• Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  Kickstarter Campaign

    Busy Day But Not As Expected

    Original Plan: Run Two 5K… I have so much stuff to do to get ready to leave on Tuesday, I decided to skip the first run and stay home and work. And for the second 5K I walked a mile. Kris and Lisa did both and I am impressed. But doing both runs would have wiped me out and I needed the hours of writing and work. Most of the time I just powered on finishing the new Thunder Mountain novel. And I am finishing up all the refunds on the game. (Not done yet, so no panic. Still got a lot of letters to send.) And tomorrow I will…

  • Challenge,  running

    Here I Go Again…

    Tomorrow, First Run… Far, far too early in the morning, but for a great cause, a children’s cancer fund. 5K Now the great plan that started back in July didn’t pan out real well, even though I did a ton of things right. I managed for almost two months to do more than 5K in steps per day, so far without missing more than a couple of times. Some days past 10K in steps and some running. I also made sure that every day I ate less in calories than I spent. I had almost no misses since the first of August. I had hoped to lose one pound per…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    Going Out Again…

    Into the World With Friends… Wow, that is amazing that we are able to do that now. After 15 months of seeing no one personally (except other masked people in the elevator), seeing no friends, having no writing talks, now that has changed. Had a wonderful birthday dinner a few weeks back with Loren and Heather Coleman and two other writers who were all fully vaccinated, then dinner and lunch with Lisa a few times, then Chris and Steve York (also fully vaccinated) showed up in town on their way East and we had some wonderful dinners and late-night gab sessions. And yesterday, Kris and I went out for lunch…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    Wondered Into Cave Creek Today

    Sure Felt Like It… Kris and I and Lisa went out to a 5k run/walk this morning out at a historic park up on the northern edge of Las Vegas. Big old trees, a bunch of ponds, and just about every wild bird you could imagine, all in this incredible green oasis in the middle of this really harsh desert. So Kris went off running with the crowd, and Lisa and I hung to the back because we were going to walk. And it was a beautiful walk, but amazingly windy. And the course was full of twists and turns through the trees and around the ponds and lakes, but…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    Behind on E-Mail

    I Will Get Caught Up By Tomorrow Evening… So if you haven’t heard from me in a day or two, hold on. I have managed to hit five days on my five miles a day minimum in exercise. Win. First days of any streak are always the hardest, especially exercise. Eating control still a problem (see picture below), but gaining on that as well slowly. So now instead of spending the next few hours cleaning up my email, I am going to go finish a new novel. And pictures below are yesterday on our anniversary. Yes, Kris can eat vegan pizza. This was at Slice of Vegas out at the…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  running

    Filler Post…

    Meaning Nothing… Day 2,991 if the blogging streak. It’s Friday night. I hate Friday nights. Too many years of tending bar to ever like Friday nights. Of course, my last Friday night tending bar was in May 1987. Think I would be over it by now, huh? (grin) I spent the day doing workshop stuff, doing some reading, doing a bunch of writing, recording a workshop, and getting some miles in exercise. Still 12-14 degrees above normal here, so making it almost impossible for too many miles. But I am getting some miles in. I have very, very bad feet (from being too poor as a high school kid to…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    One of My Favorite Pictures…

    And Favorite Trips… Even though cows did explode and I almost got injured or killed… Grandmaster Jack Williamson fell in love with a story I turned into the very first quarter of Writers of the Future 37 or 38 years ago and fought to have it in the first book, even though I’m pretty sure Algis Budrys wasn’t so certain about the story. I didn’t learn what Jack had done until a party where I met Jack for the first time at Writers of the Future. To me, Jack Williamson was a god. He had published his first short story in 1928 and published continuously since. I was afraid to…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    More Way Back Stuff

    Picture Then and Now… We are in the middle of the Fantasy Study Along workshop, so sort of busy, like a great deal. Some great reading and such. So instead of doing a blog that would take my brain, I decided to put up a picture from the way-back machine. The first picture is in my publisher’s office on the second floor of the Pulphouse Publishing Inc. building in Eugene, Oregon, in January of 1991. It was taken by James Fiscus. I was 40 years old in that picture and the publisher of the 5th largest publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in the nation for the third straight…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    Tags and Sales Copy

    Captain Proton… Defender of the Earth! “Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when Real Men with ray guns and beautiful women in beguiling outfits battled hideous monsters from outer space! Return with us to the days when Captain Proton ruled the skyways!” That is part of the back cover copy of a full novel I wrote called Star Trek: Voyager Presents Captain Proton. I wrote the novel under the name D.W. “Prof” Smith and in the style of E. E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series. Captain Proton, for you non-Voyager fans, was a character on the holo deck in the show. (I also wrote a book staring…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff

    A Sort-Of Day Off… And Black Books…

    Without Really Taking the Day Off… You know how that goes… You sort of think you are going to take the day to rest, but then end up puttering a bunch of stuff done. Yup, that was me today. Finished up email, worked on a workshop, did laundry, got some research done of the UHaul for the final July move to bring the marbles, digests, files, and extra author copies down to the Vegas office. And three naps. Guess I was tired. (grin) Black Books… I have mentioned to a few people that I bought a long time ago a mountain of gold, just could never get to mining it.…