• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    More Misc. Stuff Once Again

    A Bunch Of It, Actually… Some of you know I have been blogging every day without missing a day for numbers of years. I just thought I would point out that I have been doing this for almost 1,700 straight days. Almost there. If I remember, I will make note of the passing… Next, a reminder… about the North by Northwest Kickstarter. We have added some nifty rewards and one major one that is not there yet, but it is official. Here is is… 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…

  • On Writing,  publishing

    A Bunch of Stuff

    You Ever Wondered What Happened To?… For example, I started this book here on the blog about Self Sabotage. Basically it was subtitled “Fiction Writers and the Art of Self Sabotage.” I had a decent first chapter on it. Then I wrote the second chapter and the third chapter and got about halfway through the fourth chapter, intending to put the chapters up as blog posts when I realized that Debbie Downer didn’t begin to describe what I was writing. I like being encouraging to writers because we all face the same basic fears and problems along this fiction-writing road. But in those chapters I wasn’t being positive. Not in…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    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…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    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…

  • News

    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…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    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…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    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…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    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…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    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…

  • Challenge

    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.…