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Reminder About the Strengths Workshops
THE FULL SERIES IS RECORDED AND AVAILABLE… All six of the Strengths Workshops now exist. And they are still available for a short time. If you ever wished a major professional writer would tell you what you are doing right and where you need work, now is your chance. And not just one, but two of us. Kris and I have been making our living in fiction and publishing now for over thirty years each. We have also started two mid-sized publishing companies over the years. And both of us have over twenty million copies of our books in print and have been on every major bestseller list. Kris and I…
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A Novel Challenge
A CHALLENGE… Over the last week or so since I announced the short story challenge, I have gotten numbers of questions about doing something similar for novels. Being a first reader for novels in a workshop challenge format. Now honestly, at first I just laughed. I flat didn’t do that sort of thing for anyone. But I got a few more requests and got thinking about it and talked with Kris. She is really enjoying reading my new short story every day and thinks if I structured reading novels for the summer in a workshop challenge, I might enjoy it. And if I limited it. Really, really limited it. After…
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Story Fourteen and Other Stuff
DAY FOURTEEN… And story fourteen on the April challenge. I missed doing a cover today for the story from yesterday, so will try to do two today. Tonight I was tired, so took a long nap and watched a bunch of television. By the time I got to the writing computer, it was 3 a.m. Saw a half-title on my title sheets and just went with the half title. “Always a Way” and then put A Marble Grant Story under it. So third Marble Grant story. She was a superhero in the Poker Boy universe, a friend of Poker Boy’s girlfriend, Patty. She got killed and became a ghost agent…
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Story Number Thirteen and an Answer
DAY THIRTEEN… First off, got the fifth Strengths workshop now available. It is the Strengths Business Two workshop. The last of the six workshops will be done and available by Monday. Everyone who has signed up for all of the workshops should have gotten the code from me tonight. If you did not, write me. Remember, if you want to take all six (over as long a period as you want) you can sign up for all of them and get one free, plus one online workshop for free as well. So for $1,500, you get all six strengths workshops to go through at your own speed and one online workshop…
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We’re Going For the “How To Edit…” Workshop
FULL STEAM AHEAD… After some dithering around because of almost no initial response, we had people today tell us they wanted the How To Edit Your Own Work workshop, but were planning on taking it later. And that is enough to make us realize the workshop is worth our time in trying to help writers not kill their own work. So the workshop is a go. We will take sign-ups for any point that it is on the schedule through August and it will join the regular workshop rotation after that. Thanks for the feedback everyone. Appreciated.
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Story Twelve and a Wonderful Dinner
DAY TWELVE… Got a twelfth story for the challenge and also tonight had a wonderful dinner with friends to celebrate. First to the dinner. My friend writer J. Steven York has been in the hospital for most of the last month and had major open heart surgery one week ago today. It was a very stressful day but he made it through wonderfully. Tonight, one week after major open heart surgery, he walked through the door of a restaurant to have dinner with us and other friends from around town. It was a moment I will never forget. He really is superman, how he came though this and is now…
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NEW ONLINE WORKSHOP: How to Edit Your Own Work
New Online Workshop Starting in May… Kris and I get the most questions, all good questions, about the process of editing your own work. And honestly, there is no easy or completely right answer for everyone. But there are hundreds of ways, one of which will be right for you. Between writing into the dark and following Heinlein’s Rules, how do you make sure your work is what you want, clean enough for readers to not notice any problems? How can you edit without the deadly rewriting that kills voice and all originality? Those are just a couple of the questions we get in one form or another, including how to…
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Story Eleven and Workshop Stuff Again
DAY ELEVEN… Pretty much did workshops all day including a couple of covers. I had to redo one cover, the “Blind Date” cover because the title vanished. Below is the new cover. I worked on the Strengths workshop and also Kris and I finalized a workshop we have talked about for a while but didn’t want to do. However, we get so many questions about the topic, we figured it was time. The full description of the new online workshop is above. It will be a good one. A ton of tricks, things long-term professionals do, and helpful hints. I got the writing around 2 a.m. and with two short…
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Story Ten and a Bunch of Workshop Stuff
DAY TEN… Pretty much did workshops all day except I also had the wonderful pleasure of helping a friend get back into his house after being in the hospital for a month. Sort of made my day, actually, that he is home. But otherwise, it was workshops, most assignments since March is finishing up and April is getting started. Plus answered more questions about The Great Bundle workshop which has people intrigued, to say the least. (grin) Also, for those thinking of either trying to come to the Master Business Class or the Anthology Workshop, both Coast workshops, both are almost full. I did manage a few minutes to get…
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Two More Stories in Two Days
Yesterday Was All The Great Bundle Workshop and May Online Workshops. But I still managed to finish a story yesterday and another tonight. Seven stories in seven days. Go figure. A good number of people jumped into The Great Bundle workshop in just the first day after we announced it. Wow, is that going to be a fun week. On Sunday or Monday and into next week I will have more chapters of the Magic Bakery book as well as write more short stories. I am getting a ton of novel ideas out of this month of short fiction. Started a number of things that were instantly novels over the last…