• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Cycling and the Art of One Clean Draft

    I Wrote Ten Short Stories in Four Days… Right here, talking about the process every day. And not a soul made a comment about how long it was going to take me to rewrite them, or polish them, or some snide comment about how they must not be any good. Not a one. It seems those types of writers stay away from here. Don’t blame them, honestly. It has to be painful to come here where people are having fun with their writing, doing one clean draft, and making money and and finding readers. Gad-zooks! It must be evil. Nope, not evil and not even a secret. It is called…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    2019 Vegas Workshop Schedule

    Plus the Kris and Dean show is back… And a special sign-up deal. We are doing four craft workshops in Vegas, limited to 15 writers each. Writing workshops. — Creating Memorable Characters (Dean and Kris teaching) — Humor (Dean teaching) — Mystery (Kris Teaching) — Romance (Kris Teaching) Plus in the summer of 2019 we are doing the Kris and Dean show. (dates and prices below) All workshops in 2019 are now announced and confirmed dates including the 2019 Master Business Class. All workshops are now held in the beautiful convention center of the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas. And it is non-smoking and you don’t have to go…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Floating A Trial Balloon

    The Kris and Dean Show… A long time ago, in a land far, far away, (meaning the middle 1990s to about the year 2,000), Kris and I used to do a teaching form that people called the Kris and Dean Show. We would do these usually in conjunction with a writing conference. Or if a writer’s group paid our way to come and give the show for them. Basically, what we did was talk about the truths of publishing and how to deal with the world of publishing. How to get started, how to survive, that sort of thing. Back then that was traditional publishing. And we talked a great…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Talking About Lifetime Subscriptions

    Since We Have Offered This For Almost Two Months… I figured I would update how it has worked. And give information on one change in signing up. From this side, it has worked wonderfully, actually. A number of the lifetime subscribers took the Insider’s Guide first two workshops (all new and old workshops are included) and it was great to have them in the mix in the live discussions every Sunday. I hope a few will also join in on the live sessions of the Serial and Detective workshops starting up. And a number of the lifetime subscribers are working through workshops at their own pace, sending me the assignments…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Answering a Question or Two

    Cold Poker Gang Novels… Since the Insider’s Guide Writing Detective Fiction workshop started up today, and I had two questions today, one in the comments, one privately about which of my Cold Poker Gang novels should someone start with, I thought I would answer that question right here. The Cold Poker Gang novels are detective novels. Retired Las Vegas Detectives solving cold cases. There are eight so far in the series, all stand alone, but more fun if you read them from the first book, Kill Game. Here is a nifty short video about the series. I love this video. Really catches the series. And you can get the reading…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Workshops Starting!!

    MAY INSIDER’S GUIDE Workshops Sunday the two May Insider’s Guide workshops will be starting. The first live webinars for each will be one week from Sunday and they run for four weeks, with recorded videos and assignments every week and a webinar at the end of every week. The webinars are basically me talking for an hour with you folks asking questions that I answer. It is live, but I am the only one on video. Everyone else is asking questions through a chat function. These two are going to be great fun. And I am still laughing about the first assignment Kris came up with for the Writing Detective…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Day of Stuff

    Regular Day… A few people wrote me and asked if I was going to continue to do daily reports. The answer is sometimes. Why sometimes? Because my days are pretty much like everyone’s day unless I am pushing on some writing project or another. But I can detail out some of the fun stuff I did today to show you that without the writing, there is no context to the day. Started off the day around 11 a.m and headed out to our south stores. Delivered about ten boxes of books and a couple boxes of glass stuff to our bookstore there. Stuff I had packed here from our living…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Writing Books Bundle and Lecture

    This Is A Good One… Kris put together a fantastic bundle of writing books, plus one free $75 lecture. And you get it all on Storybundle.com for $15 or so. Amazing. Let me give you what Kris says about the bundle. 2018 Writing Story Bundle by Kristine Kathryn Rusch I am so excited about this year’s spring writing bundle. Out of all of the nonfiction bundles I’ve compiled, this one has the largest number of books that appeal to me. I’ve been writing and publishing for a long, long, long time. Sometimes I feel like no one can teach me anything about writing. So, in the past, when I’ve compiled…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Wrap-Up Post on the Challenge

    Back On The Oregon Coast… 30 stories done in April. That was the challenge, that is what happened. And that was with all the moving. Kris and I are in the process of moving from a huge house on the Oregon coast to a smaller place here on the coast and a condo in Las Vegas. Plus a bunch of stuff from the house has to go to the stores and warehouse. So a three-direction move. And I had a ton of work to do at WMG over the month. So why not write thirty stories square in the middle of all that? (Insanity check might have been called for.)…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    MADE IT! 30 Stories in 30 Days

    So That Makes Ten Short Stories in Four Days! 30 stories done in April. Challenge Hit! And that was with all the moving. I am headed back to the coast tomorrow morning very early. Moving stuff from the big house there into a smaller place near one of our stores and then getting ready to bring more stuff down here to Vegas. So everything on target so far. Day and The Stories Made it out of bed about 10:30 and actually got to writing right after 11 a.m. Finished the first story in two sessions with only a short break by 1 a.m. when Kris got back from her exercise.…