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Holiday Spectacular
Kickstarter Backers Got a Deal… And the surveys are out and rewards and stretch rewards will be going out shortly. And on November 28th, the original stories will start arriving in people’s inboxes. Thirty-five holiday stories in a row for 35 days. Now, if you missed the Kickstarter, but would still like to have the stories every day, or give the stories as a gift to a friend, you can. All original and all written by top authors, including two by Kris. Here is how you can get them, and watch the nifty new very short video that explains it all. Simply go to this page to subscribe. $25 for all…
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Short Story Pop-Up
Pop-Up #14 Will Be Up Tomorrow… HOW TO MAKE A LIVING WRITING SHORT FICTION Yup, I went and did it. I’ve done numbers of blogs on this topic, so figured it was time to add more to it and put it all in video form. And, of course, a short story assignment is included and is something special. I will have the Pop-Up available and in the bundles tomorrow evening (Tuesday), but since I just had fun recording it, thought I would mention it here. — Also going to be doing more videos in the Licensing Transition tomorrow or Wednesday, so might want to jump in on that if you…
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A Prolific Problem
I Spent Many Hours Today Looking For One of My Own Stories… Not kidding. You see, I write so many short stories, no chance I can even begin to remember a small number of them. But today I wanted to put together a brand new Poker Boy collection to premier in a new Storybundle coming out in two weeks. Kris has a brand new novella in it, never seen before as well. So this Storybundle will have Sorcery and Steam themed books in it and I remembered clearly writing a Poker Boy story where a goddess in fighting armor has to deal with Poker Boy. So I wanted that in…
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Challengers Doing Great!
Those in the Great Challenge Keep Going Strong… Right into the face of the time of great forgetting. A number who started the first week are working on their tenth story in a row. Fantastic! So far only two have had life take them out, which considering the time of the year, that is amazingly wonderful that only two have dropped away. I do expect more to drop away, which is no shame. Even with six or seven or more short stories done, the writers still get two workshops for the fee of signing up. So two workshops and a bunch of short stories finished. Win! So well done, everyone.…
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I’m Really Enjoying Reading
All the Great Challenge Stories… Got a slow start on reading this week, so still have a few to do from Week #6, but every week I am so pleased at how much fun I have reading short stories. I knew that would be part of the fun I would have with the Great Challenge. Turns out it is more fun than even I expected. Do I like every story? Nope. Some are not to my tastes. Nothing wrong with them, just not to my personal liking. Others are short on Depth so I end up scanning. I tell the author when that happens. Another editor might not notice the…
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Story Twenty-Seven in Twenty-Seven Days
DAY TWENTY-SEVEN… In my continuing quest to get ten Marble Grant stories, a brand new character who didn’t exist for me three weeks ago, I wrote another Marble Grant story tonight. That’s nine now. One more and I will have a Marble Grant story opening the next ten issues of Smith’s Monthly. And tonight I actually started with the cover image, since the branding on these stories is so clear and I am using the same artist for all of them. Now I have written entire novels from a cover (Jonathan Frakes novel Abductors is one.) And numbers of short stories, so not unusual, but not normal either. Then, with the…
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Story Twenty-five
DAY TWENTY-FIVE… Humming along just fine now. Might actually make this challenge, which considering this month, is a flat miracle. We shall see in five days. Today I worked at WMG and did some walking as well. Got four miles in today, slowly ramping that up for the first of May as well. Going back to five miles per day minimum and adding in running again. Going to make another push toward a marathon again. Then I came home to cook dinner, take a nap, and watch some of The Voice from last night. Then around 2:30 a.m. finally got everything done with workshop stuff and got to my writing…
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Story Nineteen and Some Updates on Challenge
DAY NINETEEN… Turned out to be a fun day today. Most of you don’t know we are having a coast workshop here right now. Fifteen professional writers working with Kris on science fiction. I get to just sort of drift around the edges and talk to them when they appear. Tonight I got to help Kris with a fun assignment. She can really come up with some amazing stuff, as many of you have noted about the assignments in some of the online workshops. (grin) Also, got three people signing up for the short story challenge with me being a first reader. Two for May, one for June. I’m excited about…
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Quick Update to Short Story Challenge
Simple Update and Information… There are two start dates on this. May 2nd as I said originally and June 1st. It means I will be reading stories through July (If anyone decides to take me up on this) but that is fine. Both are 60 day windows to do the challenge. Another note: I will be done with my short story challenge by the first of May and will be starting into writing novels. So I will not be writing short stories at the same time as reading them. Sign Up Information: If you are thinking about this seriously, and think you can write 30 short stories either in one…
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Topic of the Night: Making a Living With Your Short Fiction: Updated 2016
(Update 2016: About six or so years ago I did the first run-through of this post. I then updated it three years ago. Well, it seems a few people found the old posts and wanted me to update this idea for 2016. And see if I still believe a writer can make a living writing only short fiction in 2016. Short answer. Of course. It is very, very possible, unlike ten years ago when I would have given a very different answer. So following is the old post updated to 2016. Interestingly enough, not much changed. I marked updates where they were needed.) Requirements Needed For a Writer To Make a…