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Challenges and Other Stuff
Two Weeks Into the Writing Challenge… Those who jumped into the full challenge or the half challenge can see where I am at to the right of this post. As expected, a little slow start for me, but still rebuilding habits lost over the six months of bad eyes, and also had a lot of things to finish up these last two weeks. So pretty happy with the number. So now, it picks up speed some over the next few weeks. I also really changed a ton of other things, like eating habits and exercise. I got a lot of weight to lose as the writing speed increases. (I might…
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A Fun Run and Updates
6 AM is Stupidly Early… Especially when you go to bed at 2 AM. It is still dark at 6 AM. And yet off we went to be at a park before 7 on the other side of town for a charity run that honors Prince. Now I did some running early on in the 5K and then just said, “Nope.” Walked the rest of the way. But we had a wonderful breakfast afterward at a restaurant we almost never get to because it is so far from our place. And I got my remaining four hours of sleep after I got home. The Case Card Kickstarter campaign is doing…
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Memory and Perspective
The Beach Boys… Tonight I watched the first half of the Grammy salute to the Beach Boys. Some of the major artists were up to playing Beach Boy songs, some were not, but the history of the music and the writing so far has been fascinating. And seeing all five remaining original Beach Boys sitting in the same box in the theater was so cool. Especially after all they have been through. 60 Years Ago… Yes, I said sixty… I went out on a first date with a woman I now know longer even remember her name, to a Beach Boys concert being held in the Boise High School auditorium.…
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Cold Poker Gang Kickstarter Launched!!
CASE CARD New Book! Plus ACTION: A Cold Poker Gang Collection Both available in the new Kickstarter Campaign. Plus lots of other stuff, including personally signed (and personalized if you want) limited edition hardback books. (Signed on the book, not a book plate.) Two fantastic Special Workshops as well, only available through this Kickstarter. MURDER MOST COLD Special Workshop MURDER MOST MODERN Special Workshop Might be the two best special workshops we have done through a Kickstarter. Get them now at CASE CARD: A Cold Poker Gang Kickstarter
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My Eyes Are Better
And I Am Catching Up… And writing again, solidly. But my eyes still only give me so much computer time in a day and I spend a lot of it on writing fiction now. So that means I am behind on some things, such as the free workshops on Kickstarters. But I am catching up. Allyson, Gwyneth, Josh, and the rest of WMG Publishing never miss a deadline, If they say a book will be shipping in February, it was shipped in February. They are fulfilling the final hardbacks from the Fantasies Collide and Diving Kickstarters. And all book stretch goal rewards and other rewards have been sent out from…
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Kickstarter Update and New!
All Starter Kit Rewards Going Out… Tomorrow (Wednesday). If you do not have everything by Thursday and you have checked your spam filter (a lot of links in some of these rewards), then contact WMG or me and I will put you in contact with WMG Publishing to help you out. That was a fun small campaign and I really appreciate the support on it. But now, coming up on Thursday, a bigger and longer campaign with the brand new Cold Poker Gang novel CASE CARD. Kickstarter will fire up at noon on Thursday. And with it is a brand new Cold Poker Gang Collection called ACTION. ACTION collection will…
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Myth Believer
With Apologies to Jeff Foxworthy… I deal a lot with writer myths. And I will be doing new Killing the Sacred Cows of… posts soon. But one thing I noticed back when Foxworthy was doing his “You might be a redneck…” jokes is that they always had a ring of truth in them. So for fun, I thought I would show how that truth can sometimes be pointed at those who believe in the myths of publishing. If one or two of these strike home, don’t blame me. It’s your myth. Not the Top Ten Myth Believer Sayings… (Just ten random. Trust me, there are a lot more.) 1… If…
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Challenges Are Battles Against Yourself…
Nothing Else Matters… Just You… Challenges have this nasty habit of quickly uncovering issues in your motivation and your consistency in writing and other life issues you are dealing with. This challenge for me uncovered that my vision stamina is not strong yet. If I spend a lot of time during the day, as I did a few days this last week, at my business computer, by the time I get to the writing computer, I am very limited in the amount of time I have. I love writing at night, and my eyes are better at night. I expected to be slow, didn’t expect that sight issue would be…
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Slow Starts Are Perfectly Fine
No Reason At All To Worry… A number of you have decided to take the writing challenge with me for the next nine months, until the end of the year. But I have gotten a number of letters worried about starting slow. And I am starting slow, as I said I would. This worry can really invite in critical voice, repeating over and over that you are failing. Not sure why anyone buys that a few days into a nine month challenge, but if you buy into it, and let critical voice take over, it sort of becomes a self-fulfilling thing. Yikes! The key is to focus on the writing…
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Keep The Fun…
Nothing Is Important In Writing Fiction… The moment you make something “important” you let in critical voice and since it is important, the critical voice will shut you down. That’s why so many of you can’t finish a story or a novel. It becomes important about halfway through, you become afraid to show it when you are done because it might be bad, and you stop. Critical Voice wins. (Critical voice only has one goal and that is to stop you.) But I have gotten a number of questions on how to focus on a challenge and not make what you are writing important? Well simply put, don’t make it…