• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Time Management and Free Lecture

    First Some Thoughts on Time Management… Over the next few days I will be  doing two blogs that will, in essence be the introduction chapters to the book Living at Pulp Speed Five. But before I got to that (which will have some basic time management stuff in them and more in the blogs as the challenge goes along) I wanted to talk here about time management and give you something that might help some of you. Many of you will be following the Pulp Speed Five Challenge here (or closer in the daily letters) wondering how I will be able to be consistent and carve out the time from…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Changing My New Office for the Challenge

    Part of Getting Ready… This living at Pulp Speed Five 10-novel challenge has me really thinking about my new office. I really, really love it, but it dawned on me a couple days ago it is not well-arranged for writing long projects. Oh, oh, I think 10 novels in 100 days is a long writing project. (grin) I am in a fairly small space, which I love. My past offices were way too big. And here I am surrounded by three large iMac computers with extra screens. Six screens in total. I flat love that. But my writing computer is not in the right spot for comfort for long hours…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Now I’m Getting Nervous

    This Is A Good Thing… Six Days and Counting… If I was not getting nervous about the challenge of writing ten novels in one hundred days, the challenge wouldn’t be challenging me. So yes, I am nervous and excited at the same time. Where my focus has gone now, six days out from the start, is making sure my schedule here in Vegas has enough time built into it. I have only really been here for three weeks. So everything, including this office, is still new. That will make this interesting. I can’t just drop down into old habits and routines of 23 years on the coast. That’s worrisome all…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Summary Of Everything Going On

    Four Major Things… So I thought I would try to sort them out and be clear on them, especially since a couple of these are ending soon or have limited space. 1… Novel and Short Story Challenge… Both the Novel Challenge and the Short Story Challenge have started. I have one spot open in both challenges still, so you can jump in any time between now and Tuesday, September 4th. Then it closes off. Costs $600 but you get two workshop credits for just giving either challenge a try. More information at Novel And Short Story Challenge. 2… Follow Along Living at Pulp Speed Five. I announced this last night…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Living At Pulp Speed Five

    Here I Go Again… A challenge to myself and a way for some of you to follow closely along and learn. That’s right, a crazy idea on both sides. See more below on this. Let me back into explaining this. Pulp Speed comes from Star Trek War Speed and is a way to sort of shorthand the speed that old pulp writers used to write at regularly for years. Pulp Speed One is 1 million words per year or about 83,000 words per month. So if you write 83,000 words in a month, you wrote at Pulp Speed that month. Pulp Speed Two is 1.2 million words in a year…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Talking About Sayings

    Saw A Good One Tonight.. “If you think you understand what you’re doing, you’re not learning anything.” Wow does this apply to writing. Writing, as many have learned in the workshops, is an art that the more you learn, the more you realize you have to learn. I love that part of it and always chase the next level up, constantly learning. So many of our workshops are awareness workshops, designed to basically tell you this area of writing and craft is here, and that your creative voice can use it when needed. Writing with Depth, which many have taken, is one of those “Wow, didn’t know that was how…

  • On Writing,  publishing

    We Made It! In Less Than Three Days!!

    Flashed Past Our Kickstarter Goal… Needless to say, our is going great since we hit our goal in less than three days. So up next we have some amazing stretch goals, including a lot of books. In fact, if it goes all the way to the top nosebleed levels, everyone supporting will get 25 different books as bonus, not counting whatever each person signed up for and the Fiction River subscriptions. And along the way we will open up submissions to a couple Fiction River volumes as well, the first time in six years. So get friends to jump into this one just for the extra books and incredible volumes…

  • On Writing,  publishing

    Live Question Sessions with Me and Kris

    It’s A Reward On Kickstarter Actually three sessions. One session with me, one with Kris, and one with both of us answering questions about writing and publishing. It’s at the new  at the $300 level. All kinds of cool stuff this year in our third  in six years. (We do one every two years.) And as I said in the last post, you can get a ton of extra books (up to 25 books) if this goes as high as the past, and if it goes a little higher than the past drive, we will do an open call for one or two volumes of Fiction River, something Kris and I…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Two Sayings On My Office Wall

    Both Have Been On My Wall For Decades… And they were on my office walls before that. So when we moved this last spring and early summer, I took the two sayings down and brought them with me for my new office. So what kind of sayings would I carry with me for so many decades? Almost since I started writing. The first, framed in a cheap mat and dirty and faded says simply… “If we could dare to write as ill as those whose voices haunt us still…” That is part of an Edward Gosse poem written way back and the poem is in the public domain. But think…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  running

    Challenges Update… Novel, Short, and Exercise

    Novel And Short Story Challenge There are two challenges starting September 1st. A short story challenge and a novel challenge. I sent letters to those signed up in the challenges tonight since they start in a week. (Room open in both challenge if interested.) What I got as responses from three people so far were that they were surprised that I wanted them to check in every Sunday during the challenges. Of course I do. Over the space of two or three months, all of us have down times and get stuck or have something going slower than desired. I will be there for everyone in the challenges to report…