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Bundle Ending
Bundle Ending in One Day!! So if you want to read my novel HEAVEN PAINTED AS A POKER CHIP, you can get it in a bundle with eleven other novels from other writers from Bundlerabbit. Click on the image to go to the bundle. Trust me, there are some great writers and great books in this bundle besides me. Just click on the picture to go to the bundle. Don’t Miss This One! The Day The door of yesterday’s battle continued the fight into the office. And at one point it bit Allyson, but she is all right. The door will find a home shortly, but there may be more…
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New Door and Other Adventures
The Battle of the Door Well, somehow, on a slightly rainy, somewhat windy, late afternoon a good hour from home, in the parking lot of a large chain home-supply store, Kris and I managed to wage a great battle to put in an entire framed interior door into my old van. And get the back door closed. Now, when I said we’d pick up a door while over in the bigger city, I just assumed it would fit in my trusty old van. Everything fit in my trusty old van. Not so much a framed interior door 36 inches wide by 84 inches tall. Suited for closing off a back room…
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Workshops and Store
Workshops and Store I spent all day on the store and on working on workshops, so it was a very fun day. Patreon Supporters and Smith’s Monthly Subscribers As planned, I got a recent issue of Smith’s Monthly out to subscribers and up on Patreon. The next issue should be out to subscribers and up on Patreon on Friday, and then with luck, the third issue in this run will be on Monday. Now it’s going to take me some writing to get caught up. ————— Topic of the Night: nothing tonight I’ve been sitting at the computer too long today, so no topic tonight. Need to give my eyes a…
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Distracted
Distracted In case you hadn’t noticed, I haven’t written a word of fiction or nonfiction this month so far. I’ll talk about it in the topic below. Patreon Supporters and Smith’s Monthly Subscribers As planned, I got a recent issue of Smith’s Monthly out to subscribers and up on Patreon. The next issue should be out to subscribers and up on Patreon on Friday, and then with luck, the third issue in this run will be on Monday. Now it’s going to take me some writing to get caught up. ————— Topic of the Night: Distracted I haven’t done a word of writing this month. But honestly, that’s normal for me and…
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Topic of the Night: Can’t vs Don’t
Can’t vs Don’t Over the last month or so I’ve been seeing tons of writers talk about how they can’t do this or that aspect of publishing. All I have been doing is shaking my head and mostly turning away. I kind of equate this to saying I wanted to be a professional fiction writer when I started in 1974, but I couldn’t mail a manuscript to an editor. Pretty much a terminal problem for a career when I started off. So let me start off with giving you one thing you absolutely can’t do (in my opinion.) You can’t do your own copyediting. We writers just can’t see our own mistakes.…
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Topic of the Night: Pulp Writers’ Abilities
Pulp Writers’ Abilities I got a great question today about some of the basics the really prolific pulp writers did to be so productive. And how to go about finding out about a lot of their styles. How I have learned about so many of the older pulp writers is by reading book about them in their own words, reading books about the era, and just finding anything I could to read about the pulp writers of the 1920s to 1950s. A great first book to start is Frank Gruber’s The Pulp Jungle. Oh, trust me, you will realize how little you have given to be a writer after reading…
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Topic of the Night: Some Costs of Short Fiction Publishing
Some Costs of Short Fiction In the old days, meaning ten years ago, we counted the price of selling short fiction in the cost of envelopes and postage. Not a small cost, actually. And printer ink and paper. Now submissions are electronic with no costs other than the ability to deal with rejection and the wait for an editor to read your work. Actually, in this new world, the wait is the worst part since things are done so quickly these days. So what are the indie publishing costs of what I described yesterday in trying to make a living with your short fiction? Office Costs Most of the costs of…
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Topic of the Night: Making a Living Writing Short Fiction
Can You Make a Living Writing Only Short Fiction? Every year or so I look at this topic once again, do the math, see if anything has changed over the last couple of years. And now, here in May 2016, things have changed some, but in my opinion it would still be possible to make a decent living writing only short fiction. Why do I like this topic? Actually, because I love short fiction, meaning any story under around 10,000 words. I love reading it and I love writing it. And doing this exercise is fun for me, even though no one will ever follow this path. Besides, I am…
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Topic of the Night: A New Online Workshop: Teams in Fiction
Kris and I have decided, once again, to tackle a really, really important area of fiction, but one we believe most writers flat don’t understand or even realize exists. Teams in Fiction Basically, when Lester Dent (under a pen name) invented Doc Savage, he broke an old fiction tradition of one character and a sidekick. With Doc Savage, he created five team members that worked around Doc and by doing so set the template for all modern fiction. Think about your favorite shows. NCIS, the number one show on television, has Gibbs in the middle and his team around him. Captain Kirk and his team. Luke and his team in Star…
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Thirty Fantastic Years
THIRTY FANTASTIC YEARS Thirty years ago today I pulled into a driveway at an address in Albuquerque, New Mexico that Algis Budrys had sent me to. As I walked in the door, I met Kristine Kathryn Rusch and we have been together ever since. We had a wonderful day today just having fun and talking about thirty years and about years to come. I can’t even begin to imagine where I would have ended up if not for AJ sending me to that address. Certainly not here doing this. More than likely I would no longer be writing and would have just ended up working a golf course counter and…