• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Finished Novel Challenge

    Finished The Novel Challenge Took ten days, but all done. Right at 40,000 words finished, around 44,000 words written. Kris has already read the first 32,000 words and likes it, so she will finish it tomorrow, I will run over any corrections she finds, and have it in to WMG before Monday morning. It will have a quick copyedit and then get launched for the bundle starting on September 15th. So all good. Today I got my 10,000 steps in, cooked dinner, had a nap, worked on workshop stuff at WMG for about three hours, and wrote about 3,200 words in just over three hours of writing. Fun day. —— Day…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Day Eight of a Seven Day Novel Challege

    Day Eight of a Seven Day Novel Challenge Nope, still didn’t make it. But I honestly wasn’t pushing very hard today. Sort of had the pressure of the challenge gone. Also, if I got it done tonight or tomorrow or Saturday it would make no difference since it has to go to WMG on Monday no matter what. So I decided to not stress about it. Did my 10,000 plus steps (five miles), took a long nap, cooked dinner, did some e-mail, then managed with some television scattered along the way to actually get 4,300 words in three hour-long sessions and a half hour session. Good enough and easy. Now going…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Day Six: Novel Challenge

    Day Six: Novel Challenge Looking more and more likely this novel challenge will be eight days instead of seven. Again today just not enough time in the day and not enough power in these old eyes to deal with too many computer hours. But as I said to the writers I was walking with this afternoon, isn’t it a weird perspective when a 4,200 word day was a failure? (grin) So anyhow, today I did a ton of running around after getting out of here around 2:30 and managed to get to some exercise with the guys around 4 p.m. Made my 10,000 steps easily today. Then did some grocery…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Day Five: Novel Challenge

    Day Five: Novel Challenge As I have been saying, this challenge this time is nothing at all like the first time I did this. And as I expected, I missed my word count today. Just not enough time in the day and energy in the old body to make it. But still two more days to go on this, so we’ll see how it ends up. Worst thing that could happen is that I need an 8th day to finish. Anyway, last night I got only just over five hours sleep because I needed to be up and to the WMG Publishing offices and store by 12:30 p.m. From around 1…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Day Two: Novel Challenge

    Day Two: Novel Challenge Again for Day Two, a weird day. For the first time all year, it turned sort of hot here. Maybe got up to almost eighty, which here at the coast is a killer for us locals. Silly, I know, but air conditioning is a lost art here. So it was too warm for me to work in my office at WMG, so went out for some walking, got a new pair of running shoes and some running socks as well. Home by 6 p.m., after only about one hour of work, 1 hour of exercise. Too warm to work in here, so I went downstairs and took a…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Day One: Novel Challenge

    Day One: Novel Challenge Really a strange start to this new novel challenge. I ended up getting to the WMG offices around 2:30 p.m., then headed out for errands, first going to our south store, then to a bank, then back to WMG offices, then to a second bank and the post office before heading to walk with two other writers. Got done with the walk around 5 p.m., headed to the grocery store for some lunch and to pick up what I needed for dinner, then back to WMG Publishing to work on workshop stuff. Home by 7 p.m., so 3.5 hours of work, 1 hour of exercise. Cooked…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Novel Finished

    Novel Finished Yup, finished the second novel of the month. Of course, the last one I started last month, but got this one done in ten days. ——- The Day I paid no attention to the day today, honestly. Got home from being out doing errands around 5:30 p.m. and I worked, off and on, until 4:30 a.m. on finishing the novel. Mostly on. I wrote about 7,100 total words and cut out about fifteen hundred total, which isn’t bad for me. Book came in just under 40,000 words. The Taft Ranch: A Thunder Mountain Novel will be in Smith’s Monthly #33. I will be turning in the issue to WMG,…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  workshops,  Writing in Public

    Fun Workshop Poll Results

    Fun Workshop Poll Results Thank you, everyone, for chiming in on what might interest you on the three workshops Kris and I were talking about. Very clear that the Expectations (writing on the rails) workshop and the Mystery workshop were the two big winners. More on that below.. ——- The Day Got out of bed late and missed one meeting and from that point on the afternoon seemed to be behind. So I did some work in our new bookstore and then headed home to take a nap. Kris cooked dinner, I did dishes and did e-mail and then went to reading a book I’ve been looking forward to reading.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Topic of the Night,  Writing in Public

    Goodbye Miss Thang

    Miss Thang The very sick elderly cat we have been trying to get back to health for the last two months didn’t make it. More on all that below. ——- The Day Started the day off with a visit to the vet. Then back to WMG store for the writer’s meeting and lunch in the back area. It feels sort of strange, actually, to have a writer’s meeting in a store I own. In my first bookstore, both the science fiction club and the writer’s workshop met in my store every week. One on Tuesday, one on Thursday. That was in 1982-1984. Things go around and come around again in…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Bookstore and Writing

    Bookstore and Writing Worked in the afternoon in our new bookstore and wrote a bunch as well. ——- The Day Saturday so no real errands. Ended up in the new store working in the bookstore part of the new store for a few hours. Fantastic fun. Yeah, I know, paper books don’t sell anymore, but you need to tell that to all the people in the store today. (grin) Then I worked on workshop stuff, including the new Teams workshop. I’m having a blast doing that workshop and actually putting some things together myself. We have three people signed up for the teams workshop in July. Not even full at five…