It’s been a while since I’ve just talked about the goings-on here on the coast and on this site. So a short post tonight to update things.

First off, it’s taken some time to get the workshops all set for the coming year. The novel marketing/agent workshop worked out so well, we added the two into the schedule and doing all that and getting everything set up took time. We tend to only do these workshops about every three years or so. It takes that long for me to forget how much work they are to do. If you are interested, go to the workshop page and write me with any questions. But be serious about your writing before you do. We don’t mind that you are unpublished, but you had better have a great work ethic and have finished and have in the mail a bunch of stuff. <g>

Also, my writing is just powering along, gaining speed and projects by the week, so that’s a good thing. In fact, the writing is going so well that as of the first of June, I will no longer have my little hobby comic store. Those of you who were on the old web site saw the pictures of the construction of the store last spring and summer. Well, after a great year where the store made money every month, even in the winter, I’m selling it to my store manager.

Why sell it after only one great year? Simple. The writing is taking more and more time and that’s what I do is write. Over the decades to get to this spot, I always made the decision toward writing. Last year, when I built the store, the writing was in a lull and I needed a break, so I took one. But now the writing is back, projects are lining up, deadlines are looming, and it’s time to again make the decision toward writing.

In the early years of this business for me, I quit jobs to write, I borrowed money to go to workshops, I worked as a bartender instead of an architect or a lawyer because of the writing. That attitude got me to this spot with over 90 novels published, so I see no reason to hold onto the store. It was fun. Back to writing.

So clearing up all the details of selling the store to my wonderful store manager has been taking time as well.

And of course, there’s a little poker playing here and there as well. I doubt I’m going to make the World Series again this year, but that’s all right. I’d rather write. Maybe next year I can plan novel deadlines around a few weeks in Las Vegas for the World Series again. It’s just too much fun down there.

Looks like I will be at Worldcon (The World Science Fiction Convention) in Denver this August. It’s been over ten years since I went to a Worldcon, so I’m looking forward to seeing old friends again.

And with luck, in the next three or four weeks, a trip over to Idaho to visit family.  It’s been a year, so it’s past time for that.

And Kris and I are going back to Florida in January to that wonderful writer’s conference there. They invited us for a second year. Guess we didn’t anger the wrong people. Bluntness about writing tends to do that at times. <g> Anyhow, we’re both looking forward to that again.

And that’s the update.

One another note, I am looking for a way to set up something that will be a give-and-take about writing here.  Maybe a writing advice page where I add something every three or four days and answer questions.  Sort of a tamed down version of the old forum on my other site.  So stay tuned for that and more updates about the books I have written.  And stories about the process and writing of each book.

Cheers

Dean

Notice there is now a workshop page on this site. I have put a basic schedule of the next year of the professional level workshops Kris and I and others teach here on the Oregon Coast. There are no plans to go beyond the year. So about a year from now, that page might just vanish.
Our goal, when we started these back in 1999 and then fired them back up again in 2002, was to help writers working at a professional level, starting to sell, or stuck in a bad career. We figured everyone helped new writers, and when we went through this early professional stage, we had a few top professionals help us along. So since we have both been freelancing for a long time, it was our turn to help.

We tend to stop and start them, teach for a year or so, then not teach for a few years. We make no money at these and they are very tiring to do. But they are worth it, for the knowledge we learn and the great friends we make and the feeling of helping great new professionals jump forward.

So, at the moment, the workshops are back and I have put the schedule of them up under workshops. Any questions, just e-mail me and put writers workshops in the subject line so my spam filter doesn’t eat it.

Cheers,

Dean

Notice below I have a new short story out in Front Lines edited by Denise Little.  Just click on the picture to go get a copy off of Amazon.

My story is titled “Dinner on a Flyin’ Saucer.”

Okay, I have to admit, it is one of the stranger stories I have ever written, and that’s going some to say that.  And earlier I was talking about voice in stories.  Well, this story has so much voice, both author and character, that it is over the top in just about all ways.

A ton of great authors in this book with me, including my wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  Her story leads off the book and is so disturbing and so to the point, you will shudder after reading it.  My story has a lot of comic relief, thankfully.

I think that every story in this book is strong, to be honest.  Well worth your few bucks.

I’m very proud of this story in Front Lines.  Critics will hate it or ignore it, which makes me all the prouder of it, to be honest.  I set out to write something different, something with voice, something funny.  Denise Little liked it, I liked it.  I hope you do as well.

Cheers,  Dean

I am almost awake enough to type this. Almost. And to get back building this site and getting more information up here.

So what happened to me during the last few weeks. Two words: Marketing Workshop.

The workshop was for professional writers who have already started to sell.  It lasted from last Saturday, May 3rd through late Saturday, May 10. And the planning and set up took a large part of the week ahead of that. But it was worth it, not because I made any money at it, which I really didn’t, but because the workshop turned out great and in the teaching, I learned a lot as well.

Why so intense? Why so much set-up? Simply put, getting in front of 19 professional writers, already selling, and thinking I can help them learn how to market their work better, how to deal with agents better, how to reach editors with projects an editor might want. If that doesn’t scare you, you’re not alive. And to make matters worse, a number of years back, Kris and I tried to teach this exact type of workshop and failed. Not 100% failure, but we felt it was. So this workshop had a real focus for us.

So two weeks sort of just vanished out of my life. I still did some writing, still got a new novel proposal out myself, but otherwise, nothing but the workshop.  And it was worth every minute of it.

Not complaining, not at all. In fact, having 19 professional writers gather together is a mind-blowing experience when you sit back and look at it. First off, it’s rare. Second, everyone is working on writing, thinking writing, talking writing all the time, so it just fires me up. I’m tired, I’m happy it worked, and I am fired up and ready to hit my office hard, working on projects, getting books out, and going forward.

Networking with other writers is just critical in this modern age of publishing. Actually, it always was, which is why you hear about groups of writers from the past living and working in the same areas. Writing is a job we do alone, in our own offices. But the business of writing is something you can learn from other writers, often from their mistakes, sometimes from just information sharing.

But I had one more interesting thing happen to me this past weekend.  I was given perspective. Very clear perspective.

Sitting in a room with 19 (20 counting Kris) other professional writers, reading that level of work, is great. Nothing compares, to be honest. The quality of story telling and craft was so high, that the bottom, the worst was far above publishable levels. Far above. So that’s where I was at in my mind, working to help writers move from very good to great. Then I get the chance right in the middle to read and talk about a newer writer’s manuscript on the Clarion web site.

You see, Clarion is doing this wonderful web site where they raise money for scholarships to Clarion by having stories critiqued by professional writers and board members. The writer and those reading and learning have to donate a small fee to the scholarship program. Wonderful program and I was asked to be one of the professionals and I agreed without hesitation. The story I needed to talk about came up right in the middle of this last workshop.

Now the story by a newer writer was pretty good. It had beginning writer issues like pacing and details and stuff, but it was strong and the writer shows real promise if he just keeps going and learning. The key for me was that by reading that story while dealing with 19 professional writers’ work, I got some real perspective on how far I had come. I went to Clarion as a student, I wrote stories similar and much worse in craft to the writer I worked over in the critique. Much worse.

So for a moment this weekend, the road I had walked, the years of studying and learning and millions of words of writing came back to me. I used to be much worse than the writer I critiqued on the Clarion site. Now I was teaching a group of professional writers.

Perspective.

At one point I was unsold, struggling to learn. Suddenly I find myself at 90 plus novels and hundreds of stories sold.  I could see the road I had walked, the work, the luck, everything.  What a moment that was.  I hope all of you have something like it at some point in your life.

So, I’m back yet again, working on this site to get it completely together, and I am back at work in my office yet again.  Stay turned.  More fun to follow.

Cheers,   Dean