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Stay Away From Traditional Book Publishing
Yes, I Know That is a Dream for Many… But it is a horrid (and I mean horrid beyond words) path for writers now in 2018. But Dean, how can you say that? You first published with traditional publishing, right? Yes, I sold my first novel in 1987 and did my last work for them in 2008. I did 106 books (that I can remember) through traditional big-five book publishing. I am pretty convinced that even by my math, most of that was last century. Let me repeat that. Last century. You know, dial phones hooked to a wall with cords, no internet, no email. That century. Yet traditional book…
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We Got Crazy
Well, Kris Did… Our new Pop-Up Series was intended to do a few a month tops. When a fun idea for one struck us. But Kris handed me three nifty ideas in the Pop-Up Series and I liked them as much as she did, so all three are coming in December. The third one in the first batch we did about writing short romance is now up, and the second one has a week left before it vanishes. (The first one is gone, but you can still get it in the bundles.) These are from 10 to 20 videos per Pop-Up on a certain topic we find fun and interesting,…
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Spent My Night Trying to Get Writers to Follow Instructions
A Stupid Task I Must Admit… But critical for the anthology workshop to even begin to work. I am not sure what makes writers so incapable of following basic guidelines. Ah, well, this first week is over, so from here on out I can just bounce or ignore a story if the writer doesn’t get the instructions right. Much easier on me. I just wish I had the hours I lost tonight back. And on other news, the Pop-Up on Short Romance is now live. It has a short story assignment with it, as do the other Pop-Ups. However, the first Pop-Up is now gone and can only be accessed…
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Got Really Late
Of course, in the old days in Lincoln City, this would be early… But now it is late and the blog I wanted to write doesn’t have enough time or brain power to happen. So another night. Right now I guess I just need to post this because I have to keep up my challenge of doing a blog per day. But I did get a couple thousand words done on a short story today, so the writing is coming back and considering the day, that is a total win. And don’t forget the Pop-Up about doing your own bookstore is now live and will be for less than two…
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Too Much and Too Little
There is a Line To Walk Between the Two… I got a great question the other day about what I have been trying to do with my exercise and losing weight. And I realized the question also applied to my getting back solidly to writing. The question was: “Why are you pushing so hard to get back to exercise and running?” As those who follow here regularly know, since I got to Vegas in August, I have been working to add distance to my walking and running while at the same time losing weight. Two weeks ago, in a 5K run, I was down 20 pounds and had gained lung…
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I Wrote Romance
I Always Use Romance Team Structure… At least for the last 30 or 40 plus novels or so. I love the structure. But I seldom commit actual romance. The character focus is on other things, like solving mysteries in my mystery novels, or time-travel in my sf series or fighting aliens in my Seeders Universe. The one key element of a romance is that the focus must be on the relationship the entire way. The other plot stuff is just why they can’t be together instantly. So today it dawned on me that the new Thunder Mountain novella (Warm Springs Meadow) that I just finished is a complete romance. The focus…
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Writing Challenge
My Personal Writing Challenge is Still Going On… Just not very well. The restart was the first of November and that so far hasn’t worked well for basically the same reasons it didn’t work back in September. When I do get it back up and running, I will do the second chapter of the book here, including all the problems and the answers, when I find them. And when that happens, the real challenge will start. So in the meantime, here are some reminders of a few things going on right now with workshops and such. Fun stuff. — Pop-Up #1 is now live and available. Basically a talk about…
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Happy Holiday
For Those in the States… I will be cooking a turkey tomorrow for just me and Kris and doing some writing and early in the morning I will be doing another 5k run/walk. And Kris made some wonderful pies tonight. So should be a fun day. I hope everyone else in the States has a fun day and gets some writing done as well. And my biggest hope tomorrow is to stay on my feet for the entire 5K. (grin) …UPDATE… I stayed on my feet and even with all the injuries managed to run about half of the run. Good holiday everyone.
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A Happy Holidays Gift From WMG Publishing
Actually, Two Gifts… WMG Publishing this year, for the very first time in the almost ten year history of the company, is doing two special holiday reading mystery boxes. Both have over $250 in value of books for $50.00. (Yup, I said that.) The Writer Gift Box has a lecture, a classic workshop, and 12 different writing books in it. All for $50.00 (just the lecture and the classic workshop are worth $200 alone. Person who gets the box gets to pick the choice of classic workshop or lecture.) The Holiday Gift Box includes 40 ebooks (novels, novellas, short-story collections, magazines, boxed sets, bundles, and a sampling of something from each…
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All Kinds of Fun Stuff, So A Summary
Before A Lot of It Goes Away… — Last Day to Buy Workshop Credits for the discounted rate of $250 each. Contact me if interested. Closes today. — Pop-Up #1 is now live and available. Basically a talk about Julie Schwartz, Len Wein, and Stan Lee, three of the great writer/editors in comic books. We were friends with Julie and Len, so these videos are stories about the people, as well as a few lessons involved. Plus you can write a short story to an assignment and Kris and I will read it and give you comments. This will only be up for under two weeks. Cost is $150.00. Get…