Start at the beginning. For some reason this link starts in the middle.    

  • Challenge,  publishing

    My Talk At 20To50 Conference

    I Only Did One… Lasted 45 minutes. That’s all they wanted me to do it seems even though I said I would be happy to do more and I wasn’t charging them and I live right here in Vegas. So I did the one talk, then came back out the next day and sat around talking with friends in Subway for most of the day. Great conversations in my personal  SubwayCon with Kevin Anderson, Todd McCaffery, Lyn Worthen, Mark from D2D, Damon from Bookfunnel, and a few others. My one talk was on Attitude of a Fiction Writer. They supposedly recorded it, since I was under very bright lights, so…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Book I Am Very Proud Of

    The Idanha Hotel: A Thunder Mountain Novel Here is the blurb: 1902: Boise, Idaho. Megan Taber loves her job baking at the Idanha Hotel. Widowed young, she knows the rest of her life revolves around her baking. Carol Kogan, a doctor and researcher from the future, eats breakfast every morning at the Idanha Hotel just for Megan’s fresh breads. Until one fine May morning in 1902, when Carol meets Megan outside the hotel. Before they finish their conversation, Megan collapses from a massive heart attack. Carol knows saving Megan with 1902 medicine would prove impossible. But saving her with future medicine might prove even more dangerous—for both of them. A…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Old Advice

    Things In Publishing Change… So please, folks, if you are reading something I said, check the date on the post before quoting me. I have been writing about writing and the business since the old Genie Board days, and when I was editing Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, I wrote posts for writers. And the internet keeps it all it seems, somewhere. More millions of words and blogs and letters that I wrote than I can ever begin to count. Indie publishing came about in 2010 for me. Give or take. But for the first four years after that things were really changing, and so was I. So if I…

  • Challenge,  publishing,  Recommended Reading

    Saving The World Storybundle Almost Done!

    ONLY DAYS LEFT… I set off to put this Storybundle called Saving the World together with a goal. I wanted to find as many ways as possible to save the world and as many worlds as possible to save. I figured that would be really fun for me to read and I hoped that a lot of you would feel the same. And what I was lucky enough to end up with is eight novels and two major collections of short stories, all fantastic. And fun. And on top of that, four of the books in this bundle can ONLY be found in this bundle. That’s right, they are exclusive…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Interesting Summary

    A Writer Sent Me This Today… This writer was putting together a business plan and a way of approaching the writing business. And, of course, I liked it, since it is almost exactly what I teach, scattered across a lot of workshops and lectures. He said that he had boiled it down from an erotic writer’s nonfiction book very nicely. So I thought I would put his checklist here because I agree with it and add to it for clarity. — Learn and study basic story structure, then write into the dark. Understanding basic story structure is all the outline you need. — Don’t rewrite; do the best you can…

  • Challenge,  running

    What a 69-Year-Old Does On A Nice Fall Day…

    Runs Six Miles… Kris, Val, and Steph did the 5K, I went for the 10K. Needed to see if my time would allow me to run the marathon next Sunday. Well, it was a good test. The first three miles was all uphill. Steep between mile 2 and 3. Then it was downhill back. Did the first three miles in a run/walk in about 45 minutes (mostly walking), did the next three miles back down the hill in just about 35 minutes. 1 hour, 20 minutes, and got third in my age category of 60-69 so got another medal for that. But not fast enough to run the marathon. I…

  • Challenge,  running

    Running 10K

    Got to Be Up in 7 hours… So not going to do anything tonight because I would like to get some sleep. The course tomorrow morning is out though the desert up above Henderson with a fantastic view of all of Las Vegas in the distance. Up a hill one direction, downhill coming back. If I can make it between and 60 and 70 minutes, I might be able to do the marathon next Sunday. The problem is that if I do that time, then I will still be dithering. (grin) No matter what, there will be pictures later. And this post kept the blogging streak alive.  

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Have Fun!

    That Is What I Am Always Telling Writers… Having fun with the writing experience and publishing experience is the secret to being a long-term fiction writer. It really is that simple. But what is fun? So many writers think that when I say that, they have to be happy, smiling, laughing while they write. Well, some are. I am seldom that way, unless writing comedy, and then I am laughing at how silly and stupid what I am writing is. But mostly the fun I have is with the challenge of writing a story. And there is nothing consistent or straight-line about writing stories, especially if you write into the…