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Quick Update to Short Story Challenge
Simple Update and Information… There are two start dates on this. May 2nd as I said originally and June 1st. It means I will be reading stories through July (If anyone decides to take me up on this) but that is fine. Both are 60 day windows to do the challenge. Another note: I will be done with my short story challenge by the first of May and will be starting into writing novels. So I will not be writing short stories at the same time as reading them. Sign Up Information: If you are thinking about this seriously, and think you can write 30 short stories either in one…
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I Opened My Mouth… So Here Is How It Could Work
A CHALLENGE… A few nights ago I mentioned that if anyone wanted to take up a story-a-day for thirty days, I could be their first reader for a price. Yup, said that. Now I understand how really difficult on so many levels this challenge is. This is the second time I have done it and over the years hope to do one in every month of the year. Over different years, of course. Like the first one was in July and got the book Stories from July. This one will be a book called Stories from April. The stories will also be in Smith’s Monthly, in collections, and published stand-alone.…
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Story Eighteen and Half-Title Pages Explained
DAY EIGHTEEN… I somehow managed to get everything done today and actually get to my writing computer by 2 a.m. I would love to be earlier, but I’ll take 2 a.m. Today I got two more collections turned in. I did the covers for all three, including paperback covers. I will give you the covers and links when the first three collections are up. I hope to do a few more fairly soon. And I also got done the story cover for last night’s story. And I figured out how to do my goofy comment about being a first reader. See the post above if you missed it. So at…
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Story Seventeen
DAY SEVENTEEN… By the time I got through everything today and the workshop assignments tonight, it was 3 a.m. I really got to start earlier. So off I went to my half-title sheets. I grabbed a half tile “A Thief…” and then almost instantly saw another half title. “of Regrets.” I put that in the title spot “A Thief of Regrets” and instantly put “A Bryant Street Story” under it because it sounded like a Bryant Street kind of title. But after the first line I changed the subtitle to “A Marble Grant Story” and got going. 3:35 a.m. I took a break at 900 words. 4:10 I took another…
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Strengths Workshops Available
THE FULL SERIES IS RECORDED AND AVAILABLE… All six of the Strengths Workshops now exist. If you ever wished a major professional writer would tell you what you are doing right and where you need work, now is your chance. And not just one, but two of us. Kris and I have been making our living in fiction and publishing now for over thirty years each. We have also started to mid-sized publishing companies over the years. And both of us have over twenty million copies of our books in print and have been on every major bestseller list. Kris and I will help you in personal responses to the five…
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Story Sixteen and Still Going
DAY SIXTEEN… Tonight I was again very late getting to the writing because of finishing up the Strengths Workshops. So I again looked at some old story starts and such and found a really interesting story start. I worked on it about an hour, adding about 1,000 words total to get it to a 2,000 word story. It is called “Habit.” And considering I spent all day, night, and into the late night in front of a computer finishing up the last of the Strengths workshop, I’ll take the win and another finished story. And I did not have time to do the cover for the story last night, so…
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Story Fifteen… Halfway Through the Challenge
DAY FIFTEEN… Halfway and having fun. Yes, writing a short story per day is fun. And Kris says she is enjoying reading my stories every morning. I imagine I would enjoy reading a new story (and making light notes) on a story a day from someone as well. (Yes, I would charge for that (grin).) Only problem is that no one I know could tackle that kind of challenge. But if you are crazy enough to think you could do it, write me and I will tell you how much I would charge to be your first reader for a month of short stories. (What a nuts idea. I might change…
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Story Fourteen and Other Stuff
DAY FOURTEEN… And story fourteen on the April challenge. I missed doing a cover today for the story from yesterday, so will try to do two today. Tonight I was tired, so took a long nap and watched a bunch of television. By the time I got to the writing computer, it was 3 a.m. Saw a half-title on my title sheets and just went with the half title. “Always a Way” and then put A Marble Grant Story under it. So third Marble Grant story. She was a superhero in the Poker Boy universe, a friend of Poker Boy’s girlfriend, Patty. She got killed and became a ghost agent…
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Story Number Thirteen and an Answer
DAY THIRTEEN… First off, got the fifth Strengths workshop now available. It is the Strengths Business Two workshop. The last of the six workshops will be done and available by Monday. Everyone who has signed up for all of the workshops should have gotten the code from me tonight. If you did not, write me. Remember, if you want to take all six (over as long a period as you want) you can sign up for all of them and get one free, plus one online workshop for free as well. So for $1,500, you get all six strengths workshops to go through at your own speed and one online workshop…
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We’re Going For the “How To Edit…” Workshop
FULL STEAM AHEAD… After some dithering around because of almost no initial response, we had people today tell us they wanted the How To Edit Your Own Work workshop, but were planning on taking it later. And that is enough to make us realize the workshop is worth our time in trying to help writers not kill their own work. So the workshop is a go. We will take sign-ups for any point that it is on the schedule through August and it will join the regular workshop rotation after that. Thanks for the feedback everyone. Appreciated.