• Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing,  Recommended Reading

    Past Crimes Bundle Last Day!!

    If You Want Great Mystery Reading, Don’t Miss This One!!! I’m going to reprint here my introduction to the Past Crime’s Bundle on this last day. I was amazingly honored to be able to put this together and work with these other fantastic mystery writers. But all good things come to an end, and this bundle and the deal to get the ten books will end on Thursday evening. So don’t miss it.  Just one day left!!  Go to www.Storybundle.com/crime So below is my blog/introduction to the StoryBundle that I think describes it pretty well. It Came Together This Way The past often brings out the best in crime. In…

  • Challenge,  running

    Exercise and Weight Update

    First 5K Run Is In One Month… Yikes, not having the weight-loss success I had hoped. In fact, I suck. I even gained a pound this last week. I have been eating much healthier. And fewer calories. The problem is the exercise. I get started, then get focused on something else and just flat forget. Start a streak, miss, forget. Two months now of that. Some good things are that my muscles and skin are tightening up, and it is getting easier to run, even though I am still heavier than I want to be. But wow, the intense discipline I thought I could bring to this has not arrived…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    What a Workshop Week

    Insane, Actually… This last week we fired up and announced all six of the 2023 in person workshops.  There are only two spots left in the January 2023 Fantasy Caper workshop. Write me if interested. Information is at www.wmgworkshops.com Click under the In-Person Vegas Workshops for the full list. Fantasy Thriller in July is filling fast along with Time Travel Romance in March. And one more note: The in-person workshops are $750 fee until September 1st. Then the price goes up to $1,000. We also started this week the Study Along workshops on Teachable for the six in-person classes that were added. If you can’t make Vegas, but love the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    September Workshops Now Available

    Including new Applied Depth Workshop Yes, Applied Depth as been added to the Lifetime Workshop Subscription. And yes, just sign up for any of them on Teachable. Depth in Writing workshop is required to take the Applied Depth, plus it is suggested to take the Advanced Depth workshop before as well. Applied Depth Workshop takes the concepts of Basic Depth and then applies those concepts to all the major genres. Openings of stories and novels are different from genre to genre. And yes, basic depth tends to work, but there are techniques for each genre, reader expectations of opening for each genre, that will help you get readers of a…

  • Challenge

    Update Stuff

    Just a Friday Night, Saturday Morning Quick Update Mostly doing workshop stuff, trying to get things squared away. September workshops should all be available later on Saturday. And I think I have everything pretty set for the In-Person workshops. (See the last few posts.) And also getting ready to start my really fun buffet project, so stay tuned for updates on that. And more than anything else, I have three stories to finish in the next few days and an issue of Pulphouse to turn in. So fun busy. Really fun. So that’s it for a quick update and a short blog.      

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    Study Along Classes Added to Teachable

    All Six In-Person Workshops Now Have a Study Along Part… And all are available now. And I have added all six to the Lifetime Study Along as well. SCHEDULE FOR 2023 In Person and Study Along Classes… Here are the lists and dates for 2023 and January 2024. Everyone wanted these announced early, so planning trips for next year was possible. Some of these will fill now that we are getting away from the pandemic issues because we are only taking 15 writers per class. So don’t hesitate too long. Plus, remember, the price right now is $750 for the in-person classes. That price goes up to $1,000 on September…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    More On In-Person Workshops…

    All Set Up… And Getting Sign-Ups… So I figured I would mention a few things. First off, here in Vegas the Covid statistics are very low, in the moderate range and are dropping steadily. No masks required anywhere. In the entire state there are just over a hundred people in the hospital, all of them not vaccinated and most of them older and up north where the non-vax folks live. All of them have other conditions as well. But even so, we are still going to require for all of 2023 workshops that everyone attending an in-person workshop must have proof of vaccination and boosters. No exceptions. Do not make…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    Announcing New Advanced In-Person Craft Workshops

    Workshops Are Here In Las Vegas… All these workshops are advanced craft focused. You will be doing a lot of writing while here. And each workshop, similar to this year, will be two-genre focused. And each will have a Study-Along class going on at the same time online on Teachable. And each will be followed by a novella challenge class to do a novella in two weeks on the workshop topic. (You must have taken either the in-person or the study-along to take the novella.) DETAILS… Workshops always start Monday morning and end Thursday by noon. So you fly in on Sunday and out on Thursday or Friday. Workshops are…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Interesting Reaction…

    …To the Free Promotions Post Last Night. Writers will pay more thousands of dollars than I want to think about to take a class on how to do paid ads on Amazon and other places from writers who have been around a year or so and have a “system.” And then spend more thousands on the ads. And then spend even more to fly to 20 to 50 Conference to learn even more methods, secrets, and systems of how to promote and make money without doing the work. Yet Amazon and the other places have free tutorials on how to do ads that work on their own site. Tutorials are…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Free Advertising For Writers

    There Is A Lot of It… I know that so much attention is paid to the young writers who spend all the money advertising to drive a lot of buyers and all that. And they are constantly telling other young writers that is the ONLY WAY TO DO IT!! And some of them, for a time, make a lot of money if they hit the right moment with the right combination of things. And they spend a lot as well. But honestly, I hear far, far more stories of writers who try it, spend a lot, and make no sales in those gimmick ways. While a lot of us just…