• Fun Stuff,  Kickstarter Campaign

    COLLIDING WORLDS Kickstarter Campaign

    100 Science Fiction Stories… Fifty from Kris, fifty from me, in a five volume set. Colliding Worlds This is us having a great time. We have also talked about doing joint collections of some sort of another, and then Kris came up with the idea of us putting 100 of our science fiction stories in the same set of five books called COLLIDING WORLDS. Really, if you have a few minutes, watch the video. We talk about our writing process a little as well. Each book will have ten science fiction stories from Kris and ten from me. You can get all five volumes in electronic edition, trade paper, or…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  workshops

    WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 Hit First Stretch Goal

    In Just Three Days… Thank you, everyone. So cool. And this project is so much fun. Getting an original holiday story, like an advent calendar, every day from November 26th through January 1st, and edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Or you can get a Valentines calendar edited by Annie Reed or a Halloween calendar edited by Mark Leslie. Or all of it in books, plus a ton of other stuff. Remember, if you want more than one thing, just pick a reward and then add the cost of the second award you want to your original choice and we work it out in the survey when it is all over.…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  workshops

    WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020 Funded!!

    In Just Four Hours… It hit its $2,500 ask and is now quickly on the way to the first stretch reward. Four hours is a new record for us for any campaign if I remember right. And the stretch rewards have some fun books, including a Christmas ghost novel of mine where ghost agents and Poker Boy save Santa and the world in the process, plus a bunch of great Kris holiday books. And for writers, we are again doing three brand new Pop-Up classes for the stretch rewards that sort of go along with the Writing a Holiday Crime Story special workshop. Remember, the only place you will ever…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing

    2020 Holiday Spectacular

    Is Now Live!! The 2020 Holiday Spectacular Kickstarter campaign is now live. Just as we did this year, for those who get the 2020 calendar in this campaign, you will get an original holiday story delivered to your inbox every day from American Thanksgiving (November 26th) through January 1st, 2021. (Yes, sort of an Advent Calendar using original short stories.) What a fantastic way to ride out of this crazy year. Over 25 professional writers have written original stories for this and the entire project is edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, award-winning editor. Kris also does an introduction letter every day for each story, so it is also like getting…

  • Challenge,  publishing

    Well, Next Week…

    Kickstarter Seems to Have Forgotten Us… Said our campaign would be approved by the 15th. Nope. It is now the 16th. I don’t think there is a problem, just they seemed to have gotten busy or something. First time in 15 times that has happened. So now the 2020 Holiday Spectacular will launch next Tuesday, if they approve it. Not sure why they wouldn’t, but you never know these days. It is 2020 after all. (grin) So I’m going back to finishing up some writing and editing this weekend plus exercising. Turned in a book yesterday to WMG, like to finish up a couple more. Did seven miles today, even…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  publishing

    Kickstarter Campaign in the Works

    Working On and Off On It All Weekend… New WMG Holiday Spectacular 2020. If you remember from last year, this is the cool idea Kris came up with to basically do an Advent Calendar with fiction. People who sign up get an original story a day to read from November 26th to January 1st. What a fun way to end this year, huh? Over 25 professional writers wrote stories for basically three books. 37 stories will be sent out in 37 days. And then the books will come out next October. In fact, the three books from last Holiday Spectacular 2019 will be released this week. How cool is that?…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign

    Doing Something New…

    Late Pledges on a Kickstarter Campaign… This is only new for us. Many large campaigns do this to one level or another. We have done 14 campaigns before this one and never tried this. One of the reasons we wanted to do this is because it makes the surveys much nicer. Now granted, the standard Kickstarter surveys are just fine, but with an after-sale company, the surveys look better and allows for a clean ability to get the person’s add-ons. Also, it would have made fulfillment quicker, except for the fact that WMG Publishing had to evacuate our offices last week, and I was slow putting the entire thing together…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  workshops

    The Return of Boss

    Three Full Days Doing the Survey And almost ready to go. Waiting on one more detail and it will finally head out. I’m learning a great deal, actually, since this is the first one we have gone with a fulfillment company on. It should be pretty good, even though this time they are only doing the survey and we are still doing the actual fulfillment. But it is a ton nicer and a ton more work. And also we will have a site up for a time to take late pledges. In other words, if there is something you missed during the Kickstarter, you can still pick it up, or…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Fun Interview

    Robert Jeschonek Interviewed Me… A fun and short discussion with Robert about different things science fiction and 1970s, because he’s doing that SPACE: 1975 Kickstarter Campaign. When we recorded it, it was about 60% funded, but now the campaign has made the funding and first stretch goal and is doing great. I am excited because I get to write a story for it. The interview happened when I was in the worst of the allergies from the smoke and I wore big headphones, so I looked a little more beat-up than normal. (grin) But it was fun. And since I sold my first couple of short stories in 1974, I…

  • Challenge,  Kickstarter Campaign,  On Writing

    Working on the Survey…

    For The Return of Boss Kickstarter… It ended tonight and thanks, everyone, for the great support. Really fun. But now I am working on the survey that will get sent out in a week or so. Basically I am rebuilding the entire campaign… twice. Not kidding. And adding some extra stuff people can grab if they want, or if they missed it in the campaign. At some point, Loren and I will do some videos in the Kickstarter Best Practices about surveys and the many ways they can be handled after you run a successful kickstarter. Kickstarter itself gives you a decent tool to use. And using that is pretty…