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Store Pictures
The New WMG Publishing Store Pop Culture Collectables #2 Professional writer J. Steven York stopped by the new store and took some photos. He has all of them on his Facebook page, but he generously gave me permission to show some of them here. He’s such a great photographer I couldn’t pass up the chance. Thanks, Steve! To start off with, the store is three very large rooms, over three thousand square feet. A large part of it is books, and yes, a large section is just WMG books. So impossible to capture everything in every nook and cranny. But here is a general tour. The first picture is looking back…
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Up Too Early
Up Too Early Went to bed at 5:30 a.m. and was back up at 8:30 a.m. Now that is just silly, but we got the new store open. Somebody asked me why I was up so early and I said “It’s not often you open a store.” Pictures soon. ————- The Day At the new store at 9 a.m. and worked there until I went off for a lunch meeting at 2 p.m. Then back to the store until Kris and I walked to dinner to meet another professional writer. Then home for a nap that felt like it almost killed me after only three hours of…
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Some Fantastic Writing Books!
Writing Bundle Folks, there is a new writing bundle that just started with ten writing books. Two are mine. Another by Kris, another by Lawrence Block, another by Gerald Weinberg, another by JoAnna Penn, and so on. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one. I’ve read all but two of these books and trust me, they are worth a lot more than what you would pay in this bundle. Those of you who want to learn, this is the cheapest education you can get from people who know what they are talking about. The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle Here is Kris’s blog about the bundle: The Write Stuff…
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The Voice
The Voice If you did not watch the finals on The Voice tonight, you missed not only some amazing, stunning music, but some good writing moments. And I’m not talking about the original songs they wrote. More below in the topic of the night. ————- The Day Lots and lots of running around, took the stray cat to the vet, left her for surgery tomorrow. She might not make it through, but it’s the best choice we and two vets think she has in making it. I’ll let you know. Spent a lot of time today fighting glass shelves over three windows into place in the new store. Also a…
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Store and Workshop
Store and Workshop Another full day at WMG offices (part of which will soon be our new store). I worked on one of the new workshops as well as did a bunch of stuff in the store. Got the second temporary sign hung outside, got some final trim work done, did a lot of work on all the die cast cars. And then spent the evening sorting through and getting some non-sports cards ready. (They are art cards mostly. But we have a lot of Trek, Star Wars, X-Files and other cards. We have one area of the store that is nothing but non-sport cards. And dug out some old…
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New Door and Other Adventures
The Battle of the Door Well, somehow, on a slightly rainy, somewhat windy, late afternoon a good hour from home, in the parking lot of a large chain home-supply store, Kris and I managed to wage a great battle to put in an entire framed interior door into my old van. And get the back door closed. Now, when I said we’d pick up a door while over in the bigger city, I just assumed it would fit in my trusty old van. Everything fit in my trusty old van. Not so much a framed interior door 36 inches wide by 84 inches tall. Suited for closing off a back room…
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Workshops and Store
Workshops and Store I spent all day on the store and on working on workshops, so it was a very fun day. Patreon Supporters and Smith’s Monthly Subscribers As planned, I got a recent issue of Smith’s Monthly out to subscribers and up on Patreon. The next issue should be out to subscribers and up on Patreon on Friday, and then with luck, the third issue in this run will be on Monday. Now it’s going to take me some writing to get caught up. ————— Topic of the Night: nothing tonight I’ve been sitting at the computer too long today, so no topic tonight. Need to give my eyes a…
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Distracted
Distracted In case you hadn’t noticed, I haven’t written a word of fiction or nonfiction this month so far. I’ll talk about it in the topic below. Patreon Supporters and Smith’s Monthly Subscribers As planned, I got a recent issue of Smith’s Monthly out to subscribers and up on Patreon. The next issue should be out to subscribers and up on Patreon on Friday, and then with luck, the third issue in this run will be on Monday. Now it’s going to take me some writing to get caught up. ————— Topic of the Night: Distracted I haven’t done a word of writing this month. But honestly, that’s normal for me and…
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Topic of the Night: Can’t vs Don’t
Can’t vs Don’t Over the last month or so I’ve been seeing tons of writers talk about how they can’t do this or that aspect of publishing. All I have been doing is shaking my head and mostly turning away. I kind of equate this to saying I wanted to be a professional fiction writer when I started in 1974, but I couldn’t mail a manuscript to an editor. Pretty much a terminal problem for a career when I started off. So let me start off with giving you one thing you absolutely can’t do (in my opinion.) You can’t do your own copyediting. We writers just can’t see our own mistakes.…
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Topic of the Night: Pulp Writers’ Abilities
Pulp Writers’ Abilities I got a great question today about some of the basics the really prolific pulp writers did to be so productive. And how to go about finding out about a lot of their styles. How I have learned about so many of the older pulp writers is by reading book about them in their own words, reading books about the era, and just finding anything I could to read about the pulp writers of the 1920s to 1950s. A great first book to start is Frank Gruber’s The Pulp Jungle. Oh, trust me, you will realize how little you have given to be a writer after reading…