• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Digging the Hole Deeper

    Just Decided to Take the Night Off… I decided that because I am getting up silly early tomorrow morning to help with some stuff on this move we are doing, (in essence, help get a place ready to move stuff into from here) I would take the night off. And get a full night’s sleep for the first time in a while. Go figure. So no story. And I have some assignments I have not gotten to and some email I will try to work on tomorrow afternoon and evening, as things finally settle back out here after a wild and crazy ten days. Sorry for the delay on that.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Had To Happen

    I Committed Novel… I am still counting it as a short story, and will put it in the final book for this challenge if I make it to the end. But in my mind I have no doubt this does not wrap as a short story. First off, it is paced wrong. Paced like a novel and I didn’t pay any attention until I got about 2,000 words in and went “Oh, oh…” Second, what my devious creative voice was setting up was a great romance in my Thunder Mountain series. So I also didn’t realize I had jumped viewpoint on a break until about 2,000 words in. “Oh, oh…”…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Another Miss… Down Three

    Not Going Like Other Challenges… I had expected this challenge this month to be nuts to even try, but I knew if I didn’t push, I wouldn’t write a word the entire month and then wonder what happened. Yeah, we have all had those sort of months, huh? (grin) So I planned on having two misses along the way and then writing two stories a day for a couple days toward the end to get back on target. Still planning to do that, but now it needs to be three. Normally my challenges are all a story a day through the entire month. I knew this one wouldn’t be like…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Story Fourteen and Cats

    Another Fun Day… I didn’t get much packing in today because of meetings and the workshop going on here and so on. But I did spend a bunch of time clearing out a ton of things that could be tossed away. It was garbage day and recycling day and I found a bunch of stuff. So that was sort of moving today. The Day Got up around eleven and made it to WMG around 1 p.m. to help get the Fantasy Workshop started. Then meetings on the topic of the next blog. Then I did the stores and banking running around, then back to work in my office and eat…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Thirteen and Back On Pace

    A Really Fun Day… I did my first two webinars today, about three hours total between them. I had fun and I hope they were interesting for others listening in and asking questions. One was on selling short fiction and the other on writing space opera. The Day Got up around nine-thirty because I had to be live on camera at 11 a.m. Webinars lasted until 2:15 and then the session of the coast workshop started at 2:30. By 4:30 I had lunch and I was home and packing boxes and such. Then a nap and back to the office for the evening workshop session at 7 p.m. Home after…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Skip Second Day… Not Worried

    Another Long and Fun Day… I didn’t even think about moving over to the writing computer to write tonight. Started off this morning with movers helping me move stuff from first the offices, then this house, then from the bookstore. A massive move-around that needed to be done to stage the next step in this move. Many hours and physically draining, even though they were doing most of the lifting. Remember, this challenge is to write 30 stories in 30 days while moving. Today was not only the start of the Fantasy workshop here at the coast, but a massive moving day. So no thought of writing tonight. Not even…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Decided To Skip Tonight

    Four Hours of Sleep and a Fun Day… I got all the way through the day, sat down at my writing computer around 2.a.m. and just laughed. Not that I most likely could have done a story. I am sure I could have. But it was time to get sane and get some rest. Had only four hours of sleep last night and have to be up early tomorrow as well and a story was going to stop that because I would write until I finished it. I have often done two stories in one day, so next week, after things have calmed down by a billion miles, I will…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    An Even Dozen

    Stunned Looking Back At This Week… I can say for certain that these twelve short stories would not exist without this challenge. Not a chance on the planet. And so far, Kris has said all of the first eleven work and are good, which surprises writer-me even more. Not supposed to happen that way in my head, which goes to show that even I still fight the old myths about writing at times. But this challenge, with my work schedule this week, has knocked some of those old myths into the bleachers, never to return. The Day Got up around eleven because I had an appointment for a conference call…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Eleven and Going Strong

    I Am Going To Be Doing Packing Soon… I just need to have a day when I am not going from morning until night at work. But had fun today setting up webinar settings and making sure everything would work on my end. I think it’s going to be really cool. We shall see on Sunday. So we have a meeting format set up for Kris and the workshop and we have a webinar set up for the Sunday webinars. I want to thank Josh Frase a ton. He is my managing editor at Pulphouse and our web guy for all our web sites. He is a miracle worker, actually.…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Story Ten Done… Ten Days

    Still Going… Today ended up just about as busy as yesterday, but I managed to write only a 1,500 word story instead of a 4,400 word story like yesterday. That is going to help me get to bed a little earlier and get a good night’s sleep. Yay! And Kris was stunned that she actually really liked the long story I wrote yesterday. Goes to show that writing fresh or writing exhausted does not make a difference in the quality of the story. I knew that, learned that a long time ago, but still good to be reminded. The Day Got up around 11:30 a.m. once again after only five…