• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Too Much Time Researching/Playing

    Doing Research Is Play… At least it is for me and most other writers who get sucked down into researching fun stuff. Fun for us that is. (grin) The key is you can’t do it and not write. For me, tonight I was searching for information about the Hotel Nevada on Main Street in Las Vegas. It has been shuttered for a lot of years now and is owned by the Golden Nugget. (Tough search because of the name.) It sits right beside the Nugget parking garage for those who have been here. You never notice it because it has been painted to look like the Nugget. So I wasted…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Depth As Hearing

    Kris and I Had a Great Discussion About Depth Today… All because I was getting fitted with nifty, programmed hearing aides. Why that discussion? Because for the first time in a long time, maybe decades, I could hear certain things. Things I didn’t even know I wasn’t hearing. And that lead to the discussion about depth in writing in all its forms. Some writers had trouble with it in this last workshop and that was because they didn’t even know they were missing it. I didn’t know I was missing sounds. I just knew I had trouble hearing at times, not that a massive range of sounds were not available…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    I’m Back But Behind

    Well, Brain Isn’t Totally Back… I will be caught up over the next day or so on all email and stuff. Then on Friday and Saturday the workshop stuff will go out to the Kickstarter folks. I had hoped to have it out before the Anthology Workshop, but that didn’t happen with all the reading. And tomorrow I actually get to start hearing again. Picking up and getting trained on nifty, modern hearing aides. (Never had them before.) Loud sounds (mostly music in bars) killed a lot of my hearing (yes, I have gone through lots of tests) when I was younger. Luckily it was just that and age and…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Slow On Email

    Normally I Keep Up Just Fine… But the last few days I have been a bad boy, staying out too late with all the writers and talking writing and having far, far too much fun. So I will be catching up on email tomorrow (Wednesday). Sorry for the delay on that. And wow has the Anthology Workshop been fun this year. First time here in Las Vegas and it went off without a hitch. I want to thank all the editors who ended up putting at least eight anthologies together. That’s right, eight, plus I bought twenty stories for the next year of Pulphouse Magazine. If interested in next year’s…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Last Day of the Anthology Workshop

    I Have Had a Blast… And for those who have been wondering, my novel-writing challenge will start for me on Thursday to write five novels in 100 days. That is the first leg of the challenge. Second leg is to write seven novels in 100 days. Third leg is the last 100 days of the year I will attempt to write 10 novels in 100 days. So the challenge ramp-up starts on Thursday. I am so looking forward to it and so ready. Not a clue what I will be writing, but got a hunch it will be a Cold Poker Gang since I have a title eating at me…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    March Is Here! What Happened?

    Where Did January and February Go? Wow, the anthology workshop is almost over and the March Regular Online workshops are starting up Tuesday and Wednesday. And the Future: Structure starts on Wednesday, the 6th. You can take the other two Futures Workshops at any point since they are both still there and available. Sign up for any of them including the regular March workshops listed below on Teachable here. Or if you have a workshop credit you would like to use, write me and tell me which one you want to be in. March Six-Week Regular Workshops… Class #21… Mar 5th … Depth #3: Research Class #22… Mar 5th … Author Voice…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Running Tomorrow…

    That’s Right… Another 5K Fun Run… Only this one has about 14 or so professional writers taking part. And doughnuts afterwards in the convention suite before we start for the day on stories. Some of them vegan doughnuts. All wonderful. There will be pictures, so expect those. I will be near the back of the pack. And it will be great fun. We opened up the evening talking suite tonight, a penthouse suite with more than enough room for fifty professional writers to gather in groups and talk in the evening. The networking will be great fun on this workshop, just like the Master Business Class in October. So now,…

  • Challenge,  workshops

    Anthology Workshop Firing Up

    Starts Friday and Goes to Wednesday Morning… Going to be a blast, I can tell you that right now. About fifty writers, about forty-some stories per anthology for eight different anthologies, plus some surprises as we always do. Wonderful fun. And for the first year in years, I am done with my reading ahead of the workshop. I am shocked, I say, shocked… We have announced next year’s anthology workshop, but don’t wait too long to sign up. We limit this to 50 writers at most and each year it fills completely. And you start writing at the end of November for next year’s class. If interested in next year’s,…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Kris’s Blog On Writing With Chronic Sickness

    Actually, It Will Be An Entire Book… But on her blog right now you can read one chapter of the book that will be out in April. I have read the entire book, all the different parts, and I think it will do more than help writers, but help anyone who is struggling with trying to find a way through life with chronic illness, as Kris has done. And she gives you a little bit of a hint of what it was like for her and how frightening it was last year at this point. A lot of us were not sure she would make it through last winter. Yet…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Future’s Series of Workshops

    Recording the Start of the Third One… That’s right, done one futures workshop on keeping your inventory selling, another on opportunities, and this third one is on having a structure that will maintain into the future. There will be one more futures workshop coming. Kris and I think these might be the most important workshops we have done, trying to fill them with all the stuff we wished someone would have told us thirty years ago. Future: Structure starts on Wednesday, the 6th. You can take the other two at any point since they are both still there and available. Sign up for any of them including the regular March…