• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Almost to Stretch Goal

    Just Slightly Over Halfway Done… Almost to the first stretch goal. And I think we can hit two or three more stretch goals if things go well. That would be fantastic fun. Of course, getting 35 original holiday stories delivered to you for every day of the holiday season is pretty darned cool as it is. And there are great writer workshop rewards in this one, all the way from lectures to lifetime subscriptions and even one mentorship with me for a year. And you still get the 35 stories plus a brand new Kristine Grayson holiday novel. So check it out at WMG Holiday Spectacular on Kickstarter. And if…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  running

    At the Run

    Talked with Donny Osmond for a Short Moment… About 22 or more years ago, he and I started to write a novel together. It was set up by Tekno Books and was to be a thriller. I spent a couple days on it, writing about 15,000 words and an outline, I don’t think Donny spent more than thirty minutes on it, twice talking with me on the phone. I remember vaguely that he liked it and that it would be fun. New York killed it. 22 or 23 years ago. So I barely remembered details of it and he didn’t remember it at all, which I didn’t expect him to.…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  publishing

    Some Things Made Clear

    I Hope… On Licensing Art… When Kris and I first came out of the Licensing Expo, it was clear to us that art was a critical component of any license. So we assumed that it would be the best for writers to start buying more rights for the art because the royalty free sites licenses did not allow for use of the art in many ways. In theory, that is correct, and in the Licensing Transition Class on Teachable, later this winter, we will be talking about art licenses, what to do, what not to do, that sort of thing, including looking at contracts for art licenses. But for now,…

  • Cave Creek,  Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Shared Worlds

    SHARED WORLDS: What Are They, How to Do Them, and Why… This is a one-of-a-kind class. Not a workshop, not a lecture, not a study along. For years now, Kris and I have tried to figure out how to teach shared worlds as a topic to writers to get the most benefit for writers. Both of us have written in so many shared worlds, we couldn’t begin to count. From the major shared worlds of Star Trek and Star Wars, to the more subtle shared worlds of say the WMG Holiday Spectacular that we are running through Kickstarter right now. And everything in between. There are thousands of reasons indie writers…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  workshops

    Great Rewards In New Kickstarter

    Been Sending Out Codes for Workshops All Day… And it dawned on me that many of the people I was sending codes for lectures and workshops from the Pulphouse Kickstarter didn’t know there was a new Kickstarter from WMG starting up. And it has great workshop and lecture rewards as well. The WMG Holiday Spectacular is going to be a calendar of stories for 35 straight days. That’s right, in your mailbox you get a new holiday story from Thanksgiving until January 1st. But we had to do the Kickstarter here in Oct0ber to make sure we got through everything and had time to get everyone on board before the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    One Mentor Spot Left for 2020

    Doing 2019 Still… I had five people take me up on me helping them by being a mentor in 2019. I am basically a cheerleader, someone they have to check in with each week, talk about the ups and downs. I answer questions when asked, give opinions on covers, read stories, and so on. In essence, I am there. And I am not really going away from those that I have been helping just because a year of time ended. A couple of the people started late, and one has pretty much vanished due to health issues. I hope that person will return later. So I figured I could handle…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Sales Numbers

    Some Interesting Comments… A number of posts back I talked about the difference between indie writers and traditional publishing writers. Not one person thought my sales numbers of over forty thousand for the traditional published author were too high. No one even questioned them. (They were far too high for 2019.) But wow did I get a lot of people objecting to around 50 copies a month average sales for indie. I understand that. I was doing a comparison on two books between the two types of publishing. And I used the word average, but so many writers don’t understand that term when it comes to sales. So let me…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    October Workshops Starting

    Plus the How to Write a Pulphouse Story October… If you signed up for that workshop through the Kickstarter and want to take it in October, write me at once. If you have workshop credit from the Kickstarter, you can use it against these October workshops if you want. We will have everything out later in the week as surveys get back in. The Regular October workshops are starting and for a few of these, this will be the last time they are regular workshops with homework. They are headed to classic status. However, if you are a lifetime subscriber, you can still send in the assignments on those. But…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Once Again a Month Flashes Past

    October Regular Workshops Start Tuesday… That’s right, this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. And for those of you who want to take the HOW TO WRITE A PULPHOUSE STORY starting on October first, you will get a survey soon, if not already today. Fill it out and get it back to WMG, then this weekend write me saying you wan to take it in October and I will give you the code to get in. This HOW TO WRITE A PULPHOUSE STORY workshop could only be signed up for through Kickstarter Pulphouse Subscription Drive. Sorry. It might be offered again in two years on the next Pulphouse Subscription Drive. Maybe. More…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Edmund Gosse Explains Things So Well

    From His Poem “Impression.” “Too much afraid of faults to be…” And that simple line from that incredible poem describes a great number of the writers I talk with every day. (You can read the entire poem here, published about writing in 1894. Worth the read. And if you could dare to write as ill as some whose voices haunt us still…) But that simple saying of being afraid of faults to be describes why so many writers don’t finish stories. And why so many don’t get their work out to readers or short fiction to editors. That saying a long time ago stopped making sense to me as a…