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Fun Reading Time
Great Stories and Stuff… I am at a fun time I go through every year. I have a massive number of really good short stories to read for the anthology workshop. I actually look forward to this every year, to be honest. I am also finishing up the last notes on the novel challenge and will get those back in the next day or so to everyone in the last novel challenge. So really fun writing there as well. So having fun reading. Not as much fun as writing, but still great fun. And also writing the interstitials for Fiction River: Hard Choices. That’s great fun looking back over those…
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North by Northwest Kickstarter Getting New Rewards
Classic Workshops Added as a Bonus… That’s right. If you get a workshop credit through the Kickstarter we have going for our bookstore, you will also get a classic workshop for free. One classic workshop for every workshop you pledge. (And you can get as many as you want just by adding to the workshop rewards in increments of $250.) So the workshops (just for the duration of the Kickstarter) are $250 instead of $300 and you get a free Classic Workshop worth $150.00. Pretty good deal if you are thinking of taking some writing or publishing workshops. You can see all the details of every workshop under the “online workshop…
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Kip Ward
In 1984 I went to work for Kip Ward… …as his only waiter in his 99 cent spaghetti restaurant called “Kip’s.” I worked there for a full year, writing, until my house near the beach in Lincoln City burnt down and my second wife and I moved back to Idaho to recover. Thirty-three years. For the last thirteen years or so Kris and I have offered writer workshops based at his wonderful and unique hotel The Anchor. I spent many wonderful evenings for years playing poker with Kip, one of the best natural players I had ever had the pleasure to go against. Kip was part of the center of…
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Two New Weekender Workshops Just Started
It’s Midnight on the West Coast of the US… …and two weekender workshops just started up and will go for four days. Still time to jump in today only (Thursday) and I will read your first assignment even if late, no issue. Go to https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com and hit “see all courses” and look for the February Weekender workshops if interested. But they close tonight (Thursday). I just got done recording both of them over the last two weeks and honestly I think both of them are good ones. POP-UP WEEKENDER WORKSHOPS Descriptions Controlling Fear of Failure Fear cripples every writer, without exception, at one point or another. And the root of…
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One Day Left
To Sign Up for the First Two Weekender Workshops… ONE DAY AND COUNTING!!! Exactly at midnight Thursday morning, (basically late Wednesday night) the first day’s videos in the weekended Pop-up workshops will appear. Four days of videos, three different assignments. I will leave the workshops open to sign up until around 1 p.m. on Thursday. Here is all the basic information. POP-UP WEEKENDER WORKSHOPS The Structure of the Weekender Workshops Starting on Thursday morning right at 12:01 a.m. US West Coast Time (Pacific Time), six or seven videos will appear on the first session Teachable.com page for the workshop. An assignment will be with the videos that is due by…
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Still Having Sleep Issues
Normally I Recover Faster… But not this last trip. I got my schedule twisted around exactly 12 hours. Wow, that has been hard to recover from. I am just now, almost a week later, back on my normal schedule with a few exceptions. I have lost the last two hours of my night for the moment. And that has just about killed any writing for the moment. After the anthology workshop I should be able to get back to some writing, but that is two plus weeks away. Yikes. So this shows the value of steady and regular sleep to writing habits. Without them, writing sort of just drifts off…
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Something Extra For Writers
Later Today I Will Be Adding Something to the Kickstarter As some of you know, we are doing a Kickstarter for North by Northwest Books. And one of the main reasons for the Kickstarter is to help indie writers. Now, I know there are web sites out there that believe that bookstores are a thing of the past, but the facts show otherwise in the last few years. In fact, bookstores (except the chains) have learned how to adapt and are doing great. The ones that don’t learn are the ones you hear about going down. One thing bookstores need is an easy system to accept indie author and indie…
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News On Kip
The core, the person at the center of where we hold coast workshops, has been in a rough health fight this last week or so and they just announced it and since so many of you know Kip, I wanted to put it here. No worries, Anthology workshop is going on as planned at the Anchor. Keep our thoughts positive on this. I have known Kip for over 45 years. He never backs down from a fight and he won’t this time. Here is the official press release… ——— Kip Ward often speaks about what an honor it is to serve the citizens of Lincoln City on the City Council.…
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Now That’s a Stunner
We Made Our Kickstarter Goal… In less than two days. I was hoping, of course, that we would make it and maybe a little ways farther to really get the remodeling started and done and get the system to get indie writer’s books into the store. Now we are working on the “ways farther” stuff. So far backers have supported library and school systems around the country, bought boxes and bags of books, and signed up to get credits for lectures and online workshops. And there is no limit on any of the rewards. At WMG Publishing and North By Northwest Books, even if we have to contact and send…
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Flying In the Face of Common Knowledge
Normal for Me and Kris… Over the years, Kris and I have seemed to constantly talk about things that are not believed in the common knowledge of publishing. And after forty years in the business, still selling and making more than a living by a long ways, Kris and I still continue to do that. Why? Because we believe in common sense and information, not common knowledge. Interesting that a number of examples came up over this last week. At Superstars, on the Craft Day, I taught three hours of Writing into the Dark. Now understand, I taught that you don’t need an outline, you don’t even need an idea.…