• Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Curriculum Updated and More Information

    Finally, After A Year, the Curriculum Updated… The Curriculum now includes all the new writing and publishing workshops from the last year and the new Pop-Up Weekender workshops we just announced. No workshop doubles up information. All of them are unique and focused in an area of fiction writing and business. The curriculum is divided into a number of categories to help you decide, but I will always answer questions if you are unsure. ————————— I’m Still Working On Marble Grant Novel Actually, making a little progress. And I am still working on getting back the responses to the last short  story challenge that ended on December 1st. That is…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    The 67 Challenge Books Two and Three

    Two More At Once Tonight… I am 67 years old and decided I wanted to try to publish my age. So on November 10th I started focusing on The 67 and working with WMG on scheduling and such. The 67 Challenge will run to November 9th of this year. That means I have to have everything turned into WMG no later than early October for the book to get all 67 books published. So on November 12th the first book in the challenge was published. A novel called Death Takes a Diamond. It is from my Mary Jo Assassin series. Two more books that count in the challenge for me…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing,  workshops

    Coast Workshops Update

    Thought It Was Time… So here are the available coast workshops and their status at the moment. Here are the dates of the coming coast workshops. Full descriptions at Coast Workshops. ANTHOLOGY WORKSHOP… Feb 24th through March 3rd, 2018.  Full and Writing already. FANTASY WORKSHOP… April 14th through the 21st, 2018.  Taught by Kris. FULL AND READING ALREADY THE GREAT BUNDLE WORKSHOP… May 5th through the 12th, 2018. A completely new and original idea for a writing workshop. See the details on the Coast Workshop page. This one will start writing in late March. Still a few spots open. Jump in if interested. CROSS GENRE WORKSHOP… September 15th through the…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Really Fun Movie

    Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle… Might be one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. Kris and I, after a long WMG meeting, headed into the valley to get me a Mac keyboard for my large iPad Plus. Then I went picking while she did some reading, then a nice dinner and then a late movie. After the movie Kris sat and read while I tore apart two standees for decoration at our north store. So a really fun evening and night, capped by the movie. We saw the original Robin Williams movie and remembered not being that impressed by it. But trust me folks, this…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    A Few Words About Starting

    Go Slow… Due to the fact that I only have so much computer time I can use because of my one good eye and the fact that I was spending most of the computer time over the last month plus moving workshops to Teachable, I haven’t done much writing. Normal for me, since I tend to start and stop a lot over a year and still manage to get a lot of words and books done. So I am very, very good at starting up. And I know a lot of you reading this are starting up again this week, either as a New Year’s resolution or after time away…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    First Day, Last Day

    First Day of a New Year… And the last days to get into both the short story and novel challenges and the Promotions Package. Hope everyone is getting off to a good start today. I sure did. After watching the ball drop and then one or two songs afterwards, I went into my office, sat down at my writing desk, and fired up on a new novel. The novel is called MARBLE GRANT and I wrote the prologue to it tonight plus some more. Fun to be back at it. LAST DAY TO SIGN UP FOR THE STORY CHALLENGE? There are still two spots open in the novel challenge starting…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Needed Some Exercise

    So I Dug Into the Bookstore Back Room Again… The back room at the bookstore is where we hope to expand into a new public area to get more room for books. But when we bought it, the place was buried in boxes and trash. Basically it looked like a hoarding place like my friend Bill’s home and apartment that I cleaned out. I have been slowly, when I needed some exercise like today, been working through it. And even more fun is the back room has almost as many treasures per square foot as Bill’s places. Today I found an entire box of rare and antique perfume bottles, some…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Finishing Up Short Story Challenge Reading

    And Writing Up Comments… I also did a bunch of work on Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #1 besides reading and typing up my comments back to the writers in the short story challenge. I also allowed myself to take a long nap, meaning almost two hours tonight. Guess I needed it. I had a meeting up at WMG with the the crew there to get approval for my crazy idea I will announce on Monday. I had to get their approval and feedback on some things before I could even do this, since they have to do a bunch of the work on the idea. This will add into the 67…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Setting Up Challenges for 2018

    Been Working on Planning… I ended up driving to Salem this afternoon to get a couple standees from a theater there, but the place was so busy, the manager and I decided to do it next week instead since tearing them apart makes a mess in part of their lobby. Wow, what a zoo that theater was. But I ended up doing a bunch of picking and got some pretty cool stuff. And the drive allowed me to do a lot of thinking about how I want to handle the 2018 goals and challenges.  So all good. My main challenges are the two 67 Challenges. I will be doing some…

  • Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

    Getting Ready for 2018

    Sort of a Look Forward… A Really Long Post Part of this is new, part of this is an older post from 2012 that I thought still made sense today. So once again, the way back machine strikes again. Every time I do this post, or talk with writers at the end of the year, I hear goals being set that are seemingly impossible when you do the math. I’ve set a few of them myself, to be honest, over the decades. I honestly have no problem at all with impossible goals. None, as long as the person setting the goal understands that the likely failure can also be deemed…