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SuperStars Writing Seminars
I Am Lucky Enough To Be An Instructor Here… Today was called a craft day and for over three hours I talked about Writing Into the Dark. And then had a wonderful lunch with ten writers talking all sorts of fun things. And then spent dinner with three old friends that I wish I could see a lot more. So except for the altitude issues where I find myself suddenly out of breath (yes, I am drinking a lot of water, but I come from sea level and this town is over 6,000 feet up), I’m having a blast. Great seeing friends, meeting new people, and wonderful writing conversations. I’m…
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Another Adventure
I Didn’t Plan On An Adventure Today... I just planned on having a few fairly short flights to get to Colorado Springs to teach at the Superstars Writing Conference. Stayed last night in Portland to catch the flight early and all was fine until we hit one of the roughest patches of air over Idaho I have ever experienced. And over the decades I have been on thousands of plane flights. Never anything like this. Some injuries and things, but I had my seat belt on and was fine. So then, on my layover, after I got calmed down and some anti-nausea drugs in me, I boarded the next flight…
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No Updates On Anything…
Seems All Quiet… I know a bunch of people are just waiting to see if their private business information will be made public and what, if anything, the big companies will do about it. I doubt Data Guy will reverse his business plan at this point. So no updates. I know a few people asked. I am not pushing, just waiting. And doing writing and publishing stuff. (grin) ——————– POP-UP WORKSHOPS ARE FILLING… https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com February 15-18, 2018 — Controlling Fear of Failure — How to Study and Practice in Fiction (A Study Plan) March 15-18th — Adding Tension to Your Writing — Making a Living in 2018/19 With Your Fiction…
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The Company of Black Books
Yeah, a Very Strange Title… This story has to do with history and collecting and selling and other fun stuff. Four years ago now, I was talking with Bob who owns two of the bookstores in this town and he wanted to show me something he had just bought and hauled over from the valley. Turns out it wasn’t one thing, but 740-some things actually. Massive bound newspapers in black cloth covers. Each weighed over 40 pounds and went from 1904 to 1990, sometimes full years in one book, sometimes only one month. All from the Portland Oregonian Newspaper. They had been bound to put into libraries, stored, and then…
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BOOK #6 OF 67
Up to Sharing Book Six… For each book of the 67 books with my name on them that I hope to publish in my 67th year of life, I will do a video. These videos will lag behind the actual publication because I want to wait for the paper copy to arrive. This video is about Burn Card: A Cold Poker Gang Novel. ————– Weekender Pop-Up Online Workshops Are Now Up on Teachable. A couple of these are about half full. https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com February 15-18, 2018 — Controlling Fear of Failure — How to Study and Practice in Fiction (A Study Plan) March 15-18th — Adding Tension to Your Writing —…
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New Lectures and A Lecture Bundle
Not Kidding… Teachable Allows Me to Bundle Lectures and Workshops… How much fun is that? A way to get discounts on the lectures at any point. So over the last week I finally finished and got up the last two of the Advanced Business Lectures we announced and took some subscriptions for last summer. Special Lecture Series is called… ADVANCED BUSINESS FOR FICTION WRITERS — 1…Corporations for Writers Lecture…$50.00 — 2…Taxes for Writers Lecture…$50.00 — 3…Movies and Television Negotiations for Writers Lecture…$50.00 — 4…Estates and Estate Planning for Writers Lecture…$50.00 — 5…Copyright for Writers Lecture…$50.00 — 6…IP Valuation Lecture…$50.00 All six are now available on Teachable. These six are topics…
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Another Day of No Answers
No More Answers Today Than We Had Yesterday… This entire thing will take time to settle out. I see three paths: Data Guy and Hugh can make changes, they can go on as they plan, or someone large could shut them down. No telling. But here is what I heard today. Also great stuff in the comments on Passive Guy and on my posts over the last two days. Thanks, everyone, for the comments. Too bad Data Guy didn’t feel up to responding. What I heard through the day (in letters and on private lists) from lots of writers was that they felt betrayed because they had given Data Guy…
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New Author Earnings Report
Now Up After a Year… It’s got a ton of stuff in it. And takes a vast amount of time to go through. But worth it. And their new side-business they are only offering to big publishers is flat scary. Horrifying, actually if they are doing it wrong. And I got a hunch that unless they are pulling names, that new business is setting them up for more lawsuits than I want to think about. Because from my understanding, they are releasing personal sales numbers of writers to businesses who can get past their paywall. Private business information of all of us. Oh, oh… Data Guy, Hugh, tell me I…
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Well That Was Fun… Not!
Tsunami Watch… Off the shore of Alaska tonight there was a big quake and one buoy showed a thirty-foot rise, so alerts and watches went out all over, from Alaska down to California and Mexico. Now here on the Oregon Coast, we have two of our three retail stores, including our bookstore, about eight feet above sea level. Even a ten foot surge which would have hit at about a plus-four foot high tide. That would have done real damage to our stores. So Kris and I were monitoring everything we could for the last two hours. Billy, our store manager was doing the same. And so was Allyson, the…
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Tip of the Week
FUN IDEA FIRING UP… As I talked about a few posts back, this idea came up while I was in Vegas and it sounded like a lot of fun. But it took a bunch of figuring to get past a few of the Teachable limitations. But with help, we got it worked out. So this is how it will work. Every Sunday night (Monday morning) I will put up a new writing or publishing tip on Teachable. To go to the tip of the week, go to: https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com Hit See All Courses and find Tip of the Week. The subscription to it is $10 per month. Right now there are…