• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    How I Will Do 100 Paperbacks?

    Figured I Would Lay It Out Here… …since the Smith’s Stories: Make 100 Paperbacks Kickstarter campaign is just a few days away from ending and getting close to its second stretch goal. At that end point I get to start the process of making 100 paperbacks and I have had a couple people ask me how I am going to do all that. So I figured right here, right now, I would lay it all out. Maybe help a few of you on the process. Of course, to do 100 paperbacks of short stories, I need 100 short stories. Actually, that is not a problem. I have about 60 unpublished…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Making a Challenge Sane (Sort of)

    Restructuring My Writing Challenge… If you have been following along this fall, I decided back in September to try to do 10 novels in 100 days. That was to get me back writing again after a long year of life-rolls, so why not go from zero to light-speed instantly? Yeah, that always works. (grin) So I ran into a number of problems right off. The first was changing my schedule of 35 years, the second was learning to live in Las Vegas. The third was the life roll was far from finished. Those problems just didn’t allow the challenge to get off the ground, so I restarted in October, failed…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Kickstarter Pop-Up Starting

    Two Different Kickstarter Topics Tonight… First off, the Kickstarter for Writers Pop-Up has now launched, just tonight. All the ups and downs as a writer of using Kickstarter crowd funding for your projects. And, of course, there is a short story prompt at the end of it as well that if you get it in under the deadline I will read. That’s on Teachable. Second, the Kickstarter campaign Dean’s Stories: Make 100 Paperbacks just went past its first stretch goal so today I set another stretch goal. Right now, anyone who supports the campaign gets the reward they support, plus three major electronic collection of all 100 stories, plus for…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Some Stuff Happening…

    Very Last Day for the Fantastic Detective Bundle… This is a great bundle and I was lucky enough when I put it together for Storybundle to get some fantastic writers who have done Fantastic Detective. If you like fantasy of all kinds and detective fiction mashed into it in strange and wonderful ways, you got to try this one. And it’s cheap. And going away by the end of today. Fantastic Detective Storybundle… Smith’s Stories: Make 100 Short Story Paperback Books. The Kickstarter campaign I started one week ago is doing great. It has funded and now is almost to its first stretch goal. It is called Smith’s Stories: Make…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Cold Poker Gang Novel Going Great

    Started Two Days Ago… Before this new attitude of doing words first every day, I would have gotten nothing done on a day like today. Basically I have set myself up to get up in the morning at the exact same time, go through a routine, and then do 2,000 words before too much business. Then more words later in the day as I can find them. Most mornings I will do the words right here in my office. Some mornings I will grab my iPad and head for a buffet or a restaurant for breakfast and 2,000 words before coming back. I have left myself the option to be…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Some Other Great Kickstarter Campaigns

    These Campaigns Are Worth Looking At… I know I have talked about the Kickstarter campaign I am doing called Smith’s Stories: Make 100 Paperbacks. But right now I am also supporting three other great campaigns and I thought I would list them and give links to them here so you can all take a look. First off Robert Greenberger who is a great writer and editor is doing a project called Thrilling Adventure Yarns. It’s an anthology (that he did not invite me into, but we won’t go into that. (grin)) that has some great writers doing great Pulp Era stories. Wonderful fun and a good campaign that looks like…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Fun Stretch Goal

    Since The Original Goal Got Hit… I figured it was time to get a really cool stretch goal posted. This stretch goal has something for the readers and something for the writers. So if this campaign hits $9,000, I will give everyone who pledged at any level an electronic copy of my large collection Stories from July. It contains 32 short stories plus all the blogs I wrote about writing them. And also, on top of that, each person pledging to this campaign will get a credit for a Classic Workshop of their choice worth $150. (If you are a lifetime workshop subscriber, you can take the equivalent in lectures…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Still Working On A Writing Schedule

    Yeah, I Know, Silly… You would think someone of my decades in writing would have zero issue coming up with a writing schedule. I had one that worked just fine in the dark, damp, rain of Oregon for 32 years. Many days I never saw the sun and had no reason to be up in the morning at all. So I worked until very late at night. Very, very seldom did that cause any issue at all. Now I find myself happily in the sun and warmth of Las Vegas, with all the thousands of things to do here and runs to run and so on. And all during the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  running

    Some Stuff

    Ran in a Five K Fun Run This Morning… Actually I am still in run/walk mode, but managed to run about 2 of the 3 miles total. In another month I’ll be running the entire distance. (Pictures below) And still averaging over 10,000 steps a day. ——— Fantasy Detective Story Bundle I curated is on the last few days. Don’t miss this one if you like really different fantasy mystery stories. For $15 you can get a ton of great reading. ——— New Pop-Up is Live!!! On Teachable. This one is about how to help your career by understanding Second-Hand Sales. I know this makes no sense to many of…

  • On Writing,  publishing

    Slow Start As Expected… Mentor Program Award Added

    When You Offer a Project Only You Are Excited About… You have to expect it to not fund, and to start very, very slowly. That is something I will talk about in the Kickstarter Pop-Up. Here is the Link to the Make 100 Kickstarter Project I started yesterday so you can take a look at it. But I had no illusions that I would be the only person excited about doing 100 Short Story Paperbacks and three major collections from those short stories. Basically I want to do this to rebrand my short stories and get them ready to put in the restart of Smith’s Monthly this spring. Kris and…