• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Story #19 in 19 Days…

    Yes, It Is Getting Easier… Belief system in the creative voice is back solidly. Like I tell others, after life rolls, the writing is still there and sometimes a little stronger. Working out that way for me. Today I started off by spell-checking three of the earlier stories so I am about 7 stories ahead of Kris reading now. She liked the first two. Yay. But if she doesn’t, I will still publish them as is. But nice she is liking them. We walked to lunch. Beautiful winter day. I then watched some football, had a nap, cooked dinner, then after recording a workshop I spent far, far too much…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Story 18 and Clean Up…

    A Writing Day… With some football watching just for fun. And naps. Two napes to be accurate. But mostly the focus was on writing. After coming back from lunch, I spent a few hours this afternoon spell-checking five of my stories to have them ready to go to Kris. She read the first one and liked it and asked for the novel. It is a stand-alone story just fine, but it clearly leaves room for another Thunder Mountain novel. Next year. So anyhow, did that and then found a couple half titles and typed them in and nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. So I tossed half of that title away, kept…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    My Story A Day Challenge…

    Going Okay, But… The “but” is coming from critical voice, of course. It has been a stupidly busy first two weeks of the month and I got into a bad habit right out of the gate of starting the story too late at night. Way, way too late. Problem with that is being tired I tell my creative voice to do something short, and a lot of my Marble Grant stories and Bryant Street stories are in the 2,000 word range, so even though I never plan it, I default back to them. Amazing how powerful the creative voice is. It wants me to finish a story a day, but…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Challenge Day 5 and Also One Day Sale!!

    Again I Was Stupidly Busy But I expected as much. Didn’t help that I expected it, but at least I didn’t get upset anywhere along the line. Tonight I put up the first weeks of two Monday classes. PUBLISHING MONDAY and also BITE-SIZED BRANDING AND TRADEMARK. As I was talking with Kris about them and how few had signed up, she just laughed. She said I have to know by now writers say they want that sort of thing but actually don’t. It seems that Kris and I are not normal. We want to keep learning everything we can, especially stuff that makes us more money and gets our writing…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Day Three of the Challenge

    Stunningly Simple and Yet Difficult to Understand… You become a trademark owner as soon as you start using your trademark with your goods or services. You establish rights in your trademark by using it. Here is what I think is the problem with fiction writers with both copyright and trademark. Fiction writers have no issue making stuff up. Yet when it comes to putting a value on what they made up, even if readers or editors buy it, that product has no value to them. And writers purposely stick their fingers in their ears and hum the Star Spangled Banner when you try to talk with them about the value…

  • Branding,  Challenge,  workshops

    Second Day of Challenge…

    The Fiction Writer of 2025… Back in traditional days, when I came in, fiction writers had employees called “agents”who jumped to the writer’s beck and call and fetched drinks and chased money. They lived off of 10% and then 15% of what the author made and never said a word about a writer’s work. That was not their job. Writers were the artists, agents did the scut work. Writers built careers over dozens and dozens of novels, sometimes moving houses regularly. They did none of their own promotion because publishers had sales forces and there was only one way to sell books and that was through what was called the…

  • Challenge

    Last Day to Join Kris’s Summer Challenge…

    Her Challenge Will Be Closed off Late Tonight… This challenge was something Kris really wanted to do to keep herself focused for at least a few hours a day on writing instead of all the business stuff. It worked for her in May and she wanted to extend it through the summer. Every day you get a letter from Kris about her day and her writing. Eye-opening and don’t expect her to ever do this again after this summer. So today is the last day to jump in. Might just be the best thing you can do for your writing for the summer. And for me right now, I have…

  • Challenge,  Misc

    Thank You All…

    For the Very Kind Thoughts and Well-Wishes… Very much appreciated. And as each day goes by I notice the shoulder less and less and do more and more. Every-so-often I move wrong or try a little too much and it reminds me. But otherwise no issues. I don’t even think I have taken Advil (my pain medication of choice) for a while now. Kris is thinking of doing one more month of writing challenge to really keep her going through all the business stuff. If tomorrow she is 100% certain I will put it up on Teachable and announce it here. Two days left in the May challenge. How is…

  • Challenge

    Another Rest Day…

    Wow, Did I Need It… Eight hours of sleep and three naps and a bunch of television. I managed to cook dinner, do my laundry, and a bunch of research. Past that, just resting. Tomorrow I will be back at it. Maybe even have a blog that does more than hold my streak.

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Novella Classes

    First Novella Class Starts Tuesday… You can see the information for each 3-month class on WMGWriterStore.com The first class is Science Fiction Novellas. Nine weeks of classes and one month of writing. 4 different genres over the year. For more information, go to the writer store and watch the videos that Kris did about the classes. And the new quarters of Motivational Monday and Creative Survival have started. And April regular workshops are up as well. The second quarter of the year is a great time to reset, maybe start a challenge. Short story per week is a great challenge to get you to the computer every week. And if…