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I’m Reading…
…A lot of great short stories. I’ll be able to talk more about why I am doing this in a couple of weeks. After the Anthology Workshop is finished. But note that I seldom talk about my reading in this blog. It’s just something I do. Kris calls me a stealth reader, so it feels odd to actually be sitting out in public where she can see me with a pile of manuscripts (like the old days when we were editing Pulphouse and F&SF). Reading in my family was a waste of time as far as my parents were concerned. So I learned early on to hide my reading and…
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You Can Learn Story from the HGTV Network
The Sequential Nature of a Story… Sounds like a well-duh, but so many writers are stuck in that problem. And that makes writing so much harder to do for themselves. What problem? Of course you write a story from the beginning to the end, don’t you? Nope. Basically, beginning writers believe they must start a novel on word one and write to the last word. That belief creates time-wasting things like outlines and rewriting, two of the more deadly practices to creativity ever invented by an English teacher. And if I believed I had to write from word one and not do anything but move forward until the last word,…
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Protecting Choice
When You Decide to Not Write and That’s Fine… I can name a number of major events in a person’s life that will make then flat decide to not think about going to a computer to write fiction. Valid reasons to not write. — Health — Family Health or Event — Some forms of Travel — Day Job Explosion Outside of Norm — And so on and so on… down into smaller and smaller reasons. There is a point that all of us look at why we are not writing at a given point of time and try to decide if the reason is fear or a valid reason. We…
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Another Short Placeholder Streak Blog
Got the estate house done… Did a mass of workshop stuff off and on all day. Off to sleep now…
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Middle of the Night
The Problem With My Schedule… I tend to like to write and work on things in my office from 1 a.m. until almost 6 a.m. My night (for sleeping) is until 1 p.m., sometimes 2 p.m. So this morning I was on the phone with some financial people at 9:30 a.m., down at the estate house by 10:30 a.m. and worked solid until after 4 p.m. Think of this way. If you normally went to bed at midnight and slept until 7:30 or 8, what I did was get up at 3:30 in the morning in that schedule and stay up. Ughh… And got to do it one more day tomorrow.…
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Encouraging… Really?
People Say I Am Encouraging… I have gotten that comment a few times this past week and a couple questions about why I spend the time and energy to help others. There is an answer, but not exactly what you might expect. Let me back into this for a second. I suppose if a person is really working to chase their dreams, I try to tell them the truth about fiction and writing if they ask. And if I think they want the truth. If a person is really working to become a better storyteller, I am willing to answer questions and give my opinion when asked. If they really want…
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Superstars Workshop
Going Back for the Third Time… I wanted to announce that in the first week of February 2018, I will be once again teaching at the Superstars Writing Conference. I will also be going in a day ahead to do one of their craft days as well. I’ll talk more about this over the year, of course. But so far confirmed for next year are Brandon Sanderson, Jonathan Maberry, Jim Butcher, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, James A. Owen, Mark Leslie Lefebvre (Kobo), Dave Farland, and Mark Coker (Smashwords). Should be great fun.
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Busy Day for a Saturday
Auction, reading, some writing, some working on the estate, some workshop stuff… And I wouldn’t be reporting all this stuff if I didn’t have a streak going of blogging every day about something. (grin) Here is what the day was like. First to both our stores. Antiques Week is starting here and I wanted to see how things were doing. Starting off great. Then estate work since the day was nice and the light was good in the house. Almost got it. Monday should finish it for me. Then out to the auction for a while to talk with friends there. Then to the WMG offices to work for a few…
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There Can Be Only One Topic Tonight: Ed Bryant
Edward W. Bryant Jr. passed away this morning. Writer, teacher, and great person, Ed was only five years older than me. I’ve known him since 1982. He was like a solid core of the science fiction and horror publishing field. Everyone knew and seemed to love Ed. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was a major supporter of Kris and my company Pulphouse Publishing. In fact, he seemed to spend more time in Eugene than Denver during that time and we loved it. Kris lead off the very first issue of Pulphouse Hardback Magazine with an Ed story, a classic called “While She Was Out.” And then he lead off…
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Workshops, Bundle, and Big Estate Move Day One
All Workshops for February Started… March Sign-up Available… If you are signed up for a February workshop and haven’t gotten the opening letter from me, write me at once. March workshops are now on deck. A good list. Winter Mysteries Bundle. I’m in a great bundle right now on Bundlerabbit with one of my Cold Poker Gang novels. It’s called The Winter Mysteries Bundle. This is a great deal and you might want to check it out, folks. Some great books in this one. Click on the image. And scroll down on the page. You can buy the bundle not only from Bundlerabbit, but from Amazon, Kobo, B&N and others.…