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FOCUSING FORWARD…
Watching the Old Magnum Television Series… It was filmed in the eighties. We are watching it not to study anything, but to shut down and enjoy the entertainment, even though sometimes dated. Still fun. The one we watched tonight was about the internment camps of Japanese Americans on the islands. It happened 40 years before the show was aired and they kept talking about those 40 years. The show aired 40 years ago now. So interesting to think about the 80 years. 40 years ago Kris and I had not met yet (a couple of years from meeting, actually). We were both writing like crazy, but both of us were…
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The Old House…
PUTTING TOGETHER ISSUES… Spent a few days putting together an issue of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. Problem is that I glance at a story I want to include and end up getting sucked into the story and reading again. So it takes me way longer than it should to write an introduction to the issue, do author introductions, and get it all ready. But I love the process. And I am finishing up a little bit of misc story reading and then diving full force back into the stories that have been sent for the Pulphouse Kickstarter stretch rewards. Just a tad farther behind than I wanted to be with the…
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Getting Ready for January 1st…
Spending Time Getting Ready… Almost December 1st and I am doing a ton of focusing and planning for January 1st. And doing a ton of getting ready. As I said, I am loading my old traditional published books and stories into boxes to take to storage. Finding a ton of stuff I had forgotten about. For example, I knew I had been in a few Twilight Zone anthologies, but turns out Carol invited me into three of them. And wow did I achieve my goal of wanting to be a “paperback” writer. I’m filling box after box with paperbacks that I either wrote or have my story in them. Mass…
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Fun Day!
US Thanksgiving Holiday… We had intended to head out a 6:30 am to a park to the north of Las Vegas for a charity 5k run that started at 8 am. Intended was the operative word, but due to events the day before with business and other stuff, Kris and I both managed to stumble to be round 2 am. (I was a little later.) So the towel was tossed and we got extra sleep. Then I cooked (with a ton of help from Kris) a turkey dinner and we were were joined by four great friends and we had a blast. Kris had baked a bunch of fantastic pumpkin…
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Thinking of the Start of the New Year…
New Year Is Not Far Off.. Today I got up late (since I stay up until 5 am), watched far too much college football including that crazy ending to the Arizona/BYU game, then headed out to the store(s) to get all the stuff Kris needs to make her fantastic pumpkin pies and a turkey and all the extra stuff as well. Actually fun. And then watched more television and didn’t get into my office until after midnight. And most of the time since getting in here I have been working on and thinking about the start of the new year and what I am going to do to really ramp…
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A Few Great Questions Today…
First A Question on Priorities… The question boiled down to this… “What is more important? Writing, Learning, Reading, Publishing?” Great question, and I honestly had to stop and stare at it for a moment because in the publishing world of 2024, all of those are important. There needs to be a balance of feeding them all regularly. But writers tend to get into trouble over time when they drop one or two. “I don’t have time to study another author’s book or to take a class or worse yet, I don’t need it right now.” So learning gets left out and the writer goes stale and dull in time. “I…
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Workshops Started
Lost In the Insanity of Tuesday… 5 Regular and 2 Advanced workshops just started. Advanced Emotion Craft Workshop and also Advanced Unputdownable both started on Tuesday and go for 9 weeks on Teachable. Advanced Emotion is a critical craft workshop for bringing more readers to your work. Also all five core six-week Regular Workshops started on Tuesday and Wednesday. Depth, Advanced Depth, Writing into the Dark, Teams in Fiction, and Killing the Critical Voice. All of these are on Teachable It is the Advanced Emotion Class that is a major class to improve your writing and sales. Don’t miss it. It won’t be back around until next November. HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR…
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Classes Starting Tuesday…
5 Regular and 2 Advanced… Advanced Emotion Craft Workshop and also Advanced Unputdownable both start on Tuesday and go for 9 weeks on Teachable. Advanced Emotion is a critical craft workshop for bringing more readers to your work. Also all five core Regular Workshops are scheduled to start on Tuesday. Depth, Advanced Depth, Writing into the Dark, Teams in Fiction, and Killing the Critical Voice. Last Day for 30% off Early Bird Discount on new Trademark Class!!! Last few years we have done Motivational Mondays (twice), Creative Survival, and Bite-Sized Copyright with the structure of four videos every Monday morning for the entire year. So for 2025, we are going…
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Workshops Information and Sale Ending…
Workshop 50% Off Sale Ends Monday!! A ton of workshop information tonight since the half-price office-moving sale is ending on Monday on Teachable. The code to get anything at half price is… OfficeMove Here is a summary of information in this post… — Information on Lifetime Subscriptions… — Information on new “Buy Five for the Price of Four”… — November Regular Workshops Now Up… — List of Classic Workshops… All 47 of them… Starting with the List of Classic Workshops… I don’t think many know of the fantastic selection of writing and publishing classes we have that are Classic Workshops. I have no memory of doing a list of them,…
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Dedicated Fiction-Writing Computer…
A Critical Part of Any Fiction-Writer’s Life… Many of you have heard me at one time or one place or another talk about the critical nature of having a dedicated fiction-writing computer. There are a ton of varied reasons for this. But I have been sort of shocked this week at learning how few writers have them and then wonder why their production is not what they want it to be. It is 2024 as I write this. Our computers are full of about a zillion distractions, from emails to YouTube to Facebook and on and on and on. A dedicated fiction writing computer has one thing on it… A…