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Cover Fun For #49
Five Short Stories in The May Issue… So figured I would do the covers tonight. Started around 11 pm and finished about 1 am. Two hours. And it would have been faster than that but got held up on a couple pieces of art. Anyone who does covers knows that finding the art is the most time consuming part of all this, especially when I have a template like I do, and all the stories this issue fit in the template. I also spent some time last night searching through the big pile of stories I wrote, let Kris read, and then tossed on the pile. A little over fifty…
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70 Publishing Challenge
Half Way There… I turned 70 back in the middle of November of 2020 and set up a challenge for myself. Actually a number of challenges. One was to complete a marathon and I did that in late November. I plan on one or two more marathons this coming fall. But I also sat up a publishing challenge for myself. I wanted to publish 70 major books (not counting individual short stories) with my name on the front cover. I did an update back in January when I said I was way behind. Well, I am now caught up. Granted, I only have twenty books published in five months, but…
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Just Some Bits…
Saturday Night Clean-Up… I will finally get to have more hours for writing starting this coming week. Finally. So figured tonight when no one was around, I would clean up a few things. — The survey should go out on Tuesday or Wednesday for The Return of the Fey Kickstarter campaign. After that I will keep you informed on the campaign when other details go out. But next week will only be the surveys because we want to give everyone time to get them back to us. That way we don’t miss anyone. So when you get the survey, please fill it out as soon as you can. And thanks…
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Smith’s Monthly Magazine Covers
Doing Paperback Layout for #48 Yesterday and Tonight… That is the April Issue. So I had to do a cover for #49, the May issue, because, you know, coming-next-month kind of thing. #49 is the May issue and I still haven’t figured out what I am doing for #50. But got some fun ideas. #49 issue will have the full novel Bottom Pair: A Cold Poker Gang Novel. It will go out to the Kickstarter backers in April and then in early May will appear in Smith’s Monthly. So had to do the cover. So figured tonight, since it is Saturday night, I would take a moment to show you…
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And Old Projection Brought Forward For Fun…
What is a Print Run, Grandpa? I wrote this as a start of a blog in 2013… Projecting what I thought might be the future. Wow, took less than thirty years, except in traditional book publishers. Here is what I wrote eight years ago… ——— I can imagine myself in thirty years sitting in a bar, my cane nearby to fight off any unwanted advances from elderly women while Kris sits there laughing at my delusions. Then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a young writer walks up to me and asks “What is a print run, Grandpa?” And I’ll have to answer that back in the days before the oceans…
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Figuring Out a Stretch Goal
Approaching Next Stretch Goal… The Return of the Fey Kickstarter Campaign has 5 days left and we are nearing the 7th Stretch Goal (amazingly cool!). When we hit that goal, all backers will get the fantastic novel FANTASY LIFE by Kris and another Pop-Up writing class called Freedom Indie Publishing Provides. That is a $150 value. I have promised another stretch goal above the 7th, so I know for the 8th stretch reward it will be another $150 Pop-Up class called Creating Tension in Your Writing. We just have not decided on the next book for that goal. And if we get close to that goal, we will add yet…
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Colliding Worlds Sent to Backers…
All Six Books in Electronic Format… At the moment, only the backers on the Kickstarter Colliding Worlds project got them. The paper and signed copies will take another month and it all will go on sale in the middle of April. I am really looking forward to seeing this set on my shelf. Kris and I are both really happy with how it turned out, to be honest. We each gave a new life to sixty of our short stories, ten each in each book. What a fun idea that was. I will let you all know when they are for sale to the general public. Amazing how many science…
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Thank Heavens For Naps…
A Nap Day Today… Actually, a three-nap day, although it was actually only two because the first one was interrupted by a phone call I had to take. Now I normally take a twenty-minute nap once a day, usually right before dinner. And since I am freelance, I can do what I want. There are advantages. But today I woke up exhausted. Kris and I managed to get one of our cars into the shop for a standard tuning ,and then we got an amazing lunch that we ate sitting in the car looking at basically nothing with 1970s music playing. But the moment I got home, the first aborted…
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Reading To Buy…
Editing… A Very Different Mindset… Right now I am reading Cave Creek stories for three different anthologies. I am most of the way through all the stories and will be turning the anthologies in on Monday to WMG with my introductions. A lot of work and it has been a lot of reading as well. But honestly, I have loved it, because Cave Creek is a shared world I came up with and all these great writers are writing in that world. That, by itself, is a strange feeling. Cave Creek has some pretty set rules and I need different stories to be in the book inside these set rules.…
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This Has To Be Short Tonight…
Not a Lot of Eye Left… I have been doing very detailed work on laying out the paper and PDF version of Smith’s Monthly #47 which will be out in a week. Should have it done by tomorrow which is my deadline. Yay. Honestly, it has been a blast doing this. Also I spent a bunch of time this week on other deadlines, but also getting ready to launch RETURN OF THE FEY Kickstarter campaign, which will start on Tuesday. That’s right, Kris is back working on the Fey after twenty years. How amazingly cool is that. In fact, there is a “Coming Soon!” page you can click a link…