Yup, Finally Put It Together… I’ve been meaning to since January. Turned out to be just under 10,000 words. It will be in the issue of Smith’s Monthly I am turning in tomorrow. And Ace High: A Cold Poker Gang Novel I wrote in those five days will be in the same issue. You want to read the novel and then read how I wrote it in five days, Smith’s Monthly #39 will be the place. Actually, you can sort of read both books right now. Ace High is already out for sale. And the chapters of the nonfiction book are all still here as blog posts. They start with…

I Get That Question… Honestly, most professional writers do all the time. Of course, the question comes from people who never read this blog. And without lying, I often tell them what they want to hear. (I never tell them I have written a full novel in five days while traveling.) For example, this book I just finished tonight I started back in late December. So to make those who believe in myths, I can safely say it takes me about six months to write a short novel. Let’s not mention that I did a novel in five days while in a hotel room in Las Vegas in January. Or have…

CLOSE TO FINISHING A BOOK… Managed to get to my writing computer at 3 a.m. tonight. I did two sessions for a total of 2,300 words before 4:30 a.m. with a short break in the middle. I think I finally see the ending on this. So with luck I’ll stumble across the ending this weekend. Then as I said last night, I can put two issues of Smith’s Monthly together, then finish a third novel that is almost done and put a third issue together. All that shouldn’t take more than a week. With each issue I’ll post the blurbs for the stories with the covers, because I have to write the blurbs…

No Real Holiday, Just Same Old… Started the day off by walking out to the south store. A little over two miles is all and a nice walk. I wanted to see how my knee did on hills and it was fine. I can still feel it a little, but not too bad, so on the mend. Our van was at the south store since Billy and Cameron had used it for to haul stuff to a swap meet. I went from there to pick up our north store manager, Josh, and we went and got a new display case I had bought for the north store. Then I stayed…

Meetings, Cats, Workshops, Challenges, and some Writing… Yup, all of that. And more. Writer’s meeting at 2 p.m. up at WMG. I unloaded the car full of stuff I got yesterday in the valley picking. Then Kris and I left the meeting early and managed to catch the wild Gavin in enough time to make a vet appointment. Both cats are in good shape. Then I finished some workshop work up at the office, cooked dinner at home, and went to work on e-mail and challenges. So everyone who is in the June short story challenge or the summer novel challenge should have a letter from me. If not, write…

Read and Sort of Rested… Got most of my half-mile of running in this afternoon when my knee started hurting and I stopped. I have really bad knees from all the years in sports, so I listen when they tell me enough. I’ll rest it a day or two and go back. I still walked two miles on it and ran across the highway without it hurting, but a few twinges on the stairs tonight. Got to get the weight down before the distance comes up too much or I will have more trouble with the knees. Nature of the beast. Then did a bunch of workshop stuff and cooked…