• Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing

    More Reading To Buy

    All Done Now… Finished just as I lost an hour, vanished into some silly idea called “Annoying Savings Time.” I’ve been reading about time travel to different timelines now for a week, so that was kind of creepy. (grin) I wanted ten stories per volume in the Cave Creek Anthologies of Past, Present, and Future. Ended up (since this is getting turned in tomorrow) with nine, nine, and eight stories per volume. That works great, actually. I was thinking I could write a few stories to fill the gaps, but now no time. Into the publishing chain they all go. Deadlines. But there will be more Cave Creek volumes in…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing

    Reading To Buy…

    Editing… A Very Different Mindset… Right now I am reading Cave Creek stories for three different anthologies. I am most of the way through all the stories and will be turning the anthologies in on Monday to WMG with my introductions. A lot of work and it has been a lot of reading as well. But honestly, I have loved it, because Cave Creek is a shared world I came up with and all these great writers are writing in that world. That, by itself, is a strange feeling. Cave Creek has some pretty set rules and I need different stories to be in the book inside these set rules.…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  publishing

    Lots of Fun Reading This Week

    Got Cave Creek Stories In… I need 30 stories for the three books. Ten per book. And got just about that number in total not spread that evenly over the books. So looks like I will have a second call out to those in the Shared World Class. I had no doubt that would be the case, but was surprised at the low number. Also, a note: The Shared World class originally said nine months, but now it will be going for at least another year. Lots of stuff already there, more videos on putting these together, and more anthologies down the road. And yes, it is still possible to…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing

    Herding Cats (Writers)

    Totally Insane… I have learned this lesson now over 15 years of trying to help writers with workshops and other projects. And I learned the lesson way before that, back in the late 1980s as an editor. The lesson? Writers as a class are pathologically incapable of following even the simplest instruction. When it comes to writers, I do try to be clear as much as I can. The other day I talked here about manuscript format and just a surface reason for it in fiction. I even went so far as to give a link. Made little to no difference even on manuscripts I am getting for classes since…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge

    Kris Read the Cave Creek Novel

    She Liked It… And said it will be a great bible for the shared world anthologies set in Cave Creek. So finally this weekend I will record some more videos in the shared world class while the novel is being copyedited and put in a form everyone in the class can read it. And also turns out that the town is so open for a ton of stories, I don’t have to outline much other than what is in the book, so great fun there. Turns out that writing a novel with the intent that it would work as a short novel, and also be a bible, was an interesting…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing

    Writing Update

    Some Stories and Progress on Card Sharp Silver novel… I’ve been kind of dinging along on the Cave Creek novel, doing a couple thousand words per night. Also doing some cat stories with my new series character Pahket Jones. She’s in the Poker Boy universe and so far he has appeared in one of her stories and she has appeared in a new Poker Boy story. I’m having fun. Hard not to in the Poker Boy Universe. The Cave Creek novel, Card Sharp Silver, will not only be in a future issue of Smith’s Monthly, but will be sent to everyone for the Shared World Class, along with some bible…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge

    Card Sharp Silver… Day 20

    Normally Would Be Finished in Twenty Days… But nope. Just sort of puttering along, no fault of the book, just too many distractions and work outside of the book and writing time. I bet most of you know this feeling exactly. I am not worried or bothered or anything by the slowness of this. Just noting it, and that every book is different from every other book in the creation process. So today I made it here around 10:30 am, early for me because I needed to go out into the wilds. So a little after eleven I headed out, masked, gloves and excessive hand sanitizer. I was way, way…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Card Sharp Silver… Day 19

    No Day Is The Same… It would certainly help if I could settle into some sort of routine, where I knew I could get a set amount of exercise and a set amount of writing done. Oh, that would be heaven. And I am working toward that. But at the moment, still a lot happening, so no routine just yet. Soon. So here is how the day went. Managed to get to this computer to do some email around noon, then a little before one I left to go meet a leasing agent and get the keys to WMG Publishing’s new Vegas office. Inspections and other stuff took some time,…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge

    Card Sharp Silver… Day 18

    One Month Since Day Seventeen… Wow, just as all of us had a crazy last month, mine was no different. Some people have been working harder than ever with this virus, others are laid off and killing time or trying to focus. I have been in the bunch working harder than I can remember. But now, thankfully, returning to my normal level of freelance work, so I started a new short story series in the last few days and today got back to writing on the Cave Creek novel. So as I did for the first seventeen days on this, I will detail out the general nature of my day…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  Misc

    Card Sharp Silver… Day 15

    Strange Times… I know the world (because of really bad reporting) believes that Nevada was late locking down, but actually the governor shut all casinos and restaurants and developed the phrase “Stay Home for Nevada” about three weeks ago. Actually a few days ahead of when San Fransisco shut down. And a week later he put teeth in the order and started yanking business licenses that refused to close and arrested a few nut cases. He just finally had to call it by the official name five days ago to get national news reporters from spreading the rumor that Las Vegas was open for business. The Strip is a ghost…