• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    More Holiday Stuff

    More Holiday Stuff Here in the States this is a major holiday weekend, runs through Monday. The Day I managed to get to WMG offices where we hold the writer’s lunch back behind the new store. It’s a cool feeling going in through a store to get to a secret writers hideout. Very few of us there. And then I spent the rest of the day and into late at night working on workshop stuff. ————— Online Workshops Still lots of room in all of them. Class #51… June 6th … The Business of Writing Class #52… June 6th … Character Voice/Setting Class #53… June 6th … Author Voice Class #54… June 6th ……

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Up Too Early

          Up Too Early Went to bed at 5:30 a.m. and was back up at 8:30 a.m. Now that is just silly, but we got the new store open. Somebody asked me why I was up so early and I said “It’s not often you open a store.” Pictures soon. ————- The Day At the new store at 9 a.m. and worked there until I went off for a lunch meeting at 2 p.m.  Then back to the store until Kris and I walked to dinner to meet another professional writer. Then home for a nap that felt like it almost killed me after only three hours of…

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

    Some Fantastic Writing Books!

    Writing Bundle Folks, there is a new writing bundle that just started with ten writing books. Two are mine. Another by Kris, another by Lawrence Block, another by Gerald Weinberg, another by JoAnna Penn, and so on. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one. I’ve read all but two of these books and trust me, they are worth a lot more than what you would pay in this bundle. Those of you who want to learn, this is the cheapest education you can get from people who know what they are talking about. The Write Stuff 2016 Bundle Here is Kris’s blog about the bundle: The Write Stuff…

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

    Bundle Ending

    Bundle Ending in One Day!! So if you want to read my novel HEAVEN PAINTED AS A POKER CHIP, you can get it in a bundle with eleven other novels from other writers from Bundlerabbit. Click on the image to go to the bundle. Trust me, there are some great writers and great books in this bundle besides me. Just click on the picture to go to the bundle. Don’t Miss This One! The Day The door of yesterday’s battle continued the fight into the office. And at one point it bit Allyson, but she is all right. The door will find a home shortly, but there may be more…

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

    Thirty Fantastic Years

    THIRTY FANTASTIC YEARS Thirty years ago today I pulled into a driveway at an address in Albuquerque, New Mexico that Algis Budrys had sent me to. As I walked in the door, I met Kristine Kathryn Rusch and we have been together ever since. We had a wonderful day today just having fun and talking about thirty years and about years to come. I can’t even begin to imagine where I would have ended up if not for AJ sending me to that address. Certainly not here doing this. More than likely I would no longer be writing and would have just ended up working a golf course counter and…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Some of My History

    Some of My History Today, while working on a new project for this web site (see the topic of the night below), I came across a video of what it was like when I was skiing. Now, I was never as good as the guys they are showing here, but I skied with some of them regularly. And a number of others who were in the early days of the hotdogging, as we called it. I was into snow skiing and the fun of the early days of hotdogging from 1969 to the spring of 1972. Crazy fun. In person, I can tell you some wild stories. But watching this…

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

    Had Fun Working in Our New Bookstore

    Fun Working in Our New Bookstore Yeah, that’s right, WMG Publishing will, in short order, be the owner of a brick and mortar bookstore. It’s a large area inside of the new Pop Culture Collectables store. Actually one third of the entire store is paperbacks, hardbacks, sf and mystery digests, and magazines. Another third of the store is a comic book store. Wait until you see the wall of comics. I’ll do pictures. And in the comic book room will be die cast cars as well. And larger cars. And the main room is toys, non-sports cards, cookie jars, sports collectables, jewelry, and collectable boxes and clocks. We also have in…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Workshops and Store

    Workshops and Store A focused day, since this is the end of the month and the May workshops are starting up on Monday, so lots of things to do. Also, we are aiming at having the new store open by the 25th, so I’m going to be spending some time there. ATTENTION! Anyone who is signed for a May online workshop should have gotten a letter from me. If you did not, write me. And there is still room in all the workshops. Remember they are limited to no more than five (except the two new ones), so these workshops now have become more focused on me trying to help each…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  Writing in Public

    Setting Up New Writing Schedule

    Setting Up New Writing Schedule Still pretty tired from the sleep schedule getting screwed up, so spent the day doing workshop stuff and getting ready to really fire back up the writing. See Topic of the Night below. ——— The Day Once again nothing really much to talk about. Made it through some errands and then went for a walk with another professional writer to get some steps in. Then back to WMG offices to work on workshop stuff. Then I headed home around 8 p.m. to cook dinner, then back working on workshop stuff and my writing stuff for the rest of the night. ———- Workshops May Online workshops…

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

    Clean Copy

    Clean Copy Tonight I was running through The Idanha Hotel to put in the corrections Kris had found on her read, at least the ones I agreed with. That was the book I wrote in seven days last week, remember? Well, this time through I agreed with all of her corrections, mostly just typos, and what was even more interesting, this was the cleanest manuscript I have had in a very long time. I normally do clean copy in my one draft, but this was noticeably cleaner. Kris only found about one typo every six or seven manuscript pages, and sometimes there would be no typos in numbers of chapters.…