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Reading as an Editor
I Have A Lot of Reading to Do… As does everyone else who is attending the 2019 Anthology workshop here in Las Vegas the first week of March. And even better, the stories are all written by writers who sure know what they are doing. This is not slush. This is what Kris and I used to call back in the days (early 1990s) of Pulphouse or F&SF reading, the “pro pile.” Everyone attending the workshop is reading like editors, not readers, or they should be, even though only five of us professional editors will be up front actually buying stories. But I have a real advantage in this reading.…
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Some Ideas I Think Might Be Ripe
This Is Just A Fun Thought Experiment… But I think that some ideas in publishing that have been around for a time and not gotten much traction might be nearing time-is-right place. Just my opinions, and I am sure I am missing a ton of other close, but not ready yet, things. But here are three to think about that I personally think are close. Idea One… Gift Cards for Books Now back in 2011, we did a couple books on credit-card-like cards with a code on the back to download the book. In essence the idea was to give a physical form to electronic books. We mounted the books…
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Mentor Program
Still One Spot… For the Kickstarter campaign, I had opened up two mentor spots, bringing my total of writers I would be working with to 5. I felt good about that number since the ones that started in January seemed to be doing fine, moving along, checking in. And one of the writers who wanted to join the program through Kickstarter doesn’t even want to start until the middle of the year. So why do I have an extra? Some person I had never talked to and who wouldn’t answer my email (so I had a hunch something was wrong) just dropped out in the last hour or so, as…
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Last 24 Hours
Only One Thing I Can Write About Tonight… Last 24 hours of the Smith’s Stories: Make 100 Paperbacks Kickstarter campaign. You can get regular workshop credits through the campaign to use any time in the future. Get lectures and other stuff as well. And eight of either my mystery novels (Cold Poker Gang) or eight of my sf novels (Thunder Mountain). Not counting the 100 short stories either solo or in three collections. (Every award level gets the three collections in electronic form when I am done.) And, since the campaign made its first stretch goal, everyone gets another large collection of my stories (Stories from July) and a Classic…
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February Workshops Starting
And Some Other Stuff… First off, the February regular workshops are starting up. Nine of them and they are a good group. Depth in Writing is the workshop to take first, but this month if you have had Depth, I would suggest either Teams or Endings. Both will really help your writing. I think understanding teams in fiction just makes novel writing so much easier. It gives books almost an automatic structure or bones. And knowing all about endings makes readers want to buy your next books. So anyhow, you sign up on Teachable if interested, or if you have a workshop credit you want to use, write me and…
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Making a Challenge Sane (Sort of)
Restructuring My Writing Challenge… If you have been following along this fall, I decided back in September to try to do 10 novels in 100 days. That was to get me back writing again after a long year of life-rolls, so why not go from zero to light-speed instantly? Yeah, that always works. (grin) So I ran into a number of problems right off. The first was changing my schedule of 35 years, the second was learning to live in Las Vegas. The third was the life roll was far from finished. Those problems just didn’t allow the challenge to get off the ground, so I restarted in October, failed…
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Heads-Up Writers
Those of You Who Backed the Fiction River Kickstarter… …and took a reward where you also get a chance to write for a volume. I will be contacting each of you this week. Everyone will start writing on Sunday evening (February 3rd) for a Fiction River anthology idea. I will send you the rules and guidelines on Sunday, don’t worry. You will have one week exactly to finish the story, with the deadline being midnight, February 10th. If you took two rewards, your second story will start on February 10th (again, I will send you the rules and guidelines) and you have one week. If you are one of the…
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Kickstarter Pop-Up Starting
Two Different Kickstarter Topics Tonight… First off, the Kickstarter for Writers Pop-Up has now launched, just tonight. All the ups and downs as a writer of using Kickstarter crowd funding for your projects. And, of course, there is a short story prompt at the end of it as well that if you get it in under the deadline I will read. That’s on Teachable. Second, the Kickstarter campaign Dean’s Stories: Make 100 Paperbacks just went past its first stretch goal so today I set another stretch goal. Right now, anyone who supports the campaign gets the reward they support, plus three major electronic collection of all 100 stories, plus for…
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Just Over $600 Left…
Before Every Supporter Gets a Workshop and a Book… That’s right. Smith’s Stories: Make 100 Paperback Short Stories Kickstarter campaign is almost to its stretch goal. Just over $600 left. If this campaign hits $9,000, I will give everyone who pledged at any level an electronic copy of my large collection Stories from July. It contains 32 short stories plus all the blogs I wrote about writing them. And also, on top of that, each person pledging to this campaign will get a credit for a Classic Workshop of their choice worth $150. (If you are a lifetime workshop subscriber, you can take the equivalent in lectures or Pop-Ups we…
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Series Workshop and Study Along Workshop Starting
Writers Here In Vegas… Fun dinner tonight with some of the writers here for the workshop, and also Loren Coleman is in town for a conference, so we had lunch with him. All kinds of fun today. (I bored the writers tonight with my being homeless in Vegas story back in the early 1970s.) The Series Workshop, which was moved from last July in Lincoln City to now here in Las Vegas starts at the Golden Nugget in the morning. Kris is teaching that and it is an intense craft and writing workshop. I think it’s going to be great fun. That means the online Study Along workshop starts in…